Nagato Iwasaki is one of those artists you don’t know much about. But his art talks for itself.
The Japan-based artist creates incredible driftwood sculptures. Each
of his human-shaped figures can both mesmerize and scare you. The artist
manages to create an uneasy feeling using nothing but wood and you can
be sure, that if you’d stumble upon one of these sculptures at night,
you’d go sleepless for days.
The band X Japan in the 1980s, as seen in the documentary "We Are X." Photo: Drafthouse Films
As a kid, Yoshiki always wondered if he were from somewhere else — like Mars.
A misfit child scarred by his father’s suicide, Yoshiki, trained in classical music, grew up to become a David Bowie-like
man who fell to Earth. He revolutionized heavy metal music in Japan
and, still going at 50, is trying to break into the American
consciousness.
Stephen Kijak’s documentary “We Are X” is a broad but surprisingly personal portrait of Yoshiki and his band, X Japan,
which formed in 1982, broke up in 1997 and re-formed in 2007. The band
began a push into the U.S. market about five years ago, and interviews
include American friends and fans such as Kiss front man Gene Simmons and Marilyn Manson.
Give it up for the folks in Motobunny. Not only have they stormed out of the gates with their stellar new album, but they are knocking on doors world wide in anticipation of upcoming tours. This past week has seen them launch to a number one spot on the video charts for their debut, self titled single - Motobunny.
Not all motorcycle were created equal and this custom beast from Cherry's Company out of Japan is beyond clean. The smooth lines all done in sheet metal, the race vibe and the overall attention to detail is absolutely stunning. Ok, its time to just drool...
The Japanese always have interesting ways of creating something new and efficient. Their smaller cars helped to revolutionize the American automobile industry and now Toyota is one of the largest manufacturers on the planet. As a gimmick and a nod to the recyclable mindset, a company by the name of Toto, has taken things a step further and found a hilarious way to show that human excrement can indeed be useful. We thank Toto for our daily moment of zen and the coining of our new term "Poogineer" for their dedication and hard work. Original article was written up on Wired.com
The Neo, a trike that runs on excrement
"TOTO, a name you might’ve seen on toilets and urinals, has built a motorcycle that runs on excrement. The toilet saddle is just for show, as the actual engine runs on manure and waste water, but you can’t fault the company for trying to make a splash when the Toilet Bike Neo debuted in Japan last week.
The Neo, a product of three years of research, development and design, is based on a 250cc trike, with a built-in toilet for a seat. The rider does not contribute to the fuel supply of purified and compressed livestock waste. So for now, this model’s bio-gas comes from the Shika-oi, in Hokkaido. As an engineer explained, “The waste and household water are converted to methane gas by fermenting, and the methane gas is converted to bio-gas by purifying.” Only the bio-gas ends up in the bike, so there’s no manure on-board. (Insert your own joke about crappy bike riders here).
The trike took a month-long slog from TOTO’s HQ in Kokura to Tokyo this past October, traveling around 870 miles in the process. Now, the bike is touring further afield in Japan to promote TOTO’s environmental efforts. But don’t hold your breath for your own poo-powered three-wheeler – TOTO has no plans to make another model."
Did the AMD 2012 Motorcycle build winner, get styling cues from Shinya Kimura? After looking at various photos I can see a lot of similar vibes. Not that it is bad to emulate such a standout bike, but Shinya's bike is the Samurai warrior compared to Thunderbike of Germany's Steampunk. Each has amazing lines and a distinct personality but the grit and assymetrical lines of Shinya's ups the ante beyond another build. The Spike is pure soul.
Shinya Kimura's - Spike, custom Knucklehead
AMD 2012 Winner, Thunderbike of Germany's - PainTTLess
Leave it to the Japanese to make something so kitschy and cool as these posters. Do we have any translators that can equate this to English? Would really dig having these on the office and shop walls. We researched them and apparently they are quite old and rare to actually obtain a physical copy of each poster.
Flywheels Magazine out of Japan recently put out another high quality issue and they featured 20 pages of photos from our pal Lance Dawes. We are still on our quest to make it on the salt at Bonneville but not doing so until our Buell is ready to race. Seeing these photos makes us realize that once again another year at Bonneville went by and we never made it out. The hunt is on...
