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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 5, 2010

A rogue on high

In real life, Ishikawa Goemon was the leader of a band of burglars in Kyoto who was caught in the summer of 1594 trying to kill Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the foremost politician of his day, and was duly executed at age 36 along with many members of his family and his gang.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Mar 2, 2010

Openness is key, bookseller says

Alastair Lamond, a 47-year-old Briton, is like many English-speaking foreigners. He began working in Japan as a teacher of his native tongue.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 28, 2010

Feeling revulsion may signal you're finally home away from home

There is a curious and very telling phrase in Japanese to describe the feeling of hatred that people can have for family. It is kinshin-zoo, or "close-relative abhorrence."
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2010

Lay judges off to solid start

It's been roughly a half year since the first lay judge trial, and many in the legal profession agree the new criminal trial system has gotten off to a smooth start, and the public is taking its new civic duty very seriously.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 26, 2010

'Pour Elle'/'New York, I Love You'

A gorgeous wife, a beautiful baby son and an apartment in Paris. What more could a man possibly want, especially when he's a humdrum schoolteacher? But then one morning the placid life of Julien (Vincent Lindon) is blown to smithereens. His wife Lisa (Diane Kruger) is arrested for murdering her boss...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 26, 2010

This acting lark is elementary for Downey Jr.

HOLLYWOOD — When one beholds the billboards touting the first movie in the new "Sherlock Holmes" franchise, one sees the slim, natty, Anglo-looking Jude Law and imagines he is Holmes and that the less buff, older and somewhat rumpled Robert Downey Jr. is his Dr. Watson. Wrong, of course, and despite...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 25, 2010

Albion Art President Kazumi Arikawa

Kazumi Arikawa, 57, is the president of the Albion Art Co. Ltd. in Tokyo. Arikawa is one of the world's top dealers and collectors of historical jewelry, from the Greco-Roman era to the Art Deco period. He specializes in tiaras and cameos of European monarchs, and jewels that adorned historical figures....
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 16, 2010

Steeped in tradition, Shinto, sumo is also scandal-stained

The national sport of sumo traces its origins to an early Shinto ritual to pray for a bountiful harvest, and the professional tournaments of today date to the 17th century during the Edo Period.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Feb 16, 2010

Instinct key for singer-entrepreneur

For a musician and entrepreneur with many professional faces, Australian Donna Burke is surprisingly wary of constantly taking work-related calls.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 14, 2010

A winter's tale of time-warp Takayama

After a while you tire of the easy destinations — the usual spots with their inevitable touristic clutter. So you decide on somewhere different — somewhere that's far from the madding crowds and far, too, from the yet more madding megaphone-toting tour guides.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 14, 2010

Tiger of the snows

White flakes slip delicately down. Dusting the glow of graceful moss-clad forest relics rotting back into the ground, they illuminate the few giants still standing — majestic Japanese yew and lofty Korean pine. The ancient trees are silent; the only sound is from the hustle of our camouflaged legs...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 14, 2010

Strange bird Sanshiro

From Oct. 28, 1900, until Dec. 5, 1902, Natsume Soseki lived in Clapham, a district of South London. Ordered to England by the Meiji government, Soseki, without sufficient funds to study formally and with little else to do apart from the occasional cycle ride or part-time tutoring, spent most of this...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 13, 2010

Poor management drives Portsmouth to the brink

LONDON — It remains a mystery to me how a club that has made £60 million profit on transfers over the past three years, has won the F.A. Cup, played in the UEFA Cup and receives around £30 million a year in television fees can be faltering on the brink of bankruptcy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2010

China struggles with Internet reality

The Internet plays an increasingly vital role as a forum of public opinion in China as other forms of media remain under tight Communist Party control, though government restrictions on the Web will likely intensify, experts said at a recent symposium held in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2010

Spring blooms early in art world

Seasons play an important role in Japanese culture, which has long celebrated the appreciation of ephemeral beauty as a reflection of life itself. One of the most important seasons in Japan is New Year's, a time for families to gather and celebrate with several days of elaborate feasts. Traditionally,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Feb 5, 2010

Tsuyoshi Tane: 'sur-impression,' Teppei KANEUJI: 'Post-Something'

Taka Ishii Gallery and ShugoArts, both in the Kiyosumi warehouse complex
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2010

Cities robbing their people

NEW YORK — When observing the chaotic growth of the modern city, the more erudite of urban planners will reminisce wistfully on how different it is from its ancient Greek counterpart, the polis, which Italian architectural historian Leonardo Benevolo once described as "dynamic but stable, in balance...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 29, 2010

'Golden Slumber'/'Ototo'

Yoshihiro Nakamura has made a mix of indie and commercial films, from the multilayered, end-of-the-world thriller "Fish Story" (2008) to the hospital mystery "General Rouge no Gaisen" ("The Triumphant General Rouge," 2009). Whatever the subject, he always injects his personal obsessions, from the shape-shifting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 22, 2010

Depp the magical mystery man

HOLLYWOOD — It's no surprise Johnny Depp is starring in a fantastical new movie titled "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," which opens in Japan on Saturday.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 22, 2010

Nara gears up for 1,300th-anniversary party

Nara Prefecture, which once prospered as home to the ancient capital of Heijokyo (710-784), has been sidelined by neighboring Kyoto as a cultural heritage and tourist destination. Hosting a plethora of historical buildings, Buddhist statues and spacious Nara Park where more than 1,000 deer roam free,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 22, 2010

'Subete wa Umi ni Naru'

MARK SCHILLINGMost commercial films in Japan, as elsewhere, fall into clearly marked boxes, from genre (horror, romcom) to story (zero-to-hero, teen love/tragic death). Indie films here also follow familiar thematic patterns, with miscommunication and alienation being favorites.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 20, 2010

Imperial Palace resides in otherworldly expanse

Like a nature reserve surrounded by Tokyo's concrete jungle, the Imperial Palace, or Kokyo, home to the Emperor and Empress, is a moated, otherworldly forested expanse where once stood a castle.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 17, 2010

Romantic advice for celebrities, temp work drama and CM of the week: DMM.com

Celebrities need love, too, which seems to be the point of "Ai no Onayami Keiketsu" (Solutions to the Anguish of Love; Nihon TV, Tues., 8:54 p.m.), where a group of stars and former stars receive romantic advice from a marriage counselor, a psychiatrist and a fortune teller.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 17, 2010

Okinawa on a plate

"Everywhere in this house and its stone walls you can find the wisdom of our ancestors and how they lived," says Masako Kinjo, as she gazes around Makabe Chinaa, a 110-year-old traditional wooden home in Itoman City in the south of Okinawa Island.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 15, 2010

East, West split by the lens

When the Leica was introduced in 1925, a new era in photography began. The compact camera, by being much lighter and more versatile than previous models, gave photographers unprecedented freedom in choosing the subject, angle and moment for their snaps.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 14, 2010

Ice cream man Tokuya Hirose

Tokuya Hirose, 82, is the second-generation owner of Ze-roku, a tiny ice-cream shop in Osaka city's Hommachi area. Established in 1913, Ze-roku served traditional Japanese sweets till 1952, when Tokuya's father and this three sons came up with a brilliant combination that melted everyone's hearts: the...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo