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The head of an official inquiry into the deadly collapse of a Bangladesh factory complex said the building’s owner was the “main culprit” for the disaster because he violated construction codes. The cave-in of the eight-story Rana Plaza outside the capital last month killed ...
Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer’s bounty of ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the “best birthday party ever” when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion. The 90-year-old French director is hoping for an even better birthday gift, ...
As far as debuts go, Shohei Otani's delivered. The celebrated rookie pitched fairly well on Thursday night, and though he finished outside the decision, he left the mound with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters well within striking distance of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
Seian Shima’s “Untitled” (1918), in “Women Artists in Osaka” at the Osaka City Museum of Modern Art till Dec. 7, is a remarkable work. A self-portrait — uncommon in Japanese painting generally — it conforms to no ideal form of beauty, unlike images done ...
‘Utility” is conventionally held up as what separates crafts from art. But what practical purpose is served by the stained-glass panel by Christopher Whall, “Saint Agnes” (1901-10) in “Life and Art: Arts and Crafts from Morris to Mingei” at The National Museum of Modern ...
We are our own most keenest observers, whether it be in the bathroom mirror or in the department store window. But while the face is humankind’s most distinctive feature, we are also remarkably poor at getting ourselves in perspective. When asked what size their ...
In 1965, pioneering video artist Nam June Paik made the bold statement that “just as the collage technic has replaced oil paint, the cathode ray tube will replace the canvas.” Like any provocation, it has not aged well as the passage of time has ...
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto Closes May 11; performance on May 3 at 7:30 p.m. “Art Rules Kyoto 2008″ is the Japan installment of a world touring art/fashion/music/performance project — with stops at MOMA New York and the Pompidou Center, Paris — ...
What wasn’t to like about an artist who painted the scroll “Hard Times in Hell,” in which the king of Hell and his coterie of demons ascend to paradise in search of more suitable employment? Laughter from official quarters was decidedly muted when the ...
‘With love from . . .” — it’s the kind of message an expatriate might pen. Implicit in it is the warmth in the offering, a written embrace. As the title of an exhibition by Jarg Geismar at Nagoya’s Gallery HAM that’s running till ...
The fame that Yosa Buson (1716-1783) enjoyed as a painter and haiku poet in his own lifetime quickly eroded in the years following his death. And while his poetic reputation was restored as early as the 19th century, it was only in the years ...
A brief respite from the 21st century’s relentless demand for “starchitects” — exemplified by Rem Koolhaas, Tadao Ando and Frank Gehry — can be found at the Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, in “100 Years of W. M. Vories’ Works.” William Vories (1880-1964), an ...
Given the boom in all things Edo in recent years — perhaps best exemplified by the explosion of interest in last year’s The Price Collection’s tour of Japan, featuring the artists Ito Jakuchu, Maruyama Okyo and Nagasawa Rosetsu — it is surprising that there ...
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art Closes Mar. 3 Takayasu Itoh’s (1934-1985) transition to sculpture happened when the internal elements of his painting broke forth from the frame. The mini-retrospective “From Painting to Environment” at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (www.artm.pref.hyogo.jp) flies through Itoh’s ...
Breaking away from the herd, exploring new artistic directions and assuming time itself will bring the ultimate vindication is one of the great romantic ideas of avant-garde painting in the 20th century. But rather than defining the field for generations ahead, such an artist ...