Takashi Murakami designed Damar Hamlin’s Travis Jesus jacket that he wore to the Super Bowl LVII on Sunday morning.

The jersey garnered mixed reactions on social media with many criticizing the Buffalo Bill’s safety for mocking Jesus.

The Super Bowl LVII saw the Kansas City Chiefs retain their title defeating Philadelphia Eagles 35-38. However, the presence of Damar Hamlin made the event extra special and the National Football League honored him along with the University of Cincinnati Medical Center (UCMC) staff, who were instrumental in saving his life.

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Hamlin suffered a heart attack in Bill’s week 17 game against the Cincinnati Bengals at the Paycore Stadium after being tackled by receiver Tee Higgins. He recovered after and was seen attending the Super Bowl wearing the controversial jacket.

Who is Takashi Murakami? 

On February 1st, 1962, Takashi Murakami was born in Tokyo, Japan. He is a modern artist who is best recognized for blending high and low arts. He engages in both commercial and artistic arts (such as painting and sculpture) (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation).

He includes the postwar nature of Japanese culture and society as well as the co-aesthetic traits of the Japanese creative tradition. He has impacted the work of many other Japanese artists.

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Murakami is the founder and president of Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd., a management company he uses to oversee a number of up-and-coming performers. The biennial art fair Geisai was founded by him, and he also organized it.

He grew up loving Japanese cartoons and comics called anime and manga and always dreamed of working in the animation field. In order to develop the drafting skills required to work as an animator, he enrolled at the Tokyo University of the Arts.

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However, he ultimately decided to focus on Nihonga, a ‘traditional’ kind of Japanese painting that uses conventional Japanese artistic norms, techniques, and subjects.

In 1988, he received his master’s degree. Although he would later receive a Ph.D. in Nihonga (1993), he progressively lost interest in its exclusive, highly political environment and began to investigate more modern artistic styles, media, and tactics.