Yusuke Nishiyama (西山 雄介, Nishiyama Yūsuke; born 7 November 1994) is a Japanese long-distance runner. In 2013, he…Yusuke Nishiyama (西山 雄介, Nishiyama Yūsuke; born 7 November 1994) is a Japanese long-distance runner. In 2013, he competed in the junior men's race at the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships held in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He finished in 59th place. In 2019, he competed in the senior men's race at the 2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championships held in Aarhus, Denmark. He finished in 99th place.
Shogo Nakamura (Japanese: 中村匠吾, romanized: Nakamura Shōgo; born 16 September 1992) is a Japanese long-distance runner.…Shogo Nakamura (Japanese: 中村匠吾, romanized: Nakamura Shōgo; born 16 September 1992) is a Japanese long-distance runner. He qualified for the marathon at the 2020 Summer Olympics by winning the 2019 Marathon Grand Championship with a time of 2:11:28, closely beating out Yuma Hattori and national record holder Suguru Osako.
Sadamasa Motonaga (元永定正, Motonaga Sadamasa, born November, 26, 1922, in Iga Ueno, died October 3, 2011, in Takarazuka)…Sadamasa Motonaga (元永定正, Motonaga Sadamasa, born November, 26, 1922, in Iga Ueno, died October 3, 2011, in Takarazuka) was a Japanese visual artist and book illustrator, and a first-generation member of the postwar Japanese artist group Gutai Art Association, Gutai for short. Motonaga’s oeuvre, comprising paintings, objects, performances and stage art, ceramics, murals and installation artworks and picture books, is characterized by his humorous, enlivening (animating) use of biomorphic abstract shapes inspired by nature and manga cartoons, as well as the exploration of the materiality of color. He is most known for his ephemeral works from Gutai’s experimental exhibition projects, such as Liquid: Red and Works (Water) from 1955 and 1956, which used vinyl sheets and tubes filled with color-tinted water; his stage works from 1957 and 1958, which involved smoke as artistic material; and for his Informel-style paintings from the late 1950s that experimented with pouring liquid paint on to canvases. Promoted by the French art critic Michel Tapié, who during the 1950s and 1960s attempted to establish Informel as a global movement, Motonaga became one of the few Gutai members who received international and national recognition as a solo artist beyond the Gutai context. He was offered a yearlong residency by the Japan Society in New York in 1966, during which he introduced airbrushing and a hard-edge style to his paintings. After leaving Gutai in 1971, Motonaga’s work again expanded beyond painting to ceramics, interior design, murals, and public performances and installation artworks, all of which he continuously developed around his signature-style of animated biomorphic shapes. The children's picture books, which Motonaga created in collaboration with the poet and translator Shuntarō Tanikawa beginning in 1970, became bestselling books. He was married to graphic designer Etsuko Nakatsuji, with whom he also collaborated on reconstruction projects in the aftermath of the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995.
