Ancient Japanese belived that the world tends to become unstable during the transition of the season (Setsubun). Therefore, they used to hold various ceremonies to prevent from all kinds of devil or demons invading the society.

But contemporary busy Japanese people decided to concentrate on Spring Setsubun because Spring represents a new start from winter.

The following day, Feburary 4th, 2011 is called Risshun (Lichun or りっしゅん or 立春) - the beginning of Spring.

Feburary 3 is until 2021 or 2025
Because the date is based on solar system, the date of Setsubun will start changing after 2021 or 2025. Once every 4 years, Setsubun will be Feburary 2nd.

What to do during Setsubun
On the day of Setsubun, the people all over Japan cerebrate Sestubun in different ways. The famous celebrations are Mamemaki (まめまき or 豆まき) and eating Eho-maki (えほうまきお or 恵方巻き).

Mame-maki (まめまき or 豆まき)

Mamemaki means “throwing soybeans”. The rules of this ritual are varied depends on the regions.

Basically, the people throw a chunk of soybeans away from your home to scare Oni (Japanese fork devil) or bad luck. Then you throw soybeans (or other stuff) into your house inviting good luck.

Oni wa Soto!
When you throw soybeans outside of your house, you would say “Oni wa soto (おには そと)”, which means “Oni out (of my house)”.

If you have a kid(s), it’s time to dress up (cosplay) like Oni, and have your kids to throw soybeans at you. If you go to the Japanese supermarket or department store, they usually sell cheap Oni masks.
Fuku wa Uchi!
When you throw soybeans inside, you would say “Fuku wa uchi (ふくはうち)”, which means “Lucks, coming in”.

However, lazy Japanese people no longer want to clean up their room. Many mothers stopped teaching kids to thow soybeans to the inside of the house.

When you go to the famous temple, sometime cerebrities or local politicians throw soybeans to the people. Or Toshi-otoko (としおとこ or 年男) or Toshi-onna (としおんな or 年女) often throw soybeans out.

Toshi-otoko & Toshi-onnna are the men and women who are the age of 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and (12 years cycle thereafter) during the year.

This 12 years were determined by the Earthly Branches (Juni-shi, じゅうにし, or 十二支), the calendar system based on the orbit of Jupiter.

The people belive that the beginning of the new 12-year cycle could become unstable. Therefore, the potentially unstable Toshi-otoko and Toshi-onna throw soybeans to scare Oni away, and bring the good luck in.

In 2012, the people of Dragon (たつ) who are born in 2000, 1988, 1966 and etc, throw soybeans at the major Mamemaki events.
Eat your mame (soybeans)
At the end of the Mamemaki, you will eat soubeans as much as your new age of the year.

For instance, if you are born in 1980, you will eat 32 soybeans in 2012 because you will turn 32 years old in 2012.
Eating Eho-maki (えほうまき or 恵方巻き)

Eho-maki is a large sushi roll with 7 ingredience.

The ritual was only popular in Osaka area for hundreds years. But it started spreading across Japan in early 2000s (mainly due to the commercialism).

Eho (えほう or 恵方) means “good-luck side (or direction)”. Maki (まき or 巻) means “rolls”

When you eat Eho-maki, you must face to Eho (good-luch side). The Eho of 2012 is North North West. You must close your eyes all the time, and you must not talk until you finish eating. While eating, think about what you want to achieve after the spring.

We hope you have a good luck for the rest of the year!

After finally turning himself in after nearly 17 years as a fugitive, former AUM Shinrikyo cult member Makoto Hirata, 46, is mainly releasing information only through attorneys.
Hirata was arrested in connection with the case of the fatal 1995 kidnapping of notary public Kiyoshi Kariya, 68, and is being held at the Osaki Police Station in Tokyo, where the investigative headquarters for the case was established. Lawyer Taro Takimoto has released Hirata’s claims that he was in Japan during his years as a fugitive and that he had no contact with wanted former AUM members Katsuya Takahashi, 53, or Naoko Kikuchi, 40. Takimoto has revealed that Hirata has come close to tears during meetings, and says he is only releasing information approved by Hirata.

