Christmas With the Colonel by Yukari Sakamoto

Delighted to share my @KFC_jp #Christmas in #Japan story with @cathaypacific inflight magazine.

Ever grateful to my first #Tokyo editor Tama san who still supports me 20 years later. Arigatō. 🥰 pic.twitter.com/OzC5H32P63

— 🌾Food Sake Tokyo🍙🌻坂本ゆかり (@YukariSakamoto) December 15, 2023

 

Reaching for Light on Miyazaki's Birthday

by Gregg Chadwick

 

Gregg Chadwick
Tokyo (Shibuya Crossing)
30”x22” monotype on paper 2023

Since I was a kid, I have spent a number of holiday seasons in Japan. The time from just before Christmas to just after New Year's Day is a magical time in Japan. Families gather from around the country as students and workers take time off and return to their homes for celebrations of the season. The food is marvelous, the conversations are rich, and the moments are precious. My monotype on paper "Tokyo (Shibuya Crossing)" is an artistic nod to my memories of Japan. As we move into 2023, I wish you a Happy Year of the Rabbit! And I would like to wish a warm Happy Birthday to artist and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki who was born on this day in 1941.

Pixar animator Enrico Casarosa said, "Miyazaki has this uncanny ability to add a childish sense of wonder to his stories. He’s able to make us feel like little kids again." 

Gregg Chadwick
Spirited Away
60"x48"oil on linen 2019

My oil on linen painting "Spirited Away" is an artwork that bridges realms. Light pierces shadow. The past enters the future. A woman on a meditative walk in the hills of Miyajima, Japan seems lost in reverie. Echoes of Japanese film, especially the animated works of Hayao Miyazaki illuminate our vision.

About ten years ago, I woke up from a dream that seemed to have been pulled from a Miyazaki film. In my dream a tender sapling reached towards the light as it sprouted from my wrist. Above, russet clouds moved in a cerulean sky. I look to my dreams as openings rather than fortunes. Yet, since I had recently returned from Tokyo, I remembered that in Japan the first dreams of the New Year, hatsu-yume 初夢, traditionally provide markers for the dreamer's upcoming year. I wrote about first dreams in my New Year's Day post on January 1, 2023 and feel that since my sapling dream ten years ago, I have made a conscious effort to reach for the light even when the world around us seems to be caught in a storm of hateful speech and actions. 

Celluloid Dreams at the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan

In December 2010, I was fortunate to visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan where I learned much about Miyazaki and his art.  Filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata founded their animation studio in 1985 and named it after an Italian airplane first produced before World War II: the Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli. The word ghibli in Italian refers to the hot dry winds that blow across the Sahara desert.

Hayao Miyazaki

Sketch for My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro)

pencil and watercolor on paper 1988

(Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Japan)

Hayao Miyazaki was born on January 5, 1941 just months before Pearl Harbor and the brutal battles in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. As a small child growing up in greater Tokyo, Miyazaki drew scenes of aircraft and aviation most likely inspired by his father's family business which built airplane parts for Japanese Zero fighter planes and also in the later years of the war, by his remembrances of the waves of Allied bombers which firebombed much of Tokyo into smoldering ruins.

Much of Miyazaki's mature work reflects his distaste for heedless violence and warmongering. Miyazaki also deeply cares about the environment and the place of natural beauty in a heavily industrialized Japan. Thirdly, many of Miyazaki's films feature a strong, brave, and resourceful main female character. On his birthday, I would like to give thanks to Hayao Miyazaki for his talent, vision, and deep concern for humanity. 

Gregg Chadwick
December Eyes/ Tokyo
72"x24" oil on silk 2011
Private Collection, Venice, California

 #art #film #poetry  #japan #miyazaki #miyajima #spiritedaway

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas Everyone! #Japan #Trains #Caturday https://t.co/kXAkv4wOna

— Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) December 4, 2022

Japanese Pumpkin Monster for Halloween

もうすぐハロウィンということで、今年も江戸時代版ジャック・オー・ランタンをご紹介。歌川芳員が描いた「砂村の怨霊」というカボチャの妖怪です。砂村は現在の東京都江東区。カボチャの産地として知られていました。顔がカボチャの実。手足が葉と蔓でできているのにご注目。※現在展示していません。 pic.twitter.com/Q6DO7zS7HB

— 太田記念美術館 Ota Memorial Museum of Art (@ukiyoeota) October 29, 2022

Halloween is coming up soon, so this year  the Ota Memorial Museum of Art shows us the Edo period version of the Jack-O-Lantern. It is a pumpkin monster called "Sunamura no Onryo" drawn by Yoshikazu Utagawa. Sunamura is present-day Koto Ward in Tokyo. It was known for producing pumpkins. The limbs are made of leaves and vines. 

