Posted in technology, architecture, travel and places, museums, kyoto on Apr 25th, 2007 No Comments »
Kyoto is often seen as purely a historical city for tourists. Indeed, when you sit in a quiet Zen garden you tend to forget that it is also a hothouse of advanced research and industry.
That was already so in the past. In the last 30 years of the 19th century, after the capital was transferred […]
Posted in travel and places, religion and philosophy, museums, temples, kyoto on Apr 13th, 2007 No Comments »
There is one very special image of Sakyamuni, the historical Buddha, one that claims to be modeled after the Buddha himself, during his lifetime, and that therefore became the object of a particularly fervent popular cult in Japan in the 13th century. This wondrous image still can be seen in the Shaka-do, the Sakyamuni Hall […]
Posted in museums on Apr 7th, 2007 No Comments »
The history museum of Hiroshima Prefecture stands in the Castle Park of Fukuyama, and not in the capital, Hiroshima. But Fukuyama was selected for a good reason: it is the site of Kusado Sengen, a medieval port city in the Ashida River delta that flourished in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods and in its heyday […]
Posted in calendar, museums, temples, kyoto on Apr 4th, 2007 No Comments »
It is spring, so many Kyoto temples that are usually closed will open their doors - some only briefly. Here is a selection:
Anrakuji: weekends from April 7 to June 2 as well as the last part of Golden Week (May 3-6). Anrakuji is named after a disciple of Honen, who was executed with his colleague […]
Posted in art and photography, museums on Apr 2nd, 2007 No Comments »
In the Kansai, there are several small museums with great and rare collections, which are easy to miss as they are only open a few weeks each spring and autumn. One of these is the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures in Nishinomiya. The institute was established in 1950 by Kurokawa Koshichi, a financier from Osaka, […]
Posted in architecture, art and photography, museums, news on Mar 28th, 2007 No Comments »
Ai-mitsu is one of the most tortured (and fascinating) Japanese painters from the middle of the last century - he died in China during the war. He is undeservedly unknown outside of Japan, so the Ai-Mitsu Exhibition starting March 30 in the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and lasting until May 27, is a […]
Posted in crafts, travel and places, museums, news on Mar 19th, 2007 No Comments »
March is the time of dolls (hina ningyo, the dolls for Girl’s Day) in Japan and there are four ongoing exhibitions in Kyoto:
At the Kyoto National Museum “Girl’s Day and Dolls” (until April 8);
At Hokyoji Imperial Convent the annual spring exhibition, this year for the 100th time (until April 3; take bus no. 9 from […]
Posted in internet, food, culture, art and photography, travel and places, museums, news on Mar 15th, 2007 No Comments »
From March 20 to June 17 the Tokyo National Museum will host The Mind of Leonardo, an exhibition with as its centerpiece The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci. This exhibition is part of the Italian festival in Japan this spring called Primavera Italiana 2007. Not everyone in Italy was happy that this priceless work was […]
Posted in internet, museums, culture, travel and places, movies, news on Mar 14th, 2007 No Comments »
Despite the expected boost it will give the economy, not everybody in Nagasaki is happy with the government decision to register 20 Christian sites with the Unesco World Heritage List. As Asahi.com reports, the priests are afraid noisy tourists will disturb the peace of the believers by snapping their picture, leave graffitti on the walls […]
Posted in design, museums on Mar 12th, 2007 No Comments »
Although I made a special study of Japan’s art museums, it remained long hidden even to me that Osaka has a modern art museum. I am not talking about the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art (this Tennoji Park museum is anyway in the first place dedicated to ancient art forms, although it hosts temporary modern […]
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