Bye Bye TOKYO

Bye Bye Tokyo for now .....

Japanese summer must does - Hanabi 花火 (fireworks)

useful links:
Program for hanabi events held in Japan-summer 2012 (in English)

Japan fireworks
A history of fireworks (chemistry)

A history of fireworks

Schedule for hanabi events all over Japan (summer 2012)
Schedule for hanabi events held in central Tokyo (summer 2012)

NIHON NO USO 日本の嘘 (Japan's lie) - released on ２０１２・０８・０４

  

 

In September 2011, six months after the nuclear accident started, Kikujiro Fukushima would find himself frantically pressing the shutter of his camera in a ghost town near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. On other days, he was covering anti-nuclear rallies in Tokyo. Fukushima has witnessed Japan’s path since the end of World War II and has begun speaking about a “postwar Japan that was not captured in his photos.” This special feature depicts the man’s life based on a documentary film, "JAPAN LIES --- The Photojournalism of Kikujiro Fukushima, Age 90 ---", which closely followed Fukushima for two years, describing his own path from Hiroshima to Fukushima Prefecture.

Born in 1921 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Kikujiro Fukushima came to Tokyo in 1960 and started his career as a professional photographer. The key themes of his career include the nuclear bombings, social and political affairs, military issues and environmental topics. He has published a number of photo collections, including “Atomic Bomb: Record of an Atomic Bomb Survivor,” as well as several essays and commentaries. He does not belong to any political party nor has he any political affiliation. He currently lives in Yanai, Yamaguchi Prefecture, with his dog

source

Link to the film's homepage

No Nukes 2012 - Yoyogi gathering 2012・07

170 000 according to organisers

links : NHK World

Asahi Shinbun

Japan Times

No Nukes 2012 - YOYOGI GATHERING 7・16

 

link to the information

Tanabata 七夕 ("evening of the seventh") - 07・07

Tanabata (七夕, meaning "Evening of the seventh") is a Japanese star festival, originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on July 7 of the Gregorian calendar. 

The Tanabata festival  (Tanabata matsuri) was imported to Japan by the Empress Kōken in 755. It originated from "The Festival to Plead for Skills" (乞巧奠 Kikkōden), an alternative name for Qixi,which was celebrated in China and also was adopted in the Kyoto Imperial Palace from the Heian period.

The festival gained widespread popularity amongst the general public by the early Edo period, when it became mixed with various Obon or Bon traditions (because Bon was held on 15th of the seventh month then), and developed into the modern Tanabata festival. Popular customs relating to the festival varied by region of the country, but generally, girls wished for better sewing and craftsmanship, and boys wished for better handwriting by writing wishes on strips of paper. At this time, the custom was to use dew left on taro leaves to create the ink used to write wishes. Incidentally, Bon is now held on 15 August on the solar calendar, close to its original date on the lunar calendar, making Tanabata and Bon separate events.

The name Tanabata is remotely related to the Japanese reading of the Chinese characters 七夕, which used to be read as "Shichiseki". It is believed that a Shinto purification ceremony existed around the same time, in which a Shinto miko wove a special cloth on a loom called a Tanabata (棚機) near waters and offered it to a god to pray for protection of rice crops from rain or storm and for good harvest later in autumn. Gradually this ceremony merged with Kikkōden to become Tanabata. The Chinese characters 七夕 and the Japanese reading Tanabata joined to mean the same festival, although originally they were two different things, an example of ateji.

Source : Wikipedia

The story of Tanabata

Orihime (織姫 : Weaving Princess), daughter of the Tentei (天帝 : Sky King, or the universe itself), wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa (天の川 : Milky Way, lit. "heavenly river"). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, Orihime was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (彦星 : Cow Herder Star) (also referred to as Kengyuu (牽牛) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and married shortly thereafter. However, once married, Orihime nolonger would weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter's tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if she worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet.

In present-day Japan, people generally celebrate this day by writing wishes on tanzaku (短冊), small pieces of paper, and hanging them on a bamboo branch, sometimes with other decorations. The bamboo and decorations are often set afloat on a river or burned after the festival, around midnight or on the next day.

Tanabata Song

Sasa no ha sara-sara
Nokiba ni yureru
Ohoshi-sama kira-kira
Kingin sunago
Goshiki no tanzaku
watashi ga kaita
Ohoshi-sama kirakira
sora kara miteiru

Translation :
The bamboo leaves rustle,
shaking away in the eaves.
The stars twinkle
on the gold and silver grains of sand.
The five-colour paper strips
I have already written.
The stars twinkle,
They watch us from heaven.

Tokyo flee markets

 

 

There are numerous flee markets in Tokyo that range from your local "car boot sale" type to more sophisticated antique markets.
Here are a few links to follow if you enjoy wondering around open air markets on a sunny day ...

Ginza and Tokyo Station area : Oedo Antique Market

A list of pottery markets around Tokyo and its region : Antique Pottery Market - Kanto

Japan National Tourism Organisation list

Tokyo Yokohama Information

Itsuki no komoriuta 五木の子守歌, a Japanese lullaby

The most common version :

おどま盆ぎり盆ぎり / Odoma bon giri bon giri
盆から先きゃおらんと / Bon kara sakya oran to
盆が早よくりゃ早よもどる / Bon ga hayoku rya hayo modoru

おどま勧進勧進 / Odoma kanjin kanjin
あん人たちゃよか衆 / An hito tachya yoka shû
よか衆ゃよか帯　よか着物 / Yoka shû yoka obi yoka kimono

to continue with the same tune ....

おどんがうっ死んだちゅうて
誰が泣てくりゅうか
うらの松山蝉が鳴く

おどんがうっ死んだら
道ばちゃいけろ
通る人ごち花あぎゅう

花はなんの花
つんつん椿
水は天からもらい水

The original version :

おどまいやいや
泣く子の守りにゃ
泣くといわれて憎まれる
泣くといわれて憎まれる

ねんねした子の
かわいさむぞさ
起きて泣く子の面憎さ
起きて泣く子の面憎さ

ねんねいっぺんゆうて
眠らぬ奴は
頭たたいて尻ねずむ
頭たたいて尻ねずむ

おどまお父つぁんな
あの山おらす
おらすともえば行こごたる
おらすともえば行こごたる

Keisuke Serizawa (芹沢 銈介) - Master of Japanese Folk Art and Crafts

Serizawa Keisuke was born on May 13, 1895 in Shizuoka City, the second son of a draper, Oishi Kakujiro. After graduating from Shizuoka Middle School, he entered Tokyo Higher Technical School (presently Tokyo Institute of Technology) and studied design. After graduation, he returned to Shizuoka. At the age of 22, in 1917, he married Serizawa Tayo and changed his family name to Serizawa.
　He taught industrial design at the Shizuoka Technical Laboratory and Shizuoka Industrial High School. But two factors made him decide to become a dyeing artist. First, he discovered the existence of the craft in an essay by Yanagi Muneyoshi, the leader of the “Mingei Movement” and who later taught Serizawa throughout his life. The second factor was the chance to see the characteristic “Bingata” dyeing technique from the Okinawa District, Where he was deeply attracted by its beauty.
　In 1929, he sent his first work “Shakushinamon Kabekake”(wall drape) to the Kokugakai Exhibition and won the Kokugakai Prize. He was also admitted as a member of this group for his remarkable creative activity. In 1934, he and his family moved to Kamata, Tokyo, at the suggestion of Yanagi and he began dyeing full-time.
　He went several times to Okinawa after 1939 to study “Bingata.” He improved on Bingata and other dyeing techniques by using “Katagami (stencil paper).” His new technique was called “Kataezome.” He sent many his “Kataezome” works throughout the world.
　Late in his life he won great popularity with the many personal exhibitions held in Japan and abroad. The 1976 exhibition “Serizawa” at the Grand Palais in Paris firmly established his fame above all.

Source : Shizuoka City Serizawa Keisuke Museum
Other links :  
Tohoku Fukushi Daigaku
Mingei Kan (Japanese Folk Art and Crafts Museum)

Dōjunkai apartments 同潤会アパート, Tokyo

Dōjunkai (shinjitai: 同潤会, kyūjitai: 同潤會) was a corporation set up a year after the 1923 Kantō earthquake to provide reinforced concrete (and thus earthquake- and fire-resistant) collective housing in the Tokyo area. Its formal name was Zaidan-hōjin Dōjunkai (財団法人同潤会), i.e. the Dōjunkai corporation. The suffix kai means organization, and dōjun was a term coined to suggest the spread of the nutritious benefit of the water of river and sea. It was overseen by the Home Ministry.
The corporation was in existence from 1924 through 1941; it was involved in construction between 1926 and 1934, primarily 1926–30, building 16 complexes. As of 2012, only one complex remains; it is mostly unoccupied, and expected to be demolished when the remaining residents accept buyouts from developers.

Read more ...

Source :  Wikipedia

Resident of last Dōjunkai laments passing of '20s icons

By EDAN CORKILL

"One of the members of the residents association once told me that we shouldn't talk to journalists, but I have nothing to lose now."

Helmut Rudolph was sitting on a low couch, surveying the interior of his tiny, 20-sq.-meter apartment. It seemed as though the lanky self-described German-New Zealander could reach out and touch the walls on all sides.

Despite these modest circumstances — and that warning about members of the fourth estate — Rudolph had invited The Japan Times to view his abode because it is in the last remaining example of a series of residential buildings that were once the pride of Japan's architectural fraternity: the Dojunkai apartments.

...

Consequently, the Dojunkai apartments — named after the public entity responsible for their construction — were made to last. They tended to be no more than four or five stories high, and comprised of "family-size" apartments like the one Rudolph rents — and, astonishing by today's standards, even smaller single-person units on the top floors.

The blocks were all of steel-and-concrete construction, and were often designed as quadrangles around a central courtyard or in U-shaped formations that gave them increased resistance to lateral shaking from earthquakes.

