Part of the Kansai region of western Japan, Hyogo Prefecture stretches from the Seto Island Sea in the south all the way to the Sea of Japan in the north, bordering on the prefectures of Tottori and Okayama to the west, and Kyoto and Osaka to the east. As in other parts of the country, statues and monuments are scattered throughout Hyogo, but a handful of these public works do more than decorate, highlighting the role that Kansai has played in Japanese art history. more...
Paper City: A Close-up View of the Tokyo Firebombing
Susan Rogers Chikuba
Unprecedented in scale and intent, the incendiary air attack on eastern residential Tokyo by 334 U.S. B-29 bombers just after midnight on March 10, 1945 unleashed a firestorm that would kill more than 100,000 civilians and render one million homeless by dawn. In Paper City, a feature-length documentary slated for completion this year, Australian filmmaker Adrian Francis directs an intimate lens onto the personal experiences of three elderly survivors determined to leave a public record before they pass away. more...
Virtual Art: Japan's Museums Go Online
Alan Gleason
In this time of corona, three cheers for the Internet! Museums and galleries throughout Japan are by and large shut down until further notice, but there is a blossoming of sites offering cyber-views of art exhibitions and collections, and a good number of them provide English-language text. Formats and contents vary widely, with necessity mothering the invention of some innovative multimedia approaches. Here is a small sampling of Japan-based sites featuring online art presentations that English readers can enjoy. more...
