This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Japan was struck with a powerful earthquake from its main island This triggered a savage tsunami that hit much of the northeastern coast of the nation with many more people marked "missing." Among the missing persons was Yuko Takamatsu Yasuo remains hopeful of recovering her last remains and continues to dive into the ocean to find her Image Source: Destroyed vehicles lie near the rubble after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the area on March 16 The 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck offshore on March 11 at 2:46 pm local time triggering a tsunami wave of up to ten meters which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan Yasuo decided to take up diving lessons at 56 to venture into the deep ocean he has made hundreds of dives into the ocean in an attempt to find her but unfortunately Takamatsu's undying love for Yuko keeps him going and he is still hopeful that one day he will be able to find her via GIPHY According to a report by the NY Times when Yuko was 25 and an employee at the 77 Bank in Onagawa was a soldier in Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force and his boss introduced them He described her as gentle and said that he liked her smile and modest nature Yuko was always interested in listening to classical music and had a knack for painting as she used watercolors on canvasses  - which she showed to no one but her dearly beloved husband Finding a body in the depths of the ocean was never going to be an easy ask for Takatmatsu with many even discouraging him from taking the task Finding Yuko in the vast spaces of the ocean would be comparable to finding a needle in a haystack But Takamatsu remains adamant about his choices and says the reason I’m actually interested in learning to dive is that I’m trying to find my wife in the sea.” Representative Image Source: Pexels | Pixabay The search has not been easier for the husband "I expected it to be difficult,” Takamatsu said and added I have no choice but to keep looking for her Months after the tsunami, Takamatsu had found his wife’s cell phone in the parking lot of her workplace with a gut-wrenching unsent text that he couldn't receive. “So much tsunami,” it read, as per The Wrap. Meanwhile a forensic pathologist at Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University in Sendai talked about the fate of bodies that are washed away into the oceans Representative Image Source: Pexels | Stuart Pritchards "If a body is taken into the ocean and disappears No one ever really knows how the sea moves or flows If a body is pulled down to a certain depth it might float across the Pacific and turn up in Hawaii A body in the sea will mostly become soft as cheese so that if you touch it In other cases the body may become encased in a substance called grave wax that makes it turn hard like plaster," he said via GIPHY A short film based on the life of Yasuo Takamatsu has also been made and screened at various film festivals Titled "Nowhere to Go but Everywhere," the documentary has been directed by Erik Shirai and Masako Tsumura This article originally appeared 7 months ago you know that parents—especially first-timers—can leave you with some incredibly detailed instructions From how to put the baby to sleep to exactly what to feed them these lists can feel like reading a novel of child-rearing advice they left their babysitter with a hilariously unexpected list that turned all the typical rules on their head It was either comedy gold… or the mark of the world’s most "chill" parent The babysitter sent the list to her boyfriend the chill parent tells the sitter to let the kid watch TV This article originally appeared last year An Atlantic grey seal looking at the camera underwater (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Mark Chivers) who had no idea why the seal wouldn't leave him alone (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Huw Thomas) Turns out, the animal had something adorable in mind and tugged at Grayson's arms slightly using its flippers because it wanted a belly scratch from the diver The seal swam horizontally revealing its belly and Grayson instantly understood the assignment As he gently scratched the animal's belly and neck The scuba diver was thrilled about this heartwarming encounter with the seal and expressed his delight to the camera "I was absolutely loving it," a 55-year-old Grayson told the news channel in 2015 Grayson was an experienced scuba diver but this interaction with the seals was something he never had in his lifetime A Grey seal nibbles at the hood of a scuba diver (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Bernard Radvaner) "I had seen other seals in the water but they just buzzed past us We were told just to sit on the bottom of the kelp but the more still we were the more inquisitive this seal was because we were in their world," the diver explained After the first seal was done playing with him the second seal that was swimming around the diver started to take an interest in his legs They were nibbling at him but never bit him in a way that would hurt I’m not one to frighten easy," he said via GIPHY Grayson always loved living life on the edge But the time he had with those two seals underwater was something extraordinary for him Grayson was accompanied by his friends who also got to witness the seals' cuteness in the Isles of Scilly The video from more than a decade ago gained online popularity While the internet often considers seals as the "dogs of the sea," their behavior in this video shows how that comparison might be true Image Source: Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen co-host the HFC Austin Brain Health Dinner on September 30 (Photo by Rick Kern/Getty Images for Hilarity for Charity) the Golden Globes nominee said that not having children actually “helped him succeed” in Hollywood “There's a whole huge thing I'm not doing which is raising children.” Steven attempted to break into this thought process by saying "But it might make you happier,” to which Seth quickly replied “I don’t think it would.” The 40-year-old star added that he has obviously worked with a lot of children in films like "Horton Hears a Who!" (2008) "The Simpsons" (1989) and "American Dad Image Source: Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen attend the 95th Annual Academy Awards on March 12 The Canadian-American actor explained that “a lot of people have kids even before they think about it.” Most people just seem to go through the routine process of a career followed by marriage followed by having kids But neither Seth nor his wife were like that at any time in their relationship the happier and reaffirmed with our choice to not have kids,” Seth said via GIPHY “We get to do whatever we want,” Seth continued He even listed some of the things he and his wife can now do and would not have been able to if they had kids We understand ourselves more than we’ve ever had We have the capacity to achieve the level of work and a level of communication and a level of care for one another and a lifestyle – we can live with one another,” he said before bursting into short hysterical laughter The filmmaker reaffirmed that they are so happy they chose to remain child-free “Me and my wife get a lot of active enjoyment out of not having kids than having kids.” Image Source: YouTube | @laurasuarez5151 Image Source: YouTube | @wwclife Seth’s free thinking touched the hearts of people who expressed admiration for him. A child-free woman, @ninabradshaw2267, commented that it was “really refreshing” for her to “hear someone speak about being child-free.” @mikehunthurst6953 affirmed This article originally appeared 2 months ago Image Source: In this handout photo provided by the National Science Foundation the Event Horizon Telescope captures a black hole at the center of galaxy M87 in an image released on April 10 (National Science Foundation via Getty Images) These scientists have used a chain of atoms in a single file to simulate the event horizon of a black hole and experienced what is known as the "Hawking radiation." The phenomenon can be described as particles born from disturbances in the quantum fluctuations caused by the black hole's break in spacetime The researchers believe that the simulation can help resolve the friction between two conflicting frameworks that describe the universe i.e the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics also known as Einstein's theory of relativity describes the behavior of gravity as a continuous field known as spacetime Quantum mechanics describes the behavior of particles using the mathematics of probability via GIPHY For a unified theory of quantum gravity that can be applied universally the relation between these two theories needs to be found first Black holes may be the answer to the question At a certain distance from the black hole's center even the speed of light can't escape due to the incredible density This distance that varies based on the mass of the black hole's center is known as the event horizon What happens when something enters a black hole's event horizon is unknown Stephen Hawking said that the interruptions to quantum fluctuations caused by the event horizon of a black hole are quite similar to thermal radiation if a black hole loses more mass than it gains It is the theoretical black hole radiation that states that a smaller black hole is hotter than a larger one the theoretically made black hole analogs can help us learn some things about the behavior of a black hole in a laboratory Several simulations have been created before but now one led by Lotte Mertens from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands has done something different via GIPHY Representational Image Source: Pexels I Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich Representative Image Source: Pexels | Kampus Production the woman first displays her stained plastic container which she has thoroughly cleaned but still has orange stains on it she displays a paper towel and then tears it into pieces and then fills the container halfway with hot water the woman adds a few drops of liquid dish soap and then seals the container via GIPHY the woman instructs her viewers to shake the container and she demonstrates the process The success of this simple yet effective hack helps the plastic container to remain sparkling clean via GIPHY "Literally just finished scrubbing a container with red pasta sauce stains and gave up … algorithm is algorithming." via GIPHY That's how they showed her how to clean their product Clean bowls everywhere." The next time you face trouble removing a stain Best hack i was ever taught 💘 #grandmasarethebest #fyp #foryoupage #hack #cleaninghack via GIPHY You can follow @ariganja on TikTok for more insightful content and life hacks This article originally appeared 6 months ago Image Source: Musician Keith Urban and actress Nicole Kidman arrive at the 2009 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A the actor spilled the beans on what this agreement was and it’s a shocker Her marriage with Urban consists of one rule that might surprise you: "No texting." Image Source: Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman attend The 2024 Met Gala on May 06 call me,''' Kidman said in the podcast the actor revealed that this rule has been surprisingly effective for them over the years the “Big Little Lies” actor shared that she was not a fan of texting Kidman wasn’t keen on responding to messages the duo began their no-texting rule and stuck with it That's just the one thing we don't do," she remarked via GIPHY The actor mentioned that her no-texting rule is meant to foster “voice-to-voice and skin-to-skin” communication and to strengthen their bond, per Parade And I try to not be really prompt with returning texts because then you get used to that kind of person,” she added Sharing a poignant memory of how it all began the star mentioned that it was simply because she was a bad texter they made adjustments and just stopped texting Image Source: Musician Keith Urban and actress Nicole Kidman arrive at the Oscars on February 24 Kidman also noted how texting can leave a wrong impression in many situations and that she wanted no room for misunderstandings but we just don’t text because I feel like texting can be misrepresentative at times And I’ve had the thing where I reread texts and I’m like ‘What does that mean?’ and then read it to somebody and go ‘Can you interpret that?’ I don’t want that between my lover and I,” she explained the actor also mentioned not having secrets and keeping it authentic “We just approach it all with humility and hope and just really love hanging out via GIPHY This article originally appeared 1 month ago Representative Image Source: Pexels | August de Richelieu For several years, researchers from Florida International University have tracked this emerging dialect in Miami but only now is it truly flourishing among the city’s residents Expressions in Miami English sound familiar but with a distinct twist—like saying “She got married with him” instead of “She got married to him.” Or swapping “Get out of the car” with “Get down from the car.” Another common phrase shift: “I waited in line to pay for my groceries” becomes “I made a line to pay for my groceries.” This fresh fusion is one that only Miami could produce “All words, dialects, and languages have a history,” Professor Phillip Carter, Director of the Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment at FIU, told IFL Science The variety we have been studying for the past 10 years or so is the main language variety of people born in South Florida in Latinx-majority communities,” he added “The variety is characterized by some unique but ultimately minor pronunciations which are influenced by the longstanding presence of Spanish in South Florida.” Representative Image Source: Pexels | Djordje Vezilic According to IFL Science, Miami English involves translating a Spanish phrase into English but keeping the structure of the original phrase, known in linguistics as a calque. Scientific American explains that calques are all around the English language when there was no word for the flower “dandelion,” Germans scoured Latin botany books or “lion’s tooth.” French people borrowed the concept of “lion’s tooth,” and calqued it “dent de lion.” This is how the English speakers got the word “dandelion.” In Miami phrases like “bajar del carro” become “get down from the car” instead of the typical American English translation “get out of the car.” “Tirar una foto,” became “throw a photo” instead of “take a photo.” via GIPHY “What is remarkable about the calques is that we found they were not only used in the speech of immigrants – folks who are leaning on their first language Spanish as they navigate the acquisition of English – but also among their children who learned English as their co-first language,” Carter told IFL Science Representative Image Source: Pexels | Fauxels However, Miami English should not be confused with Spanglish, as Carter told NBC News “The way Spanish and English have intertwined in Miami after the arrival of many Cubans half a century ago has gone beyond what some may call ‘Spanglish and evolved into a new English-language dialect entirely.” Climbing mountains is no easy feat, and even a staircase straight to the summit can be grueling without proper preparation. As climbers ascend, the air thins, leaving them breathless, with hearts pounding and balance wavering—a struggle vividly captured in a viral video on X (formerly Twitter) posted by @roaneatan Mount tai top gate (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | www.anotherdayatoffice.org) The mountain’s fault-block structure comprises crystalline shales drawing countless tourists and devoted pilgrims alike These ancient Chinese Buildings have been here on the side of Mt Tai the Holy mountain for decades and visited by thousands One of most holy locations in China (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | jmoor7) For nearly 2,000 years, the mountain hosted rituals that involved emperors climbing to the top for a ceremony. Many Chinese artists and poets have written poems about the mountain and captured its glory. In “View of Taishan,” Du Fu described the mountain with the lines Everywhere Shangdong is green and flourishing In it the Creator has concentrated all that is bountiful and beautiful.” Mount Tai (Mt Taishan) is one of the most famous mountain in China (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | DNeutral Han) the climb to the top of Taishan is not as poetic and serene @roaneatan wrote in the caption of the post that “people often regret visiting it.” The first clip in the video shows a young woman moaning in pain because she is unable to get up from a bench mid-way through the climb Others are being carried on stretchers by healthcare workers in orange uniforms One person is seen shaking badly whereas others are using sticks to support their quivering legs The video demonstrates how grueling and rigorous the journey to Taishan’s summit really can be “Going down is much more brutal than going up I had that leg shaking after descending a mile from a mountain too.” Others found the video hilarious while several said that only Rocky Balboa or Dragonborn can traverse this arduous journey A comment about the challenging journey by u/7opez77 (Image Source: Reddit) Pace Gallery has unveiled a monumental exhibition spotlighting the transformative work of acclaimed Japanese artist Jiro Takamatsu The show brings together a rich collection of Takamatsu’s creative achievements across multiple mediums—painting visitors are invited to explore how the artist bridged Dada and Surrealism with a minimalist approach defining new pathways for creative expression during Japan’s post-war period This exhibition marks the first significant survey of Takamatsu’s work since Pace began representing his estate in May. The gallery’s exhibition delves deeply into the artist’s philosophical explorations of space, time, and materiality. His works challenge the boundaries between art and life merging the two through techniques that blend disruption with beauty Takamatsu first gained international recognition as a co-founder of the influential art collective alongside fellow avant-garde artists Genpei Akasegawa and Natsuyuki Nakanishi aimed to disturb the status quo with creative acts that merged art with civic rebellion A defining moment for the group came when they distributed counterfeit Japanese banknotes to promote an exhibition a provocative gesture that led to legal repercussions One of the central highlights of The World Expands is Takamatsu’s renowned Shadow Paintings a series that began in 1964 and continued until his death in 1998 inspired by everyday experiences and traditional Japanese woodblock prints present foggy silhouettes that explore the interplay between light and darkness Takamatsu invited viewers to question the nature of visibility and existence itself probing deeper into the metaphysical aspects of art and life the exhibition showcases a variety of Takamatsu’s sculptures and installations These pieces reflect his ongoing inquiry into the unseen connections between form and emptiness blending chaos with subtle interconnectedness Takamatsu’s work has a unique ability to make the invisible visible and materiality shape our perception of reality The World Expands promises an immersive journey into Jiro Takamatsu’s expansive artistic vision. Visitors to Pace Gallery in New York can experience the exhibition until November 2 Input your search keywords and press Enter AD Apr 22 (Tue) 2025-Jun 1 (Sun) 2025 26 days left Leave a rating/comment#Archeology / History / FolkloreBack to ArticlesSHARE By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Pace Gallery has unveiled a monumental exhibition on acclaimed Japanese artist Jiro Takamatsu The World Expands surveys Takamatsu’s pioneering work across painting illuminating the ways in which he connected the worlds of Dada and Surrealism with a Minimalist sensibility that helped usher in a new form of creative expression during Japan’s Post-War period The show marks the first breadth of work the gallery has shown on the artist since representing his estate back in May Alongside fellow artists Genpei Akasegawa and Natsuyuki Nakanishi Takamatsu first gained recognition by co-founding the collective which distilled the boundaries between art and civic life through unorthodox methods such as once counterfeiting one-sided Japanese banknotes and mailing them out as an invitation to their exhibition — an act they were tried and found guilty for Pace, a leading international gallery, recently announced its representation of Takamatsu’s estate and has just opened the most significant solo exhibition of the artist’s works in the United States to date Pace partner Joe Baptista discovered parallels to the Western conceptual art movement that bring into question the limited geographical bounds of a canon-led narrative “Takamatsu opened up the possibility for conceptual art in Japan very much apart from things that were happening in the 1960s “What’s so amazing about discovering an artist like Takamatsu is his point of view on conceptualism and the possibilities of art are very different It's not form-fit to Sol Lewitt’s definition per se—there's flexibility there.”  was drawn from his collection of writing The World Expansion Project “A lot of those quotes that float throughout [the exhibition] come from that collection of essays—not even essays but thoughts—strings of thoughts that he started putting down in 1963 They are full of philosophical and existential reflections These ‘strings of thought’ informed his art practice which in turn informed his thinking—making for a continuous expansion on topics between mind and material across distinct series.” Takamatsu graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1958 and shortly thereafter began working day jobs in animation and industrial design Yet Takamatsu soon began his Point (1961-1964) and String (1962-1998) series in conjunction with his theories on space and entity Baptista explained: “He used string in a number of different ways to create points of connection that relate to fixed and unfixed one could see that the string could as easily create an inverse of the connection as much as it could an explanation of physical space.” From 1962-1964, Takamatsu was involved in the anonymous artist’s group Hi Red Center, which staged disruptions within the public urban space of Tokyo While these events took the form of prankish activities—such as wearing white face paint or reading a smouldered newspaper on Tokyo’s busiest commuter line—the group is best known for their reproduction of a one-sided thousand yen note for which one of the members was convicted on a criminal charge similar to counterfeiting Baptista described them as “a response to the changing landscape of industrialised life in Tokyo death and psychological trauma.” He clarified that Hi Red Center’s perspective was more discursive than critical and a means of creating a condition of reflection within everyday life Wang told STIR that Takamatsu began his next series in 1964 and was inspired by the Hi Red Center’s interest in using intervention as a means to “shock people out of their everyday norms and basic perceptions.” The Shadow series and Perspective series are the focus of Takamatsu’s debut at Pace “Shadow connects his prior practice to his later work as the perfect point between the Hi Red Center activities and the Perspective series We have a cogent narrative about his early practice that then radiates throughout his later practice all of these consistent threads and issues of inquiry that interested him—mainly emptiness and absence as a philosophical-existential condition,” Wang explained the Shadow works on display at Pace seem to operate on visual trickery figures and objects painted a shade of grey hardly darker than the white canvas do appear as if real shadows have been cast on their surfaces focus and opacity mimic the distance of subjects with naturalistic precision the artist’s incorporation of a three-dimensional hook fools one into thinking at least one of the two shadows it casts are real until one realises that both include a nonexistent brush The theoretical underpinnings of both series emerge from Takamatsu’s writings in The World Expansion Project the artist was interested in absence: the absence of the artist from the work and later Looking for what he described as a “device to generate absence” leaving only the trace of an object—its shadow—was a way to gesture towards its removal one might feel compelled to turn around and locate the source of a figure’s shadow only to find that there’s no one standing behind them Takamatsu often increased the scale of shadows to an unrealistic degree so as to heighten the disconnect with what he described as “the actual” He expanded on his skepticism of true representation in art with the Perspective series by exploring ways to intervene with a viewer’s ability to grasp and process images such as applying linear perspective to three-dimensional space “I believe in Takamatsu's invention with these works as a way to connect us into pictorial reality with a new adapter plug,” Baptisa told STIR When explaining the curatorial angle of the exhibition but I think focusing on too many would leave potentially the audience flat on feeling for the diversity of each of them the expansiveness and the rigour with which he pursued these concepts.” but I think there's a similar existential angstiness Kate is a Brooklyn-based arts journalist and essayist whose writing plumbs topics of desire She holds a degree in literature and art history from the University of North Carolina A “reformed poet,” she is interested in the dialogue between contemporary art and the written word exploring new forms of legibility in text-based mediums When a famed Indian artist used a protest poet’s words without credit it raised a deeper question: who gets to speak The veteran curator on the Sharjah Biennial 16 and collection-building as history-writing This selling exhibition has been conceived as a collaboration between WWF to further ocean conservation initiatives across the UK A museum at Cambridge University examines Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade between 1750-1850 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Learn More © Copyright 2019-2025 STIR Design Private Limited Please confirm your email address and we’ll send you a link to reset your password All your bookmarks will be available across all your devices Password must be 8 characters long including one capital letter By creating an account, you acknowledge and agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy by STIR Select the Conversation Category you would like to watch Please enter your details and click submit Single account access for STIRworld.com,STIRpad.com and exclusive STIRfri content Verification link sent to check your inbox or spam folder to complete sign up process by Kate Meadows | Published on : Oct 02 Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon We help you navigate a myriad of possibilities Sign up for our newsletter for the best of the city By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. Tokyo Kagawa is located on the island of Shikoku across the Seto Ohashi Bridge from Okayama are famed for their thriving art scene; several key venues of the international Setouchi Triennale art festival are in Kagawa TIP: If you have a day to spare, head to Naoshima, the islandfrom where Setouchi’s transformation into a world-class artistic destination began. Score a window seat on the JR Marine Liner to admire the island-dotted Inland Sea through the steel structure of the world’s longest double-deck bridge. JR Seto-Ohashi Line Marine Liner train from Okayama Station to Takamatsu Station (55 min) Rainbow Loop Bus from Takamatsu Station, alight at Konyamachi (6 min) Photo: Takamatsu Art Museum / Shintaro MiyawakiThe permanent collection centres post-war Japanese modern and contemporary art from Isamu Noguchi to Takashi Murakami, and the special exhibitions are just that – special. 10-4 Konyamachi, Takamatsu / Closed Mon (Tue if Mon is a holiday). Relish Kagawa’s famed udon noodles hot in soup broth, cold dipped in savoury sauce or with a side of tempura, from early morning to late evening. Photo: Keisuke Tanigawa / Time Out TokyoThis artsy seaside bookstore spotlights the work of local artists authors and creators from zine-makers to internationally renowned luminaries like the Takamatsu-born Genichiro Inokuma JR Kotoku Line train from Takamatsu Station Yashima-Sanjo Shuttle Bus from Yashima Station to Yashima-Sanjo (20 min) Architect Takashi Suo’s visionary mountaintop visitor centre takes the shape of an irregularly winding corridor covered with 30,000 roof tiles made from local granite Takamatsu / Closed Tue (Wed if Tue is a holiday) Yashima-Sanjo Shuttle Bus from Yashima-Sanjo alight at Kotoden Yashima Station (10 min) Kotoden Shido Line train from Kotoden Yashima Station to Kawaramachi Station (16 min) The wood-cloaked café interior catches the eye while Japanese coffeeshop classics like ‘Napolitan’ spaghetti and colourful ice cream floats guarantee plenty of culinary amusement The in- demand Masanao Hirayama serves as Dorsia’s art director Return to the front page of the ultimate guide to Setouchi Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! facebooktwitterpinterestinstagramAbout us An event will be held in Yonago and Takamatsu where you can enjoy golf or backpack travel at an affordable price Air Seoul announced on the 28th that it will start a "Battle Trip Event." The special ticket purchase period is until May 30 and the boarding period is until September 30 special tickets for each region will be released A package of discount tickets will be presented including free round-trip tickets for limousines by region and discounts on tickets to major tourist attractions It is characterized by the inclusion of green fees If you choose the 'Backpack Travel Package' you can enjoy food and sightseeing experiences The Yonago line offers discounts on restaurants and cafes while the Takamatsu line offers discounts on the Buschozan Hot Spring Pass and discounts on kimono experiences for 100 people on a first-come you can enjoy the round at a golf course with a view of Daisensan Mountain you can find various things to enjoy related to animation and casting Takamatsu can relieve fatigue in the hot spring after the round the Takamatsu Art Festival's spring festival will be held to enjoy more colorful travel during this period "Yonago and Takamatsu are the same small cities but they have different charms," an Air Seoul official said "As individual tastes and preferences are different we have prepared these optional package events to satisfy customer tastes." ※ This service is provided by machine translation tool Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The page may not be displayed properly if the JavaScript is deactivated on your browser Apr 18 (Fri) 2025-May 25 (Sun) 2025 19 days left Leave a rating/comment#Art Festival#Painting#Sculpture#Drawing#Craft / Folkcraft#Video and Film#Media Arts#Sculpture#Installation#Ceramics / Lacquer#Photography#StartingInApr2025RecommendedExhibits#Exhibitions to see during GWBack to ArticlesSHARE In the October 2024 election for the House of Representatives, an ongoing scandal over financial kickbacks and other improprieties saw the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner reduced to a majority of seats in the Diet although they just about managed to hold onto power voter turnout was the third lowest for any election in Japan’s postwar democratic history “I think the money and politics scandal was the last straw for many people shattering whatever trust they might have had in politics I was shocked by how low the turnout was,” says 31-year-old Takamatsu Nana president of Shōka Sonjuku (literally the Laughter Village Academy) “People are losing their faith in politics and democracy and I think that’s something we should be extremely worried about.” Engagement among young voters has also remained stubbornly low This was the sixth national election since the voting age was lowered to 18 but less than half of eligible 18 and 19-year-olds bothered to vote Turnout among this cohort was just 43.06%: more than 10 points lower than the national average across all age groups one interesting aspect of the election was the rise of the Democratic Party for the People or four times the number it held before the election thanks in large part to support from young people Most commentators agreed that the party’s skillful use of social media helped it to appeal to the under-forties “Whether a candidate is able to campaign effectively online as well as via more traditional media now has a major impact on election results,” says Takamatsu “Candidates don’t have sufficient time to engage in proper discussions on policy face-to-face and this leads to a tendency for debates to remain shallow and underdeveloped.” young people would not be mere passive consumers of information beamed at them by candidates and parties over the internet but would understand the relevance of social issues to their own lives They would then consider the issues subjectively and independently and exercise their right to vote Takamatsu has been trying to engage young people with politics by visiting schools and offering humorous comedy-driven classes on important social and political issues and how they relate to students’ lives She has already reached more than 70,000 schoolchildren through these classes A class at Bunka Gakuen University Suginami High School on October 2 What moved Takamatsu to harness the power of laughter for citizenship education Takamatsu first became interested in social issues in fourth grade when she took part as a volunteer helping to clear litter on Mount Fuji She says this eye-opening exposure to the ugly reality of illegal dumping horrified her she became a journalist on a children’s newspaper and wrote articles about the environment and other issues but was disappointed when the things she wrote had only limited impact While she was searching for more effective ways to share her concerns she came across a book of conversations between the popular comedian Ōta Hikari and a cultural anthropologist on the subject of the Japanese Constitution’s Article 9 The book inspired her to think that she could use laughter to raise awareness of social issues and she resolved to work on polishing her talent as a comedian as she pursued her studies She also started entering various essay competitions and speech contests and during her third year in high school won a prestigious prize from the United Nations Information Center in Tokyo She was sent as a student peace ambassador to an arms reduction conference in Geneva where she gave a speech calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons She made her debut as a comedian as a student at Keiō University and started to appear on television and stage Her ability to hire well-known entertainers and send them into schools as guest lecturers for her classes today is testimony to the strong network she built up in those early years Her dream was to use her position to make programs that would communicate political and social issues to the young generation but she soon came up against the limits of what could realistically be achieved at such a media behemoth