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Category Archives: Art
Today’s Random Japan Picture, Oct 25 2011
From a festival in Kyoto. Kyoto literally means “capitol” and was once the long-time capital of Japan. To this day, it remains a great cultural epicenter.
The Resilience of the Japanese People
A Nation United by Disaster The March 11 (“3/11”) earthquake and tsunami disaster striking Japan has brought into sharp relief the basic resilience and sense of unity of the Japanese people. Whatever the faults of Japan, this is one of … Continue reading
The Japanese Art of Storytelling
I’ve written my thoughts about this before, to a point, but one of my enduring reasons for liking Japanese culture is the deep tradition of high quality storytelling that I have discovered within it.
Noren: Japanese Fabric Dividers
暖簾 (のれん) The kanji for “noren” are 暖, which is used for “atatakai” (warm), and 簾, which is used for screen/ blind in the furnishing sense. Perhaps we should therefore understand the original intent as warmth blinds, blinds intended to … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Culture, Japan
Tagged art, blind, culture, divider, fabric, furnishing, hot spring, Japan, noren, screen
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Kaze: The Wind
風 (かぜ) The wind (kaze) is all around us. It can be gentle (yasashii) or violent (hageshii).
Origami: Hearts
Have A Heart The heart is yet another type of origami design. As I explained in my original origami post, origami is the word we use for paper folding regardless of the culture the design is from. The heart is … Continue reading
Japan: Anime, Video Games, and Art
“In this sense, we don’t play the game; the game plays us.” Continue reading
Anime Review: Gundam Unicorn ep 3
Literally Action-Packed Episode 2’s last part was a lot of foreshadowing for an explosion of violence punctuated with mobile suit combat in space. Episode 3 is that explosion, with very little character-to-character time away from mobile suits. This reflects a … Continue reading
Origami: A Rose By Any Other Name
薔薇 （ばら、bara): Rose Well, an origami rose does not smell just as sweet… though with the scent-free environments dominating schools more and more, this might be a good thing? At any rate, this post is about pretty origami roses.