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April 23, 2024
 

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FOLK

Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 21, 2022
Japanese folk art opens a door to Black American identity
American artist Theaster Gates introduces 'Afro-mingei,' an aesthetic that combines Black identity and Japanese craft art, to the Aichi Triennale.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / Longform
May 21, 2022
The enduring influence of mingei design
What began as a folk art around 100 years ago has gradually worked its way into the fabric of everyday life in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 26, 2020
Departing from tradition with Hiromitsu Agatsuma and Akiko Yano
Shamisen player Hiromitsu Agatsuma teams up with singer and musician Akiko Yano for a new album which sees both depart from their previous styles and genres.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Kateigaho International Japan Edition
Feb 8, 2020
Folk fun: Making folk toys accessible in everyday life
Japan's abundant forests meant all kinds of wooden toys were made. Some of them, like kokeshi dolls, have come back into vogue, and there are now multiple museums and shops where it's possible to view and engage with these charming toys.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Kateigaho International Japan Edition
Feb 1, 2020
Folk fun: Reverence for life-giving soil and agriculture
Reverence for the soil that nourishes life has always been deeply rooted in Japan, where agriculture was central to daily life, and many folk toys and bells were made of clay.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Kateigaho International Japan Edition
Jan 25, 2020
Folk fun: Traditional toys for prayer and play
Japanese folk toys popular from the Edo Period through the Meiji Era (1603-1912) are meticulously crafted and imbued with meaning.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 9, 2019
How folk craft found its place in the art world
'Japanese Tableware' highlights the passion with which Soetsu Yanagi — one of the founding fathers of the Japanese folk crafts movement — appreciated artisanal works into his own life, displaying the actual tableware that his family used when they gathered for meals.
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
CULTURE / Art
Oct 9, 2018
White is not as monotone as some think
Devoid of ornamentation, yet still sculptural and expressive, Korean Joseon dynasty porcelain could change the way you think about minimalist ceramics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 30, 2018
Minyo Crusaders sing a song from every corner of Japan
A muffled bass line is soon matched by Katsumi Tanaka's staccato electric guitar riff loosely emulating a shamisen. Congas and timbales start grooving in the rhythm of cumbia before the horn section dives in, setting the stage for Fredy Tsukamoto to belt out a high-pitched, vibrato-filled rendition of "Kushimoto Bushi," a minyō folk song from western Wakayama Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 12, 2017
Modern lacquer recalls past splendor
Celebrated domestically and internationally for tea ceremony caddies in lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlay, as well as rather more substantial fittings such as kimono display hangers, artisan Tatsuaki Kuroda (1904-82) has finally been honored with the first Kyoto retrospective exhibition of his work.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 9, 2017
Keeping up with the Joneses, Edo style
The Edo Period (1603-1868) is renowned for the flourishing of material culture — a time when major advances and innovations in Japanese folk crafts and design were prized by the burgeoning commoner class of Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Osaka.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 31, 2017
Yoronto: A small island with unique culture where time and space expand
The sea is only as blue as the sky permits. Even in the deep southern islands of the Nansei-Shoto, an overcast day can turn the sub-tropics into a mirror image of some of the more relentlessly dreary resort towns of my own country, England. One thinks of the ingloriously named Minehead, the estuary wilderness of Canvey Island, the pebble shore at Chesil Beach.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2017
'Snow Woman': chillingly modern
The Japanese folklore story of the "Snow Woman" has been told in many places, in many ways, and in many versions, but best-known is that of Lafcadio Hearn, the Greek-Irish writer who published it in his 1904 collection, "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 3, 2016
The Korean roots beneath Japan's folk art movement
The folk craft movement in Japan owes a great debt to Soetsu Yanagi (1889-1961), who coined the term "mingei" ("folk crafts") in 1925. Yanagi pioneered the notion that Japan's vernacular crafts had their own intrinsic artistic worth, and should be valued, collected and curated. His desire to share an appreciation of these simple objects with the public grew from an admiration for the Korean craft tradition and it became his mission to foster opportunities for the public to rediscover Japanese and other Asian traditional crafts firsthand. Thanks in large part to Yanagi's efforts, the mingei aesthetic was born, which led to a growing appreciation of folk crafts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 21, 2015
'The Power of Okinawa' is the most authoritative study of Ryukyu folk music
Of all the varieties of folk-music in Japan, Okinawa's is arguably the most vibrant and self-evolving. Astute listeners soon realize that each island group in the region has its own distinct microculture and musical traditions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 2, 2015
'The Hiromi Ichida Collection: Visiting the World of Costumes'
May 30-July 20
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Sep 30, 2014
Quebecoise shines as 'minyo' singer
Learning to play the three-stringed Japanese traditional instrument shamisen topped Canadian Maud Archambault's list of things to do while in Japan. She arrived here in 2001 to explore one of her fields of study: Japanese culture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 3, 2014
Bob Dylan is the latest in a list of legends to visit these shores
Clad in a T-shirt for U.K. punk pioneers The Clash, 16-year-old Kyo Asada probably doesn't fit most people's image of a typical Bob Dylan fan. But judging from the crowd lined up outside Tokyo's Zepp DiverCity on the opening night of his latest Japan tour, Dylan draws a diverse bunch — not just the middle-aged music nerds you might expect, but also plenty of 20-somethings and teenagers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 25, 2014
Quattro's Yuichi Ushioda hits the sea for a solo album
"The philosopher Shunsuke Tsurumi said in an interview that, when you see something like a rainbow and feel moved by it, that moment is eternity," singer-songwriter Yuichi Ushioda tells me at the 3rd Stone Cafe in Tokyo's Shimokitazawa area. "I want to be able to notice moments like that. These moments of fragmented eternity in between day-to-day life."
Japan’s cannabis market growing rapidly amid regulatory shift
The legality of products that contain cannabinoids, a group of substances derived from the cannabis plant, has been somewhat murky in Japan.
Philippines wants U.S. and Japan to take over rail deal eyed by China
Delfin Lorenzana
'Sugar Baby Riri' gets nine-year prison term over romance scam
Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.
At least one dead, seven missing after two MSDF helicopters crash off Izu Islands
Contact was lost with the two SH-60K helicopters, each carrying four crew, in an area east of Torishima in the Izu Island chain during anti-submarine warfare training Saturday night.
Tokyo Rainbow Pride lights up capital as organizers celebrate 30 years
Rainbow flags were flown through the capital's busy Shibuya and Harajuku areas for Tokyo Rainbow Pride events this weekend as organizers hailed 30 years of one of Asia's largest LGBTQ celebrations.
A craft beer crawl through Tokyo’s top bars, brewpubs and dives
If all you drink is Asahi, Sapporo and Kirin, you're depriving yourself of some of the best craft beer Tokyo has to offer — and there sure is a lot of it out there.
'Sugar Baby Riri' gets nine-year prison term over romance scam
Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.
Tsukiji 2030s: A stadium, culinary center and transportation hub
A computer-generated image shows redevelopment plans for the former site of the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.
Hearing the impact of climate change in Okinawa, one bird call at a time
Toshihiro Kinjo (center), a research support technician at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, inspects an audio recording device in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, on April 3 as Masako Ogasawara, a research support specialist at OIST, looks on.
Japan’s cannabis market growing rapidly amid regulatory shift
The legality of products that contain cannabinoids, a group of substances derived from the cannabis plant, has been somewhat murky in Japan.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability
Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

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