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Japan(2)
 

Youth & Music
The 3rd International Music Festival for Youth
European Performer:Cork Children's Chorus (Ireland)

Cork Children's Chorus
The detail of their schedule is here!
Co-organized by: The 3rd International Music Festival for Youth
Operating Committee
Supported by:Embassy of Ireland
Subsidy: the Commemorative Organization for the Japan World Exposition ('70)
Culture Ireland
Cork City Council
Cork County Council
Recognized by:the Association for Corporate Support of the Arts

The Cork Children's Chorus from Cork Ireland appearing in the Festival this year is engaged in spirited musical activities with the objective of contributing to the substantial educational development of children and community building through music and across differences in wealth and social status. Its members are children aged 10 to 17 selected from the city of Cork and its suburbs.
A range of grassroots programs are planned in each of the cities they will visit, including homestays and school exchange activities in addition to performances. We hope this musical visit will produce many new encounters and experiences for the children of Japan and Europe and aid the formation of valuable networks for the future.

Youth & Music
The 3rd International Music Festival for Youth
European Performer:Crawford Junior Musicians (Ireland)


Eimear Collins (Soprano)

Emmet Byrne (Oboe)

Rebecca Cap (Piano)
The detail of their schedule is here!
Co-organized by: The 3rd International Music Festival for Youth Operating Committee, NPO Wakayama Arts and Culture Support Society (WACSS)
Cooperation:Embassy of Ireland, Wakayama Music Association Forte, KM Friendship Ireland
Subsidy:Culture Ireland
Supported by:Mishima-cho Board of Education

The Crawford Piano Trio from Ireland performed at the Festival last year to great acclaim. This year three young performers -- a soprano, a pianist and an oboist -- visit Japan as the Crawford Junior Musicians and will perform and conduct school exchanges at several locations. This "gift of music" from Ireland should prove a valuable opportunity to share the joy and pleasure of music in these locations.

Photography
"Document Fukushima" Photography Exhibition

   European Eyes on Japan/Japan Today vol. 8
   Japanese Point of View, Encounter in Fukushima

Pentti Sammallahti


Eleni Maligoura
Date: 29 Jul. - 27 Aug.
Venue: Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art
Time: 9:30〜17:00(entrance until 16:30)
Closed:
Admission:
Mondays (except on 21 August)
Free of Charge
Photographers: European Eyes on Japan / Japan Today vol.8
Pentti Sammallahti
(Finland / photographed in Fukushima)

Eleni Maligoura
(Greece / photographed in Fukushima)

Stratos Kalafatis
(Greece / photographed in Saga)

Karin Borghouts
(Belgium / photographed in Saga)


Japanese Point of View: Encounter in Fukushima
Akane Asaoka (photographed in Fukushima)
Masato Seto (photographed in Fukushima)
Nao Tsuda (photographed in Fukushima)
Organized by: Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukushima Prefecture
Supported by: Embassy of Finland, Embassy of Greece, Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium, Fukushima City, Fukushima City Board of Education, Fukushima Association of Photographers
Recognized by: the Association for Corporate Support of the Arts
Related activities are here!

Documenting the eighth iteration in the European Eyes on Japan/Japan Today photography project launched in 1999, this exhibition shows the work of four photographers from Finland, Belgium and Greece depicting Fukushima and Saga prefectures.
This "Japanese Point of View: Encounter in Fukushima" exhibition featuring the work of three Japanese photographers also depicting Fukushima prefecture in the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art project "Document Fukushima" presents multiple points of view, those of Europe, Japan and Fukushima.
We hope this exhibition will provide visitors with the opportunity to revisit and reconsider those aspects of daily life that we tend to overlook for their over-familiarity.

Performing Arts
Dance Hakyshu 2006
Contemporary & Traditional Folk Music-Dance, Theatre, Art Installation, Architecture, Farming, etc.
Workshops, Performances (with two Greek dancers)

Dance Hakusyu 2006: Solo performance by Rossian dancer
(Photo by Tomoaki Okuyama, Kazue Kobata, Tomo Saito)
Date: 1-20 Aug.
Place: Yokote-Daibo and other districts, Hakushucho, Hokutoshi, Yamanasiken
Artistic Director: Min Tanaka
Dance Hakushu 2006 official website is here!

