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Lucy Birmingham
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 9, 2017
The sheer poetry of the world's first English-language 'karuta' game
Classical Japanese poetry on playing cards — in English? It seems like an odd mix. But when you add tales of love and betrayal and brilliant translation, you get a heart-thumping card game like no other.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 18, 2011
G-tokyo art fair hopes for another triumph
Although Tokyo is a major world city, its contemporary art scene lacks the allure of its peers. Japanese interest in contemporary art is growing, though, as evidenced by the record 50,000 visitors at last year's Art Fair Tokyo. However, sales remained at the 2009 level, a fraction of what big art fairs...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 24, 2010
The 'plucky pioneer' of photojournalism
At 96, Tsuneko Sasamoto, Japan's first female photojournalist, remains a remarkable force of energy, creativity and inspiration. Dubbed a "plucky pioneer" and "the Annie Liebovitz of her day," Sasamoto has photographed some of Japan's greatest personalities and historical moments during her 70-year career....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 13, 2010
Contemporary art helps revive a city
For theater, dance and art fans in Japan, an unprecedented gourmet selection of performances and exhibitions — the inaugural Aichi Triennale 2010 — will kick off in Nagoya on Aug. 21, running until Oct. 31. Promoting cutting-edge and cross-genre concepts with an emphasis on performance-based works,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 6, 2010
Setouchi: the art of island hopping
Japan's Seto Inland Sea, known for its breathtaking vistas and art-filled island of Naoshima, is the site for the inaugural Setouchi International Art Festival until October 31. Also titled as a "100-Day Art and Sea Adventure," about 78 Japanese and internationally recognized artists and art groups are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2010
Who will bring home the Bacon this year?
Francis Bacon will be participating in Art Fair Tokyo again this year — in spirit. No, not the renowned 16th-century British philosopher, or the famed Irish-born 20th-century figurative painter. But Francis Bacon, the kosher vegetarian, Budapest-born Irish Wolfhound, whose budding career as Tokyo's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Feb 5, 2010
'Water, fire, earth'
RBR Gallery
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2009
The Italian art of making wine and painting
Imagine the colors of a vast Tuscan vineyard drenched in a September sun — emerald green leaves, gnarled brown vines, deep purple grapes, shale earth, azure sky — an artist's inspiration for both palette and palate. For renowned Italian artist Sandro Chia, 63, these Tuscan colors, soaked into the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2009
Still photography: a new art market
Tokyo probably has more photo fans than any megalopolis on the planet, but strangely there's never been an international photography art fair here — until now. Tokyo Photo 2009, running Sept. 4-6, offers still photography artworks for sale from 12 Japan-based galleries, four from the United States...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 2009
A dream venue for new artists
"I'm still a housewife so its amazing that an amateur can do something like this," says DanDans founder and organizer Kazuko Aso, now presenting the contemporary art cooperative's fifth exhibition titled "A Midsummer Dream" until Aug. 30 at Chinzan-so in Mejiro, Tokyo. "Maybe it's because I have such...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2009
Art triennial helps revitalize rural Niigata
Visiting Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009 is a strange and wonderful journey. A satoyama (mountain homeland) adventure replete with rice paddies brimming with bright green shoots, refurbished abandoned houses and closed-down elementary schools, it features 370 contemporary artworks by little-known and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 2009
Mimi Gates brings Seattle Art Museum's Asian collection back home
When Mimi Gates moved to Seattle in 1994 to be director of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), it was the museum's superb Asian collection that had lured her away from the Yale University Art Gallery after 19 years working there, 12 as curator and seven as director). At Yale, she had championed Oriental art...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 17, 2009
A cool show at Shiseido with the Helsinki School
Finland may seem like a cold, distant land better known for Nokia and reindeer than photography and art. But the Helsinki School, an art cooperative formed about 15 years ago, is heating up the international photography and video art world. Showing in Asia for the first time, the Helsinki School's photography...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 15, 2009
Gauguin: 'I shall never do anything better'
Was he just a "Sunday painter" who abandoned his wife and five children for a bohemian life in a distant island paradise — where he died of syphilis and poverty in the arms of a teenage mistress?
CULTURE / Art
May 1, 2009
Collecting the lost pieces of a soul
"My life is not simple," says a beaming Yishay Garbasz while flashing a cute V-sign pose for my camera. As a child of Nazi Holocaust survivors, Garbasz has endured a life seeped in trauma, so the blissful persona on show seems incongruous at best. But for the 38-year-old Berlin-based British- Israeli...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2009
'Anime,' 'manga' grab spotlight at major exhibition
At the Japan Media Arts Festival, prepare to jet into the sky like Superman and dance with speakers blasting at your hips, as the nation's largest showcase of cutting-edge "anime," "manga" and high-tech arts gets more interactive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 12, 2008
Actor Nomura brings noh to new audiences
If you've ever napped through a noh performance, you're not alone. But this 600-year-old Japanese theatrical genre is being updated to make it more of a 21st-century entertainment than a Japanophile's endurance test.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 10, 2008
Moving pictures
When its video "One Week of Artwork" received 1 million hits on YouTube in one week, art collective Rinpa Eshidan quickly learned the meaning of the word "viral."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 13, 2008
An exciting liquid dance
Called the "Queen of German Dance Theater," Pina Bausch is one of the most influential avant-garde figures of our time. She is returning to Tokyo this month with her Tanztheater Wuppertal dance company for their 11th tour since 1986.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2008
"Tokyo Performing Arts Market 2008"
Yebisu Garden Place, The Garden Hall and other locations in Tokyo

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?