Tame Mizuami

Tamae Mizukami is a freelance illustrator who has created works for various book covers from  block prints this is where designs are carved into blocks of wood or metal then ink is spread over the block then the block is pressed on to the paper. Her influence for most of her work is the nature of Japan and the traditional side of Japanese culture while still having to relate to what the author wants.Her designs are from trees, cherry blossom, to dragons fly s and Japanese Buddhist Wayo temple. Her use off colours vary as some designs are in a grey scale and minimalistic whereas some other use vibrant colours like lush greens to match the scenery.what I like about these designs is that there simplistic and capture the natural and traditional side of Japan but keeps the designs contemporary to fit in with modern culture. 

Takashi Murakami

I wanted to compare this artist work to Takashi Murakami who is a Japanese artist and sculptor whose work can be described as "cute" and "psychedelic" he is inspired by Japanese anime  (cartoons) and pop art. His work is modern and quirky, fitting into modern culture. His work includes an assortments of brightly colours flowers with smiley faces partnered with skulls. His work can also be called erotic and even perverse with sculptures of a girl with oversized lactating breasts which sold at an auction in 2002 for £293000,00. Since the 1970's the rise of sexualised art has risen due to the popularisation of anime and manga in western and Japanese culture like a anime series sailor moon where the female protagonists are know for wearing tight fitting school girl clothes costumes  with short skirts  program know suitable for any ages which could give wrong expectations for girls and d boys that watch the shows. and now audiences of this genre would would expect at least some sort of sexualisation in animes.  His style of art is called super flat which tends to consist of flat Japanese graphics and this art style has spread to western cultures. He has collaborated with Pharrell, Kanye West and Loui Vuitton 

Looking at these two style of artists like my two contrasting photo's these style show the traditional and modern side of Japanese and how they coexist in there society. The traditional art of block prints still used in modern day as Mizuami has showed with her detailed designs her style is completely different to Murakami as his work is a reflection on modern japanese culture that has spread to the western world with the use of cutsey characters and eye popping colours and ideas that you would expect to see in your dreams and he also highlights the sexualisation of media in japan his work.