Vitro Nasu

(Mishima by Paul Schrader)

NYtimes

Eiko Ishioka, Multifaceted Designer and Oscar Winner, Dies at 73

LAtimes

The Tokyo native who later moved to New York began her convention-defying career in Japanese advertising but eventually expanded it to include design work for Broadway, the movies and Cirque du Soleil.

Eiko Ishioka
石岡 瑛子, Ishioka Eiko, July 12, 1939, Tokyo – January 21, 2012, Tokyo

In a career marked by great versatility, Ishioka won a Grammy Award in 1986 for best album package as art director for Miles Davis’ “Tutu.”
Her sets and costumes for David Henry Hwang’s Broadway play “M. Butterfly” earned her two Tony Award nominations in 1988.

Faye Dunaway
1) Eiko Ishioka (with Faye Dunaway) for Japanese department store, Parco

2) Faye Dunaway Peels an Egg - (youtube)

The Fall
See The Fall – trailer (Previous post – Captive Girls)

Our first marriage from the Fall (youtube)

Bjork Cocoon (youtube)

Eiko Ishioka filmography

A Tribute to Ishioka

Ozu biography on youtube Ozu was born on Dec 12, 1903.

Tokyo Chorus echoes Ozu’s experience of his struggle with job hunting. (The charismatic Actor Okada Tokihiko – father of Mariko Okada died young. He needs to get a special blog post in the near future)

Innocent children disovered the father was no hero. (A bit like how the 99% feels about our government)

Ohoyo – Good Morning is Ozu’s hilarious Technicolor re-working of his silent I Was Born, But.. .(The younger brother says ‘I love you’.. post war Japan in danchi or suburb the kids negotiate for a TV set).

Ozu spirit of a clown

The clown is lonely, but he must hide his loneliness and play the fool joyfully, comically. That’s the spirit of Ozu’s film.

Wim Wenders made two great documentaries one was Buena Vista Social Club and another Tokyo-Ga. Wim Wenders is responsible for increased attention paid to Ozu.

Aki Kaurismaki calls Ozu a mathematician

Jim Jarmusch on Ozu (He mentioned Kawakita Kazuko a formidable pioneer distributor of Japanese films to Europe and vice versa) in the article

Ozu’s grave “MU’ shows up in many of these documentaries. (See here at Engakuji)

Hou Hsiao Hsien made Cafe Lumiere as a tribute to Ozu.. (see Hou talking about Ozu)
(Dorris Dorie, Cherry Blossoms, Wayne Wang – Dim Sum also are tribute films for Ozu)

Claire Denis on Yasujiro Ozu

Late Spring finale

Floating Words (previous post on Ozu)

Foujita by Berenice Abbott

Foujita was born on November 27, 1886

See photos and paintings of Foujita here. (Courtesy of Mario A who has a great Foujita album on FB ).

Taking a studio in Montparnasse, he met artists such as Modigliani and is said to have studied dance with Isadora Duncan. His paintings, which initially sold well, drew comment for the milk white color of the skin of the women he portrayed.
After a stint working and traveling in South America, Foujita returned to Japan in the 1930s, where he produced propaganda art for the military. He eventually returned to France, where he converted to Catholicism and died in 1968. (via)

Foujita by Andre Kertesz

(one more by Andre K..Foujita on the phone)

Foujita’s complicated life – Dressing Up for Success (Ian Buruma)

His most famous war painting here.

Inokuma Genichiro

Guen I.
Guen (this is how he signed his art) came to live in Honolulu in the mid 70′s after he suffered a stroke in NYC. He lived in Japan in the Summer and the Winter in Honolulu. Guen became a mentor to my sister Fung-Ching Kelling during his stays in Honolulu.

In My Resume (youtube only in Japanese)

.. Inokuma and Foujita shared a house when they escaped wartime Paris. He talked about how Foujita bought the train tickets at the train station (today Musee d`Orsay) and that he only took a Matisse painting and left everything else in Paris. They stayed in the countryside more than month living in the same house.
He showed us a special spot that Isamu Noguchi loved on the island of Oahu and showed us the beauty of natural rocks.
In NY Guen Inokuma (sensei) and his wife Fumiko took my sister and I to Mark Rothko’s apartment and told us what he knew of Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Yoko Ono and Isamu Noguchi were his good friends.

