Welcome to NOTEBOOK, a cultural guide to art, design and architecture along with a resource of local news and information in English giving a realistic view of Tokyo and further afield.
Revisiting August
08/01
With old train stock on Yamaguchi’s JR Ube line revived new COVID-19 cases throughout the country surging, second-hand book stores found not far from stations around Tokyo remain a constant and dependable presence. Take Bohemian's Guild in Jimbocho for example, or Totodo in Shibuya. There is also Flotsam Books near Daitabashi station, SO BOOKS in Yoyogi-Hachiman, Honk Books in between Kanamecho and Ikebukuro and Kongen Shobo near Ekoda on the Seibu-Ikebukuro line. After all, knowledge is power.
08/02
Marking 77 years since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the 1983 documentary “Tokyo Saiban” was re-screened throughout Tokyo. Directed by Masaki Kobayashi, it was sourced from extensive film shot during the Tokyo Trials. However, the week also marked the beginning of the annual Obon holiday season along with Aomori's Nebuta festival, the first time it has been held in three years, along with the annual exodus to and from the capitol.
08/03
With the Morioka Sansa Odori summer festival in Iwate prefecture taking place along with Sendai's Tanabata festival in Miyagi prefecture, traditions from both of these festival converged on Aomori Nebuta, a festival of giant mobile lanterns in Aomori city committed to ideas of sleep and bidding old spirits farewell have survived 6 generations of Nebuta-shi craftsmen.
08/04
The summer exodus finally began with crashing thunder, heavy rainfall, and river's bursting their banks. Nebuta was also in full swing. Yet, amid the atmospherics, a political storm was also brewing near the Senkaku islands, a stone's throw from Okinawa and the northern tip of Taiwan. Nancy Pelosi visited the island in her capacity as Speaker and third in line to the U.S. President. It sent Beijing officials into a tiswas of acrimony threatening to spill over into Japanese waters. Some calm however could be found in food and song, from the Japanese work songs of 'Soran Bushi' to food made at COOK DAN, a curry shop in Hachiobori by chef and rapper Raita Danjou, providing a rhythm and beat that binds together work, the environment as well as nature, to cool the mind and hopefully dispel conflict.
08/05
As stormy waters gathered near Kyushu, a group of marine students from the nearby National Fisheries University discovered a rare Ryugu-no-tsukai, or giant Oarfish, and promptly ate it. In some small way, devouring their rare find made sense. As the national obon holiday approached — a chance for families to remember past relatives — a rare find such as the oarfish connected the present with the past, people with the fathomless sea, treating such an extraordinary sight as an everyday occurrence. At Chiba City's Museum of Art, “Summer Vacation at a Certain Museum” was just that; a museum caught between the everyday and the extraordinary.
08/08
Captive audiences: Chinese military training exercises near Taiwan ran the risk of straying into Japanese territory with islands near Okinawa looking on with concern. On the other side of the country, Fujiyama Records carried on as it had for almost 40 years in Tokyo's Sangenjyaya. It's caught between several roads and looks out across several pedestrian crossings; a place where die-hard musicians like Yukio Sato, or members of Non-Band, play impromptu to passing traffic and a small, assembled crowd of people who are either going about their daily business or hovering to catch sight of something extraordinary.
08/09
As the world's largest Buddha statue at Todai-ji in Nara was cleaned in readiness for the year ahead, the country remembered the bombing of Nagasaki 77 years after the second ever atomic bomb used in aggression was dropped on the city. And after pioneering filmmaker Takahiko Iimura passed away last week aged 85, Notebook took a brief look back at a film maker remembered not only for his abstract films but also for his association with art groups like Fluxus and fellow artist Yoko Ono.
