Choki Seiji, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, Music Critic “Europe” for classical musicians Like Sakamoto Ryuichi, who was based in New York, there are many musicians who dedicate themselves to their creative and performing activities while living abroad. The fact that Utada Hikaru, who was born in the United States, is based in London does not seem strange at all, perhaps because we live in the 21st century, where globalization has progressed. However, if you think about whether there were any such Japanese popular music (I dare say) artists living abroad before Sakamoto’s generation, it is true that you cannot immediately think of a specific name. After all, in the world of popular music, where the latest styles are emerging mainly in the Anglo-American region, it is stimulating for musicians to live in London, New York, and Berlin, which has changed ... ... [Read more]

  Tanigama Hironori, Professor, Toyo University   It is often said that Japanese people began to adopt sports from overseas in the Meiji period (1868–1912). However, the history of foreign sports in Japan is long, and the leisurely aristocrats of ancient times were among the first to experience sports from the continent and enjoy them as an elegant hobby. Kemari, or shukiku (an ancient football game, 蹴鞠), is the most long-lived and widely played foreign athletic game in Japanese history, played by people from all walks of life. In the ancient Imperial Court, a variety of sports were performed by competitors from the provinces during the festival days of the year, while the Emperor and senior aristocrats watched and enjoyed them. Kemari, on the other hand, falls into the category of “sports to do,” played by the ancient nobility themselves. In ancient China, there ... ... [Read more]

  Fukushima Natsuko, Executive Editor, Tokyo Art Beat   An editor of Tokyo Art Beat speaks to the people in charge about the rediscovery of female artists and gender balance in the collection. The exhibition “Women and Abstraction” was realized by a team of six people A small exhibition “Women and Abstraction” (September 20 to December 3, 2023) is currently being held at Gallery 4, which displays the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT). This is an ambitious exhibition that introduces a number of works from the museum’s collection by women artists who have worked with abstract expression from the immediate postwar period to the present day. This exhibition is a reexamination and curation of works from the collection, including artists who have rarely been introduced to the public, as well as notable artists who are rapidly being reevaluated, and ... ... [Read more]

OKI, musician   Irankarapte. The low voice of the conductor echoes through the quiet train. The Ainu greeting is used casually to make people feel more familiar with Ainu culture, in the same way that saying “nihao” might be in China, but when this announcement is made, I unintentionally become defensive. I feel like I want to erase my presence. My home is the next town over from Asahikawa (in north central Hokkaido). It is mainly an agricultural town, but many newcomers have moved to the town, too. A young man whose father is Niikappu Ainu (in Hidaka, southern Hokkaido) and whose mother is Filipino recently moved in. This gives the town two Ainu households. Just as I moved here because I liked the town, this is not a place that was home to an Ainu village in the past. Compared to places with ... ... [Read more]

  Hashimoto Mari, Director of Kankitsuzan Art Museum establishment preparation office, Odawara Art Foundation “I will never be able to see an exhibition like this again in my lifetime.” “Researchers and collectors gather from all over the world.” This is not the Vermeer Exhibition at the Rijksmuseum [February to June 2023] we’re talking about. These comments were made in anticipation of the special exhibition “Masterpieces of Northern Song Paintings and Calligraphy,” which will be held at the Nezu Museum in Tokyo for just four weeks from November 3rd to December 3rd, 2023. The Japanese art boom that began with Tsuji Nobuo’s (Japanese art historian, professor emeritus, University of Tokyo) Kiso no keifu (1970, Lineage of Eccentrics [2012, translated]) began in the 2000s, and interest in Buddhist statues, Jomon period artefacts and superb craftsmanship in many fields continues to this day. However, the boom has ... ... [Read more]

