We went on a break and there was an assassination attempt, COVID-19 got a downgrade, and a pair of festivals shook up Kyoto. Several Japan Times writers join this week’s episode to help us play catch up with the headlines.

Hosted by Shaun McKenna, with research from Jason Jenkins and produced by Dave Cortez.

On this episode:

Shaun McKenna: Twitter | Instagram

Gabriele Ninivaggi: Articles | Twitter

Tomoko Otake: Articles | Twitter

Thu-Huong Ha: Articles | Twitter

Lance Henderstein: Articles | Twitter

Read more:

Get in touch: Send us feedback at [email protected]. Support the show by rating, reviewing and sharing the episode with a friend if you’ve enjoyed it. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

Transcript note: Deep Dive is made to be listened to, and we recommend this transcript be used as an accompaniment to the episode. This transcript has been generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcription, and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the episode.

Shaun McKenna  00:08  

Welcome to Deep Dive, or should I say welcome back to Deep Dive from The Japan Times, I'm Shaun McKenna. I hope everyone listening from Japan had a great Golden Week holiday. Our producer, Dave Cortez, took a glorious three weeks off. Dave, how'd you manage that?

Dave Cortez  00:24  

Well, I earned it, man.

Shaun McKenna  00:26  

Well, your parents were in town, right? So, it was the first time for them to visit Japan?

Dave Cortez  00:30  

Yep, their first time.

Shaun McKenna  00:32  

What did you do with them?

Dave Cortez  00:33  

We left Tokyo almost immediately. I mean, I think if you want to really get a feel for the country itself, you have to see the rest of it. So, you know, Tokyo is its own thing, but it was good to take them out.

Shaun McKenna  00:45  

Yeah, you sent me a really nice photo of Mount Fuji, which I actually posted to the  @JapanDeepDive Twitter account. What did your parents think of Japan?

Dave Cortez  00:53  

Well, they loved it. They said all of the cliche things that first-timers say, “Wow, the streets are so clean. Wow, look at the children walking by themselves,” all of those kinds of things. But I think what actually struck me about my time off was not showing first-timers around but actually kind of reflecting on my reaction to things I've done before, and kind of noticing that I liked things more than my first couple times. 

Shaun McKenna  01:17

Huh, how so? 

Dave Cortez  01:19

So like, I've been to Kyoto several times, but it was many years ago. And this time, I had a completely different reaction. The magic of the city seemed to kind of pop out for some reason and I don't know if that was because I had historical context for things or can talk to the cab drivers in Japanese and get the more local vibe, but I really enjoyed it and it was super refreshing.

Shaun McKenna  01:39  

Look at you falling in love with Kyoto. Well, we're actually going to be talking about Kyoto at the end of the show. So our writers Thu-Huong Ha and Lance Henderstein went to cover two festivals taking place there, that's Kyotographie and Kyotophonie.

Dave Cortez  01:52  

And Noma’s happening there as we talked about a few weeks ago.

Shaun McKenna  01:56  

That's right, yeah, did you get a reservation? 

Dave Cortez  01:59  

No, I am still more or less a budget traveler. But anyway, I feel like I'm trying to catch up with the news cycle. I know I'm going to edit the show later but what else are we talking about today?

Shaun McKenna  02:10  

Well, Japan Times health writer Tomoko Otake will be joining us to discuss the downgrading of COVID-19, which is now on par with seasonal flu, that happened on Monday. But first we'll check in on one of the big stories that happened while you were on break — the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Dave Cortez  02:29  

Ah yes, that news did sneak through my holiday firewall.

Shaun McKenna  02:33  

Yeah, that was big news. So we'll be back with politics reporter Gabriele Ninivaggi to tell us more about that.

On April 15, just over three weeks ago, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was attending a pre-election rally at Saikazaki Port in Wakayama, he was about to give a speech when an object was thrown in his direction landing about a meter from where he was standing. Security shielded the prime minister from the object, which turned out to be a homemade pipe bomb. The prime minister escaped unharmed while the alleged attacker, 24-year-old Ryuji Kimura is currently being held by authorities. With me to talk more about what happened is politics reporter Gabriele Ninivaggi. Gabriele, thanks for joining us again on Deep Dive.

Gabriele Ninivaggi  03:20  

Thanks for having me.

Shaun McKenna  03:21  

Gabriele, this attack took place on a Saturday, where were you when you first heard about it?

Gabriele Ninivaggi  03:27  

I was at home. It was around 11:45 on Saturday morning, and I was about to make some lunch for myself when I got a notification on my phone through the NHK app first, a notification which I ignored, initially. Then I received another notification from one of our colleagues, and that was when I realized that this was something big, actually. So then I got in touch with my colleagues and started sort of frantically trying to understand what was going on down in Wakayama. And in the afternoon, After we found out that the prime minister, Kishida, wasn't going to cancel his plans to do stump speeches in Chiba, in the afternoon I rushed there to see what security looked like.

Shaun McKenna  04:02  

OK, so he was the target of an attack in the morning, but kept on the campaign trail and was back in front of crowds later on that day. 

Gabriele Ninivaggi  04:09  

Correct. Yeah, he had scheduled to speak in Wakayama, around 12, around noon, and then he was going to move to Chiba in the afternoon. So he himself actually decided not to cancel his plans, and then flew to Chiba where he spoke in support of the local candidate, actually around 5 p.m.

Shaun McKenna  04:21  

Right, so the show must go on. What was the security like in Chiba? 

Gabriele Ninivaggi  04:26  

So I would say that there wasn't any major difference. So there was some distance between the speakers and the audience. But still, Kishida himself went to shake hands with the public after he spoke. So, we'll talk about this later but it's important for Japanese politicians to keep that direct contact with the voters. And so that was still there, actually, which was surprising for some of us, I would say.

Shaun McKenna  04:47  

Right. So what do we know about the man accused of throwing this explosive device?

Gabriele Ninivaggi  04:52  

So at this point, we do know a bit about the guy, Ryuji Kimura. He's 24 years old and he comes from Kawanishi, a city in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan. After Kimura threw the pipe bomb in Kishida’s direction, just as the prime minister was about to start a speech in Saikazaki, he was held down by a couple of local fishermen, who became sort of national heroes for the next couple of days. And they even received a call from Kishida himself.

Shaun McKenna  05:19  

Right, this attack was, like, all over social media. So that's where a lot of people would have seen these fishermen.

Gabriele Ninivaggi  05:25  

Yeah. Going back to Kimura, he has kept completely silent since the moment he was brought to the police station in Wakayama. And in the days following the accident, the police searched his house and found some gunpowder. And a quick look at his record shows that Kimura had sort of harbored a grudge toward Japan's political system for quite some time. And he had filed a lawsuit against the state asking for damages for mental distress over the fact that he was unable to run for office himself. So in Japan, there's this rule that you need to be at least 30 years old to run for the Upper House, and there's quite a high initial deposit that you need to pay in order to run that deposit amounts to around ¥3 million, which is approximately US$22,000.

Shaun McKenna  06:06  

What was Kimura’s upbringing like?

Gabriele Ninivaggi  06:10  

So according to media reports, Kimora had quite a tranquil childhood in a suburban neighborhood in Kansai, in a house with a little garden and a garage, and he apparently dreamt of being a patissier or an inventor. And in recent years, he had apparently taken a passion for gardening and spent a lot of time in his room playing guitar.

Shaun McKenna  06:29  

This doesn't sound like a guy who, you know, by the age of 24 would allegedly want to assassinate the prime minister.

Gabriele Ninivaggi  06:35  

Right. But it was clear from the beginning that the guy had an interest in politics and expressed a strong discontent with the current state of Japan's political world. Especially, I would say, toward the alleged privileges to Japanese politicians, especially at a high level, enjoy.

Shaun McKenna  06:49  

Now this all came about nine months after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, ah, the alleged culprit in that case, Tetsuya Yamagami, has yet to go to trial. But it seems like there are a lot of similarities between that incident last year and the one we saw last month.

Gabriele Ninivaggi  07:06  

I think there seems to have been a lot of crime in the news recently. But, you know, Japan is still a pretty safe society with low levels of crime compared to other countries of its size. And it's important to say that what we saw with Kishida and Abe isn't really unheard of in Japan. So there's been other cases of assassinations and, in 2007, the mayor of Nagasaki, Icho Ito, was shot in the back near a train station in Nagasaki, by a senior member of a crime syndicate. And five years earlier, in 2002, LDP lawmaker Koki Ishii was stabbed to death by the leader of a right-wing group. And in 1994, former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa was shot while in a hotel in Tokyo but escaped unharmed. So strictly speaking, if you're comparing these two recent acts of violence, which have come within a year of each other, there are a few more similarities. So both took place in Kansai, Abe was shot in Nara and Kishida was attacked in Wakayama. Both were allegedly done by perpetrators working alone, what people usually call “lone wolves.” And both incidents occurred during public stump speeches, although Abe was speaking while he was shot, and he wasn't prime minister at the time, while obviously Keisha is the incumbent Prime Minister, and was about to start a speech.

Shaun McKenna  08:21  

OK, so yeah, these public stump speeches, as we kind of alluded to before, they're just public events, there is minimal security, they're usually done in front of train stations, and it's just a good way for politicians to actually meet members of the public.

Gabriele Ninivaggi  08:37  

Correct, exactly. As I said earlier, it's important for politicians to this day to keep that contact, which in Japanese is called “skinshippu.” Which is this sort of Japanese-English term. And so they need to secure venues around big stations usually, but there's very minimal security, there's no bag checks, there's no metal detectors and security's kept at minimum overall, I would say, but things are going to change a thing in the next few years. For this, returning to the comparison, between the two cases, both cases saw weapons, which were homemade.

Shaun McKenna  09:10  

Right. Speaking to The Japan Times, the prime minister said, and I'll quote him on this here, “Strangely, I didn't feel like my life was at risk. I was thinking of how it would affect the people who came, how it would affect the many voters and the election itself. I also thought about how the incident would impact the G7 summit and other important diplomatic events. So first off, he mentioned the election, which took place April 23. Did the assassination attempt give Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party a boost at the polls?

Gabriele Ninivaggi  09:40  

Not really, no. Shinzo Abe was assassinated the day before an election and people thought then there would be a significant turnout for the LDP, but there was just a slight uptick. This time, in April, the LDP won four out of five constituencies, but the race was actually tighter than expected in two constituencies. The first one is the fifth constituency in Chiba and the second one is the second constituency in Yamaguchi, which is a prefecture in southern Honshu and Yamaguchi is where Abe comes from. So there was no kind of rush of support, electorally speaking.

Shaun McKenna  10:14  

Probably a bigger issue of concern, Kishida also mentioned the upcoming G7 summit, which takes place in Hiroshima the weekend of May 19. Has security been tightened ahead of that meeting?

Gabriele Ninivaggi  10:26  

Yes, definitely. Hiroshima, the city is quite big. There's over 1.2 million people and the area around the venue of the summit, Ujina Island, which is approximately 6 kilometers south of central Hiroshima will be entirely closed off to the public, and traffic would probably be stopped for inspection. At the moment, we don't have the official schedule but rumors say that the leaders will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which is obviously a very big tourist attraction in the city. And that obviously means that security will be tightened not just around the venue but in the entire city. So I personally expect massive dispatches of police and a lot of waiting to get pretty much anywhere.

Shaun McKenna  11:05  

Yeah, whenever there's an important political event in Tokyo, or even outside of Tokyo, you can usually notice an uptick in security at train stations, especially. If anyone's listening in Hiroshima, who has seen a big difference in police presence then reach out to us at [email protected], I’d just be curious to know what you're seeing. Gabriele, you're heading to Hiroshima to cover the G7 next week, we look forward to your reporting and, well, stay safe, man.

Gabriele Ninivaggi  11:33  

Thanks for having me guys.

Shaun McKenna  11:44  

This week, the Japanese government officially downgraded COVID-19 from a Class 2 disease to a Class 5 disease under the Infectious Diseases Control Law. This puts the no longer so novel coronavirus on the same level as seasonal flu. And it means we'll be saying sayonara to a range of anti-virus measures introduced during the three-year pandemic. Japan Times health reporter Tomoko Otake is here to explain to us what this reclassification means to people living here and visiting. Tomoko, welcome back to Deep Dive.

Tomoko Otake  12:13  

Thanks for having me.

Shaun McKenna  12:14  

First of all, I guess how did officials come to this decision to downgrade COVID-19?

Tomoko Otake  12:20  

So Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the downgrade in January as part of the “wīzu korona” strategy.

Shaun McKenna  12:27  

So “wīzu korona,” that's a Japanese term that means to live “with the coronavirus,” correct?

