Building Social Change Exchange From Tokyo To New York

There's a design charette brewin' for Brooklyn's Brownsville.

Eco products, urban agriculture, renewable energy: relatively new concepts which have become everyday terms around the world and now impact how we live day to day. We see the seeds of these ideas sprouting all over New York, with green roofs coming to life, street-side makeovers turning the city more bike friendly, and green markets popping up all over.

NYC is not alone in this transformation. Japan has made strides to answer the green call promoting more walking-friendly cities, LED lights are now the latest thing to cut energy costs, and architects are finding more ways to make green open space.

There are many ways the U.S. and Japan can learn and benefit from one another in the green revolution, and Japan Society fosters this discussion.

As part of a 2-day program, Japan Society’s U.S.-Innovators Network brings together designers, social entrepreneurs, and architects whose work focuses on social issues. On Tuesday, November 2, The Design Difference features Atelier Bow-Wow's Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Public Architecture's  John Peterson and moderator Valerie Casey from Designers Accord. They discuss the latest thinking in architecture and design from Japan and the U.S. and explore its influence on behavior, how it illuminates culture, and how the built environment shapes community. 

Tsukamoto seeks to create spaces in ways that align and maximize the harmony (wa) of the space, the surrounding environment, and human need. In his book Behaviorology, he describes his approach as a thought process:

[it] brings about an immediate shift in subjectivity, inviting many different elements together and calling into question who or what may be the main protagonist of a space. Through this ecological approach our imagination follows the principles of nature and experiences space from a variety of perspectives. When one is surrounded by and synchronized to the liveable rhythms embedded in different behaviors – there is no experience quite so delightful.”

Peterson is looking to harness the power of public service by bringing together architects to volunteer 1% of their time to projects focused on public good. The program "challenges architecture and design firms nationwide to pledge a minimum of 1% of their time to pro bono service," connecting and committing  powerful firms with nonprofit organizations in need of design assistance.

Casey recently told the design site Core77 that key questions addressed in the discussion are:

What do Tokyo and Brownsville, Brooklyn have in common? How can we apply the tenets of "Behaviorology" - the interplay of people, nature, and buildings - to change social conditions? How does the built environment shape community and create culture, and what are the responsibilities of architects and designers in making positive change?

Come find out the answers and discover new ways design is shaping our lives! Tickets are $12 for general public and $8 for Japan Society members, students and seniors. And if you’re looking for more, check out MOMA’s Small Scale Big Change exhibit, which also explores how architecture impacts social design.

One of Atelier Bow-Wow's innovative green spaces. Via.

 J.A.

People, Monsters, Kids: Not Always What They Seem

Oh yes, it's an oni! Via.

We wrote about the OBAKE! costume party this Friday, but in addition, we have a Halloween treat just for the kids. Japan Society's Education Program invites children ages 3-10 to Meet Japan’s Mystical Folklore Creatures & Ghosts before the witching (i.e. trick-or-treating) hour on Sunday, October 31st.

Theatre Arts Japan -KIDS- debuts a new play written especially for this event, introducing the fantastical world of Japan's otherworldly creatures. In the story, a young man encounters a kind old woman on his way to light a lantern on a mountain top. When she invites him for tea, distracting him from his duties, the boy discovers she is not at all what she seems. He must turn to the mystical yokai  creatures in the woods and decide whether they are friend or foe and able to help him.

Among the throngs of Japanese beasties (there are literally hundreds), kids discover the tengu, a mysterious flying mountain creature; the kappa, a funky, frog-like river creature; the rokurokubi, a beautiful woman with a surprisingly long neck; and the ornery oni, who has the horns of a cow and the fangs of a tiger. After the theater performance, actors work with the children to create masks so they can transform into their favorite creatures from the show.

BOO!

For our more adult  monster enthusiasts, we hope to see you at the Friday, October 29 OBAKE! party. In honor of both events, here's another update on a traditional Japanese ghost story, this time for the parents:

The weather outside is cold and rainy, so your kids and their friends are bound indoors. You put them in the playroom, promising sweet treats if they behave and play quietly. For a time, they play as quietly as they can, but slowly peals of giggles crescendo  from behind the door. When you go to check on them, they blame each other for moving things, tickling each other or playing little tricks—all of which each denies. As you leave, you hear a soft giggle, and turn around to see them all looking at you with wide eyes. Relative quiet ensues as you prepare the snacks, but total, eerie silence meets you when you walk back into the room. What are they up to? And did you see one of them duck under the table? You shake your head, but take a quick peek when you set the treats down. Your eyes must be playing tricks on you. As you start to divide the treats, a ghostly little hand grabs one. You follow the hand, past the silken translucent sleeve, to the face of a small girl in a pink kimono, nibbling on a cookie. She smiles, crumbs falling to the floor and disappears. Your child's new playmate is a Zashiki Warashi.

