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November 22, 2024
 

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Julia Cassim
CULTURE / Art
Jun 11, 2000
Public art goes to the grass roots
In the golden bubble days, when public money flowed like wine at an alcoholic's banquet, the urban landscape of Japan was colonized by sculptural objects of such widely differing quality that some areas took on the appearance of a garage sale. The public was not fooled and has treated these objects with...
CULTURE / Art
May 14, 2000
Triumph or disaster in Trafalgar Square
LONDON -- The jury for Trafalgar Square was still out when Prue Leith got stuck in her traffic jam. The debate had shifted elsewhere, to other public art projects that had similarly raised hackles or won praise, like Anthony Gormley's "Angel of the North." This 20-meter-high statue erected in 1997 above...
CULTURE / Art
May 7, 2000
Of statues and men -- the fourth plinth problem
LONDON -- Trafalgar Square is all things to all people. For out-of-towners and tourists, it is where you have your photograph taken with the National Gallery and the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields as a backdrop, or of you feeding the pigeons or climbing Sir Edwin Landseer's lions. Four of them...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 26, 2000
Vast private collection housed in London's 'unofficial attic'
LONDON -- Museums in Britain are nervously awaiting the results of the Internet publication of an official inventory of 350 works of art in British national collections whose provenance in the period between 1933 and 1945 is unclear. More than half belong to the National Gallery and the Tate, 109 and...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 6, 2000
Mysteries at the top of the staircase
Be it the elegant neoclassical past or that of the Hollywood musical of the 1930s and '40s, staircases that are immortalized on canvas, paper or celluloid tend to be those designed expressly for a spectacular entrance. Hitchcock and other directors shifted the focus from the ornateness of the staircase's...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2000
Calligraphy breaking the silence
For any child, gaining literacy is the skill that follows speech on their road to self-expression. The act of writing one's name is the first step to the establishment of a public identity.
COMMUNITY
Jan 3, 2000
Picture-book village looks to the children
Once upon a time, sometime in 1992, there were two communities, Kijo-cho and Ishikawauchi, nestled high in the mountains of Miyazaki Prefecture. As in many such rural communities, the sound of children's voices was becoming a rarity as young families left to find their fortune in the city of Miyazaki,...
LIFE / Travel
Dec 8, 1999
A life less ordinary: Anne Frank's legacy
Amsterdam must be the only European city whose most popular tourist attractions occupy different ends of the sliding scale that begins with virtue and ends with vice. It is likely that many of those who wait patiently in the queues that snake daily around the canal-side block where the Anne Frank Huis...
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 1999
Architect walks not-so straight line
In the 1960s and '70s, one book you were likely to find on the shelves of architect's offices and university architectural departments was "Architecture Without Architects," by Bernard Rudofsky -- a wide-ranging, predominantly photographic study of indigenous housing and structures built by man and insect....
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 1999
Through the unflinching eye of realism
Most painters, whatever style they eventually adopt, generally start their career by setting their own likeness down on canvas. It is a kind of baptism by fire attempted once and usually abandoned. This we know because there are far fewer portraits of artists in middle or old age than in their youth....
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 1999
Putting art back into everyday life
The Kanazawa Citizen's Art Center belies the truth of the expression that you cannot put new wine into old skins.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 2, 1999
Learning through landscapes
ARBORFIELD CROSS, England -- When Susan Humphries was appointed head of the Coombes Infant School in Arborfield Cross, Surrey, an hour's drive from London, it was doubtless a satisfying moment in career terms. A school of her own at last. What she did not realize, and is likely to dismiss modestly today,...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 14, 1999
A British art gallery finds an answer to a perennial problem
SOUTHAMPTON, England -- The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is generally acknowledged to be the world's first modern museum worthy of the title. Unlike its predecessors, it was not just a cabinet of curiosities -- archaeological relics and anthropological wonders amassed by some explorer and shown in his...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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Longform

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By Kathryn Wortley

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