Curated by Taro Chiezo, the Tokyo-based conceptual artist, this exhibition showcases atypical landscapes in painting/photography created by six contemporary artists currently working in Japan. From mystical to utopian, from melancholic to fantastic, these landscapes manifest each artist's forest of fantasy, freely traversing time, culture, and gender to reflect a vital vision of a new century on the verge of a new and surprising reality. Participating artists are Taro Chiezo, Koichi Enomoto, Naoya Hatakeyama, Nobuya Hoki, KATHY, Masahiko Kuwahara, and Potpourri Pictures. The show is also an homage to the legendary manga/anime series "Princess Knight" by artist Osamu Tezuka, offering a rare view of his original animation cells.

Mr. Fujishiro has turned 80 this year and he has been creating his world of illusions now for over half a century. Placed in a special wall fixture and lit from the back, minutely executed worlds of fantasy, flora and fauna and often mystical biblical images draw the viewer into the magical illumination of Kage-e (paper-cut art).

Information: (212) 581-2223.

A pioneering figure in the postwar Japanese art scene and an early member of the Gutai group of avant-garde artists, Atsuko Tanaka is best known for her astonishing Electric Dress, 1956, a garment comprised of multi-colored, flashing incandescent light bulbs and tangled cables. "Electrifying Art: Atsuko Tanaka, 1954-1968" will present "Electric Dress"alongside approximately 15 early abstract paintings and 40 intricate drawings. Also featured are "Work (Bell)", 1955, an innovative and prescient sound installation which defines architectural boundaries through a progression of ringing bells, and an enormous red dress over 30 feet wide from a 1957 performance. The first, and certainly long overdue, solo show of a Gutai artist in North America, "Electrifying Art" is co-organized by the Grey Art Gallery and The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia (where it will be seen from January 21 to April 2, 2005).

Information: (212) 998-6782.

From Buenos Aires to Bucharest, the twentieth century's favorite monster
lizard literally bulldozed a path that today we call globalization. This exhibit of rare film posters and other materials from around the world traces Godzilla's tracks across a variety of regional contexts, illuminating the ways in which popular culture adapts itself to as well as transforms local visual traditions.

The exhibit is free and open to the public during library hours.
For more information and a detailed exhibit guide, please visit http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ealac/dkc/calendar/godzilla/

Junko Yamada creates unique washi (Japanese traditional paper) collages.by applying modern subject matter and lively colors. She utilizes traditional Japanese art form called "harie." "Harie" in Japanese means "pasting paper pictures."

Reception Party on Nov.4, 6-8PM

Nippon Club Gallery
145 West 57th Street
NYC
212-581-2223
Free

Junko Yamada Website:
http://www.junkoyamada.com/p1.html

Tradition meets modern when world-renowned jazz pianist Yosuke Yamashita performs in his trio with Cecil McBee (bass) and PheerooanakLaff (drums) in this unique concert of Yamashita's original jazz adaptations of Japanese folk songs. Reflecting a deep and rich range of influences from ancient shamisen melody lines to the rhythms of obon dances fused with jazz sensibility, the repertoire is fleshed out by special Japanese masters of indigenous instruments, including Kiyohiko Senba, performing traditional drum, and Meisho Tosha on traditional flute (John Rockewell of the New York Times recently noted, "Mr. Tosha's flute playing suggested that the best way to bridge gaps between cultures...is to be true to yourself. His performance spoke deeply to Westerners".) The music is performed in conjunction with a visual projection installation lent by the Yokohama City Central Library, in Yokohama, where the U.S.-Japan Treaty was signed in 1854 and the one of the first ports of entry opened to foreigners at the dawn of Japan's exchange with the West, just before the Meiji era.

A pre-performance lecture on the 13th and 14th at 6:30 pm by William Minor, author of Jazz Journeys to Japan, begins one hour before show time. Free to ticket holders.

The October 13 performance will be followed by a reception, open to all ticket holders.

Japan Society
333 East 47th Street
Manhattan, NY
Phone: 212.832.1155
Box Office: 212.752.3015
http://www.japansociety.org/
Tickets: $30 - $35

Kyogen: Tsurigitsune (Trapping of the Fox). Said to be one of the most challenging plays in the kyogen repertory, this piece demands the highest skills from the most seasoned performers.

Noh: Tsuchigumo (The Earth Spider). Known as one of the most shockingly flamboyant works in the noh repertory, this play has spectacular visual effects and rich music.

Designated as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, noh and kyogen are world-renowned forms of traditional Japanese theater with a more than 600-year performance history. Yet noh and kyogen were first introduced to the Western world at the end of the 19th century. When was the pivotal performance that opened the world of noh to Americans? Which pieces were performed? Who was among the audience? Now, as the culminating celebration of the 150th anniversary of the U.S.-Japan Treaty, members of Nohgaku Kyokai return to Japan Society after their sold-out performances in March 2004 to restage the noh/kyogen program witnessed by the first American audience. First presented in Japan in 1874, this event--whose audience included President Ulysses Grant--was documented in the diary of Noh Master Umewaka Minoru (1828-1909). Umewaka's great grandson, Master Umewaka Rokuro, is featured in this program.

In Japanese with English subtitles
Special offer for Japan Society members only: Limited $100 ticket to December 9 performance includes prime seating and post-show reception with an opportunity to meet the artists.