Flywheels Magazine from Japan, featuring photos by Lance Dawes
Flywheels Magazine from Japan, featuring photos by Lance Dawes
Coupes lined up on the Salt Flats of Bonneville for Speed Week
Pull out section of the track at Bonneville
Van is ready for the push start, lined up in the pits
Julio's Flat Head bellytanker getting prepped
No. 55 on the picturesque salt flats
Racing across the Salt Flats of Bonneville
Flywheels Magazine from Japan, featuring photos by Lance Dawes
Lefty's Speed Shop aka Julio and his Bean Bandits race team Belly Tanker
Flywheels Magazine from Japan, featuring photos by Lance Dawes
Currently we are working on a massive project that will be coming out in 2012 and mucho amounts of homework is being done to make things just right. One aspect of this project happens to involve samurai's, so we have been diggin' into all things Japanese and came across this video which is the epitome of the warrior spirit. A buddy of ours is a black smith and a few years back gave us a run down on sword making and what also separates the wheat from the chaff, when when it comes to types of metal, carbon content and blade styles used to create knives and swords the proper way. Needless to say it was quite informative and also gave us our logo, as the blacksmith also forged our infamous Wrench Knife from a Craftsman 15/16ths box end wrench as a random gift.
As far as the project goes, details will become more plentiful in a few weeks, but it involves links to several hugely popular bands, warrior spirit and a metal album that could potentially shake up rock radio on Sirius XM Octane and Liquid Metal. Yep, its huge and we are damn stoked to be a part of it. While getting into the mindset of the album for new artwork, we are exploring a plethora of areas involving warfare. The first video being created is based upon the Samurai, so below is quite a bit more info on sword making as that was the Samurai's weapon of choice.
For more info on Japanese armour and sword making here are some links and credits. Also, do yourself a favor if you are ever in New York City. Go to the MET Museum and take a look at their sword collection. You get to see all the cool ornate swords and the craftsmanship and then there is one in the collection that will make you start to sweat. It is nicked from stem to stearn and looks to have seen more battles than any of us might know, especially when it comes to hand to hand combat.
Red Samurai Armour, photo courtesy of James R. Miller
In modern times the most commonly known type of Japanese sword is the Shinogi-Zukuri katana, which is a single-edged and usually curved long sword traditionally worn by samurai from the 15th century onwards.Other types of Japanese swords include: tsurugi or ken, which is a double-edged sword;ōdachi, nodachi, tachi, which are older styles of a very long single-edged sword; wakizashi, a medium sized sword; and the tanto which is an even smaller knife sized sword . Although they are pole-mounted weapons, the naginata and yari are considered part of the nihontō family due to the methods by which they are forged.
Japanese swords are still commonly seen today; antique and
modernly-forged swords can easily be found and purchased. Modern,
authentic nihontō are made by a few hundred swordsmiths. Many
examples can be seen at an annual competition hosted by the All Japan
Swordsmith Association, under the auspices of the Nihontō Bunka Shinkō Kyōkai (Society for the promotion of Japanese Sword Culture).
Blade
Each blade has a unique profile, mostly dependent on the swordsmith
and the construction method. The most prominent part is the middle
ridge, or shinogi. In the earlier picture, the examples were flat
to the shinogi, then tapering to the blade. However, swords could
narrow down to the shinogi, then narrow further to the blade, or even
expand outward towards the shinogi then shrink to the blade (producing a
trapezoidal shape). A flat or narrowing shinogi is called shinogi-hikushi, whereas a fat blade is called a shinogi-takushi.
The shinogi can be placed near the back of the blade for a longer,
sharper, more fragile tip or a more moderate shinogi near the center of
the blade.
The sword also has an exact tip shape, which is considered an extremely important characteristic: the tip can be long (ōkissaki), medium (chūkissaki), short (kokissaki), or even hooked backwards (ikuri-ōkissaki). In addition, whether the front edge of the tip is more curved (fukura-tsuku) or (relatively) straight (fukura-kareru) is also important.
The kissaki
(point) is not a "chisel-like" point, nor is the Western knife
interpretation of a "tanto point" found on true Japanese swords; a
straight, linearly-sloped point has the advantage of being easy to
grind, but it bears only a superficial similarity to traditional
Japanese kissaki. Kissaki have a curved profile, and smooth
three-dimensional curvature across their surface towards the edge -
though they are bounded by a straight line called the yokote and have crisp definition at all their edges.
Although it is not commonly known, the "chisel point" kissaki
originated in Japan. Examples of such are shown in the book "The
Japanese Sword" by Kanzan Sato. Because American bladesmiths use this
design extensively it is a common misconception that the design
originated in America.