and left after a few years She renewed her dedication to voter citizen education and launched her own YouTube channel Takamatsu Nana works hard on creating content for her YouTube channels The company sometimes gave its classes free of charge honorariums for the entertainers who helped as lecturers It was more than Takamatsu could cover out of her own income from performances and lectures and she took to raising extra funding from donations and crowdfunding A golden opportunity came when she formed a collaboration with Yamamoto Ichita In the run-up to the upper house election in July 2022 the governor and his team decided to sponsor a series of Takamatsu’s “laugh-out-loud political education” classes at all 79 high schools in the prefecture The prefecture also came up with the necessary budget The program started three months before the election it was found that voter turnout for 18-year-old voters in the prefecture was up by 8.34 points from the previous upper house election in 2019 Even Governor Yamamoto was apparently surprised by how effective the classes had been I accompanied Takamatsu to her classes and had an opportunity to talk to some of the students The comedians she had hired to give the lessons skillfully wove anecdotes and jokes into their lessons as they explained the workings of democracy and elections in a way that was accessible and relevant for young people politicians will have no incentive to prioritize policies that benefit young people The lessons creatively used quizzes and games to show how young people stood to lose out as a result the students listened without much apparent interest to what Takamatsu and her collaborators were saying they were leaning forward in rapt attention The enthusiasm of the students for this refreshing new style of teaching was palpable “Until now my friends and I never talked about politics but the game-like approach of this lesson made the topic fun and showed me that politics is something that affects me personally,” “The class made me feel hopeful that maybe I can help to change society too,” and “After the class I made up my mind to vote in the election.” Clearly the classes were having an impact Takamatsu traveled to Europe to learn more about young people’s involvement in politics in several countries there as she felt much more engagement was encouraged students are looked on as something to be controlled and managed We need to ask ourselves whether our system is really treating children as individuals with rights Does it respect their freedoms and reflect their opinions In April 2024, the Nippon Foundation carried out a survey of students aged 17 to 19 in six countries (Japan Japan came bottom in students’ responses to two prompts: “I believe my own actions can change my country and society” (45.8%) and “I believe that my own country’s future will get better” (15%) The survey also underlined remarkably low levels of positivity and optimism among Japanese respondents about their own ability to shape society and make their views heard Takamatsu introduces students to cases in which young people have helped to solve social issues while still in their teens and encourages them to think about what aspects of society they would like to change and how they might achieve that change Takamatsu talking to students at Bunka Gakuen University Suginami High School on October 2 students are full of ideas for changes they would like to see: from school rules and uniforms to wider cycling lanes on the way to school and more trains during school commuting hours They are also not short of suggestions for ways of achieving these goals from petitions and social media campaigns to approaching mainstream media petitioning local authorities and companies and even ultimately “becoming a politician.” “Increasing voter participation among young people is important but I wouldn’t want that to be the only metric by which these classes are measured is to encourage young people to think for themselves and to learn to play an active role in society I want them to develop the confidence to change society through their actions.” Gunma Prefecture introduced a system of “reverse mentors” to build on the success of Takamatsu’s lessons The term is originally a corporate practice in which junior employees give advice to their superiors in the company In Shōka Sonjuku’s version of the system 10 high school students are selected as mentors to advise the prefectural governor and are free to come up with their own ideas and policy proposals The prefectural government has implemented a wide range of policies based on recommendations from the “mentors,” including an e-sports competition to bring together people from different age groups and making vaccinations available in shopping malls has also collaborated with Shōka Sonjuku to introduce a similar system of using high school students as “reverse mentors.” Takamatsu hopes the idea will spread around the country but admits that local authorities vary considerably in their level of interest in citizenship education and allowing children to express their opinions is work to achieve results one step at a time (© Nippon.com) We’ve already had children who were inspired by our lessons speak up and try to change school rules I think the most important thing is for them to see for themselves how their opinions can connect with wider society and make a difference My hope is that this awareness of how issues can affect them personally will move them to take action Small experiences of success build confidence and that confidence will build into a force that can drive change in wider society.” Takamatsu says she wants to make the case for democracy within the schools themselves first the teachers need to trust the children And the children need to trust their chosen representative the law requires frameworks to be in place that allow student representatives to take part in the running of the school “Someone told me it took 30 years for this idea to take root and spread we definitely need a system that will allow children to make their voices heard.” (© Nippon.com) (Originally published in Japanese on November 29 Banner photo: Takamatsu Nana talks to students as part of her educational show about politics at Bunka Gakuen University Suginami High School on October 2 dropped one of the best vids we’ve witnessed in a long it’s safe to say that Lenard Tejada has arrived Lenny enlists many familiar faces as a supporting cast including Sam Saddleton while letting his own near-flawless style do the talking Skaters flocked to the film’s Sydney premiere and lapped the film right up Check out the gallery above and stay tuned for a HOMAGE’ release date… Today's print edition Home Delivery The Shikoku port city of Takamatsu is often the jumping-off point for the smaller art-laden islands of Naoshima Yet Kagawa’s prefectural capital and the rustic castle town of Marugame possess longer histories of modern art and culture that make them destinations in their own right Between these cities lies Mount Washinoyama a 322-meter-tall peak located about half an hour west of Takamatsu proper Painter and sculptor Yutaka Sone claims the peculiarly conical summit — my guide speaks of the local mountains as “rice ball-like" — as his base of production and source of materials he produced a miniature model of the mountain and a statue of a snow leopard out of tuff stone from a decommissioned quarry there.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); The scenery toward town strikes me as orderly but sedate until we reach the heart of Marugame, where just across from the station you’ll find the Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art (MIMOCA) It’s a bastion of contemporary beauty: Before its entrance bright red and yellow columns extend skyward and zigzag before a marble mural — nearly 12 meters high and over 20 meters wide — filled with childlike black and white sketches of animals and vehicles This illustration in stone is further punctuated by a giant nautilus sculpture In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division Japanese version The type of aircraft the JCG plans to introduce is called a vertical takeoff and landing or VTOL They can fly faster and are sturdier than smaller drones and able to fly for longer periods of time Japan Coast Guard officials make adjustment on a large-size drone during its test flight at Takamatsu Port in Kagawa Prefecture on Oct TOKYO – The Japan Coast Guard has started test flights of domestically-produced large drones in order to use them for sea rescue operations and to manage lighthouses the drones were flown for the first time over Sagami Bay in Kanagawa Prefecture and the Seto Inland Sea in Kagawa Prefecture JCG officials will consider the equipment and deployment sites in order to start implementing them as soon as possible They also have other advantages compared with manned aircraft such as not requiring runways being capable of taking high-resolution photographs from low altitudes and are easier to transport over land the JCG conducted test flight of a VTOL developed by Qu-Kai Inc. departed a port near the Takamatsu Coast Guard Office and was flown over the Seto Inland Sea coastline several times During the drone’s 20-kilometer round trip including over the sea along the coastline of Inagi Island in Takamatsu City for 25 minutes clear images of a lighthouse and vessels were instantly delivered to the coast guard office Officials are now verifying the survey’s effectiveness by comparing the values of the speed and direction estimated from images of the sea surface with actual values measured with buoys in the sea JCG officials believe that it would also become possible to quickly send large drones to the sites of maritime accidents before the arrival of patrol boats and manned drones and they are expected to play a highly useful role in search and rescue operations it is also expected to become possible to efficiently inspect lighthouses located on cliffs when JCG officials tested the drone’s takeoff and landing on a patrol boat in Sagami Bay for the first time on Oct they observed the drone being affected by the rocking of the boat caused by the waves officials began more test flights of the drone in Sagami Bay “We will continue conducting test flights and inspecting the equipment,” said Teruhiro Suzuki a JCG official in charge of promoting new technology “We hope to introduce large drones to a variety of future JCG operations in order to make use of them for ensuring the safety and security of the public.” Masatsugu (Masa) Takamatsu is a Disaster Risk Management Specialist in the Urban and Disaster Risk Management Unit for Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region at the World Bank He holds bachelor and master’s degrees in environmental engineering from Kyoto University degree in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin he worked for a civil engineering design firm in the USA for more than 10 years as a water resources engineer and has a Professional Engineer license from the State of Maryland he managed a GFDRR-EU Trust Fund Program on Building Resilience to Geohazard Risks in South Asia as Task Team Leader and worked on various flood resilience projects in the South Asia Region before moving to ECA he currently works on various projects and analytical works in Kyrgyz View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow Yumiko Chiba Associates is delighted to present an exhibition of work by Takamatsu Jiro focusing on the artist’s “Space in Two Dimensions” series Unfolding from the second half of the 1970s “Space in Two Dimensions” marked Takamatsu’s first return to painting since his “Shadow” series Prior to “Space in Two Dimensions” he had been working on the “Compound” series of objects combining materials such as iron and square rods In “Space in Two Dimensions” Takamatsu draws lines on the picture plane inspired for example by the form of an object made from pieces of iron joined together or the arc described by rope hanging off such an object Thus “Space in Two Dimensions” was not so much a turning from sculpture to painting as a contemplation of the relationship between the three- and two-dimensional: literally a verifying of the relationship between three-dimensional space in works of sculpture With its straight and curved lines intersecting on the canvas “Space in Two Dimensions” also offered a premonition of the artist’s painting to come Don’t miss this opportunity to view a group of important works that demonstrate the relationship between Takamatsu Jiro and painting Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information TAKAMATSU--An increasing number of families and rail buffs with model trains are climbing aboard a railway-themed cafe here that opened in January The main appeal of Udon Cafe x Train is a large handmade diorama set up inside the 10-seat establishment with a total floor space of about 60 square meters It is complete with railway-associated structures representing the Shikoku region such as the Seto-Ohashi bridge and Tsushimanomiya Station on the Yosan Line Running on the diorama are N scale model trains including the Series 2700 diesel-powered limited express services and the Sunrise Seto sleeper train customers can bring their own model trains and operate them on the diorama for a fee The cafe also features a premium Green Car seat from a retired Series 2000 diesel-powered limited express train operated by Shikoku Railway Co and customers can change the rice or noodles of the main dish for "udon" noodles The cafe is the brainchild of a group of illustrators photographers and other young creators based in Shikoku "We want to create a reason for tourists to come to Shikoku with the cafe serving as a starter," said a 27-year-old manager Udon Cafe x Train operates about 10 days each month visit the official website at (https://cheer-kikaku.com/) 2 cafes feature cats playing role of monsters in railway diorama Images of kittens roaming around railway diorama save Osaka diner Osaka hotel lays track to revive business with railway diorama New Spacia X express train to connect Asakusa with Nikko Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission TAKAMATSU--Nurse Chiaki Nakamura once had to search for two weeks for a hotel that would take a terminal cancer patient who wanted to enjoy some of her remaining time with her family creating lasting memories That agonizing search led her to open a unique hotel here with the aim of fulfilling the earnest desire of sick individuals to travel and stay overnight despite their “serious conditions” and “need for nursing care.” Hotel QOL Kawaramachi started operations near a busy commercial area in Takamatsu on Jan which likewise operates the home care service provider Q-chan in Takamatsu’s Murecho district It is the first time for QOL to operate an accommodation facility explained that behind the recent decision to tackle the challenge of expanding into an industry beyond the nurse dispatch business was her encounter with a woman Nakamura heard from a staff member at QOL that a female service user in her 40s with terminal cancer wanted to “spend time with her family at a hotel for the last time to make memories.” The mother of two elementary school-aged children was suffering such a severe physical condition that she was unable to even get out of bed on her own Feeling the woman’s dream “should become a reality” by any means Nakamura began seeking an accommodation facility for the user’s sake Nakamura contacted hotel operators across Kagawa Prefecture by phone An inn told Nakamura that it “would not be able to handle the patient’s condition if it suddenly worsens,” while another asked “What if she dies in one of our guest rooms?” Considering the patient’s physical state at the time Nakamura was desperate to find a place to accept her as soon as possible before Nakamura ended up coming across a hotel that would serve her as long as she was accompanied by a doctor The female patient stayed in the hotel in Takamatsu She reportedly passed away peacefully after returning home “I would like patients to experience happiness as they can no longer recover from their diseases,” said Nakamura Nakamura started weighing plans to introduce a hotel on her own so patients could realize their “last wish” at the envisioned accommodation Nakamura learned from an acquaintance that a piece of land around Kawaramachi Station of the Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railroad Co Nakamura paid particular attention to creating an extraordinary ambiance while ensuring a user-friendly environment for guests with disabilities at the same time Bathrooms and toilet facilities are spacious enough for patients with terminal cancer and other severe conditions to bathe and use with caregivers two to four beds set up in each room all come standard without a reclining feature “Seeing dedicated nursing care beds at a hotel would remind guests of their daily struggles,” Nakamura noted “It is better for patients to have the same experience as healthy individuals.” Another twist available at Hotel QOL Kawaramachi is a slightly thickened version of Japanese sake as well as dedicated cake prepared especially for those who have difficulty swallowing A small kitchen was added to each room in a quest to allow people who cannot eat out to enjoy tasty meals at the hotel via catering services Washer-dryers at Hotel QOL Kawaramachi ease guests’ concerns about dirty laundry with no permanent personnel deployed for its maintenance Prospective guests needing medical or nursing care services are required to consult with QOL beforehand nurses and caregivers will be dispatched from QOL to the hotel To accept and handle patients whose conditions may suddenly worsen Hotel QOL Kawaramachi works with two medical centers in Takamatsu and three clinics that specialize in home diagnosis services “Our hope is to incorporate many more features for patients to feel happy and content from now,” said Nakamura spa-equipped accommodations to provide guests with a wider range of options when choosing a place to stay.” The room rate for a group of four guests is around 40,000 yen ($266) per night at Hotel QOL Kawaramachi The accommodation is also accessible to those suffering from no diseases or disabilities and sightseers Fukuoka hotel says guests must pay COVID-19 cleanup fees Doctors accused of murdering ALS patient who wanted to die Ancient temple starts hosting travelers to fix its financial woes new condominiums priced at 100 million yen ($635,300) or more have been sprouting in major cities for a while they are also popping up in smaller regional cities as developers steer clear of the fierce competition in metropolitan areas The intention is to stimulate demand for holiday homes among wealthy locals a 20-story condominium complex with the grand name of The Residence Takamatsu Park Front Tower is under construction along the Chuo-dori main street about three minutes on foot from JR Takamatsu Station Tokyo-based Central General Development Co. which is developing and selling the condo units said the sprawling Seto Inland Sea with its many islands can be viewed from the balconies in which the ruins of Takamatsu Castle are located The condominium will have a total of 54 units four on the 19th and the 20th floors are three-bedroom units with a total floor space in excess of 120 square meters The complex will be completed in late February people have begun to realize the view is unlikely to be blocked in the future,” said a representative from the company’s Shikoku branch While wealthy residents in Kagawa Prefecture are buying pricey condo units as residences or to utilize their assets those living outside the prefecture use the units as holiday homes Central General Development also sells apartment units with price tags of at least 100 million yen in Matsuyama and Kochi in the Shikoku region five high-end condo units went on sale after the Kagawa prefectural capital’s first apartments priced at 100 million yen and up were introduced in 2022 a member of the Kagawa Association of Real Estate Appraisers who runs a real estate appraisal office in Takamatsu explained the rush by developers from outside the Shikoku region continue to sell luxury condos even though the population there is declining many developers have made inroads into prefectural capitals and elsewhere in outlying regions with relatively large populations that have room for growth due to fierce competition in the Tokyo and Kinki metropolitan areas.” He said it is possible that growing expectations for redevelopment projects completed or currently under way in areas surrounding Takamatsu Station led builders to set bullish prices for their condos a commercial facility that serves as the station building while Tokushima Bunri University’s new campus and a prefectural-run arena are slated to open this coming spring A high-end Mandarin Oriental hotel will also open in 2027 Industry members cite soaring land prices in the Tokyo metropolitan area as a key reason for the redevelopment boom in regional cities According to Real Estate Economic Institute Co. the average price of new condos in Tokyo’s 23 wards between April and September 2024 rose 4.5 percent from the same period of the previous year to a record 110.51 million yen led by rising labor and construction costs after the COVID-19 pandemic “Popular lots in the metropolitan area are so high-priced even in suburban zones that we can’t afford anymore,” said an employee of a developer based outside Kagawa Prefecture adding that the company has taken note of development projects elsewhere 100-million-yen apartments are on the rise also outside the Shikoku region According to real estate assessment firm Tokyo Kantei Co. 17,412 new condos priced over 100 million yen were sold during the five-year period from 2019 through 2023 across the country 14,484 expensive condo units were sold in the five-year window between 1988 and 1992 during the asset-inflated economy A total of 38 new condo units priced at 100 million yen or more were sold in 2019 in five of 37 prefectures excluding those in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the Keihanshin region a total of 75 high-end condo units were sold in 14 prefectures luxury condos are in limited supply in regional cities for now and are mostly located on the top floor or other parts of apartment buildings instead of occupying the entire structure “Demand (for luxury condos in regional cities) from foreign investors is limited except for those in resort areas but it is quite possible that even 100-million-yen apartments will take root in those cities mainly among wealthy local residents if supply is appropriate for demand,” said Takako Suzuki a senior researcher and director at Haseko Research Institute Inc New high-end condo sales now 1.2 times higher than in ‘bubble’ Surging Tokyo property prices freeze out young professionals New condo units in Tokyo area hit record low amid rising costs New apartments in central Tokyo top 200 million yen for first time New Tokyo apartments averaged above 100 mln yen in 2023 for first time ever Apartment prices soar in Kyoto; city fears young people will leave we're happy to send you some reminders Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications Home> News> World News March 2011 was the last time that Yasuo Takamatsu heard from his wife It was the month of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded and the strongest to hit Japan The destruction resulted in around 450,000 people losing their homes over 18,000 people losing their lives and more than 2,500 people being listed as missing since their bodies were never found The tsunami also caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster Yuko was one of the people who was washed away with the tsunami hitting when she was at work at a bank She'd sent her husband an email saying: "Are you OK Takamatsu had been in the next town over with his mother-in-law in a hospital that day he couldn't return to look for his wife in the immediate aftermath of the disaster He would begin the search for his wife's remains on land with her phone being found in the bank's car park months after the tsunami hit It had an unsent text saying 'the tsunami is disastrous' which had been written at 3:25pm local time but the message had never been delivered He knew his wife had been alive at that time to write those words After searching for two-and-a-half years on land taking diving lessons in September 2013 so he could learn to explore the sea he's gone diving every week to look for clues of the whereabouts of his wife's body "I do want to find her, but I also feel that she may never be discovered as the ocean is way too vast - but I have to keep looking," he said in the short film The Diver he takes his regular plunges into the sea with diving instructor Masayoshi Takahashi who leads volunteer dives into the water to help look for missing tsunami victims Search operations for the over 2,500 people who went missing during the 2011 disaster are still ongoing Takamatsu had met his wife in 1988 when he was working in the Japanese military he was working as a bus driver and in the past decade Topics: World News Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected] InstagramXThreadsSnapchatTikTokYouTubeLAD Entertainment Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time Japan: To hear Toru Takamatsu’s soft yet distinctively Australian accent drift across the vineyard of a boutique winery on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido is as disarming as it is surprising The verdant sloping hillsides of the small township of Yoichi are an unlikely place to find the Sydney-born wine wunderkind Toru Takamatsu at Domaine Takahiko winery in Hokkaido where he is an apprentice winemaker.Credit: Christopher Jue Takamatsu became the world’s youngest-ever master sommelier when he passed the industry’s notoriously difficult masters exam – the highest credential that can be achieved by sommeliers and one earned by fewer than 300 people since the course was created in 1969 His achievement instantly set the elite wine world abuzz and put him on track for a six-figure career at the world’s top restaurants commanding sought-after wine lists he has traded this path for the gruelling soil-and-toil work as intern a small but renowned owner-operated winery for the humbling salary of about $30,000 a year on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.Credit: Getty Images Sitting at a dusty makeshift table inside the winery’s small onsite facility next to barrels of its signature pinot noir it’s clear that master sommelier status has not gone to Takamatsu’s head “When I was first starting out [10 years ago] I couldn’t tell the difference between pinot noir and a cabernet,” the 29-year-old says “I was just buying some wines from bottle shops and I just thought they were all interesting.” Takamatsu has blazed a trajectory from wine-curious barista working in Sydney’s coffee scene to master sommelier within four years a feat practically unheard of in elite wine circles where even those with a decade or more experience struggle to pass the exam He parlayed his interest in palate and flavours – something he’d picked up from his dad a Japanese chef who arrived in Sydney from Tokyo on a working holiday visa in the 1990s – from coffee into wine and by 21 he was set on becoming a sommelier He began working entry-level restaurant shifts at top venues such as Rockpool growing his exposure to high-end wine lists and soon had his sights set on the invite-only master sommelier exam Takamatsu has traded the world of elite restaurants for the vineyards of Hokkaido as he sets out to make his own wine.Credit: Christopher Jue For an industry that can seem infused with pretension and sophistry master sommeliers are the bona fide experts whose knowledge of grape varietals nose and mouth feel for an infinite number of wines can seem savant-like But Takamatsu says this comes down to training – hours and hours of it – more than natural talent “There are very few people who are naturally talented and can say But I have not yet met anyone who can pick it 100 per cent,” he says This process of being able to identify wine from a blind tasting is a crucial part of the masters exam – and a key contributor to the test’s 90+ per cent fail rate The exam is the fourth and highest certification offered by the Court of Master Sommeliers and contains three parts: an oral test The blind tasting requires candidates to correctly identify six wines (three reds While the exam’s reputation was well-established in wine communities the 2012 documentary Somm put a public spotlight on the extreme levels of dedication It followed candidates as they put their lives on hold strained their relationships and frayed their nerves to breaking point as they swilled sucked and spat out countless wine varieties while poring over textbooks and flashcards trying to commit characteristics Takamatsu says the torment of the MS student lives up to the reputation he estimates he spent about $50,000 on wine over three or four years as he prepared for the test “I’m not that person who can study for six hours straight Before you sleep you’re thinking: what’s this sub-region of wine When he failed his first blind tasting attempt in 2018 Together with a friend who was also prepping for the exam they began holding weekly tasting sessions I could feel that when I was doing the exam By the time he retook the test the following year he had been working at London’s Hide restaurant for more than a year and was sharpening his palate on a 7000-strong wine list Takamatsu returned to Sydney and worked for a stint at the Justin Hemmes-owned Merivale venues Fred and Mimi’s just as the hospitality industry was being rocked by COVID It prompted him to reassess his career path He recalled the bottle of unique pinot that he and a friend had drunk in a Tokyo restaurant in 2017 The apprenticeship comes with the commitment from the local government that he will have access to his own plot of land to start a winery Takamatsu says he is not walking away from the craft of sommeliers whose artistry lies in bringing to life the narrative of the wine to the tableside buyer Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here Japan: To hear Toru Takamatsu\\u2019s soft yet distinctively Australian accent drift across the vineyard of a boutique winery on Japan\\u2019s northernmost island of Hokkaido is as disarming as it is surprising Takamatsu became the world\\u2019s youngest-ever master sommelier when he passed the industry\\u2019s notoriously difficult masters exam \\u2013 the highest credential that can be achieved by sommeliers and one earned by fewer than 300 people since the course was created in 1969 His achievement instantly set the elite wine world abuzz and put him on track for a six-figure career at the world\\u2019s top restaurants commanding sought-after wine lists Sitting at a dusty makeshift table inside the winery\\u2019s small onsite facility next to barrels of its signature pinot noir it\\u2019s clear that master sommelier status has not gone to Takamatsu\\u2019s head \\u201CWhen I was first starting out [10 years ago] I couldn\\u2019t tell the difference between pinot noir and a cabernet,\\u201D the 29-year-old says \\u201CI was just buying some wines from bottle shops and I just thought they were all interesting.\\u201D Takamatsu has blazed a trajectory from wine-curious barista working in Sydney\\u2019s coffee scene to master sommelier within four years He parlayed his interest in palate and flavours \\u2013 something he\\u2019d picked up from his dad a Japanese chef who arrived in Sydney from Tokyo on a working holiday visa in the 1990s \\u2013 from coffee into wine But Takamatsu says this comes down to training \\u2013 hours and hours of it \\u2013 more than natural talent \\u201CThere are very few people who are naturally talented and can say But I have not yet met anyone who can pick it 100 per cent,\\u201D he says of the masters exam \\u2013 and a key contributor to the test\\u2019s 90+ per cent fail rate While the exam\\u2019s reputation was well-established in wine communities \\u201CI\\u2019m not that person who can study for six hours straight Before you sleep you\\u2019re thinking: what\\u2019s this sub-region of wine That\\u2019s the life of the MS student.\\u201D \\u201CI just felt that I hadn\\u2019t tasted enough We\\u2019d spend one hour \\u2013 three whites he had been working at London\\u2019s Hide restaurant for more than a year and was sharpening his palate on a 7000-strong wine list Takamatsu returned to Sydney and worked for a stint at the Justin Hemmes-owned Merivale venues Fred and Mimi\\u2019s and it led him to Domaine Takahiko\\u2019s door Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what\\u2019s making headlines around the world heralded by the appearance of lightning bugs near Hisashimizu River in Takamatsu Local residents have been enjoying the display put on by these luminous insects which emanate electric shades of yellow and green as they flit around the water an 81-year-old dedicated to preserving the area's natural beauty noted that the fireflies began appearing earlier this month they emerge from the bushes by the river around dusk The number of fireflies is expected to increase as the days grow hotter with large gatherings anticipated on calm nights with light wind "The spectacle of fireflies' glowing lights can ease the minds of the people who see them," Takahashi said "Hopefully people will be respectful and enjoy the show without disrupting the peace." Takahashi also mentioned that the fireflies would likely continue appearing until the end of May The Shikoku Shimbun 666 handmade cherry blossom pinwheels at Kagawa shrine bear visitors' hopes Takamatsu Instagrammer shares Japan etiquette advice for foreign visitors Kagawa high school students win national flower arranging competition To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible TAKAMATSU — A rapid train bound for Okayama from Takamatsu on the JR Seto-Ohashi Line came to a halt on the Seto Ohashi Bridge around 7:40 a.m please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent there is no information about injuries among the seven-car train’s 150 passengers The operation of transferring the passengers to another train started around 1 p.m setting off again for Okayama 50 minutes later The accident was caused by an overhead wire broken off in a section between Kojima and Utazu resulting in cancellations and delays on the line Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun “We were so emotionally moved by his unbelievable story that we decided to base our fiction film on his experience,” director Masako Tsumura said “Nowhere to Go but Everywhere” was selected as a finalist in this year’s ShortList Film Festival, presented by TheWrap. You can watch the films and vote for your favorite here Yasuo Takamatsu, a devoted husband who tragically lost his wife in the Japanese Tsunami of 2011, is the emotional center of the excellent and moving documentary short film “Nowhere to Go But Everywhere,” which is a finalist in TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival 2023 which left almost 20,000 people dead and nearly half a million homeless was triggered by an underwater earthquake that occurred off the eastern coast of Japan on March 11 Takamatsu was able to recover his wife’s phone in the parking lot of the bank where she worked Takamatsu found the pink flip phone with an unsent text message he didn’t receive: “So much tsunami,” it read Takamatsu