Film
Panda! Go Panda! Classics Make a Delightful Comeback
You don't have to be an anime-head to appreciate these early-career shorts by the founders of Studio Ghibli.
Japan
News
A Former Japanese Princess Is Volunteering at the Met
Mako Komuro, who shed her noble title in 2017, is working on a show of Japanese hanging-scroll paintings at the New York museum.
News
Tokyo's World-Renowned Capsule Tower Will Be Demolished
After years of disrepair, architect Kisho Kurokawa's iconic building will be disassembled one capsule at a time.
Books
The Magnificent History of Japanese Screens
An exquisitely illustrated and enlightening new book reveals the screen’s unique role in Japanese history and culture from its origins to the 20th century.
Comics
The Story of Kunihiko Moriguchi, a Master Kimono Painter
Moriguchi, who studied in Japan and Paris, took the influence of Op art and applied it to the traditional art of kimono painting.
Film
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s Unusual Approach to Filmmaking
The Japanese filmmaker’s international profile has skyrocketed over the past year thanks to his new films Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, both of which are now hitting theaters.
Film
In 1940s Japan, a Trophy Wife Becomes a Spy
In Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, a woman becomes embroiled in exposing Japanese war crimes in Manchuria.
Art
In Japan, Enormous Straw Sculptures Pop Up After Annual Rice Harvest
The Wara Art Festival was founded as a solution to the Niigata farming community's excess of unused rice straw.
News
A Typhoon Swept This Yayoi Kusama Sculpture Away to Sea
The artwork was installed on a pier on the shore of Naoshima in Kagawa Prefecture.
Film
Japan’s Offbeat Olympics Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony is a giant “Welcome!” party thrown by the host country. How did Japan welcome the world this year?
News
Giant Balloon Face Floats Over Tokyo
The eerie aerial piece was created by the artist collective 目 ("Mé") and features an anonymous face chosen from over 1,000 submissions.
Film
An Eight-Hour Film Captures the Rhythms of Farming Life in Rural Japan
The Works and Days is a quiet epic, using its length to capture the rhythms of rural life and its desecration by urbanization better than any conventional movie could.