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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 6, 2009

Western Japan's eclectic master

A matter of temperament was said to distinguish the two major regional centers of nihonga (Japanese-style painting), Tokyo and Kyoto, at the turn of the 20th century. Tokyo painters imbued their works with "brain" by way of complex content, while Kyoto artists held firm to their "brush" in a looser style...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2009

Drama outsider takes a step into the theater

Kuro Tanino leaped into the spotlight in November 2007 with a production of Henrik Ibsen's tragicomedy "The Wild Duck" that was almost sold out for a month at Theater 1010 in Tokyo's Kitasenju.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 6, 2008

Peace follows turbulent times

"It was a nightmare," laughs Tokyo-based author David Peace of a recent trip to Paris to promote the French version of his most successful novel, "The Damned Utd."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 27, 2008

A very green afternoon cuppa

Whenever I travel to Tokyo I make it a point to spend at least a good part of one day on a visit to Shibamata in Katsushika Ward. This lovely neighborhood tucked away in the remote northeastern corner of the city on the banks of the Edogawa River still retains some of the flavor of the Edo Period (1603-1867)....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 13, 2008

A graceful step onto Edo's stage

'Now that his life-long dream of having the stage name of Sakata Tojuro has come true, I think Tojuro aspires to revitalize the style of kabuki acting unique to the Kamigata (Kansai) region," says Shoichi Yamada, the former executive director in charge of bunraku puppet theater at the National Theater....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 24, 2008

Ex-janitor cleans up with comic gem

Winner of the Grand Prize in the short film section at the 1987 Torino Film Festival in Italy, Yosuke Fujita may have been making films for more than two decades, but it's only now that audiences have the chance to see the director's first full-length feature. "Zenzen Daijobu (Fine, Totally Fine)" is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 16, 2007

Obsessed with the super-real

Regardless of one's own relationship to religion, many of us are disposed to believe we can transcend the present world, rising above it to another super-reality, to a surreal world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 17, 2007

Changes of note

She has quietly become one of the decade's best-selling artists, has a third No.1 album in the charts — and debuts as an actor in the film opening this week's Cannes Film Festival
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 16, 2006

A realist and an eccentric

'If you want a real painting, you must come to see me. If it's only a drawing you're after, you should try Okyo," the artist Soga Shohaku famously joked about Maruyama Okyo (1733-95), a renowned practitioner of Western modes of representation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 13, 2006

A stroll among the masterpieces

The Price exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum is divided into five sections, each devoted to a specific area of painting. The first sets the stage with examples of "mainline" painters -- members of the Kano school (which, from the late 16th century to the late 19th century, combined Chinese academic...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 18, 2006

Retro's where the future's at

Japan's talking heads of a liberal persuasion are clearly troubled by a rising nationalistic sentiment they detect throughout the land. But while speculation on the geopolitical consequences of any such shift may be an absorbing topic, trends in the world of culture -- and the changing tastes of consumers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 9, 2006

Berlin/Tokyo : Your pick of the isms

See related story: Berlin/Tokyo : Invitation to a car wreck
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 27, 2005

An early look at Tokyo Design Week

Fall in Tokyo signals the arrival of festival season, and none has gained as much international praise as the annual gathering of all things contemporary and stylish known as Tokyo Design Week (Nov. 2-6). With four concurrent events -- Tokyo Designer's Week, Swedish Style, and new comers 100% Design...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 20, 2005

The Bard on the hanamichi

With his characters given samurai names and clad in kimono, whatever would the Bard make of this "Twelfth Night" by Japan's foremost Shakespeare dramatist, 69-year-old Yukio Ninagawa? This veteran theatrical explorer long vowed never to tackle kabuki, but is doing just that with "Twelfth Night" to packed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jul 9, 2005

Five signs of the coming Golden Age of trance

In the fast and chaotic protoculture growing around psychedelic trance in Japan, it is often difficult at best and futile at worst to try to get a genuine fix on the direction in which we are headed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 27, 2005

Get peace of mind . . . in the off-season

Arrival in some places doesn't always meet expectations. From stories I had read of Taketomi, I had built up a picture of a sleepy subtropical paradise. This island at the southwestern end of the Okinawan chain was, I learned, a place of coral-sand streets and quaint Okinawan life, an island where cars...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 19, 2005

Castle of the truly absurd

One night in deep midwinter, K. arrives at an inn in a snow-covered village beneath a mighty castle which may or may not exist. K., played by Tetsushi Tanaka, claims he has been hired by the castle as a land surveyor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 15, 2004

You can't beat an old master

Coffee Jiko Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Hou Hsiao- hsien Running time: 103 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Yasujiro Ozu's trademark style -- the low camera angles, the straight cuts, the actors talking at the camera in medium closeup...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 4, 2004

Robert Whiting: Outside the box

Back in 1972, a 30-year-old New Jersey native who had recently graduated from Tokyo's Sophia University was in New York City, trying to talk to anyone who would listen about politics and life in Japan. Nobody was interested.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Jan 8, 2004

Japanese books climbed walls, went back to the past in 2003

The particular combination of theme, packaging and timing that produces a best seller is always a mystery, and last year's top sellers in Japan presented even more of a puzzle than usual. What is it about "Baka no Kabe" by anatomy professor Takeshi Yoro that took it to the top of the chart soon after...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

One-man media airs his views

It's 10 a.m. Sunday, and TBS TV's "Sunday Japon" show is getting under way. American entertainer Dave Spector, a regular panelist, shares the stage with a former porn actress, a Korean journalist and a member of the Diet. After an hour of exchanging ripostes with the others on major international and...
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2002

Music of the J-people

Japanese pop music is crap. So say many of my friends, especially the non-Japanese ones. They reach that conclusion after noticing that the charts are full of chipmunk-voiced idols who are long on looks and short on talent -- and whose shelf lives are only slightly longer than sushi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2002

Printers who made an impression

LONDON -- In 1945, as the Japanese contemplated defeat, devastation and occupation by a foreign power for the first time, the future must have seemed bleak and uncertain. But along with the terrible toll on life and property, the war years damaged Japanese society in ways that were harder to see.
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 7, 2002

Adult 'Fosse' is setting the stage alight

"Fosse" is here again, back in Japan after its first, hugely successful tour last year mobilized 100,000 fans of the late choreographer-director-actor-dancer Bob Fosse's astonishing oeuvre.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 26, 2002

Enough to make Spanish eyes smile

In case you hadn't noticed, Spanish food is big right now -- or at least that's what the vernacular magazines would have us believe. This, of course, is not the first time it's been touted as the next big thing. But somehow a critical mass of popularity was never achieved, and Spain's culinary profile...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 10, 2002

In a sentimental mood

For Westerners of a certain age, the '60s were an era of social and cultural ferment, when the Vietnam War, the Pill, rock music, drugs and the sexual revolution shook the foundations of society. In Japan, however, a "can-do" spirit prevailed as the postwar blahs were left behind and the country entered...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2002

North Korea: signs of trouble but no evil

CAMBRIDGE, England -- I have just returned from a week visit to North Korea, one of the countries on U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil." I was one of three British academics running a workshop under a new technical assistance program inaugurated when the two countries opened diplomatic relations...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jan 6, 2002

Starting at the root of Japanese cooking

A samurai party — pungent as daikon radish their conversation! — Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
JAPAN / ANCIENT TRADITIONS
Jan 1, 2002

Western eyes blind to spirituality in Japan

First of two parts
COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

Photo-news loses its focus

Last August's demise of Shinchosha's weekly photo newsmagazine Focus marked a major publishing milestone in Japan.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake