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Murakami Takashi: Mononoke Kyoto
Finally went and saw the Murakami Mononoke Kyoto show that’s been up for half a year or so. I generally tend to think of Murakami as over-hyped, if…
Taketomi & Tourism
Gradually moving through my old drafts. This one is from just about a year ago, August 2023. Getting off the ferry at Taketomi. Arriving on Taketomi Island and…
A Who’s Who of Prewar Okinawan Cultural Figures
Yamazato in a 1958 issue of Okinawa Graph magazine. Reading an autobiographical piece by Okinawan artist / playwright / novelist / cultural writer / cultural official Yamazato Eikichi,…
ANU Museum of the Jewish People (Part 2)
An installation meant to represent the development of Jewish wisdom across the ages, from the Tanach, Talmud, and Mishnah, to a wealth of other writings. (Continuing on from…
Gaza Photo exhibit at Ritsumeikan Peace Museum
The Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University, recently hosted an exhibition on Gaza. Sadly, ironically for a Peace Museum, I think the exhibit did little to counteract…
Shinto ceremonies at Sui gusuku?
I was shocked when I saw this image on the official Shurijo Castle Park Instagram account this past May 25-26. Shinto priests performing a fully Japanese – not…
ANU Museum of the Jewish People
I don’t even know how to talk about this post-Oct 7. But, this has been sitting in my notes, in my drafts, since June 2023, well before Oct…
Teruya Yuken: Heavy Pop
My latest trip to Okinawa happened, by chance, to align with the exhibition “Heavy Pop” at the Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum – the first large-scale solo show of…
Confederate Flag over Shuri
I don’t remember when or how exactly I first learned that when US military forces took control of Shuri castle (Sui gusuku) – the former royal palace of…
Netanyahu and Hamas
I realize this has inadvertently become a rather Israel-heavy blog in the past year or so, only because I visited Israel this past summer, and have been just…
Judicial Reform Passes in the Knesset
I’ve fallen far behind in the blog posts I’ve been meaning to write about my Israel trip earlier in the summer – specifically on the second of two…
The Yitzhak Rabin Center
Yitzhak Rabin (b. 1922) was Prime Minister of Israel from 1974 to 1977, and again from 1992 until his assassination in 1995 at the hands of a Jewish…
A Virtual Visit to the Aleppo Synagogue
Photos of the Aleppo Synagogue taken in 1947, and a pair of VR headsets used to view a virtual recreation of the synagogue in 3D. Visiting the Israel…
Twenty Years Ago Today
Sakura along the imperial canal near Ichigaya / Iidabashi, 1 April 2003. I’m not 100% positive on the precise date, but I believe today marks the 20th anniversary…
Shurijō Akewatashi 首里城明渡し – The Turning Over of the Sui royal palace
Went to the new NahART なはーと arts center today and saw “Shurijō akewatashi” 首里城明渡し, a 1933 play by Yamazato Eikichi 山里永吉, relating the 1879 events of the Empire…
1872: The Beginning of the End of the Kingdom of Lūchū (Ryūkyū)
This year has seen numerous events commemorating or marking or otherwise being held in connection with the 50th anniversary of Okinawa’s “reversion” to Japan in 1972, after 27…
Kumi udui in Yokohama: Wunna munu gurui
Got to go see some Kumi udui this weekend, and.. it was wonderful as always. Kumi udui / Kumi wudui 組踊 (or, Kumi odori in Japanese) is an…
The Brand New Tsushima Museum
Tsushima 対馬 is a really interesting place. Halfway between Korea and Japan, it was ruled for hundreds of years by the Sо̄ samurai house 宗家, retainers to the…
ガッティンナラン!
There are, of course, constantly new news articles about various aspects of the ongoing military base issue in Okinawa, and I cannot take the time (or energy) to…
The King’s Dream
I saw a rather interesting one-man play the other day, which I thought I’d like to share about. I guess I’ll say from the opening that I don’t…
The Okinawa Times on J. Mark Ramseyer
Given all the much-merited focus over the course of this past year on the incredible lies being peddled by Harvard Law professor J. Mark Ramseyer and the ways…
The Kids Are Alright
Very gradually working through the backlog of blog posts I drafted months ago and never finished with. This one is from this past August, not that I think…
On that one BBC Interview
I’m sorry to be behind the times and bringing back up that horrible BBC interview everyone was talking about a few weeks ago. The one where she called…
Visiting Kagoshima Again
Sakurajima, as seen from the highway bus on the way from the airport into the city. Nov 10, 2021It’s been a long time since I’ve left the Kantô…
Indigenous Peoples at the 2020 Olympics
I’m quite a few weeks late on this, obviously. And, frankly, I’m not sure that I have that much to say. But I just wanted to share a…
Ryukyu: Empire of the Sea
Shlepped myself out to Chiba last month, to the National Museum of Japanese History (Rekihaku) to see their new temporary special exhibit, Umi no teikoku: Ryukyu 海の帝国：琉球 ,…
Thoughts on Life in Tokyo
Takeshita-dôri in Harajuku. Back to a manageable, pleasant level of crowds. This is more like what it was when I came to Tokyo the first time in 2003;…
Okinawa Times: Repatriation of Ryukyuan Remains Not Progressing
Thanks to Risako Sakai for sharing this article from yesterday’s Okinawa Times (17 Jan 2021) on Twitter: There has been some progress in recent years in having universities…
Masculinity in Japan + S. Korea, and Josо̄
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything at all, and many years, in fact, since I’ve posted anything on gender. For those new to my blog,…
Night in the American Village
It’s easy to think of things in black and white, and to paint things with a broad brush of imperialism, colonialism, racism, militarism (take your pick). But dig…
Asians Represent Podcast: Ainu Representation in Museums
Attus and ruunpe traditional-style Ainu robes on display at the East-West Center, Honolulu, Feb 2013. Photo my own. I recently came across a podcast interview with Ainu Museum…
VR Noh 攻殻機動隊 The Ghost in the Shell
Tickets for VR Noh Ghost in the Shell went on sale a few months ago, and I can only assume they were snatched up quickly. My sincere thanks…
SISJAC Summer Institute
The past two weeks (July 27 to Aug 7) I had the pleasure of attending an online summer programme in Japanese Studies organized by the Sainsbury Institute for…
Ranji: The World of Images on Export Tea Crates (Verkehr Museum, Shizuoka)
Labels for boxes of Japanese tea for export, c. 1860s-1950s. While in Shizuoka last month, I decided to check out the Verkehr Shimizu Port Terminal Museum, a really…
Continuing to Live with the Pandemic
Above: Watching and listening to the Kamogawa flow along. There’s just something wonderful about the Kamo, bringing this relaxing, refreshing energy to the city. Time has flowed so…