S.H., S.J.

Go Shichigosan!

As an American kid living in Japan, I remember my first shichigosan ceremony.  My fellow playmates, neighbors and other children dressed up in their little hakama and kimonos and proceeded to the local shrine (maybe for their first time, I know it was mine). We walked up the stairs, through the aged torii gate into the main shrine’s building to be blessed and given a bag with chitose-ame ("thousand-year candy") which is a long, thin red and white candy--that reminded me of a candy cane. In Japanese culture it represents growth when placed in a small bag with a crane and turtle-- all to give long life.

The Shichigosan, or the 7-5-3 ceremony, began around the Heian period as a rite of passage from childhood into young adulthood. Each age represented a different achievement within the child’s life. At the age of three, a child could begin to grow their hair, representing they were no longer babies. At the age of five, boys could wear the hakama, and at age seven the girls could begin wearing an obi with their kimono. By age seven all children were considered young adults and ready to enter a new phase in their lives. This ritual also was a way to chase away evil spirits from the child to ensure that they would be given a long healthy life.

Shichigosan is a special ceremony that makes a child feel a bit more magical and ready to take on the world. Though the two ceremonies Japan Society hosts with the Shinto Foundation this weekend are full, we wish all children, no matter what nationality or religion health, happiness and well being!

S.H.

Enlightenment Through Cooking

Kansha if you can! Via.

What is the difference between the American vegetarian and the Japanese vegetarian? In the West, people choose vegetarianism for several reasons: for health, for fad, for spirituality or for principle. But Japan has been following the vegetable path much longer than its arrival on American shores due to geography and the religious influence of Buddhism, and the concepts are more intrinsic.

In her latest book Kansha, tracing Japan’s vegan and vegetarian traditions to their Buddhist roots (and offering several mouthwatering recipes in the process), Elizabeth Andoh describes the very basics:

Japanese meals are organized around a core of three foods: rice (or noodles), soup (clear, miso enriched, or puréed), and pickles. Greater volume and complexity are usually achieved by adding small dishes to this trio to round out the menu. Classic meal planning follows guidelines associated with Japan’s native culinary culture, washoku. Such meals achieve culinary harmony by balancing colors, flavors, and preparation methods.

Of course, the ideology and practice goes much deeper. Traditionally Japanese rarely ate or completely abstained from eating meat, stemming from adherence to the Five Virtues and the principle of ahimsa (non-violence).  For some, eating animal meat is akin to cannibalism because all sentient life is instilled with the same dhutu (spiritual essence) that resides in people. Also, much Japanese cuisine follows the rules of shojin-ryori (devotion cuisine): avoid killing plant life like root vegetables (potatoes, carrots and onions) and strong-smelling plants, and use seitan (mock meat made from wheat gluten and soy).

The Western vegetarian is catching up on how the East wines and dines. Those who still think vegetarian cuisine is bland, boring and unappealing should heed Andoh and Masato Nishihara , executive chef at Kajitsu  restaurant , which just received another Michelin star.

Both appear in the Japan Society sponsored discussion, Field to Table: The Role of Vegetable in Japanese Diet, taking place Monday, October 25. In addition to history and practice, they highlight a surprising twofold sustainability within practicing shojin: preserving the environment and preventing unnecessary waste in preparation and consummation.  Using all parts of the vegetable, it turns out, can create not only a soundly nutritious meal but bold artful complexities in flavor and texture. We can't wait to learn how!

S.H.

From Jurassic Park To Linkin Park: Enter The Shakuhachi

Breathing new life into the ancient shakuhachi. Via.

Ancient Japan: the glowing sun peeking from the top of Mt. Fuji, a farmer picking rice, a housewife preparing tea, a cricket resting on a leaf. All bask in the warmth rising above the mountain’s zenith.

Picture that scene. Is it possible you hear music?

Scenes of Japan that evoke tradition are often accompanied by ancient Japanese instruments, from the plucked and strummed twangs of the shamisen to a haunting flute sound with a sharp edge.

