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Kyoto – The 52-year-old is an award-winning photographer with an unmistakable style; a film and TV series director whose works, such as the manga adaptation “Helter Skelter” (2012) and the Netflix original series “Followers” (2020), explore identity and desire with visceral allure; and a music video director who has collaborated with major Japanese acts like AKB48 and international stars such as Alicia Keys. Her photos captivate with lush palettes and dreamlike nature motifs balancing the flowery and the dark, often juxtaposing the ephemeral and the eternal in her art, now brought to its most expansive scale in the exhibition “Ninagawa Mika with EiM: Lights of the beyond, Shadows of this world” at the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art, Higashiyama Cube. The museum, close to the Higashiyama mountains, is a majestic setting, and Ninagawa’s evocative compositions have enveloped Kyocera’s partially transparent Higashiyama Cube, making use of the space’s interplay of light and openness. Ninagawa notes that Kyoto, a city where architecture whispers the passage of time, had a strong influence on her work. “Life and death are so embedded here. If you walk around town, you find so many places where you see this,” she tells The Japan Times on the exhibition’s opening day. “Suddenly you encounter a spot that opens up to the beyond, even if it’s just an illusion you have,” she adds, referring to how she got the idea for the exhibition’s title. Mika Ninagawa says that she carries artistic influence from her late father, theater director Yukio Ninagawa. | © Mika Ninagawa, Courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery Collaborating with her collective EiM (standing for “eternity in a moment”) — an ensemble of creatives that includes data scientist Hiroaki Miyata, set designer Enzo, creative director Isao Kuwana and lighting director Koshiro Ueno — Ninagawa has crafted an experience that straddles the boundaries of photography, film and installation art. “When we exchange ideas, new things arise, and also I’m quite enjoying what comes out of the team creation,” she says. The exhibition is structured as a journey through 10 interconnected spaces that draw the viewer into a surreal visual narrative. Ninagawa’s photographic works, taken from everyday life without the aid of computer graphics, are layered with elements of artifice like cascading crystal garlands, luminous displays and artificial flora. “The world is still very interesting as is,” Ninagawa says, explaining her dedication to unaltered imagery, although she employs a degree of theatrics in the exhibition, influenced by her late father, theater director Yukio Ninagawa. “I was born into a family of theater; my father was a theater director, so I grew up surrounded by performances. In that sense, the world of fiction was always close to me,” she says, adding that acting isn’t entirely fake, as it involves real emotions. And while her photography portrays reality without manipulation, the dialogue with fiction remains present in her mind as she takes her shots. The corridor leading to the exhibition offers an initial glimpse of the city outside, grounding visitors in the reality they are about to leave behind. The transition begins in earnest with “Flowers of the Beyond,” a space drenched in a burning red hue and flashes of black, with more than 4,000 synthetic red spider lilies. Ninagawa’s photographic works, taken without the aid of computer graphics, are layered with elements of artifice like cascading crystal garlands, luminous displays and artificial flora. | © Mika Ninagawa, Courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery “This flower references death in Japan,” Ninagawa notes, hinting at the cultural weight imbued. The flowers guide visitors through the liminal space between existence and oblivion, symbolizing life’s fragility and proximity to the transcendent. Further into the museum’s path of luminescence and obscurity, “Whispers of Light, Dreams of Color” transforms a large hall into a shimmering cascade of over 1,500 strands of crystal garlands, fracturing light into myriad colors, their gentle swaying evoking natural phenomena with perhaps an otherworldly tinge. Ninagawa’s attention to sensory detail is key here. “The base concept is capturing sunlight,” she says. “But the experience shifts depending on where you are in the room. With natural light, the effect is one way, and with controlled light, it transforms into another.” The exhibition crescendos with “Dreams of the Beyond in the Abyss,” a dual-space installation that juxtaposes flourishing artificial blooms with hellish landscapes, creating a psychedelic effect. “(The flowers) function as an entrance to the other world, and also as a gradation,” the artist says. “Step by step, letting us go back to reality.” These transitions evoke despair and renewal, themes that resonate deeply in Ninagawa’s oeuvre. Each installation in the exhibition invites viewers to immerse themselves in an emotional and sensory dialogue. Whether standing amid the shimmering garlands or navigating the vivid intensity of red-drenched flowers, this conceptual layering turns the exhibition into an encounter with the spaces between reality and imagination. “Whispers of Light, Dreams of Color” transforms a large hall into a shimmering cascade of over 1,500 strands of crystal garlands, fracturing light into myriad colors. | © Mika Ninagawa, Courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery Interspersed throughout these installations are rooms with digital screens displaying Ninagawa’s photos and videos in hypnotic collages. A couple of the rooms adopt a film theater layout, and toward the end of the exhibition’s route is a room covered entirely by screens — the floors, walls and ceiling — where you become completely immersed in rapid successions of Ninagawa’s images of nature. It’s an arresting, almost disorienting experience. And perhaps it’s these spaces that make the strongest emotional and sensory impression, since they display the core beauty of Ninagawa’s photography and filmmaking that inspire the rest of the exhibition’s sculptural installations. But each element of the exhibition, from the photographic works to the structural and spatial designs, is imbued with a sense of searching — inviting us into a world where the lines blur, revealing not an answer but an experience to be carried forward. Regarding what she hopes visitors take away from “Lights of the

At least for now, Sara Saito is putting college aside to see how far she can go as a pro athlete. Saito plays tennis, a sport that is typically associated with wealth and privilege. But she does not come from a wealthy background. Both of her parents are public servants who understand very little about the sport and can’t even take time off work to attend their eldest daughter’s tournaments. Luckily, the 18-year-old has financial backers. Source link