Yet, although the 15 buildings survived subsequent natural and man-made disasters (including the carpet- and fire-bombing during World War II), they have over the last few decades proved no match for a far more tenacious phenomenon: the economics of property development.

The most famous Dojunkai building of them all was located in Tokyo's swish central Shibuya Ward, where it once presented its low-rise, ivy-covered facade to a long stretch of leafy Omotesando boulevard. However, that iconic structure was demolished in 2003 to make way for a mega-development in the shape of Mori Building's Omotesando Hills.

By then, though, many of the other Dojunkai apartments had already succumbed to wrecking balls and, come 2009, the second-last of them — in the Nippori district of Tokyo's eastern Arakawa Ward — was leveled to make way for a high-rise apartment block.

And then there was one.

Read more ...

Source : The Japan Times Online

Other source : Death of the Dojunkai apartments

Love Tsumori Chisato

Born in the city of Saitama, Japan, Tsumori Chisato studied fashion at the prestigious Bunka Fashion School in Tokyo. In 1977, she entered the Issey Miyake design company as the head designer for “Issey Sports”, later renamed “I.S. Chisato Tsumori Design”. With this solid apprenticeship under her belt and at the encouragement of Mr. Miyake himself, Tsumori Chisato started her own line in 1990, a collection that made its catwalk debut in Tokyo at the Japan Fashion Week that same year.
Tsumori Chisato’s signature style was soon celebrated with her innovative and luxurious textiles, intricate beading, embroidery, appliqués and prints of her own design. Graceful, elegant and fun at the same time, Tsumori Chisato’s work has been greatly appreciated over the years. The prestigious “Maïnichi Newspaper Award” is just one of numerous prizes she has received in recognition of her design achievements.
Having always been proudly international at heart, with a particular penchant for all things French, she chose Paris as the destination for her first free-standing shop outside Asia.
The Christian Biecher designed boutique opened on rue Barbette in 1999. Situated in the heart of the Marais neighbourhood, the boutique showcases Tsumori Chisato’s love for the arts through collaborations with photographers, visual artists and set designers exhibited in the storefront. Her artistic sensibility is also translated throught the brand’s inventive advertising campaigns.
In 2003, Tsumori Chisato launched her first menswear line and began showing her women’s collection during Paris Prêt-à-Porter Fashion Week.
This same year she also began international worldwide distribution. Today, Tsumori Chisato has over 40 sales points and numerous freestanding stores throughout Asia and the brand continues to expand steadily throughout the United States, Italy, Russia and Scandinavia.

Source : tsumorichisato.com

Le monde de Kazumasa Nagai 永井一正 (1929〜)

Kazumasa Nagai, who was born in 1929 in Osaka, Japan, is an multiple poster award-winner, whose works are exhibited in many museums of modern art, among others: at MoMa in New York and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. The artist creates until now. His style evolved from presenting abstract forms to organic ones, animals and plants have become a frequent topic. He is true to the traditional graphical techniques and animals presented on the posters often have symbolic meaning and refer to the tradition of Japanese art. Kasumasa Nagai gives his animals an original form, often simplified and composed into vibrant colors. This is how the posters fulfill its role, conveying a clear message.

Source : Japanese Design
Other sources :
Animalarium
The Powerhouse Museum
Rob Dunlavey
I desire vintage posters

Guchol Strikes Japan

Japan approves 2 reactor restarts, more seen ahead

The Asahi Shinbun, June 16, 2012.

Japan on June 16 approved the resumption of nuclear power operations at two reactors despite mass public opposition, the first to come back on line after they were all shut down following the Fukushima crisis.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, his popularity ratings sagging, had backed the restarts for some time. He announced the government's decision at a meeting with key ministers, giving the go-ahead to two reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Co. at Oi in western Japan.
The decision, despite public concerns over safety after the big earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant, could open the door to more restarts among Japan's 50 nuclear power reactors.

read more ...

Eki-bento (Japanese train station bentos)

  

 From Tokyo to Kyoto with a "yasai tappuri bento" 野菜たっぷり弁当 ! Delicious.

Kikkoman's Soy Sauce Dispenser

Just 16 and recently released from a naval academy, Kenji Ekuan witnessed Hiroshima’s devastation from the train taking him home. “Faced with that nothingness, I felt a great nostalgia for human culture,” he recalled from the offices of G. K. Design, the firm he co-founded in Tokyo in 1952. “I needed something to touch, to look at,” he added. “Right then I decided to be a maker of things.”

One of the most enduring objects in his 60-year design career — which includes the Akita bullet train and Yamaha motorbikes — is the Kikkoman soy-sauce dispenser. Introduced in 1961, it has been in continuous production ever since. Traditional in its grace yet modern in its materials, the bottle’s design drew on Ekuan’s experiences at war’s end. The atomic blast killed his younger sister, and his father, a Buddhist priest, died of radiation-related illness a year later, prompting Ekuan to train briefly as a Buddhist monk in Kyoto.