This year will be the 18th Dance Hakushu, which began in 1988 as the Hakushu Summer Festival. The program features a wide range of dance performances and other events, from an architecture workshop building the site facilities to workshops, discussions, concerts and collaborations in such areas as dance, music, martial arts and agriculture, with dancers from Russia, the Czech Republic and Indonesia as well as Japan. Two Greek dancers selected by Min Tanaka in auditions held at the Cultural Capital of Europe Patras 2006 will also take part. The experience of this collaboration and residency production will build up to the international joint dance project "Rite of Forest".

Performing Arts
International Dance Co-Production Series "In Search of Subtle Presence," Work W
   "Rite of Forest"  (with two Greek dancers)

Performance "Rite of Forest": women dancers wearing men's clothes, soldiers, and a man on the tree.
(Photo by Tomoaki Okuyama, Kazue Kobata, Tomo Saito)
○Creation workshop
Date: 1 Aug. - 3 Sep.
Place: Forest Stage, Hakushu Town, Yamanashi Prefecture
○Performances "Rite of Forest"
Date: 7-9 Sep. (3 performances)
Place: Inokashira Park Forest, Musashino city, Tokyo
Direction and
composition:
Min Tanaka
Organizer: Dance Resources on Earth
A international joint project ongoing since its inception in 2003 by Min Tanaka and Dance Resources on Earth. Top-caliber dancers from Russia, Asia, Central Europe, Oceania and other areas are invited to create a single work together with the Japanese participants. Two Greek dancers selected by Mr. Tanaka in auditions held at the Cultural Capital of Europe Patras 2006 will also take part.
The dancers will first live together and rehearse at the farm in the town of Hakushu in Yamanashi prefecture where Mr. Tanaka bases his dance and farming practices. Also partnering with the Dance Hakushu festival held in August, they will display their expression and thought in a variety of workshops and performances ranging across dance, music, entertainment and the arts, survey and collect the creation myths, fables, folklore and tales from all times and places that serve as the raw material for their performance, and gradually create the work through repeated discussion and rehearsal. As the concluding piece in a series, this year's performance is to serve as a general summary, and "Rite of Forest" with its colorations of performance and rite more pronounced than ever will also be performed in the forest in Inokashira Park in Tokyo in September.

Leterature
"Thousands of Islands" film documentary featuring poet Gozo Yoshimasu
Time & Date: 10:30- / 21:00-, 5 Aug. - 1 Sep.
Venue: Theater Pole-pole Higashi-nakano(Tokyo)
Directed by: Ken Ito
Production: Shima no Uta Production Committee, Telecom Staff Inc.
Distribution: Shima no Uta Production Committee, Telecom Staff Inc.
Official website is here!

Beneath those clouds I found good people . . .
Poet Gozo Yoshimasu
Traveling one by one with the songs that inhabit the islands

The documentary "Thousands of Islands" is a road film depicting the sea crossing of leading Japanese poet Gozo Yoshimasu and his travels through the southern islands. It is also a poetry film in which Yoshimasu gives readings of his work on the various islands.
-----Traveling through the islands, Yoshimasu wonders at the comings and goings of time and place and people, and immerses himself in the life of the islands and the locations where their songs are born. Now an islander himself, he begins singing his own island song that arises from the Asian island group known as Japan, and we the audience are plainly present at the birth of this song, this poem.
(from materials for the preview screening of "Thousands of Islands")