The latter is called the shakuhachi. The casual listener may recognize it from the music of romantic historical movies such as The Last Samurai, Memoirs of a Geisha or The Last Emperor. It was also used in the blockbusters Braveheart and Jurassic Park. The shakuhachi has also made appearances, both in electronic and natural forms, on many albums by contemporary recording artists such as Rush, Incubus, and Linkin Park. The sound famously served as the overture for Peter Gabriel’s hit "Sledgehammer" [full video here if you want to be whisked back to 1986] .

The shakuhachi came to Japan via Korea and has been traditionally played by the wandering monks of the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism. During the Tokugawa era, the monks were one of few groups who the shogunate granted permission to travel without restrictions around Japan due to their religious duties involving playing the shakuhachi and begging for alms.

For those intrigued by this widespread yet relatively unknown instrument, Japan Society holds a shakuhachi master class and a separate workshop on the breathing technique employed by the Fuke monks during meditation called missoku (secret breathing).

Taking place Sunday, October 24, the master class and workshop are led by renowned instrumentalist Akikazu Nakamura, who studied shakuhachi and missoku for many years in Japan. JapanNewbie.com recently caught up with Nakamura on the East Coast and captured this astounding performance:


There's plenty of opportunity in NYC this weekend to ride shakuhachi sound waves. The night before his master class and workshop, Nakamura performs live music for MoMA's premiere of the lost Japanese silent cinema masterpiece Kurutta Ippeiji [A Page of Madness], the centerpiece of the eighth annual To Save and Project festival of film preservation.

T.D.

Something Obake This Way Comes

Can you spot the bakeneko? Via.

The wind softly howls outside your bedroom. You think it carries voices, but shake your head and mumble that it is only the sound of the wind ripping leaves from branches. You turn away from the window. An eerie light glows from behind your door accompanied by the soft sounds of padded feet. What it could be? The sound falls silent at the door, but something is there. Then you hear a soft, almost inaudible rapping–deafening to your ears. The rapping becomes insistent. You jump from the bed and slowly walk to the door. You grab the latch and fling it open. You look left and right. Nothing is there. You begin to think it was just your imagination, until you feel something brush up against your leg. An otherworldly cat look up at you and everything fades to black. You have just met a bakeneko.

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!! Via.

This is only one of the many Japanese ghost stories, and the purrfect way to bring in the Halloween season and Japan Society's first-ever costume party OBAKE! An evening of Ghost, Spirits and Fun.

Obake are Japan's wide range of spirits and night creatures. In a fantastic article on Japanese ghosts, Mangajin Magazine notes obake are understood as transformations unlike their more tangible Western cousins. They are preternatural phenomena that alter and shift, where one meaning becomes unhinged and twisted into something undermining life's certainties. These can be everyday objects imbued with nefarious or nebulous sentience. Obake also encompass strange and grotesque beings: yokai ghouls and goblins, at times amusing, frightening or bizarre; yurei vengeance spirits; and oni ogres that terrorize the world when they're not guarding the gates of Buddhist hells.

Japan has tons ghosts and otherworldly creatures (discover more at Cosmologies' Japanese Spirit Realm  or the Obakemono Project.) We hope you conjure your best (or worst!) to share in the fun, terror, excitement and all the planned tricks and treats at Japan Society on October 29.

In addition to food, drink, music, a costume competition and complementary night tours of the current supernatural exhibit (granted, more spiritual than spooky, but there's plenty of demons and monsters), there's also a screening of the cult classic Japanese horror film Hausu, which purports a man-eating piano in addition to a bakeneko that has to be seen to be believed.

S.H.

Five Films You Might Want To Watch With The Buddha Before Killing Him

To thine own self be... ouch! Via.

"If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha."

Linji Yixuan, Ch'an Master (? – 866)

Zen practices help people achieve serenity, better focus and greater understanding of the self. But as with everything in life, light must co-exist with darkness.

Enter Japan Society’s Zen & Its Opposite [watch the trailer], five classic films that show the relationship between Zen and violence, often overlooked when discussing Zen philosophy. Historically we can look to samurai meditating in order to center themselves before violent combat. Metaphysically, we can look at the constant battle between our spiritual selves and earthly desires.