Takimoto is known for helping people after they have left religious cults. While a fugitive, Hirata is said to have looked at Takimoto’s blog, on which he called for Hirata to turn himself in. After he did, Hirata asked to meet Takimoto.

However, Hirata has reportedly refused to give much information to investigators on where he was hiding and who was supporting him. Though he has given details to attorneys about the events leading up to turning himself in, a senior investigator said he has refused to give important facts to police. Takimoto revealed to reporters that Hirata originally tried to turn himself in to the Osaki station and also tried calling a toll-free crime tip hotline.

One senior investigator speculated, “Although (Hirata) probably also wants to protect those who helped him during his time as a fugitive, distrust of police is likely at the root of his reticence.”

Around 60 officers make up the investigative headquarters at the Osaki station, including officers who were involved with AUM Shinrikyo investigations in 1995 and ones who were involved with tracking Hirata when he was on the run. Investigators say that deep knowledge of the teachings, organization, and social relations of the cult are necessary when questioning people who have been indoctrinated.

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Aum Shinrikyo (currently known as Aleph) was a Japanese cult and terrorist organization. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum_Shinrikyo

___

Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway

The Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, usually referred to in the Japanese media as the Subway Sarin Incident (地下鉄サリン事件 Chikatetsu Sarin Jiken?), was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by members of Aum Shinrikyo on March 20, 1995.

In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on several lines of the Tokyo Metro, killing thirteen people, severely injuring fifty and causing temporary vision problems for nearly a thousand others. The attack was directed against trains passing through Kasumigaseki and Nagatachō, home to the Japanese government. It is the most serious attack to occur in Japan since the end of World War II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin_gas_attack_on_the_Tokyo_subway
Japanese Documentary

[Via Mainichi News]

Although there were several notable cases of towns with breakwaters and seawalls suffering heavy damage on March 11th, researchers still believe that both methods can be helpful. It seems that breakwaters do indeed weaken the force of tsunamis, and things could have been a lot worse if some of those towns had absolutely no breakwater. But, as March 11th demonstrated, it is a mistake to only count on protective barriers. There also needs to be a good evacuation plan in place, and people need to follow it.

[via japanprobe]

1. Katsushika Hokusai

While the name itself may not conjure up too manyimagesoutside art history enthusiasts, Hokusai’s iconic woodblock print (or ukiyo-e) The Great Wave Off Kanagawa is immediately recognized all over the world. Practicing during the Edo period (1603-1868), the highly popular, respected, and gifted artist changed the face of ukiyo-e forever. Where once the domain of portraiture, Hokusai stretched the technique to include natural scenes as well. Prolific and passionate until his death at the age of 88, his impressive output of prints, sketches, and paintings reflect a proficiency in a wide variety of stylistic preferences. Some remain elegant in their simplicity, while others display a keen eye for intricate and lovely details.

2. Utagawa Hiroshige

No doubt influenced by Hokusai, with whom he shared an overlap, Hiroshige’s stunning ukiyo-e prints carried on the master’s use of subjects beyond the usual actors, actresses, and prominent members of society. His interesting blend of vivid colors, excruciating detail combined with minimalism, and visually striking compositions earned him a number of accolades and followers in his lifetime. Most of Hiroshige’s more celebrated works focus on the landscape and everyday life during the Edo period of Japanese history. He tended towards producing multiple series depicting one scene or area from several different vantage point, much like his influence Hokusai.

3. Shinji Turner-Yamamoto

Award-winning environmental artist Shinji Turner-Yamamoto incorporates a number of different techniques into one stunning portfolio.

