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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 14, 2017

Sharpen your knowledge of Japanese swords

If you've ever wanted to learn about Japanese swords, now's the time, as an unusually large number of top-quality blades are currently on view at two Tokyo museums. Either exhibition is well worth a visit but together they're dynamite.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Feb 11, 2017

New, old and classic — Mintdesigns, vintage clothing and Mihara Yasuhiro

Minty fresh designs
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 7, 2017

Yasuyuki Namikawa: A master of cloisonne color and design

There are two ways that the skill of craftsmanship can be emphasized: by showing it off through masses of meticulous decorative details, or by stripping everything to the bare minimum and bringing into focus just a few perfectly executed qualities. Think of it as maximalism vs. minimalism — Gucci vs....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2017

Taking an art trip through time

"The State of This World: Thought and the Arts," the second of the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History's "Art Trip" exhibitions, this time focuses on four contemporary artists' works that are in some instances inspired by archaeology. They address issues of seen and unseen worlds, life and death, and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 7, 2017

Heavy metal in Japan: Love of craft runs deep

Although 2017 is the Year of the Fire Rooster, fire is not the only element destined to influence the next 12 months. Each of the 12 Chinese zodiac years is governed by one of five elements: wood, fire, earth, water and metal, resulting in 2017 taking the element of fire. According to the Five Elements...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 3, 2017

Early birds do more than catch worms

In the battle of Zodiac animals vs. all the others, it's the rooster who performs the victory dance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 27, 2016

Take your pick of the year's highlights in Japanese theater

From soccer minnows Leicester City winning the English Premier League to "That Election" in the (dis)-United States, 2016 has been a year of surprises, shocks and new directions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2016

Japanese economy pays tab for Japan Inc.'s free lunch on overtime

Figures show that the government underestimates exactly how much unpaid overtime could provide a shot in the arm for consumer spending.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 13, 2016

Tokyo: photogenic to its very core

Care to take a guess what the new exhibition "Tokyo, Tokyo and Tokyo" at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum is about? In fact there are two exhibitions with the same name running concurrently, so it's "Tokyo, Tokyo and Tokyo" and "Tokyo, Tokyo and Tokyo."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 6, 2016

Under Lucas Cranach's spell

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) is acknowledged as one of the greats of the German Renaissance. His combination of religious piety and fleshly eroticism went on to inspire artists across the globe, including many in Japan. Despite his standing worldwide, however, Cranach's career and legacy have...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 26, 2016

The hidden heart of Natsume Soseki

Dec. 9 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), a novelist widely regarded as being the one of the greatest writers of modern Japan. Events commemorating this anniversary have been held throughout 2016 but, in case you think it will all be over by Christmas, another milestone...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 22, 2016

Ong's spellbinding take on 'Richard III'

He is one of Asia's foremost theater directors, and Ong Keng Sen looked to be enjoying his latest challenge when we met in Tokyo in March during rehearsals for "Sandaime Richard," Japanese dramatist Hideki Noda's iconoclastic adaptation of Shakespeare's "Richard III."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 19, 2016

The shifting sexual norms in Japan's literary history

More than 3,000 women and almost 900 men — that's the number of lovers the main protagonist in Ihara Saikaku's 1682 novel "Koshoku Ichidai Otoko" ("The Life of an Amorous Man") tallies up as he reminisces. Saikaku, born in Osaka in 1642, became a renowned poet who wrote about the fluid, open sexuality...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Nov 18, 2016

Former Rio governor arrested in Olympic corruption probe

The former governor of Rio de Janeiro state was arrested on Thursday as part of a corruption investigation linked to a World Cup project and other works worth billions of dollars, in a blow to Brazil's ruling party that may fuel political instability.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 8, 2016

'The Universe and Art: Princess Kaguya, Leonardo Da Vinci, teamLab': Art that moves beyond our world

In the beginning, long before Netflix and Google Maps, our ancestors had only the sky, the sun, the moon and the stars to guide, dazzle and humble them. Naturally, as religions began to form, the first place to look was up, because surely that's where the deities dwell, right? And that yearning to better...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 1, 2016

Opposing today's rising intolerance

It has been a bumper year for chauvinism. Deplorables around the world who feel that their livelihoods, identities and values are under threat from "others" have let it be known that they're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. If you don't think of yourself as being in the same basket as them,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 18, 2016

Sci-fi and fact at the Okayama Art Summit

The city of Okayama was flattened by incendiary bombs in 1945. Many people died, more than 12,000 homes were destroyed and Okayama's centuries-old wooden castle burned to its stone foundations. In 1966, the donjon was rebuilt with modern concrete, which was likely made in Mizushima — a smoke-spewing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 18, 2016

Getting site-specific installations down to a fine art

Kenpoku Art 2016! is one of the latest projects to appear in an area for which art has been a relatively niche concern. Despite the fact that Okakura Tenshin, one of the central figures of Japanese art history, set up shop in Ibaraki Prefecture in 1906, and Art Tower Mito consistently provides top-class...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2016

Macedonian envoy's Kanda River scene bags top prize in Japan Through Diplomats' Eyes contest

Macedonian Ambassador to Japan Andrijana Cvetkovik's take on the Hijiribashi Bridge over the Kanda River in Tokyo won her the Grand Prize in the 19th Japan Through Diplomats' Eyes photography contest this week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 4, 2016

Kanjiro Kawai sculpted a new vision of pottery

Japan's history of ceramics stretches back for millenniums, with most spinners of clay remaining nameless. One star, however, did shape a new world of pottery: Kanjiro Kawai (1890-1966).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2016

Nam June Paik has the last laugh

Rapid, multilayered, fluid — the high-tech images created by Nam June Paik earned him the epithet the Father of Video Art. He may be most often associated with banks of television screens and intense, distorted video images, but as a new retrospective of his work at the Watarium (The Watari Museum...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 30, 2016

Subtle messages lie hidden in a corporate collection

Tokyo Station Gallery is showing a pick 'n' mix exhibition, "12 Rooms 12 Artists," comprising a variety of modern and contemporary art acquisitions from the UBS art collection. There is no explicit curatorial imperative to connect or compare the works, so you're free to enjoy the visual confections in...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Aug 17, 2016

Sex trade a shaky safety net for Japan's working-poor women

For the past six years, 47-year-old single mother Kasumi Endo has lived a double life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 16, 2016

'Thomas Ruff'

Aug. 30-Nov. 13
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 9, 2016

The colorful combination of power and art

Each part of Italy has its own character, but Venice has always been something special and unique. While much of Italy was reduced to insignificant statelets, for much of the peninsula's history Venice was quite the reverse. It projected power far across the Mediterranean and ran a large commercial empire...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Aug 9, 2016

Refugee reluctance clashes with labor realities as asylum seekers, banned from working, build Japan's roads

Mazlum Balibay paves Japan's roads, digs its sewers and lays its water pipes — all for a country that doesn't want him.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 16, 2016

Ultraman: Ultracool at 50

Ultraman has been defending humanity against monsters and aliens for half a century. We examine the superhero's enduring legacy.

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