His museum

Painting (via artnet)
Title : City Composition (3)
Medium : Oil on Canvas
Size : 30 x 40 in. / 76.2 x 101.6 cm.
Year : 1966 -
Contemporary Japanese Art from the Collection of B.H. Rockefeller

The museum catalog listed a painting called “Wall Street” by Genichiro Inokuma exhibited at San Francisco Museum of Art.

The Berlin Affair directed by Liliana Cavani is based on Quick Sand or Manji (see below left book cover)

The original title of the film, Interno Berlinese, can be translated as Inside Berlin or Interior berlines. The story is based upon Jun’ichirō Tanizaki.’s novel Quicksand, Manji, better known as The Buddist Cross 1928 -1930.

Makioka Sisiters

Makioka sister was translated by Edward Sidensticker

Junichiro Tanizaki was born on 24 July 1886

Japanese novelist, poet, and essayist, who dealt with the influence of the West on the old cultural heritage of his native country. After publishing novels written in a fairly orthodox style, Tanizaki fused traditional Japanese storytelling and experimental narrative. He emphasized the fabrication as the basis for fiction, stating that in both his reading and his writing he was “uninterested in anything but lies.”
“I read somewhere the other day that men who are too fond of the ladies when they’re young generally turn into antique-collectors when they get old. Tea sets and paintings take the place of sex.” (from Some Prefer Nettles, 1928)

Henry Miller loved the Key directed by Kon Ichikawa (nominated for the best film at Cannes – read Miller at Cannes)

John Fowles and Tanizaki at Midnight Eye

Liliana Cavani directed The Night Porter and Repley’s Game.

Godzilla weeps via

Akira Ifukube Godzilla composer on the left, his brother Isao (right)

Akira Ifukube was born on 31 May 1914

Akira’s Homepage

Check his film scores on youtube
Godzilla under the sea

Rainy Night Duel

Here are some beautiful compositions by Ifukube

伊福部昭 『サハリン島先住民の三つの揺籃歌』

伊福部昭：二十五絃箏曲 『胡哦』 聖なる泉

Symphonic Ode : Gotama the Buddha (Thanks to Andrew Pothecary)

Wani Ballet (Crocodille Ballet)

See Theco (youtube dance clip by Tsuyoshi Shirai)

The Dancer (via Shift)

Interview with Tsuyoshi Shirai

TSUYOSHI SHIRAI is a dancer, choreographer and founder of the Contemporary Dance Group daneto, which performs dance, music and video works. The groups performances, which feature collaboration with contemporary music and a wide range of artists, have been well received both at home and abroad.
In 2004, Shirai performed the solo work “mass, slide, &.” In 2011, he created and presented a new visual work based on “mass, slide, &.” called “mass, slide, &. in frames” at YCAM. He has been trying many new things not only showing his visual works on the web but also make all materials downloadable. He describes this new creation as “dance as a visual work.” We asked Shirai to explain his views on the difference between theatrical and video works.

<> <> <>
CULTIVATION BY RADIOACTIVITY IN THE ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT, 1970. AOMORI MUSEUM OF ART, JAPAN

Tetsumi Kudo
(February 23, 1935 – November 12, 1990)

Art in America by Ryan Holmberg 3/1/09

He was antihumanist and strongly antimodernist. The human body is pervasively disfigured throughout his work, and the overriding theme of his dioramas and installations is irreparable earthly degeneration. He places the blame on blind faith in technology and progress, and behind most of his apocalyptic visions is the mother of all man-made catastrophes, nuclear holocaust.

<> <> <> <>

Walker Art Center

Deeply concerned with the fate of humanity in the wake of nuclear attacks on his native land and the dawn of the global arms race, Kudo determinedly sought to develop a universal humanist language of creativity and regeneration until his untimely death in 1990.

<> <> <> <>

More Tetsumi Kudo

Asia Sympathy

In Japan No Time Yet for Grief

Fukushima TEPCO (Pasaudela)

Takashi Miike is not attending.. Japan Society..

. But, from this adversity – on our lives – we will all rise up without fail. As a start, I would be grateful if you could enjoy Japan from this film.
Sincerely,
Miike Takashi”

To be or not to be

Tokyo Times Blog here (See a wonderful photo)

And, for a city that can certainly be very frosty, it’s noticeably more friendly. Nods, smiles and the odd konichi-wa are suddenly commonplace, with a definite feeling of, ‘we are all in this together’, now prominent.

and here

Being There and Earthquake Graphics
(After quake reports from Andrew Pothecary who lives in Tokyo)

Fast Facts about Japan (Scientific America)

Koji Moriyama is the dancer (via Masumi Mizoguch)

Taste of Tea is on youtube now with Eng. subtitle

See another delightful clip..Ya ya yama yama.. (repost)

Taste of Tea review here.