His abstract expressionist paintings play with color and texture, with their unique materials playing a major role in the composition. Turner-Yamamoto combines unusual media in bold ways, with naturals and synthetics marrying together to create subdued, aesthetically pleasing works. He looks to the art of the past as well as the bounty of nature for inspiration, never content to resign himself to only one venue of design. The Round Thoughts series blends rocks from Mount Etna with clay to create geometric forms evoking both the natural state of the rocks as well as handmade craftsmanship and humanity’s delight in order and smoothness. He brings this philosophy into the achingly beautiful Global Tree Project as well – a masterful visual treat that even the most jaded critics of contemporary art must explore.

4. The Gutai Group

An artist’s collective founded in 1954, The Gutai Group expressed an interest in stripping away manufactured artifice in order to find the true honesty of an object. Having survived World War II, they grew intrigued with the concept of beauty rising Phoenix-like from the confines of death, destruction, devastation, and other horrors. Their eloquent, haunting, and provocative manifesto, available in English via the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History, stands as a work of art in and of itself. The collective drove home these themes through conceptual installations and abstract expressionist works forecasting future movements and iconic international artists such as Andy Warhol.

5. Akira Kurosawa

Rightfully considered a film auteur whose stunning career still inspires and

impresses film aficionados and experts alike, editor, screenwriter, director, producer, and all-around Renaissance man of the screen and studio Akira Kurosawa is easily the most recognizable name on any listing of Japanese artists. In his lifetime, he directed 30 films – many of which contain a number of stunning images both still and kinetic. A consummate storyteller, he could compellingly segue from winding dramas with intersecting and conflicting narratives (Rashomon) to bittersweet character studies (Ikiru) to epic action (The Seven Samurai) to Shakespearean adaptations (Throne of Blood). Even detractors of foreign or classic cinema may find something to their liking in his eclectic oeuvre.

6. Shinoda Toko

Blending together “Eastern” and “Western” concepts, Shinoda applies her fluency in the art of calligraphy with an appreciation of abstract expressionism to create elegant paintings and prints with ink. She seeks to capture transient concepts on paper, such as emotion and the inevitable ebbs and flows of nature, preferring to stick with a neutral palate with occasional instances of muted browns. However, some works include vivid shades of red as well. Shinoda incorporates quick, fluid brushstrokes alongside broad forms and geometric constructs.

7. Maruyama Oukyo

Considered one of the National Treasures of Japan, Oukyo founded his own influential art school in Kyoto during the late 18th century. His paintings, which generally emphasized animals, plants, and landscapes, reflected both European trends in naturalism as well as his own personal convictions. The results ended up as stylized – yet undoubtedly realistic – depictions of the subjects at hand. Most of his elegant paintings featured an entirely absent background, or one comprised of a few minimalistic, faded washes. Though favoring elements of nature over all other topics, Oukyo occasionally delved into the realm of the mythic as well, creating stunning paintings of dragons and other fictions. He also challenged popular perceptions of decency at the time, learning how to draw the intricacies and subtleties of the human figure directly from live nude models – a practice that was, at the time, considered inappropriate and pornographic, even when no actual sexual content factored into the poses.

8. Takako Saito

Formally trained in psychology before launching into the academic study

and practice of art, Saito infuses elements of her original discipline into every one of her painstakingly crafted conceptual pieces. She is best known for constructing a series of chess sets involving variances of taste, smell, and texture introduced into the game pieces and rules alike – mirroring the philosophies of Dada icon and chess aficionado Marcel Duchamp. Spices, liquor, wine, books, and many other objects replace the traditional kings, queens, pawns, rooks, etc., with the different properties of each denoting their value to the game. It involves the senses beyond the tactile and visual usually required with chess, and stimulates the mind with figuring out the ways in which the pieces and board interact with one another.

9. Soufu Teshigahara

Japanese-style flower arranging, known as Ikebana, enjoys a considerable amount of international renown – thanks to the efforts of Soufu Teshigahara. Seeing the artistic and self-expressionistic potential of floral design, he opened the Sougetsu School in order to nurture this message. He taught students all the formalities to give them a solid foundation in the medium, then encouraged them to explore all its possibilities. Soufu himself took great pleasure in creating arrangements that transcended the decorative and became living sculptures, incorporating scrap iron and other unexpected but not unwelcome departures from tradition. This opened up Ikebana to areas beyond Japan’s borders, piquing the curiosity of creative types across the world and leading them to view floral arranging as a truly limitless art form rather than merely one aspect of interior design.

