Masayo Ishigure: Koto, Bass Koto, and Shamisen

Thursday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall – 57th Street and 7th Avenue

Admission: $40 to $50

Masayo Ishigure will perform a koto and shamisen recital to commemorate the 30th anniversary of her professional career in the United States. This program offers a glimpse into the history of Japanese music and can be enjoyed by a wide range of audiences.

Performers

• Masayo Ishigure: Koto, Bass Koto, and Shamisen

• Zac Zinger: Shakuhachi

• Nathan Koci: Piano

• Noriko Tsuboi: Koto and Bass Koto

• Miyabi Koto and Shamisen Ensemble

Program

• Tadao Sawai – "Sakura Sakura"

• Tadao Sawai – "Ginga" ("Galaxy")

• Zac Zinger – Untitled

• Hikaru Sawai – "Gin-yu-ka" ("Minstrel Song")

• Hideaki Matsumoto – "Chizuru / Whereabouts of the Wind"

• Tadao Sawai – "Flying like a Bird"

To purchase tickets, please visit Carnegie Hall’s website.

Masayo Ishigure

About Masayo Ishigure

Masayo Ishigure began playing koto and jiuta shamisen at the age of five in Gifu Prefecture and later studied under Tadao and Kazue Sawai. In 1986 she became a special research student at Sawai Koto Institute. She moved to the U.S. in 1992 to teach koto and shamisen classes at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

In 2005 she was invited to play the koto on the soundtrack of the Academy Award-winning film Memoirs of a Geisha with music by John Williams, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and others. Newsweek nominated Ishigure in the magazine’s 2007 issue of 100 Japanese People the World Respects. Late prime minister Shinzo Abe recognized her as one of five Japanese women active in New York. Ishigure taught koto classes at Columbia University from 2010 through 2021, and she gives private lessons in New York City.

About the Miyabi Koto and Shamisen Ensemble

Classical and contemporary Japanese koto and shamisen ensemble “MIYABI” was founded in 1996 in New York City as a branch of the Sawai Koto Academy of Japan. Led by Ishigure, repertoire ranges from classical to contemporary koto music. The founder of Sawai Koto Academy, Tadao Sawai, is known as one of the greatest players and composers of koto music in the 20th century.

The ensemble dedicates itself to playing Tadao Sawai‘s koto music. It has played many concerts in the New York Metropolitan area, the eastern United States, Hawaii, Australia, South America, and Japan.

Made in Japan: 20th-Century Poster Art

Now through Sunday, September 10

Poster House – 119 W. 23rd Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues)

Admission: $12 | $8 Seniors, Students, Educators, Veterans, and Visitors with Disabilities

Japanese poster design reflects the country’s rich visual culture and printmaking tradition and was used throughout the 20th century to represent the country to domestic and international audiences. Two world wars in addition to rapid industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of mass media fundamentally transformed modern Japan, and its specific journey as both an aggressor and a victim of war reinforced the nation’s efforts to revamp its image. Within this context, posters became an essential commercial art form that fused modern identity with consumerism, mirroring and shaping the social, political, and ideological values of the time. 

During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) and World War II (1939–45), posters were designed to inspire patriotism, circulate propaganda, and encourage consumer restraint in support of the war effort. During the postwar period, however, unparalleled growth in the manufacturing sector catapulted the Japanese economy to the position of second largest in the world, creating limitless opportunities for poster advertising as Japanese corporations became household names and global brands. Following the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1970 Osaka World Expo, Japan’s international standing shifted again, emboldening Japanese artists and designers to conceive new forms of graphic media that mixed aspects of traditional Japanese aesthetics with Western design idioms. Between the 1980s and the early 21st century, Japanese posters functioned beyond the realm of the merely commercial, allowing designers to address such social issues as pollution, climate change, sustainability, nuclear disarmament, and global peace and reconciliation. 

This exhibition explores the cultural and political shifts within modern Japan that influenced the functions and messaging of its advertising posters, and how those posters were subsequently received by the public.

Nihon Buyo UCLA Asian Performing Arts Institute 1981

Gallery Hours

Poster House is open Thursday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., except on Friday, when it is open until 9:00 p.m. Admission is free on Fridays as well. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit Poster House’s website.

Made in Japan in the Poster House Shop

Poster House has a nice selection of books, notecards, and other items that feature Japanese graphic design. To purchase online, visit the shop here.

The Hunting Gun

Now through Saturday, April 15

Baryshnikov Arts Center – 450 W. 37th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues)

Admission: $35-$150

Three letters.
One tragedy.

Josuke Misugi receives three letters from different women: his wife, his mistress, and her daughter. The first is from young Shoko, who just discovered her mother’s affair through the reading of her diary. The second is from his wife, Midori, revealing she’s known about the infidelity from the start. And the third is a farewell from Saiko, his lover of thirteen years: “By the time you read this, I will no longer be among the living.”

Weaving these three viewpoints with consummate skill, Yarushi Inoue, one of Japan’s most celebrated authors, gives universal resonance to Misugi’s demise. He turns what could have been the mundane account of adultery into a compelling love story that is considered a classic of world literature.

This stage adaptation is a monologue for three voices, and a single actress embodies all three women, transforming before our eyes. At the end of her letter, Shoko drops her school uniform to reveal Midori’s exuberant outfit who, in turn, undresses to slip into Saiko’s funeral kimono.

Behind a scrim presenting fragments of letters, the increasingly tormented hunter Josuke Misugi cleans his gun. He seems to exist in a different time space. The simple action he performs, which would normally take only a few minutes, is stretched through the entire duration of the play: picking up his gun in ultra-slow motion, inspecting it, meticulously cleaning its barrels, and finally standing to aim at his wife’s back.

Borrowing from Japanese Zen aesthetics, the set’s floor is successively draped with three fundamental elements: water, stone, and wood. After Shoko wanders in a lily pond, the waters withdraw to reveal a terrain of smooth black stones. Then, at the climax of Midori’s rage, the stones magically vanish to expose a wooden deck on which Saiko recites her suicide letter.

Background image photo by Mark Seliger.

Remaining Performances

Tuesday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 9 at 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m.

The performance will be in Japanese with English supertitles. Run time is 105 with no intermission. To purchase tickets, please visit The Hunting Gun’s website.

Mikhail Baryshnikov in The Hunting Gun. Photo by Pasha Antonov.

About Mikhail Baryshnikov 

Born in Riga, Latvia, and living in New York City, Mikhail Baryshnikov has distinguished himself as an extraordinary dancer and performer in theater, television, and film. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked with George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and many other illustrious choreographers and directors. From 1979 until 1989 he was artistic director of American Ballet Theater, where he introduced a new generation of dancers and choreographers. From 1990 until 2002, Baryshnikov was director and principal dancer of the White Oak Dance Project, co-founded with choreographer Mark Morris.

In 2005, he opened the Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC), a creative space designed to support multidisciplinary artists from around the globe. Baryshnikov’s many awards include the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor of France, Japan’s prestigious Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award in Theatre/Film, and most recently the Royal Academy of Dance ‘s Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award.

Miki Nakatani as Shoko in The Hunting Gun. Photo by Stephanie Berger.

About Miki Nakatani

Miki Nakatani was born in Tokyo in January 1976 and started her career in 1993. She has won six Japan Academy Prizes for her work: Best Supporting Actress for When the Last Sword Is Drawn (2003, directed by Yojiro Takita), Best Leading Actress for Memories of Matsuko (2006, directed by Tetsuya Nakajima), Best Leading Actress for Jigyaku No Uta (2007, directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi), Best Supporting Actress for Zero Focus (2009, directed by Isshin Inudo), Best Actress Award for Hankyu Railway – A 15 Minute Miracle (2011, directed by Yoshishige Miyake), and Best Supporting Actress in a Leading Role for Ask This of Rikyu (2013, directed by Mitsutoshi Tanaka). Appearances in foreign productions include Silk (2007, directed by François Girard) and FOUJITA (2015, directed by Kohei Oguri).

In 2011, she made her debut as a stage actress in The Hunting Gun at USINEC, Montreal. In the same year, she staged a return performance in Japan, winning the Kinokuniya Theatre Award Actress of the Year and the Yomiuri Theatre Awards for Best Actress. The following year, she won the Yomiuri Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon.

GUITAR MASTERS SERIES: TSUTOMU NAKAI

Monday, April 3 from 7:00 p.m. until 8:15 p.m.
Monday, April 3 from 8:30 p.m. until 9:45 p.m.

Zinc – 82 W. 3rd Street (between Thompson and Sullivan Streets)

Admission: $25 in advance | $30 at the door

Jazz Guitarist Tsutomu Nakai is one of the hottest and in-demand musicians in New York City right now. His exceptionally unique guitar work is beautiful and strong, yet versatile. His mastery of improvisation is evident while emphasizing the melody above all else. This is the essence of Nakai’s style.

Tsutomu Nakai at Zinc Bar NYC 2017

He brings his quartet to Zinc on Monday, April 3 for an evening of standards and original music. Pianist Lafayette Harris, bassist Lonnie Plaxico, and drummer Dwayne "Cook" Broadnax will perform with him.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit Zinc’s website.

RAM Concert

Saturday, April 1 at 8:00 p.m. (Doors open at 7:30 p.m.)

Scorca Hall at National Opera Center – 330 7th Ave 7th Floor

Admission: $25 | $10 Seniors and Students

This Random Access Music (RAM) concert features the world premiere of guest composer Margaret Brouwer’s “Sonata” for clarinet and piano; a world premiere by RAM composer Masatora Goya; and more music from RAM composers Seth Boustead, Gilbert Galindo, and Daniel Hass.

Payment by cash or credit will be accepted at the venue. To make reservations, please send an email to ram.nyc.info@gmail.com. For more information, please visit RAM’s website.

RAM Players

• Thomas Piercy, clarinet

• Sabina Torosjan, violin

• Daniel Hass, cello

• Marina Iwao, piano

Meet the composers at and after the concert!

