Tag - shamisen

 
 

SHAMISEN

Japan Times
Film / Reviews
Jul 6, 2023
'With Each Passing Breath': A compassionate and richly textured documentary
As summer festivals return to Japan in full force, a film dives into the lives of the people who keep the cultural elements behind them alive.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Dec 18, 2022
A musical history told through centuries of Japanese literature
The modern ear, tuned to the aesthetics of a different timbre, may find that one era's beauty is another's cacophony.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2021
‘Ito’: Ren Komai strums the right notes
Satoko Yokohama's drama, set in the director's native Aomori Prefecture, features a troubled teen whose talent for playing the shamisen is hindered by grief.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 26, 2020
Departing from tradition with Hiromitsu Agatsuma and Akiko Yano
Shamisen player Hiromitsu Agatsuma teams up with singer and musician Akiko Yano for a new album which sees both depart from their previous styles and genres.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 22, 2019
'The Fourth String: A Memoir of Sensei and Me': Music, life and reflections on the space in between
Janet Pocorobba's 'The Fourth String' reconfigures the typical Japan fish-out-of-water memoir into a meditation on music and mastery, relationships, culture and narrative.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Aug 11, 2018
Duo Yumeno: Making music across the Pacific
Contemporary classical duo bring together the cello, koto and shamisen for original classical contemporary compositions.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 4, 2018
Traditional arts live through kids
Nurturing respect for cultural traditions is a daunting challenge these days, when kids are glued to cellphones and game apps. So what does a country with centuries of carefully polished artistry do to preserve its heritage? Drop a curtain on the whole show? Not in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 22, 2017
The Yoshida Brothers get in on Kubo's big adventure
Speaking as a Japanese person, I can't help but feel a short burst of national pride when Hollywood gives my country any kind of attention, like with the animated film "Kubo and the Two Strings."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 14, 2014
Wasabi crafts sounds of old Japan into something new
Wasabi "Wasabi 2" (Japan Traditional Cultures Foundation)
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Sep 30, 2014
Quebecoise shines as 'minyo' singer
Learning to play the three-stringed Japanese traditional instrument shamisen topped Canadian Maud Archambault's list of things to do while in Japan. She arrived here in 2001 to explore one of her fields of study: Japanese culture.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 27, 2013
At home on the Maasai Mara range
Asuka Takita has a passion for Africa and its wildlife that took root during her childhood in Singapore and flourished in the soils of Kenya during her third year of university.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 28, 2013
African elephants pluck at Japan's heartstrings
Next time you attend a shamisen performance, neither you nor most anyone else there will likely notice the elephant in the room. And those who do probably won't have given it much thought.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’