Japan Society presents the rare elegance and vibrancy of Okinawa Kumiodori, the theater form unique to Okinawa, the southernmost chain of small islands in Japan. Visually and aurally stunning, this art form, influenced by kabuki and noh theatrical motifs, originated from public entertainment in the early 18th century and was perfected through the history of interaction between Japan, Korea and China. Along with traditional court music and dance, the program includes the renowned revenge play "Nido Tekiuchi" (Sept. 30-Oct. 2) in which two brothers disguise themselves as dancing girls to avenge their father's murder, as well as an excerpt from "Shushin Kaneiri" (Oct. 3), a classic play in which a Buddhist Monk battles a demon. Co-presented with World Music Institute, the performance will be in Japanese with English subtitles.

Japan Society
333 East 47th Street
Manhattan, NY
(212) 715-1254
http://www.japansociety.org/
Tickets: $25 - $35

The play explores the dogged devotion of an artist fiercely committed to expressing his experiences in a Siberian detention camp on canvas, and the lessons, hardships and rewards that were garnered in the process. From the death of his daughter, to world-wide acclaim for his artistry, this dramatic interpretation shows the young Yasuo and the old Yasuo face to face onstage as they debate and wrestle with the last dramatic forty years of Yasuo’s life.

Dark, bleak, cold…these are words that describe the life and work of Yasuo Kazuki during and beyond his days in a Siberian prison camp. Yasuo worked on his “Siberian Series” until the end of his life, and despite being one of the wealthiest painters of his country, he never left his small Japanese hometown, the place he called “my earth.”

THE KAYE PLAYHOUSE
Hunter College
68th Street (Corner of Lexington Avenue)
Train: 6 to 68th Street/Hunter College
http://kayeplayhouse.hunter.cuny.edu/

Tickets: Adults ($30). Students & Seniors ($15).
Call The Kaye Playhouse box office at 212-772-4448

A collaboration by Shuji Onodera, Jun Takahashi, Momko Fujita and Reina Suga, MIZUTO-ABURA was a hit at the prestigious Festival d'Avignon Off in France as well as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Soup was created in Tokyo in 2000. A man enters a restaurant where there are twin waiters. On the table is a bowl of hot, steaming soup. When the man tastes the soup, suddenly a rush of memories overtakes him, revealing a hidden world behind his daily life. Chaos and cheer ensue as the story unfolds.

MIZUTO-ABURA received the Tokyo Millennium Arts Festival "Best Prize" (2000) and The Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Thirty-eight hours of beginner, beginner/intermediate, intermediate and advanced English as a Second Language conversation. Second Language conversation. Courses meet twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesday and Thursdays, from 10:00 to 12:00, 12:30 to 14:30 or 15:00-17:00. Information: (212) 715-1256 or www.japansociety.org

A 30-hour training session for native or fluent speakers of Japanese. This program is a follow-up for those who have either taken the teacher training course or have had some experience teaching Japanese. This class focuses on how to teach advanced-beginner and intermediate-level Japanese. Information: (212) 715-1256 or www.japansociety.org

The books and xeroxes of proofs or manuscripts will be available for purchase before talks. Please contact Arie Bram at 212-854-4591.

Collateral Damage (And Other Rules of War in Early Medieval Japan)

Thursday Night Special Lecture by Prof. Karl Friday (Professor of History, University of Georgia)

403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. and Amsterdam Ave.)
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ealac/dkc/

Contemporary Japanese Photography: The Next Generation
EXHIBITION TALK

Michiko Kasahara, Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo and a former curator at the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Photography, discusses the work of a number of leading photographers, especially women, in Japan today by looking at the cultural premonitions guiding current art production, the themes this new generation of artists explores and how they deal with the artistic heritage of the previous generation, including Shomei Tomatsu.

Held in conjunction with the exhibition Shomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation, on view at Japan Society September 22, 2004 through January 2, 2005.

Japan Society
333 East 47th Street
Manhattan, NY
(212) 715-1254
http://www.japansociety.org/
Tickets: $5 - $10

"Pacific Overtures"
Discussion: An Evening with Amon Miyamoto, Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman

Pacific Overtures, the landmark musical by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, chronicles the influence America had upon Japan, detailing and dramatizing the Westernization of Japanese culture from the time of Commodore Matthew Perry’s arrival in the “Floating Kingdom” of Nippon in 1853. The evening features a discussion on the musical and its legacy between Amon Miyamoto, who will direct the upcoming production of Pacific Overtures at the Roundabout Theatre (performed in English and with an all Asian-American cast), Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman. Also included in the program will be a sampling of music from the show, performed live.

Followed by a reception.

Japan Society
333 East 47th Street
Manhattan, NY
(212) 715-1254
http://www.japansociety.org/
Tickets: $12 - $15

Symposium:
Global Fantasies: Godzilla in World Culture

SPEAKERS:
• Anne Allison (Duke University)
• Aaron Gerow (Yale University)
* Theodore Hughes (Columbia University)
• Yoshikuni Igarashi (Vanderbilt University)
• Gregory Pflugfelder (Columbia University)
• Alan Tansman (University of California, Berkeley)
• William Tsutsui (University of Kansas)

Altschul Auditorium, 417 International Affairs Building
Columbia University (118th St. and Amsterdam Ave.)
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ealac/dkc/