Program

Guest composer Margaret Brouwer
“Sonata” for clarinet and piano (2022)
World Premiere of International Clarinet Association consortium commission 

RAM composers

Seth Boustead
“Dissonance Still Talking” for clarinet, violin, cello, piano (2007)

Gilbert Galindo
"Currents" for violin, cello, and piano (2021) NY Premiere

Masatora Goya
“How We Became Stardust" for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano (2023) World Premiere

Daniel Hass
“The Lord of Toronto, His Pavin” for cello and piano (2022)

Night Market: Asian Food & Sakura Festival

Friday, March 31 from 4:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m.

MIKA – 25 Thames Street, Brooklyn

Admission: $12 in advance / $15 at the door

MIKA and Upstairs are turning all 8,700 square feet of MIKA’s space into a night market featuring a mouthwatering, traditional Asian menu and sakura-themed food, drinks, and products. There will be sakura accessories, Pokémon goods, crafts and more throughout MIKA’s indoor and outdoor patio spaces.

Wear your cherry blossom outfits and join the fun!

Food for Purchase ($10-$15)

• Award-Winning Tonkotsu Ramen

• Sakura Pescatarian Ramen

• Takoyaki

• Yakitori

• Vegan Curry Rice

• Onigiri

• Tokyo Fried Chicken

• Gyoza

• Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken

• Golden Fish Ball

• Fried Mushroom

• Sakura Jelly

• Ube and Matcha Cheesecake

• Super Omakase Strawberry

• Sakura-, Ube- and Matcha-Mochi Filled Cookies

Beverages (for Free Drink Ticket Holders Only)

• Chu-Hi (shochu cocktails) sponsored by Iichiko and Takara Sake

• Beer by DUBCO

• Yuzu-flavored Mocktails by Moshi

Beverages Available for Purchase

• Special Sakura, Matcha, Yuzu, Lemon, Calpico, and Oolong Chu-H

• Special Sake Flight Menu with Sakura Sake Cocktails by Kubota and Kato Sake Works

For a full list of vendors and to purchase tickets, please visit the Upstairs Night Market website.

Yumi Kurosawa Trio at Joe’s Pub

Thursday, March 30 at 7:00 p.m. (Doors open at 6:00 p.m.)

Joe’s Pub – 425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place)

Admission: $25 / $15 Students

Yumi Kurosawa is one of today's most exciting soloists on Japan's national instrument, the koto. Marking the debut of her new album Metamorphosis, Kurosawa creates a transformative listening experience through her new compositions.

The Yumi Kurosawa Trio blends the violin, percussion, and koto and draws upon many musical influences to reveal Kurosawa’s abundant curiosity and remarkable capacity. Latin percussion, shakuhachi, and alto saxophone add a variety of tonal colors. The idea of borderless music is reimagined to create something unique and special. 

This album recording and the world premiere of several music pieces are commissioned by Chamber Music America’s Artistic Projects program funded through the generosity of Howard Gilman Foundation. Produced by Arturo O’Farrill and Kabir Sehgal. For more information about Yumi Kurosawa, please visit her website.

Photo by Gail Hadani

Performers

Yumi Kurosawa — 20-string koto
Naho Parrini — violin
Eric Phinney — percussion

Special Guests

Carlos Maldonado — Latin percussion
Zac Zinger — shakuhachi and alto saxophone

 There is a minimum two-drink or one-food order per person. To purchase tickets, please visit Joe’s Pub’s website.

Photo by Gail Hadani

WHAT’S UP CONNECTION

Wednesday, March 29 at 9:30 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn – 445 Albee Square West, Brooklyn

Admission: $10

Film distributor Kani Releasing is hosting a one-night-only screening of What’s Up Connection, Japanese punk auteur Masashi Yamamoto’s zany road trip comedy in which one Hong Kong family takes on a Japanese conglomerate to save their fishing village, at Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn. Yamamoto will join via Zoom for a post-screening Q&A moderated by film critic Kazu Watanabe.

About What’s Up Connection

When Hong Kong teenager Chi Gau Shin (Tse Wai Kit, School on Fire) wins a trip to Japan, he unleashes a chain of events that will soon bring him from the secluded fishing village of Po Toi O to Tokyo, by way of Kamagasaki—the so-called slums of Osaka. Upon returning home with a merry band of schemers, Gau Shin finds his family of resourceful counterfeiters on the verge of expropriation. A multinational conglomerate led by a ruthless Japanese developer has found the village and is determined to raze it to build the new center of world trade.

A rare bilingual Japan-Hong Kong co-production that unfolds as part unhinged globalization mini-epic, fringe documentary, and breathless, kaleidoscopic evocation of a specific pan-Asian cultural experience as the 1990s drew near, What’s Up Connection is bursting at the seams with possibility. It brings Yamamoto’s project—of capturing beauty and resilience in the margins of capital—to its maximalist apex.

To purchase tickets, please visit Alamo Drafthouse’s website.

In Cantonese and Japanese with English subtitles

About Masashi Yamamoto

Born in Ōita Prefecture, indie auteur Masashi Yamamoto attended Meiji University but left early to concentrate on making independent 8mm films. In the late ‘70s to early ‘80s, he produced music for the Japanese rock band JAGATARA and has since cast punk icons Akemi Edo, Kou Machida, and Sakevi Yokoyama in his films.