Performing Arts & Music
Jean Sasportes & Tetsu Saitoh DUO Japan Tour 2006



Jean Sasportes
Jean Sasportes

Tetsu Saitoh
Tetsu Saitoh
Date/Venue:
2 Sep. / Asahi Art Square(Tokyo)
 *play together with: Yuji Kobayashi (live painting)
10 Sep. / Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art(Nagoya)
 *play together with: Toshiya Suzuki(Recorder player)
Kota Yamazaki (Dancer)
11 Sep. / Aichi Prefectural Art Theater(Nagoya)
 *play together with: Shunichiro Hisada(Noh musician)
13 Sep. / UrBANGUILD(Kyoto)
14 Sep. / Eiunin [temple] (Kyoto)
16 Sep. / neue Ruine(Okayama)
18 Sep. / Aki Ward Community Cultural Center (Hiroshima)
20 Sep. / Sinfonia Iwakuni (Iwakuni)
22 Sep. / Gallery CAVE(Hamamatsu)
24 Sep. / SESSION HOUSE(Tokyo)
Performers:
Jean Sasportes(Dancer)
Tetsu Saitoh(Contrabassist)
Organizer:
Jean Sasportes & Tetsu Saitoh Japan Tour Operating Committee

Contrabassist Tetsu Saitoh and dancer Jean Sasportes, long active in the Wuppertal Dance Company of Germany led by choreographer Pina Bausch, are taking a session tour around Japan. The intersection of dance and sound that engenders an analog, flesh corporeity in the performances of a musician and dancer who have been in search of their own realities presents its audiences with a model of sincere collaboration.

Literature
Hear Poets Recite Unamplified! A Circuit of Poetry Readings

Reading by Mr. Fumio Sato at Galerie Tokyo Humanite on 26 Oct. 2006.

With the wish of making Tokyo a city of poetry where the voices of poets and their work are ever present, the Round Poetry Readings will be held at four Tokyo galleries from October 2006. At the core of this project is Tendo Taijin, who works as a poet and recitation performer. The Round Poetry Readings are not transient events, but are planned for the medium- and long-term. For audiences, we hope these poetry readings will be an opportunity to experience the power of poetry and of language and the way different voices resound. For the poets, we hope they will serve as occasions to hone their voices and performance techniques.
Time:
Open: 19:00 Start: 19:30
Admission:
Adv / Adult: 2,500 Yen Student: 1,800 Yen (ID required)
Door / Adult: 2,800 Yen Student: 1,500 Yen (ID required)
Reservation:
Please contact each gallery directly:
GALLERY ART POINT (Ginza) B1, 8-11-13, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-5537-3690
Galerie Tokyo Humanite(Kyobashi) B1, 2-8-18, Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-3562-1305
STRIPED HOUSE GALLERY(Roppongi) 3F, 5-19-33, Roppongi, Tokyo
Tel: 03-3405-8108
Star Poets Gallery(Shibuya) Sasaki bldg. 2F-D, 1-1-13 Taishido, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-3422-3049
Poets
(As of 9 Fed. ):
Kazuko Shiraishi, Fumio Sato, Yasuo Fujitomi, Chuei Yagi, Mutsuro Takahashi, Tetsuo Nakagami, Makoto Takayanagi, Hideharu Ogawa, Teruko Kunimine, Ryoko Shindo, Erinu Saki, Toeko Izaki, Masayo Kayama, Mariko Yamaguchi, Hiromi Ito, Tendo Taijin, Noriko Sunaga, Shunkichi Baba, Junzaburo Suzuki, Mikiro Sasaki, Toshihiko Washio, Masao Sekiguchi, Tadao Kobayashi, Megumi Komoda, Megumi Nakamura, Toko Kimura, Nobuko Sakai, Yosuke Tanaka, Kikuo Tagawa, Rie Edagawa, Takeshi Ishihara, Ryu Oshima, Ryoko Minegishi, Yoko Mitsui, Teruo Inoue
Produced by:
Tendo Taijin
Contact:
Tendo Taijin
E-mail: tendotaijinbureau@mbi.nifty.com


Photography
Photography project "European Eyes on Japan / Japan Today vol.9" Photographing
Stephen Gill (UK)
Stephen Gill (UK)

Nicu Ilfoveanu (Romania)
Nicu Ilfoveanu (Romania)

Cuny Janssen (The Netherlands)
Cuny Janssen (The Netherlands)
Date: 23 Oct. - Mar. 2007
Place: cities in Kagoshima
Photographers: Stephen Gill (UK)
  Place: Kagoshima-city, Shibushi-city
  Date: 24 Oct. - 12 Nov.
Nicu Ilfoveanu (Romania)
  Place: Kirishima-city and Satsuma Peninsula
  Date: 29 Nov. - 18 Dec.
Cuny Janssen (the Netherlands)
  Place: Amami Oshima
  Date: 7 Mar. - 6 Apr. 2007
Artistic Director: Mikiko Kikuta
The details of photography project "European Eyes on Japan / Japan Today" is here!

