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Swallowing The "Disney Of Japan": Osamu Tezuka's Dark Descent
Tezuka's post-Astro Boy stamp of approval. Via.The year was 1968. Faced with the end of Astro Boy’s run and declining sales, iconic Japanese animator and manga artist Osamu Tezuka, often called the...
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Flirting With Japan, Donald Richie's Mistress Muse
Richie smitten in Tokyo in the 50s. Via.Donald Richie, the noted critic of Japanese culture and film, compares the experience of the expatriate to a man in an affair. First, infatuation: everything is...
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Once a Thing of the West, These Dishes Are Now As Japanese As Sushi
Mmm: Matcha Marble Castella Cake (plus recipe)! Via.Few bite into a Taco Bell burrito under the impression they are enjoying an authentic Mexican dish. McDonald’s fries do little to suggest French...
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Distributing Cures To The Developing World: Japan's Barrier Breaking Global...
You won’t hear of a Walk for Chagas Disease. There is no Leprosy Awareness Month. Malaria is the distant scourge of adventurers and jungle explorers.While almost relics of a bygone time to many in the...
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Cosmic Womb With A View: Mariko Mori's 'White Hole'
Video teaser of Mariko Mori's White Hole.From the absence of light, energy is reborn into the universe, though maybe not this one. So goes the poetic, circular and interdimensional theory of white...
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A Play Is Born: 'Our Planet' Emerges From Beyond The Fourth Wall
Japan Society's reflecting pool: garnering primordial oohs since 1971.An actor steps into the reflecting pool near the back of the lobby of Japan Society’s landmarked building. It’s the kind of thing...
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The Mascot Games: 2013 Edition
Sanomaru (right) making alliances before the win. Via.A ramen-haired samurai beat out some 1500 competitors in this year's Yuru-Kyara Grandprix--Japan's annual mascot battle royale. It what could be a...
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Destination JS: A Suite Of Japanese Sweets From Katagiri
Via.Destination JS explores the sites, shops, and eateries surrounding Japan Society or specializing in Japanese goods.Pocky and green tea ice cream are all very well. I’ll even grant you Hi-Chews. But...
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Sword Unconcealed: The Martial Legacy Of The Samurai
Kendo. Via.It was 1877, and the samurai were in trouble. According to Stephen Burnbull's The Samurai Swordsman: Master of War, Saigo Takamori, the leader of the last great samurai rebellion against the...
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Merlin, Madagascar, and Mori: The Mystic Road to Stonehenge
Mystic origins of the cosmically synced Transcircle 1.1. Jacquetta Hawkes, the British archaeologist and writer, once stated, “Every age has the Stonehenge it deserves—or desires.” I don’t know which...
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Learning Japanese at Japan Society: Laughter, Culture & Connection
In late August, Japan Society appointed Tomoyo Kamimura as the second-ever director of its Language Center, which opened in 1972 with a single class, and has grown into one of the nation's most...
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JAPAN CUTS Genre Genetics: Diversifying the DNA of Japanese Film
Snow White Murder Case© 2014 “Snow White Murder Case” Production Committee“Film genre in Japan could, and often is, thought of in terms of the nation’s much discussed ‘Galápagos syndrome,’” said Joel...
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DEEP CUTS: The Head and Heart of JAPAN CUTS 2014
© 2013 “Pecoross’ Mother and Her Days” Production CommitteeA selection of films from JAPAN CUTS 2014 (through July 20) provides deep, illuminating commentary on contemporary Japanese society, from...
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Japan and Working Women: The Swelling Wave of Abe’s 'Womenomics'
Via The Economist.The situation of working women has been tenuous in Japan, which ranked 103 out of 136 countries in World Economic Forum's 2013’s Global Gender Gap Report. This is due in part to...
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Taiko Drumming: The Whole Body Pulse of Japan's Resounding 'Heartbeat'
Does Kodo have a workout video? Image via.Learning an instrument is a physical challenge as much as a musical one, from proper finger placement on guitar, to shoulder and back strength for cello, to...
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Seeds of 'Unearthly Delights': teamLab's Digital Garden
teamLab's immersive, interactive art, part of of Japan Society's' fall exhibition Garden of Unearthly Delights.TeamLab is a collective of around 300 individuals specializing in various areas such as...
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Meticulously Monumental: Manabu Ikeda’s Dedication to Perfection
Manabu Ikeda attends to details. Via.The wave rises. Uprooted buildings, destroyed planes, and derailed trains follow. A giant glacier is swept along, rope-tethered climbers working to scale the...
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Facing Forward, Looking Back: Hisashi Tenmyouya’s 'Street-Samurai' Style
Detail of Tenmyouya's Rhyme.Hisashi Tenmyouya is a man of many styles. He’s a rebel and an innovator, doing his best to express the diversity of Japanese culture through art.“Japanese culture has been...
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Kaiseki Cuisine: An Haute Smorgasbord of High-class Healthiness
Kaiseki: A mega-sampler platter. ViaThe dishes keep coming one after another. Smoked duck breast with chrysanthemum sauce, sashimi, crab, pumpkin and butternut squash soup–and the meal still isn’t even...
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Japan's Monsters Inc.: Getting To Know Obake, Yokai & Yurei
Just a few of Japan's inimitable collection of supernatural creatures Illustration by Ben Warren.Compare America's werewolves, vampires, ghosts, witches, and zombies to Japan’s abundance of...
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