A hole is punched through the tang nakago, called a mekugi-ana. It is used to anchor the blade using a mekugi, a small bamboo pin that is inserted into another cavity in the handle tsuka
and through the mekugi-ana, thus restricting the blade from slipping
out. To remove the tsuka one removes the mekugi. The swordsmith's
signature mei is placed on the nakago.
Kissaki (blade tip or point) of a tachi blade, Bizen school, signed Bizen Kuni Osafune Yoshikage; Nambokucho era (14th century).
The habaki (blade collar) which locks the blade into the saya (scabbard) is visible just under the tsuba (hand guard).
Early Sword History
Before 987,examples of Japanese swords were straight chokutō or jōkotō and others with unusual shapes. In the Heian period (8th to 11th centuries) sword-making developed through techniques brought over from China through trade in the early 10th century during the Tang Dynasty and through Siberia and Hokkaidō, territory of the Ainu people. The Ainu used warabite-tō(蕨手刀)
and these influenced the nihontō, which was held with two hands and
designed for cutting, rather than stabbing. According to legend, the
Japanese sword was invented by a smith named Amakuni
(ca.700 AD), along with the folded steel process. The folded steel
process and single edge swords had been invented in the early 10th
century Japan.Swords forged between 987 and 1597 are called kotō(古刀)
(lit., "old swords"); these are considered the pinnacle of Japanese
swordcraft. Early models had uneven curves with the deepest part of the
curve at the hilt. As eras changed the center of the curve tended to move up the blade.
The nihonto as we know it today with its deep, graceful curve has its
origin in shinogi-zukuri (single-edged blade with ridgeline) tachi
which were developed sometime around the middle of the Heian period to
service the need of the growing military class. Its shape reflects the
changing form of warfare in Japan. Cavalry were now the predominant
fighting unit and the older straight chokutō were particularly
unsuitable for fighting from horseback. The curved sword is a far more
efficient weapon when wielded by a warrior on horseback where the curve
of the blade adds considerably to the downward force of a cutting
action.
The tachi is a sword which is generally larger than a katana,
and is worn suspended with the cutting edge down. This was the standard
form of carrying the sword for centuries, and would eventually be
displaced by the katana style where the blade was worn thrust through
the belt, edge up. The tachi was worn slung across the left hip. The signature on the tang (nakago)
of the blade was inscribed in such a way that it would always be on the
outside of the sword when worn. This characteristic is important in
recognising the development, function and different styles of wearing
swords from this time onwards.
When worn with full armour, the tachi would be accompanied by a shorter blade in the form known as koshigatana ("waist sword"); a type of short sword with no hand-guard (tsuba) and where the hilt and scabbard meet to form the style of mounting called an aikuchi ("meeting mouth"). Daggers (tantō), were also carried for close combat fighting as well as carried generally for personal protection.
The Mongol invasions of Japan
in the 13th century spurred further evolution of the Japanese sword.
Often forced to abandon traditional mounted archery for hand-to-hand
combat, many samurai found that their swords were too delicate and prone
to damage when used against the thick leather armor of the invaders. In
response, Japanese swordsmiths started to adopt thinner and simpler
temper lines. Certain Japanese swordsmiths of this period began to make
blades with thicker backs and bigger points as a response to the Mongol
threat.
By the 15th century, the Sengoku Jidai
civil war erupted, and the vast need for swords together with the
ferocity of the fighting caused the highly artistic techniques of the Kamakura period
(known as the "Golden Age of Swordmaking") to be abandoned in favor of
more utilitarian and disposable weapons. The export of nihontō reached
its height during the Muromachi period when at least 200,000 nihontō were shipped to Ming Dynasty
China in official trade in an attempt to soak up the production of
Japanese weapons and make it harder for pirates in the area to arm.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, samurai who increasingly found a need
for a sword for use in closer quarters along with increasing use of
foot-soldiers armed with spears led to the creation of the uchigatana, in both one-handed and two-handed forms. As the Sengoku civil wars progressed, the uchigatana evolved into the modern katana, and replaced the tachi as the primary weapon of the samurai, especially when not wearing armor. Many longer tachi were shortened in the 15th-17th centuries to meet the demand for katana.
The craft decayed as time progressed and firearms were introduced as a decisive force on the battlefield. At the end of the Muromachi period,
the Tokugawa shoguns issued regulations controlling who could own and
carry swords, and effectively standardized the description of a nihontō.
Rusty Knuckles west coast photographer, correspondent, Bean Bandits race pilot and go to hombre for all things vintage car detail related Lance Dawes, has posted up new images from his feature work on the Bean Bandits in Flywheels Magazine.
