Sake: This Year’s Rice Report by Sake Expert John Gauntner Sake Rice Survived a Couple of Typhoons, But How Did it Fare Otherwise? In late October, the National Research Institute of Brewing in Japan released their annual rice report, loosely translated as the Suitability of This Year’s Rice to Sake Brewing Report. In short, the…

Contemporary glass artist Etsuko Nishi Specialist in the Pâte de Verre Technique By Dasha Klyachko Etsuko Nishi is a leading expert in the pâte de verre, one of the oldest and more difficult forms of glass making. This is a form of kiln casting, which involves first the preparation of a mould. Finely crushed glass…

By Alice Gordenker There was a Japanese female artist active in Paris in the early decades of the 20th century but chances are you’ve never heard of her. It doesn’t help that most of her work remains in private hands, or that she called herself by several different names. But the carved bowls, vases and…

A Man of Intelligence by Ian Pfennigwerth A review by David Morton A Man Of Intelligence is an excellent book about the life of Captain Eric Nave, an Australian Codebreaker and the basic founder of Australian cypher breaking against the Japanese during World War II. Eric Nave is no James Bond type, but in his…

Commentary by Charles Bernstein, A.I.A. Japanese architect Kengo Kuma won the international design competition in 2010 for a new design museum in Dundee Scotland. Eight years later its doors are about to open. It will undoubtedly become a symbol of the city’s attempted renaissance. The soon to be opened museum was conceived as a catalyst…

by Alice Gordenker Entry on Noguchi Shōhin in Bunbu kōmeiroku 文武高名録, a compilation of famous people and important literary figures published in 1893. Private collection. Image used here with special permission. Are you familiar with the painter Noguchi Shōhin? If not, you’re hardly alone. Even when famous in their day, female artists are more likely to…

                        NUNO Textile Design Studio presents “suke suke” fabrics,  by weaving sliced strips of metal with conventional yarns to create a shimmery mirage. Japanese Weavers have traditionally used metallic foils in brocade obi sashes and other formal wear. Thin sheets of gold and silver were affixed to washi handmade paper with sulphur or lacquer, then cut into lomg slender…

by Elizabeth Andoh ODEN おでん Japan’s iconic ODEN is a slow-simmered, hodgepodge: fish sausages, daikon radishes, octopus, potatoes, boiled eggs, konnyaku (a broth-absorbing, speckled aspic processed from a tuber vegetable), and all sorts of tōfu. On the first chilly nights of autumn, oden is welcomed back to the family dinner table, pub-like izakaya menus and…

Between Heaven and Earth After recovering from three somewhat harrowing days driving a rental car on the road in Japan, we learned , despite the high points of the trip, not to do it again. I also relearned that there is a very small margin of error between life and death on a snake like…

Kusama and the Compulsive Visionaries by Gail Rieke Perhaps this sounds like the name of a band, but it is not. Yayoi Kusama may currently be the most appreciated international woman artist of this time. Some of you may have seen her polka dot pumpkin in Naoshima, or her mirrored installations, or the Forever Museum…