Category Archives: fun links

Fun Link Friday: Olympics meets Noh

Posted on October 4, 2019 by Paula

A quickie Fun Link Friday for you all today! Those who have been following the 2020 Tokyo Olympics carefully probably know that their social media campaign is “Make the Beat,” inviting people to post to social media with the hashtag … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Small Worlds Tokyo

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Paula

If lately you’ve just been feeling insignificant compared to the vastness of the universe, maybe you need to plan on booking a trip to Small Worlds Tokyo, which is set to open next spring. Planned as the world’s largest diorama … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Ikebana Battles 🌿🌻

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Paula

What artful masterpiece can you put together in five minutes? At the third annual flower arranging battle in Ota, Tokyo this summer, spectators got to find out! Although the traditional art of ikebana (flower arrangement) in Japan is often thought of … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: 2019 Rice Field art at Inakadate

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Paula

As long-time readers know, each year we showcase the rice paddy art of Inakadate, Aomori Prefecture, which has a long standing tradition of growing multicolored rice to great gigantic rice paddy art! This year the theme is  Oshin「おしん」, a television … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Cooking Edo Period Food 🍚

Posted on September 6, 2019 by Paula

When in Japan, food is everything. What’s the local specialty? What’s the best omiyage? But have you stopped and wondered “What were people eating 200 years ago?” Well the Center for Open Data in the Humanities might be able to … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Throw out your garbage!

Posted on August 30, 2019 by Paula

Some of you may have already seen this instagram account going viral, but it’s too funny to miss out on. An anonymous woman has created, in her own words, “an account uploading things my husband has left around.” Entitled “Throw … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Mapping Ukiyo-e

Posted on August 23, 2019 by Paula

For those who are interested in the intersection of history, art, and technology, a computer science undergrad (@Cascadesssss on Twitter) has produced an OpenStreetMap plotting nearly 300 ukiyo-e prints according to the locations they represent across Japan’s archipelago. The map … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Moving Paper Designs

Posted on August 16, 2019 by Paula

Whether inventive takes on origami and paper art in general, our Fun Link Fridays have seen a lot of cool designs! This week we have another oldie but goodie: the work of Nakamura Haruki, who brings movement to his paper … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Digital recoloring of premodern statues

Posted on August 9, 2019 by Paula

There have been a lot of wonderful articles and even exhibits recently on the importance of acknowledging the color shaped premodern societies as much as our interpretations of them. Although we’re accustomed to seeing classical statues of Greek or Roman … Continue reading →

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Fun Link Friday: Cut-paper origami cranes

Posted on August 2, 2019 by Paula

There’s a lot of cool Japanese artists on Twitter and Instagram that occasionally get reported on in English-language media, but I found this one in my old bookmarks and couldn’t resist bringing it back. An artist who goes by “Uni” … Continue reading →

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