Each Moment, Only Once: The Paintings of Herbert Sax

Practicing brush movement in ink allows me, even nowadays, to re-connect in meditative gestures to the unknown stream of life in my being, and gradually over the last fifteen years, I have also expanded this ability to paint intuitively in colour – and this process is still ongoing.

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Mark Edward-Harris: The Way of the Japanese Bath

Mark Edward Harris onsen Japanese bath Kyoto Journal photography

“My first Japanese hot spring experience in Beppu, a town often shrouded in water vapor on the southern island of Kyushu, converted me into a furo-holic (bath-aholic) in the early 1990s. Two decades later, I still find the magical waters an endless source of both visual and visceral pleasure.”

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The Art of Neuroscience: Greg Dunn

Synaptogenesis Neuropore

While completing his doctorate in neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, Greg Dunn was elated to realize that he could fuse his passion for neuroscience and Asian art together…

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Look How Far the Sun Fell

magda rittenhouse shanghai kyoto journal

Bathwater swallowed the tube with a nervous plop and the ripples lapped gently at Yasi’s stiffening chest. The once comforting smell of tobacco was swiftly replaced by the tang of burning hair and he could not fight through the powerful clench of his jaws to scream…

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Chiemi Ogura: Bamboo Craftswoman

Chiemi Ogura bamboo craftswoman Kyoto photo by Irwin Wong

Chiemi weaves her intricate bamboo jewellery from her inner-west Kyoto home studio. Everything step is done by her and by hand, from cutting strips from raw, Kyoto-sourced stalks, to the final dying that washes the pieces in unique wine, turquoise, and emerald shades.

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Talking Yunnan

Baihualing-yunnan

KJ’s director Lucinda Cowing spoke to Matt Dagher-Margosian, CEO at Asia Art Tours (www.asiaarttours.com), about Yunnan Province, China, where both have spent considerable time. Bordering Tibet to the north, Myanmar to the West and Vietnam to the South, the region has been exposed to the cultures of continent in ways that the rest of the…

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A Distant Flickering Light: The Hibakusha Peace Movement

The Hibakusha Peace Movement

Mrs. Koko Kondo showing the manuscript written by her father, Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, that inspired John Hersey’s classic, Hiroshima. Do you think the Hibakusha are still important? They are still very important. This is because those individuals of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only humans who have ever experienced and survived a nuclear bombing. That…

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Kimono Style – A Guide

Kimono Style - A Guide

Guest post by Martin McKellar I respect the versatility of traditional Japanese kimono. What could give more convenience than a sleeve, the end of which serves as a pocket? How many times have I had to wrestle an item out of my front pocket while I sit scrunched up in the car in traffic? The…

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The Great Vacancy (Part II)

The Great Vacancy 11

Having caught a glimpse of Takata’s future, I decided to take action…But should I, as an outsider who arrived in this community some six years ago, continue to pursue this work while members of the community are pursuing their own interests and doing little to help out?

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Reflections on the Singapore Summit: An Interview with Lee Jae-bong

Reflections on the Singapore Summit: An Interview with Lee Jae-bong

This interview with Lee Jae-bong, a Professor of Peace Studies of Wonkwang University, South Korea, was conducted in the early afternoon of June 12, 2018 while the United States-North Korean Summit was taking place in Singapore. Would you please express your overall view of the significance of the Singapore Summit, which is being conducted as…

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Ayano Tsukimi’s “Kakashi-no-Sato”

Kakashi-no-Sato

Around 15 years ago Tsukimi made a scarecrow (kakashi) to protect her vegetable garden, basing it on her father’s appearance. Her neighbors enjoyed this whimsical inspiration, and since then she has continued to make these figures, many of them based on present or former village residents…

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Exploring Shiga: The Sacred Sites of Otsu

Ukimido Shiga 1

KJ’s Hirisha Mehta and Lisa Nilsson were hosted by Yukiko Reis at Biwako Visitors Bureau on an excursion of Otsu’s most important sacred sites, ahead of KJ’s Autumn/Winter issue: “Devotion.”   Situated on the south-western shores of Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest freshwater lake, Otsu is the capital of the scenic Shiga prefecture and the best…

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Toyama: The Venice of the East

Toyama-ken Gogoku Shrine-min

In May this year, KJ’s Maithilee Jadeja and Minechika Endo joined the 23rd ‘Mizu no Miyako: Toyama Shuzai no Tabi,’ an annual press tour of Toyama City organized by Good Luck Toyama, in the company of journalists and photographers from around Japan. Located on Honshu island’s Japan Sea coast and just under 3 hours away…

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The Art of Island Time

Walking Ark, on Ogijima by Keisuke Yamaguchi

One element that visitors must not lose sight of when they attend the Setouchi Triennale is that the showcasing of art is almost secondary, or rather a “hook” in order to showcase the islands themselves. The goal is to raise awareness about the dire effects that depopulation has had on those insular communities that used to play a very important role in the social and economic fabric of this part of Japan

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