J-Camera: The Making Of Mini-Masterpiece

Gearing up for vacation these days means packing your digital SLR, sleek-and-pink point-and-shoot, HD video camera, smart phone, all of the cords and chargers and computers that make them functional, and perhaps, for safety, a travel diary and/or sketch pad. Before you’re out the door with money/tickets/passport in hand, you’ve probably snapped half-a-dozen artfully Instagram-ed shots, capturing minutes of minutia before the real adventure begins.

Preparing for j-CATION 2012: Sakura, Ben Warren, video producer for Japan Society, took many more than a half a dozen pictures. He took about 3,600.

Ben wanted to do something extra special to raise awareness for the Society’s cherry blossom themed all-day culture festival, and what better way to capture the fleeting, fluttering flurry of falling sakura, than the painstaking picture-perfect craft of stop motion animation?

The resulting two-and-a-half minute short film is a fantastical living travel diary, drawing inspiration from Japanese culture from past to current pop trends.



Weeks ago Ben (who is also the mastermind behind the very first j-CATION’s flying laser kitty promo video--in which he has a cameo), and a team of amateur animators, including several enthusiastic Japan Society interns and one friend, began the estimated 70-hour project. The idea bloomed from the sakura theme into five distinct segments using a variety of mixed media: paper, fabric, paint, toys, food and their containers, buttons and art objects galore.

The animation opens with a string of lit lanterns parting to reveal a “j-CATON 2012” travel diary. The book unfolds, an acorn drops, and sesame seads burst from green yarn grass to form a sakura tree. A close up of a branch shows blossoming pink construction paper petals torn into the wind, making surprise appearances throughout the video.

In a short, delicate interlude, a cup of green tea dances and swirls atop antiqued calligraphy scrolls. The middle mouthwatering section centers around a brimming bento box (crafted from wrappers of the candy and food that kept the animators going). After marching to their designated compartments, the feast wraps itself in a furoshiki from Japan Society’s 2007 centennial celebration, and is whisked away by a pair of chopsticks.

Next, a wistful, watercolor ‘floating world’ style painting brushes and bubbles to life with familiar classic Japanese art iconography—a sea escape scene at the base of Mt. Fuji capturing the timeless battle between fisherman and giant carp (to create the water effect, the dozens and dozens of waves were individually finger painted in each frame--24 frames per second for 12 seconds).

Finally, after an origami explosion of stars, a flight of chirpy birds over fluffy cotton ball clouds, and stately strut of cranes, day dips into night while a family sits beneath a sakura tree to revel in a traditional night time cherry blossom viewing party.

A simple story, exquisitely executed, masterfully mirroring the j-CATION experience.

QUIZ: Ben and crew referenced dozens of ancient and contemporary Japanese elements. Can you name them all? Answers after the laser kitty photo.

--Shannon Jowett

In order of appearance: washi, maneki-neko, origami, sakura, hanami, shodo, ocha, miruku, sushi, Yakult, UCC Coffee, Fibe Mini, wagashi, ukiyo-e, bijinga, obento, Pocky, taiyaki , furoshiki, waribashi, kaiga, hanko, Fuji-san, mizuumi, Kitaro, gyosen, koi, tsuru, kappa, Kitty-chan, yozakura. Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!

Sakura Blooms Eternal: Japan’s Gift to America Keeps Giving

Cherry Blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Image by jaci.sabbathi.

One of the greatest times to be in Japan is springtime when the sakura (cherry blossom) trees are in bloom. It’s an occasion to celebrate known as hanami, as family and friends gather at parks under cherry trees and revel in the blossoming of pink and white while enjoying food and drink.

With the blooming period lasting as little as a week, a forecast announces peak moments to witness the beautiful spectacle before it flutters to the ground. To further highlight the importance of hanami, an ancient Shinto-Buddhist philosophy known as mono no aware is linked to the short-lived cherry blossom and is seen as a wistful, melancholic reminder that even with the best things we come to appreciate in life, nothing is permanent.

The ephemeral seems to be striving for eternal, however in  Washington, D.C. This year, Japan’s 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees sees its 100th anniversary, with much bravado from the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival. As a token of friendship between the two nations, Tokyo mayor Yukio Ozaki offered the trees, which were planted along the Tidal Basin for people to enjoy the sprouting of cherry blossoms every spring without having to go to Japan. Since 1935, the D.C. has celebrated the occasion with spectacular festivities involving all sorts of Japanese cultural activities. To commemorate the centennial, the festival expands to five weeks to provide even more art, music, performances, and various other events. With its history of surviving displacement, wartime, and old age, the trees are certainly a testament to the effort to maintain close and friendly ties between the U.S. and Japan.