But he quickly left that training behind, fascinated by the G.I.’s he saw roaming Japan’s ruins. In their jeeps and immaculately pressed gabardine trousers, they were like a “moving exhibition,” extolling the virtues of American invention. Ekuan pored over the newspaper cartoon “Blondie” for clues on American consumer culture. He enrolled at the National University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo, urging fellow students to give shape to a contemporary “Japanese lifestyle.”

It took three years for Ekuan and his team to arrive at the dispenser’s transparent teardrop shape. More than 100 prototypes were tested in the making of its innovative, dripless spout (based on a teapot’s, but inverted). The design proved to be an ideal ambassador. With its imperial red cap and industrial materials (glass and plastic), it helped timeless Japanese design values — elegance, simplicity and supreme functionality — infiltrate kitchens around the world.

More than 300 million dispensers have been sold, in more than 70 countries. In 2007, to mark its 50th year in the United States, Kikkoman issued a gold-capped version, and the company has also given souvenir bottles, bearing the image of Mickey Mouse, to groups of schoolchildren visiting the factory. But Ekuan’s original design persists.

“For me it represents not the new Japan, but the real Japan,” he says. “The shape is so gentle. Of course, during the war, we were forced into acting differently. But for a long time, some 1,000 years, the history of the Japanese people was very gentle.” 

By LESLIE CAMHI, June 15, 2012.

Source : The New York Times

Jōmon 縄文 - Dogū 土偶

Some of the most fascinating pottery ever made in Japan dates back to the Jomon period (about 10,000 BC to 300 BC). The open-pit fired large vessels had the most amazing decorative features and continue to inspire potters today, most notably the late Okabe Mineo, Mashiko's Shimaoka Tatsuzo, and Bizen's "kiln god" Mori Togaku.

In 1990, the Shigaraki Ceramic Park Museum hosted an exhibition entitled Primitivism in Contemporary Ceramics highlighting many Jomon works and how they relate to what's happening now. The grand flowing traditions of Japanese ceramic art thrive today due to the living presence and inspiration that past works impart. There is no now without the past and there is no future without the now.

Some of the most intriguing works from the Jomon period are clay figurines called dogu. There are many theories on what they were used for with the main agreement being they were a talisman for good health or safe childbirth. As many were excavated in fragments, it's believed that after the wish was fulfilled, or not, the dogu was broken and thrown on the trash heap; that's where many were discovered. Another theory is that these were goddesses to whom Jomon people prayed to for food and health. Other explanations are toys for children, funerary offerings, or objects used in some unknown ritual. And, of course, there are those who believe they were aliens from outer space. Yet, if you look at similar primitive artifacts from around the world (the Valdivia culture of Ecuador, for example) there is a certain resemblance that can't be explained in logical terms. It might have been part of the collective consciousness of the times though, or did earth in fact have space-suited visitors from a distant galaxy? This dogu sure seems to fit the match! 

Dogu were found all over Japan with northern Japan, the Tohoku region, yielding the most variety. Dogu first appeared in early Jomon but began to flourish in Middle Jomon through Late Jomon. (For a timeline outlining the development of Japanese pottery, please click here.) Many of them have the distinctive Jomon rope-cord patterns while others have been intricately carved with arabesque-like designs. Some in outer-space garb are known as the "goggles type" and no explanation is needed for that naming. Whatever the markings, they are all eerily moving and can't help but spark one's imagination in wondering about life so many thousand of years ago, and the miracle it is today.

As Joseph Campbell once wrote: "Take, for example, a pencil, ashtray, anything, and holding it before you in both hands (in this case looking at dogu), regard it for awhile. Forgetting its name and use, yet continuing to regard it, ask yourself seriously, What is it? Its dimension of wonder opens, for the mystery of the being of that thing is identical with the mystery of the being of the universe, and yourself."

Source : Japanese Pottery Information center
Link : Wikipedia

Future Beauty - 30 years of Japanese Fashion 2012.7.28 - 2012.10.8

Link : Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art

STUDIO MUMBAI at TOTO Gallery・MA 2012.7.12 - 2012.9.22

In the next event at TOTO GALLERY・MA, the specialty architecture and design gallery operated by the TOTO Ltd. , we present STUDIO MUMBAI: PRAXIS, an exhibition which focuses on STUDIO MUMBAI, the firm overseen by one of India’s foremost contemporary architects, Bijoy Jain.

After studying architecture at university in India using the traditional educational technique centering on the teachings of a single professor (or “guru”), Jain moved to the U.S. to study Western architectural theory. Then, after getting practical experience in firms in both the U.S. and the U.K., he established STUDIO MUMBAI in his hometown of Mumbai, and began his career as a full-fledged architect. Making use of traditional techniques that have been handed down from generation to generation in India, and incorporating the cultural climate of the area, Jain has continued to make works that are notable for their rich qualities and spatiality.

