16 April 2015
Thanks to the ever growing popularity of Japanese cuisine worldwide, miso soup is well-known- however, the real value of miso is still not very much appreciated yet in the UK. Miso (a fermented paste made from soybeans), is so versatile that it can be used as a base seasoning in variety of dishes- not just in soup- as a sauce, dressing and even marinade.
7 April 2015
This third edition of The Anime Encyclopedia brings the landmark reference work up to date with six additional years of information on Japanese animation, its practitioners and products, as well as incisive thematic entries on anime history and culture. Helen McCarthy summarised the book’s genesis, its main aims, and share some of the stories it has accumulated along the way to its third shelf-shattering edition of over a million words.
11 February 2015
The connection between tea and suzuri (ink-stones for calligraphy) makes itself evident through calligraphy scrolls displayed in a tea house. Timothy d’Offay from Postcard Teas and Teruo Kurosaki, an influential figure in contemporary design, introduced these two examples of artisanal masterpieces from Japan.
3 December 2014
The practice of Takahiro Ueda is interdisciplinary, recalling a scientific researcher observing natural phenomena: atoms, chemical elements, sound vibrations, weather and environmental changes. His work is realised in collaboration with teams of experts including quartz miners, scientists and engineers.
13 October 2014
Ei Arakawa started the UNITED BROTHERS art collective with his brother Tomoo Arakawa in 2011. Their purpose is a mediation between the reality of Fukushima (where they were born) and the reality of the international art world at large. UNITED BROTHERS created the Green Tea Gallery, and is participating in the new Live Section of this year’s Frieze Art Fair with their new work Does This Soup Taste Ambivalent? Arakawa discussed this new performance of giving away soup containing an ingredient grown in Fukushima.
15 July 2014
One of the most important imports from Japan in the world of performing arts in the last half century has been the dance form butoh, which has shocked and captivated audiences around the globe. However, it appears that contact with Europe and America was changing butoh in significant ways.
2 June 2014
The shared attitude of young Japanese artists in the 2000s was to turn elements of their surroundings, such as news, society, culture and nature, into tools that can be freely incorporated into their artwork. In a complex time when it is hard to understand current situations or social structures, this must be the process to form a new reality.
30 May 2014
Shuji Terayama (1935-1983) is known outside Japan mainly as the writer-director of Fellini-esque films such as Death in the Country and Farewell to the Ark. In his own country, it was his poetry that thrust him into the national consciousness at the age of eighteen. His experimental theatre troupe, formed in 1967, cemented his status as a leading figure in the boundary-challenging cultural ferment of the time.
15 May 2014
A Thousand Cranes theatre company was founded in 2006 by performer Kumiko Mendl and director Vicky Ireland MBE. Combining Vicky’s lifelong passion for children’s theatre and interest in Japan with Kumiko’s childhood memories of living there, they decided to create a company dedicated to bringing the many fascinating stories, artists and culture of Japan to young audiences in the UK.
9 October 2013
In early modern Japan, 1600-1900, thousands of sexually explicit works of art were produced, known as ‘spring pictures’ (‘shunga’). Tim Clark is currently curating a major ‘shunga’ exhibition at the British Museum, which celebrates this often tender, funny and beautiful erotic art-form, produced by some of the great masters of Japanese art such as Utamaro and Hokusai. Showing some key works from the exhibition, Tim explored important questions about what is ‘shunga’, how it circulated and to whom, and why it was produced.
