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 September
09/01
Kawasaki Heavy Industries hoped its new robot Nyokkey would help compensate the domestic labor shortage in the face of the country’s declining population. Japanese marine biologists reached a record depth of 9,801 metres while studying the ocean floor, and the independent sake brewery Kikuzakari in Iwate, founded in 1894 and rebuilt following the 2011 earthquake, showcased its two best brands of Junmai-shu sake, “Taxi Driver” and “Ya-kyoku”, look to Scorsese and folk songs for further inspiration.
09/02
2,000 pears were stolen from a field in Shimotsuma, Ibaraki. Japanese food company Meiji was attacked by a ransomware virus in Singapore, and the contemporary artist Taro Shinoda unexpectedly passed away at the age of 58. Shinoda’s installations, Kare-sansui, Abstraction of Confusion and Lunar Reflections, all reflect on an artist concerned with how humans coexist with the natural world. Roppongi Art Night 2022 also considers how these two things come together.
09/05
Typhoon Hinnamnor approached Kyushu as Russia paraded its military on the Northern Territories, a chain of islands near Hokkaido which Russia calls its own naming them the Southern Kurils. Flooding in the Aomori city of Hirosaki also devastated local apple orchards. Sudden change wasn’t limited to rural Japan. In Shibuya, the club Sound Museum Vision closed its doors while Contact nearby, between Shibuya and Ebisu, was set to close later in the month, all because of a project redeveloping land in and around Shibuya Station, marking not only the changing face of Shibuya but also the changing face of music culture in Tokyo.
09/06
The 'Kitano Goryoe' ceremony took place for the first time in 550 years at the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto. In Shiga prefecture, Burume-no-Oka Brewery held hop-picking sessions for its locally brewed beer. Fukushima's Sukagawa Archive Center held its yearly special-effects workshops with the hope of finding the next generation of SFX artists like the legendary Eiji Tsuburaya (1901-1970), the "Father of Tokusatsu" who co-created Godzilla, and was responsible for Ultraman whose hometown is also Sukagawa City.
09/07
Russia withdrew from the reciprocal visa-free program for Japanese residents to the Northern Territories as a former Dentsu exec received yet another warrant for his arrest following new claims of Olympic-related bribery. In literature, we look back at writer Sanjugo Naoki (1891-1927) whose name lends the literary prize for writing, the Naoki Prize its name and whose tomb is found at Choshu-ji Temple in Yokohama close to Negishi Bay.
09/08
An office building collapsed in Yamaguchi prefecture, trapping several people and injuring others. Costs for the state funeral for the late Shinzo Abe was said to have swelled by six times the original figure and the price of fish skyrocketed with rising inflation and high gas and electricity prices thought to be responsible. The chain restaurant Kura Sushi announced it would raise its cheapest dishes by 5 yen but reduce some of its more expensive lines by 55 yen in a move to manage costs without alienating loyal customers. All this as winter fish make a welcome return following the relentless summer — from engawa to kohada, amaebi and ikura.
09/09
As Pro-Russia Hacker group 'Killnet' attacked Japanese infrastructure and the number of permitted visitors into the Japan increased from 20,000 to 50,000, an art festival with a difference, Onsen Confidential, does its bit to boost the cooperative power of like-mindedness by kicking off with a one-day conference in the coastal resort of Atami, Shizuoka.
09/12
Daily infections in Tokyo fell below 10,000 while Emperor Naruhito expressed his intention to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II who died at the age of 96. Prime Minister Kishida paid his respects at the UK Embassy to Japan, while Katsuhiro Otomo expressed his admiration for Kido Okamoto (1872-1939) a writer whose father worked as an interpreter for the Embassy's British Legation in Tokyo during the late 1800s and who also introduced 'otherness' into Japanese literature.
09/13
A portable tea ceremony took place on Mt. Fuji marking the end of the summer climbing season. In Mie prefecture, Maruyama's terraced rice fields held its annual get-together Inekari-no-tsudoi for the first time in three years. The filmmaker Masao Adachi announced plans to make a film based on Tetsuya Yamagami, the man accused of killing the ex-Prime minister Shinzo Abe and release the film in time for Abe's state funeral on September 27th. Much like Adachi's other 1969 documentary “AKA Serial Killer”, this latest film will lean heavily on landscape: rural, urban, visual and political.
09/14
Japanese government mulled plans to remove its entry cap of 50,000 tourists per day. Wakayama Prefecture harvested 150,000 tonnes of mandarin oranges in Tanabe City. Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan in Ikebukuro, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Arata Endo in 1921, is also one of two examples of Wright's work in Japan to completely retain its original appearance.
09/15
As the Nikkei stock index plunged by almost 3 percent and the yen fell to 145 against the U.S dollar, both wrestlers Mayu Shidochi and Nonoka Ozaki claimed titles at the World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade. Less active but no less important, Stand Botefuri, a standing bar tachinomiya puts the world to rights over food and drink on the backstreets of Tokyo's Jimbocho.