08/10
Watermelons were ritually split in Obanazawa while Chrysanthemum flowers in Itoshima City, Fukuoka were readied for the upcoming Bon festival. Works at the Aichi Triennale in Nagoya explored the ‘procedural architecture’ of life and possibility with the duo Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins and their model for the unbuilt project Bridge of Reversible Destiny from 1973-1989. Reversible Destiny Lofts—Mitaka (In Memory of Helen Keller), 2005, also by Arakawa and Gins, resonated with splitting fruit and floral tributes in the build up to Obon, a festival bidding one thing farewell, welcoming another thing in its place.
08/11
Sunflowers at the Serakogen Farm near Hiroshima and in Kagoshima were in full bloom, showing support for Ukrainian nationals living in Japan. Nagoya's Daijin, an izakaya in the city since 1907, and Ippachi Honten serving kishimen udon were hidden treasures amid the Aichi Triennale and the World Cosplay Summit, which both took place in and around Nagoya's Aichi Arts Center.
08/12
Fire broke out for the second time in one year at the Taisho period-built Tanga Market in Kitakyushu, destroying many of its shops including the Kokura Showa-kan cinema. And while Prime Minster Kishida reshuffled his cabinet to escape mounting criticism at his handling of political ties to a Korean religious group, there were even more calls for him to reopen the country's borders to foreign tourism. Events like the international art fair STILL ALIVE: Aichi Triennale 2022 in Nagoya aimed at bridging the gap while the country remained difficult to enter for the great majority of people.
08/15
Typhoon Meari hit Tokyo as the PM Kishida received a 4th vaccination, hinting at a broader programme of public vaccination. And as one storm left, other entered. Amid resigning politicians, church scandals and psychic marketing, the Summer Sonic music festival readied its return with an international line up, only to last a few days. In contrast, A store Robot in Harajuku is a shop's worth of music, art, and fashion in Tokyo that has been around for far longer than any music festival, weather front, politician, or pandemic (thankfully).
08/16
Japan remembered Shū-sen kinen-bi, the Day the country remembered the end of the Second World War, while people returned from their summer Obon holiday. And with nature and nostalgia in mind, Studio Ghibli and its Ghibli Museum were emblematic of the season. The one film which formed the studio is just as concerned with our relationship with nature and technology and how we yearn for a past, no matter how painful.
08/17
An off-duty policeman lost a file containing 400 names from an ongoing criminal investigation after some heavy drinking, while a warehouse fire raged on unabated in Ibaraki. With the end of summer in sight and the Ibaraki fire still blazing, we looked back at the life of fashion designer Issey Miyake (1938-2022) who despite his image of glamour took inspiration from the subtly and precision of women like Japanese activist Fusae Ichikawa and Austrian born, British artist Lucie Rie.
08/18
The Corpse flower, known for its foul smell, blossomed for the first time in Niigata. In Tokyo, Digital Minister Kono Taro emulated Taiwan's own Digital Minister Audrey Tang by advocating for 'radical transparency' within government. But how would openness in government tackle borders that remained closed for most visitors to the country? With only 140,000 visitors admitted in recent months, the real challenge proved to be a fully open border. Finally, the spirit horses made of cucumber and eggplant appeared in households across the land, marking the end of the bon festival and the start of late Summer in Japan.
08/19
Kana Satomi aimed to become the first female professional shogi player, the Japanese board game of strategy and patience. 9 year-old Reo Fujita also turned pro but this time for Go, another board game of territorial possession and capture played throughout East Asia. In Niigata, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2022 got underway having been delayed a year and featured Ongoing Village based in Sansho House a 150 year-old wooden school in the region's ‘satoyama’ — a zone bordering both mountain and farm land.
08/22
Fireballs were seen over the skies of the Kanto region and the Hitoboshi fire-spinning festival spun balls of blazing wheat over the Nanmoku River for the first time in three years. Elsewhere, a memorial archive in Ikebukuro dedicated to the mystery novelist Edogawa Ranpo was opened to the public. It is where he lived until his death in 1965, and the studio includes all of his writings and personal effects, shedding light on this important mystery novelist responsible for classics like 'D-zaka no satsujin jiken' (The Case of the Murder on D. Hill), about about a woman killed in the throws of a sadomasochistic affair, and 'Ningen isu' (The Human Chair) about a man who hides within a chair to feel the bodies seated on top.
