March is the time of dolls (hina ningyo, the dolls for Girl's Day) in Japan and there are four ongoing exhibitions in Kyoto:
At the Kyoto National Museum "Girl's Day and Dolls" (until April 8);
At Hokyoji Imperial Convent the annual spring exhibition, this year for the 100th time (until April 3; take bus no. 9 from Kyoto St to Horikawa Teranouchi stop);
At the Museum of Kyoto "Dolls and costumes from the Yoshikawa Kampo Collection" (until March 28);
At the Kyoto Japanese Folk Dolls Museum in Sagano "Cute Hina Dolls from Kyoto" (until April 8).
I would at least advise seeing Hokyoji (a very nice temple) and the National Museum!
Also in Kyoto: the Higashiyama district between Shorenin and Kiyomizu temples is being lit up by numerous lanterns from March 10 to 21, between 18:00 and 21:30. Most of the temples along the route are longer open and will also be lit up.
March 19, 2007
March 15, 2007
Cultural news (March 2007 - 2)
Howard French of the New York Times has a nice article about Alps town Matsumoto and its huge, cavernous castle - an excellent option for a long weekend away from Tokyo. Matsumoto Castle has one of the best preserved historical donjons in Japan and is a "national treasure." Besides the castle, Matsumoto features several excellent museums - to the ones mentioned by French (such as the great folkcraft and ukiyo-e museums), I would add the sleek Matsumoto City Art Museum which has a special gallery dedicated to Kusama Yayoi.
It has always surprised me that bicycles are allowed on sidewalks in Japan, where they can be a danger for pedestrians when speeding too fast (I am glad I live in Kobe where the slopes are too steep for bicycles!). With the number of accidents now growing, the traffic law is going to be revised. Except in the case of children under 12 and in extremely dangerous situations, as "light vehicles" bicycles will have to go on the roads, as I understand it. That is not a real solution as it merely shifts the danger to the rider of the bicycle. I know there is not much space in Japan, but where possible municipalities should make separate lanes or paths for bicycles - as "bicycle country" the Netherlands has done.
Chinese search engine Baidu is according to this AsiaMedia article planning to expand to Japan, where it will not only have to take on Google, but also Japanese search engines as goo.
It has always surprised me that bicycles are allowed on sidewalks in Japan, where they can be a danger for pedestrians when speeding too fast (I am glad I live in Kobe where the slopes are too steep for bicycles!). With the number of accidents now growing, the traffic law is going to be revised. Except in the case of children under 12 and in extremely dangerous situations, as "light vehicles" bicycles will have to go on the roads, as I understand it. That is not a real solution as it merely shifts the danger to the rider of the bicycle. I know there is not much space in Japan, but where possible municipalities should make separate lanes or paths for bicycles - as "bicycle country" the Netherlands has done.
Chinese search engine Baidu is according to this AsiaMedia article planning to expand to Japan, where it will not only have to take on Google, but also Japanese search engines as goo.
March 14, 2007
Cultural news (March 2007 - 1)
Despite the expected boost it will give the economy, not everybody in Nagasaki is happy with the government decision to register 20 Christian sites with the Unesco World Heritage List. As Asahi.com reports, the priests are afraid noisy tourists will disturb the peace of the believers by snapping their picture, leave graffitti on the walls or "extinguish their cigarettes in holy water." (thanks to Japan Probe)
Jimmy Wales, the founder of the Wikipedia, is visiting Japan and has given an interview to the Japan Times (registration required).
Lots of black humor and hard action again in Miike Takashi's latest film Ryu ga Gotoku, which is now showing. See this article in Hoga Central or the Mark Schilling review in the Japan Times (registration required). As is usual with Miike, you either love it or you hate it (I am in the first group).
This is an interesting Mainichi Daily News article about the sad decline of the Japanese countryside due to falling subsidies and the aging population, here seen through the symbolic case of Yubari in Hokkaido.
One of my favorite places in Japan is the small town of Hikone, at Lake Biwa. This year from March 21 it celebrates the 400 year anniversary of its castle, as Mainichi Staff Writer Aaron Baldwin reports in this long and interesting article. The castle is one of the most elegant in the country, not for nothing a "national treasure."
The Castle Museum is also a "must" as it displays the treasures of the Ii clan, who ruled the province from this castle. Their belongings form one of the best preserved daimyo collections in Japan.
Jimmy Wales, the founder of the Wikipedia, is visiting Japan and has given an interview to the Japan Times (registration required).
Lots of black humor and hard action again in Miike Takashi's latest film Ryu ga Gotoku, which is now showing. See this article in Hoga Central or the Mark Schilling review in the Japan Times (registration required). As is usual with Miike, you either love it or you hate it (I am in the first group).
This is an interesting Mainichi Daily News article about the sad decline of the Japanese countryside due to falling subsidies and the aging population, here seen through the symbolic case of Yubari in Hokkaido.
One of my favorite places in Japan is the small town of Hikone, at Lake Biwa. This year from March 21 it celebrates the 400 year anniversary of its castle, as Mainichi Staff Writer Aaron Baldwin reports in this long and interesting article. The castle is one of the most elegant in the country, not for nothing a "national treasure."
