Auspicious Friend for the New Year
Pine trees are one of the three “auspicious friends”—plants (along with bamboo and plum blossom) that help welcome the New Year in Japan. Pines are auspicious because they survive an ...
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Curator's Corner
The Month of Frost
It’s the last day of November 2020. In Japan, the historical (traditional) calendar was based on the Chinese lunar calendar, which meant that months began three to seven weeks later than the Gre ...
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Curator's Corner
Kittens and Bunnies
It’s been a crazy year with this awful pandemic going on, and an equally crazy last two weeks with this nutty election. I think we all need some kittens and bunnies to recoup our mental health. ...
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Curator's Corner
Second Leader of the Kanō School
At the end of this week, August 28, we remember the anniversary of the passing of Kanō Motonobu (1476–1559) of the illustrious Kanō School. Not really a “school,” the Kanō School was ...
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Curator's Corner
Rethinking Romanticism Part 2
This week’s Rethinking Romanticism series continues with romanticism in Japanese art. The Kamakura period (1185–1333) was a particularly turbulent, civil-war-ravaged era in Japan. It is th ...
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Curator's Corner
World Watercolor Month: Yosa Buson
If any artists could be called the “masters” of watercolor, it would be the artists of Asia—particularly far eastern Asia (Japan, China, Korea)—who, for centuries, used in ...
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Curator's Corner
Fuji (Wisteria) Matsuri
In Japan, April 21 to May 6 is the time of the Fuji Matsuri, or “Wisteria Festival.” During the festival, traditional music and dance are performed at the Kameido Tenjin shrine on the outs ...
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Curator's Corner
Gardens for April
I’m pretty sure we all need some artistic diversions right now with the way things are in the world. April is not only National Garden Month, but it is also National Landscape Architecture Month ...
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Curator's Corner
Women's (Art) History Month 2020 IV
This week of Women’s Art History Month, we’ll look at a printmaker, a pioneer photographer, and one of the secrets to Tiffany’s success in stained glass. ...
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