The work of STUDIO MUMBAI is distinguished by the fact that the entire process from preparing the lot to the design and construction of the building are carried out manually by a network of architects and skilled craftsmen. The studio’s workshop is staffed by approximately 120 highly capable, resident artisans (carpenters, stone-masons, ironsmiths, metal workers, and well-sinkers among them) from various regions of India who, under Jain’s direction, analyze topographic and climatic conditions, dig wells to ensure a source of water, and create architecture using locally-derived materials and construction methods.

The reliable technical prowess of these artisans, who possess a variety of traditional knowhow passed down to them orally from their ancestors, is indispensable in building structures that can withstand the relentless conditions of violent heat in the dry season and monsoons in the rainy season. Based on their wisdom and skill, the architecture that emerges under Jain’s deeply considered direction promises its users a comfortable life in the area and at the same time contains an abundance of poetic sentiment that harmonizes with the landscape.

Moreover, Jain furnishes the artisans with sketchbooks and provides them with drawing lessons. In effect, the workers who, never having received a formal education are fundamentally illiterate, study how to “design” a building as they continue their work every day. While serving as the architectural head of STUDIO MUMBAI, Jain is also the leader of an extraordinarily skilled group of people, and is both a noted director who drives their talents, and an educator who teaches through his buildings.

Through his relationships with researchers and architects throughout the world, Jain assimilates the latest knowledge and ideas. And by staying abreast of the current conditions in India through his research in various Indian cities, and continually engaging in dialogues with his craftsmen and partners, he maneuvers a diverse range of skills and techniques in the right direction in order to realize a genuine work of architecture backed by a clear philosophy.

According to Jain, the title of this exhibition, PRAXIS, signifies a human approach to a specific practice, nature or society, and as a word that corresponds to the abstract notion of “theory,” suggests the process that stretches from “idea” to “practice.” In light of the fact that STUDIO MUMBAI is an open-door community populated by those with a desire to creature architecture as they move back and forth between a variety of ideas and practices to attain the optimal goal, the word is also suggestive of the firm’s work and existence as a whole.

In this exhibition, materials, models, sketches, and mockups that were actually used at STUDIO MUMBAI will be transported from India and reconstructed in Japan’s capital in a presentation called “STUDIO MUMBAI in Tokyo.” Visitors will have an opportunity to experience the air, light, and sound of STUDIO MUMBAI with all of their senses, and experience the world that Jain has realized while enjoying documentary information on the entire journey of Praxis.

TOTO GALLERY・MA

 

Link : TOTO gallery - MA Studio

Suna no onna 砂の女 (La femme des sables), Techigahara Hiroxhi, 1964

The Woman in the Dunes (砂の女 Suna no onna, literally "Sand woman," also translated as The Woman of the Dunes) is a film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and released in 1964. The screenplay for the film was adapted by Kōbō Abe from his 1962 novel of the same name.

An entomologist, Junpei Niki (played in the film by Eiji Okada), is on an expedition to collect insects which inhabit sand dunes. When he misses the last bus, villagers suggest he stay the night. They guide him down a rope ladder to a house in a sand quarry where a young widow (Kyoko Kishida) lives alone. She is employed by the villagers to dig sand for sale and to save the house from burial in the advancing sand.
When Junpei tries to leave the next morning, he finds the ladder removed. The villagers inform him that he must help the widow in her endless task of digging sand. Junpei initially tries to escape; upon failing he takes the widow captive but is forced to release her in order to receive water from the villagers.
Junpei becomes the widow's lover. However, he still desperately wants to leave. One morning, he escapes from the sand dune and starts running while being chased by the villagers. Junpei is not familiar with the geography of the area and eventually gets trapped in some quicksand. The villagers free him from the quicksand and then return him back to the widow.
Eventually, Junpei resigns himself to his fate. Through his persistent effort to trap a crow as a messenger, he discovers a way to draw water from the damp sand at night. He thus becomes absorbed in the task of perfecting his technology and adapts to his "trapped" life. The focus of the film shifts to the way in which the couple cope with the oppressiveness of their condition and the power of their physical attraction in spite of — or possibly because of — their situation.
At the end of the film Junpei gets his chance to escape, but he chooses to prolong his stay in the dune. A report after seven years declaring him missing is then shown hanging from a wall, written by the police and signed by his mother Shino.

Eiji Okada – Entomologist Niki Junpei
Kyōko Kishida – Woman
Hiroko Ito – Entomologist's wife (in flashbacks)
Koji Mitsui
Sen Yano
Kinzo Sekiguchi

Source : Wikipedia

Bingata: Colors and Shapes of the Ryukyu Dynasty 2012.6.13 - 2012.7.22

SUNTORY MUSEUM OF ART / BINGATA:

Colors and shapes of the ryukyu dynasty commemorating the 40th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa to Japan.

Bingata is a textile dyed with a technique created in Okinawa for clothing used by specific classes of Ryukyu-society, including royal and Shizoku families. The assortment of shapes created using paper patterns combines with unique Ryukyu colors to demonstrate the delightful capabilities of katazome (stencil dyeing). This exhibition presents superb examples of bingata, including some of the finest bingata dress made for the Ryukyu royal family, and also has the first public showing of the Matsuzakaya collection.