Get ready for a heavy dose of delightful Japanese whimsy. Clocking in at two hours and 15 minutes, The Taste of Tea is long, but it floats by easily, and it never slows down. The strange incidents, quirky characters, and weird non-sequiturs just keep coming. The imagination of writer/director Katsuhito Ishii seems limitless.

Mountain Song (Previous post)

December 10 birthday list
Emily Dickenson – (Reading by Bill Murray to construction workers – I Dwell in Possibility)

Rummer Godden – Black Narcissus & The River (Jean Renoir)

Ada Lovelace

Lafcadio Hearn was born on 27 June 1850 – and died 26 September 1904, was also known as Koizumi Yakumo (小泉八雲)

Hearn a geographic biography (a great post and many wonderful links from Issa’s Untidy Hut)

Today, Lafcadio Hearn is probably best remembered for his artful adaptation of Japanese folktales and ghost stories, including the collection Kwaidan (full text from google books), subtitled “Stories and Studies of Strange Things.” He certainly was instrumental in the introduction of Japanese culture to the West in the late 19th century.

Illustration of Lafcadio Hearn’s Fairy Tales

Ping Chong Kwaidan here

Alan Sondheim read 12 books by Hearn.

Silent Stars by Andy Warhol was inspired by Hearn’s Miminashi Hoichi

The film Kwaidan was directed by Kobayashi with a great sound work by Toru Takemitsu.

Toru Takemitsu produced over one hundred film scores during his career, working primarily with the masters of the Japanese New Wave. Directors such as Nagisa Oshima, Hiroshi Teshigahara, and Masaki Kobayashi were able to achieve more poetic means of expression thanks in large part to Takemitsu’s searching, unconventional accompaniments. (Harvard film archive)

Stupendous Six parts documentary of Toru’s film works are on youtube – this documentary also serves as a wonderful introduction to Japanese new wave cinemas.

Part I Takemitsu Sound Documentary

From Double Suicide Iwashita Shima as Koharu

Part II (opens with Double Suicide – a terrific score by Takemitsu)

Part III opens with The face of another directed by Teshigahara.

Part IV (The idea of Ma – silent pose is discussed – with director Kobayashi and Donald Richie)
Part V opens with The Human Condition -

Part VI

A tribute to Ohno

Ohno at 95 years (Adagio Samuel Barber)
Ohno October 27, 1906 – June 1, 2010

Flickr Ohno Kazuo

Kazuo Ohno

NYtimes Obit Kazuo Ohno a Founder of Japanese Butoh, Dies at 103

Kazuo Ohno, a founder of Butoh, the influential Japanese dance-theater form whose traditional look of darkness and decay evoked for many the horrors of the wartime bombings of Japan, died on Tuesday in Yokohama, Japan. He was 103 and had continued to perform beyond his 100th year.

Obit from Times online (Ohno’s first performance was at an advanced age of 47 years)

A short clip of Ohno dancing while sitting on his chair

Kazuo Ohno Studio

On the verge of death one revisits the joyful moments of a lifetime. One’s eyes are opened wide-gazing into the palm, seeing death, life, joy and sorrow with a sense of tranquillity.”

WE HAVE DECIDED NOT TO DIE from Reversible Destiny

Arakawa July 6, 1936 – May 18, 2010
The news of Arakawa’s passing came from Mario Ambrosius on Facebook.

Arakawa, Whose Art Tried to Halt Aging, Dies at 73 by FRED A. BERNSTEIN (Nytimes)

Arakawa, a Japanese-born conceptual artist and designer, who with his wife, Madeline Gins, explored ideas about mortality by creating buildings meant to stop aging and preclude death, died Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 73.

Arthur Danto, the art critic and philosopher, who had known Arakawa for nearly 40 years, said, “He really felt they were doing the most important kind of work, to overcome death.” But, Mr. Danto said, “How that was going to happen was never clear, to anyone outside Madeline and him.”

Arakawa and Gins were reportedly victims of Bernard Madoff, losing several million dollars when Madoff’s Ponzi scheme collapsed (wiki)