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[Anime] Dororo: a thematic impression
If I were to sum up this excellent 2019 adaptation of Osamu Tezuki’s manga in one sentence, I would say it is “mystery play of the right brain,…
[Aesthetics] Conversation with a Japanese antique jewelry dealer
The other day I was in Mayfair meeting an antique jewelry dealer from Japan. We discussed the contents of an interview he gave some years ago in which…
[Manga] Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s Historical Drama (Part I): ‘Namuji’
Although Yoshikazu Yasuhiko [安彦良和] (1947 – present) is most widely known as one of the creators of the popular Gundam series, I have always thought that the height of…
[Food] In Japan, the food celebrity tends to be a fictional character
Perhaps due to the persistent image in Japanese culture that a master artisan should be a man of few words who just shuts up and makes things, for all…
[Art] Japanese line drawings, the soulfulness of things and the re-enchantment of the world
If you go to the art section of a bookstore in Japan, you will inevitably find heaps of DIY books of a certain style of line drawings that…
[Film] Has Yoji Yamada reached an artistic plateau?
Once upon a time, I was having this “Yoji Yamada phase”. It began circa 2002 when I first saw The Twilight Samurai [たそがれ清兵衛] (2002) – which was to me an…
[Travel] Tokyo – the experimental bookshop Matsuoka-Maruzen
Matsuoka-Maruzen [松丸本舗] , an experimental bookshop that operated from Oct 2009 to Sep 2012, is a foremost example of places in Japan I love that no longer exists. It…
[Manga/Occult] Mysteries in the life of Shigeru Mizuki: spiritual possession, the little people and drug trip
Shigeru Mizuki [水木しげる ] (1922 – 2015), the creator of the Gegege Kitaro manga series, was a lifelong student of the otherworld. Although he is best known for his fictional…
[Aesthetics] Shuji Terayama (I): A deck of Tarot cards, dark and strange
Shuji Terayama [寺山修司] (1935 – 1983), avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director and photographer, is not for the faint-hearted. I dived into his mind-bending universe with the purchase…
[Food] Of Japanese cuisine and the law of the universe
The Japanese gourmet Rosanjin Kitaooji [北大路魯山人] (1883-1959) (actually he is a man of many hats – aesthete, chef, writer, ceramic artist, calligrapher, painter, seal carver, philosopher, entrepreneur, cultural critic,…