The "European Eyes on Japan" photography project was launched in 1999. In this ninth installment in the series, three photographers from Britain, the Netherlands and Romania are to photograph the cities in Kagoshima, including its outlying islands. Their work is planned to be shown in photography exhibitions locally in Kagoshima and around Europe beginning next year.
We hope that the contemporary images of the cities, towns and villages of the prefecture captured from the outsider perspective of the photographers will prove an opportunity for us to return anew to the many things that we Japanese tend to overlook due to over-familiarity. We hope also that the active components of this photography project will serve as an avenue for the people of Kagoshima to engage in joint programs through photography.

Performing Arts
Conference "Katachi wo Koete (Beyond forms)"


BABY-Q
Time & Date: 18:00-, 10 Nov.
Venue: Italian Cultural Institute
Speakers: Massimo Carosi (Director of Danza Urbana Festival), Kairi Wakikawa (choreographer), Baby-Q (choreographer), Kakuya Ohashi and Dancers (choreographer and dancers), Paolo Ruffini (critic), Uchino Tadashi (critic), Kuniko Kuniyoshi (critic), Sakurai Keisuke (critic), Umberto Donati (Director of Italian Institute), Shuji Kogi (Secretary General of EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee)
Inquiries: Yoko Ishiguro, 4th Skin Arts Network
E-mail: yoko4thskin@yahoo.co.jp

A presentation and symposium concerning the "Katachi wo Koete [Beyond Forms]" performing arts program that toured Italian cities in September 2006, taking in the Danza Urbana festival in Bologna, will be held at the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo. The conference will cover three themes. The object is thus to extend the debate on the role of the body in Japanese and Italian contemporary dance and to discuss how to develop a platform for art between Japan and Italy in order to further the understanding and development of the creative art of contemporary dance. Participants will also study ways to form a stronger Japanese-Italian relationship while considering also how to expand this network in future so as to encompass all of Europe and Asia. The conference will showcase a performance by BABY-Q.


  Part 1 -- Experience of the Italian Project Katachi wo Koete-Oltre La Forma
  Part 2 -- Last trends in Japanese and Italian contemporary dance
  Part 3 -- How to create art platforms between Italy and Japan


*Further details to be announced as they become available.

Youth & Music
The 3rd International Music Festival for Youth
European performer: Jan Depreter (guitarist / Belgium)

Jan Deptreter
The detailed schedule is here!
In Kami
(Osaka-city, Osaka)
*Kami International Music Festival
Organized by: Kami International Music Festival Operating Committee
Co-organized by: Flanders Center
In Wakayama-city
(Wakayama pref.)
Organized by: NPO Wakayama Arts and Culture Support Society
In Shibushi-city
(Kagoshima pref.)
Organized by: Shibushi-city,
Shibushi-City Board of Education,
International Music Festival for Youth in Shibushi-city Operating Committee
Co-organized by: Flanders Center
Musician: Jan Depreter(Classic guitarist / Belgium)
For the second year running, the world-renowned classical guitarist Jan Depreter is to give performances and hold master classes (lectures) in Osaka, Wakayama and Kagoshima. Since completing the course of studies at The Hague Royal Conservatory in the Netherlands with honors, Depreter has garnered numerous awards at international guitar concours around the world, including the top award at the Beijing Guitar Festival in 2006. His preeminent performances should prove a wonderful gift for the children and many other people of these different locations.

