ART & CULTURE (14)
Tokyo Pop and Carrie Hamilton Featured
Tokyo Pop and Carrie Hamilton
Legendary Rock Photographer Bob Gruen in Japan
A friend of mine from high school wrote and directed the movie Tokyo Pop. She brought me to Tokyo to be the stills photographer for the film, and that’s where I met Carrie Hamilton. She plays a young girl who becomes a singer in a Japanese rock band and finds her own path. Tokyo Pop co-starred Yutaka Tadokoro, now known to millions of people across Japan as Diamond Yukai, and features actress Toki Shiozawa and wrestler Dump Matsumoto. Filmed in 1986 on location in Tokyo, Tokyo Pop explores what life in Tokyo was like back then, especially for an American girl and a rock and roll band trying to make it.
Adachi Gakuen International Art Contest Featured
Adachi Gakuen International Art Contest
3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, CA
In November 2021, the Adachi Gakuen International Art Contest was held through a virtual streaming event featuring design students of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kyushu Designer Gakuin Colleges from Japan, along with students from California State University Long Beach and the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. Finalists of the contest had their art publicly displayed along the 3rd Street Promenade near Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica, California in one of the most prestigious walking areas of Los Angeles.
Buddhism
Buddhism
Interview with Philosopher Dr. Hiroshi Tasaka
TJ: How do you define Buddhism?
TASAKA: Buddhism is a kind of “cosmology” that can accept various value systems - not only religions but philosophies that exist around the world. Zen Buddhism, especially, is a “philosophy of contradiction” that can accept all the contradictions in our life, because contradiction is an essence of life. An important thing in Buddhism is the ability to keep the contradictions in mind, to keep gazing at them and think about the meaning of the contradictions.
TJ: In Europe, many philosophers think Buddhism is not a religion but more of a way to understand life or a style of life because it is not theist. What do you think?
TASAKA: It depends on the definition of religion. If we define a religion as a value system centering around one god, then Buddhism is not a religion. Buddhism sees numerous gods, Buddhahood, everywhere – in mountains, rivers, grass, trees, land and even in the wind. However, we need to understand that religion itself is in the process of transformation and evolution in today’s age. An important question is, “What religious systems will replace the old religious systems in the 21st century?” Even a traditional religious system should transform itself to adapt to the changes in people’s minds in modern society.
TJ: We are very interested in knowing how Buddhism views life and death. Could you explain what life and death means to you?
TASAKA: For Buddhists, there is no difference between life and death in their true meaning because life and death share the same reality in life. If we hope to talk about death, we need to answer the question, “Whose death is it?” Is it the death of the Small Ego or the death of the Great Self? Once we ask this question, we will find that the Great Self cannot die. If we see the Small Ego in our mind, it will die sooner or later. However, if we see the Great Self as the world itself, then there is no life and death. A famous philosopher left an important message to us: “You are the world. The world is you”. tj
The complete article can be found in Issue #274 of the Tokyo Journal. Click here to order from Amazon.
Japanese National Tea Ceremony
Japanese Nagtional Tea Ceremony
Treasures Displayed in L.A.
THE 92-year-old Daisosho (Grand Master) Dr. Genshitsu Sen XV visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on May 24, 2015 to showcase the museum’s March 29 – June 7 exhibition Raku: The Cosmos in a Tea Bowl. The exhibition of 100 ceramic tea ceremony objects spanning five centuries was the first of its kind in the U.S. free of the items were Japanese national treasures, two of which were tea bowls made by the earliest Raku potter Chojiro and lent to LACMA by the Daisosho out of the Urasenke Foundation’s collection.
LACMA's Awazu Kiyoshi Exhibit Featured
Awazu Kiyoshi Graphic Design Exhibit at Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (LACMA)
The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (LACMA) is hosting a dazzling show to honor the work of the Japanese artist Awazu Kiyoshi entitled “Graphic Design: Summoning the Outdated.” The exhibition started in October 13, 2016 and lasts until May 7, 2017. It is located on the third level of the Helen and Felix Juda Gallery. The exhibition shows books and posters from the 1960’s to the 1970’s. It is an exploration of Japanese visual culture, a personal journey with imagery that presents a folk-influenced character, an investigation of shades and forms, and a reflection on the prospects of the functions of possibility. The show takes the observer amidst Awazu’s foundation of surreal alignment in his work that advertises movies, theatre, art, and literature. LACMA’s ongoing intent to collect and display graphic design means that all the pieces in the exhibition have been acquired fairly recently. A walk-thru of the show gives a feeling of extended rural life.
2016 OC Japan Fair Featured
2016 OC Japan Fair
A Japanese Cultural Experience in Southern California
By Tokyo Journal Intern Michael Tang
On September 9th and 10th, 2016, the OC Japan Fair returned for another amazing festival showcasing Japanese culture in Orange County, California. This year’s event was located at the Phoenix Club of Anaheim. The OC Japan Fair featured an exhibit hall where vendors sold various Japanese related goods, from anime merchandise to traditional Japanese kimonos. There was an area for children to play kingyo-sukui, the fun and sometime stressful game of catching goldfish with a paper scooper.
Consul General of Japan, L.A.
Harry H. Horinouchi Shares his Experience in Japan, China and the U.S.
In August 2014, Harry (Hidehisa) Horinouchi was appointed the Consul General of Japan, Los Angeles. This is his second U.S. mission, with his first being a counselor at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. from 1996 to 1999. During his 25-year career in Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), he has held various positions in both Japan and China. His ministry assignments at MOFA’s headquarters in Tokyo involved legal affairs, treaties portfolios, Asian and Oceanian regional affairs and international intelligence analysis. He has authored numerous articles in law journals on international legal issues, authored a book published in China entitled Longevity of Japan, and has been a lecturer on international law at Waseda University. He is a graduate of the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Law and attended Nanjing University in China and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Tokyo Journal’s Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie met with Consul General Horinouchi shortly after Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s historic visit to Los Angeles.
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