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? …»
DAVID BOILLEY OF ACRO: THE ZONE
Interview by Katsuyoshi Ueno
David Boilley is a nuclear physicist and the chairman of ACRO (a French NGO with a nuclear testing laboratory). I met with him during his stay in Japan to discuss the current situation of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and what Japan needs to do to protect its citizens both now and into the future.
The Japanese government is now trying to bring back people into the evacuation zone. Is this a sensible decision?
There are two reasons for the 30 kilometers evacuation zone. One is that there may …»
TAIUN MOCHIZUKI: CIRCLING TO NOTHINGNESS
The final in a three-part series on Japanese Suzuri.
Thick and black; reflecting the fading sunlight, a small sea of ink rests inside the pool of a carved Amehata stone Suzuri. This sumi ink, made from bamboo ash mixed with melted fish bones (and dried into a solid stick) has been ground by Taiun Mochizuki, a 95 year old Shodo (calligraphy) master. On the floor of his room long white sheets of paper have been marked in thick brushstrokes with words, poems, songs and sayings. What words are his favourite? “I have …»
YATARO AMEMIYA: ENTRANCED BY A ROCK
The second in a three-part series on Japanese Suzuri.
Suzuri are an essential part of Japan’s writing history but they are also an embodiment of Japan’s spiritual history; as instruments for meditation. “If you want to write something pure, something approaching truth, then your mind should be clear. This is what is interesting about Suzuri, it is a tool for self reflection, and I believe it can be viewed as a sculptural item.”
Sitting cross legged on a mat, Yataro Amemiya, a 17th generation Suzuri maker, explains …»
