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米寿 (beiju, 88 years old), a self-portrait by Sadamichi Hirasawa on the occasion of his 88th birthday From Bloomberg comes this fascinating account of a well-known Japanese tempera painter, Sadamichi Hirasawa, who was convicted of mass murder during the American Occupation following World War II. It was called the Teigin Incident. As this short New [...]

Sadakichi Hartmann Photographed by William M. Vander Weyde, 191? One of the strangest and most original men of letters of the day — in the United States at all events — is Sadakichi Hartmann, the poet, art critic, and lecturer. He was born in the land of wistarias and chrysanthemums, and he sees life with [...]

Went to see the huge Hokusai exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum (Ueno) last Saturday, and it’s well worth seeing. However, do yourself a favor and don’t even contemplate going on a weekend (like I stupidly did) or holiday, unless you have some perverted desire to feel what cattle feel like being herded from one [...]

Here’s another entry for the “Japan doesn’t have to be expensive” file: Tokyo Museums – Grutt Pass 2004 (Japanese site here) The “Grutt” pass in a nutshell is this: for ¥2,000 ($18USD), you get a booklet with free entrance coupons to 44 different art and history museums in the greater Tokyo area, as well as [...]

Yesterday I went to the Bridgestone Museum of Art for the first time, and perhaps it’s a slightly heretical notion but it felt strangely comfortable to be surrounded by some tried and true names of the Western art canon contained therein. It seems like it has been a real long time since I last cozied [...]

Last week we took a bicycle ride to the other side of our tiny city of Warabi to visit a small museum housed in a former residence. I wasn’t really paying attention earlier when Naoko explained the exhibit on view there, but as I began to walk around the first room after paying our 300 [...]