Sport & Design Blog: live from Tokyo, Japan!
Daku: Original Hope 81 Artist (Update)
Cold Cuts (Shibuya)
Daku, holding it down on Saturday afternoon at CC
Last weekend, we caught up with Daku (Hope 81 creative advisor) for a haircut at his new job with the local NYC-style barbershop in Shibuya, Cold Cuts. Daku is a recent graduate of one of our first local sponsors: Kubota Beauty College. First, we gotta say congratulations on making it through Kubota’s three-year program, and following your dreams. We know you’ve got the skills to make it happen and wish you all the best, man. See you’ve been getting yourself and Hope 81 some love from Barberstyle.com, too. Nice work!
Just to update you about what’s been going on these days, Cold Cuts owner Maya Jo opened her new shop earlier this year and found Daku just after he left Kubota. Daku was looking for an alternative to the traditional Japanese barber experience, so it was a natural fit for him. Coming over from NYC prior to the Tokyo launch, Cold Cuts offers a relaxed atmosphere (no appointment needed) with a blend of good music, hiphop fashion and accessories, big leather chairs, and some original photo exhibitions displayed on the shop walls. Sitting right next to Shibuya station-- Tokyo’s youth fashion hub -- makes for easy access from the Yamanote line. Either for that quick cut or line-up, or to come and hang out for an afternoon. Contact Cold Cuts for more info. Thanks to Maya for spending some time to talk with us...
Coming up, we hope to have a special "Featured Artist" blog from Daku and share all the latest updates about his creative work here in Tokyo. We're also excited to link up with him once again on some design elements for our upcoming Hope 81 website upgrade. Keep watching for that early next month...
Fashion Week, Bicycles, Art & Animation
This past week, we had a creative storm of fashion shows, exhibitions, galleries, parties, festivals, music, and street performances hitting Tokyo all at once. It was full-on inspiration and action which brought an energy to the streets like we’ve never seen before. Leaders from Japan’s fashion/art/design community were all dropping their latest concepts for the world to see. And instead of worrying about the neighbors complaining, Japan had the volume cranked up and people were ready to party! Here’s a quick look at how it all went down...
On the fashion tip, Hope 81 Communications Director Shunsuke Iwamoto works for the organizers of Japan Fashion Week. Follow Shunsuke on twitter and get an inside view on everything from the JFW scene.
Our Creative Director at Hope 81, Teruo Kurosaki, was also running his monthly Last Thursday’s event at Smoke last week in Harajuku. The theme for the party changes from month to month, and always brings out a fun crowd. This one for March was celebrating Vol. 20 of “Night Pedal Cruising” -- which brings together Tokyo’s bicycle loving culture for special evening rides around the city -- produced by Tokyo Design Flow. Check out the flyer from the event:
When the weekend came, it was time for some all-night “art fun”. We saw Tokyo’s art & design community and random party-goers all mixing things up around Tokyo’s most notorious night spot: Roppongi. The venues at Roppongi Hills and the Midtown complex were jam-packed with thousands of people, wandering the streets in celebration of Roppongi Art Night. One of the coolest installations was at the Roppongi Hills Mori Garden, which had a mile-long red sofa under cherry trees, set overlooking a pond with a giant golden lotus flower designed by S. Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa (which bloomed throughout the night).
Sofa by BoConcept
And if that wasn’t enough, we finished up the week with a trip to the 2010 Tokyo Anime Fair. The massive exhibition center at Tokyo Big Site had a showcase of the latest creations from Japan’s top anime production companies, schools, independent artists, and more. One in particular, the display of featured works from Nihon Kogakuin College Manga and Animation Department was really well done. Here’s a quick look at the wacky, awesome and strange world of Japanese anime, and basketball robots!!
Women in Sport, Women in Art
Happy International Women’s Day! In honor of aspiring female athletes and artists all around the globe, we’ve got a few inspirational things to share from our Hope 81 community here in Tokyo...
#1...a very special interview with basketball star Shinko Ono, Japanese Women’s National Team member, of the W-JBL’s JOMO Sunflowers. She’s a wonderful person and a very talented player, so its great to start working with her towards women’s empowerment through sport. To start things off, you can find out more about Shinko and her views on women’s player development in Japan with her Hope 81 Team profile page here.
#2...meet Konomi Ikeda, one of Japan’s up-and-coming fashion designers and leader of her Shibuya-based girls streetball team: The Pink Suns. This is what girls power is all about. (In Japanese, we call it joshi ryoku!). Ikeda specializes in women’s sports apparel and has created a really fresh, new line that perhaps you will only see in Tokyo. Maybe some other communities will be inspired once they see this. Read about Konomi’s background along with a few pictures of her women’s limited edition streetball fashion here.
And this just in today! We’re making a prototype for a new product, in collaboration with a Tokyo-based female artist (and fan of the Rising Suns): Airi-chan!
The RS2010 iphone case 
To give credit where credit is due, these sparkling new cases (seriously, they are bling-ing) are a re-design of Tomoki Uematsu’s original Rising Suns: Represent! logo from our inaugural 2009 campaign. We’re planning to share the cases as a limited edition item, and funds we receive from sales will be used to help pay for our Rising Suns team journey to Paris this summer.
PS...We’re not sure how much these babies are going to cost, but for now you can share your feedback in the comments below while we get our RS2010 campaign up and running. Remember, proceeds from all sales will go directly back to the artists = Tomoki and Airi.
Support women in art. Promote women in sport. Once again, Happy International Women’s Day to everyone, wherever you are.
Hope 81