08/23
A cargo ship and tanker collided off the Wakayama coastline while new infections in the capitol held steady around 25,000. But on Nakano-doru, just north of Shinjuku, plan-B, the alternative art space (possibly the first of its kind in Japan) returned after several years in hibernation. Founded in 1982 by dancer Min Tanaka, the late Kazue Kobata and a group of others, the space “not owned by anyone, but managed by volunteers" has survived by asking one simple question: What is freedom?
08/24
Amid rumors of bribery and sponsorship at last year's Olympic Games, hospitals fought COVID-19 infection with a shortage of hospital beds. Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion hoped to make Japan a permanent home. The Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, north of Tokyo in Kasukabe, Saitama, helped protect the local area at a time of worsening climate change: bolstering Tokyo's river defense system and protect Tokyo from the Edogawa should it burst its banks.
08/25
Travel restrictions and the number of tourists entering each day were slowly relaxed. 50,000 were expected to enter, an increase from 20,000 visitors per day. However, travel was still limited to tour groups but this time unescorted, giving tour groups a sense of freedom. And with these incremental changes came the hope that tourism would benefit more quickly. In Otsu next to Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Shisei-an busily prepared Funa-zushi for the new year. The fermented delicacy is made from carp, or ni-goro-buna fish that swim in the lake. The dish is said to ward off ailments and even boost the immune system.
08/26
In Yamanashi prefecture, Shine Muscat were being stolen from vineyards. Farmers there turned to drone technology and thermal imaging to thwart the perpetrator(s). And in Tokyo, photographer Osamu Kanemura pictured an urban landscape spinning out of control with his exhibition Sold Out Artist at Cave-Ayumi Gallery. His use of video and sound is not a single image of the city but the image of somewhere we might recognize, even remember, but rarely experience as being intimate. It was a playful proposition which, to paraphrase Ralf Hütter of Kraftwerk, was all about friendship and excitement — "we play with images [and] images play with us”.
08/29
Seven nuclear power reactors in Japan were potentially restarted as new, next-generation power plants were also being considered to quell concerns over energy the country’s energy production. Yet, bigger challenges existed in how best to manage waste from older power plants without the whole exercise becoming too costly. In Tokyo, there was no shortage of fiction. Both Junko Takase and Misumi Kubo, attended a press conference and prize-giving ceremony for this year's Akutagawa Prize and Naoki Prize for Japanese literature, Takase's short novel "Oishii Gohan ga Tabe-rare-masu-yo-ni” (To become able to eat delicious food) received the Akutagawa Prize and Kubo's short story collection "Yoru ni Hoshi o Hanatsu" (Releasing stars into the night sky) receiving the Naoki Prize.
08/30
As the Federal Reserve continued to raise interest rates and the Japanese currency fell to 138 JPY against the US dollar, a police box in Futaba near to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant reopened for the first time in more than 11 years. Futaba town also welcomed back residents despite being declared a difficult-to-return zone. In Tokyo, cinematographer Seizo Sengen was remembered in a season a films screened at Cinema Vera, Shibuya. Sengen worked on classics like Shinji Somai’s “Sailor Suit and Machine Gun” (1981) and before that Tōru Murakawa’s “Satusjin Yugi” (The Murder Game) from 1978) featuring the late and great Yutaka Matsuda.
08/31
The 11th typhoon of 2022, Typhoon Hinnamnor, headed towards Okinawa along with a band of low pressure stretching as far as Tohoku and Aomori in the north bringing the promise of heavy rain to the region and the possibility of flooding. Notebook looked back at the writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) whose name lends the Akutagawa literary prize its name and whose tomb is found alongside his two sons at Jigan-ji, a small residential temple and cemetery in Sugamo, Tokyo.
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