Here in Japan we have to work on Christmas but today the 23rd we had a national holiday because it’s the 80th birthday of the Emperor. Akihito is the second Emperor of Japan that has reached 80 years old while being on the throne, just after his father Hirohito achieved the same feat.
Apart from having a free day, if you went near the Imperial Palace you had the opportunity to see the Emperor greeting the commoners.
Source: Mainichi.
Other posts about the Emperor:
Shin-hanga (新版画, new prints) was a Japanese art movement that arose in the early 20th century. It emerged from ukiyo-e art and evolved it a step further bringing new ingredients as for example the use of isometric perspectives. The creative process of shin-hanga artists was the same as the one ukiyo-e artists used. In order to create a work of art it was necessary to draw, carve and print. The shin-hanga prints became very popular among art collectors in United States.
Kawase Hasui and Yoshida Hiroshi were the two most important artists of the shin-hanga movement. My favorite of the two is Kawase Hasui, who not only made prints of the most popular places in Japan, but he also liked to represent scenes of daily life in the streets of Tokyo, as if he was taking photos. By seeing his prints we can have an idea of how Japan was one hundred years ago.
Yoshida Hiroshi had a somewhat different style, more influenced by impressionism from the West. He introduced in his works of art light techniques not seen until then in Japanese paintings. He used a more varied color scheme and played with warm and cool colors depending on the situation. He traveled a lot outside of Japan, mostly around United States and Europe. It’s interesting to see his paintings of places around the world such as the Taj Mahal.
During Second World War United States froze the imports of Japanese prints thus bringing the shin-hanga artistic movement to its end.
I didn’t have much idea about aikido but after watching this 45 minutes documentary I have become quite interested in it. It is fascinating how master Shioda knocks down Robert Kennedy’s bodyguard in a second when he visited Japan in 1966, it seems like he uses a magical technique. In the documentary some of the basic techniques and foundations of aikido are explained: not attacking, concentrating strength in a point and using the energy of the enemy in our favour.
Video via Jim Grisanzio