Tomoko Otake  12:32  

Correct. And so Kishida said that it would take about three months to prepare for the transition, and the transition came in stages. Before the actual downgrade Japan lifted indoor mask recommendations on March 13, and this is long after many Western countries moved to remove such guidance. So now any precautionary measures are up to businesses and individuals. And then last month, just before the Golden Week holidays, the government removed what was left of the border restrictions. People don't have to submit proof of vaccination or negative PCR tests when they enter Japan.

Shaun McKenna  13:11  

OK, so this decision has been playing out over the past few months, and then May 8 was the official downgrade day. So where do we stand at the moment with regards to COVID? Are people still getting it?

Tomoko Otake  13:23  

Um, since the start of the pandemic, a total of 34 million people in Japan have been infected, and close to 75,000 people have died. We've had eight waves, and the last one was in the winter. At the moment, things are calmer. And the number of newly infected people per day stands at around 10,000 or less. This is way lower than at the peak of the past waves when Japan recorded more than 250,000 new cases a day.

Shaun McKenna  13:54  

Is there a chance that we could see any other waves in the future?

Tomoko Otake  13:58  

I think so. Experts believe that there's going to be a ninth wave because people would be less vigilant with the downgrade. And there will be more people coming in and moving around the country in general.

Shaun McKenna  14:11  

Right. So do we know when a wave could possibly happen? 

Tomoko Otake  14:15  

Well, experts don't know for sure. But waves have always happened in the summer in 2021 and 2022. It also depends on whether there's a heatwave and when there's a heatwave temperatures go up and people go inside and they turn their air conditioners on and shut the windows and that increases the chances of catching COVID.

Shaun McKenna  14:39  

So who is still most at risk of catching COVID-19, or should I say who's most at risk from getting sick from it?

Tomoko Otake  14:46  

So anyone can really catch it. But as was the case for the past three years, the elderly people and people with underlying conditions are most at risk of getting sick.

Shaun McKenna  14:58  

Will testing still be covered by the government? 

Tomoko Otake  15:00  

No, patients are going to have to pay 10% to 30% of all the medical costs as they normally do under the public health insurance system. And COVID drugs that have been approved recently are quite expensive. So the government will continue to cover those, at least until the end of September.

Shaun McKenna  15:17  

Has there been any talk of more booster shots to keep our immunity up?

Tomoko Otake  15:21  

Yes, a fresh booster drive started this week. But that's only for high-risk people, like people over 65, medical workers and those with underlying conditions. But for the rest of us, there will be another booster made available in the fall, if they want to take it. And then there's a vaccination program for children aged 5 to 11. But that's ongoing at the moment because the program started later for them.

Shaun McKenna  15:48  

Speaking of children, how is this official downgrade going to affect them?

Tomoko Otake  15:53  

Well, the Education Ministry has a manual for dealing with COVID at schools, and revisions go into effect this week. So, for example, students won't need to report their temperature every day anymore, and they won't have to take time off if they're close contacts, like their parents, get COVID.

Shaun McKenna  16:11  

Another big part of the COVID era was masking. Japan, having this entrenched culture of masking already seems to be a bit slow on giving up this aspect of prevention. So what are the rules surrounding masking right now?

Tomoko Otake  16:26  

So in March, Japan, relaxed masking recommendations, both indoors and outdoors, and decisions are left up to individuals and businesses. The government still, though, asks people to wear masks in high-risk areas, like hospitals, or maybe crowded trains. But basically, it's up to you.

Shaun McKenna  16:45  

Right. All of this really feels like the age of the pandemic, which has consumed a huge chunk of our lives and our thoughts might be coming to an end. What do you think the overall legacy of the pandemic is going to be in Japan?

Tomoko Otake  17:00  

I think it's gonna take more time for people to reflect on it. So it's gonna be hard to say what the legacy is at this moment. For me, I think being able to work remotely and have online chats often — with anybody, regardless of where they live — is really the biggest change that we've gone through, and it's gonna really stay.

Shaun McKenna  17:25  

Right, right. You were saying earlier to me that you were speaking to sources more through video chat.

Tomoko Otake  17:31  

That's right. It's much easier now to set up an online chat, before I used to, like, call people and didn't really have a chance to look at their faces. Now, you know, it's so easy to really kind of ask for an online chat. And they sometimes show you, like, slides and stuff as well. So it really is accessible.

Shaun McKenna  17:53  

Right, I guess it's going to leave a lasting legacy in the world of business, especially when it comes to teleworking. And just that was a huge step for, I think, Japan to make the leap to kind of like just working from home every now and then, or workations, for example.