hasn’t found anything else since then Takamatsu started scuba diving as a last resort to locate his wife’s body after she disappeared in Onagawa one of the areas most severely affected by the disaster As directors Masako Tsumura and Erik Shirai explain “He processed his grief by learning to dive and search for her in the same ocean that took her away from him the filmmakers where busy developing their feature film “Umi,” and then happened to read the New York Times Magazine story about Takamatsu “We were so emotionally moved by his unbelievable story that we decided to base our fiction film on his experience,” Tsumura told TheWrap “We were compelled to meet him and were able to secure a meeting through the diving shop where he trained.” Tsumura added: “He arrived before us and we were astonished to be greeted by his gentle and humble demeanor.” The filmmakers felt it would be inappropriate to ask Takamatsu questions about his wife so they broke the ice by asking him about his diving and what he saw in the ocean Takamatsu’s responses were often followed by an uncomfortable silence “But as we developed a deeper relationship with him he slowly began to fill the silence with life before the tsunami the memories he was left with and his life long project to fulfill his wife’s dying wish,” Tsumura said the filmmakers discovered that Takamatsu still continued to dive and search for his wife while the rest of the world was under lockdown The filmmakers saw their opportunity to document Takamatsu’s search for his wife “It opened up a space for us to look beyond our own existence during difficult times,” Tsumura said Coming up with a shooting schedule during COVID became challenging for the filmmakers because foreigners from outside the region weren’t welcome in that part of Japan But the COVID protocol wasn’t the only challenge the filmmakers faced as underwater production was also very difficult The filmmakers also had to postpone the shoot a couple of times due to the harsh weather conditions at the time “The underwater in the region is difficult because of strong currents cold temperature and low visibility, but we got to work with the best underwater cinematographers in Japan,” Tsumura said Takamatsu still dives every week to this very day fishing instruments and sunken cars,” Tsumura said The 2023 ShortList Film Festival runs online from June 28 – July 12, honoring the top award-winning short films that have premiered at major festivals in the past year. Watch the finalists and vote for your favorite here COMMUNITY PARTNER Stay connected to All Things Good in the Burg by subscribing today Since I Love the Burg launched in May of 2009 a 60-year-old who runs a real estate business in Takamatsu has garnered more than 130,000 followers on Instagram in just a year and is now an influencer who shares advice in English about Japanese etiquette with foreigners I hope to convey the Japanese people's compassion and the Japanese spirit of harmony," she said with a smile "That's because I want visitors from abroad to enjoy Japan with respect." Shichijo lived in New York and Hong Kong for 22 years and has worked as an interpreter She returned to her hometown in 2017 and while running her family's real estate business Shichijo came up with the idea of using social media to convey the beauty and splendidness of Japanese culture She wanted others to have a proper understanding of the Japanese way of life and its culture Utilizing her English skills and her knowledge of Japanese culture such as the tea ceremony all of which she took up when she was young Shichijo started posting on Instagram in March last year how to open the lid of a soup bowl and how to hold a bowl She also teaches what to do when entering a front door as well as when stepping into a Japanese tatami room showing in person both bad examples and the correct ways Shichijo also posts recommendations on places to visit in Kagawa Prefecture She also introduces Japanese dance as well as how to celebrate the New Year in Japan Shichijo gets help from her family members with the shooting and adds background music to her posts She also streams live on Instagram every Monday the Setouchi Triennale and other major events scheduled to be held next year Japan is expecting to welcome many visitors from abroad "If foreign visitors will observe manners and etiquette their hosts will be at ease as well," Shichijo said "I plan to also post about how to behave when visiting accommodations and tourist facilities." Karate school members engage in midwinter training at Kagawa Pref. beach Three-wheeled electric bikes to promote sightseeing on Japan's Shodo Island To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox, subscribe here. Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription. Please check your inbox for a confirmation email. If you wish to change your message, press 'Cancel' to go back and edit. Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible. doll-like figures rendered in exquisite black and white linework A graduate of Tohoku University of Art and Design Takamatsu closely follows Japanese subcultures In March 2021, Nikkei Financial Technology Research Institute (hereinafter "Nikkei FTRI") began offering services for the new SMACOM information distribution platform, which provides corporate analytical information (https://www.nikkei.co.jp/nikkeiinfo/en/global_services/nikkei-ftri/providing-services-for-the-new-smacom-information-distribution-platform.html) SMACOM makes valuable information available in order to support the decision-making processes employed by leading financial market professionals It evaluates more than 40,000 companies in 51 major economies using the sophisticated technologies and unique analytical skills of Nikkei FTRI We recently sat down for an interview with Mr We asked him about his impressions of SMACOM giving specific attention to the types of information that are used in his business Interviewer: You joined Village Capital in 2014 and are currently serving as CEO Could you give us an overview of Village Capital Takamatsu: We are a Singapore-based asset management company that focuses on Japanese equities where our analysts conduct bottom-up research and corporate surveys Most of our clients are Japanese financial institutions and pension funds with the majority of them being Japanese regional banks Interviewer: What first attracted you to SMACOM Takamatsu: Your satellite office was located next to ours and one day you asked me to take a look at something called SMACOM I thought that it could be useful in many ways One excellent feature of SMACOM is that it has a huge amount of data that can be customized to meet the needs of our management team quantitative analysis is basically a review of the past; a rear-view mirror It is mainly used to check the status of the portfolio and to protect it quantitative analysis also has some implications for future returns and proactive use we discovered that it could be employed for both "offense" and "defense." We are now using it in various ways Interviewer: Thank you very much for your words Could you tell us more about the defense and offense you mentioned Takamatsu: The selection of CDS stocks in particular is a key factor for a fund that we are now going to start managing we think that SMACOM's accrual score (or fraud accounting score) and other metrics can serve as very useful tools to help us make investment decisions we are planning to have your company conduct various analyses (mainly performance analyses) as a third party The results will be very reassuring to our investors The fund in question is a multi-asset fund; I think that normal funds are not subjected to such deep analysis or reporting on correlations among the assets in which they invest I expect that your company will conduct in-depth work in such areas Interviewer: How do you feel about the model for predicting CDS spreads that we created by customizing a part of SMACOM based on the CDS data provided by your company Takamatsu: As a result of the verification we were able to arrive at a scoring that gives a leading edge against the movement of CDS spreads please let us know so that we can improve the service and incorporate the outcome into our development he joined Taiheiyo Securities (currently Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities) to engage in equity analysis and sales activity he began to work at CIGNA International Investment Advisors as a portfolio manager in charge of JPY 60 billion in equities in Japan Korea and Taiwan for both Japanese and overseas institutional investors he became responsible for all the firm's equity investment The research conducted by InterSecResearch for which many global institutional investors registered ranked his performance for the first seven years in the top 13% and in the top 1% for the last two years where he achieved superior returns in the Japanese equity long/short strategy and short-biased strategy he and his team moved to another Japanese investment management firm and in 2018 he acquired the entirety of the firm's equity and was appointed President who has had a spectacular career as an asset manager gave us the impression that SMACOM scores were very useful We will continue to deepen our collaboration with Village Capital and develop SMACOM from a more hands-on perspective SMACOM provides not only scores but also an enormous volume of processed data that users can employ to perform financial analysis and model building by themselves This enables deeper and more detailed analysis We also offer consulting services to meet client needs such as by building a model to predict CDS spreads If you are interested in our services, please contact us.https://www.ftri.co.jp/eng/index.html#company Disclaimer (PDF file):https://www.ftri.co.jp/eng/pdf/SMACOM_Disclaimer-EN.pdf Nikkei FTRI is a member of the Nikkei Group that works with data analysis technology We are recognized for the high quality of our analytical and modeling techniques which utilize both traditional and alternative varieties of data announced the launch of a new digital media focused on the gaming industry The use of sentiment analysis in equity markets has evolved significantly over the past two decades driven by advances in natural language processin QUICK Market Eyes] The first stage of revisions to the Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX) one of Japan's leading stock price indices QUICK Market Eyes] The year 2024 saw corporate reform gradually taking root to lend a hand with the annual grape harvest an izakaya (traditional Japanese pub) known for its selection of local wine sold only by the bottle I was dining solo and didn’t quite have it in me to polish off a whole bottle and one of the diners was kind enough to offer me a glass of something in return I realized he was none other than Toru Takamatsu became the youngest-ever master sommelier — the highest certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS) — and the first Japanese person to achieve that rank.