Art is an equalizer and unifier; it opens the mind to new cultures and their creations. Spoon & Tamago ,a Japanese art, design and culture blog is a prime example of this. Spoon & Tamago was funded in 2007 by Johnny Strategy, a Brooklyn born artist and writer. Strategy moved to Tokyo, Japan when he was one. Influenced by his youth, Strategy started the blog to show case Japanese culture, its relevance and significance. While this blog does not often feature paintings or sculptures that are often associated with a successful art blog, it features architecture, body art, film, photographs and more.
With four contributors making it possible to post once a day, Spoon & Tamago is able to keep its content relevant and accurate to life in Japan. Keeping within the Japanese theme, this blog is full of photographs of architecturally advanced buildings, artistic sushi and more. The content in this blog makes it very appealing to a non-Japanese reader interested in the progression of Japanese culture and a Japanese native that likes to keep up with their current nation. It is quite obvious that the goal of this blog is not just to post pretty pictures painted by Japanese artists, but to keep a journal that depicts a timeline of the evolutionary progress of Japanese culture.
Spoon & Tamago has a very sleek and clean design, guiding all eyes to the images posted. Underneath the images, there is always a short blurb that describes very briefly what the post will focus on and explore. Once you click to continue reading, it opens up to reveal a post that further explains the art, lists related posts and a section in which the reader can post comments. The comment section of the posts is an important feature for any reader because it makes the blog more than just a blog, but a community in which the readers can interact with the poster and other readers. To compliment the simplistic outlay of the blog, there are no ads. Furthermore, an explore tab is located at the top of the front page among other tabs like features, about etc. These features make the website easy to navigate. To expand, the explore tab lists sub-categories of Japanese design, architecture and leading influencers in the Japanese design scene; in case the newer posts are not grabbing your attention or there is something you are specifically looking for, making a visit to this blog never a boring one. Lastly, this blog does offer a shopping section that keeps in line with its content offering “Japanese designer items for the home, the wall and beyond”, but this shop has very little influence and importance to the blog.
Overall, I would give this blog a 5/5. Spoon & Tamago is more than just a blog, it explores a culture and presents it to the world through an artistic lens. To its readers, this blog keeps them in the loop and connected to the very advanced and rapidly growing Japanese art scene that would be otherwise lost for many abroad. Moreover, this blog accomplishes to present Japanese food, architecture, technology and more in a way that is light and airy while still educating its audience. To add, like in most Japanese cuisine, life and art, this blog is able to keep a balance. By doing so, it sets itself up to be a successful link for outsiders to view Japan and all of its artistic offerings.
-Kimberly Calderon
Mahfuza Sabiha
September 21, 2016 — 9:04 pm
Great review! I appreciate how you clearly explained the way to navigate around the blog, so that other viewers and I could have the best experience when on this blog. I went through a blog after your review was posted, and I felt that your description of the way it presents Japanese culture and modern happenings is very accurate. Thank you for bringing this blog to my attention!