A good example of the latter is the 1964 supernatural Japanese fantasy/horror film Kwaidan, which launches Zen & Its Opposite tonight. Each film illustrates one or several of the "Six Planes of Existence" in Buddhism's realm of birth and death. Kwaidan is four ghost stories elegantly strewn together, but at its core represents "The Realm of Humans", where beings are both good and evil--enlightenment within their grasp, yet blinded and consumed by their desires.Each of the short stories that comprise Kwaidan creates worlds where one must be on constant alert – something Zen Buddhism strives to improve upon – and nothing is as it seems.

Though the film was made by Japanese people, who might readily understand these Eastern concepts, the book on which the film was based was actually written by noted 19th century Japanologist Lafcadio Hearn, who was British-born and naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 1895, taking the name Yakumo Koizumi. So great was Hearn’s affinity for Japanese culture that his stories read like a born and bred native Japanese who has never stepped foot in the West.

After Kwaidan Zen & Its Opposite continues through February with screenings of Onibaba, Fires on the Plain, Hell  and Sword of Doom. Tickets are $12 or $9 Japan Society members, students and seniors.

For those who can’t get enough ghost stories before Halloween, Japan Society invites you to check out OBAKE! on October 29 for an evening of fun with ghosts, costumes and one of the most insane Japanese horror films of all time. More on that later!

T.D.

Creative Rights And Writing With Lewis Hyde

Lewis Hyde (r) gets messy with fellow ox herder Max Gimblett. Via.

Lewis Hyde is a renowned author, teacher, MacArthur Fellow and cultural critic known for his thought provoking and careful but lively debates about artistic body and the creative process. Notes NPR in a recent profile:

Hyde, whom David Foster Wallace once called "one of our true superstars of nonfiction," is an infectiously enthusiastic writer. He's able to jump from topic to topic while never losing sight of his thesis, and the side roads he takes the reader down — from Emily Dickinson to Bob Dylan, from Benjamin Franklin (whom Hyde calls the "founding pirate") to John Cage — are fascinating.

His books include The Gift, the classic treatise on creativity in society, and Trickster Makes This World, about the playful and disruptive side of human imagination. His latest tome, Common as Air  rethinks copyright and intellectual property for the 21 century. Here is a typically Hyde-ian section from NPR's lengthy excerpt:

"Intellectual property" is the phrase now used to denote ownership of art and ideas, but what exactly does it mean? Does it make sense, to begin with, to say that "intellect" is the source of the "properties" in question? A novel like Ulysses, the know-how for making antiviral drugs, Martin Luther King, Jr's "Dream" speech, the poems of Rimbaud, Andy Warhol screen prints, Mississippi Delta blues, the source code for electronic voting machines: who could name the range of human powers and historical conditions that attends such creations? All that we make and do is shaped by the communities and traditions that contain us, not to mention by money, power, politics, and luck. And even should the artist or scientist think she has extracted herself from the world to stand alone in the studio, a tremendous array of faculties and mind- states may well attend her creativity. 

There is intellect, of course, but also imagination, intuition, sagacity, persistence, prudence, fantasy, lust, humor, sympathy, serendipity, will, prayer, grief, courage, visual acuity, ambition, guesswork, mother wit, memory, delight, vitality, venality, kindness, generosity, fortitude, fear, awe, compassion, surrender, sincerity, humility, and the ability to integrate diametrically opposed states of mind into harmonious wholes . . . We would need quite a few new categories to fully map this territory — "dream property," "courage property," "grief property" — and even if we had that list, only half the problem would have been addressed.

Hyde champions the idea that art does not grow through strict adhesion to doctrine but instead takes the framework from past generations and uses it to bring forth new life--an ancient dialogue to find the perspective needed to contemplate our modern world. For Japan Society's oxherding exhibit, he translated and reinterpreted the ancient Chinese Buddhist parable "The Ten Oxherding Pictures"  concurrently with the creation of Max Gimblett's powerful ink-brush paintings. Discussing the process, he writes:

When it comes to the translations, the plan is to have each oxherding text appear in three different English versions: a “one word ox” which sticks slavishly to the Chinese (one word per character), a “spare sense ox,” which puts each Chinese syntactic unit into a simple English sentence, and an “American ox” (or “fat American ox”) which takes considerable liberties while trying to be faithful to my intuitions about the meaning of the series.

In conjunction with oxherding , Hyde gives a creative writing workshop at Japan Society on Saturday October 16 called The Personality of a Poem . A former director of creative writing at Harvard, and currently a creative writing teacher at Kenyon College, he will help writers of all levels discover methods of finding the "personal personality" of any written work of art, steering away from conventional thought and fostering instinct to travel down the unbeaten path and enjoy the wisdom it offers.

