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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 1, 2018

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale: Niigata's fields of art and inspiration

Deep in the mountains of Niigata Prefecture, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale is preparing its hundreds of exhibitions, events and installations — some new, some already permanent — for its seventh edition.
BUSINESS / DAVOS SPECIAL 2018
Jan 23, 2018

Saitama in the vanguard of technological innovation

The city of Saitama, a major bedroom community of Tokyo and a host of venues for basketball and soccer games during the 2020 Olympics, attracts many companies with leading technology that Japan can be proud to showcase to the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 10, 2017

It's the season to see Japan's best ceramics

This autumn, there are not one, but two extraordinary ceramic art exhibitions showing in Tokyo. The first highlights the solo works and private collection of Tokyo's Seimei Tsuji (1927-2008) at The National Museum of Modern Art Crafts Gallery, while the other is a dual-exhibition of Kyoto artists Kazuo...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2017

'Great Collectors: Masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston'

July 20-Oct. 9
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Mar 25, 2017

Allowing the arty side of kids to blossom

Spring is a season of art. As winter recedes, the air fills with creative energy. Tokyo's art fairs at this time of the year can be fun with kids, but the crowds and sheer volume of exhibitors can be overwhelming. The city does, however, offer plenty of other art opportunities if you know where to look,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 2, 2016

The earliest memes also had humor

The curators at Tokyo's National Museum of Western Art (NMWA) have decided that Japan, a country well-known for its own print art, should know more about the print art of Europe. In this endeavor, they have chosen the work of Israhel van Meckenem (c. 1445-1503), a Germanic print artist from the Lower...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 23, 2016

In search of Japan's own Shakespeare

April 23 marked the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the greatest dramatist of the English speaking world. The anniversary has a particular resonance here: Few countries in the world have embraced Shakespeare with Japan's sustained passion.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 5, 2016

Kuniyoshi and Kunisada: When great minds think a little differently

When Japan opened up to the Western world in the 19th century, popular artistic tastes were dominated by two great woodblock print artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) and Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864). Contemporaries, keen rivals and both members of the Utagawa School, the pair had the inventiveness...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 15, 2015

Smiling between the lines of ukiyo-e

Some art collectors enjoy the eclectic, picking up art pieces opportunistically — even randomly — usually when they find something at the right price. Others have more streamlined tastes and focus on a theme or genre, building up more consistent collections.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 20, 2015

Monet's experiments meet his masterpieces

To anyone familiar with art exhibitions in Japan, it is clear that Impressionism is one of the most well-known and most-loved of all the "isms" and movements of Western art. The name of the movement is believed to have come from a 1872 painting by Claude Monet titled "Impression, Sunrise." When it was...
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2015

Islamic State's war on art

The Islamic State's destruction and sales of ancient artifacts is a crucial piece of its recruitment and financing strategies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 19, 2015

Seeing beyond Jiro Takamatsu's shadows

"Jiro Takamatsu: Trajectory of Work" is taxonomic, breaking down everything in the artist's oeuvre into relatively neat successions of projects and including his paintings and sculptures, copious sketches and the marginalia. Even the catalog seemingly calls for a scientific approach, this exhibition...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 20, 2015

A stitch in time does much more than save nine

One of Tokyo Dome's most attended annual attractions might come as a surprise to some. Aside from being home to baseball games and big-name concerts, the huge stadium also hosts a number of fairs, including the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival — which is the largest of its kind.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 31, 2015

Hallucinating in print with Keiichi Tanaami

Prolific is a word that hardly does justice to Keiichi Tanaami. Born in Tokyo in 1936, Tanaami has worked ceaselessly, imparting a lasting legacy on the landscape of Japanese Pop Art. He has been described as "Japan's Andy Warhol," but unlike Warhol, Tanaami's works are consistently psychedelic; full...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2015

Self-censorship is biggest threat to free speech in Japan

An edgy art exhibition of works rejected or removed by other exhibitors offers insights into whether Japan can be considered a nation of free speech.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 25, 2014

From tradition to trash: Tokyo's art in 2014

This year has been a memorable one for art exhibitions at museums in Tokyo, with a surprisingly diverse array of shows and events, ancient and modern, foreign and domestic, metropolitan and provincial.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 24, 2014

2014: New horizons opened up in Japan's theater world

Looking back over the past 12 months in Japan's theater world, it's clear that one encouraging trend is a lessening of the capital's dominance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 19, 2014

Asia enriches the Bard's work-in-progress

Whatever would William Shakespeare make of it all if he were to journey now through Asia, where the interpretations of his works differ so much across vast regions, ethnic groups, cultures and languages?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 18, 2014

Taking a pictorial trip to Normandy

"Normandie — L'Estuaire de la Seine: L'Invention d'Un Paysage" ("Normandy — The Seine Estuary: The invention of a Landscape" is an exhibition at the Sompo Japan Museum of Art that recently changed its name to Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art. Just as the museum's name is rather too long — something...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 2014

No words can describe Tan's 'Terminology'

'As a visual artist it's very important to reach a point where I'm going beyond words. In interviews I find myself struggling, because we're always talking around (the work), circumscribing it. A question that I hate is 'what does this work mean?'' Fiona Tan
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2014

Calculating the ethical cost of high-priced art

If artists, art critics and art buyers really had any interest in reducing the widening gap between the rich and the poor, they would spend time in developing countries, where spending a few thousand dollars on the works of indigenous artists can make a real difference to the wellbeing of whole villages.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2014

Roppongi Art Night 2014: Get ready for a 32-hour art marathon

Art needn't be strictly visual. That's how Katsuhiko Hibino sees things.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Mar 6, 2014

Everyone is invited to enjoy art

Over thousands of years, Japanese art has evolved through many phases and genres — from pottery to sculpture, ink paintings to woodblock prints, manga to anime and much more. Although contemporary art is often thought of as conceptual and difficult to comprehend, it hasn't stopped the public from enjoying...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 3, 2014

When it comes to public space, Atelier Bow Wow barks up the right tree

Atelier Bow Wow uses the framework of art exhibitions to encourage public social interaction in what it calls 'micro public spaces.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 5, 2014

Yokohama's annual feast of TPAM

As befits its designation as a "Cultural City of East Asia 2014," Yokohama is about to host Japan's foremost annual platform for contemporary performing arts.

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