His Carnival in the Night (1983) was the first independent Japanese film to be officially invited to screen at both the Cannes International Film Festival's Critics' Week and the Berlin Film Festival's Young Forum. Robinson's Garden (1987) won the Zitty Award at Berlinale and earned Yamamoto the Directors Guild of Japan’s New Directors Award. Following the completion of Atlanta Boogie (1996), he lived in New York for a year as a research fellow for Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, during which time he distributed his film Junk Food (1997) across the US.

In 2012, he created Cinema ☆ Impact, a filmmaking workshop that produced and released 15 films from up-and-coming directors, including Nobuhiro Yamashita (Linda Linda Linda), Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Like Grains of Sand, Hush!), and Ryūichi Hiroki (Ride or Die, Vibrator). The work born from Cinema ☆ Impact was screened at film festivals in the US, Hong Kong, Japan, and Berlin.

He has also acted in films such as A Forest with No Name (Shinji Aoyama) and March Comes in Like a Lion (Hitoshi Yazaki). His latest film, Wonderful Paradise (2020), screened at the Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, Nippon Connection, and JAPAN CUTS in New York.

SHOKO NAGAI’S TOKALA

Wednesday, March 29 from 8:00 p.m. until 9:30 p.m.

Barbès – 376 9th Street, Brooklyn

Suggested Donation: $20

Shoko Nagai's TOKALA explores the sound of the ancient connection between Japan and the Middle East via the Silk Road. The cultural exchange that happened there left an imprint which became an integral part of Japanese culture. The music of TOKALA can raise awareness of the ancient connection between the Far East and the Islamic world of the Middle East.

Experience TOKALA tonight at Barbès, a bar and performance space in South Slope, Brooklyn. Click here to reserve your ticket.

Performers

Shoko Nagai — Accordion, electronics, voice
Satoshi Takeishi — Percussion
Frank London — Trumpet

About Shoko Nagai

Shoko Nagai is a versatile musical artist who improvises and performs on piano and accordion with world-renowned musicians and composes original scores for films and live performances. As a teenager in her native Japan, Nagai was trained on Yamaha’s electronic organ, the “Electone,” to perform popular music.

Since moving to the US from Japan and studying classical, jazz, and composition at Berklee College of Music, she has adapted her mastery of the keyboard to prepared piano, accordions, and other keyboard instruments, often inspired by the minimalist approach of composer Toru Takemitsu. Whether she is performing Klezmer, Balkan, or experimental music, Nagai is a charismatic presence onstage, hypnotizing audiences with her intense focus and virtuoso sound.

For more information, please visit Nagai’s website.

“We have seen the art works, instruments, and other artistic objects from the Persian empire preserved in Imperial storage in Nara, Japan. We can but only imagine what it was like for musicians of Japan to hear the sounds of Persian court music. We are sure that it has left strong imprints deep in the Japanese traditional culture.”

— Shoko Nagai

Blue Note Presents Hiromi: The Piano Quintet feat. PUBLIQuartet

Tuesday, November 29 and Wednesday, November 30 at 7:00 p.m. (Doors at 5:30 p.m.) and 9:30 p.m. (Doors at 9:00 p.m.)

Sony Hall – 235 W. 46th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues)

General Admission: $45 Advance | $50 Day of Show
VIP Reserved Seating: $65

Japanese jazz composer and pianist Hiromi returns to New York to perform four shows in two nights at Sony Hall, presented by Blue Note. Hiromi will take the stage with the Grammy-nominated PUBLIQuartet, which is known for its imaginative approaches to contemporary classical, jazz, and world chamber music.

Tickets

To purchase tickets, please visit Sony Hall’s website. General Admission seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis. VIP reservations include guaranteed seating in a designated section. This all-ages show will have a full dinner menu available.

About Hiromi

Ever since the 2003 release of her debut, Another Mind, Hiromi has electrified audiences with a creative energy that encompasses and eclipses the boundaries of jazz, classical, and pop, taking improvisation and composition to new heights of complexity and sophistication. On her new album, Silver Lining Suite, Hiromi further exemplifies her virtuosic hybridity and emotional range, finding strength and hope amidst the turmoil of the pandemic.

Born in Hamamatsu, Japan in 1979, Hiromi’s first piano teacher, Noriko Hikida, exposed Hiromi to jazz and introduced her to the great pianists Erroll Garner and Oscar Peterson. She enrolled in the Yamaha School of Music and started writing music.

Hiromi moved to the United States in 1999 and studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Among her mentors was jazz bassist/arranger Richard Evans, who took Hiromi’s demo to his friend, the legendary pianist Ahmad Jamal. Evans and Jamal co-produced Another Mind.

Another Mind was a critical success in North America and Japan, where the album shipped gold and received the Recording Industry Association of Japan’s Jazz Album of the Year Award. Hiromi’s astonishing debut was but a forecast of the shape of jazz to come.

In 2009, she recorded with pianist Chick Corea on Duet, a live recording of their concert in Tokyo. She also appeared on bassist Stanley Clarke’s Grammy-winning release, Jazz in the Garden.

In the summer of 2021, Hiromi performed at the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics.

