Tag: japan

Sankai Juku Dance Troupe

Sankai Juku

Sankai Juku (山海塾?) is an internationally known butoh dance troupe. Co-founded by Amagatsu Ushio in 1975, they are touring worldwide, performing and teaching. As of 2010, Sankai Juku had performed in 43 countries and visited more than 700 cities. Amagatsu Ushio maintains that “butoh is a dialogue with the gravity,” while other dance forms tend to revel in escape from gravity. He sees his dance, in contrast, is based on “sympathizing or synchronizing” with gravity.

The all-male company’s work is performed by as few as six dancers eschewing the movements typical of modern or other dance forms. The performances are characterized by slow, mesmerizing passages, often using repetition and incorporating the whole body, sometimes focusing only on the feet or fingers. Sometimes minuscule movement or no movement is discernible and one is presented a meditative vision of statuesque postures or groupings.

Occasionally recognizable emotive postures and gestures are used, notably contorted body shapes and facial expressions conveying ecstasy and perhaps more often, pain and silent “shrieks.” Frequently, ritualized formal patterns are employed, smoothly evolving or abruptly fractured into quick, sharp, seemingly disjointed sequences whose symbolism or “meanings” are obscure.

If you hear Sankai Juku is performing in your area, buy tickets and go see them perform. It is an event that will become etched into your mind.

Tenmyouya Hisashi

Paintings by Tenmyouya Hisashi

Tenmyouya Hisashi (天明屋尚, born 1966 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese contemporary artist.

In 2000, Tenmyouya Hisashi instituted his unique Japanese painting “Neo Nihonga” which revives Japanese traditional paintings as a contemporary art. He also created in that year his new style called  “Butouha” which, through his paintings, shows a resistant attitude for the authoritative art system.

In 2010 Hisashi proposed a new Japanese art scheme named “BASARA” which is extravagant and extraordinary in style, embodiying a Samurai aesthetic like “Basara” in the Nanboku dynasty era and the “Kabuki-mono” aesthetic prevalent at the end of Sengoku era.

Hisashi currently lives and works in Saitama, Japan and is represented by the Mizuma Art Gallery in Tokyo.

Kawashima Shigeo

Four Sculptures by Kawashima Shigeo, Sliced Bamboo Held Together with  Cotton Twine.

Top to Bottom: “Ring” at the Kennedy Center;  “Universal Circle”, 2008; “Dancing to the Sky”, 2003:  Model for Funabashi Shore Park Exhibition, 1999

The Japanese have a long and deep relationship with bamboo, and their culture has produced the most beautiful art in this medium. Shigeo Kawashima’s sculptures take bamboo as an artistic medium to a new level.

Art in Armor: The Kabuto; Photo Set 2

Art in Armor: The Kabuto; Photo Set 2

During the Momoyama period of intense civil warfare, kabuto were made to a simpler design of three or four plates, lacking many of the ornamental features of earlier helmets. To offset the plain, utilitarian form of the new helmet, and to provide visibility and presence on the battlefield, armorers began to build fantastic shapes on top of the simple helmets in harikake (papier-mâché mixed with lacquer over a wooden armature), though some were constructed entirely of iron.

These shapes mimicked forms from Japanese culture and mythology, including fish, cow horns, the head of the god of longevity, bolts of silk, head scarves, Ichi-no-Tani canyon, and axe heads, among many others. Some forms were realistically rendered, while others took on a very futuristic, modernist feel.

Mempo (also menpō, mengu or occasionally men yoroi), is the term for various types of facial armour worn by the samurai class and their retainers in feudal Japan. The bottom two photos show the kabuto with the mempo.

The Kabuto

Art in Armor: The Kabuto

Kabuto (兜, 冑) is a type of helmet first used by ancient Japanese warriors, and in later periods, they became an important part of the traditional Japanese armour worn by the samurai class and their retainers in feudal Japan.

Kabuto are often adorned with crests called datemono or tatemono; the four types of decorations were the maedate (frontal decoration), wakidate (side decorations), kashiradate (top decoration), and ushirodate (rear decoration). These can be family crests (mon), or flat or sculptural objects representing animals, mythical entities, prayers or other symbols. Horns are particularly common, and many kabuto incorporate kuwagata, stylized deer horns.

The Tantõ

Awataguchi Yoshimitsu, Tantõ, Mid-late Kamakura Period ca. 1270, Private Collection

The tantõ is a common Japanese single or, occasionally double edged  dagger with a blade length between 15 and 30 cm (6-12 inches). The tantõ was designed primarily as a stabbing instrument, but the edge can be used to slash as well.

The tantõ first began to appear in the Heian period of Japan which extended from 794 to 1185. This period was named for the location of the Imperial Capital, which was moved from Nara to Heian-Kyõ. The blades in this period lacked any artistic quality and were purely weapons.

In the early Kamakura period which ran from 1192 to 1333, high-quality artful tantõs­ began to appear. This Kamakura period brought the emergence of shogun rule. Japanese warlods, shoguns, claimed power from the hereditary monarchy and their scholar-courtiers, giving the Samurai warriors and their lords ultimate control of the early Japanese Empire.

Awataguchi Yoshimitsu was born  around 1229, the son of Awataguchi Kuniyoshi who had founded the Awataguchi School of Kyoto, considered one of the brightest lights in the world of Japanese swords. Yoshimitsu is considered the greatest maker of the tantõ in history. His blades were the most expensive at that time; one thousand pieces of gold were known to have been given to acquire one of his works.

Tachi Gunto Sword

Art in a Blade: Fully Hand Forged Clay Tempered Razor Sharp Japanese Tachi Gunto Sword- Available from handmade sword.com- Price: $17500.

Steel: 1095 steel
Blade: clay tempered;
Edge: Sharp;
Hamon(Tempered line): Distinct real hamon;
Tsuka(Handle): Brass engraved with Samurai’s living & battle & with genuine cowhide accessories;
Saya: Brass plated with real gold engraved with Samurai’s living & battle & with genuine cowhide ornament;
Tang: Full tang engraved with black smith’s signature;
Tsuba: Brass engraved with waves;
Other Fittings: Brass;
Condition: Brand new & can be fully disassembled and assembled;
Blade Length(with habaki): 30″
Handle Length: 11.8″
Overall Length(with Saya): 44.1″
Blade Thickness: 0.3″
Weight (with Saya): 6 lb 2 oz
Weight (without Saya): 3 lb 8 oz