10. Shigeo Fukuda

A master of optical illusions and clever applications of light and shadow, Shigeo Fukuda created multitudes of paintings and sculptures created exclusively to fool the eye and mind alike. Clamps, for example, looks from all sides a rather haphazard application of simple metal office clips. But shining a light on it reveals a near-perfect rendition of Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker using the structure’s positive and negative space. He applied the very same technique to Lunch with a Helmet On, which consists of 848 different types of flatware to create the image of a motorcycle once placed in front of a large enough light source. Fukuda held a special love of sculpting absurdist, Escher-esque “impossible objects” as well as creating stunning anamorphic murals and illustrations.

11. Unkei

Working in the 12th and 13th centuries, Unkei formally practiced

as a Buddhist devotional sculptor under the Kei classification. Frequently considered one of the best practitioners of the style, he gained renown in his own period creating dramatic works with an impressive air of realism for the samurai and shogunate castes. He channeled his passion for and belief in the Buddhist faith into heavily detailed sculptures of important religious figures that grew to influence devotional works for centuries to come.

12. Yayoi Kusama

Eclectic artist Yayoi Kusama does not limit herself to any one specific genre. She sculpts. She paints. She writes. She designs fashions. She organizes happenings. With an eye for the avant-garde, Kusama channels the hallucinations and depression she suffers from into cheerful explosions of colors and patterns. Polka dots are one of her hallmarks, and she is most known for her experimentations in a wide variety of media. Kusama garnered a bit of controversy due to her penchant for public nudity in many of her performance art pieces protesting the Vietnam War.

13. Yuko Nii

Yuko Nii garners so much attention and respect for her philanthropic actions promoting artistic endeavors all over the world – though especially in New York City – that many also forget her talents as a well-rounded practitioner of the visual and literary arts. Everything from costuming to printmaking serves as an outlet for her generous imagination. Her paintings play with color, line, perspective, and texture to create constructs simultaneously alien and familiar. Surrealism and realism collide in scenes where craggy rocks float reverently towards the heavens and sand dunes sport eerie curves and unsettling, yet beautiful, cool color pallets. While not explicitly science fiction, they radiate the aura of a time to come, of places beyond the known world yet to explore.

14. Kuukai

The intellectual poet and monk Kuukai gained significant renown as one of the greatest calligraphers ever to practice in Japan.

So revered are his writings that legend states he formed the phonetic kana alphabets, though this has yet to be proven factual. Kuukai founded the Shingon philosophy of Buddhism. He wrote extensively on the subject, earning praise for his ideals as well as his painstaking calligraphic works. With smooth, expert strokes, he revealed the aesthetics lurking beneath language. Many overlook the beauty inherent in the written word, how letters and pictographs merge to communicate ideas at once useful and yet possessive of an under-recognized elegance. Kuukai’s simple, classy, and timeless works remind viewers that, no matter the alphabet, culture, or language, that the venues through which thoughts enter the world still hold their own understated beauty.

15. Tadao Ando

Colorful award-winning architect Tadao Ando never actually received any formal training in his chosen profession, thus making his accomplishments all the more impressive. He works primarily with concrete cast in-place and finds particular inspiration in the modernist movements. Most of his works, which include houses, commercial buildings, chapels, temples, and museums, work harmoniously with the surrounding landscape and take advantage of natural lighting. He loves playing with pathways and dimensions to create visually striking geometric forms with the positive and negative space.

16. Kineo Kuwabara

For over 50 years, Kineo Kuwabara wandered his home city of Tokyo to document the stories to be found there. He practiced in a very unique era, chronicling life in the area before and after World War II. International critics and historians alike particularly appreciated his honest street photography, which would grow to serve as a record of destruction and rebirth. Though the majority of his portfolio involves black and white prints with stunning attention to the interplay between light and shadow, later photographs incorporated and experimented with color. At one point, he even served as a photographer for the military as the war raged. Afterwards, much of his career was devoted to editingCamera magazine and providing opportunities and exposure to passionate and upcoming young photographers in Japan.

