Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture

{{Short description|Book by Takashi Murakami}}

{{Infobox book

| name = Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture

| image = Little Boy The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture.jpg

| caption =

| author = Takashi Murakami

| illustrator =

| cover_artist =

| country = United States of America

| subject = Contemporary art, Japanese popular culture

| publisher = Yale University Press

| pub_date = 2005

| english_pub_date =

| media_type =

| pages = 298

| isbn = 978-0-913304-57-0

| oclc = 58998868

}}

Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture is the companion catalogue to the exhibition "Little Boy" curated by artist Takashi Murakami. The book is about the aesthetics of postwar culture in Japan and marks the final project of Murakami's Superflat Trilogy started in 2000.{{Cite book |title=Little Boy: The Art of Japan's Exploding Subculture |date=2005 |publisher=Yale University Press & Japan Society |isbn=978-0-300-10285-7 |editor-last=Murakami |editor-first=Takashi |location=New York |language=English, Japanese }}

The 298 pages hardcover book was published by Yale University in conjunction with a series of art exhibitions and music events in the Japan Society of New York in 2005. The book interprets the complex intuitive twist of postwar Japanese art while defining its high-spirited and naturally buoyant escape from human tragedy and the events of World War II. Apart from Murakami, who authored three texts and interviewed Toshio Okada and Kaichiro Morikawa, other authors are Noi Sawaragi, Midori Matsui, Alexandra Munroe, Tom Eccles, and Katy Siegel.{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Roberta |date=2005-04-08 |title=From a Mushroom Cloud, a Burst of Art Reflecting Japan's Psyche |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/08/arts/design/from-a-mushroom-cloud-a-burst-of-art-reflecting-japans-psyche.html |access-date=2023-12-20 |issn=0362-4331}}

Takashi Murakami coined the term superflat to argue for the two-dimensional sensibility and specific visual aspects of manga (comics), anime (animated television and cinema), and earlier Japanese art such as ukiyo-e, in conjunction to contemporary, "Neo-pop" artists from Japan.{{Cite book |last=Murakami |first=Takashi |title="Superflat Trilogy: Greetings, You Are Alive", in Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-913304-57-0 |location=New York |pages=150–163 |language=English, Japanese}}{{Cite book |last=Sawaragi |first=Noi |title="On the battlefield of 'Superflat': Subculture and art in postwar Japan," in Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-913304-57-0 |pages=186–207 |language=English, Japanese}} He argues how the recent international boom in consumer pop media culture influenced Japanese fine art where hierarchies between high and low art, fine art and popular culture, culture and subculture, were abolished, or flattened.{{Cite web |last=Stevens |first=Mark |date=2005-04-07 |title=Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture - New York Magazine Art Review - Nymag |url=https://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/art/reviews/11707/ |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=New York Magazine |language=en}} He also acknowledges the cultural impact of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Little Boy is the code name for one of the atomic bombs) and the U.S. occupation as leading factors in the post-WWII traumas, including the infantilization of Japan as a society, which all found their way in popular culture such as manga and anime.{{Cite book |last=Murakami |first=Takashi |title="Earth in My Window," in Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-913304-57-0 |location=New York |pages=98–149 |language=English, Japanese}}{{Cite journal |last=Koh |first=Dong-Yeon |date=2010 |title=Murakami's 'little boy' syndrome: victim or aggressor in contemporary Japanese and American arts? |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14649373.2010.484179 |journal=Inter-Asia Cultural Studies |language=en |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=393–412 |doi=10.1080/14649373.2010.484179 |issn=1464-9373}}{{Cite web |last=Umayam |first=Lovely |date=2017-06-23 |title=Little Boy to Nuclear Boy: BOOM + Tragedy = Art |url=https://bombshelltoe.medium.com/little-boy-to-nuclear-boy-boom-tragedy-art-87f0da6b9684 |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=Medium |language=en}}

Little Boy also examines Kawaii, the culture of cuteness which has influenced Japanese popular culture since the 1970s, and the subculture of Otaku, fans of popular culture and/or outcasts. The book contains a collection of works by contemporary artists, but also anime and manga (DAICON IV, Time Bokan, Doraemon, Akira, Space Battleship Yamato, Mobile Suit Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion), film (Godzilla, Ultraman/Ultraseven, Toho Tokusatsu films), toys, characters (Hello Kitty, Yuru-chara yurui characters), historical photography (Hiroshima bombing), and Japanese Article 9.{{Cite book |last=Murakami |first=Takashi |title="Little Boy (Plates and Entries)," in Little Boy: The Art of Japan's Exploding Subculture |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-913304-57-0 |location=New York |pages=1–97 |language=English, Japanese}}