More Culture Articles - The Japan Times

November 27, 2024

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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Aug 17, 2003

Monastic comparisons and the rightness of left

By Anatole-roger Peltier

MONASTIC DISCIPLINE: Vinaya and Orthodox Monasticism, an Attempt at Comparison, by George Sioris. Chiang Mai: The Knowledge Center, 375 pp., 495 baht (paper). LEFT VERSUS RIGHT, by George Sioris. Chiang Mai: The Knowledge Center, 150 pp., 195 baht (paper). George Sioris, a Greek scholar on Asia and a...

CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT

Aug 14, 2003

Manga culture ignites craze in media markets overseas

By Janet Ashby

American boys can now read popular Japanese manga like "One Piece" in an English-language "Shonen Jump" and German girls can read girl's manga in the German-language magazine "Daisuki." Is this a passing fad or the start of a full-scale manga invasion?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 13, 2003

By Simon Bartz

A "vamp" is a woman who seduces or beguiles by using feminine charms, according to my dictionary. It's also the name of a new magazine that promotes underground Japanese bands, preferably if the band members are equipped with guitars, boobs and cute pouts rather than guitars, biceps and bad chat-up lines....

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 13, 2003

Manolito y Su Trabuco

By Michael Pronko

The Japanese government can be thanked for one thing: open treaties with the Cuban government that allow the most scorching salsa players in the world to perform here on a regular basis. Perhaps the government doesn't have a choice since Japan has an unusually high percentage of Latin music aficionados....

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Aug 13, 2003

Hotshot terrorist comedy just misses target

By Nobuko Tanaka

Though only in his early 30s, Martin McDonagh already has a 1998 Tony Award under his belt for his worldwide hit, "The Beauty Queen of Leenane." What's more, his works have been staged in 38 countries -- Japan among them.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 13, 2003

Reverend Charlie Jackson: "God's Got It"

By Tom Bojko

When the Rev. Charlie Jackson was a boy, he played sacred music on Sundays and blues the rest of the week. While Jackson himself saw no irony in this, his mother had little appreciation for her son playing electric guitar on both sides of the Lord's fence and quickly steered him toward the church. Little...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 13, 2003

Natacha Atlas: "Something Dangerous"

By Philip Brasor

Beyonce Knowles is not a singer I would have pegged as a model for Natacha Atlas, but the coincidental similarities between Atlas' new album, "Something Dangerous," and the Destiny Child leader's chart-topping debut solo joint, "Dangerously in Love," go beyond their titles. Atlas dives headfirst into...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE

Aug 13, 2003

The pot is mightier than the sword

By Robert Yellin

As brutal as they may have been, many feudal Japanese warlords were passionate about the Way of Tea. In the midst of battle they would pause for a "tea break," appreciating the fleeting moment and simple joys of tea -- with bits of strategy tossed in.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN

Aug 13, 2003

'Girl! Girl! Girl!' just wants to have fun

By Monty Dipietro

I've been looking forward to the new show at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery. Trying not to sound sexist here, there was more than a little appeal in the show's title: "Girl! Girl! Girl!" I guess I'm just a regular guy, sweltering through summer, looking for some easy distraction. A Steve McQueen film...

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Aug 10, 2003

Pulling away the curtains from the 'Princes of the Yen'

By Bill Totten

PRINCES OF YEN: Central Bankers and the Transformation of the Economy, by Richard A. Werner. London: M.E. Sharpe, 2003, 362 pp., $27.95, (paper). Richard A. Werner has written a rare book. "The Princes of the Yen" is a scholarly, thoroughly researched treatise on economics that reads like a detective...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY

Aug 10, 2003

Akagi nurtures organic lifeform

By Michael Pronko

Jazz pianist Kei Akagi clearly relishes the dual nature of the human mind. This is no surprise coming from someone who has divided his time between the United States and Japan, his college studies between philosophy and music, his musical training between classical and jazz, his jazz playing between...

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Aug 10, 2003

Foreign visitors who found the old in a new Japan

By Donald Richie

THE GREAT WAVE: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan, by Christopher Benfey. New York: Random House, 2003, 534 pp., with monochrome plates, $25,95 (paper). In the middle of the century before last, Japan was -- as the West termed it -- finally opened up. The mysterious...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.

Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat

By Greg Dvorak

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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