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CULTURE / Art
Oct 17, 2001

Unpeeling layers of meaning

Artist Karen Riley once surprised a suibokuga (ink painting) master by showing more interest in the back of the paper he was working on than the design itself.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2001

Uhfmm . . . wham, bam, thank you, ma'am

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Simon West Running time: 100 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 17, 2001

Revenge drama: keeping it in the family

During the 17th and 18th centuries, news of successful acts of revenge (katakiuchi) by samurai circulated fast among ordinary people in Japan. Many of these stories were highly dramatic and became sources of inspiration for kabuki and bunraku dramas.
Events
Oct 16, 2001

Ecotourism campaign spotlights Shiga area

MAIHARA, Shiga Pref -- In an effort to draw more visitors to this area, the Shiga Prefectural Government is running a one-month ecotourism campaign.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 14, 2001

Green tourism: where town and country meet

Ajimu in Oita Prefecture isn't exactly a major tourist destination. Yes, it has luxuriant fields and picturesque farmhouses boasting unusual basque-relief paintings called kote-e, but most visitors spend a half-day at most in Ajimu, perusing its stone Buddhist carvings or the African Safari nature park,...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Oct 10, 2001

The mystery and the mastery

Most styles of Japanese pottery are named after the city where they are made, such as Mashiko in Tochigi Prefecture, while others bear a family name, such as Raku. However, one style of pottery is named after a place that had nothing do to with its production.
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Oct 8, 2001

Adventures in wine country

For many years, Hakushu village, tucked away in Yamanashi Prefecture, was the venue for a colorful international festival featuring avant-garde performances by musicians, dancers and other artists.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 8, 2001

Transnistria: relic of a bygone era

TIRASPOL, Moldova -- Think of the end of the Soviet Union as the Big Bang of recent politics. The successor states are the new planets -- large or small, and subject to varying amounts of gravitational pull from Russia. And then there are the asteroids, in this case composed of breakaway republics, autonomous...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 7, 2001

Failure on a grandiose scale

DOGS AND DEMONS: Tales From the Dark Side of Japan, by Alex Kerr. Hill and Wang, New York, 2001, 432 pp., $27.00 (cloth) Staff writer What has happened to Japan? Coming on the heels of the "lost decade," the January government reshuffle and a series of reforms that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 5, 2001

Open your ears to nature's rainbow of sound

In Japan, autumn fills nature, not only with visual colors, but also with "colorful" sounds: blowing wind, birdsong, the chirping of insects and the crunching of leaves.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 3, 2001

Mexico's 'cosmic' cornucopia

What is "ultrabaroque?"
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 30, 2001

Finding redemption under the surgeon's knife

One of the less memorable show biz scandals of 1998 involved the 48-year-old actress Ayako Sawada and her 36-year-old manager/husband Yukihide Matsuno. The pair had been married only a few years, but Sawada wanted out. She accused the dour Matsuno of physical and mental abuse, not only of herself but...
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.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 30, 2001

Temple of 1,000 bells

KYOTO -- After an unusually hot summer, nothing is more welcome than the arrival of autumn breezes. Fall evenings in Kyoto are made even more pleasant by the bright moon shining overhead as the air is filled with a symphony of seasonal insects.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2001

Woodstock: three days of . . . whatever

My Generation Rating: * * * * Director: Barbara Kopple Running time: 104 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2001

Asia's best shine at cinema showcase

Film festivals are addictive, especially if you've got that magical piece of laminated paper called a press pass. Volunteers smile at you, directors schmooze with you and theater doors swing open for you at the flash of a badge. Best of all, you can spend all day watching movies with no guilty feelings...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 26, 2001

India Express

While it was Ravi Shankar who brought Indian music to the world, it's been left to others to help it sink roots. In Japan, that task has been taken up by Nagoya-based sitarist Amit Roy, who has been imparting the Hindustani tradition to his Japanese students for the past decade.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 25, 2001

No, really, it's completely unspoiled!

Paradise in the South Pacific? Isn't that only ad copy for getaway resorts that put little beach umbrellas in the cocktails and charge prices the locals could only afford after a winning lottery ticket?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 22, 2001

Adhering to the law of the Japanese letter

The theme of today's Culture Quiz is "sending and receiving a Japanese letter."
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Sep 21, 2001

Riding tall in the classroom

When Tom Kodiak's grandfather offered him 2,200 head of cattle and a 17,000-hectare ranch in South Park, Colorado, he told his grandfather he'd think it over. It was his last year of college and Kodiak was afraid that if he went straight from school to managing a big cattle ranch he'd be stuck there...
CULTURE / Art
Sep 19, 2001

Savor the compassionate complexity of kirei-sabi's 'elegant simplicity'

Credited with shaping the Rinpa style of Japanese art, Ogata Korin (1658-1716) once caused a sensation at an opulent riverside picnic by nonchalantly producing his lunch tied up in a bamboo leaf. Onlookers watched in disbelief as the master unwrapped his simple fare, revealing that the underside of the...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2001

Poetry and the pursuit of freedom

Before Night Falls Rating: * * * Director: Julian Schnabel Running time: 133 minutes Language: Spanish, English Now showing
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 15, 2001

On flying futons and other mysteries

I've ushered enough tourists through Japan to become expert on answering strange questions about Japanese culture. Here are some of the most common:
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Sep 12, 2001

Power and purity both old and new

The colorful ceramic culture of Kyoto meets the darker, subdued world of Karatsu potter Jinenbo Nakagawa this week at the Tachikichi department store in Kyoto.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 9, 2001

Katsuya Takasu, holding back the years

Katsuya Takasu regards his body as a vehicle to carry his mind. So what he had done to his face two years ago was, as he puts it, "just like fixing an old jalopy."
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 5, 2001

Nils Petter Molvaer: 'Solid Ether'

Being a respected regional musician has its good points and its not so good points. Nils Petter Molvaer, who was born in 1960 and raised on an island off the northwest coast of Norway, eventually made his way to Oslo in the early '80s and became the most acclaimed trumpeter in the city's burgeoning jazz...
CULTURE / Art
Sep 5, 2001

Connoisseur's selection from the vaults

Times have certainly changed. Corporate art acquisition, once fueled by bubble-era prosperity, is now low down the list of boardroom priorities.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001

'Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu'

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’