author

 
Menu
Search
 
November 22, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

C.B. Liddell
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 16, 2013
Missing the light at 'Roppongi Crossing'
I've always thought that the "Roppongi Crossing" exhibitions try too hard. They take themselves too seriously and usually end up missing the point. Held every three years at the Mori Art Museum, the shows bring together heavily curated selections of contemporary art in an attempt to take the artistic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 9, 2013
A Michelangelo appetizer
This has been quite a year for fans of Renaissance art in Japan, with all three of its giants — Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and now Michelangelo — featuring in exhibitions. While the da Vinci show was weak in content and the Raphael quite well stocked, the latest show "Michelangelo Buonarroti" seems...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 2013
Kohfukuji Temple: under divine protection
Tucked away behind the main museums in Ueno, the Tokyo University Art Museum may not be on most people's radar, but it is definitely one of the city's top museums in terms of curatorial quality.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 18, 2013
Nihonga: without the hand over the eye
At its essential level, art is a battle between the eye and the hand; the first representing sensory input, the second artistic habit and convention. When the hand outweighs the eye, art can become over-stylized, clichéd, and eventually dead. Asian art has been particularly prone to this; with young...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 2013
Understanding the fun side of Surrealism
Part of the reason for the success of Surrealism in the 1920s and '30s was its sexual dimension. This element, covered over by a veneer of respectable intellectualism, had a powerful attraction at a time when sexuality was much more circumscribed by social morality than it is today. Although many Surrealist...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 24, 2013
The Pushkin's masterpieces cannot fail to inspire
There are a lot of people who wish that art had simply stopped around 1911 or so. If it had, we would have been spared many of the monstrosities that modern art then proceeded to unleash — urinals in art galleries, randomly distributed paint, pickled animals, cans of the artist's excrement, etc. Of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 17, 2013
Japan's population of ghouls keeps coming back to haunt us
Caught up in the rush of modernity, it is sometimes easy to forget just what a unique and unusual country Japan is. An exhibition such as "Yokai: Demons, Folklore Creatures and GeGeGe no Kitaro" serves to remind us, by peeling back the surface of everyday life and showing us the "collective subconsciousness"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 3, 2013
The 'floating world' that drifted to the West
The main pleasure of any extensive ukiyo-e (woodblock print) exhibition, like the "Floating World" show now on at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, is the evocation of the unique civilization that underlies this particular slab of global modernity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2013
Art that bloomed with the Feinbergs
As a simple matter of economic convenience, some of the best art collections in the world started out going against established taste. By avoiding what was already highly valued — and therefore expensive — collectors could build up impressive collections that could then help to dictate future tastes....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2013
Everyday goods: the Japanese art of convenience
"Mingei" translates as "folk art" and is connected to objects that are made or used by ordinary people on an everyday basis. Usually this evokes hand-crafted objects, such as ceramics, baskets, items of woodwork, etc. As such, the term is evocative of the era before mass global trade. In modern Japan,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 13, 2013
Making sense of medieval avatars
The Western model of sexual equality — one that drives women to focus on careers but also contributes to lower birthrates — may not be an entirely unmixed blessing, but the roots of the West's gender attitudes run deep and stem from some interesting places, as "The Lady and the Unicorn" exhibition...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 6, 2013
Mono no aware: subtleties of understanding
The essence of the 'Mono no aware and Japanese Beauty' exhibition, currently at the Suntory Museum of Art, is the appreciation of things in the shadow of their future absence.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2013
Art born from the disingenuous
The most radical force in art is not, as most people assume, genius, inspiration or sheer talent, it is instead a lack of technical ability. Combined with a strong desire to be an artist, this can prove to be a powerful driver of change and innovation, as revealed by "Odilon Redon: The Origins of the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 23, 2013
Sometimes it's hard for Leonardo to impress
The reputation of Leonardo da Vinci is like an inverted pyramid — a massive, impressive structure that can draw a vast audience, but stands on an extremely narrow base. Although regarded as one of the "Big Three" artists of the Renaissance — along with Michelangelo and Raphael — the paintings on...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 23, 2013
The humor of candid camera
With the advent of the digital camera, mobile phones and social networking, the world is now drowning in photographic imagery. This raises the question: Can photography survive as an art form in a world where it is ubiquitous?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 2, 2013
The disconcerting unity of Raphael
Harmony can sometimes have a disconcerting side. This is one insight to emerge from the Raphael exhibition at the National Museum of Western Art, the centerpiece of which is one of the artist's acknowledged great works, the "Madonna del Granduca" (c. 1505).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 4, 2013
Rubens' best work is collaborative
The 17th-century Flemish baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens is a great historical painter, not because of the scenes from ancient Roman history that he sometimes painted, but because, when we encounter his works, we find ourselves trying to understand what kind of society could possibly have produced art...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 28, 2013
Francis Bacon: The restlessness of human existence
In the 1989 Tim Burton film "Batman," there is a famous scene where the Joker and his gang break into an art museum and vandalize masterpieces by the likes of Rembrandt, Degas, and Vermeer. But, just as one of his henchmen is about to slash a Francis Bacon canvas, the Joker steps in to stop him, saying,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 14, 2013
The diverse works of Asian women artists
I don't normally visit exhibitions in company, but this time I made an exception and press-ganged a female acquaintance to join me. The reason for this was that the show I visited, "Women In-Between: Asian Women Artists 1984-2012" at the Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Art, is an exhibition of female...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 7, 2013
Such sweet strokes of the Impressionists
A horde of Renoirs and other works from the high-water mark of Impressionism have descended on Tokyo — rampaging in their quiet, colorful way through the labyrinthine exhibition spaces of Tokyo's Mitsubishi Ichigokan.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
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.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
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.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER