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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 20, 2019

Bringing a Greek tragedy to 21st-century Japan

Theater director Kunio Sugihara unveils his latest work, an adaptation of John Barton's 10-hour epic, 'The Greeks'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 15, 2019

So much to say — so many ways to show it

Same-sex relationships, American bases in Okinawa, globalization, the Olympics, the atomic bomb, national identity, the exploitation of natural resources — 'Image Narratives: Literature in Japanese Contemporary Art' at The National Art Center, Tokyo, does not lack for hot button topics.
EDITORIALS
Oct 8, 2019

Third-party probe of Kepco scandal

A third party should investigate the KEPCO scandal to determine if there was collusion.
LIFE / Language / NEWS IN NIHONGO
Sep 16, 2019

'Weathering With You' is selected as Japan's best bet at the Oscars

Makoto Shinkai is taking a run at an Oscar with his animated film 'Weathering With You,' his much-talked about followup to his 2016 blockbuster 'Your Name.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 19, 2019

Bontaro Dokuyama: The art of expression

After the Great East Japan Earthquake, Fukushima native Bontaro Dokuyama began to focus on becoming an artist, explaining that he didn't see much expression from his home area: 'If the audience enjoys having their thoughts provoked, that is enjoyable for me as an artist.'
CULTURE / Books
Aug 17, 2019

Understanding the challenging world of the literary translator

English translations of Japanese books have found an enthusiastic audience around the world, and while the author is undoubtedly the star of the show, the translator's role should not be underestimated.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 10, 2019

Reborn-Art Festival: A Tohoku community gets a new lease on life

Climbing the stairs of Ishinomaki's first department store, built in 1930, I can hear the sound of a man singing and the gentle strumming of an acoustic guitar. The voice is not one of a professional crooner; it's raspy and unsure, and sounds like an amateur retelling a tale of sorrow without too much...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 30, 2019

Diving into the world of political performance at Aichi Triennale

The political function of art is a perennial question in the field of aesthetics. In classical Athens, Plato argued that art as a form of imitation was limited in its ability to communicate knowledge about political life. In contrast, Aristotle saw this mimetic gap as a space for imagining new political...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 31, 2019

Artist Miwa Komatsu wows Cleveland audience with live painting performance at Shinto exhibition

Wearing a pure white hakama (wide-legged pants worn over a kimono), a young Japanese woman appears on stage in the glass-covered atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) in Cleveland, Ohio.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
May 27, 2019

Behind the scenes of 24/7 service: The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store

A familiar orange and green signboard glares in the pitch-dark, quiet street in a residential area. There, the owner of a 7-Eleven franchise store located in the suburbs of a small city in the Chubu region works the night shift every day by himself.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 7, 2019

Miwa Komatsu: An artist's vision of Shinto and its divine beings

'When I was in elementary school, I was taking a nap under a tree in my garden. Then I had a dream, that would later come true, of having an exhibition as a painter and being an artist. That felt very real, and I realized this was foreshadowing my future. I felt that if I continued on the same path,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2019

Motohiko Katano: Tied to shibori dyeing

A pioneer of shibori textile dyeing, Motohiko Katano created striking modern designs and fascinating tessellations of motifs that seemed to defy the capricious nature of resist dyeing.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 6, 2019

Tokyo Big Sight: Japan's biggest convention center all set for Olympic duty

One thing you notice pretty quickly when you spend some time attending events at Tokyo Big Sight is that there is a lot of esoteric language on display.
Japan Times
Special Supplements
Mar 30, 2019

Celebrating philanthropic achievements at art showcase

Haruhisa Handa, who wears many hats as a calligrapher, painter, singer, noh performer, entrepreneur and philanthropist, held an opening ceremony for a solo exhibition of his paintings and sho (Japanese artistic calligraphy) works in Tokyo on March 18.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 2, 2019

William I. Elliott's lifetime passion for Japanese poetry

A chance encounter with Shuntaro Tanikawa's poem, 'Humanism,' set William I. Elliott on the path to make modern Japanese poetry accessible to all.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Feb 24, 2019

Japan's hotels design new experiences

Among a crop of new hotels in Japan are several unique establishments aiming to support local artisans, while offering guests experiences that go way beyond a comfy bed and fine dining.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 22, 2018

Rationale for extending Japan's copyright protections unclear

Several weeks ago, I was surprised to read that a revision to the copyright law would go into effect on Dec. 30, extending the current protection period from 50 years after an author's death to 70 years. When the extension was first discussed as part of the original 12-member Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 11, 2018

2018 was the year in Japan that saw the stage sing, while contemporary drama barely made a squeak

Musicals have flourished in 2018, with many young stars also helping to sell out straight plays in which they appeared. However, the contemporary drama scene in Japan has been unusually quiet this year in terms of new works and writers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 8, 2018

Japan's modern crime literature: Centuries in the making

Japan boasts an impressively large and growing body of native-grown mystery fiction that dates back to the 1920s.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 18, 2018

A pair of events centered on non-Japanese artists are helping to build bridges into Japan's manga market

The Japanese market for manga is worth hundreds of billions of yen and is a crowded field for many young Japanese illustrators to break into. And if you're coming from overseas, there are even more obstacles.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / WORKS BY JAPANESE WOMEN
Oct 20, 2018

Fierce and inventive, Yuko Tsushima's oeuvre goes beyond the 'I-novel' genre

Early on, Yuko Tsushima broke the boundaries of the traditional Japanese I-novel, giving voice to a voiceless minority by authentically depicting the struggles of single mothers in society as a single mother herself.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2018

Hokusai: Examining the enduring allure of a Japanese icon

Hokusai's thirst for new forms of expression and willingness to abandon established techniques continues to intrigue the world today.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 2018

An education in modernist art teaching

The Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto surveys German, Japanese and Indian Bauhaus developments as part of a wider collation of international exhibitions and research in preparation for next year's Bauhaus centenary anniversary in Berlin.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / WORKS BY JAPANESE WOMEN
Jul 21, 2018

Fiercely intelligent and unstoppably prolific, Hiromi Ito is a modern literary provocateur

Love her or hate her — and her work tends to provoke strong passions in critics and fans alike — Hiromi Ito is a defining force in Japan's literary world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 3, 2018

Yayoi Kusama in Jakarta: She'll be your mirror

'Life is the Heart of a Rainbow,' the Yayoi Kusama exhibition now on at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jakarta, is the first retrospective of the artist Indonesia has ever hosted.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 5, 2017

Hokusai's great wave that swept Europe

Innovative, creative, and immensely prolific, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was celebrated during his lifetime in his native Japan. His works were among the first major examples of Japanese art to be widely appreciated overseas in the second half of the 19th century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 28, 2017

The beginning, end and rebirth of sculpture

The subtitle given to the retrospective of the 60-year career of Osaka-based Michio Fukuoka is oxymoronic: "A Sculptor Who No Longer Sculpts." He used to, but became frustrated and filled with doubt about creativity and so he made sculpture anyway, often about "doing nothing."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 14, 2017

Sachiko Kodama's laws of attraction

Entering the tatami-mat tearoom-style exhibition spaces at the back of Kyoto's specialist pewter art craft gallery, Seikado, spectators are apprised that the magnetism of the pieces on display might interfere with the strips on their credit cards. Those fitted with pacemakers are also asked to stand...

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