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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 15, 2009

Gauguin: 'I shall never do anything better'

Was he just a "Sunday painter" who abandoned his wife and five children for a bohemian life in a distant island paradise — where he died of syphilis and poverty in the arms of a teenage mistress?
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
May 14, 2009

Say hello to Belgium's best, aptform, the Land of Tomorrow and Forever 21

Bold Belgium "Avant garde" doesn't even begin to describe some of the amazing creations that have come from the Belgian fashion capital of Antwerp over the years. Intelligent designers from the city successfully fuse fantasy with reality, and the "6+ Antwerp" exhibition at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 5, 2009

Google crosses line with controversial old Tokyo maps

When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn't expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn't caused...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
May 5, 2009

'Silent Auction' lends ear to plea of needy

There are many ways to enjoy art: Visit an art museum, join a pottery club or simply walk around a town and take a look at the different architecture.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2009

Tracking and demobilizing debris in space

SINGAPORE — The 25 radar and optical telescope centers around the world that help the U.S. Armed Forces track debris in space have become increasingly busy in the past couple of years as man-made junk orbiting Earth proliferates, posing a growing danger to both civilian and military use of space. ...
Japan Times
LIFE / JAPAN FASHION WEEK
Apr 12, 2009

Focus on: Yasuko Furuta

For Yasuko Furuta of Japanese womenswear brand Toga, inspiration comes from many different sources but includes an assimilation of complicated elements deconstructing and reconstructing styles to forge a strongly defined but harmonized collection.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2009

Dark thoughts and macabre tales

As a boy, Edogawa Rampo was, as he relates in one of the essays included in this collection, a devotee of popular fiction. Entering the fantastic twists and turns of his stories we are soon lost in them just as, when boys and girls ourselves, we became the characters in the romances and adventures we...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 29, 2009

Hold the SOS call on the Japanese language

Will the Japanese language die, crushed by the onslaught of English? This question has set off some heated talk in Japan recently because of a book suggesting that it may. First, a friend of mine in Tokyo, a member of a small reading club, told me about it. Then another friend wrote to say the book became...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 29, 2009

Uncovering an ukiyo-e master in Obuse

The small town of Obuse nestles quietly in the foothills of the Japan Alps, a 30-minute ride on a local rail line from the prefectural capital of Nagano City.
JAPAN / Q&A
Mar 27, 2009

Road-toll cuts take effect Saturday

Motorists across the nation this Saturday, if they have an Electronic Toll Collection device, will start feeling the effects of Prime Minister Taro Aso's economic stimulus measures.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2009

Slump hits demand for haute couture

The first model to walk the runway during Japan Fashion Week strutted her stuff in the nude. She was also a robot — a high-tech gimmick in a fashion world struggling to retain attention as the global economy staggers through recession.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Mar 12, 2009

ASCIS sprints stylishly, Van Noten opens in Aoyama, British gems sparkle and Galliano diffuses

MISHA JANETTE and PAUL McINNES A Beast on the run in Harajuku If you thought the pace of Tokyo's Harajuku was already dizzying, just see what happens now that ASICS has opened its megastore for runners in the area's heart.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 8, 2009

Definitive 'Record of Linji' well worth a wait of 40 years

The Linji-lu is one of the most influential of all Zen texts. Presumably a collection of the lectures and sermons of Linji Yixuan (died 866), founder of the Linji school of Chan Buddhism, it helped form the Rinzai sect of Zen in Japan.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 25, 2009

Her poems speak sublimely of Akiko Yosano's life of many passions

Her hair at twenty Flowing long and black Through the teeth of her comb Oh beautiful spring Extravagant spring! My skin is so soft Fresh from my bath It pains me to see it covered By the fabric Of an everyday world
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 16, 2009

Looking back as Japan advanced

As a young student of realistic nihonga (Japanese-style painting), Kansetsu Hashimoto worked under the eminent teacher Seiho Takeuchi (1864-1942), a painter best known for his depictions of animals. But Hashimoto, distancing himself from the master and his subject material, later said that he "didn't...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 1, 2009

Words as images

On a single white sheet, the kanji for "snow" — yuki — printed in black, is repeated exactly 1,352 times in a symmetrical grid formation. A 1970 work by Niikuni Seiichi, "flowery snow" (1970) is at once calligraphy, poem and picture. In the Chinese literati tradition — which was influential on...
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2008

Betrayal of public trust

An investigative committee on Nov. 28 handed welfare minister Yoichi Masuzoe a report stating that workers at local offices of the Social Insurance Agency systematically falsified pension records of company employees. Falsification consisted of (1) recording employee salaries as lower than their actual...
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2008

Tezuka — keeper of 'manga' flame

"Manga" comics are ubiquitous in Japan and have become one of the country's most powerful cultural exports worldwide.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 19, 2008

Be a walking drive-in with mini projector

Marketing 101: Make use of a brand, even if it is not your own. Electronics pioneer Texas Instruments does so with its DLP Pico projector, the PK-101. Sold under the Optoma brand, the PK-101 is said to be the world's smallest and lightest projector. It goes on sale from Dec. 1 at the Apple Store in Japan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 2008

Picasso: a man of many passions and muses

It's been said that Picasso changed style whenever he changed lovers. That may be an exaggeration, but when viewing the evolution of Picasso's art, it's easy to imagine the upheavals in his private life. Married twice and with four children by three women, the artist's lovers — Fernande Olivier, Olga...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2008

The key to Joseon times

Known as pungsu in Korean, feng shui was transmitted from China into Korean culture during the Unified Silla Dynasty (668-935). The system of aesthetics taught that proper placement of the home in relation to natural elements would facilitate a flow of positive energy through space and ensure well-being...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 12, 2008

Sexy, dirty surrealism in the heart of Tokyo

LALA PIPO by Hideo Okuda, translated by Marc Adler, New York: Vertical, Inc., 2008, 288 pp., $14.95 (paper) Their recent list of contemporary Japanese fiction, nonfiction and graphic novels is making those Japanophiles at the New York publishing house Vertical Inc. Nihon otaku among Western publishing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Sep 30, 2008

Designer wine racks, light bulbs, place mats and more

Northern hangers
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 21, 2008

Simplicity restored by poetic license

SONG AND STORIES OF THE "KOJIKI" as retold by Yoko Danno, illustrated by Horaku Nakamura. Tokyo/Ontario: Ahadada Books, 2008, 162 pp. $14.95 (paper)
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 14, 2008

Japan Fashion Week: It's tough for men

Japan Fashion Week (JFW), now in its seventh season, has never put much emphasis on menswear. This year, it appeared merely as an afterthought.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 9, 2008

Hilfiger denim, baseball glove bags and more

Tommy's Red, White and Blue The Tommy Hilfiger brand isn't exactly a stranger to Japan. It has stores up and down the country that run the whole gamut of Hilfiger collections. Famed for preppy nautical clothing, the brand encapsulates, alongside Ralph Lauren, the classic patrician look.
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 31, 2008

Beijing Games chock full of memorable moments

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series. The second part will focus on Japan's 2008 Olympic experience.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2008

Contemplative in Gunma

The Hara Museum ARC in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, has just opened a revolutionary new space designed by world-renowned architect Arata Isozaki that interweaves motifs of Japanese traditional architecture and art with modern ones. Called the Kankai Pavilion, the exciting new exhibition space is being...

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it