Pacific Asia Museum, 46 North Los Robles Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101 www.pacificasiamueum.org Demonstration: Yuzen and Shibori Dyeing Sunday, May 20, 2:00 pm Master textile artist Setsuko Hayashi demonstrates the classic yuzen and shibori dyeing techniques as featured in the fabrics of ongoing Kimono in the 20th Century exhibition at Pacific Asia Museum. Her lecture will be talked in Japanese with English translation.   Workshop: Shibori Dyeing Sunday, May 20, 3:00 pm Master textile artist Setsuko Hayashi instructs the shibori tie-dying technique to create silk scarfs. Instruction will be made in Japanese with English translation. $5 materials fee; advanced registration...
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Masterpieces of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Changing Exhibition Gallery May 18 through August 12, 2012 Pacific Asia Museum, 46 North Los Robles Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101 Museum Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm www.pacificasiamuseum.org Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) has come to be regarded as one of the most important Japanese printmakers of the late 19th century. Apprenticed to Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), Yoshitoshi went on to break new ground in composition, subject matter and technique in woodblock printing. Masterpieces of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi presents over 100 prints, preparatory drawing, illustrated books ad an original carved block, which demonstrate the range of...
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  Gajin Fujita: “Ukiyo-e” in Contemporary Painting Focus Gallery April 20 through October 7, 2012 Pacific Asia Museum, 46 North Los Robles Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101 Museum Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm www.pacificasiamuseum.org Gajin Fujita’s (born 1972) panel paintings are rendered with materials frequently used in graffiti and street art. His range of experience gives him the versatility to move among several worlds simultaneously. It is through his unique approach that references to Japanese woodblock prints or ukiyo-e (“picture of the floating world”) materialize, and convey a singular mix of wry humor, cultural connection and...
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Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena opens the new exhibition Kimono in the 20th Century on March 30.   This exhibition features a 2008 gift from the June Tsukamoto-Lyon collection, which provided breadth and further quality to Pacific Asia Museum’s already substantial collection. Kimono in the exhibition run from the most formal reserved for very special occasions to children’s clothing, undergarments and light summer wear. Fabric patterns in the kimono range from deep black with reserve details in white, to Op-art that dazzles the eyes, with each garment giving a strong sense of the wearer’s taste, the modes of contemporary...
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  MIS – Human Secret Weapon Director: Junichi Suzuki 100 Minutes / Not Rated / Documentary, War, History / Color Distributor: United Television Broadcasting Systems + May 19 (Saturday) 11 am / 2 pm / 5 pm Little Tokyo – Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, 815 East 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012, (213) 680-9130 +   Film Summary During World War II, the U.S. Army secretly formed the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), which was mostly composed of Nisei, second-generation Japanese-American military men. They had pledged absolute allegiance to the United States at a time when Japanese Americans were facing social...
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Film “I Wish” (Kiseki) Landmark Theatres Regent 1045 Broxton Ave (between Weyburn & Kinross) in Westwood Los Angeles, CA 90024 (310) 281-8223 Show Time: (2:30 pm, 5:15 pm) 8:00 pm Through May 17 Twelve-year-old Koichi lives with his mother and retired grandparents in Kagoshima, in the southern region of Kyushu, Japan. His younger brother Ryunosuke lives with their father in Hakata, northern Kyushu. The brothers have been separated by their parents’ divorce and Koichi’s only wish is for his family to be reunited. When he learns that a new bullet train line will soon open linking the two towns,...
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Los Angeles-based Japanese folk song ensemble “Minyo Station” has released its first album CD “Cultural Twist,” and will hold the CD release concert on Saturday, May 26, at 3:00 pm at Alvas Showroom, 1417 West Eighth Street, San Pedro, CA 90732. http://www.alvasshowroom.com/index.php May 26 (Saturday) Doors open: 2:30 pm Show time: 3:00 pm Ticket: $20 (coffee, tea and snacks will be provided) Performers: Yu Ooka, guitars Dane Matsumura, bass Dave Iwataki, keyboard Miles Senzaki, drums Natsu Summer, vocals, hayashi, ka-ne Loryce Hashimoto, shamisen Nana Kaneko, taiko and percussions Marisa Kosugi, vocals Contents of Cultural Twist: Kaigara Bushi – Fishing...
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Shakuhachi will be the subject of the Nibei Foundation Japan Study Club’s May lecture. Professional singer and composer George Abe of Los Angeles will lecture and perform Shakuhachi on May 29 from 7:30 pm at the Nibei Foundation, 11570 W. Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064. Admissions are $10 including dinner. Reception and dinner will start at 6:30 pm. For reservation, visit www.nibei.org or call (310) 479-6101 ext. 134. George Abe was born in Manzanar internment camp in California during World War II in 1944. His mother was American-born with Japanese education. She moved to Japan when she was...
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The Okinawa Association of America Geinobu Performing Arts Committee is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year at a banquet celebration at the Quiet Cannon, 901 Via San Clemente, Montebello on Sunday, June 3 from 11:30am to 3:00pm. The deadline to purchase tickets to the 25th Anniversary Banquet is Friday, May 25. Tickets are $35 and for children under 11, $20. To make a reservation, contact Violet Nishihira at (310) 329-1904. Okinawa Association’s folk music and dance activity attracts younger generation For the people of Okinawa, folk songs and dance are always a part of their lives. When the immigration...
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  In conjunction with the exhibition Fracture: Daido Moriyama (April 7 – July 31) at the Japanese Pavilion of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA and the Japan Foundation will screen a series of films that offer a raw, street-level view of Japanese urban life, while also confronting such poignant, postwar theme as identity, gender, and alienation. These films, from the taut policiers of Akira Kurosawa and existentialist parables of Hiroshi Teshigahara to rarely-screened films by Susumu Hani and Toshio Matsumoto, shatter social and aesthetic taboos as they fearlessly delve into a bustling underworld of petty criminals, miscreants,...
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    Fracture: Daido Moriyama April 7, 2012–July 31, 2012 Pavilion for Japanese Art, Level 3 Los Angeles County Museum of Art   Photographer Daido Moriyama (Japan, b. 1938) first came to prominence in the mid-1960s with his gritty depictions of Japanese urban life. His highly innovative and intensely personal photographic approach often incorporates high contrast, graininess, and tilted vantages to convey the fragmentary nature of modern realities. Fracture: Daido Moriyama presents a range of the artist’s renowned black-and-white photographs, exemplifying the radical aesthetic of are, bure, boke (grainy, blurry, out-of-focus), as well as the debut of recent color...
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Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture Kamisaka Sekka, 1866-1942: Tradition and Modernity May 5 – July 28, 2012 15570 Tenth Ave, Hanford, CA 93230  (three-hour drive from Los Angeles)  www.ccjac.org Opening Lecture  Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 2 pm. Seats are limited.  For reservation, call (559) 582-4915. Kamisaka Sekka was born just before the beginning of the Meiji period (1868-1912), a vibrant time in Japan’s history that not only saw the end of a 250-year period of isolation, but also rapid Westernization and modernization of the country. Sekka became an ardent follower of the Rinpa painting tradition, a...
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