Rosanjin--Vending Machine Man

So I'm driving down the road to the gallery and pass by umpteen vending machines along the way; if you've been to Japan you know there are just *too* many of these mostly useless 24 hours energy burners. Yet, one Kirin VM caught my attention as atop it was a face I thought I recognized---not the lady! Wait, was that Kitaoji Rosanjin selling green tea? So I pulled over to the side of the road, and lo and behold, yup....Rosanjin himself pitching ocha. I can only assume the great Rosanjin--if he were alive today--would be disgusted to even consider the idea of this shameless advertising---or maybe not--he could have used the dough to buy more antiques; who knows. I stood in front of the VM taking photos as the traffic slowed to watch the gaijin......and Rosanjin looking down on the worthy. 'Japanese know, Tasty is sweet.'

Paramita Museum Ceramic Art Grand Prize Exhibition

As with the Tanabe and MOA Museums, and many others for that matter, the Paramita Museum in Mie prefecture is now hosting its 2nd Paramita Ceramic Art Grand Prize Exhibition. An unusually large number of artists were given the award--The Lucky Seven--as most museums only give a 'Grand Prize' to only one or two artists. No matter, the seven are in the Japanese 'alphabet' order: Ichino Masahiko, Kakurezaki Ryuichi, Kato Tsubusa, Kawabata Kentaro, Koie Ryoji, Sawa Kiyotsugu, Shigematsu Ayumi, and Toda Morinobu. The exhibition runs until August 31 and the museums homepage--in Japanese only--is at http://www.paramitamuseum.com/