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LUXOPHIAInstitute of CG art EN/日本語

Press

Press

Newspapers, magazines and television. Clippings are shown in full; for magazines only the cover — follow the links to read or buy the issue.

  1. Newspaper
    The Buddhist cosmos, in CG — Masaki Nakayama, priest and CG artist in IchikawaOpen & zoom

    The Yomiuri Shimbun, Chiba edition — “Hito” column

    The Buddhist cosmos, in CG — Masaki Nakayama, priest and CG artist in Ichikawa

    At Paris Fashion Week in March 2024, a model walked the runway in a dress printed with a geometric mandala generated from the priest's own formulas — a collaboration with the Tokyo designer Hiroko Tokumine, who praised its fusion of mathematical thinking and art. The article traces his path from a junior-high programming class and a fascination with fractals, through meeting the CG pioneer Yoichiro Kawaguchi and a top student-CG award exhibited at the National Art Center, Tokyo, to succeeding his father as the 43rd chief priest in 2014. “A temple needs no mystique,” he says — Buddhism is remarkably logical, and science and Buddhism both train us to accept the world as it is.

    Print edition, 1 March 2026, p. 25 (article by Taro Yamato).

  2. Magazine
    Beyond attachment — Ankokuin, a temple that practises the Middle WayOpen & zoom

    Sanpo no Tatsujin, Jan. 2026 (No. 358), Kotsu Shimbunsha — feature: Ichikawa, Motoyawata, Koiwa

    Beyond attachment — Ankokuin, a temple that practises the Middle Way

    Near Konodai Station, the 700-year-old temple opened a gallery café two years ago and became a place open to the town. The magazine meets the man behind it: the 43rd chief priest, who is also a CG researcher and artist. He describes Buddhism as “a theoretical system that tells us to let go of attachment”, and the Middle Way as doubting our assumptions and choosing flexibly, without prejudice. The feature also shows the 100th hair memorial service, where hair artist Mieko Ueda styled a bonsai-like coiffure on the priest in front of the Recurrence Flowers folding screen, and notes the café, the temple's markets and its Recurrence Flowers goshuin stamp.

    pp. 20–21. Interview and text: Yasuko Shimosato; photographs: Naoto Takano. Republished online on san-tatsu.jp (17 Feb 2026).

  3. Magazine
    Hopes for an unconventional priest who preaches the Dharma through the mathematical beauty of CG artOpen & zoom

    Gekkan Jushoku (Monthly Chief Priest), Dec. 2025 (No. 325), Kohzansha

    Hopes for an unconventional priest who preaches the Dharma through the mathematical beauty of CG art

    A seven-page profile in the trade journal for Japanese temple priests. The priest explains the fractal mathematics behind Recurrence Flowers, the dress that drew attention at the Paris collections, and why CG research — the physics behind animated films and monster movies — matters. It follows his life: only son of the temple, a programming class at Keio's junior high school, research under Yoichiro Kawaguchi, and succession at 35. He came to see Buddhism as a rigorous theory of attachment and release. The article also covers Tachibana Gallery and the markets that opened the temple to its neighbours, the 100-year hair memorial service, and his warning against movements that feed attachment.

    pp. 78–84.

  4. Television

    TV Tokyo — “Kaiun! Nandemo Kanteidan”

    On-location appraisal: treasures obtained for free

    The priest appeared as a client with a pair of life-size hanging scrolls of the Edo-period giant sumo wrestlers Shakagatake Kumoemon and Ikitsuki Geitazaemon, given to the temple by the master of the Tamagaki stable three generations of priests ago. Billed as “the largest scrolls in the programme's history”, they amazed the studio; the appraiser judged them copies, but precious ones that convey the real size of two legendary giants.

  5. Newspaper
    Two swords at once: CG artist and chief priest — Masaki NakayamaOpen & zoom

    The Asahi Shimbun, Chiba edition — “Hito” column

    Two swords at once: CG artist and chief priest — Masaki Nakayama

    “A temple for a new age, not bound by today's stereotypes of Buddhism” — so the 43rd chief priest pictures Ankokuin's future. On the site of the former kindergarten he opened the café Tachibana Gallery two years ago, where visitors can linger among artworks, with regular markets and concerts. Captivated by fractals in a programming class at a Tokyo junior high school, he became a researcher, won top prizes at national contests, and last year a dress made with a fashion designer drew applause at Paris Fashion Week. Concerned for his ageing father, he decided to take on the family calling; his creed is “letting go of attachment”.

    Print edition, 24 June 2025 (article by Toshihiro Suzuki).

  6. Magazine
    Lolita × mathematics!? — an interview with CG artist Masaki NakayamaOpen & zoom

    Merveille Vol. 001 — Gothic, Lolita & Kawaii magazine (first issue)

    Lolita × mathematics!? — an interview with CG artist Masaki Nakayama

    In the first issue of the Lolita-fashion magazine — which also covers the Hiroko Tokumine Collection Show 2024 — the artist explains his stance: not a painter of inner images, but a “photographer” who makes the invisible universe of mathematics visible. Meeting 3D printing taught him the value of what can be touched, and he began carrying CG out of the screen; the dress is part of that. He fell for Hiroko Tokumine's signature Yamato Nadeshiko dress, and traces his own aesthetic to ballet costumes, glasswork and the shōjo manga of CLAMP and Naoko Takeuchi. Recurrence Flowers, he says, shows the Mandelbrot set in an entirely new form through his own algorithm — the work itself is only a fragment magnified ten thousand times.