Category Archives: culture

Fun Link Friday: Spider battles

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Paula

If the humidity of the rainy season hasn’t given you enough of a reason to feel the creepy-crawlies, you might be interested in learning more about the folk tradition of Kajiki Kumo Gassen, or the spider-fighting battles of Aira in Kagoshima. … Continue reading →

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Book Announcement: Conflicts of Interest: Art and War in Modern Japan

Posted on June 19, 2016 by LM

Via University of Washington Press. Conflicts of Interest: Art and War in Modern Japan PHILIP HU, RHIANNON PAGET, SEBASTIAN DOBSON, MAKI KANEKO, SONJA HOTWAGNER, AND ANDREAS MARKS paperback not available $49.95 HARDCOVER (9780295999814) TO BE PUBLISHED: November 2016 SUBJECT LISTING: Art … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: The Oldest Sake Shop in Tokyo

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Paula

What a week it has been. In all the chaos of the news, I barely remembered to look up a Fun Link Friday this week. But in the end, what we could all use is a drink (if that’s your … Continue reading →

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Book Announcement: Radicalism in the Wilderness: International Contemporaneity and 1960s Art in Japan

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Travis

Reiko Tomii, Radicalism in the Wilderness: International Contemporaneity and 1960s Art in Japan, MIT Press, 2016. Description from the publisher: 1960s Japan was one of the world’s major frontiers of vanguard art. As Japanese artists developed diverse practices parallel to, … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Hatching eggs outside of shells

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Paula

A quickie fun link this week– recently Japanese high schoolers demonstrated a fascinating technique of hatching chickens from eggs without the shells. This special kind of incubation allows students (and scientists!) the ability to watch the progression of the embryonic … Continue reading →

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Book Announcement: Science, Technology and Medicine in the Modern Japanese Empire

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Paula

David G. Wittner and Philip C. Brown, eds., Science, Technology, and Medicine in the Modern Japanese Empire (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia) has just been released by Routledge Press. Science, technology, and medicine all contributed to the emerging modern … Continue reading →

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Book Announcement: Onnagata: A Labyrinth of Gendering in Kabuki Theater

Posted on May 29, 2016 by LM

Via University of Washington Press. Onnagata: A Labyrinth of Gendering in Kabuki Theater MAKI ISAKA paperback not available $50.00 HARDCOVER (9780295995106) PUBLISHED: January 2016 SUBJECT LISTING: Asian Studies / Japan; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Performing Arts BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: 272 … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Japan’s Plushies Tormented in the Wash

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Paula

Sorry for the lack of Fun Link Fridays lately, research/travel insanity has taken over! In the spirit of my tormented state of academic mind, this week we bring you a quickie fun link from Rocket News 24, which wrote earlier this … Continue reading →

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Book Announcement: Cartographic Japan

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Travis

Kären Wigen, Sugimoto Fumiko, and Cary Karacas (eds.), Cartographic Japan: A History in Maps, University of Chicago Press, 2016. From the publisher: Miles of shelf space in contemporary Japanese bookstores and libraries are devoted to travel guides, walking maps, and … Continue reading →

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Book Announcement: Suicide in Twentieth-Century Japan

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Paula

Japan’s suicide phenomenon has fascinated both the media and academics, although many questions and paradoxes embedded in the debate on suicide have remained unaddressed in the existing literature, including the assumption that Japan is a “Suicide Nation”. This tendency causes … Continue reading →

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