The Castle Museum is also a "must" as it displays the treasures of the Ii clan, who ruled the province from this castle. Their belongings form one of the best preserved daimyo collections in Japan.
Cherry blossom front
The cherry blossoms will bloom early this year. Whether that is a good thing is the question, as according to popular belief strong winters make good sakura, just like hot summers cause deep-red koyo. And although in normal years the blossoms advance over Japan from the south, like a nice frontline (the sakura zensen), this year it seems to be all patchy, with sakura in Tokyo (March 18) and Osaka (March 25) expected to blossom earlier than those in southern Kagoshima (March 31).
The sakura front line is every year followed not only via TV, but also several websites (unfortunately only in Japanese as sakurazensen.com or Nippon no Sakura Dayori, and travel sites as rurubu.com and jtb.co.jp).
Here are some expectations (I hope they have not been confused by the erratic weather):
(based on JTB's Sakura Tokushu)
These famous places will be crowded, very crowded. People watching can also be interesting, depending on your mood, but I remember turning back from Yoshino, a few year's ago, because the crowds made it impossible to get to the sakura - I went instead to less popular Negoroji, where the blossoms were unexpectedly beautiful.
And that is the whole point, I think: better than seeking out these famous spots, it is the greater pleasure to find a beautiful tree or grove by chance.
Note: See also this AP article on MSNBC.
The sakura front line is every year followed not only via TV, but also several websites (unfortunately only in Japanese as sakurazensen.com or Nippon no Sakura Dayori, and travel sites as rurubu.com and jtb.co.jp).
Here are some expectations (I hope they have not been confused by the erratic weather):
- Kyoto:
- Heian Jingu: first 20 days of April
- Ninnaji: whole month of April
- Arashiyama: first 10 days of April
- Kiyomizu Temple: last 10 days March - first 10 days April
- Maruyama Park: last 10 days March - first 20 days April
- Osaka:
- Sakuranomiya Park: last 10 days March - first 20 days April
- Osaka Castle Park: last 10 days March - first 10 days April
- Nara:
- Nara Park: last 10 days of March - whole month of April
- Yoshino: depending on the location, between the last 10 days of March (Shimo Senbon) and late April (Kami Senbon)
- Wakayama:
- Kimiidera: last 10 days of March and first 10 days of April
- Tokyo:
- Ueno Park: last 10 days of March and whole of April
- Shinjuku Gyoen: mid march - late April
(based on JTB's Sakura Tokushu)
These famous places will be crowded, very crowded. People watching can also be interesting, depending on your mood, but I remember turning back from Yoshino, a few year's ago, because the crowds made it impossible to get to the sakura - I went instead to less popular Negoroji, where the blossoms were unexpectedly beautiful.
And that is the whole point, I think: better than seeking out these famous spots, it is the greater pleasure to find a beautiful tree or grove by chance.
Note: See also this AP article on MSNBC.
March 12, 2007
Osaka’s Phantom Museum of Art
Although I made a special study of Japan's art museums, it remained long hidden even to me that Osaka has a modern art museum. I am not talking about the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art (this Tennoji Park museum is anyway in the first place dedicated to ancient art forms, although it hosts temporary modern exhibitions as the Nitten) or the National Museum of Art, Osaka (a national museum of modern and contemporary art, set up in 1977 in the Osaka Expo Park and since 2004 moved to a more convenient spot in the western part of Nakanoshima) - no, I am referring to the "Osaka City Museum of Modern Art."
While Japanese museums are sometimes criticized as being beautiful buildings with not much inside, this is the opposite case: a collection without a building!
The first plan for a modern museum of art was made in 1983, when Osaka celebrated its centennial as a city. A committee was set up in 1988, and collecting started in the early 90s. The collection now has reached more than 3,000 works and contains many excellent pieces.
Among non-Japanese paintings, we have a spectacular nude by Modigliani, surrealist paintings by Magritte and Dali, and on a different note a black painting by Frank Stella. Among the sculpture collected is a masterpiece by the Cubist Duchamp-Villon.
Work by Japanese painters centers on Saeki Yuzo, who is famous for his melancholy paintings of dilapidated walls in the backstreets of Paris. Saeki was born in Osaka, but became a Parisian by heart - he twice lived in Paris, where he made his most representative work. Unfortunately, he died in 1928 in Paris at the young age of 30. The museum has collected 20 works by Saeki Yuzo.
Another famous Osaka painter in the collection, also with 20 works, is Yoshihara Jiro, an avant-gardist who founded the gutai movement in the mid-fifties - the most important art movement in post-war Japan that was based in the Kansai. Yoshihara himself is known for his "Zen circle" paintings. Also other Gutai members as Shiraga Kazuo are in the collection.
The Osaka City Museum of Modern Art (the name is still provisional) will have a building, and probably an impressive one - although no date is mentioned yet on its website - the proposed location apparently will be near the National Museum of Modern Art, in the western part of Nakanoshima (which will get more accessible after the Keihan line extends its services there from Yodoyabashi).
