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Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 21, 2013

New moves to save Japan's sacred trees from a fiery end

Spend a while walking the streets of any Japanese city and you are bound to notice it: Here and there among the concrete towers, shops and bustling streets, you'll find clusters of trees. In some places, five or 10 stately Japanese cedars provide a patch of welcome shade. In others a full-fledged urban...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 18, 2013

"The Dreams Shown by White Wall: Migishi, Le Corbusier, and Kikuhata"

Physical space has always been an important element to consider when dealing with painting and architecture. So much in fact, that some artists create their work specifically to be displayed at a certain location.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 16, 2013

Nuclear plant supplier slides

Japan Steel Works Ltd., a nuclear plant parts supplier for customers including Areva SA, fell the most in two months in Tokyo trading after the Nikkei reported that workers at a factory will take time off as orders decline.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 11, 2013

Idiosyncrasies of the Kano school explored in Kyoto

Kano Masanobu (1434-1530) founded the Chinese-art influenced painting school that bears his family name and flourished in different forms through to the Meiji Era (1868-1912). A familiar tale is that as it became the dominant hierarchical painting academy of political and military patronage, it began...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 11, 2013

"Konosuke Matsushita and Japanese Traditional Art Crafts"

Panasonic founder Konosuke Matsushita valued the traditional tea ceremony because he thought it cultivated modesty. Overall, he was passionate about Japanese traditional-art crafts and an avid supporter of their practice.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 9, 2013

Hashimoto to sue Asahi for story on family past

Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) chief Toru Hashimoto plans to sue the weekly Shukan Asahi and daily Asahi Shimbun, claiming they violated his human rights when the magazine ran an article six months ago touching on his family background.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 5, 2013

Six museums collaborate for show on contemporary European art

This weekend, six Kansai-based national museums will come together to showcase a broad array of works from their contemporary European collections.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 4, 2013

Sonar festival sounds out Japanese hopefuls

For two decades, it's entertained, educated and — on more than a few occasions — polarized electronic music fans. As Barcelona's Sonar festival enters its 20th year, it's still as contrary as when it first started: an event with equal space in its heart for abstract electronica and the Pet Shop Boys,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 28, 2013

Unearthing the Seto Inland Sea's social landscapes

Whenever traveling directly from one island in the Seto Inland Sea to another, I sense threads holding each one to the other. Perhaps this is a vestige of the trade routes that traversed the 700-plus islands in this scenic region between Hiroshima and Osaka. As sea trade waned in postwar Japan, these...
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 28, 2013

'Through Japanese Eyes: Paris, 1900-1945'

Japan first became fascinated with Western culture after the Meiji Restoration (1868), when the country opened itself to foreign relations and trade. Keen to learn about, assimilate and reinvent cultural influences, many Japanese sought inspiration in Paris, which was then considered the art center of...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 19, 2013

Ginza stage set for Kabukiza's fifth coming

The venerable Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo's Ginza district reopens April 2 after three years of renovations and the addition of a 29-floor attached office tower.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 17, 2013

Tohoku coast faces man-made perils in wake of tsunami

One day in October 2011, marine ecologist Masahiro Nakaoka donned his scuba gear, paddled into the waters of Funakoshi Bay in Iwate Prefecture, and braced himself for his first glimpse of its underwater communities since a massive tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake swept through seven...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Mar 9, 2013

'Kony2012' and the fight for truth in the Internet age

A year ago, Jason Russell was a nobody. Not a nobody, precisely, but just ordinary. Normal. He was a healthy father of two, living in San Diego, and was happy in his work as a director for Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization he'd helped found.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 7, 2013

Hitoko Urago's 'Connected': blot-tests of portraiture

Hitoko Urago pairs paintings — portraits with abstractions — though each work is not necessarily conceived at the same time. "Untitled (Lynda)" (2012), for example, depicts a profile of a black woman with big hair against a green background. She is paired with a soft, spotty green abstraction, which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 7, 2013

'Erwin Blumenfeld: A Hidden Ritual of Beauty'

German-born fashion photographer Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) was particularly renowned for his cover shoots for fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. Although his extant works are highly acclaimed by art critics worldwide, they are rarely shown in Japan — mainly because they are housed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 7, 2013

'Alphonse Mucha: An Insight into the Artist'

During the late 19th century, Czech decorative designer and painter Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) became popular for his detailed and ornate designs that often depicted beautiful women in neoclassical attire. His style stood out from his contemporaries and later became known as Art Nouveau, establishing...
WORLD
Mar 5, 2013

Many immigrants in America don't finish path to citizenship

For 13 years Rafael Cohen, an immigrant from Mexico, was eligible to become a citizen of the United States. But something held him back.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Mar 1, 2013

Choral tribute to March 11

Coinciding with the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, Tokyo Opera City will be filled with the powerful voices of Japanese choir group Ritsuyukai, featuring new Japanese choral works.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 26, 2013

Who'll repair Japan's roads?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's grandiose plan to reinforce the nation's infrastructure could end up being a pie in the sky unless more attention is paid to details.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 26, 2013

Everything you wanted to know about Western women (but were afraid to ask): No-holds-barred guide targets Japanese men

Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 21, 2013

Paul Delvaux's stuff of dreams

Once you see the paintings of Paul Delvaux you are unlikely to forget them. The dreamlike mood and quaint atmosphere is unique and hypnotic. But where does the mysterious power of his art come from? The exhibition "Paul Delvaux: Dream Odyssey" at the Museum of Modern Art Saitama (MOMAS) offers some clues....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 21, 2013

'Klimt's Golden Rider and Vienna: Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Klimt's Birth'

Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is well-known for the opulence and eroticism of his works, which often focused on the female nude, and for his preoccupation with themes of death.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 21, 2013

'Print Art Triennale in Kyoto'

With the growing popularity of high-tech art, such as digital media and installations, engraving woodblock prints might seem primitive and old-fashioned. Many Japanese, in fact, associate woodblock printing with older-generation artisans, who they imagine slave fastidiously over works in the silence...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 21, 2013

'Kobayashi Naojiro Exhibition'

When Naojiro Kobayashi outlived a diagnosis that a lung disease he was suffering from would kill him by the age of 25, his favorite phrase became: "I'm so embarrassed I have lived this long." But he continued to defy the disease, finally living to the age of 93, keeping himself active throughout with...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
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