 

link: The Suntory Museum Tokyo

Hillside Terrace by Maki Fumihiko

Maki's Hillside Terrace

by Fumihiko Maki 

The Hillside Terrace project, a medium-density mixed-use development of apartments, shops, restaurants, and cultural facilities, took exactly 25 years from the first plans I drew in 1967 to the completion of its sixth phase in 1992. Although I have designed buildings and complexes far greater in physical scale over the past several decades, no other project has occupied my thoughts so continuously over time as Hillside Terrace has.

The flow of time can be measured against its diverse buildings and their relationship to the city of Tokyo as it grew to envelop them. Changes in the project's architectural character, materiality, and expression from phase to phase also reflect shifts in my own consciousness with the passage of time.

The opportunity to design Hillside Terrace — a commission I received almost immediately after setting up my architectural practice in Tokyo — was my first chance to confront the idea of modern architecture engaging, even creating, its urban context.

Though I was unaware of it at that time, the project would bring me a deeper understanding of the "collective form" phenomenon that had fascinated me in my early years of architectural study, strengthening the notion that architecture and cities share a distinct relationship to time.

In the mid-1960s, the Daikanyama district still retained traces of the wooded hills for which the greater Musashino region was once known. After each rain, the air was heavily laden with earthy scents. Zelkova trees rose high over the low townscape. Downtown Tokyo, though geographically close, was still perceived as a distant place.

It was in this context that my clients, the Asakura family, who for many generations had owned a 250-meter- (850-foot-) long strip of land along Daikanyama's main road, asked me to design a number of apartments and shops to be built in separate phases. I was still in my late thirties when I started on Hillside Terrace, and I felt quite fortunate to be given the opportunity to design several buildings on a single site at that age.

I realized that in designing a group of buildings, I could also generate exterior public spaces of a particular character.

Spatial character usually determines what is public in the city. A metropolis can provide overwhelming spaces unavailable in small cities or villages. However, public spaces in cities do not exist just for crowds or communities; they are also places that allow people to enjoy solitude.

Our urban spaces become much richer when there are many different layers of public spaces and meanings. In a metropolis, people take strolls, just as people in the countryside go to mountains or rivers; in that way, they are able to establish a special, spatial relationship between themselves and portions of the city.

The extent to which streets and other public spaces suitable for walking are provided can be considered an effective index in determining the quality of urbanity in a city. Sadly, the contemporary city is being gradually divested of such public character.

There are certain limits to the types of spaces that an architect can provide; at best, the spaces they design can form a relationship with parts of the city bordering on the site to create landscapes that many people can share. Cities like Tokyo today possess few standards of urban form.

Architects are required to create new landscapes in an urban environment full of heterogeneous elements. The challenge is the same whether the project in question is a single building or a complex of buildings: the creation of topos in the city through the medium of landscape.

Looking back, I believe that the process that led from Hillside Terrace's first phase to the sixth phase suggests not only the changes in our notion of public space and the evolution of modernism, but also what I would call "the landscape of time."

The singular sense of place that people strolling among the various buildings and outdoor spaces of Hillside Terrace feel is no accident. It is the result of a deliberate design approach that has created continuous unfolding sequences of spaces and views, taking advantage of the site's natural topography and, indeed, enhancing it with subtle shifts in the architectural ground plane.

The various green areas, plazas, sunken gardens, exterior stairs, sidewalks, and transparent entrance halls are interconnected by views to one another, giving an impression of substantial depth and extent across the site.

One does not physically experience urban space by simply gazing at buildings or looking at them from above — space is experienced only through sequential movement. Like music, movement in space can be a source of elemental joy, something to which one can give oneself up entirely.

At Hillside Terrace, long views pass through multiple spatial boundaries created by topography, stairs, roads, trees, and low walls. Several possible loops are offered for passage through the site and back to the street, and glimpses of greenery seen around the corner are just as important as fully transparent views for suggesting a path.

Although their architectural expression has varied in response to the times, the buildings of phases one through six share a consistent scale of massing, using a combination of staggered, cubical volumes, generally one and two stories tall, with apartment blocks frequently lifted above street level on transparent and/or recessed ground-floor volumes.

Several unifying spatial elements, such as corner entrances and interior stairs echoing exterior topography, are repeated in different guises to create a sense of continuous townscape while allowing localized variations.