For those who can’t make it to D.C., Japan Society holds its own suite of events in Sakura – Spring Renews, Beauty Blooms. Master kabuki dancer, Bando Kotoji, leads several sakura-themed performances with live music accompaniment and will offer a workshop on the ancient art. As Cherry Blossoms Fall: Films & Scenes of Sakura, a 10-movie series captures mono no aware through sakura imagery and themes steeped in Edo-period romance and samurai swordplay. The series culminates with the annual all-day j-CATION festival, featuring  numerous workshops, from origami and sweets to language lessons and shodo calligraphy; live bands; karaoke; a screening of Killing in Yoshiwara; a wild Japanese-style game show, with the grand prize of a roundtrip ticket to japan; and the hanami lounge with Japanese food and drinks to buy throughout the day.

If that's not enough to cure the sakura fever, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden holds their annual Sakura Matsuri at the end of April. For a digital fix of the powerful pink phenomenon, peek more than 2000 images in their Hanami Group on Flickr.

--Sean Tomizawa

Sound Bites

Went to j-CATION? Samurai Beat Radio caught up with Yuki Chikudate, singer of the Brooklyn-based dream pop band, Asobi Seksu, just before their performance at Japan Society.

You can download the podcast of the interview here or visit the Samurai Beat Radio Official Blog to check out some cute photos!

On a similar note, STEIM, the Amsterdam-based music laboratory of experiments in electronic sound and instruments, are spending the weekend of May 7th-8th at Japan Society.

STEIM artists Yutaka Makino and dj sniff discuss the process of creating their innovative electronic music and share their perspectives on the latest international collaborations in an Artist Talk and Demo. Then, in the Mobile Touch Exhibition, visitors will have the rare opportunity to make their own music on STEIM’s wild collection of invented electronic instruments, including the Finger Web, the Cracklebox, the Voice Scratcher and the Headbanger.

And where would we be without throwing a concert?

For this performance, STEIM’s Artistic Director, Takuro Mizuta Lippit, has assembled a lineup of groundbreaking international artists from STEIM’s roster, including:

• Yutaka Makino (Japan/Germany): A composer and technical wizard who has pioneered the blending of music, sculpture and architecture
• ABATTOIR: A duo comprised of Audrey Chen (U.S.)—vocalist, cellist and analog electronics musician/composer and Robert van Heumen (Netherlands)—a composer and tinkerer equally at home with a keyboard or a joystick
• A collaboration between digital media composer Yannis Kyriakides (Netherlands) and guitarist Andy Moor (U.K./ Netherlands) of the legendary Dutch punk band The Ex
• dj sniff (Japan/Netherlands), a.k.a. Takuro Mizuta Lippit—turntable musician and Artistic Director of STEIM

Psst...If you want a sneak preview, check out this video!

Quick Collage of j-CATION Snapshots

The Wonderful Aftermath of j-CATION

I'd say the festival was a huge hit, wouldn't you?

j-CATION got a review from Alexandra Cheney in The Wall Street Journal yesterday that was so crazy awesome, I just had to reprint it in full:

"Nestled between the Holy Family Church and the Trump World Tower, a thumping beat emerges from Japan Society’s lobby and spills onto the street. Lining the block between first and second avenues, a crowd of culturally savvy j-CATION goers await tickets to enter the day long takeover event. Cheering all things Japanese, Japan Society presents “j-CATION – Taste Japan,” a 12-hour event that began Saturday afternoon and ended early Sunday morning.

Enter the glass doors of the building, which was designed by Japanese architect Junzo Yoshimura and opened in 1971. Women dressed in Cosplay (which is short for costume play) maid outfits greet guests at the door.

A $5 donation is suggested, and most people whip out their wallets, including Nobohiko Ikura, the president and CEO of Nippon Steel USA Inc., and Koichi Conatsu, president of Mitsubishi International Corporation. Both are members of the board for Japan Society.

The beats grows louder inside the doors, and vendors selling fried chicken in yakitori sauce and edamame as well as chocolate, vanilla and strawberry cream puffs filled-to-order beckon visitors to sample their wares. Behind them, a lily pond with bamboo reflects the yellow, red and green lights of the j-Lounge, the origin of the bass-heavy beats and one of the two bars set up throughout the three floors of Japan Society events.

