JAPAN HOUSE

Junko Tahara Biwa Ensemble

Don't miss this free event at Smith Memorial Hall!

Aging in Japan

A couple of programs coming up in the next week are definitely worth noting. On February 8 and 9, 2007 the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Unit for Cinema Studies will sponsor a two-part event on Aging in Japan. These events are free and open to the public.

The film Home Sweet Home (2001) will be screened on Thursday, February 8 at 7:30 in 101 Armory (505 E. Armory Avenue, Champaign, Illinois). The film deals with a family who, unable to cope with their aging grandfather's worsening dementia, abandon him at a group home for the elderly. When, racked by guilt, they return to retrieve him, they discover to their surprise. . . . .

The director, Tomio KURIYAMA, will be present after the film to answer questions.

Also, Professor Susan Orpett Long, author of the award-winning Final Days: Japanese Culture and Choice at the End of Life, will use Home Sweet Home as her point of departure for a lecture on the problems of aging in Japan. The lecture will take place on Friday, February 9, 2007 at noon in the Spurlock Museum auditorium.

Indianapolis Events

I thought I'd use this space to sometimes pass along other events that might be of interest. This Sunday, November 5, 2006, the Asian Galleries of the Indianapolis Museum of Art will reopen with a celebration. Professor Gunji will be performing the tea ceremony! From the IMA website:

Visitors can immerse themselves in the arts of Asia as the expanded Asian galleries re-open. Many new components are offered including two wall installations designed by artist Hirokazu Kosaka, a touch screen where visitors can use satellite imagery to locate the origins of Asian art, portable activity boards for children, and a listening station to hear the sounds of Asian music and culture. Guides will be stationed in the galleries to answer your questions about Asian art. The day’s activities include: Tea Demonstrations & Tastings 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tea is a spiritual, artistic and culinary touchstone across Asia. Visitors can observe tea demonstrations and taste teas offered by tea connoisseurs Gaetano Kazuo Maida, Sebastian Beckwith, Winnie Yu and Kimiko Gunji. Visitors can experience the tea arts and traditions of Japan, China and Taiwan. Throughout the day, visitors can view films about tea culture, history and cultivation including a full length film in DeBoest Lecture Hall related to Chinese tea culture. Also, visitors can see clips from In Pursuit of Tea, a film featuring tea growers throughout Asia.

Then a few days later, on Thursday, November 9, 2006 the IMA Horticultural Society is sponsoring a lecture, Sukiya Living Environments: Japanese Gardens, to be held at the DeBoest Lecture Hall of the Indianpolis Museum of Art. As their website states:

The graceful gardens of Japan are instantly recognizable as unique and exquisite creations. Jay Skuba, Ph.D., principal of Zoen Sekkei-sha & Associates, will share fifty years of gardening experiences and lessons learned from Japan's rich landscape tradition. His talk will address Sukiya Living Environments for cultivated Western tastes, and the garden as Art, Craft, and Science. He will discuss designing up from the detail to the master plan, and will present timeless principles of an aesthetics which transcends race, nationality and culture.

Jay Skuba is a consulting horticulturist, certified arborist, woodworker and master pruner. His firm in Lake Forest, Illinois, concentrates on Japanese garden design. Co-sponsored by the IMA Horticultural Society and the Indianapolis Hosta Society.

Of course if a trip to Indianapolis doesn't appeal---perhaps a trip to the Japan House gardens instead! Try as I might, I just cannot capture the color of this tree. Come see it for yourself....