Adam Rosenbeck
An illustrated journey to 1930s Japan
As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on and countries around the globe implement border restrictions, people everywhere have delayed or abandoned their travel plans, choosing instead to remain at home for the foreseeable future. What...
Rumi Hara’s “Nori” recalls the curious magic of childhood
Japanese cartoonist Rumi Hara’s debut graphic novel Nori, published by Drawn & Quarterly, recounts the imaginative adventures of Noriko Iwasaki, a spirited preschooler growing up in 1980s suburban Osaka. With both her parents busy...
“Tokyo Ueno Station”: A haunting story of loss and regret at the margins of...
Ueno Park is one of the most popular parks in Japan. Celebrated for its museums, temples, and universities, the area is notable for another feature most visitors are eager to ignore: its sprawling homeless...
Examining twentieth-century artist Takehisa Yumeji and the emergence of a new visual culture
Takehisa Yumeji’s work as an artist, printmaker, poet, and media entrepreneur continues to attract admiration almost 90 years after his death. Contributing to the establishment of a new age of mass-media, his popular self-styled...
From shop signs to toy cameras: exploring the rich world of Japanese arts and...
Artist and designer William Morris once asked, "What is an artist but a workman who is determined that, whatever else happens, his work shall be excellent?" Perhaps no nation embodies this principle more than...
Hiromi Kawakami weaves a elusive modern-day folktale in Parade
Bestselling author Hiromi Kawakami has been publishing celebrated, award-wining fiction in her native Japan since the 1990s. However, it wasn’t until this past decade that her graceful, dreamlike writing began to find a new...
Chef Danny Chu’s recipe book brings Japanese vegetarian cuisine from the temple to the...
Ask any vegetarian with a taste for world cuisine, and they’ll attest to how difficult it can be to find suitable Japanese food. It’s no wonder –as one of the world’s top consumers of...
Celebrating Japan’s Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions
Mention Japanese food and people think of delicate rolls of sushi, hot bowls of sukiyaki, perhaps some sashimi or yakitori. While these seafood and meat-centered dishes may typify the country’s cuisine, Japan also boasts...
