Search - culture

 
 
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2000

Local boy makes good on his own

It is practically impossible to beat the odds and attain major recognition and success in Japan as an individual artist. When an artist does achieve success it is usually the result of a miracle -- or nepotism. It is not uncommon for gallerists who want to promote a particular artist to arrange a show...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 24, 2000

Revealing the nation one grain at a time

THE POLITICS OF AGRICULTURE IN JAPAN, by Aurelia George Mulgan. London & New York: Routledge, 2000, 856 pp.,82 British pounds/$125 (cloth). In 1890, a young German academic agreed to evaluate a survey of landowners in the German provinces east of the Elbe River. Overcoming the limitations of biased...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2000

Bidding goodbye to the monoculture myth

Some years ago I was sitting at the counter of a rather exclusive sushi restaurant in the Roppongi district of Tokyo when I noticed that a middle-age man a few stools along was making monosyllabic comments each time I ordered a morsel of sushi or slipped one into my mouth.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 22, 2000

All you ever wanted to know about voodoo

Gaston Jean-Baptiste, known as "Bonga," is a voodoo priest and a conga player. Bonga has been touring Japan giving workshops on Haitian music and teaching the traditions of Haiti. Luckily, one of the stops on his tour was my living room. A small, amiable man with dreadlocks, Bonga spoke from his "zabuton":...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 21, 2000

Songs and sausages in Balkan backwoods

KOPRIVSHTITSA, Bulgaria -- Bulgaria may be one of the worst places to visit in Europe if you're looking for an advanced level of economic development, but it is a great place to go if you want a music festival where you can take off your shirt.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2000

Scholar hits execs' Bangkok flings

When Yoko Kusaka moved to Bangkok with her family in 1996, she decided to pursue postgraduate studies in sociology, focusing on the corporate entertainment practices of Japanese companies in the city.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 8, 2000

Curator takes the J-way to Stockholm

"The J-Way" sounds like another example of Japanese-English, but if you thought so, like me, you would be mistaken. It is, in fact, the title of a high-octane exhibition of over 40 Japanese artists that was held Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at the Lydmar Hotel in Stockholm.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Better links to Pyongyang seen if Tokyo and Seoul get closer

One of the winners of this year's Japan Foundation Award said he hopes promoting closer ties between South Korea and Japan will also lead to stronger links between Tokyo and Pyongyang.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Oct 7, 2000

Tales of romance and bloodshed come alive in Shinnai song

Some of the performing arts of Japan are so spectacular that they grab your attention and immediately make you feel a part of the music. Taiko drumming is one; rhythm speaks directly to our bodies, and the beating of a stick on a drum has a physical appeal to all, regardless of language or culture.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 30, 2000

Koto player has tales to tell

Elizabeth Falconer, a former Japan Times hogaku columnist, lives in Seattle now, but in the many years she spent in Japan she steeped herself in Japanese culture, including winning a koto teacher's certificate from the late Tadao Sawai, one of the greatest koto masters of the 20th century. Since her...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Cuba looks forward to expanding ties with Japan

Cuba hopes for strengthened relations with Japan in a wide range of areas and also wants to normalize ties with the United States, its longtime nemesis, sometime in the future, Vice President Carlos Lage said in a written interview with The Japan Times.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2000

Leaders agree to coordinate Pyongyang policies

ATAMI, Shizuoka Pref. -- Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung reaffirmed the importance of coordinating their North Korea policies in their talks here Saturday, the first since the two Koreas' historic meeting in June.
OLYMPICS
Sep 13, 2000

'The Greatest Show on Earth' hits Sydney

The "Greatest Show on Earth" is back and badly in need of an image makeover.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 10, 2000

Cambodian art regains its youth

"It's my everyday passion," says Phloeun Prim, the 24-year-old commercial manager of Les Artisans d'Angkor, a Siem Reap-based school which is training young people in skills such as silk weaving and stone carving.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2000

