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EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2005

Dolls without borders

'T here is no new thing under the sun," said the preacher (Ecclesiastes, 1:9). Well, the preacher had it half right. Sometimes people come up with a brand-new thing in response to an age-old reality. Consider the case of Hong Kong-based software developer Eberhard Schoeneburg. According to recent reports,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 5, 2005

Classy acts to follow in voice, audition coaching

Last month, Alice Hackett and Robert Tsonos were facing each other onstage in "Les Liasons Dangereuses," produced by Tokyo International Players. Now they are facing me, talking about coaching and training actors, writers, businesspeople and teachers -- anyone who needs help with projecting personality,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 27, 2005

New truths from broken conventions: travel writing outside Japan

MUSASHINO IN TUSCANY: Japanese Overseas Travel Literature, 1860-1912, by Susanna Fessler. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2004, 297 pp., + xii pp., 29 b/w illustrations, 2004, $65.00 (cloth). Japan has a long history of travel literature. From the 10th-century "Tosa...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 26, 2005

Jack Merluzzi

Tokyo's international theater people refer to Jack Merluzzi as the man with a million voices. "I will do any voice," he said. "I believe I can do any voice." In normal circumstances he is remarkably quiet about his unusual skill, using it to advantage only when the occasion calls for it. Most of those...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 6, 2005

Tokyo as fragmented as its observers

KUHAKU & OTHER ACCOUNTS FROM JAPAN, by various artists, edited by Bruce Rutledge. Chin Music Press, 2004, 224 pp., 3,500 yen (cloth). TOKYO FRAGMENTS, by Ryuji Morita, Tomomi Muramatsu, Mariko Hayashi, Makoto Shiina, Chiya Fujino; translated by Giles Murray. IBC Publishing, 2004, 206 pp., 2,100 yen (cloth). "To...
COMMENTARY
Feb 5, 2005

A question mark for Chirac

PARIS -- With a growth rate of 2.4 percent, France's performance was a bit higher than the euro-zone's average 1.8 percent but not enough to dispel the gloom that presently characterizes the national mood. Unemployment remains at 9.9 percent, close to the Belgian, German and Spanish figures, and far...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 30, 2005

Kabuki illustrated with the vibrancy of sheer enthusiasm

HEROES OF THE KABUKI STAGE, by Arendie & Henk Herwig. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers/Hotei Publishing, 2004, 360 pp., 280 full-color illustrations, $125 (cloth). This large (245 x 297 mm), beautifully produced book calls itself "an introduction to the world of kabuki with retellings of famous plays, illustrated...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 23, 2005

Take a swig from the right cup

ODE TO JAPANESE POTTERY: Sake Cups and Flasks, by Robert Lee Yellin, photographs by Minato Yoshihide and Yoshimori Hiroya. Coherence, 2004, 207 pp., 4,800 yen (cloth). I've been a fairly good imbiber of alcohol ever since my high school days or earlier. My father was almost a teetotaler but loved inviting...
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2005

Tsunami parley delegates seek specifics -- not vague pledges

KOBE -- As the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction headed into its final two days Friday, NGOs and some member states warned that the five-day parley would be a failure unless it culminated in specific action on disaster reduction measures, especially in the Indian Ocean region.
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 21, 2005

Sugidama

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 19, 2005

Castle of the truly absurd

One night in deep midwinter, K. arrives at an inn in a snow-covered village beneath a mighty castle which may or may not exist. K., played by Tetsushi Tanaka, claims he has been hired by the castle as a land surveyor.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 16, 2005

A fleeting visit rich with eastern symbolism

KNOWING THE EAST, by Paul Claudel, translated by James Lawler. Princeton University Press, 2004, 138 pp., $17.95 (paper). The Catholic poet Paul Claudel (1868-1955) first came to what was then known as the Far East in 1895 and at once began writing down his impressions. In 1900 he gathered them into...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 13, 2005

Jakuemon: A man for the ladies

NAKAMURA JAKUEMON IV: The Art of Onnagata Acting, by Rei Sasaguchi, photos by Yutaka Umemura, Akira Iwata, Fumio Watanabe. Designed and published by Rei Sasaguchi, 2004, 116 pp., 3000 yen (cloth). This very interesting, beautifully designed book is an essay on the art of onnagata, the kabuki actor playing...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 19, 2004

Stamp of identity for artist of a troubled double heritage

THE LIFE OF ISAMU NOGUCHI: Journey Without Borders, by Masayo Duus, translated by Peter Duus. Princeton University Press, 2004, 340 pp., 36 half-tone photos, $29.95 (cloth). ISAMU NOGUCHI: Master Sculptor, by Valerie J. Fletcher, with contributions by Dana Miller and Bonnie Rychlak. London: Scala Publishers,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 28, 2004

A clever yarn crafted from a hoax

MY LIFE AS A FAKE, by Peter Carey. Faber & Faber, 2004, 276 pp., £6.99 (paper). One of the most stunning acts of literary criticism in modern times was perpetrated in an Australian magazine called Angry Penguins during World War II. It consisted of a small body of faux experimental poetry, purporting...
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2004

Man doesn't get stamps of disputed isles, sues Japan Post

A Tokyo man filed a lawsuit Thursday against Japan Post over what he says is its refusal to issue customized stamps featuring islets claimed by both Japan and South Korea.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 14, 2004

LDP crew want credit where credit isn't due

It's easy to believe that once a person becomes a politician, he tends to lose touch with everyday reality as it's lived by the majority of citizens since he's usually too busy looking after his own interests. Nevertheless, a recent remark by Tsutomu Takebe, the secretary general of the Liberal Democratic...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 7, 2004

And you thought doing deals in today's Japan was tough

THE DESHIMA DIARIES MARGINALIA 1740-1800, edited by Leonard Blusse, Cynthia Vialle, Willem Remmelink and Isabel van Daalen. Tokyo: The Japan-Netherlands Institute, 898 pp., 2004, 13,000 yen (cloth). It has been 12 years since I had occasion to review on this page the first volume of the Deshima Diaries...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 23, 2004

Winning and losing the compliment game

My, I'm impressed with the way you read. Your eyes just sail across the text like a clipper ship backed by fair winds and bound for a friendly port. Even when you blink, you don't slow down. Even when I type challenging words like "panegyric" or "ibetyourbreathcouldkillahorse," you barely pause on the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 20, 2004

Stuff of nightmares

Dear Reader,
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 10, 2004

Nothing fishy going on here

TSUKIJI: The Fish Market at the Center of the World, by Theodore C. Bestor. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2004. 411 pp., $24.95 (cloth). A superb study about the people, pandemonium and relationships that define the Tsukiji fish marketplace, Theodore C. Bestor's "Tsukiji" is enriched by more than...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 6, 2004

Poor, mad, bad king

During the five years he was Artistic Director of Setagaya Public Theatre, 61-year-old Makoto Sato began calling and e-mailing his old friend and stage colleague Renji Ishibashi, 63, in an attempt to persuade him to take the role of King Lear, with him (Sato) as director.
COMMENTARY
Oct 4, 2004

Can Chirac remain on top?

PARIS -- Has French President Jacques Chirac sufficiently weighed the possible effects of his decision to hold a referendum next year on the draft EU constitution, which was approved last June by the European Council?
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 26, 2004

Short and deep: Matsuo Basho's parallels of poetry

BASHO'S HAIKU: Selected Poems of Matsuo Basho, translated and with an Introduction by David Landis Barnhill. Albany: State University of New York Press, 232 pp., $23.95 (paper). Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) raised the haiku from a transient pastime to an enduring literary genre. He was among the first to...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Sep 16, 2004

Reading-out-loud renaissance falls upon deaf ears

I'm a fan of "Doraemon," the long-running children's television show about a blue robot cat from the future, who lives with an average family on the outskirts of Tokyo. The Japanese is relatively easy to understand, and I love Doraemon's magic pocket, from which he pulls amazing tools like the dokodemo...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 9, 2004

Heartening news for some from an Ice Age gene mutation

In Terry Gilliam's 1985 film "Brazil," a tiny printing error in a bureaucratic document leads to the mistaken arrest and detention of an innocent man. A single letter is changed in a file and the set of instructions are automatically followed by the authorities.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past