Kenny Colvin, 44, is the loquacious and warmhearted owner of Sanita, a cocktail bar in Tokyo’s Hatagaya neighborhood that opened in 2020. A born and bred New Yorker, he worked in hospitality consulting before moving to Tokyo in 2017. 1. What brought you to Tokyo? I was working with this Australian restaurant group, doing their design and branding, and created a concept for them that got popular in Australia. (A Japanese friend) said to take it to Tokyo — because “Japanese people love sweets, cool branding and waiting in line.” 2. How long have you been in the cocktail business? Since 2007, when high-end cocktails were becoming popular in New York. I started doing letterpress printing for (several bars), and then more branding and design work. That’s kind of what led me into the cocktail world. Source link

Showtime rolled around for the most unusual parliamentary session in years Friday, with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba touting his government’s ¥200 billion ($1.3 billion) regional revitalization policy as “the era’s remodeling of the Japanese archipelago” — a callback to former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka’s calls in the 1970s to allocate economic benefits and costs more fairly across the nation. Ishiba’s pet policy, dubbed Regional Revitalization 2.0, consists of five pillars — creating regions that attract young people and women; decentralizing society; supporting joint startups across institutions for regional innovation; developing new-age infrastructure for clean energy, digital transformation and artificial intelligence; and increasing cooperation between local governments. “To further the fostering of comfortable and attractive workplaces for youth and women, a bill on closing the gender pay gap and dispelling unconscious bias will be submitted,” he told the assembly. Source link

Japan plans to release some of its rice stockpiles reserved for emergency use in response to record domestic prices for the grain. The government will discuss selling part of its strategic rice reserve next week, the farm minister Taku Eto said in a presser on Friday. The price of rice in Japan is up 60% year-on-year as of last month, according to Bloomberg’s calculation using wholesalers’ price data compiled by the ministry. The Bank of Japan cited rice’s contribution to inflation in its economic outlook report today as it raised its key policy rate to the highest level in 17 years. The government holds about a million tons of rice as emergency stockpiles, about one-seventh of the country’s estimated annual consumption. “Producers might oppose the move saying the rice price was finally high enough to cover their inflated costs of production,” Eto said. “But I hope everyone understands that the release would benefit producers too as high prices could trigger consumers to change from eating rice.” The average wholesale price of rice rose to ¥24,655 ($159) per 60 kilogram bag as of December, according to government data. The minister did not give the amount or the date of the release, and added the plan will be discussed in detail on Jan. 31. Japan places higher tariffs on imports past a limit of 100,000 tons and its high domestic prices stand in stark contrast to other countries. Prices for Thailand white rice, which serve as an Asian benchmark, recently reached the lowest since early 2023. India, the biggest rice exporter, rolled back restrictions on shipments last year. That’s benefited global supply, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts world stockpiles will rise for the first time in four seasons. Source link

The central government will strive to balance economic revitalization and fiscal consolidation, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said in a fiscal policy speech to parliament on Friday. “As we vigorously advance economic revitalization, we will also realize fiscal consolidation,” Kato said. Kato also asked for cooperation to swiftly pass the government’s budget and other bills. The budget bill calls for general-account spending of more than ¥115 trillion (about $740 billion), including on Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s signature policies, such as increasing subsidies to local governments and expenses on disaster prevention, boosting defense spending and tackling the country’s declining birthrate. Source link

Trading volume in Fuji Media Holdings shares surged 1,767% this week as a scandal prompted some investors to flee, while others piled in hoping the turmoil will usher in a management overhaul. A total of 237.8 million shares changed hands in Tokyo, compared with 12.74 million last week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s 56% more than the volume for all of 2024. The stock jumped 13% this week as some investors speculated the incident will prompt the company to replace management, improve governance and boost corporate value. Local weekly Shukan Bunshun reported in December that Fuji TV employees were involved in setting up a party at which sexual harassment took place, an allegation the company has denied. Source link

A Chinese court sentenced a man to death Friday over his killing of a Japanese schoolboy in the city of Shenzhen in September, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. In order to attract attention on the internet, Zhong Changchun, a 45-year-old man from Jiangxi province, stabbed the boy on Sept. 18 last year after buying a tool with a sharp edge, and then called the media to tell of his crime, the verdict issued by the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court read, calling the act a “highly heinous and serious crime, worthy of capital punishment.” Zhong was arrested at the scene soon after the murder, which occurred approximately 200 meters from the school that the boy attended, according to a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry at the time. Source link

Defending champion Jannik Sinner continued his sizzling Australian Open run with a 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-2 victory over American No. 21 seed Ben Shelton on Friday to reach a second straight final at Melbourne Park and book a meeting with Alexander Zverev. Sinner’s victory made the 23-year-old the youngest man to make multiple finals at the Australian Open since Jim Courier in 1992-93 and kept alive his dream of becoming the first Italian to lift three Grand Slam singles trophies. “I’m happy to be back in the final again,” said Sinner, who had to overcome a cramp in the third set. Source link

Moscow – Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to talk to U.S. counterpart Donald Trump but is waiting for signals from Washington first, the Kremlin said Friday, fueling expectations the two would be in contact. The Ukraine conflict has plunged relations between the two nuclear powers to their lowest levels since the Cold War, with Trump repeatedly promising to end the fighting with a “deal.” He told reporters on Thursday he would meet Putin “immediately,” and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wanted to negotiate. Source link