First Ume plum blossoms began to bloom in Japan. Lets meet and greet the spring!
Pražydo pirmieji slyvų žiedai žymintys pavasario pradžią Japonijoje!

Spring is shining with first blossoms - Ume. Ume (Prunus mume), or which are commonly known as Japanese apricots or Chinese plums are widely cultivated around the country. Following plum, soon season of cherry blossoms is going to arrive.
Baigiantis žiemai Japonijoje savo žiedus pradeda skleisti japoniškos slyvos. Jomis japonai gali grožėtis truputėlį anksčiau nei sakurų žydėjimu, Mirkant slyvas alkoholyje taip pat gaminamas japoniškas alkoholinis gėrimas - slyvų vynas (jap. umeshu).

Photo : http://regex.info/blog/

Nowadays, Japanese people prefer cherry blossoms to Ume blossoms but in ancient times in the Nara period (710‐794), we were Ume lovers and really appreciated the beauty and scent of Ume blossoms. They have been depicted in Japanese art repeatedly and have been an important motif in Japanese classic poetry. In addition, many traditional family emblems have a variety of Ume designs.

 Source: http://through-the-sapphire-sky.blogspot.com/2010/03/ume-blossoms-in-bloom-harbinger-of.html
  More beautiful photos: http://regex.info/blog/

Wonderfully illustrated stories in in three dimensional paper books by Japanese graphic designer and architect Yusuke Oono!!! 

 The 40-panel books are laser cut from paper and assembled into a booklet that can be viewed page by page or fanned out as a sort of layered diorama of silhouettes. 360°Book Sweet Home

360°Book Fujiyama http://www.loftwork.com/portfolios/oonoyusuke

360°Book Fujiyama http://www.loftwork.com/portfolios/oonoyusuke

360°Book Fujiyama http://www.loftwork.com/portfolios/oonoyusuke

http://www.loftwork.com/portfolios/oonoyusuke

360°Book Sweet Home http://www.loftwork.com/portfolios/oonoyusuke

 360°Book Sweet Home http://www.loftwork.com/portfolios/oonoyusuke

360°Book In a Cheese http://www.loftwork.com/portfolios/oonoyusuke

360°Book Christmas Version http://www.loftwork.com/portfolios/oonoyusuke

http://designmadeinjapan.com/magazine/laser-cut-3d-books-by-yusuke-ono/

Japanese Foxes  - Kitsune

Fox guardian at Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine.
Foxes (kitsune), regarded as the messengers, are often found in Inari shrines. 
Found on flickr.com

Fox holding a key in its mouth, at the main gate of the Fushimi Inari shrine. First and foremost, Inari is the god of rice. And key is an attribute for the rice granary.
Found on flickr.com

Each of the torii at Fushimi Inari Taisha is donated by a Japanese business.
Layer after layer....
http://regex.info/blog/

The Torii gates (鳥居) at Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) These gates date back to 711 A.D.

It is a big shrine, located in a district beside, Kyoto. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines. There are thousands of gates that guide you up the mountain.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen-oung/6080763075

Real Cat and Stone Fox
at the Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社), Kyoto Japan
http://regex.info/blog/

Beautiful origami works by Dinh Truong Giang

Source: weibo.com

LOOK CLOSER - those graceful and calligraphic shapes in the sky are not birds! They are made up of thousands of plastic bags, meticulously arranged by the artist Alain Delorme! 


The bags twist, weave, and undulate in concert with each other creating a visual mesh of kinetic fluctuation. The digital creations reflect the idea of a land art installation, metamorphosing natural spaces through an artistic intervention.The digital creations reflect the idea of a land art installation, metamorphosing natural spaces through an artistic intervention. (More: http://www.ignant.de/2014/07/07/murmurations-by-alain-delorme/)

You can find more here: http://www.ignant.de/2014/07/07/murmurations-by-alain-delorme/

Fuyuko Matsui - female Japanese artist, specializing in Nihonga illustrative paintings with a 'grotesque' or supernatural element

Fuyuko Matsui in front of Nyctalopia
http://www.culturekiosque.com/art/interview/fuyuko_matsui.html

Despite its often shocking aspects, her art is part of the tradition of Japanese art going back centuries. For example, her painting "Insane Woman under the Cherry Tree" (2006) is inspired by "Ogress under Willow Tree,” a painting by Soga Shohhaku (1730–1781), the iconoclastic Edo-period painter, who was influenced by the art of the Muromachi Era painter Soga Jasoku (d. 1483). http://www.matsuifuyuko.com/

Despite their often shocking aspects, she claims that her art is part of the tradition of Japanese art going back centuries.
http://www.juxtapoz.com/illustration/qfuyuko-matsuiq

http://www.matsuifuyuko.com/

http://www.juxtapoz.com/illustration/qfuyuko-matsuiq

http://www.matsuifuyuko.com/

Painting "Becoming Friends with All the Children in the World" by Fuyuko Matsui
http://www.matsuifuyuko.com/

Amazing illustrations made by a Polish artist, Mateusz Urbanowicz

You can find more about his works here: http://mattjabbar.tumblr.com/