Apr.13
A Taste of Culture – RICE BUNDLES by Elizabeth Andoh
Apr.13
Elizabeth Andoh
Some people call them OMUSUBI, others call them ONIGIRI, the Japanese language today has two words for pressed rice bundles. Both begin with an honorific “o,” showing that rice, no matter what you call it, is a food to be honored. Each of the words, onigiri and omusubi, derive from verbs that describe the compressing…
Apr.12
A new Golden Age of Japan has begun!
Apr.12
by Steve Beimel Japan continues to delight, surprise and fulfill me after nearly 50 years. About two years ago, a group of about a dozen American and British friends joined together to support me in my efforts to identify needs and give strategic support to small, key projects that encourage traditional Japanese crafts to flourish…
Apr.11
Travel Journal
Apr.11
Gail Rieke
by Gail Rieke Since 1995, I have made artworks which translate travel experience into various media… collage, book arts, photographs, drawings, textile arts, and writings. I call them “travel journals” even though they transcend the usual preconception. Most of them are stored within suitcases or baskets in the Suitcase Wall in my studio. During this…
Apr.01
Architect Charles Bernstein, A.I.A., comments on the Church of Light by Ando Tadao
Apr.01
Charles Bernstein, A.I.A. This poetically designed church was completed in 1995 on a low budget, and won Ando the Pritzker Award. The relatively small structure is located in a suburb of Osaka. Like most of Ando’s work, the building materials consist of glass, steel and of course, poured-in-place concrete. In addition to evocatively placed…
Mar.17
Welcome to Buaiso
Mar.17
Gail Rieke
On November 15, 2019 our group of travelers had the great privilege of taking an indigo workshop at Buaiso’s home in Tokushima We were welcomed by the young farmers, dyers and business associates who served us lunch and indigo tea. Kakuo Kaji then showed us various methods of resist dyeing and we folded and clamped…
Oct.09
A Taste of Culture – UMÉ SHIGOTO
Oct.09
Elizabeth Andoh
Incessant tsuyu rain is soon to be supplanted by sultry summer days. That’s when the emphasis in the kitchen, shifts to sawayaka “refreshing” foods, and sappari “clean” tastes. By the way, these words can also describe someone’s outlook or attitude to life, in general: sawayaka na kibun (a bright, buoyant mood) and sappari shita hito…
Sept.12
Tokolo Asao: A New Spin for Arita
Sept.12
Alice Gordenker
Millions of people around the world have seen the work of Tokolo Asao, yet few would be able to produce his name or identify a single project to which he’s contributed. Tokolo — and that’s the spelling he prefers for a surname usually romanized as “Tokoro” — is the man behind the distinctive indigo checkered…
Sept.04
Event notice: outdoor Noh in Kanagawa, Oct. 2-3, 2019
Sept.04
Alice Gordenker
Readers of Japan Living Arts are invited to attend special performances of Noh and Kyogen at the Oyama Afuri Shrine on Mt. Oyama in Kanagawa Prefecture. On Oct. 2 and 3, 2019, top actors from the Kanze School of Noh — including Living National Treasures — will share their art outdoors, as Noh was originally…
July.14
Ohno Kazuo in his own words
July.14
Kyoto Journal
“Alive, in each and every one of us, are countless individuals whose lifetime experiences, joys, sorrows, angers, doubts, and so forth have been successively passed down from one generation to the next. The physical form I assume now is but the fruit of what I’ve inherited from those who have existed before me. What, you…