Naomi Osaka Lights the Olympic Torch

Undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honor I will ever have in my life. I have no words to describe the feelings I have right now but I do know I am currently filled with gratefulness and thankfulness ❤️ love you guys thank you. pic.twitter.com/CacWQ5ToUD

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) July 23, 2021

 

What a moment for Naomi Osaka (and the world). #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/9cR5dsHRqJ

— Tennis GIFs 🎾🎥 (@tennis_gifs) July 23, 2021

Iconic.

🇯🇵 Naomi Osaka lights the flame for #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/fPa54K7onx

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) July 23, 2021

Yoshitoshi & Comics

Season's Greetings!

Loved this card from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Reminds me of the many holiday seasons that I have spent in Japan. Especially the year that I spent chasing Hiroshige in Tokyo.

The Simpsons' Tribute to Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli

by Gregg Chadwick

Beer for Homer at Miyazaki's Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan
photo by Gregg Chadwick

I just love this new clip from Sunday's upcoming Simpsons episode which includes a wonderful and comedic tribute to animator Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. The magic that Miyazaki has created resonates globally. Enjoy!

Robot From Castle in the Sky at Ghibli Museum
photo by Gregg Chadwick

Our Nation Cries for the Children of Newtown, Connecticut

by Gregg Chadwick

 GreggChadwick

As I write this, an impromptu vigil is forming in front of the White House in Washington DC to mourn the victims of another senseless mass shooting and to call for much needed gun regulation. Today, a quiet school in Newtown, Connecticut was violated by a gun wielding murderer packing semi-automatic weapons with a back up assault rifle in his car.

The shooting was horrific and preventable. This is a national tragedy that needs a national response. Our glorification of weapons and our embrace of the use of violent force to resolve conflicts has led us to a crisis point. Do we continue to let our children be slaughtered in schools and theaters? Will we continue to allow almost unfettered access to military grade high powered weapons? Will we continue to cut funding for preventive mental health care?

Today, we make a decision as a nation. Twenty children and six adults were killed today at a Newtown, Connecticut school. I refuse to allow their memories to be forgotten and will not let this horror continue unabated across the nation. 

Because of their strict regulation of firearms, last year in Japan there were only 8 murders committed with guns in a country of 120 million. The year before there were 6 and during the previous year 11. Today, during one horrific attack in one school, one American gunned down more fellow citizens than the last 3 years of gun deaths in Japan combined.  Over 100 rounds of ammo were fired into children today. According to the FBI, we average 20 similar mass shootings in the US each year. Don't let the NRA fool you the Second Amendment is not unlimited. As recently as the 2008 Heller decision, the US Supreme Court has held that:

Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those “in common use at the time” finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons.

Today is the day to begin the long delayed discussion of gun control and lay the foundation for the implementation of sensible gun regulations across the United States.

President Obama Wipes Away A Tear During His Address to the Nation Concerning Today's Shooting in Newtown

More at:

A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths
Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Fatal Gaps: Can Dangerous People Buy Guns In Your State?

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Bach in a Japanese Forest Played on a Gravity Marimba

 Deep in the tranquility of a Japanese woodland, the movement of a wooden ball plays Bach on a gravity marimba. The ball gently rolls down an elevated wooden incline striking a series of wooden bars each  tuned to play a single note of the 10th movement of Bach’s Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, commonly known in English as, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. A rare example of an advertisement that evokes wonder. Enjoy!




Hat tip to Makezine.

The Price of Beauty

by Gregg Chadwick

Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando)
Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake (Ohashi Atake no Yudachi)
(#58 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo)
Sheet: 14 3/16" x 9 1/8" woodblock print 9th month of 1857
Brooklyn Museum
Photo Courtesy The Brooklyn Museum


Japanese fiction is a great love of mine. My taste ranges widely from the postmodern antics of Murakami, to the quiet intellectualism of Endo, to the luminous spaces of Kawabata, and to the pent up rage of Mishima. In a culture which traditionally values quietly getting along even when catastrophe strikes, fiction allows a space for readers to wail with those who hurt and lash out at those who would oppress. Japanese novels of mystery and horror provide such a space to ponder the darker recesses of humanity. Mystery writer Keigo Higashino, originally from Osaka and now resident in Tokyo, is currently one of the best selling authors in Japan. Reading "The Devotion of Suspect X" provides understanding of his popularity. Higashino's prose is both quietly poetic and noir like in its straightforwardness.