Kawai Kaori, nonfiction writer     A blue sky and Mt. Fuji viewed over water. Murals featuring these motifs are typical of sento (public bathhouses) in Tokyo and the surrounding Kanto region. Yet today, there are only three professional public bathhouse mural painters in all of Japan. One is in his 70s and one is in his 80s. The youngest, Tanaka Mizuki, is 40 years old and is the only female bathhouse mural painter.  “Practically speaking, whether or not there is a mural in a public bathhouse doesn’t have much impact on the purpose of taking a bath,” says Tanaka. In other words, bathhouse murals are not a necessity. However, they do serve as a place for a bather to fix their gaze, Tanaka explains. “Public bathhouses have many regular customers, and to them the same mural seen every day can appear different depending ... ... [Read more]

  Kamachi Fumiko, Representative, ConTon Architects   Architecture — Ashagi Terrace and Pillars From 1972 to 1974, a 40-hectare area on the seaside of Nago City was reclaimed, and a national road was constructed to meet the deadline for Expo ’75. Nago City Hall was built facing this road. This City Hall has two faces. The north side faces the urban area and features the “Ashagi[1] Terrace,” which invites visitors with its stepped-back design both in plan and section. The south side faces the national highway and showcases a majestic facade with striped pillars and 56 shisa[2] statues (legendary beast statues of Okinawa often installed on roofs). Drafted 40 years after the completion of Nago City Hall in 1981, the Nago Bay Coastal Basic Plan (2021) details consideration of renovations to the hall including its relocation. Currently, foundational surveys regarding these plans are being ... ... [Read more]

  Matsuzaki Teruaki, Representative of Japan Architectural Design Institute   Chiisaki mono wa mina utsukushi (all small things, are most adorable) This is a passage from The Pillow Book (The Pillow Book, 99, from “Adorable Things,” translated by Ivan Morris). Here, “utsukushi” means adorable, but this sensibility became the seed of the Japanese delicate grace, with utsukushi coming to be used in the sense of “beautiful” in the Muromachi period (1336–1573). Unlike the culture of the Eurasian Continent that ranges from grand concepts to details, Japanese culture is characterized by an accumulation of concrete sensibilities in the things around us. This can be clearly seen by looking at the design methods of Japanese architecture. For example, in addition to the distance between column centers being defined as one ken (six feet) and buildings being designed as integer multiples of that (hashira-wari, column spacing), which ... ... [Read more]

  Nakayama Keiko, Senior Researcher of Toraya Archives (Toraya Bunko) Jonamagashi (Japanese-style fresh confectionery strongly associated with the tea ceremony), with their literary confectionery names such as “harugasumi” (spring haze) and “hatsumomiji” (first red autumn leaves) expressing the natural features of the season, are unique to Japan They are thought to have originated in jogashi (high –grade confectionery) which spread mostly in Kyoto in the latter half of the 17th century. Let’s look at the background of its development and the characteristics of this Japanese confection. Luxurious Sweets Made Using White Sugar Sugar, the main ingredient in sweets, was for a long time an expensive and rare item that needed to be imported since first brought from China in the Nara period (710–794). The situation didn’t change much during the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1568–1603) when Sen no Rikyu (1522–1591) established wabi-cha (Japanese tea ceremony). The ... ... [Read more]

  Ichikawa Koji, Architectural historian, Assistant Professor, Tohoku University Beyond Borders: Architects Transcending Borders To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, Shenzhen’s cultural complex “Shenzhen Sea World Culture and Arts Center” hosted an exhibition of contemporary Japanese architecture titled “Beyond Borders: Architectures of Japan” (dates: 5 November 2022–19 February 2023). Let’s begin by talking about this exhibition. This exhibition, co-organized by the Japan Foundation and the Design Society in Shenzhen, is, as the title suggests, focused on Japanese architects’ “works that transcend national borders.” The exhibition consists of two main parts. The first includes models and installations by Maki Fumihiko and Isozaki Arata, who have been active since the 1960s, as well as Ando Tadao, Ito Toyo, Ban Shigeru, Kuma Kengo, Ishigami Junya, and Fujimoto Sou, eight architects active all around the world. Then there is ... ... [Read more]