Up the stairs and to the right, a smaller, more intimate bar sells five kinds of beer and plum wine. From 1 p.m., when the doors open, till 5 p.m., visitors learn about the proper pairing of Japanese tea and sweets in the Sky Room. The remainder of the second floor is dedicated to “Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters,” an exhibition of Japanese artwork by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, a 19th century Japanese master of woodblock prints and painting.

Down the stairs once, and twice, to the basement where participants can view Flavor of Happiness, a film about food and an aging Chinese chef shown from 1:30 p.m. to 3:40 p.m.

Organized as a streaming event, ticket holders wander freely through the building. But everyone who craves access to the theater events must wait in line for a separate set of tickets, as space capacity is limited to 230 people.

“We didn’t expect such a continuous crowd, especially those who were so open to the spirit of waiting for the events they want to see,” said Shannon Jowett, the Society’s Director of Communications and the day’s doorman. At 7 p.m. the building had already seen upwards of 2,700 people. Jowett said the Society predicted a little over a thousand.

Post-film a different crowd of stroller-pushing families and hipsters flow into the theater for “Clash of the Foodies!,” an hour-long live game show where food bloggers meet cabaret superstars meet professional wrestler Queen of Squeeze Amazon Annie. The crowd applauds handsomely as Amazon Annie emerges victorious after 6-rounds of food tasting, identifying and re-purposing as clothing.

The stage is stripped of its equipment at Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi, world-record-holding competitive eating champion enters the theater. His 45-minute lecture, “Table Talk,” takes time to address his methodology of eating, a.k.a breaking the hot dog in half then dunking the bun in water and shoving it into his mouth. Going three rounds, Kobayashi crushes the two mediators of the lecture, who look slightly ill as the eating champ washes the hot dogs, which are slightly larger than competition size, down with water.

There are also calligraphy and language classes, and sweet treats for the kids in the j-Lounge upstairs. Asobi Seksu, a dream-pop band out of Brooklyn is the final event of the night, and eager visitors line up once again for the chance to sit in the first row of the theater.

“The building is very old, and so is Japan Society and its members and programs” which turns 103 this year, according to Yoko Shioya, the artistic director for the last 13 years. “But we have a lot of faces and we want to share those multiple faces with all the people here tonight. That’s the point.”

The lights lower and Asobi Seksu take the stage, some yawn from their long day, others jump to their feet as the paper lanterns hanging above the stage pulsate to the beat of the drums."

It's not only us...

Everyone's getting excited for j-CATION!

Kanpai!

j-CATION is only 3 days away!

Since I'm going to be working behind the j-lounge bar and since I can never get enough of the delicious posts at The Japanese Food Report, let's discuss drinks!

While we might not be able to serve the delectable-looking Warm Sake-Strawberry Whipped Cream Cocktail that Salat mentions, we will be providing a host of classic Japanese beers, sake, and even plum wine. Not to mention all the non-alcoholic beverages (Ramune Melon, Calpico, canned coffees, and more), which are equally tempting.

And don't worry if you get hungry! Throughout the day, a variety of scrumptious snacks and tasty treats will be available for purchase in our main foyer. Vendors from a selection of local restaurants and retailers will offer authentic tastes of Japan that run the gamut from junk-food to decidedly more esoteric cuisine.

See you on Saturday!

Virtual Bento Box Battle

As some of you may know, one element of j-CATION is the Virtual Bento Box Battle. It is “virtual” since you don’t have to attend j-CATION to enter. We have received submissions from Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hawaii and San Francisco (and a couple from NYC, too).

You can check them all out on the Japan Society Flickr page.

Although there was no strict theme to the challenge, we suggested a few ideas to get people started:

• The mission of Japan Society: “…to bring the people of the United States and Japan closer together in their appreciation and understanding of each other…”
• Imagery from the Japan Society Gallery exhibition Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters: Japanese Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi from the Arthur R. Miller Collection
• Representations of iconic Japanese foods, landmarks, customs, or public figures.

We are awarding the winners with some cool donated prizes, including a hot-water pot and rice cooker from Panasonic, photo printers from Canon, and bento box sets from MUJI.

All entries will be displayed on the website and on the flat-screen at j-CATION, so the world can see your wonderful work.

The deadline has been extended to Monday, April 5 so get crafty!

j-CATION: Blindfold Taste Tests

We had a very interesting afternoon at Japan Society today, doing some prep work for Clash of the Foodies, a live game show taking place during j-CATION that will challenge all five senses. Colorful teams of food experts and Japan enthusiasts from across the city, including pop superstars Our Hit Parade and Queen of Squeeze Amazon Annie, will gather to compete and prove themselves number one!

What is it?

We're not going to tell you!

You'll have to wait until April 10th to find out what's in store for the blindfolded contestants!

Recipes for a Good Time

Ahh, who doesn't love the beginning of spring? The sunshine, the smiling New Yorkers, the smells of delicious foods wafting out of open windows...

Alright, so I'm a little hungry. And j-CATION's still over two weeks away! But lucky for me, one of our favorite chefs Harris Salat of The Japanese Food Report is calling for recipe testers for his upcoming cookbook entitled "The Japanese Grill."

What does this mean? As a recipe tester, you'll be sent grilling recipes along with a response form. You'll cook them, and tell them what you think. Do the instructions work for you? Did the dish turn out delicious? (But, of course.) Anything confusing or unclear? No prior recipe testing experience required. All you need is a standard outdoor charcoal or gas grill (a Weber is perfect). They're looking for enthusiastic home cooks who hunger (so to speak) to learn more about Japanese cuisine and grilling. 

Speaking of gastronomic activities, the events and features of j-CATION are now listed on the webpage!

j-CATION in The New Yorker

The New Yorker commissioned an illustration to accompany their preview listing of j-CATION in this week's "On the Horizon" section. This is a very prestigious occurrence with lots of competition vying for listings, let alone an illustration!

World Record Eater Will Be at j-CATION

Photo by Tien Mao for Gothamist

History went down (one man's throat) at Fulton Ferry Landing when champion eater Takeru Kobayashi broke the world record in meatball eating. How many meatballs can one human eat in one minute? That record was 26 until Kobayashi blasted it to pieces by downing 29.

It was all caught on film too. Check out the video here!

You will get the opportunity to meet him at Japan Society on April 10th at our food-themed festival! And luckily you don't need an appetite as large as Kobayashi's to enjoy everything j-CATION has to offer. ;)

Brutes, Beauties & Beasts

Calling all manga lovers!

Sign up for one or more two-hour sessions with internationally acclaimed artist, Hiroki Otsuka, Japan Society’s Mangaka-in-Residence. Start your visit by seeing our exhibition: Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters: Japanese Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi from the Arthur R. Miller Collection.

Choose one or more of the five themes from the show as the inspiration for your character: Warriors, Beautiful Women, Theater, Landscapes, and Humor. Workshops take place on the first floor in the Murase room amidst a bamboo garden and an indoor waterfall.

Starting March 13th!

The first residency of its kind in the United States in terms of content, scale and breadth of public engagement, Hiroki Otsuka will create an original full-length manga (Japanese style comic book) inspired by the work of Kuniyoshi—often working on site and visible to visitors. In addition, Otsuka lends his talents to an array of related activities, including the illustration workshops for the general public and New York City high school students (mentioned above), devising and judging an international manga competition, blogging about his work and experience at Japan Society, and creating original Kuniyoshi-inspired artwork to be made available to the public.

Otsuka will also participate in Japan Society's food-themed all-day festival j-CATION (April 10), and the Society's second annual cosplay event, Cosplay Party 2.0 (May 15), for which he will create promotional artwork.

"Kuniyoshi's love of complex narrative, his busy, frenetic style, his powerful characterization, his inventive use of space, and his mass-market appeal all mark him as a grandfather of contemporary manga," says Joe Earle, Director of Japan Society Gallery and organizer of Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters. "We are underlining the parallels between Kuniyoshi’s work and contemporary manga by asking Hiroki Otsuka—an outstanding manga artist living in New York—to serve as our mangaka-in-residence, inspiring visitors by creating his own meta-narrative about Kuniyoshi and his work."

Otsuka's yet-to-be titled original manga, which begins production on the March 12 opening of Graphic Heroes Magic Monsters, centers on a teenager who comes to Japan Society's exhibition as part of a school group. The student literally gets drawn into the artwork as a Kuniyoshi-inspired warrior and is called on to save New York City from the multitude of monsters marauding throughout Kuniyoshi's prints.

Seasonings

Another food-related post to whet your appetites for j-CATION!

