[Archive] June 2023
Setting the stage for typhoons and a summer Like no other
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.
June was another month of traveling across the country, this time to Ehime and Matsuyama city followed by the fishing port of Uwajima an hour or so away by train. The weather at this point was just beginning to kick in. Typhoon season began in earnest with Typhoon Mawar slimming the southern tip of Kyushu and Shikoku. Landslides and heavy rains summarily dominated other western parts of the country. June was also marked by the passing away of several figures from the arts – the painter Gyoji Nomiyama was recognised one of the first to move away from figuration to abstraction in Japanese painting, while film director Sadao Nakajima was more recognised for working within the genre of Yakuza film and the period drama of Jidaigeki. With stage and screen in mind, it was fitting June ended by traveling to Ehime. Next door to the famed Dogo Onsen, purported to be the sight of Japan’s oldest natural hot spring, lives one of the few remaining cabaret clubs in the country New Dogo Music — Nyū Dōgo myūjikku — that turned its hand to another form of recreation (food) to restate its relevance and live out the challenge of a pandemic.
The chameleon existence of musician EYヨ, vocalist for bands like Boredoms and Hanatarash, covers everything from visual arts as much as music. A long association with Uwajima-based and Tokyo-born artist Shinro Ohtake also recognises the beginning of a brutal summer with his Tokyo Summer remix made, on this occasion, alongside members of the band GEZAN. And as I finalise this June archive of Notebook, Shinro’s traveling retrospective exhibition, which began last November in Tokyo, moved to Matsuyama in May then Toyama in August, comes to a conclusion on September 18. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. June ended and it was clear exhibitions like Shinro’s retrospective and any number of exhibitions, cultural events and happenings, would come to experience a summer like no other where temperatures were expected to stay in the mid 30 degrees for months to come. The remix above serves as the perfect soundtrack for this year’s torch-like Tokyo summer.
Revisiting June
06/30
Japanese toys, games and character goods, were exhibited in the Brazilian city Sao Paulo. Closer to home and Japanese oil painter Gyoji Nomiyama passed away June 22 aged 102. Meanwhile, art exhibitions in the capitol continued unabated, from Christopher L G Hill’s “Turtle” at Goya Curtain (6/24-7/22), to “Distance from the incident - How News, War, Daily Life were Described” at Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts (6/3-7/17), "Shinro Ohtake" at Ehime Museum of Art in Matsuyama (5/3-7/2), and “Tameshigaki” (lignes de vies) an exhibition of paintings by Charles Munka at INS studio, new gallery in Shibuya (6/30-7/16). Speaking of Shibuya, CCBT, the Civic Creative Base Tokyo, is an art and culture center sponsored by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. It held a press conference the previous day where its new creative director Hideaki Ogawa spoke with Notebook about the challenges of running such an endeavour in Tokyo.
06/28
A man dressed up as the character Joker was charged with assault and arson aboard a Tokyo train a year earlier, charges he denied. Meanwhile, passengers temporarily fled the Yamanote Line earlier in the week after several loosely carried knives fell out onto the floor of a packed commuter train. Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki offered caution against the recently weakened yen and a major Japanese moving company apologized after a prank video featuring (and starring) several employees went viral on social media.
Meanwhile, Notebook also visited Izakaya ‘Hachinosu' in Matsuyama, Ehime, a short walk from Matsuyama's Okaido shopping street.
06/26
Giant panda cubs Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei turned two the previous week at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo. 708 people were preparing to run for election in Japan's so-called House of Representatives election in the autumn. Okinawa marked the 78th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War. Tokyo’s Narita Airport unveiled plans to raise surcharges for international passengers from September onwards and a think-tank in West Japan unveiled plans to repurpose abandoned homes and rundown buildings by re-using their wood and bypass global shortages of lumber.
Matsuyama is the capital of Ehime prefecture on the main island of Shikoku. Notebook recently visited the city and rode its streetcar made famous by the Japanese writer Soseki Natsume to visit the city’s famous Dōgo Onsen public bathhouse.
06/23
Kansai Electric informed Fukui prefectural government of its plan to reactivate the No. 1 and No. 2 reactor at its Takahama nuclear power plant, north of Kyoto on the Fukui coastline. Organizers of the popular Awa Odori offered premium seats each priced at 200,000 JPY (1,400 USD) for the annual dance festival held in Tokushima Prefecture in August. A box of 15 premier cherries known as “Aomori Heartbeat” also fetched a staggering 500,000 JPY (3,500 USD) during the first auction of the season in Aomori prefecture.
And with Baseball the national pastime in Japan, we visited Picotao and the batting cages of the Otsuka Batting Center in Tokyo’s Toshima ward for one final session before it closed on June 30th, and then headed to gallery 4649 in Sugamo for a painting show by Yusuke Abe.
06/21
The distinguished novelist Yumie Hiraiwa, known for her “Kawasemi hotel” novel series, passed away earlier this month aged 91. Communities around Mt. Fuji called for a limit to the number of hikers ahead of this summer’s predicted climbing boom. The Japan branch of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) heavily criticized the Tokyo metropolitan government for its plan to redevelop the Meiji Jingu Gaien district. And Kagoshima Prefecture held its first Spider Battle in four years, an event where two spiders battle it out on the end of a long thin stick.
Tokyo's Okubo is a rich mix of Korean and Southeast Asian culture. Inexpensive during the early 80s, the area is now colloquially referred to as Korean Town and also home to a vibrant Muslim community. NB walked along Ikemen Street towards Shin-Okubo Station on the Yamanote line.