The Japanese-Themed Short Films of New York Japan CineFest

The 11th New York Japan CineFest

In-person Screening on Monday, November 14 at 7:00 p.m.
Scandinavia House – 58 Park Avenue at 38th Street
In-person Tickets: $15 in advance; $18 at the door | Students: $12 in advance; $15 at the door

Online Screening from Tuesday, November 15 through Sunday, November 20
Online Screenings: $15 + suggested donation

New York Japan CineFest, a film festival that introduces Japanese-themed short films, is celebrating its eleventh year. The in-person screening tonight (November 14) at Scandinavia House features nine of the festival’s 21 films. Some guest directors are scheduled to appear on stage. To purchase tickets to the in-person screening, please visit NYJCF’s Eventbrite page.

Online screening will be available from Tuesday, November 15 through November 20 at New York Japan CineFest’s website. With the purchase of a Festival Pass, viewers in the US can watch all 21 short films in seven days. To register for the online screenings, please visit NYJCF’s website.

Mar Creation hosts the festival with partners CYBER New York, Japan Information and Culture Center (Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C.), Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, Sapporo International Short Film Festival, and Aichi International Women’s Film Festival.

Films

Veils
Dir. Erika Nakayama | 2021 | 17:57 | Drama | Japan
Ayumi Tani, an owner of a small bookstore, and Sayaka Murakami, a call center worker, are a lesbian couple living together. While They feel somewhat stifled by the fact that they are part of LGBTQ community, They are looking forward to having a wedding-style photoshoot to celebrate their anniversary.

Lost in Eden
Dir. Hakim Hayashi | 2021 | 14:31 | Drama | Japan
Rika, a young Japanese girl, lives with her new French husband, Isaac, in Paris. She finally manages to renew her residence permit after a long struggle with the chaotic French administration. Then a man from the Japanese Embassy brings a cruel reality to her: We have to deal with your parents’ situation. She faces a Cornelian dilemma.

Kurosawa’s Grave
Dir. Ben Lopez | 2021 | 13:47 | Documentary | United States
Viewed through the eyes of an expert cinephile, this pilgrimage to Japan and love letter to Akira Kurosawa will transport the audience to a moment where modernity meets nostalgia.

Kurosawa’s Grave
Dir. Ben Lopez | 2021 | 13:47 | Documentary | United States
Viewed through the eyes of an expert cinephile, this pilgrimage to Japan and love letter to Akira Kurosawa will transport the audience to a moment where modernity meets nostalgia.

Bigger Is Better
Dir. Larry Tung | 2021 | 24:57 | Documentary | Taiwan
Bigger Is Better is a documentary about the identity culture and body politics of the bear subculture within a larger gay male community in Asia. It takes the audience to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China to meet with stakeholders and examines the development of this unique subculture and its meaning and impact.

I Love Today’s Sky
Dir. Kazuma Yano  | 2022 | 6:26 | Drama | Japan
Do you remember yesterday’s sky? The sky always extends beyond your upward gaze. I love today’s sky where clouds scatter leisurely. This film is based on “I Love Today’s Sky,” Shuntaro Tanikawa’s new poem that describes a bright future.

MaTcH
Dir. Masaki Katsuyama | 2022 | 20:00 | Drama | Japan
Haruko, an old Japanese mother, goes to Tokyo from Osaka to see her 30-year-old son, Shuji. The purpose of her visit is to set up matchmaking for him because he is still a single man. However, Shuji already uses a matching app to find his partner.

The Voice Actress

Dir. Anna J. Takayama | 2022 | 15:06 | Drama | Japan
Kingyo, a veteran voice actress working in Tokyo, possesses a unique ability to see the soul in all things, living and inanimate. The voice acting world is changing, and Kingyo must find a way to reconcile her way of living with the modern industry.

CASSETTE TAPE
Dir. Yurugu Matsumoto | 2020 | 23:25 | Drama | Japan
Young office worker Saki is looking forward to a birthday date with her boyfriend, whom she has been dating for three years. He surprises her the next day when he suddenly proposes marriage. However, Saki’s father is anything but enthusiastic and responsive to their wedding plans.

Submittan
Dir. Susumu Kimura | 2021 | 18:14 | Drama, Sci-Fi, Dystopian | United States
In the future city of Submittan, people over 80 years old are forced into “retirement” to a remote mountain area as the city deals with increased population. The burden falls on the shoulders of an immigrant artist, who is tasked with designing a propaganda poster to convince citizens of this new registration.

KAGEBOSHI

Dir. Ken Ochiai | 2020 | 5:02 | Drama, Horror | United States
In the 1930s, a Japanese American father and daughter must play a deadly game of shadow tag to escape from a demon child, Kageboshi.

Never Give Up: Akinori in Mooresville
Dir. Royce Akifumi Wilmot | 2022 | 13:12 | Documentary | United States
Twenty-four years after attending his first NASCAR race, Akinori Ogata chases his dream of one day racing in the Daytona 500. Moving his family halfway across the world in the process, he races locally in the lower series of NASCAR, working for his big break.

