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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 2009

A dream venue for new artists

"I'm still a housewife so its amazing that an amateur can do something like this," says DanDans founder and organizer Kazuko Aso, now presenting the contemporary art cooperative's fifth exhibition titled "A Midsummer Dream" until Aug. 30 at Chinzan-so in Mejiro, Tokyo. "Maybe it's because I have such...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jul 22, 2009

Long-lasting netbooks and deep snapping

Get a battery life: Mobile computers these days suffer from a lack of mobility thanks to combining huge power consumption habits with little way to satisfy this demand. Asus is trying to redress the shortcoming in netbooks with a newly released model in its Seashell series of thin and light mobiles,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 19, 2009

To be human in today's Japan, is it best to be 'no longer human'?

On June 22, playwright and novelist Hisashi Inoue appeared on national broadcaster NHK's television program, "Close Up Gendai." The occasion was the centenary of the birth of the novelist Osamu Dazai.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 17, 2009

A cool show at Shiseido with the Helsinki School

Finland may seem like a cold, distant land better known for Nokia and reindeer than photography and art. But the Helsinki School, an art cooperative formed about 15 years ago, is heating up the international photography and video art world. Showing in Asia for the first time, the Helsinki School's photography...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 11, 2009

Brit muscles way to BayStar success

Young boys, bright-eyed and clutching miniature gloves, gather in ballparks and dream of their own futures as part of a professional team.
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2009

Budget guideline adopted

The government has adopted the fiscal 2010 budgetary request guideline, setting a record-high cap on general expenditures. General spending will climb to ¥52.67 trillion, an ¥940 billion increase over the ¥51.73 trillion initially budgeted for fiscal 2009 — when the ¥50 trillion mark was topped...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 2, 2009

Whether to come out at the office

"Do you live on your own?"
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2009

Admission of illegal donations

The hearing in the trial of Mr. Mikio Kunisawa, the former Nishimatsu Construction Co. president charged with violating the Political Funds Control Law, began and was concluded on the same day last Friday. Mr. Kunisawa, who was indicted on a charge of providing ¥5 million in illegal political donations...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
May 5, 2009

'Silent Auction' lends ear to plea of needy

There are many ways to enjoy art: Visit an art museum, join a pottery club or simply walk around a town and take a look at the different architecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
May 1, 2009

Stephen G. Rhodes: 'There is No Bear Bear Ladder'

Misako & Rosen Gallery, Kita-Otsuka (near Ikebukuro)
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 17, 2009

Celebrating the work of artist Dick Bruna

Illustrations by Dick Bruna, creator of picture books featuring the rabbit Miffy, and other animals, are now on show at the Museum of Modern Art in Saitama. As a firm family favorite, this exhibition is sure to be popular with parents during Golden Week.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 17, 2009

Celebrating the work of artist Dick Bruna

Illustrations by Dick Bruna, creator of picture books featuring the rabbit Miffy, and other animals, are now on show at the Museum of Modern Art in Saitama. As a firm family favorite, this exhibition is sure to be popular with parents during Golden Week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 10, 2009

A taste for the unusual leads to excellence

Since the Heian Period (794-1185), landscapes have served as the inspiration for generations of Japanese painters. Many followed the standards and styles of a particular school, while other — often encouragingly eccentric — individuals broke with all conventions to wield their brushes in a completely...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 10, 2009

A series of solo shows filed together as one

The term "group show" usually conjures an image of multiple meetings, shared spaces, collaborative installations and a common theme to tie it all together. "Artist File 2009," a group show at The National Art Center Tokyo (NACT) till May 5, has none of these things. But this is not a typical group of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 20, 2009

So was Modernism Chinese?

A In his lifetime, artist Ding Yanyong was called both the "Oriental Matisse" and the "Modern Bada Shanren," after the Chinese individualist painter born Zhu Da (1629-1705). The combination of the epithets obviously reflects Ding's (1902-78) ability to straddle the East and West, but given a little historical...
MULTIMEDIA
Mar 20, 2009

So was Modernism Chinese?

A In his lifetime, artist Ding Yanyong was called both the "Oriental Matisse" and the "Modern Bada Shanren," after the Chinese individualist painter born Zhu Da (1629-1705). The combination of the epithets obviously reflects Ding's (1902-78) ability to straddle the East and West, but given a little historical...
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2009

DPJ seeks new rules on donations

Amid the political fundraising scandal involving the arrest of party President Ichiro Ozawa's chief secretary, Democratic Party of Japan executives are calling for a rule barring companies that bid on public works projects from donating to political parties.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 5, 2009

Creative dialogue

While it's not unknown for practitioners of the fine arts to gain fame and fortune almost overnight these days, (even through notoriety rather than talent), only a handful of artists in the graphic design field have gained worldwide recognition. Britain's Neville Brody is one.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2009

Art Basel codirector sees positive changes

Since its inception in 1970, Art Basel has become one of the world's most prestigious art events. Held every June in Basel, Switzerland, the commercial fair hosts almost 300 galleries dealing in blue-chip Modern and postwar art as well as those with cutting-edge contemporary art.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2009

Who says an art work must exist?

Like precious gems, Aiko Miyanaga's crystalline sculptures reflect light and shine with a brilliance that beguiles the viewer. But while diamonds are forever, Miyanaga's carefully crafted forms are not long for this world. In fact, some of her pieces are gone before her exhibitions even come to a close....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 23, 2009

Crossing borderlines of consciousness

Most of us have experienced waking up in a strange room, perhaps in a hotel or a friend's house, and, for a split second, not knowing where we are — that fuzzy, vague feeling in the twilight zone between waking and dreaming. Imagine having those same feelings when waking up in your own, usually familiar,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 16, 2009

The rocks of abstraction

In September last year, Anglo- Japanese painter Peter McDonald won the U.K.'s £25,000 John Moores prize for contemporary painting with a work, "Fontana," that depicted in simplistic shapes an artist thrusting a knife into a circular canvas. Or it could be someone attacking a giant eye. Or perhaps an...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 9, 2009

Pianist Kawai seeks out the real Chopin

"I had the sense I was on a mission when I decided to do this project," recounts Poland-based Japanese pianist Yuko Kawai, who has been introducing authentic versions of the works of Chopin (1810-49) — as restored in musical scores published as the National Edition — through her Chopinissimo recital...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 25, 2008

Originality and flair hits 2008

A year ago, I was sad to report on the sluggish condition of the Japanese contemporary theater world. Now, I am delighted to have had to struggle to select just five of the best of plays of 2008 from so many worthy contenders — many of them new and original works concerned with the current social situation...
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2008

Aso losing grip on power as LDP faces crisis over budget problems

Prime Minister Taro Aso signaled last week his readiness to depart from austere fiscal policies ardently defended by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his successors.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 7, 2008

A bend in time, disengagement and the life of the mind

BIRNBAUM: A Novel of Inner Space, by Michael Hoffman. Printed Matter Press, 2008, 321 pp., ¥2,000 (paper) In writing about the process involved in the creation of this novel, Michael Hoffman observed that "Often as I wrote, I had no idea where this was going." This sounds a little like the literary...

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