06/19
The Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui was set to head back to the International Space Station ISS for 6 months in 2024. An indoor amusement park featuring the world of Harry Potter opened at the former Toshimaen amusement park in Nerima. And finally, Japanese film director Sadao Nakajima, known for his “Gokudô no onna-tachi” and “Nihon no Don” film series, died in Kyoto on June 11 aged 88.
Shinjuku has long-had a history of counterculture, film and theatre. With its ni-chome, san-chome, and Kabukicho districts all within walking distance of each other, we wandered through each of these as the day drew to an end and the night began.
06/16
An 18-year-old recruit shot and killed one of his instructors at a Self-Defense Force firing range in Gifu. A special screening of Makoto Shinkai’s hit animated film Suzume no Tojimari (2022) took place at the Civic Hall in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture last month, in the same place that also makes an appearance on-screen. And Tokyo-based artist Yuko Mohri was named as Japan’s representative at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Back in Tokyo, an Hibiya with its bronze statue of Godzilla sits not far from Hibiya Park, opened in 1903 and once home to the state wire service Domei Tsushin. Today the park is a far cry from the Hibiya Riots of 1905. Nearby, the Ginza Graphic Gallery hosted artist and illustrator Tadanori Yokoo with “My Black Holes” an exhibition of archive material from the 1960s to the 1980s which ran until June 30th.
06/14
Domestic producer prices rose for the 27th straight month in a row, rising by more than 5 percent from the previous year. A Vietnamese student was arrested on suspicion of cutting hair at his Tokyo apartment without a license serving as many as 3,000 customers since April 2021 while raking in a tidy profit. Meanwhile, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has labeled Shibuya’s Dogenzaka a ‘Townscape Regeneration District’ part of current redevelopment taking place around the main JR station.
And with this year marking the 125th anniversary of Philippine independence from Spanish colonial rule, Ueno Park played host to Philippine Expo 2023 by transforming into a micro Manila for three days of celebrations.
06/12
With travel to and from Japan on the up, concerns over a possible measles outbreak prompted experts to recommend everyone vaccinate against the disease. Two injured Ukrainian soldiers arrived in Japan for treatment and rehabilitation at a hospital in Tokyo. The Japanese Industry minister met with local fishing representatives from the Tohoku region over plans to release treated water from Fukushima’s stricken nuclear power plant into the sea. And plans were approved for Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako to embark on their first official visit to Indonesia later in June.
And with a three-day festival taking place in Ueno Park dedicated to the Philippines (June 9~11), NOTEBOOK visited Ueno Dōbutsuen, the oldest zoo in Japan located in the heart of Tokyo, mere minutes from the wider Ueno park and JR Station.
06/09
More heavy rain was expected in Mie with sandbags on standby in readiness for further flooding. In Tokyo, a Japanese court ruled that not recognizing same-sex marriage was “unconstitutional”. Meanwhile, Japan’s parliament was set to pass a bill this month aimed at promoting a better understanding of the LGBT community, and the number of new COVID-19 cases rose just one month after the country downgraded the status and severity of the coronavirus in May.
As the weather in Tokyo remained wet and humid, we took a trip from one museum to another, from MOMAT, Tokyo's National Museum of Modern Art in Chiyoda ward near the Imperial Palace, to the MOT Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo and Kiyosumi Shirakawa in Tokyo's Koto ward.
06/07
The prefectural government of Saga unearthed a sealed sarcophagus Monday at the Yoshinogari Historical Park. The Japanese government announced plans on Tuesday to speed up decarbonization, generating 15 trillion yen (107 billion USD) and investing in hydrogen. The government also announced plan to increase the proportion of female executive board members at companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Also on Monday, the Japanese-made SLIM lunar probe was unveiled at the Tanegashima Space Center, Kagoshima ahead of its maiden voyage in August aboard the H3 rocket bound for the moon.
Ever since it opened in 1894, Japan’s gateway to the sea has been Osanbashi Pier, an international port terminal and public space overlooked by Yokohama's Minato Mirai skyline and looking over Yamashita Park port side. Notebook visited one windy afternoon catching the sound of a Dragon boat race off in the distance.
06/05
Heavy rain lashed parts of western and eastern Japan the previous week, as warm and humid air from Typhoon Mawar flowed into seasonal rain as Japan’s Meteorological Agency warned of further landslides and flooding. Japan was aiming to be at the centre of the supply chain for the next-generation of semiconductors by ramping up its investment in the technology. Meanwhile, the Irish Film Festival in Tokyo was launched at the Kadokawa Cinema in Yurakucho.
Just south of Tokyo, Yokohama Chūkagai has become one of the largest and oldest Chinatowns in Japan, alongside Nankinmachi in Kobe and Shinchi in Nagasaki. We passed through its red gates on a warm Sunday as restaurants filled and streets overflowed with locals and visitors alike.
06/02
North Korea launched what was thought to be a ballistic missile under the guise of a satellite, before it crash-landed in the Yellow Sea. As global warming causes a rise in sea temperatures, Japan's fish catch in 2022 fell to a record low. The London-based Japan House started promoting the Japanese countryside overseas. And the third edition of Art Collaboration Kyoto was announced, along with a list of exhibiting galleries taking part in the art fair this October.
On a warm afternoon in early June, we walked along the Nakano Broadway shopping arcade, just across from the Nakano train station which runs through to Shinjuku on the Chūō-Sōbu Line, the JR East Chūō ‘Rapid’ line, and the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line. It’s famed for secondhand book stores, rare-to-find toys and curiosities, photo books and out-of-print copies of very early manga, that exchange hands for thousands of dollars at a time. It is fair to say Nakano has a particular charm.
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