Today we have a special guest post from our old friend, Lisa Y. Allen. Traditional Japanese Craftsmanship: Tatami in the 21st Century An interview with award-winning tatami craftsman, Mitsuru Yokoyama Tatami is a rush-covered straw mat used for flooring and dates back to the Nara Period when the word, tatami, first appeared in the Kojiki, the oldest Japanese book written … [Read more...]
Notebook on Cities and Culture Visits Deep Kyoto
Back in November Colin Marshall, the host of the Notebook on Cities & Culture podcast, visited Kansai from his home base in Los Angeles and interviewed a number of local characters including celebrated writer Pico Iyer and sound artist Tim Olive. He also interviewed me and that interview is now online. I must say he did a pretty good job of editing it too, as I don't … [Read more...]
An Interview with Mara Alper
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of ties between Mexico and Japan the Kampo Museum is currently exhibiting the art and crafts of the indigenous Huichol people. Dominating the exhibition are the extraordinary peyote inspired yarn paintings of the late Huichol artist and shaman José Benitez Sanchez. On the 24th of January, Professor Mara Alper, award winning media artist and … [Read more...]
An Interview with Sean Roe
The man behind JunKroom I try to make it as varied as possible: a dancer, a musician, a band, a lot of duos and people who’ve never performed together, collaborations, visual arts, video… It’s collaborative performances I’m really keen on… I want to try to incorporate manzai as well! If I can get a comedian in, that would be great! I want to try to get a new genre of music … [Read more...]
Ted Talks
Academic Beers with Ted Taylor When you describe Kyoto, you couldn’t skip them; pure water, old wooden house in a row, and food culture. This is beer whose mother is the honorable tradition in Kyoto, and whose father is beer boasted of by Germany. A new historical chapter is recorded in our culture. From the KANBAIKAN craft beer label. A few months ago there was a big … [Read more...]