Above Water
Dir. Ken Honjo, Kentaro Yoshimura | 2022 | 26:00 | Documentary, Environmental | United States
On the remote island of Sarichef off the Northwest coast of Alaska, 20 miles below the Arctic Circle, there’s a small village called Shishmaref. Every year, it continues to get smaller as rising water levels erode its shores. In the summer of 2021, two artists were invited to the island to paint a mural, and they learned more about the culture and the impact of the melting permafrost.

Final Deathtination (In association with Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia)
Dir. Marika Tamura | 2021 | 2:05 | Animation | United States
A suicidal man encounters “Death,” who is a “travel agent,” to find the best place to die.

Living While Black in Japan (In association with Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia)
Dir. Shiho Fukada & Keith Bedford | 2021 | 15:13 | Documentary | Japan
African Americans in Japan discuss how racial issues in the U.S. affected their decision to live abroad.

MARE (In association with Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia)
Dir. Tamaki Ishida & Akito Kawabe | 2022 | 7:46 | Animation, Sci-Fi | Japan
In a world that became a wasteland of toxic gas, there’s a painter who lives in an isolated shelter. He draws paintings of oceans. Why does he make these paintings? What happened to the world? This is a story about our near future, with environmental pollution and sheltered lives.

Summer Ends (In association with Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia)
Dir. Yuka Doi | 2021 | 23:53 | Drama | Japan
Botan’s father is a sparkler maker. One day, she is frustrated because she is not allowed to make sparklers, and her father, Yanagi, has a falling out with her. Several years later, Botan, now an AD at a video production company, has no choice but to return to her estranged parents’ home for an interview.

just another summer day (In association with Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia)
Dir. Yoshika Matsuoka | 2021 | 25:00 | Drama | Japan
It was “just” a summer day spent with someone she didn’t know. Hizuki was drunk and lost her memory.

Pain of the Anonymous (In association with Sapporo International Short Film Festival)
Dir. Daichi Amano | 2021 | 27:00 | Drama | Japan
Struggling to find work and entrenched in a personal health crisis, a former middle school teacher accepts a position as an online content moderator. She is faced daily with death, violence, and abuse—and reminders of unspeakable past traumas.

Siblings (In association with Aichi International Women’s Film Festival)
Dir. Yoko Sato | 2021 | 39:55 | Drama | Japan
Nozomi has a younger sister, Kie, with mental disability but has yet to tell her boyfriend, Takashi, about her. One day, Nozomi finally informed him about Kie upon their engagement, causing confusion. From there, Nozomi faces a series of problems peculiar to a family with disabilities, and she starts to reconsider her life.

Mi
Dir. Masayoshi Nakamura & Zak Engel | 2022 | 4:23 | Animation | United States
This film is the journey of a father and son. The young son enters into this crazy and unknown world, and the father tries to guide him though as best as a father could. There are some things the father himself doesn’t fully understand, and he lets the son know that’s ok.

Ukujima
Dir. Tekko Nogami | 2021 | 4:02 | Drama, History | Japan
Today’s travelers follow the path of Iemori Taira, which has been passed down to Ukujima, an island in the Goto archipelago off the coast of Kyushu. Their path will eventually synchronize as they come into contact with the life and culture of the people on the island from the past, present, and future. It is a journey story that encounters a miracle that “people return to themselves.”

About New York Japan CineFest 

NYJCF was founded by three Japanese producers based in New York in 2012: Yasu Suzuki (actor, dancer and filmmaker), Kosuke Furukawa (film director), and Hiroshi Kono (CEO of Mar Creation, Inc.)  Since 2015, the film festival has screened its programs and films in multiple cities including Boston, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in the U.S. NYCF has also participated in film festivals in Japan such as the Aichi International Film Festival Sapporo International Short Film Festival and Market, Kadoma International Film Festival, and New Director Film Festival.  

Documentary about Women in Taiko to Screen at DOC NYC

Finding Her Beat

Wednesday, November 16 at 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, November 17 at noon

IFC Center – 323 6th Avenue (at W. 3rd Street)

Tickets: $19 General Admission | $17 Seniors and Children | $16 IFC Center Members
In-person Screenings before 5:00 p.m.: $12 General Admission | $10 IFC Center Members

Online Screenings: Thursday, November 17 through Sunday, November 27
Online Tickets: $12 General Admission | $9 IFC Center Members

DOC NYC, the largest documentary festival in the US, is currently celebrating its 13th anniversary with in-person and online screenings, including the New York premiere of Finding Her Beat.

About Finding Her Beat

A drum master from Japan and a Korean adoptee from Minnesota boldly convene an all-female troupe to perform Taiko, the Japanese drumming art that has been off-limits to women for centuries. As the early menace of Covid rumbles in the background, the group faces down hurdles to prepare for a historic performance in snowy St. Paul. Buoyed by dynamic drum performances and do-or-die spirit, directors Dawn Mikkelson and Keri Pickett create an energizing and uplifting story of music, cultural expression and sisterhood. – Karen McMullen

Check out the film’s trailer.

Q&A

Filmmakers Dawn Mikkelson and Keri Pickett, subjects/producers Jennifer Weir and Megan Chao Smith, and field producer/cinematographer Caroline Stucky will attend the 7pm show on Wednesday, November 16 at the IFC Center for a Q&A after the screening.