"The Devotion of Suspect X" is set in 21st century Japan and describes the plight of a single mother with a young daughter as she takes drastic action to escape an abusive, estranged husband. A brilliant math teacher who lives down the hall comes to her aid. Or does he?
From there the story takes off. Make sure you read the book until the very end.

In much Japanese writing, an evocation of place is of utmost importance. This setting creates a mood in which the characters move and interact. The first chapter of "The Devotion of Suspect X" finds us in Tokyo near the Shin-Ohashi bridge, which is memorable for its depiction by the brilliant 19th century Japanese woodcut artist, Ando Hiroshige, in "Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake" (Ohashi Atake no Yudachi) from his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. A Japanese reader, and those quite familiar with Japan, would likely find Hiroshige's memorable image, of figures huddling under straw umbrellas as they scurry across the bridge in an effort to hide from a driving. slanting rain, pop into their head. I know I did. And this image provided a rich backdrop of life under pressure from time and nature.

I enjoyed "The Devotion of Suspect X" very much and now have a new Japanese author to follow - Keigo Higashino.

More at:
Keigo Higashino
Hiroshige's "Shin-Ohashi Bridge"

Setsuko's Room

Gregg Chadwick
Setsuko's Room
30"x40" oil on canvas 2011

Japanese Artist Takashi Murakami Doodles "Summer" for Google

Takashi Murakami
Summer
Google Doodle for June 21, 2011 (Summer Solstice)

Today - June 21st - is the longest day of the year. For this Summer Solstice, Google has commissioned Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami, to create an icon for the day to be posted on Google's search page.

More on Murakami at:
#newday_GEISAI

Art for Japan at the Torrance Museum of Art

On Saturday, March 26, 2011 the Torrance Art Museum held a fundraiser for the Japanese Red Cross to help with the humanitarian needs of post-tsunami Japan. I donated my painting Illume for the cause. This oil painting of a young Buddhist monk, seemingly caught in the glow of prayer candles, resonates hope in mourning, acceptance and rebirth.


Gregg Chadwick
Illume
16"x20" oil on linen 2011



Ongoing until April 30, 2011 at the Torrance Museum of Art is the exhibition Gateway Japan curated by Yuko Wakaume, Ei Kibukawa, and Max Presneill.

More at:
Torrance Art Museum

George Takei on The Quake and Tsunami in Japan: Gaman

"At times like this, we are all Japanese"
-George Takei


Gregg Chadwick
Beauty and Sadness ( 美しさと哀しみと)
Utsukushisa to Kanashimi to
57"x103" oil and collage on Japanese screen


Live video chat by Ustream
NHK Live Stream from Japan with Updates on the Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Crisis

Thoughts and Prayers With Japan

Buddha, Japanese National Museum, Tokyo


Gregg Chadwick
"A Balance of Shadows"

My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan.


Video from Shinjuku,Tokyo showing skyscrapers swaying with the force of the March 11, 2011 earthquake centered off of northeastern Japan. Buildings in Japan are engineered to meet extraordinarily high governmental standards to help prevent earthquake damage.
(Video by escot2008)





" Friday’s quake was centered off the coast of Honshu, the most populous of the Japanese islands, at a point about 230 miles northeast of Tokyo and a depth of about 17 miles below the earth’s surface.The quake occurred at 2:46 p.m. Tokyo time, and was so powerful that buildings in central Tokyo, designed to withstand major earthquakes, swayed."
-United States Geological Survey

globalgiving has set up a well organized webpage for donations at Japan Earthquake And Tsunami Relief Fund

More at:
Earthquake in Japan

Happy New Year From Tokyo!

The Shadows of Time

Kamila Shamsie's novel "Burnt Shadows" uses a cinemascope vision to portray a Japanese woman's struggle to understand her life in a spinning world where historic forces seem to lead her and her family into an inevitable showdown with fate. Hiroko carries the memories and scars imprinted into her skin from the atomic blast in Nagasaki in 1945 from Japan to India to post-partition Pakistan. Her son Raza carries the memories into a politically charged New York where the events of September 11, 2001 still loom in our headlines. Shamsie deftly leads the reader through the haunted landscapes of the last sixty years and by distilling chilling historical events through the vision of one family her words shed light into the shadows of time.

An important work that I highly recommend.

More on the author:
Kamila Shamsie: British Council Contemporary Authors
Find "Burnt Shadows"

Murmurs

Gregg Chadwick
Murmurs
36"x48" oil on linen 2010

Maruyama Twilight

Gregg Chadwick
Maruyama Twilight
40"x72" oil on linen 2010