One of several workshops Japan Society's Zen season (including painting, breathing, and meditation),  this event is a good example of the opportunity the Society regularly affords that fulfills Hyde's call to action in his essay "Created Commons":

Let us begin by recognizing how deeply all creative enterprise needs to be fed by its larger community. Let us work to build the institutions that will make all talent prone to the happy accident of its fruition. Let us create a future that will be proud to name us as its ancestors.

S.H.

One Of Kind Monster: X Japan's Heavy Metal Rocks NYC

X Japan's lead singer Toshi at Roseland Ballroom. Via.

In the immortal words of Metallica frontman and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield, "Adrenaline starts to flow/Thrashing all around/Acting like a maniac/ Whiplash!" It can only refer to one type of music: Heavy Metal. Born in the UK in the early 70s, metal became a global phenomenon in the 80s with various sub-genres and a penchant for booming vocals; loud, fast, distorted guitars; pounding bass lines; and blasting drum beats.

Japan was by no means left out of the heavy metal revolution in the 80s and still has a thriving community of metal fans ranging from high school students to salarymen who unashamedly love this brand of subversive music in a country where so many outsiders perceive conformity to be status quo.

Arguably Japan’s most popular and successful heavy metal band, X Japan  just finished their first-ever North American tour at New York’s Roseland Ballroom last weekend. Notes Consequence of Sound in their enthusiastic review:

There are times when a person can get an inkling of what they’re in for with a concert before the show even starts. X Japan’s gig at New York’s Roseland Ballroom, their last stop on their first North American tour, was one such example. As we approached the venue, we noticed something peculiar about the line to get in, which was already moving. It wrapped around the entire block. Twice.

What separates X-Japan from other metal bands? Some people regard Japan as a country that takes a lot of influence from the West and "Japan-ifies" it. But X Japan took the sounds of several metal genres and an image even more over the top than the glam metal bands coming out of the West Coast in the 80s and pioneered a uniquely Japanese form of rock and metal known as Visual Kei, Japanese for "visual style."

Visual Kei is best summed up by one of X-Japan's early slogans: "Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock." In Visual Kei, image is emphasized as much as the music. Similar to American glam, the look consists of heavy make-up, flamboyant hair and costumes, and the occasional dip into androgyny. One could take this unique musical image to be a reflection of the surroundings under which the band formed and grew. American bands such as Mötley Crüe, Ratt and Poison arose from the Sunset Strip in LA where image was everything, whereas X Japan  sprang from the Kanto region, home to such wild and cutting-edge shopping districts as Harajuku and Shibuya.

X Japan can be said to have raised the bar on imagery and theatrics with their unique style and sound, and nearly 30 years after inception, they completely rocked the locals in New York City. Our heads are collectively banging and our horns respectfully thrown. Rock on. \m/


T.D.

J-Pop Shop Talk: Beyond The Cult Of Cute

Join the Tokidoki family tonight! Via.

FIT 's exhibit Japan Fashion Now, on through January 8, is a visual study of Japanese pop fashion. It explores the utilitarianism, avant-garde underpinnings, subculture gestures and touches of kawaii (cuteness). According to FIT, Japan's contemporary fashion combines "the cute and the scary, the beautiful and the ugly, the animate and the inanimate, the strange and the strangely beautiful."

This is also true of Japan's distinct popular design, J-pop, which has long been making a splash on Western shores. In 2004, BusinessWeek asked "Is Japanese Style Taking  Over The World?" Japanese culturalist Roland Kelts told Entrepreneurship.com he noticed the invasion in the form of Pikachu upstaging Snoopy in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

"That was just the tip of the iceberg," says Kelts, a University of Tokyo professor and author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. "I mean, [look at] the fact that sushi is available in mainstream supermarkets around the country; the fact that Japanese style, design and architecture are appearing in major cities around the country; [and] the popularity of manga and anime in bookstores and Wal-Mart and Target."

Japan Society looks at the phenomenon at tonight's discussion The J-pop Influence: A Western Obsession from a complete insider's perspective. Two of the world's top pop designers, Tokodoki's Simone Legno and Nooka’s Matthew Waldman share their love of J-Pop and their thoughts on how it affects our Western designers and consumers today. Discover the nouveau cult of cute from the people in the know!

S.H.

Do you have the time... for tonight's lecture? Via.