Discount for JCNYC Readers

DOC NYC is generously offering our community a discount of $3 off tickets for in-person and online screenings. Enter promo code DOCNYC_PTNR_22 at checkout for the discounted price. To purchase tickets, please visit DOC NYC’s website.

Manhattanites Now Have a Daiso of Their Own

July 15 was a banner day for Manhattan-based Daiso fans. The celebrated Japanese retailer known for its inexpensive, yet high-quality products opened its first Manhattan store.

The new location at 220 E. 57th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) marks the eighty-third Daiso storefront in the contiguous United States. There are now more than 3,300 stores in Japan and more than 5,500 worldwide. The Manhattan opening is particularly pleasing to city dwellers who until now have had to trek to Brooklyn or Queens to indulge in purchasing loads of stationery, craft supplies, and home goods at significantly low prices. Manhattanites showed their appreciation by waiting in a long line down E. 57th Street on the morning of the grand opening.

Check out our Instagram reel of the line outside the store on July 15, the morning of the grand opening.

Serendipitous Situation

“We never thought about opening in Manhattan before because of the price, but because of COVID the rent [lowered], and we thought maybe now is a good chance to open a store here,” says Shuhei Geshi, store operation manager for Daiso in the US. “We always get so many messages from customers on Instagram or Facebook that they want us to open a store in Manhattan, so this is like a destination for us, finally.”

It’s unusual to hear a favorable rent-related story during COVID, but in Daiso’s case, the pandemic actually helped. A real estate broker informed Daiso management about the availability of the Manhattan site in February 2021. The new store is Daiso’s largest in New York City, topping the square footage of the Flushing, Rego Park, and Japan Village locations.

Geshi says that all the stores have the same inventory, but the Manhattan location serves a different purpose for Manhattanites.

“Customers cannot come here by car, so I wanted to have this store so that customers can come back every day,” he says.

Shoppers can stop by Daiso Manhattan often for things that are easy to carry, rather than a once-a-month visit where they purchase items in bulk that they can put in the trunk of their cars.

Daiso’s US store operation manager Shuhei Geshi with brush pens, a popular item

Most Popular Items

You can find practically anything you’d want for your kitchen, your office, your latest craft project, and even your garden at Daiso. The shelves are filled with products you didn’t realize you needed.

Asked what Daiso’s best sellers are, Geshi first points to the store’s well-stocked stationery section.

“Staples closed so many stores, and our stationery items are increasing in sales a lot. Especially pens from Japan are really popular,” he says, referring to brush pens that are used in calligraphy.

Sanrio characters adorn a variety of items for sale at Daiso

Items featuring characters from such beloved lines as Sanrio and Disney are also high on the list.

Surprisingly, Daiso’s brand of makeup pads and cotton balls are hot ticket items for the store. There’s even an end cap dedicated to them. Geshi points out that a nearby drug store sells the same items, but for a higher price. A bag of 400 cotton balls costs Daiso customers $1.99, whereas a 200-count bag goes for $3.99 elsewhere. The drug store brand’s cotton balls are larger, however.

Shuhei Geshi says cotton makeup pads and cotton balls are favorites of customers at Daiso

Future Goals

If Geshi has his way, the first Daiso in Manhattan won’t be the last. His goal is to open more stores in the city, “near supermarkets or similar retail stores. Maybe customers will become interested in our products,” he says. Bronx and Staten Island locations are also on his wishlist.

Daiso price conversion chart

Pricing Structure

Almost every item in the store is $1.99. The packaging for items in that price point doesn’t have the symbol/character for yen—¥ or 円. Products that cost more than $1.99 will have the price in yen, including tax. Yen-to-US dollar conversion signs are found throughout the store, so customers will know exactly how much each item costs. A lot of shoppers—myself included—don’t pay attention to those signs. Instead, we choose to throw whatever we want into our baskets and analyze our receipts after purchasing, marveling at how we bought so many items for so little money.

Daiso can keep costs low because it purchases in high volume—in the millions for a single product. This bulk-buying practice allows the variety store to stick to its mission of helping consumers maintain a high standard of living without paying high prices.

You’re sure to find something that will make you happier or feel more efficient by strolling the aisles at Daiso.

Dishes at Daiso

Daiso: where you can get origami paper AND rubber chickens

Woven storage boxes for organizing your home

Daiso’s section of office supplies

Daiso Locations in New York City

Manhattan: 220 E. 57th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues

Flushing, Queens: 40-24 College Point Boulevard

Rego Park, Queens: 61-35 Junction Boulevard

Brooklyn: 68 35th Street, 2nd Floor in Japan Village, Industry City

For more information, please visit Daiso’s website.

For All Things Japanese in New York City, check out JapanCulture-NYC.com and follow @JapanCultureNYC on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!

Japanese Pop Singer AK is Saving Japan with Your Love

Japanease Pop Star AK

Akemi Kakihara is a Japanese pop star who has released 14 albums with EMI Music Japan, one of Japan’s major record labels. Her latest album, Say That You Love Me, came out in August 2010, and her two most recent US singles appear on compilation albums.

But she’d rather talk about the children.