Photography
"European Eyes on Japan / Japan Today vol. 8"
Karin Borghouts exhibition of photography

photograph by Karin Borghouts
photograph by Karin Borghouts
Dates: 11 Dec.2006 - 22 Jan. 2007
Venue: Flanders Center(Osaka)
Organized by: Flanders Center
Supported by: Embassy of Belgium in Japan
Artistic Director: Mikiko Kikuta
For details on the European Eyes on Japan/Japan Today photography project,please click here!
The works of Belgian photographer Karin Borghouts depicting Saga prefecture, featured in volume 8 of European Eyes on Japan / Japan Today, are to be shown at the Flanders Center, the Belgian cultural exchange facility in Osaka. The exhibit will feature images of the prefecture as seen from the distinctive viewpoint of Borghouts traveling through Saga and looking closely at its contemporary life during her first visit to Japan last year. A living human presence emerges from her depictions of artificial scenery with its motifs of architectural structures and such public spaces as parks and zoos. These familiar Japanese scenes engage their viewers with a certain odd presence.

Youth & Music
The Music Program by Artist:
Opera performance for middle school students by the Fujiwara Opera

Fujiwara Opera Chorus Group
Dates: 13-15 Dec.
Venue: Yokosuka Arts Theatre (Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa prefecture)
Program: Highlights from Bizet's "Carmen"
(translation of Act 2 of the Grand Opera version)
Performers: Fujiwara Opera, Fujiwara Opera Chorus Group, Tokyo Festival Orchestra
Audience: All first-year students attending middle school in Yokosuka-shi (c. 3,545 persons)
Organized by: Yokosuka-city, Yokosuka-city Board of Education
Produced by: The Japan Opera Foundation
The Fujiwara Opera has offered a wide range of opera performances since its formation in 1934 as the first authentic opera troupe in Japan. The troupe's choral ensemble both appears in the Fujiwara Opera's numerous operatic performances and is also active as an independent chorus in television and radio broadcasting, recordings and joint orchestral performances.
This year the Fujiwara Opera presents "Carmen" in this annual opportunity provided to the first-year middle school students of the city of Yokosuka to enjoy opera. We hope it will prove a chance for these middle school students to experience the pleasure of and acquire a deeper interest in opera, with its varied elements of literature, music, drama and the performing arts.

Literature
"Nach Japan": Book presentation and reading

Mr. Takashi Hiraide, with the book “Nach Japan”
Date: 19 Dec.
Venue: Austrian Cultural Forum (Austrian Embassy, Tokyo)
Speakers: Peter Giacomuzzi、Renate Giacomuzzi、Mr. Heinz D. Heisl (Austria), Magdalena Kauz (Switzerland), Yoshikichi Furui, Takashi Hiraide
Organized by: Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo, Peter & Renate Giacomuzzi
Sponsored by: Pro Helvetia
Cooperation: Nobuo Ikeda (Professor of Tokyo University)
"Nach Japan" is a collection made up of work on the motif of Japan by authors working in the German language, work by the Japanese authors Kenzaburo Oe, Takashi Hiraide and Yoshikichi Furui, and essays on Japanese travel literature. Compiled primarily by Peter and Renate Giacomuzzi, who have been resident in Japan 17 years, the collection was published in Germany in September 2005 and was acclaimed throughout Europe. With this reading, the Giacomuzzis look beyond publishing with the aim of creating opportunities for the formation of Japanese-European networks in culture and the arts. A discussion relating to the book is planned, in addition to readings by the authors participating.

Photography
Photograph Exhibition "European Eyes on Japan / Japan Today vol.8"
Karin Borghouts
Karin Borghouts
Stratos Kalafatis
Stratos Kalafatis
Date: 2-25 Feb. 2007
Venue: Saga Prefectural Art Museum
Photographers: Pentti Sammallahti
(Finland / photographed in Fukushima)
Eleni Maligoura
(Greece / photographed in Fukushima)
Stratos Kalafatis
(Greece / photographed in Saga)
Karin Borghouts
(Belgium / photographed in Saga)