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); The following day, I saw Takamatsu, now 28, in his element at the renowned Domaine Takahiko winery where he is currently learning the craft of winemaking This got me thinking: Why would a master sommelier make the move from working the floors of Michelin-starred restaurants to the hands-on life of an apprentice winemaker Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker and Eckerd College—represented by Mayor Hideto Onishi (center left) and President Jim Annarelli staff and Takamatsu city administrators in a traditional fan dance at the end of the meeting The Takamatsu delegation—led by Mayor Hideto Onishi—grabbed paper fans and formed a circle with Eckerd College President Jim Annarelli, Ph.D.; Associate Professor of Japanese Eileen Mikals-Adachi Ph.D.; and a collection of students and staff to dance the “Ichigo Maita,” a traditional Japanese celebration of the rice harvest “It was such a privilege and joy to welcome Mayor Onishi, the mayor of Takamatsu “The afternoon was a warm and thoroughly enjoyable celebration of the 57th anniversary of the relationship between Florida Presbyterian College/Eckerd College and Takamatsu a relationship that has rebounded to the great benefit of generations of FPC/EC students.” Takamatsu Mayor Hideto Onishi (left) with President Jim Annarelli Mayor Onishi’s delegation made its first visit to St. Petersburg since the pandemic this month to honor the deep relationship between the two cities Eckerd has been sending a graduate to Takamatsu to teach English in one- to two-year appointments since 1966 Mikals-Adachi says the program has been so successful that many Takamatsu residents have gone on to become English teachers themselves the College honored the relationship in a number of ways President Annarelli presented Mayor Onishi with a crystal triton shell and the mayor returned the gesture with a handmade lacquered soup bowl and spoon made by Takamatsu’s artisans “It was a particular pleasure to ‘welcome home’ Jane Ferguson Niwa ’66 our first graduate to teach English in Takamatsu,” Annarelli explains the most recent Triton to return from the vaunted teaching assignment Cronen had stayed in the city until the COVID restrictions were lifted in 2022 Another visit highlight came when Mikals-Adachi’s students performed a short play in Japanese titled “The Racoon’s Secret,” which told the story of mischievous Eckerd campus racoons learning shapeshifting from a Japanese tanuki in order to upgrade their dining options from garbage to the cafeteria Mayor Onishi and President Annarelli share a laugh while exchanging gifts The racoons transformed into President Annarelli and Mayor Onishi with the help of fans illustrated by Aspen Young-Harris, a junior interdisciplinary arts student from Covington “It was a very short play, but it was exciting,” says Jonathan Ballard, a first-year marine science student from Houston “I was the drummer for the performance and I accentuated the beats including the transformations into Mayor Onishi Jonathan is a new student of Japanese language and says learning more about Eckerd’s relationship with Takamatsu has added the coastal city to his list of destinations to visit when he travels to the country Eckerd Admission Counselor Sarah LeFebvre ’18—who first met Mayor Onishi on a Winter Term trip with Mikals-Adachi prior to her graduation—capped off a storybook visit with a golf cart tour of campus in Japanese where a manatee surfaced just as the Takamatsu delegation drove past the seawall “It was almost like I had paid the manatee to be there,” she says before laughing “We couldn’t have timed it more perfectly.” Students hold fans illustrated by Aspen Young-Harris ’25 St. Petersburg, Florida 33711800.456.9009 or 727.867.1166 Takamatsu began his search in 2013: His story has captured hearts worldwide Switzerland on alert after heavy rains cause floods 5 ways in which Microsoft Copilot makes life easier Japan to consider allowing nuclear plant expansions Asteroid to pass by Earth on Saturday: How to see it The ocean has beaten his skin but not his spirit went missing in the tsunami that hit north eastern beaches of Onagawa in Japan I want to go home,” were the last words Takamatsu heard from Yuko A message that has pushed him to continue looking for her to this day 13 years later – he just wants to bring her home A recent video clip posted on social media by Mothership Takamatsu lost contact with his wife Yuko in 2011 who was working at a bank when the tsunami hit When he heard news that someone from the bank had washed up ashore he went to check Takamatsu came across her phone that was found at the bank This was what drove him to continue his search for her In a 2023 documentary titled ‘The Diver’ by US director Anderson Wright “I searched around the rubble for her belongings Takamatsu mentions how he looked through shelters He began diving lessons with the help of an instructor named Masayoshi Takahashi who leads volunteer diving for missing tsunami victims At first Takamatsu helped with debris cleaning Takahashi helped him by keeping track of the places Takamatsu already looked at Their story was adapted into a book titled ‘I want to go home’ which was then adapted into a feature film and was selected for the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in 2017 the true story was made into another documentary titled ‘Nowhere To Go But Everywhere (2022)’ “When I think somewhere in this ocean my wife exists… I have to go find her,” he says in the documentary ‘Nowhere To Go But Everywhere’ he continues to search for her and has completed over 600 dives that lead to the devastating tsunami resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 people Get the latest news and updates straight to your inbox Who are the frontrunners to be the next pope MET gala 2025: Shah Rukh Khan's fashion splash and more Rent-a-chicken takes off as egg prices soar in the US We use cookies to personalize content and ads and to analyze our traffic and improve our service Takamatsu's approach to sculpture can be summed up by paraphrasing John Lennon: sculpture is what happens when you're busy looking at other things This survey of the artist's sculptural works made between 1961 and 1977 presents an obsession with the things that objects can do Takamatsu starts at the very edge of our acknowledgement of the sculpture's presence and then slowly penetrates the layers of observation and the sensual experience of the sculpture's behavior and its medium in space There is really never any there there: everything is shadows The exhibition commences with photographic documentation of the Hi-Red Center an artist's collective active in 1963-64 and consisting of Takamatsu dedicated to injecting surreal happenings into the daily routine of Tokyo's citizenry In a series of public interventions that today would have Homeland Security on red alert the three intrepid artists tossed articles of clothing off building roofs; in another they left bags in train stations and mailed the cloak-check tickets for those bags to strangers; and in a third dragged a 3.5 kilometer rope through the subway and dangled mysterious objects from straphangers The object of these efforts seems to have been to force a strain of the surreal into everyday consciousness changing the ratio of banal to bizarre regardless of whether the results were discernable The viewer's distracted acknowledgment of the aura of a work of art was a point of particular fascination for Takamatsu and this lead him to further experiment with the surreal potential of the everyday utilizing recognizable objects in unexpected combinations—a major subtext throughout the survey Very rarely does the artist create a new form instead drawing out the unexpected from a recognizable material such as a bottle merely coils a thick white cotton rope inside a liter-sized classic Coca-cola bottle playing off the sculptural possibilities of the Coke bottle with the dumb utilitarianism of storing a length of rope As an object the composition is both artful and silly engineering inversions and other welcome mistakes in the rules of perspective He plays games with the picture plane and scale-versus-distance: making things far away bigger and objects closer smaller; rather dry and academic experimentation The subsequent works utilizing trompe l'oeil shadows move from the witty and arresting Shadow no 241 (1968)—wherein a coat-hook convincingly casts a false painted shadow—to the much more poetic and troubling series of human form shadow-projects The documentary photographs Identification at Tokyo Gallery (1966) and Temporary Enclosure of Carioca Building Construction Site (1971) depict large scale wall installations in which precisely painted shadows of passersby and gallery goers are painted on the walls at various sizes—presuming a street or room filled with viewers who have seemingly vanished In the sculptural work Shadows on the Door (1968) ghostly shadows painted in a satin lacquer Perhaps it is unfair to find a poignancy to these works bestowed by the radioactive shadows cast by the victims of Nagasaki and Hiroshima The shadow works are the most historically and emotionally relevant and affecting pieces in the show though and they seem to refer to the traces of the unfortunate observers of one of history's greatest tragedies This again returns to the idea that Takamatsu's work hinges on the idea of the perspective of the observer as the dynamo moving the art forward The shadow works encompass a lot; they play with figuration and maintain a conceptual rigor while flirting with artfulness and craftsmanship The later works Slack of Net (1969) and Slack of Cloth (1970) investigate the behavior of materials largely left to their own devices juxtaposes objects and materials that bear little relation to each other such as a mass-produced school chair resting on a brick Like much found-object-based conceptual art the result is often unexpectedly narrativized and anthropomorphic We find ourselves feeling strangely sympathetic towards this imbalanced chair and the tensions it evokes with a leg hanging mid-air and Oneness of Rust (1972) further nurture the artist's fascination with the individual properties of the material with minimal artist interference The viewer feels a certain pride in the visceral honesty of the bricks They have hollowed-out interiors filled with crumbled brick or the log of cedar half-stripped and carved into a simple rectangular prism which displays the core These carved wood pieces are similar to the work of Giuseppe Penone and Arte Povera happening simultaneously in Italy They make a statement about the transitiveness of the authenticity or artificiality of the medium depending on the view of the spectator It may be that Takamatsu's wholesale intent in the Compound and Oneness series was along these lines; to find the narrative in the parts and materials rather than the artifice that might weave up the whole Like his witty projects with Hi-Red Center these later works perch on the edge of the perceptibility of art They demand the viewer take a second look at something slightly off from normal to perhaps notice the world around them whilst they are "doing other things." Jiro Takamatsu: The Temperature of Sculpture runs through October 22 at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds William Corwin is a sculptor based in New York. Besides BOMB he also regularly writes for Frieze, The Brooklyn Rail, Artcritical and Delicious Line. He has curated the exhibition Perle Fine/Marguerite Louppe at the Freedman Gallery, Albright College, PA, on view this fall, and will have his next solo exhibition in September 2018 at Geary Contemporary Gallery in NYC. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Yasuo still searches the sea1 commentSaveOn 11 March 2011 the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded struck off the coast of Japan’s main island triggering a series of tsunamis that hit much of the northeastern coast the cities and towns impacted by this natural disaster have recovered with great resilience but the feeling of loss still reverberates for many whose wife Yuko went missing following the earthquake and who still lives in the tragedy’s immense wake The US director Anderson Wright tells his story with care and empathy joining Takamatsu as he makes his latest of more than 600 dives into the sea in an attempt to find her As Takamatsu descends into the vast blue sea With stunning cinematography and subtle craft the film offers a poignant portrait of grief’s enduring power Director: Anderson Wright EmailSavePostShareSavevideo Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language? 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