Murakami
...round, and use of paneling in his paintings (Cruz 16). Playfulness and cuteness are cherished in the Japanese culture because they ward off thoughts of death and the transience of special moments. Also associated with this is the high number of youths in Japan. Murakami speaks to the otaku subculture, one that is to the point of being obsessed with manga, Japanese comics, and animee, Japanese animation (Cruz 23). This subculture is sometimes overlooked as geeky, overweight boys glued to their computer screens. Murakami embraces the otaku ways and blends a pop style to call himself Poku (Cruz 19). Born in 1962, Murakami grew up in a commercialized world of mass produced toys, television, Disney, computer games, manga, and animee. His father worked at a naval base in the United States therefore bringing aspects of American modernization closer to Murakami. His current works refer to the contradictions between high and low culture, art and capitalism, and Eastern and Western traditions (Howe). Superflat is a term Murakami uses to describe his art. Flatness, he says, is creates work that is like a mirror of the current Japanese reality (Cruz 19). Psychologically, flat dimensions create a world unfettered by rational space or logic. It also encourages the viewer to enter the painting from any angle (Cruz 22). One work that encompasses these ideas is The Cas...