Within such an evolving framework, I have viewed each individual building design from the perspective of its urban presence and meaning — aiming to discover in this process a modern language for the creation of group form.

source: www.architectureweek.com

other links:
Maki and associates
www.hillsideterrace.com

TEMA HIMA TEN

From April 27, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT will present a new exhibition "TEMA HIMA: the Art of Living in Tohoku." It is a follow-up to last July's special program "THE SPIRIT OF TOHOKU: 'CLOTHING' BY ISSEY MIYAKE" held in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake. This exhibition will focus on the "foods and living spaces" of the Tohoku region as seen through the eyes of graphic designer Taku Satoh and product designer Naoto Fukasawa, two of the three directors of 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT (Issey Miyake is the third).
"Time," a concept that is often ignored in the modern pursuit for efficiency, is a value that still lives on with the making things of the Tohoku region. The people toil steadily as they wait for the long hard winters to pass. They live humble lives, close to nature harvesting and preparing their materials with the changing seasons. The process of "TEMA (effort)" and "HIMA (time)" is one worthy of attention particularly in the context of design for the future. How can we learn from the distinctive character, charm, and above all, philosophy shaped by Tohoku's "TEMA HIMA" of making things and use this as a stepping stone for tomorrow?
To prepare for the exhibition, a team of designers, a food director, a journalist, film artists, and a photographer delved into the rich tradition in the "foods and living spaces" of the six Tohoku prefectures. Farmers who pass on their unique traditions; craftsmen, who breathe life back into handcrafts; workshops with young talents to examine new possibilities for making things... Our encounters with the determined and positive people of Tohoku bore fruit as a single exhibition.
The exhibition will introduce the Tohoku region's unique version of making things, "TEMA HIMA foods and living spaces" throug items of 55 genres as well as all-new footage and photographs. It will feature graphics designed by Taku Satoh and a space designed by Naoto Fukasawa. The goal will be to identify keys to the future of design by looking into the wealth of wisdom and creative ingenuity within the collective culture and spirit of the people of Tohoku.

source : 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

Escaping to Kyoto

Serizawa Keisuke
1895 - 1984. Textile designer and dyer. Another champion of the Mingei movement, and a pioneer in stencil dyeing, who joined the Mingei Movement after reading a paper by Yanagi in 1925. Designated a Living National Treasure in 1956. His work drew much inspiration from the "bingata" dyeing process of Okinawa.   

source : Mingei kan, Tokyo

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Cesium exceeding new limit detected in 51 food items in nine prefectures

Kyood

Radioactive cesium was detected in 51 food products from nine prefectures in excess of a new government-set limit in the first month since it was introduced April 1, according to data released by the health ministry Tuesday.

The limit was exceeded in 337 cases, or 2.4 percent of 13,867 food samples examined by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

Cesium exceeding the previous allowable limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram was detected in 55 cases, while the new limit of 100 becquerels was exceeded in 282 cases.

By prefecture, there were 142 cases in Fukushima, 69 in Tochigi, 41 in Ibaraki, 35 in Iwate, 32 in Miyagi, 13 in Chiba, two each in Yamagata and Gunma, and one in Kanagawa.

Mushrooms and other agricultural products containing cesium in excess of the tougher limit were involved in 178 cases, while 156 cases pertained to fishery products such as flat fish and bass. In addition, two cases involved black bear meat and one case fried "moroko" fresh water fish.

source : The Japan Times Online

Fukushima Update

 

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Urgent Request to Prime Minister Noda

May 1, 2012

To:  Yoshihiko Noda, Prime Minister of Japan

An Urgent Request on UN Intervention on Stabilization of the Fukushima Unit 4 Spent Nuclear Fuel

Recently, former diplomats and experts both in Japan and abroad stressed the extremely risky condition of the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool and this is being widely reported by world media. Robert Alvarez, Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), who is one of the best-known experts on spent nuclear fuel, stated that in Unit 4 there is spent nuclear fuel which contains Cesium-137 (Cs-137) that is equivalent to 10 times the amount that was released at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Thus, if an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain, this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire.

source : Fukushima Update

Cartes et plans de Tokyo à l'époque d'Edo

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Le résultat des élections présidentielles au Japon (premier tour)

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Source : Aujourd'hui le Japon

Rencontre avec un liquidateur de Fukushima : « C’est l’enfer »

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ZOOM JAPON (avril 2012)

 

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"Pour répondre à l'intérêt croissant des lecteurs francophones à l'égard du Japon, l'équipe du journal OVNI s'est mobilisée et a décidé de créer un nouveau mensuel gratuit : ZOOM Japon.

Vingt pages réalisées avec le même esprit qui anime depuis 30 ans la rédaction d'OVNI, c'est-à-dire offrir l'essentiel de l'actualité japonaise au Japon et en France avec un souci de clarté et le désir de montrer ce qu'est le Japon du moment."

Exposition "One Piece"

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"One Piece Exhibition: Original Art × Movies × Experience One Piece"

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the popular "Weekly Shonen Jump" manga "One Piece", the Mori Art Center Gallery is collaborating with its illustrator and writer Eiichiro Oda for a special exhibition that is sure to please fans.

The manga follows the adventures of a teenage boy, Monkey D. Luffy, and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, as he searches for the "One Piece," a special treasure that will allow him to inherit the status of King of the Pirates.

This exhibition showcases an eclectic collection of original art, large character models and interactive attractions, and includes brand-new never-before-seen artwork from Oda; till June 17.