The children are preschoolers in Miyagi and Fukushima, where AK (as she prefers to be called) visited six months after a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami in Northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. When she arrived at the school in Soma, a small town near the coast of Fukushima approximately 30 miles north of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, she was shocked by what she saw.

“Six months later all of the coastline is completely covered by debris piled ten meters (32 feet) high,” AK says, comparing the scene to the animated movie Wall-E, in which a robot works in a junkyard. “[The children] can see that debris every day . . . I just couldn’t believe it. When the kids go outside every day, they can see that view.”

She was even more surprised when she entered the school. She found a room filled with happy, smiling children, grateful to hear her sing. These children were four and five years old and had survived the worst natural disaster to strike Japan in 140 years. They were living in shelters. Some had lost one or both of their parents to the disaster. Yet they couldn’t have been more attentive or appreciative.

Of the experience, AK says, “It completely changed my life.”

On March 11, 2011, AK was in New York City, where she has called home since 2001, watching in horror as the black waves crashed over the floodwalls and raced inland, eating the shoreline and destroying buildings, cars, and lives. As a native Japanese, AK was heartsick over what was happening to her homeland; as a native of Hiroshima, she felt an even greater connection to Fukushima, where the nuclear power plant had been compromised, triggering a nuclear crisis.

Feeling the need to help, AK immediately rallied her circle of friends – around 15 close-knit Japanese women living in New York – to form the Facebook group JP Girls NYC Save Japan with Your Love.

“I couldn’t stand just sitting around and watching TV; I was so devastated,” AK says. “So I called one of my closest friends, and I said, ‘I want to do a fundraiser tomorrow. Will you join me?’”

They started in Times Square and moved to Grand Central. Then AK and the JP Girls learned about New York’s permit requirements.

“We didn’t [get a permit]. It’s impossible, by the way,” AK says, laughing.

Through the initial help of the Lion’s Club, the JP Girls were able to secure the permits necessary to hold several events and raise money, which they donated to the Lion’s Club, the Red Cross, and Japanese organizations such as Ubdobe, Megumi-Japan, Miyagi Kodomo Network, and Kodomo Fukushima.

Organizing these fundraisers was satisfying for AK, partly because she didn’t expect the overwhelming support from New Yorkers (“I realize that they love Japan,” AK says, “and I’m very happy to know that.”). But she wanted to do more. She decided that she needed to go to Northeastern Japan because she wanted to assess the damage with her own eyes. Watching the stories on the news wasn’t enough; she wanted more detailed reports.

She also wanted to hear directly from the people who had been affected. She wanted to hear the voices of the survivors. (She had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Takeshi Kanno, who saved the lives of dozens of patients at his hospital in Minami Sanriku by taking them to the highest floor as the tsunami reached land. For his heroic efforts, TIME Magazine named him one of the top 100 most influential people in the world.)

AK realized that she could also help people during her two-week stay in Miyagi and Fukushima. “As a singer,” she explains, “I could do concerts for the kids.”

And that’s how she met the preschoolers in Soma.

AK with children from Fukushima

“I don’t know how much they really understand the whole situation around them, but they are not [giving up]. They want to live . . . They are amazingly powerful and active, and they are the energy for hope.”

After the concerts each of the children presented AK with drawings they made themselves as way to thank her for her visit. There were 93 drawings, and all of them had smiling faces.

Touched by this gesture, AK made copies of the drawings and used them to create holiday wrapping paper, which she sold at Kinokuniya, Scribble Press, Kiteya SoHo, Taro’s Origami Studio in Park Slope. Her purpose in selling the wrapping paper was to start conversations about Fukushima and to raise awareness about children living close to a nuclear power plant, whether in Japan or other areas around the world.

As a way to thank the children from the preschool in Soma, AK took the 93 drawings to Times Square and asked random strangers to pose with them. AK took a picture of each person and sent the photos to the preschoolers as Christmas presents.

At the Japanese American Association and the United Nations International School, she presented “Voices of Tohoku,” an exhibition of the drawings and a slideshow of her experience. “I felt a mission,” she says. “I had to spread the word” about the children of Fukushima.

In addition to her work as a singer, AK continues to focus on the children of Northeastern Japan by thinking of creative ways to use the drawings and by participating in events around New York, including Japan Society’s Open House on March 11 of this year, where she’ll display twenty or thirty of the drawings, perform with children, and participate in HappyDoll’s doll-making session. She’s working on collaborations with other local organizations to commemorate the one-year anniversary of 3/11.

She’s also planning another trip to Northeastern Japan in April, visiting more schools and performing more concerts.

With all of the support that AK is giving to Japan, she maintains that she is the one who truly benefits from this outreach. As devastating as the events of 3/11 were – and continue to be – AK says it brought the Japanese community in New York together.

And, of course, connecting with the preschoolers in Tohoku has given her a sense of purpose.

“I just couldn’t believe the kids were so cheerful,” AK says of her visit last summer. “They’ve given me more than I could ever give them.”

On Facebook:
JP Girls NYC Save Japan with Your Love

• AK’s official website:
  www.emimusic.jp/ak/

• To purchase & download AK’s music:
  On iTunes
  On Beatport.com
  On Amazon.com[/callout]