09/16
JR Kyushu unveiled its new sightseeing train the Futatsuboshi 4047 which will run along the Nagasaki and Omiya lines in Kyushu. The service was due to start on the 23rd and also coincide with the opening of the West Kyushu Shinkansen Line. Meanwhile, artist Kazuna Taguchi brought her exhibition “A Quiet Sun” to a close at Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum, giving life to dead images while scooping up references to the Mnemosyne Atlas by the German historian and cultural theorist Aby Warburg. Her small photographic works were hung in the Renzo Piano designed Hermes gallery, and asked the lingering question: What kind of images are produced by the setting sun?
09/19
Typhoon No.14, otherwise known as ‘Nanmadol’ approached the southwestern region of Kyushu and made landfall causing havoc with trains and planes not only throughout the region but also across Japan. 2022 marked the 30th anniversary of Kyushu-native Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992), a mystery novelist well-known for his true crime dramatizations turned into television dramas from the 1960s onward. Upon his death, his Tokyo residence was moved to the town where he grew up, Kokura in Kyushu, and installed within the Matsumoto Seicho Memorial Museum.
09/20
Typhoon Nanmadol battered the country crippling travel by rail and by air. Meanwhile, the National Film Archive of Japan celebrated 90 years of Toho Studios with the second part of a two-part season of films dedicated to the studio. Screenings of Sotoji Kimura's “Ongaku kigeki: horoyoi Jinsei” (1933) and Shiro Moritani's “Aka zu-kin chan, kiwotsukete” aka Take Care Little Red Riding Hood (1970) suggested how the Toho Studio responded to a changing cultural landscape, picturing the country’s mood, its sentiment, climate, even the weather by expressing this cultural, generational and environmental change.
09/21
Typhoon Nanmadol moved on leaving a dangerous breed of turtle free to cause havoc with local marine life. PM Kishida headed to the U.N. General Assembly while the Digital Minister Kono Taro was tipped to be the next PM as Kida's cabinet fell out of favour with a certain portion of the electorate. With Autumn came one of the last chances to visit one of several Tokyo Citizen Forests, Tomin-no-mori, leaving the city behind for milder weather.
09/22
A man self-immolated near the offices of the Japanese PM protesting the upcoming state funeral for Shinzo Abe. Chestnuts were picked in Ibaraki as Autumn neared, and with food in mind, Notebook explored the differences between Otoushi, tsukidashi, and sakizuke dishes which form the start of every meal in a Japanese restaurant, as well as the way each connect with an older form of dining.
09/23
PM Kishida announced plans to remove the limit on daily arrivals into Japan, while removing the need for a short-term travel visa for individual travel. And while Police unveiled a new service where members of the public could share images and video of an accident or incident on-the-fly, a photo exhibition at Studio 35 Minutes in Araiyakushimae by skateboarding photography magazine Kawa viewed the world through the lens of possibility, valuing places that other people simply overlook.
09/26
A team of Japanese researchers fitted cockroaches with solar cells to be sent on search and rescue missions, while never-seen-before silent footage shot by Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department of the Beatles visiting Japan in 1966 was finally released albeit in censored form.
09/27
Tamawashi won this Autumn's Grand Sumo Tournament at Ryogoku over the weekend fending off No.3 Takayasu to become the oldest winner an Emperor's Cup while almost 38 years of age. Genki Kawamura won 'Best Director' the day before at the 70th San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain for his directorial debut “Hyakka (A Hundred Flowers)” staring Masaki Suda, Mieko Harada, Masami Nagasawa, and Masatoshi Nagase.
09/28
Russia's FSB interrogated the Japanese consul in Vladivostok accusing the diplomat of engaging in espionage after obtaining classified information in exchange for money. The state funeral for former PM Shinzo Abe took place at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan Hall. The hall was originally built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to showcase martial arts and the building was based on the 'Yumedono', or Hall of Dreams, a similar octagonal structure at Horyuji Temple in Nara. Its newest incarnation played host to Muhammad Ali as well as the Beatles, and still serves as a religious venue for annual remembrance.
09/29
The American VP Kamila Harris met with tech leaders in Japan to boost the manufacture of semi-conductors in the country, while a new drone was tested to deliver items to remote parts of Japan. In the port city of Uwajima, Ehime prefecture, Kaminari serves a hearty lunch of kona-mono : Okonomiyake pancake AND a large bowl of udon.
09/30
China and Japan celebrated 50 years of diplomatic ties despite the recent strain over the Senkaku islands in the South China Sea and the growing issue of Taiwan. Art Week Tokyo returned for its first full iteration following its soft launch in 2021. 50 of Tokyo's museums, galleries and art spaces were linked across 6 different routes throughout the city with the art week hoping to introduce local artists to a wider audience and nurture the local scene by encouraging the conversation of art’s worth beyond its monetary value.
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