June 12th 2022 O.A.

Little Tokyo Sparkle

Saturday, May 14th was “Little Tokyo Sparkle Nancy Kikuchi Volunteer Day.

This volunteer started with Little Tokyo resident, Steve Nagano calling out to the community saying “Let’s clean our historical town together.

It was done annually prior to 2019, but had to be canceled due to the impact of COVID-19. The 5th time happened for the first time in 3 years.

About 300 volunteers from local businesses to members from community organizations gathered for the cleanup.

Groups were assigned to an area within the 3 blocks of Little Tokyo to clean.

Volunteers not only picked up trash like cigarette butts but also thoroughly cleaned the windows, scraped waste from the ground, and got rid of graffitis.

Gomi Hiroi Samurai, a group of performers that cleans the streets of Tokyo also came from Japan to participate in the volunteer work.

More than 20 businesses in Little Tokyo had to close their doors due to the pandemic, however liveliness is starting to come back.

Free lunches were distributed with the help of local restaurants and food manufacturers after the volunteer work at Noguchi Plaza.

Takashi Murakami x Etsuko Price

Friday, May 20th was a conversation event with artist Takashi Murakami and art collector Etsuko Price at JAPAN HOUSE in Hollywood.

This event was held in conjunction with the contemporary art museum in Downtown LA, The Broad’s special exhibition of Takashi Murakami.

Murakami is one of the artists who represents Japan with his Japanese anime-like art style.

Etsuko and her husband Joe are known for their Price Collection that centers on Edo-period works by Ito Jakuchu.

At the event, Etsuko talked about how her husband Joe excitedly commented that Murakami is the “Ito Jakuchu of today” when he first saw Murakami’s work.

Murakami also spoke on what he calls “Superflat,” the flatness of Japanese visual culture comes from Jakuchu’s work as well.

The conversation event is streamed on JAPAN HOUSE LA’s website.

Takashi Murakami’s exhibition held at The Broad will be going on until September 25th. The exhibition features 18 of his works as well as immersive displays using AR technology.
For more information, please visit The Broad’s website.