Shibuya residents furious with graffiti seen as art

Some call it the latest art trend, but others lambaste it as an ugly symbol of present-day Japanese society.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2000

Mongolian yurts opened to Tottori campers

A traditional Mongolian dwelling set up in a camping area in the town of Hojo, Tottori Prefecture. TOTTORI (Kyodo) Authentic Mongolian yurts in a municipal camping area in Hojo, Tottori Prefecture, can be booked beginning this month, according to a group working to foster awareness of Mongolian culture....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 3, 2000

Extreme Goes Mainstream

SAN FRANCISCO As Cory "Nasty" Nastazio, 22, comes off his dirt jumping practice at the 2000 X-Games site in San Francisco, he pulls up to the ESPN cameraman on his little BMX bike and the first thing he does is remove his helmet.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 3, 2000

Charles Hampden-Turner

LONDON -- "I believe in understanding people as they see themselves, in a positive light. I try very hard to see in the same way as they. Then everything begins to make sense through an opposite point of view," said Charles Hampden-Turner.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 31, 2000

Art and history intersect in U.S. ambassador's residence

Most of us only dream of being able to pick out our favorite pieces of art from museums to display in our homes.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 28, 2000

General Motors humming along -- never mind the environment

A vacation is such a wonderful chance to seek out the unusual and inexplicable. This month my family and I are immersed in a foreign culture, intrigued and perplexed by the ways of an alien people. Most confounding, this culture is my own.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Aug 22, 2000

Shang Shang Typhoon blowing back in to devastate main islands

At the start of the 1990s, when "world music" became a generally accepted term, some Japanese started to look at themselves and wonder what their own country had to offer -- not only in Japan but to the rest of the world.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2000

Secondhand comic book firm tapping into American interest in 'manga'

Savoring his success dealing in secondhand comic books and character items in Japan, Masuzo Furukawa, president of Mandarake Inc., is now eyeing an overseas market he believes is thirsting for Japanese "manga" culture.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 18, 2000

Japanese kids' art to exhibit in Dili

DILI, East Timor (Kyodo) A Japanese man promoting cultural exchanges between Japan and East Timor has brought to Dili 100 drawings by Japanese children for exhibition.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 17, 2000

Support the economy -- take a vacation

If all you knew about Japan was what you saw on Japanese TV, you might think the Japanese are the most well-traveled citizens in the world. No other broadcast culture offers as many travel programs in which happy-go-lucky celebrity guides see the sights, interact freely with the natives and, most importantly,...
CULTURE / Art
Aug 13, 2000

Getting interconnected at Kim's

Interconnectivity is a technology buzzword, but Kim Gordon -- rock star of Sonic Youth fame, originator of the X Girl label, and now artist and curator of "Kim's Bedroom," currently at Parco Gallery -- has presented it as the locus of her first curatorial foray. Gordon has assembled an eclectic group...
CULTURE / Music
Jul 29, 2000

Kiwi music offers delicious alternatives

For a nation with a population barely equal to that of an international metropolis, New Zealand's vibrant and diverse music scene commands respect for its innovative yet self-effacing approach. From the melodic pop-meisters of the pioneering indie label Flying Nun to the operatic grandeur of Kiri Te...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2000

Pessimists in the mist: Japanese still mired in crisis of confidence

It's hard to find a word that has so traumatized a generation as has "globalization." The term has become a convenient shorthand for all the uncertainties and unknowns of daily life, a catch-all for the problems that tug at economies and threaten to unravel traditional social structures.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2000

Balancing act for G8 leaders in a land apart

Four years ago, in July 1996, I suggested in an opinion piece for the Sankei Shimbun that the Group of Eight summit in 2000 be held in Okinawa.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2000

Okinawa dialects are taking on new sounds

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- For goodbyes, Okinawans no longer say "anayagabu sabira" -- Ryukyuan for "I pray for your happiness." They sing it.

Longform

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