Japanese poster design reflects the country’s rich visual culture and printmaking  tradition, and was used throughout the 20th century to represent the country to domestic and international audiences. Two world wars in addition to rapid industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of mass media fundamentally transformed modern Japan, and its specific journey as both an…

Drinking green tea, ryokucha 緑茶, is an integral part of daily life in Japan, enjoyed throughout the day. It can run the gamut from ritualized and formal occasions such as chakai ceremonial tea to the most casual moments and settings when thirst is quenched with bottles of green tea dispensed from vending machines found everywhere. Temperatures yesterday suddenly began…

The connection between maker and owner I love product catalogues. When I was a kid I spent hours flipping through the LEGO booklets that my parents would bring back from their trips abroad (LEGO was not widely available in Argentina in the ‘80s). I would check out every detail of the sets featured in those…

Like many vegetables enjoyed in Japan today, naga negi traveled to Japan from China by way of the Korean peninsula; they have been cultivated in Japan since the 8th century. Naga [“long”] negi [“onions”] or Allium fistulosum, are called by various names outside Japan: Japanese leeks, Welsh onions, Japanese bunching onion, to name a few….

Levitation is among the miraculous feats ascribed to a child prince who lived more than a 1,400 years ago and grew up to become a great patron of Buddhism.  (Detail from “Illustrated Biography of Prince Shotoku,” a National Treasure of Japan. Image courtesy of the Tokyo National Museum, Gallery of Horyuji Treasures.) The Tokyo National…

Walk in to any supermarket in Japan in January and you’ll find compact wedges and bulbous whole heads of HAKUSAI (Chinese cabbage; B. rapa ssp. Pekinensis). Most Asian groceries throughout the world sell hakusai in the winter. I hope you’ll buy some and join me in making pickles, soups, nabé and more. After buying hakusai, wrap whatever portion you won’t be using immediately…

Uesugi Yozan was a very young leader with a very big problem. When the ninth daimyo of the Yonezawa Domain (modern-day Yamaguchi Prefecture) assumed leadership in 1767 at the tender age of 16, Uesugi (1751-1822) inherited a fiefdom mired in poverty as the result of extravagant spending and poor management. Fortunately for his subjects, Uesugi…

As part of a larger effort to make Japan’s cultural properties more available for study and enjoyment, the Tokyo National Museum is preparing to unveil a new interactive, technology-based exhibit that will become part of the regular exhibition in the museum’s Gallery of Horyuji Treasures. Initially, from Jan. 31, the new Digital Gallery of Horyuji…

No doubt you’ve seen this iconic image of a huge wave that seems about to crash on Mt. Fuji. You probably also know that it was created by Hokusai, one of the very few Japanese artists to have achieved and maintained worldwide name recognition. But what else do you know about Hokusai, who changed his…

Beginning with Japan’s industrialization in the late 19th century, the paper industry and related companies converged in urban centres across the country. In the eastern Tokyo ward of Kōtō, one such company is Shinohara Shiko, a family-run bookbinding factory that has been cutting, folding, and binding paper to make books and magazines for almost fifty years….