In the meantime, the collection is not completely hidden. The museum-to-be organizes three exhibitions a year with work from its holdings. Location is on Nagahoridori, close to the Shinsaibashi station on the Midosuji line (Idemitsu Nagahori Bldg 13F, 3-4-26 Minami-Senba, Chuo-ku, Osaka; 06-6208-9096; open 11:00-19:00, closed Wednesdays). These premises used to house the Osaka Annex of the Idemitsu Museum which has unfortunately closed down. The temporary museum is only open when there is an exhibition, which happens to be the case right now: if you are quick you can just catch the excellent Saeki Yuzo exhibition ("Saeki Yuzo and the Dream of Paris" - see review in the Japan Times) which runs until March 25.
By chance, even more can be seen from this phantasmagoric collection in the National Museum of Art, Osaka, also until March 25. There the exhibition "Dream Museum, the Osaka Collections" is held, which brings together top pieces from the Osaka City Museum of Modern Art with work from the Suntory Museum in Tenpozan (which has a great poster collection) and the National Museum itself, which adds work by Cezanne, Picasso and Ernst.
While Japanese museums are sometimes criticized as being beautiful buildings with not much inside, this is the opposite case: a collection without a building!
The first plan for a modern museum of art was made in 1983, when Osaka celebrated its centennial as a city. A committee was set up in 1988, and collecting started in the early 90s. The collection now has reached more than 3,000 works and contains many excellent pieces.
Among non-Japanese paintings, we have a spectacular nude by Modigliani, surrealist paintings by Magritte and Dali, and on a different note a black painting by Frank Stella. Among the sculpture collected is a masterpiece by the Cubist Duchamp-Villon.
Work by Japanese painters centers on Saeki Yuzo, who is famous for his melancholy paintings of dilapidated walls in the backstreets of Paris. Saeki was born in Osaka, but became a Parisian by heart - he twice lived in Paris, where he made his most representative work. Unfortunately, he died in 1928 in Paris at the young age of 30. The museum has collected 20 works by Saeki Yuzo.
Another famous Osaka painter in the collection, also with 20 works, is Yoshihara Jiro, an avant-gardist who founded the gutai movement in the mid-fifties - the most important art movement in post-war Japan that was based in the Kansai. Yoshihara himself is known for his "Zen circle" paintings. Also other Gutai members as Shiraga Kazuo are in the collection.
The Osaka City Museum of Modern Art (the name is still provisional) will have a building, and probably an impressive one - although no date is mentioned yet on its website - the proposed location apparently will be near the National Museum of Modern Art, in the western part of Nakanoshima (which will get more accessible after the Keihan line extends its services there from Yodoyabashi).
In the meantime, the collection is not completely hidden. The museum-to-be organizes three exhibitions a year with work from its holdings. Location is on Nagahoridori, close to the Shinsaibashi station on the Midosuji line (Idemitsu Nagahori Bldg 13F, 3-4-26 Minami-Senba, Chuo-ku, Osaka; 06-6208-9096; open 11:00-19:00, closed Wednesdays). These premises used to house the Osaka Annex of the Idemitsu Museum which has unfortunately closed down. The temporary museum is only open when there is an exhibition, which happens to be the case right now: if you are quick you can just catch the excellent Saeki Yuzo exhibition ("Saeki Yuzo and the Dream of Paris" - see review in the Japan Times) which runs until March 25.
By chance, even more can be seen from this phantasmagoric collection in the National Museum of Art, Osaka, also until March 25. There the exhibition "Dream Museum, the Osaka Collections" is held, which brings together top pieces from the Osaka City Museum of Modern Art with work from the Suntory Museum in Tenpozan (which has a great poster collection) and the National Museum itself, which adds work by Cezanne, Picasso and Ernst.
March 7, 2007
March 6, 2007
Great internet sites on Japan (5): 2001 waka for Japan 2001
2001 Waka for Japan 2001 is an extensive collection of classical waka poems from major anthologies, such as the Manyoshu, Kokinshu and Shinkokinshu. Besides the translation, a romanized version as well as the original Japanese are included. Brief introductions are provided; in a separate section you will also find information on the poets and some other topics as early Japanese phonology. The site is hosted by the University of Sheffield.
This site is not only useful, it is great! Where do you find 2,001 free translations of classical Japanese poems? All the major poets are there: Ariwara no Narihira, Fujiwara no Teika, Henjo, Izumi Shikibu, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Ki no Tsurayuki, Otomo no Yakimochi, and my favorite one, the Buddhist traveler and recluse Saigyo:
This site is not only useful, it is great! Where do you find 2,001 free translations of classical Japanese poems? All the major poets are there: Ariwara no Narihira, Fujiwara no Teika, Henjo, Izumi Shikibu, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, Ki no Tsurayuki, Otomo no Yakimochi, and my favorite one, the Buddhist traveler and recluse Saigyo:
O, Mount Yoshino!
From last year’s trail of broken branches,
I would switch my path and
On ways yet unseen
Pay a visit to the blossoms!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)