Tomoko Otake  18:09  

That's right. But I think a lot of businesses have already decided to go back to the office. So I was talking with friends of mine last week, and they were saying that they have mostly gone back to the office completely. 

Shaun McKenna  18:23  

Wow. How about in the world of science in Japan, what kind of impact has the pandemic had on people in the health industry, for example?

Tomoko Otake  18:32  

Right. So I've been covering the pandemic response in Japan for a while, and I've really realized that Japan lags behind others in terms of, like, vaccine development and drug development. And it's kind of, like, taught Japan a huge lesson on what to do when another pandemic-like national crisis hits. And Japan is moving in the right direction in terms of like, trying to move more quickly to the pandemic. But there's a lot, still, to go.

Shaun McKenna  19:05  

Well, Tomoko Otake thanks very much for coming on Deep Dive.

Tomoko Otake  19:08  

Thank you for having me.

Shaun McKenna  19:17  

If you've been living in Japan throughout the pandemic, then you're bound to have noticed the difference the return of overseas tourists has made when it comes to crowded streets and pricier hotels. One city that's on every tourist’s list of places to visit is Kyoto, and it feels like Kyoto is having a bit of a moment when it comes to big-name events. Before Deep Dive’s Golden Week hiatus, we talked about the Noma pop-up, and here with us now to review a pair of festivals that took place in Kyoto are Japan Times culture critic, Thu-Huong Ha, hello Thu.

Thu-Huong Ha  19:45

Hi. 

Shaun McKenna  19:46  

And contributing writer and photographer Lance Henderstein, hello!

Lance Henderstein  19:49  

Hello. 

Shaun McKenna  19:50 

The two of you covered Kyotographie and Kyotophonie, Thu, that last one, how are we pronouncing that?

Thu-Huong Ha  19:55  

It's Kyotophonie.

Shaun McKenna  19:57  

OK, French accent. So out of these two Kyotographie is the elder, Kyotophonie debuted this year. I know that you both attended events for both of them, but Thu maybe you can explain these two festivals to our listeners.

Thu-Huong Ha  20:11  

Sure. Kyotographie has been going for 11 years. It's a photography festival that's spread out all over the city of Kyoto. And this year, the organizers — who are French, I wasn't just being random — debuted a music festival called Kyotophonie that focuses on world music.

Shaun McKenna  20:28  

OK, Lance, you covered Kyotographie for us last year, how did this year's festival differ from last year's?

Lance Henderstein  20:33  

Well, one, the borders of Japan were open. So the theme of the festival this year was “Border,” appropriately enough. Last year was “One,” the theme was “one.” They had 10 female photographers from Japan, it was very focused on Japan itself. And sticking together during the pandemic. This year really felt like trying to get back to form and then with the addition of the music festival was much more festive, much more open, you had tourists everywhere. Yeah, it was completely night and day as far as the mood of the festival this year.

Shaun McKenna  21:08  

OK, were there any exhibitions that you found particularly interesting?

Lance Henderstein  21:12  

Yeah, the original intent of the festival was to, you know, speak truth to power to be a new medium to talk about the effects of the earthquake, the Tohoku earthquake, and the radiation coverage. They were concerned about that so they decided to make this festival, so there's always been a social component to the festival. This year felt a little bit lighter, but one in particular that was kind of tailor-made for the theme of “Border” was Spanish photographer Cesar Dezfuli, his exhibition “Passengers” focused on, mostly men, but young people trying to make their way to Europe to claim asylum for various reasons. Initially, he shot them on a boat, 118 people I think, but the nice thing was that he followed up and now he's really added depth to this by following the men through their lives, some of them successfully resettling in Europe, some having to go back to their own country, and in various stages of success or failure at their attempts in asylum, and I thought that was very deep. Another sort of socially minded project was by Kazuhiko Matsumura. He is a reporter for Kyoto Shimbun for many years and now making his way as a sort of a cross between a fine art photographer and a photojournalist. His exhibition, “Heartstrings,” which is being held at Hachiku-an, it’s a machiya, it’s 100 years old, a really beautiful location, and that is focusing on dementia. And he did an interesting thing with the curator and sort of his partner on this project, Yumi Goto, she does a lot of bookmaking workshops in this kind of thing. They tried to simulate what it's like to have dementia. So in addition to the photos of family members and the photos that he's taken, I don't want to give away too much but there are media in the room that sort of simulate what it's like to forget or what it's like to forget if you've eaten, to forget if you told your spouse something or not, I thought it was really effectively done. It was beautiful, but it also had some depth to it. That one I would highly recommend everyone see.