From The Japanese Food Report, the magnificent blog by Harris Salat of our event Japanese Hot Pots to Warm Your Soul, comes another post that's too yummy not to discuss.

Salat discusses the techniques of creating Japanese flavors using staples such as soy sauce, salt, sugar, vinegar, and miso. And he beautifully compares the subtleties in western cooking and eastern cooking:

“Think about Western cuisine as a cuisine of impact. Butter, fats, herbs, spices are combined to create a flavor crescendo. Japanese cuisine, on the other hand, is concerned with balance. Sweet balancing salty, sweet balancing tart, seasonings balancing the natural flavors of ingredients. I read this difference described as a cuisine of addition (Western) versus a cuisine of subtraction (Japanese) — Japanese cuisine being focused on drilling down to the essence of an ingredient’s natural flavor. I also heard this difference, by the way, described as an oil cuisine (Western) versus a water cuisine (Japanese).”

Definitely read the rest of his post!

Perfect Timing

One of Asia’s largest food and drinks fair, Foodex is the go-to event for Japanese and foreign companies to network and show off their products. Foodex Japan is held annually, welcoming 2,400+ exhibitors from 60+ countries and regions. It generally draws over 85,000 visitors over the 4-day show period. With over 30 years serving as Japan's top trade food and beverage show, the event is a platform for exhibitors and visiting buyers to meet and interact, offering key opportunities for dynamic discussions and business possibilities to enter Asian and global markets.

While j-CATION might not be able to host over 85,000 people (the Japan Society building isn't quite THAT large), you'll definitely be able to sample a feast's worth of foods and beverages. And of course, dance!

Since j-CATION is about a month away, a lot of my coworkers are buzzing about it and working hard to make it the best it can be. Even I've been called upon to lend a hand in thinking up mouthwatering tag lines for some of the workshops and events j-CATION is going to feature.

It looks like it's going to be pretty exciting!

Ramen!

Another food-related post to whet your appetites for j-CATION!

 

This one comes from a fun article in The New York Times entitled Exploring Tokyo Through Its Ramen Shops:

 "Ramenate! is hardly the only ramen blog out there. There are dozens, many in English, many more in Japanese. Together they constitute but one small corner of Tokyo’s sprawling ramen ecosystem, a realm that encompasses multilingual guidebooks, glossy magazines, databases that score shops to three decimal places, comic books, TV shows, movies (like the 1985 classic “Tampopo,” in which a Stetson-wearing trucker helps a beleaguered widow learn the art of ramen) and, according to the Shinyokohama Raumen Museum (yes, there is a ramen museum), the 4,137 shops selling bowls of noodles in broth.

Still unclear? Well, combine New Yorkers’ love of pizza, hot dogs and hamburgers, throw in some Southern barbecue mania, and you’ve still only begun to approximate Tokyo’s obsession with ramen."

A Guide to Serving Sake

This is another in a series of yummy food-related posts to whet your appetite for j-CATION!

 

Harris Salat, of our event Japanese Hot Pots to WarmYour Soul, recently presented an interesting post on his blog about the proper temperatures to serve sake at along with information on the methods of heating the sake and some etiquette.

For those of discerning taste, there are eight temperature ranges to serve sake at depending on the time of year and the type of sake and the type of meal it's being served with. As a rule of thumb for the rest of us, he said you can't go wrong with drinking any sake at room temperature.

Here are a couple of other general guidelines taken from his post:

Fragrant sake (like gingo or daigingo): Drink chilled, around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but don't drink it cold, which will kill the delicate aroma and taste (like drinking white wine too cold).

Unpasteurized sake (namazake): Drink it a little cooler, in the 41-50 degree range, to bring out its crisp, fresh taste.

Rich sake (like junmai or honjozo): These are perfect served room temperature or warm -- kan. What is warm? Body temperature (98 degrees) up to 110 degrees. (Perfect with hot pot, by the way.)

Read more on the fascinating aspects of sake at Salat's blog!

j-CATION!

Hungry? Get ready...

Take your taste buds on a trip to Japan as the first-ever j-CATION digs into the theme of Japanese food. Feast your eyes on Edible Cinema, drool over innovative bento box creations, and enjoy how-tos, tastings, and unexpected pairings of speakers throughout the day. Authentic and unusual drinks and bites satisfy cravings of the curious. The evening explodes into a feeding frenzy of music as the delicious sounds of Asobi Seksu deliver the main course. A D.J.'s mouthwatering, sweet beats rock j-CATION into the night.

April 10th