Info:

Mori Arts Center Gallery; (03) 5777-8600; 52F Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Tokyo; 4-min. walk from Exit 3 of Roppongi Station, Toei Oedo Line, 8-min. walk from Exit 4 of Azabu Juban Station, Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line. 10 a.m.- 8 p.m., Wed.-Mon. (Tue. till 5 p.m.). ¥1,800. Closed Wed

By Henry Wong

source : The Japan Times 

En français, voir  l'article de ZOOM JAPON (Avril 2012)

Deux sites consacrés à sur Ozu Yasujiro

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家族 (Kazoku, Yamada Yoji, 1970)

LEAD: 

Yoji Yamada's ''Where Spring Comes Late'' is an epic about one man's family's journey to discover the new Japan. They are Seiichi Kazami, a young, out-of-work coal miner; Tamiko, his wife; their two small children, and Genzo, Seiichi's old father.

Yoji Yamada's ''Where Spring Comes Late'' is an epic about one man's family's journey to discover the new Japan. They are Seiichi Kazami, a young, out-of-work coal miner; Tamiko, his wife; their two small children, and Genzo, Seiichi's old father.

With high hopes and borrowed funds, the Kazamis set out from their village in southern Japan to become dairy-farming pioneers on the northern island of Hokkaido. In 1970, when the film was made, Hokkaido, to most Japanese, was still a chilly, unknown land, an underpopulated frontier territory.

''Where Spring Comes Late'' opens today at the Public Theater as part of the current retrospective devoted to the films of Shochiku Studios.

At first, everything is splendidly new and promising to the Kazamis. They pass through bustling Nagasaki, the largest city any of them have ever seen, and move on to Fukuyama, on the Inland Sea, where they expect to leave old Genzo with Seiichi's brother. In the course of one edgy night with the brother's family, during which everyone is crowded into a tiny house filled with tense adults and noisy children, Seiichi and Tamiko realize that they'll have to take Grandpa with them.

They continue, changing trains at Osaka where they spend a few marvelous, exhausting hours at Osaka's Expo 70, before proceeding to Tokyo. It is there that events turn grim and the scheme of the movie begins to show. In a movie of this sort, one death is acceptable and two suggest a plague.

In its first half, ''Where Spring Comes Late'' has a lot of the grit, pathos and humor of an Italian neo-realist comedy of the late 1950's. Even the ample soundtrack music sounds Italian, though with a Japanese intonation. After Tokyo, as the Kazamis journey farther and farther north, the movie seems to melt into upbeat sentimentality.

Mr. Yamada, who wrote and directed ''Where Spring Comes Late,'' was considered one of Japan's most promising new directors in the late 1960's, but then became sidetracked, to his own immense financial gain, by the hugely popular series of ''Tora-san'' comedies.

His talent is certainly evident in ''Where Spring Comes Late.'' The film is handsomely shot in Cinemascope (called ''Shochiku Grandscope'' in my credits), which Japanese film makers used with a poetic authority not matched by directors anywhere else in the world. The large cast, including Chishu Ryu as Genzo, performs with reticent skill.

As long as it is attending to the commonplace details of family life, ''Where Spring Comes Late'' has real power. As soon as it begins to attend to its epic concerns, the film itself becomes commonplace.

By Vincent Canby (November 18, 1988)

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Exposition Itō Chūta (伊藤 忠太)

 

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Itō Chūta (伊東忠太) (1867–1954) was a Japanese architect, architectural historian, and critic. He is recognized as the leading architect and architectural theorist of early twentieth-century Imperial Japan.

Second son of a doctor in Yonezawa, present-day Yamagata Prefecture, Itō was educated in Tokyo. From 1889 to 1892 he studied under Tatsuno Kingo in the Department of Architecture at the Imperial University. Josiah Conder was still teaching in the department, while Ernest Fenollosa and Okakura Kakuzō were also influential in the formation of Itō's ideas. For graduation he designed a Gothic cathedral and wrote a dissertation on architectural theory. His doctoral thesis was on the architecture of Hōryū-ji. He was professor of architecture at the Imperial University from 1905, then of Waseda University from 1928.

Itō travelled widely, to the Forbidden City with photographer Ogawa Kazumasa in 1901 and subsequently, after fourteen months in China, to Burma, India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Europe and the United States. Later he was involved in the planning of Chōsen Jingū in Seoul and a survey of the monuments of Jehol in Manchukuo. He incorporated elements of the diverse architectural styles he encountered in his many writings and approximately one hundred design projects.

Itō helped formulate the Ancient Temples and Shrines Preservation Law of 1897, an early measure to protect the Cultural Properties of Japan. He is also credited with coining the Japanese term for architecture, namely kenchiku (建築) (lit. 'erection of buildings') in place of the former zōkagaku (造家学) (lit. 'study of making houses'). A member of The Japan Academy, in 1943 he was awarded the Order of Culture. Itō has more recently been criticised, with specific reference to his writings on Ise Grand Shrine, for having 'blurred a religio-political discourse with an architectural discourse'.

source