ALISON NEMOTO: STILL IN THE GLOOM
English teacher Alison Nemoto has lost her home and job but continues to live on the fringes of the exclusion zone in Fukushima. She has lived in a town near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant for more then 20 years, with her husband and three children …»
MASAHIKO KIMURA: WHITE SYRUP, GREEN CLOUDS
The final of a three part series on Omiya Bonsai.
After The Great 1923 Earthquake, Tokyo’s few remaining bonsai nurseries moved north to Omiya. Up here the air was cooler, the water purer and the soil perfect for growing miniature trees. Today, only ten nurseries remain in the world’s most important area for Bonsai cultivation.
In the center of Tokyo, behind a moat, a stone wall and guards, there is a 500 year old tree named Sandai-Shogun-No Matsu. Owned by the Imperial Family (and kept in the Imperial Palace) this tree is the oldest in the world to be cultivated and cared for by hand. Tended to …»
KAORI YAMADA: AWOKEN FROM 1000 YEAR SLEEP
The Second of a three part series on Omiya Bonsai.
After The Great 1923 Earthquake, Tokyo’s few remaining bonsai nurseries moved north to Omiya. Up here the air was cooler, the water purer and the soil perfect for growing miniature trees. Today, only ten nurseries remain in the world’s most important area for Bonsai cultivation.
“I remember feeling a lot of pressure around middle school when I realized that this would be my career and my life.” Kaori Yamada is the only child of one of Japan’s most revered bonsai growers, which means she grew up with a tremendous weight on her shoulders, predestined to become the fifth owner and bonsai master at her family’s 150 year old nursery, Seiko-en. Sitting beside her bonsai one autumn morning she talks about the pressure of continuing such a long tradition, …»
YOSHINOBU TABATA: ELDERLY, SICK & DECIDUOUS
The First of a three part series on Omiya Bonsai.
After The Great 1923 Earthquake, Tokyo’s few remaining bonsai nurseries moved north to Omiya. Up here the air was cooler, the water purer and the soil perfect for growing miniature trees. Today, only ten nurseries remain in the world’s most important area for Bonsai cultivation.
Controlling the beauty of the natural world is difficult, time consuming and often impossible. Yet, we try. That hasn’t stopped us from domesticating beautiful beasts or clipping the wings of birds so that we can enjoy their plummage (without them having to fly away), or brining parts of the natural landscape into our homes – flowers, trees and rocks. …»
THE BNE WATER ORGANIZATION
After fifteen years as a street artist, American-roots BNE took his world-wide approach and recognition in the visual arts in a new direction and started the BNE Water Foundation. The charity project aims for positive social change by providing clean water solutions to poverty-stricken areas around the world. In this interview, BNE tells Papersky about the connections between his work, travels and this new project.
How did the BNE Water Foundation start, where did the idea come from?
It wasn’t one event it was more a combination of things and a feeling that had been growing inside of me. The root of most …»
KEIRIN AMBASSADOR: TOMITA TOSHIHIKO
“Those were the golden years of Keirin you know, you could hear Koichi Nakano’s name everywhere, Keirin riders were flown over to Europe to put on demonstrations; Keirin essentially turned into billion dollar industry. If I remember correctly, the winner of last year’s Keirin Grand Prix took home about 100,000,000 Yen (US$1,242,000).” Tomita Toshihiko, who after 29 years as a Keirin professional cyclist, retired in July 2010 and like any retiree, is full to the brim with stories of the sport. Papersky met with this Tokyo mainstay cyclist to hear more about his life and the sport he knows so well. …»
RYUE NISHIZAWA: TRAVEL FROM PLACES TO SPACES
Architect Ryue Nishizawa (b. 1966) has become one of the faces of Japanese architecture today. While maintaining his own eponymous office, he is also a principal at SANAA, which received The Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010 for their ‘deceptively simple’ structures. With projects across the globe, Papersky decided to sit down with Nishizawa to talk about his travels, sense of place as well as the influence of architecture on our lives and on the future of Japan.
You have lived in Japan most of your life and in the last decade you’ve traveled a lot. How has this changed how you think about architecture? …»
