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Linda Inoki
For Linda Inoki's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
CULTURE / Art
Dec 19, 2001
Views on a cityscape in continuous flux
It is more than 70 years since the French architect Le Corbusier confounded New Yorkers by declaring that their skyscrapers were not high enough. His vision was to curb the ugly sprawl of land-gobbling suburbs by creating cities that grew ever skyward. Now, as urban centers get bigger, his "four brutal axioms" -- town centers should be less congested, more densely built up; means of transport should be increased, as should open spaces -- are as controversial as ever. However, they could be the answer to Tokyo's problems.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 21, 2001
Beauty of body and spirit
It was an extraordinary sight. Guests at the Canadian Embassy Gallery's opening party for artist Claude Descoteaux could not keep their hands off the exhibits. Here, a young woman slid her hand over gleaming bronze hips. There, a man shyly stroked the calf of a leaping, athletic male.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 7, 2001
In search of simplicity
In turbulent times, we turn to the simple things of life with relief. But in fine art, simplicity is not easy, and it is a brave painter who spends his life depicting pots and pans, apples and pears.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 31, 2001
Mistress, queen and empress unmasked?
Ambition. Tragedy. Romance. The lives of Madame de Pompadour, Queen Marie-Antoinette and Empress Josephine read like the publisher's blurb on the cover of a historical novel. Yet they were real people, and a new exhibition from France sets out to unmask that reality.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Oct 25, 2001
Nogiku (Wild asters)
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Oct 18, 2001
Chikarashiba (Fountain grass)
CULTURE / Art
Oct 17, 2001
Beauty beheld in the past imperfect
Are the Japanese alone in their admiration of the imperfect? This is one of several questions arising from an odd exhibition now on at Tokyo's Shoto Museum of Art in Shibuya, a pleasant but puzzling "curiosity shop" selection of arts and crafts, ranging from colorful screen paintings to bamboo baskets.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Oct 11, 2001
Waremoko (Great burnet)
CULTURE / Art
Oct 10, 2001
Such stuff as dreams are woven from
Just as poetry is more than a few well-chosen words, fabrics are more than a gathering of threads. People have always understood the spiritual importance of our "second skin," from the early Peruvians who wrapped their departed in priceless tapestries to the ancient Greeks who believed that the Three Fates spun, wove and finally cut the thread of everyone's lives.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Oct 4, 2001
Hototogisu (hairy toad lily)
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 30, 2001
Symbols of the fleeting world
From earliest times, when the country was known as Akitsushima (Island of the Dragonfly), insects have buzzed, skimmed and flitted through the pages of Japanese literature.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Sep 27, 2001
Hagi (Bush clover)
CULTURE / Art
Sep 26, 2001
Portrait of an enigma
In the broad galaxy of modern French artists, we can easily spot Raoul Dufy's lightly glittering star. He was renowned as a painter of colorful scenes at St. Tropez on the Riviera. The one who designed fashion fabrics. The one who popularized modern art with glamorous subjects and a carefree brush.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Sep 20, 2001
Higanbana (spider lily)
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Sep 13, 2001
Kikyo (Bellflower)
CULTURE / Art
Sep 12, 2001
Picking out Triennale treasures from the trash
Just 100 years ago, Monet was watching light dance over water lilies and Matisse was scandalizing art critics with his wild use of color.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Sep 6, 2001
Nadeshiko (Japanese pink)
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Aug 30, 2001
Igusa (reeds)
"Our house was right next to the lake. You could look out of the window and see the reeds waving in the wind and listen to the reed warblers. It was a nuisance having to haul buckets of lake-water for the bath all the way into the house, so from April to November we used to leave the tub by the lake. A little roof of plaited reeds was put up over it to keep the rain off."
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Aug 23, 2001
Hirugao (Small bindweed)
"In the bindweed flower On Takamado Moor I see my darling's face. And how could I forget?"
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Aug 16, 2001
Yama-torikabuto (Japanese monkshood)
"Pipichari has given mea small quantity of the poisonous paste, and has also taken me to see the plant from the root of which it is made, the Aconitum japonicum, a monkshood, whose tall spikes of blue flowers are brightening the brushwood in all directions. The Ainos [sic] say that if a man is accidentally wounded by a poison arrow, the only cure is immediate excision of the part."

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree