Japan! Culture + Hyperculture @ the Kennedy Center

In the eyes of a Westerner, all those things that make the Japanese culture so intriguing -- the mastery of complex technologies, the embrace of natural elements and environmental sustainability, the obsession over all things "cute" -- are on display in interactive exhibits throughout the Kennedy Center in Japan! Culture + Hyperculture. Filling the inside halls and spilling over to the exterior grounds and even the parking garage, the exhibition gives us a taste of many art forms, from visual art exhibits and theater, to Manga reading rooms and collections of robot toys. Except for a few ticketed performances, the exhibit is otherwise free, running daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Feb. 17.

Japan! eases you in with a couple of interesting but tame exhibits on the Foyer Main Level. The Hall of States holds a few lacquer sculptures by Nobuyuki Tanaka. These orange bowl shapes, which shine so brilliantly they seem nearly to glow in the dark, are made by layering linen and lacquer over a wood form, which is later removed. Over in the Hall of Nations, the intricate textile work of Motoko Maio is showcased with her byobu, or folding screens.

Although the strange lighting on this exhibit is likely on purpose -- the screens are canvases for nature scenes that incorporate the highlights and shadows of the natural fibers -- it's done a bit too harshly, leaving much of her work in the dark. But what you can see is dramatic, with gorgeous pieces of lacquered paper, crushed shells, and even antique kimonos woven together on these screens that fold in both directions, changing the scope of the landscape.

The Hall of States also features part of Robotica Rising, with a beautiful Japanese "woman" (actually named Actroid DER2) in a kimono that answers questions posed by visitors with its "cutting-edge" voice recognition technology. Don't linger, as the best of the robots are upstairs, and this one seems to be a favorite with the kids -- during a visit over the weekend, a group of them dominated the microphone with ungrammatical questions the robot struggled to answer.

The Terrace Level is where all the real action is. Turn your geek on hyperdrive as you enter the Nations Gallery, where the rest of Robotica Rising is on display. Mitsubishi's "Wakamaru," a two and a half foot yellow robot that kind of looks like a giant Lego person, shakes hands and attempts to perform other easy movements if you can pronounce Japanese well enough from the cards provided. Just past Wakamaru, gape in awe at the collection of Jumbo Machinders behind glass, loaned to the exhibition by American Matt Alt, who began collecting the large robot toys when he was young and was, as a result, inexorably absorbed by Japanese culture (he now lives in Japan). The toys -- which include Voltron and Godzilla -- are characters from "kids shows about heroic humans who piloted giant robots."

Here you'll also find a Manga and Anime reading lounge (yes, many of the items are for sale) and tables set up for demonstrations of smaller robots that kick balls and do somersaults. Stick around the Nations Gallery for the 15 minute performance of Honda's ASIMO (pictured above) or Toyota's Partner Robot, who has lips so human-like it can play the trumpet. The shows are daily (and free) and performance times are listed on TV screens near the stage. Though our "what's awesome in reality" scale might be slightly twisted by seeing so much CGI in movies, watching the four foot tall ASIMO actually pick up his feet and run across the stage is still pretty amazing. Get there at least 20 minutes beforehand to get a good spot.

Now that Japan! has warmed you up to have your mind blown a little bit, step into Dots Obsession, a visual art installation by Yayoi Kusama. Abused as a child, Kusama embraced obsession-inspired work to keep her sanity. She worked for many years in the U.S., creating avant-garde visual and performance art, but now lives voluntarily in an institution in Tokyo, leaving only to create more work. The two rooms of Dots Obsession, one with black dots on yellow walls (Day), the other yellow on black (Night), are hidden at opposite ends of the Atrium Foyer, making some visitors pause at the intensity and consider if they might be losing their minds just a little bit, which is, of course, the best part. Kusama's text at the entrance says:

...I created this work with the wish that peace and love would continue to exist forever in the universe, which is filled with polka dot forms. The Earth is one, and so are the stars, the sun and the moon...I have stood between the pleasure and fear of filling the void of my heart with ever so infinite dots obsession and I feel elated all over my body.These exhibits comprise barely half the exhibition. Koi kites, costume displays, photography exhibits, and more fill the Kennedy Center, and during your wanderings, you may stumble across ancient Japanese drum performances, an impromptu robot demo, and who knows what else. Check out the events listing for more information, including ticketed shows.

Photo of Honda's ASIMO robot by Kyle Gustafson. Photo of interior of Dots Obsession -- Day by Techne.

Understanding Japan Through Its Cartoons

February 13, 2008

What kind of world do we live in when the Japan Society dedicates three months to "The Genius of Japanese Lacquer" and only four days to its amazing "Dawn of Japanese Animation" film series? Between today and Saturday, the Society will present dozens of short animated Japanese films made in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s for the first time in America, with English subtitles.

Many of the films will be accompanied by the live narration of Midori Sawato, Japan's most renowned benshi (live narrator), giving them the feel of loopy bedtime stories. Each day of the retrospective is devoted to a different genre, capped by a similarly themed live-action movie: Wednesday night is dedicated to "Chambara Action & Adventure"; "Horror & Comedy" unspools on Thursday; "Propaganda" is set for Friday, and on Saturday, it's all "Music & Dance."

Though animation arrived in Japan in 1907, Japan Society's series picks up with the second wave of animators. Japanese animation embodied the spirit of the Taisho era, when Japan was sucking up trends and ideas — two of them being socialism and animation — from overseas, then custom fitting them to Japanese culture.

The shorts in this series exhibit the same fascination with anthropomorphic animals that Walt Disney and Max Fleischer had, leavened with a near-pathological obsession with tanukis. These shape-shifting raccoon dogs are prototypical slackers, living only to eat, drink, and slap their enormous bellies like drums while driving everyone bananas. They're relatively harmless, however, which makes the ending of "Danemon's Monster Hunt at Shojoji" (1935) even more bloodcurdling, as the titular hero unmasks them as the monsters haunting the local spook house, then grabs a couple, bellowing, "Tanuki soup tonight!" The similarly hyperactive "Hatanosuke and the Haunted House" runs only 77 seconds, but it, too, ends with its hero giggling, "Raccoon dogs were the monsters!" before heading off, presumably, to roast one.

In the years following World War I, Japanese animators made up their own rules. They were technicians first, not storytellers, so they stole folktales and popular songs to use as frameworks for their films. They certainly weren't above stealing from American movies; Mickey Mouse goblins with spaghetti necks and Betty Boop geishas who transform into rotting zombies make appearances in the films on offer.

But Japanese animation speaks its own language. During the same time, American animation was preoccupied with movement, placing an emphasis on squash and stretch. Animated bodies changed shape like rubber, their wiggly arms and pliable bodies bending and distorting before snapping back into shape. Ballet was a major source of inspiration for American animators, with its focus on continual fluid movement and the flexibility of the dancers' bodies. Japanese animation, by contrast, was influenced by Japanese dance, nihon buyo, which focuses on the stillness between movements rather than the movements themselves. The result is a quieter, less mobile school of animation. The legacy of Japan's classical visual arts, in which balance and symmetry are more important than perspective and depth, lent a flat, graphic quality to its animation, the result being a completely unique filmmaking vocabulary.

The director who used it most eloquently was Yasuji Murata. His earliest film in the series, "The Stolen Lump" (1929), is a stunningly beautiful series of simple line drawings that employ a relaxed sense of life — a far cry from the hectic American animations of the time. "Our Baseball Match" (1931) demonstrates a beautiful economy of line in depicting a precisely detailed baseball game between a team of rabbits and a team of tanukis. The characters are missing the rounded, child-friendly shapes of American cartoons, and are portrayed instead with the straightforward economy of a James Thurber drawing.

Many of the shorts in this series are little more than pointless, herky-jerky vignettes designed to show off the latest technical trick, but Murata (1896–1966) designed the movements of his cartoon creatures to betray their psychology. "The Bat" (1930) depicts a war among the different animal species, and we recognize turtles, mice, cats, and pigs not because they're drawn to look like those animals but because they fight, run, and talk like we'd imagine these animals would. While other animators were doing little more than frantically jumping their interchangeable cutouts through increasingly elaborate hoops, Murata could hold his audience's attention by sitting two dogs down to have a drink. The fascination stemmed from the fact that they moved and interacted with one another as humans presumably would.

Unfortunately, the relatively liberal Taisho era ended in 1926 and animation slowly had the life choked out of it by Japanese nationalism. Cartoons instead became a delivery vehicle for military propaganda, instilling in children the belief that other, weaker countries populated by helpless seals needed Japan's wise dogs and monkeys to fly over and save them from invading eagles. The animation in Japan Society's series chronicles the last gasps of true creativity in Japanese animation before the invasion of China in 1937 and the long march to World War II. With that in mind, it's refreshing to watch these movies, which remind us that, regardless of time and place, a samurai fighting an octopus will always be funny.

Controversy arises over police crackdown on Iwate 'naked festival'

Mainichi Daily News
Feb 9, 2008

OSHU, Iwate -- Controversy has arisen over a festival at a temple here in which one participant holding a central role traditionally appears completely naked, with police threatening for the first time to take action against any acts of public indecency.

The Somin Festival, held at Kokusekiji Temple in Oshu, features men in loincloths who participate in scrambles for a sack called "sominbukuro." Every year one participant who plays the central role in the festival appears completely naked, in line with tradition.

This year, however, police said that appearing naked constitutes public indecency, and added that they would take action against such behavior.

The threat has met resistance from some of the 16 managers of the festival who say that they will "protect tradition" even if it means getting arrested.

In the festival, one designated participant appears naked and climbs the lattice of the temple's main hall with a knife in his mouth. When the sominbukuro sack comes close, he jumps down on top of the crowd of men and, after glaring in four directions, he slices the sack open, bringing the scramble to a climax.

Originally, all of the participants were naked, but the number of female spectators increased and some participants took part for the purpose of flashing their private parts, prompting temple officials several years ago to rule that people were not to appear naked outside of the festival, and that ordinary participants should wear loincloths. However, it still permitted for the participant playing the central role to show up stark naked.

Police said they could not allow activities that were against the law.

"It may have been thought that it was silently approved because it was a religious ritual, but if there are actions that run counter to the law, our stance of taking the action that we should take does not change," a police representative said. The representative added that because the festival had spectators it was of a public nature.

Japanese samba their way to the front of Brazil's carnival

SAO PAULO (AFP) - Brazil's strong Japanese community -- the biggest in the world outside Japan itself -- will be at the fore of this year's carnival, which kicks off on Friday.

In Sao Paulo, the city with the biggest concentration of the 1.5 million Japanese descendants living in the country, the carnival parade will include a 1,000-strong contingent of Japanese samba dancers -- led by a native Japanese woman, Yuka Sugiura, 36.

They will be part of the Unidos de Vila Maria samba school, whose 4,500 members are to beat drums and jig to the rhythm of a song specially written to highlight a centenary of Japanese immigration to Brazil.

Luis Paolo, the song's composer at the school, told AFP "we started celebrating the Japanese in Brazil three years ago but this year we're going all out."

He enthused that Sugiara, who moved from Nagoya, Japan to Brazil eight years to indulge her passion for samba, was "a great dancer -- and really beautiful as well."

The daily Folha de Sao Paulo featured a front-page photo of her smiling and holding a bamboo and paper fan in the colors of the Brazilian flag. She said she knew she was born to samba the first time she heard the Brazilian beat.

"My heart beat in time with the drums. It was electrifying. It woke something that was sleeping in me," she told the daily.

Brazil this year is marking the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants, who arrived on board a ship on June 18, 1908 to work on coffee plantations.

Months of celebrations are programmed, with the highlight coming in June, when Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito will visit.

Japan to certify cuisine but no 'sushi police'

Jan 29, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan launched a campaign Tuesday to certify authentic Japanese food overseas, but insisted it was only promoting its cuisine rather than setting up a "sushi police."

Promoters unveiled a logo that will identify "real" Japanese restaurants overseas -- a pair of chopsticks holding a cherry petal set in front of a red rising-sun flag.

The effort is led by a non-governmental group of experts set up in July with the blessing of the agriculture ministry, although organisers said it will open offices in various countries to do local appraisals.

The body has so far opened bureaus in Bangkok, Shanghai and Taipei and plans to expand to Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles and Paris by the end of March.

"We are not aiming at something like a sushi police aiming to crack down on inauthentic restaurants," said a member of the Organisation to Promote Japanese Restaurants Abroad, declining to be named.

"Our objective is to promote Japanese food, not eliminate Japanese restaurants."

The campaign when first announced was mocked by some Western media as a futile effort at a time when Japanese food is growing in popularity across the world.

To qualify for certification, applicants are required to use Japanese rice and seasoning along with traditional ingredients. Restaurants must also show knowledge of Japanese recipes and proper hygiene.

Restaurants must also clear at least two of five criteria such as originality, dish arrangement and customer service.

"It's important to share the heart that goes into authentic Japanese food with chefs around the world, but we can't force them," said Yukio Hattori, a board member of the certification body and president of Hattori Nutrition College.

"We also have a history of fusion dishes between Japanese and French, Italian or Chinese food," Hattori, a noted food critic, told AFP.

"I think we should aim to have two wheels -- one is authenticity and the other is the local quality of Japanese food in each country," he said.

The organisation will hold a conference on March 27 and 28 in Tokyo to explain the system, inviting restaurant owners and others from around the world.

Japanese officials and tourists have voiced growing alarm at what they see as vile imitations of their cuisine overseas, fearing that Japanese food will go the way of Chinese cuisine in North America and Europe.

The ubiquitous California roll is a case in point. The vegetarian sushi dish, which replaces sushi with avocado or cucumbers and may include cream cheese, is unrecognisable to most Japanese.

Japan estimates 25,000 restaurants around the world purport to serve Japanese food and that the number is expected to double in a few years amid perceptions that the cuisine is healthy.

Yahoo Japan reports drastic reduction in online auction fraud

Yahoo Japan reports drastic reduction in online auction fraud
Kyodo News
Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008

Yahoo Japan Corp., operator of Japan's largest online auction site, said auction fraud has plunged sharply following enhanced ID checks and other steps it has taken to clean up the risky service.
The Tokyo-based company said it reduced criminal damages reported in 2007 to about 10 percent of damages reported in 2005 — its worst year ever for auction fraud.
In the first nine months of 2007, Yahoo Japan paid around ¥90 million in compensation to winning bidders on Yahoo Auction who claimed they did not receive the items offered for sale, down from the peak of around ¥870 million it paid in the same period in 2005.
The auction site operator says it offers 80 percent of the winning bid in compensation unless there is a lapse on the part of the bidder and that the amount of compensation "changes in tandem with the value of fraud damage."
The compensation paid in the corresponding period in 2006 came to roughly ¥440 million, it said.
In November alone, a total of around 12 million items were put up for sale on Japan's four major Internet auction sites, with just over 10 million of them offered on Yahoo Auction, according to Tokyo-based Aucfan Co., which runs a Web site that compares auction sites.
Among other steps, Yahoo Japan has been requiring the presentation of an ID bearing an address from potential auction participants. The address is required for delivery of a registration password.
About 200 staffers are keeping a watch on suspicious items, such as a block sale offer of 10 PCs by a person with no history of selling on the site, it says.

Design firm to buy 50% of copyright fees for Kurosawa scripts

Saturday, December 29, 2007
TOKYO — DesignEXchange Co said Friday that it will acquire the right to 50% of copyright fees paid for film scripts by the late Akira Kurosawa, the celebrated Japanese film director.
The Japanese design company, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Mothers market for startup firms, will obtain the right for 1.4 billion yen from Yokohama-based Kurosawa Production. It expects brisk revenue from events scheduled in 2010 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Kurosawa's birth.
The company will purchase the right to copyright royalties for 71 scripts written or cowritten by Kurosawa, including "Rashomon," "Seven Samurai" and "Yojimbo." The transaction also covers copyright fees paid for remaking the scripts, rewriting them for television and animated versions and releasing unscreened works.
It is the first time that copyright on Kurosawa's works has been sold to a third party.
In late March, DesignEXchange accepted Hisao Kurosawa, Kurosawa's eldest son and head of Kurosawa Production, as an outside board member and paid 400 million yen for the right to act as intermediary in negotiations between Kurosawa Production and film companies for remakes of Kurosawa movies.
For the latest deal on copyright fees, DesignEXchange will issue share-purchase warrants to a Tokyo-based investment fund to raise some 1.1 billion yen in fresh funds.