Home / Archive for October 2009

Narashige Koide: Excelling in a formerly alien medium

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White rappers used to be a joke until a credible one - Eminem - came along. In a similar way, Japanese artists' early efforts to master...
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Simple Tea, the Soul Soother

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Japan, a hectic, densely-populated country, has always been guilty of overloading the senses. It is only natural that here too an ameliora...
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Touching Base: living with the US military presence in Japan

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The reaction to the recent sinking of a Japanese fishery training vessel by a U.S. nuclear submarine off Hawaii, and the captain's ...
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Master at the cutting edge of art: The heritage of Japan's greatest swordsmith, Masamune

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Japan is often seen as a blend of the advanced and the archaic. But this combination is nothing new, as a visit to an exhibition of swords ...
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The Ballad of John & 'Yono'

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28 years after he was gunned down outside his New York apartment block, John Lennon is still with us. Here in Japan, he is with us even mor...
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Hello Clitty: "Toys ‘Arse’ Us" Japanese style!

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Perhaps due to other deficiencies, sex toys play a disproportionately large role in the erotic life of the Japanese. From the " An...
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Katsura Funakoshi: Going with the Grain

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In our modern, high–tech age of synthetic materials and digital information, there is something very reassuring about wood with its dull...
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Pinpricks in the Darkness: The Beautiful and Disturbing art of Fuyuko Matsui

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Art, despite all its complexities and convolutions, is and always has been simply a mirror of humanity. While one artist expresses hope, a...
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Fiction: A Vital Occupation

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It’s 7am. I’m not supposed to wake up till at least 9:30, but as long as I keep the curtains closed, I’ll be okay. Outside my apartmen...
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