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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 13, 2008

Preferring to show and not to tell

AKIRA KUROSAWA: Interviews, edited by Burt Cardullo. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008, 196 pp., $20 (paper) Once, when I asked Akira Kurosawa about the meaning of one of his films he answered: "If I could have said it in words, I would have — then I wouldn't have needed to make the picture."...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 4, 2008

Young artists kick off 2008

Budding artists need to be given a chance to show the world what they have got. Design Festa offers just this. Ever since it started in 1994, this twice-yearly event has been open to artists from all over the world to exhibit their talent.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 20, 2007

Hokusai's 'Dutch' courage

It might sound a corny to say that artists live through their works, but in the case of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), whose lengthy life story is mired in muddles, myths and myriad name changes, it is his art that speaks with the clearest voice and that provides the scale with which to weigh the words...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 20, 2007

"SALON — Art Lounge"

Mado Lounge, Mori Hills 52F
CULTURE / Books
Nov 25, 2007

Tales of Meiji love, lust and drinking tea

Mistress Oriku: Stories from a Tokyo Teahouse by Matsutaro Kawaguchi. Tuttle Publishing, 280 pp., 2007, ¥1,785 (paper) During the middle to late years of the Meiji Era, factories, cement works and commercial shipyards began to spring up like noxious mushrooms along the embankments of Tokyo's Sumida...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 22, 2007

Asian collectors overtake Japanese market

China casts a long shadow over the Japanese art market. However lively, large and long-suffering the art world in Japan may be, it has not garnered the kind of excited interest that the relatively young Chinese scene has in the last five years.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 6, 2007

Sales tax hike economic cure or curse?

Policymakers have waged heated debate in recent months over how to reduce Japan's mounting fiscal debt as the yearend deadline for compiling the government's next fiscal year budget nears.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 18, 2007

Eight must-sees as Mori Art embraces 'excess'

Chu Enoki, "RPM-1200" (2005): Chu's work is a standout, a shining metal city made of what look like industrial drill bits, massive screws and saw blades. It's a perfect example of the use of excess in a number of the works in the exhibition to convey the chaos of the present day urban experience.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 30, 2007

Pension-system special, Japanese 'Twilight Zone', embalming drama

At the top of the list of things worrying the Japanese is the national pension system.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Sep 25, 2007

Tokujin Yoshioka, Nosign Design etc.

A drop of light
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2007

Memories of fortresses and clouds

Watching on television as the second plane hit the World Trade Center in 2001, Japanese sculptor Masayuki Nagare's thoughts were not with his most famous sculpture, "Cloud Fortress" (1975), which was located at the base of the towers. The then 78-year-old was recalling a time 58 years earlier when, as...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 30, 2007

Cities in the dust

The Fascist dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco wasn't everyone's cup of tea — but he did manage the unusual feat of transcending time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 23, 2007

A rich repository of traditional Zen art

For a subject in which words are considered an impediment to meditative insight, it is daunting just how many words are needed to explain Zen. It uncannily dodges any attempt at definition, and at least some exposure to the practice seems necessary before embarking on any worthwhile discussion of the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 9, 2007

After 100 years of change, Nitten moves to the NACT

R esearch the biography of any prominent Japanese artist in the last 100 years and you'll likely run into terms such as Bunten, Teiten, Shin Bunten and Nitten. Though the plethora of names may be off-putting, they all refer to the same thing: Japan's largest, annual open art exhibition.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 31, 2007

'Eikaiwa' vets look beyond Big Four

Globalization, the Internet and increased mobility have made the planet a smaller place. The world is now often referred to as a global community, and its lingua franca is undoubtedly English. It is the official language of air traffic control and the de facto language of both international business...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2007

Beijing sleuth's treasure hunt a hit and miss

The Eye of Jade: A Mei Wang Mystery. London: Picador, 2007, 227 pp., £10.99 (paper) Any study of Chinese females portrayed in English and American literature over the past century will find no lack of sources, from the works of Pearl Buck and Louise Jordan Miln to those by Han Suyin, Amy Tan and Jung...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 23, 2007

Feet, feet . . . where would we be without them?

As the weather warms up, off come the tights and socks and it's time for sandals. But what are these? Yes, the two possibly pale, calloused, misshapen — for which read "mistreated" — things upon which you are now standing, called feet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 21, 2007

Japanese look to international market

BASEL, Switzerland — Each June, the Swiss city of Basel gives itself over to Art Basel, the world's biggest and most influential contemporary art fair, where established galleries make deals with some of the biggest spenders in the global market.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 15, 2007

Losing his head on Rachmaninov

Russian piano virtuoso Boris Berezovsky is on the phone and he's very excited, though not as excited as he should be when he plays the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo this summer. There, Berezovsky will be performing Rachmaninov's Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op. 30, a work he considers "infamous" because...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 19, 2007

In memory of 'The Blue-Eyed Japanese'

When the American-born artist Clifton Karhu developed an interest in Finland, his parents' homeland, a large-scale exhibition of his art was held at the Retretti Museum in Punkarhajo. The late Prince Takamado, who with Princess Takamado enjoyed Karhu's work so much that a short, scheduled visit to one...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 12, 2007

Within the art of darkness

Fashion, like a magnet, has been seasonally repelled and attracted to black since the 1980s, and, with the exception of photography, every art form at one point in time has been in love with the mysterious "color" (Scientifically, black is not a color as it absorbs light rather than reflects it.). Not...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 5, 2007

"Obey Giant Versus WK Interact"

Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya Closes in 18 days
EDITORIALS
Mar 25, 2007

Ambassadors manga and anime

Walk into any bookstore around the world and you will find a new, large section for one of Japan's best-known representatives -- manga. Likewise, in DVD stores, drama, comedy and action have been pushed aside for Japanese anime. All around the world, people of all ages are pouring over translations of...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 23, 2007

Atelier Bow-Wow have fun with urban spaces

Tokyo-based architectural practice Atelier Bow-Wow is currently holding an exhibition of its works at Tokyo's Gallery MA through May 12, titled "Practice of Lively Space -- detached house and micro public space."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 8, 2007

Free from schools with Zen's help

In a society where group dynamics, deferred gratification, and sticking to the plan have always been paramount, the occasional cross current that tells you to live in the moment, do the unexpected, and seek truth directly, blows like a real breath of fresh air. This explains the appeal of Zen, and the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 8, 2007

Rejecting kawaii culture

Momoyo Torimitsu (b. 1967) is a little tired of being remembered for Jiro Miyata, a life-size robot she created based on a middle-aged salaryman in 1994. But who could forget? Miyata, which Torimitsu had crawl around the streets of Tokyo, Paris, New York and other cities, so brilliantly embodied the...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?