Shaun McKenna  23:19  

Thu, did you check out any of the exhibitions?

Thu-Huong Ha  23:21  

Yeah, it was just gonna say that I thought the Matsumura exhibit was super moving. I guess I don't want to give spoilers but I did find myself sort of obsessing over the possibility of losing my memory, which is something I do all the time but really came to a head that day. But I think it was a little bit unusual, the use of nontraditional photography paper, I would say.

Lance Henderstein  23:44  

Yeah, I mean, the paper choices, that's part of Yumi Goto. They run a bookmaking course called reminders, photography stronghold, which a lot of photographers have used to create their books, their monographs. They nearly always win awards at ARL and Perry photo and other photo events around the world. And so yeah, they really focus on paper stocks on the presentation of the photos themselves in the textures and this kind of thing. So it's very tactile.

Thu-Huong Ha  24:12  

Yes, it’s really beautiful. I also liked an exhibit by Yu Yamauchi. He's known for doing these kinds of extreme isolation projects. He spent five months consecutively living in a mountain hut on Fuji over four years. So a total of 600 days. He just stayed there and he would wake up and photograph the dawn every day above the cloudline. And from then he started doing these kinds of long isolation projects. He just was traveling to Yakushima over the course of nine years, now he's living in like some remote place and Nagano sort of becoming his thing. And I was quite interested in the Yakushima photos especially because I'm just, I'm a big fan of the place, and so I thought he really captured the sort of monstrous quality of these very, very old trees that the region is known for. And also just like the idea of the sort of monastic living that produces art, it was actually my first time at the festival. So I didn't really know what to expect, like there wasn't one central location where all the exhibits were, they’re sort of spread out. And all these may be hard to access, like very, very old, very traditional Kyoto-style buildings. And you're sort of redelighted each time to see how the space is used as a collaboration between the photographer, the art and the curators. So I think that was quite stunning in many cases. 

Lance Henderstein  25:38  

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think that's what makes Kyotographie so special is that it's not a centrally located, one gallery with a ton of artists in it, it's they really curate specific places that you usually wouldn't be able to get access to, like, one great example is a Yuriko Takagi. She's a photographer who has been around for a long time, worked with Issey Miyake. She's a fashion photographer, mainly. She presented an exhibition called “Parallel Worlds” at Nijo-jo Castle, which is, I mean, it's breathtaking. It's one of the biggest castles, I don't know if it might be the biggest castle in Kyoto. And they really filled this space well, just huge prints of her fashion work alongside some documentary work that she had done in, I think, 12 countries, in black and white, then filled another room with handmade prints, at waist level on all of these podiums, just really, really beautifully curated. And she had the work to back up the venue, which is maybe the only difficult part is sometimes the work doesn't justify the venue yet. It's unfortunate, but she, you know, is a master of what she does. So it was, it was really impressive.

Thu-Huong Ha  26:51  

Every single one was just you could have spent many minutes just staring at each one. They were all really different and just absolutely stunning.

Shaun McKenna  27:00  

Lance, as a photographer yourself, what do you want to see at Kyotographie in the future?

Lance Henderstein  27:04  

I mean, variety, always, you know, difference, you don't want to get to one note, and I guess I can draw a contrast from last year to this year. Last year, very fine art, very socially minded this year, a little you saw a lot of fashion photographers kind of creeping into the space of fine art photography, which can work in the case of Yuriko Takagi, it works. Some other photographers, maybe you could feel that, you know, if you put a logo on it, it could be an ad campaign. And that, that for me, I'm like, what, why is that here that, you know, there's plenty of that around, you can see it everywhere on every billboard. So if you're gonna get access to these kinds of beautiful spaces, you sort of have to justify with the work, whatever style it is, I don't, you know, I'm not going to say a particular style needs to be there doesn't even need to have a social aspect. But the work needs to be on the level to justify the space given to these people because they are very lucky, the artists doing these exhibitions, all of them express that they felt extremely lucky to be able to exhibit in spaces like this. It's a really rare chance. 

Thu-Huong Ha  28:11  

Would you say that it felt “phony”?

Shaun McKenna  28:14  

Well, speaking of the new edition, Kyotophonie was the group's first stab, I believe, at adding a musical component to you reviewed that one for The Japan Times what was your take on how things sounded for this debut?

Thu-Huong Ha  28:26  

So there's nothing to compare it to as it was the first edition. I thought for a first try, there was a lot of intriguing work. The sort of crown jewel performance was by Salif Keita, who's from Mali, and is considered to be a pioneer of Afro-pop and is called the “Golden Voice of Africa,” which is, that's a pretty high bar for expectations. But, I do think they were met. I wasn't familiar with his work before. But, I mean, it was just the amount of detail and care that was put into the performance, you could really feel all of it. So first, there was a pre-performance at 128-year-old martial arts hall, that was very beautiful, and then the opening, main performance was at Komyo-in, which is 632 years old with an 84-year-old garden that Keita sat in with his two accompanists and, yeah, I mean, everything just seems so perfectly planned, even the rain, because it's Kyoto, I mean, everything is just high touch, sort of like extremely curated, extremely, you know, the first time you go to Kyoto you feel that everything was like put there by like a little like a bird you know, like or like a team of tiny bird designers. Shaun, you're looking at me like you don't understand what I'm saying. 

Shaun McKenna  29:47  

I’m thinking, like, Snow White? 

Thu-Huong Ha  29:51  

Yeah, yeah, exactly! No, Sleeping Beauty. Yeah. But, you know, I think that over time, if you go to Kyoto enough, it can start to feel a bit stale and I think that this marriage of, you know, really kind of over the top, extremely beautiful garden, so manicured with the kind of the moodiness of the weather. And with this type of performance, which is really not ever done in this type of space, all just seem to kind of come together and give something fresh, I think, to the city and to the architecture that you see in this city. And I think that is what the organizers are going for, and in that sense, I think they succeeded. It's, you know, it is risky to try a new creative endeavor in a place like Kyoto, which is celebrated for never changing. And so I think that was, yeah, I really appreciated that.

Shaun McKenna  30:37  

You said there was, like, a lot of “intriguing” work there. What were some of the other performances?

Thu-Huong Ha  30:43  

Um, there was a pairing of two musicians at Club Metro, which is a venue that's underground in the metro, that I thought was, ummmmm. Is that … that's how journalists talk, right? So a Brazilian musician named Lucas Santtana, who was just so sort of, like, easy and joyous and exuberant and loose, I really enjoyed his band perform. And that was immediately followed by a performance by Fuyuki Yamakawa, who is a Japanese vocal percussionist, he uses his hands and fists to sort of bang on his head, and then amplified those sounds throughout the club, in a way that was, like, pretty satanic in a cool way … question mark? And I think that, you know, there's a lot to be said, for experimental, like, music and, you know, I think the audiences should be challenged, but I wasn't really sure why these two performances were paired up, like who is the audience who's trying to pay for this? So I thought that was a confusing curatorial choice, but I think, you know, again, I support the, sort of, the creative risk that was taken.

Lance Henderstein  32:00  

I think that's the advantage of picking a theme like “Border” is you can, you know, kind of post hoc rationalize anything, they can say, “this genre doesn't go together, that's because that's the theme.”

Shaun McKenna  32:12  

Well, Thu and Lance thanks for joining us on Deep Dive.

Thu-Huong Ha  32:15  

Thanks for having us. 

Lance Henderstein  32:17

Thanks, Shaun.

Shaun McKenna  32:19

My thanks to everyone who came on the show today, Gabriele Ninivaggi, Tomoko Otake, Thu-Huong Ha, Lance Henderstein and, of course, our producer Dave Cortez. Dave, are you all caught up on the news now? 

Dave Cortez  32:32

Yup! I’m all caught up!

Shaun McKenna  32:19

If you’ve enjoyed this week’s episode, please be sure to tell a friend and leave us a rating or review on whatever podcasting platform you use. Both those things will help others find the show. Jason Jenkins helped with the research for this week’s episode, the outgoing song was written and produced by Oscar Boyd, and our theme song is by the Japanese musician LLLL. Until next time, I’m Shaun McKenna … Dave, do you want to do the honors?

Dave Cortez 32:56

Podtsukaresama!

Shaun McKenna  32:58

Podtsukaresama.