The details of the photography project "European Eyes on Japan / Japan Today" is here!
Related events:
2 Feb. Gallery Talk by photographers
2 Feb. One drink party (cocktail) for the opening
3 Feb. Round-table by European photographers and photographers of Saga "European Eyes on Saga and Saga's Eyes on Saga"
4 Feb. Workshop by photographers with high school students
2-25 Feb. photograph exhibition by photographers in Saga:
"Saga and Now"
"Hideki Kuga, photographing in Greece"
2 Feb.-9 Mar. Essay contest "From a picture"

This eighth in the series of European Eyes on Japan / Japan Today photography exhibitions travels around Japan. Photographers Stratos Kalafatis and Karin Borghouts will visit Japan for the showing in Saga prefecture, when gallery talks and related activities are planned. Regarding the details, please click the above list of each event!

Photography
Stratos Kalafatis:Talk & Slideshow “JOURNAL”
*Click the image, window will open.

flyer of Talk & Slideshow
Time & Date: 19:00-, 11 Feb. 2007 (Doors open: 18:45)
Venue: BOOK 246
Lattice Aoyama, 1-2-6, Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Admission fee: 1,000Yen
(incl. a glass of greek wine, post card and small souvenir from Greece)
Lecturer: Stratos Kalafatis
  *Reservation required
  BOOK 246
Tel 03-5771-6899
E-mail info@book246.com
Stratos Kalafatis, a representative of the new generation of Greek photography, is to present his first slideshow and talk presentation in Japan.
The presentation will include some 60 photographs from his highly acclaimed collection Journal, published in 2004.
This collection depicts the various people he encountered while living on the island of Skopelos, their way of life and the island's natural scenery in bold sunlight and vivid hues.
The local seasons, his subjects and the world of Kalafatis himself that is interwoven with them convey to the viewer a sensation of wandering between reality and fiction. What emerges is life and death, the richness concealed in the trivial, the reality of our existence here and now that we overlook in our daily routine.
Also planned for inclusion in the presentation are photographs of the Greek islands shown at the architectural biennale in Venice last year and work shot in Saga prefecture featured in European Eyes on Japan/Japan Today vol. 8.

Performing Arts
Puppet Theater: KAWASEMI-ZA Performance in Wakayama

KAWASEMI-ZA
Time & Date: 16 Mar. 2007
Doors open / 18:00 Start/ 18:30
Venue: WAKAYAMA PREFECTURE CULTURE HALL
Admission: 2,500 Yen(all seat are unreserved)
Organized by: Wakayama Arts and Culture Support Society (wacss)
Ticket: Wakayama Music Association Forte
Tel:073-422-4225,
KODOMO-NPO WAKAYAMA PREFECTURE -CENTER
Tel: 073-432-3664,
KINOKUNI KODOMO-NPO
Tel: 073-452-7710,
WAKAYAMA HIGASI KODOMO-GEKIJO
Tel: 073-473-8491,
WAKAYAMA MINAMI KODOMO-GEKIJO
Tel: 073-424-0358,
KID STATION
Tel: 073-402-0727,
WAKAYAMA PREFECTURE CULTURE HALL
Tel: 073-436-1331
<Invitation>
An encounter with the authentic: Seeking to provide local children with an opportunity to experience an outstanding performing art, wacss invites 100 local children to this performance. If over-subscribed, successful applicants will be selected by drawing.
 
* Eligibility:
Children from elementary school to high school
* Capacity:
100
* Application:
Fill out and send the return postcard with name, age, school, address and contact information, to wacss.
*Inquiry:
Wakayama Arts and Culture Support Society (wacss)
602, 427-1, Awa, Wakayama-shi, Wakayama 640-8462
  Tel/Fax 073-454-5858
KAWASEMI-ZA puppets move expressively about a large stage quite as though they were alive. This high quality of puppet production and the rich expression evidenced in their manipulation have achieved an established opinion to become a highly acclaimed performing art that exceeds the genre of puppet theater, generally taken to be children-oriented.
One hundred local children will be invited to the Wakayama performance by the NPO organizer Wakayama Arts and Culture Support Society (wacss). We hope that this encounter with an outstanding performing art will prove a valuable experience for the children and many other people and that this activity puts down roots in the community and helps to foster the local arts further.

 
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