17. Akane Teshigahara

Granddaughter of Ikebana master Soufu Teshigahara and fourth headmaster of his world-renowned school, Akane Teshigahara has expanded upon the ideals of her predecessor to create her own personalized style. She tries to infuse current design and artistic trends into her flower arrangements, using the plants themselves as natural geometric forms interacting with synthetic. Abstract expressionism factors into many of her works, with sprays of flowers emulating bursts and splashes of paint and shape and texture using three-dimensional space as a canvas. Like her grandfather before her, Teshigahara keeps no boundaries when it comes to what materials she includes in her stunning floral designs.

18. Jun Kaneko

Prolific ceramicist Jun Kaneko enjoys experimenting with the almost

limitless potential of the medium. He delves into painting, drawing, bronzes, glass,

performance art, and textiles as well, but is better known for his explorations of the possible sculptural applications of ceramics more than anything else. However, no matter the medium, Kaneko deconstructs and reconstructs familiar forms into something new, original, and aesthetically striking. His series of giant bronze heads lightly play with the myriad shapes inherent in the human face. One hauntingly hypnotic piece entirely devoid of the expected eyes, nose, and mouth in favor of a black and silver spiral – drawing the viewer ever inward, always searching for the humanity within an unsettling inhuman interpretation of the body.

19. Leiko Ikemura

As an award-winning sculptor and a painter, Leiko Ikemura has carved a permanent niche for herself on the international art scene. Paintings such as beach girl with blue bird peek inside mankind’s capacity for both kindness and vulnerability. It uses a cool color scheme of several blues and highly muted yellows to create a gentle mood, though the shadows obscuring the human figure’s face speak of isolation, more a connection with nature than other people. Other series experiment with color and how it relates to the overall emotion of the piece, speaking of the subject’s inner life and thoughts with only the minimum of visual clues.

20. Tetsunori Kawani

Bamboo – sturdy, strong, and symbolic of both the elegant simplicity of nature and minimalist Asian design – is sculptor and installation artist Tetsunori Kawani’s medium of choice. His beautiful structures either exploit or manipulate the natural shape and structure of the popular plant. Some leave them perfectly straight, juxtaposed with one another to create veritable sprays of line, giving off the visual impression of transience and fragility with one of the sturdiest gifts of nature. Others bend and shape the stalks into giant flowing constructs, redolent of the majestic movement of water. With these, Kawani uses nature to reflect nature, creating an artistic loop linking two of the four elements.

21. Takehisa Yumeji

Takehisa Yumeji may be considered one of Japan’s more visible outsider artists. Shunned by art critics and contemporaries alike due to his lack of formal training, he found his niche among everyday people at home and abroad who appreciated his earnest style. Yumeji painted many postcard-sized works inspired by traditional, pre-Hokusai ukiyo-e prints. He typically focused on lovely women clad in colorful kimono, mimicking the compositions of his predecessors. Though wrongfully scoffed at in his time, Yumeji offered viewers honest works entirely without pretense – a true folk artist, with all the accompanying compliments inherent to that label.

22. Shouji Hamada

During his lifetime, Shouji Hamada was considered a Living National Treasure in Japan. His pottery swelled to influence his contemporaries, making him one of the most recognized names in 20th century Japanese art. A leading figurehead of the mingei movement, Hamada embraced anonymous, outsider, and folk artists and the concept that form must follow function. As a potter, he particular favored art that proved useful in everyday existence but still added an aesthetic flair and pushed the limits of the medium. He also appreciated low expenses and a “quality and quantity” approach that meant a much broader audience could appreciate his handiwork.

23. Ay-O

Ever the devotee of the avant-garde, Ay-O constantly searches for his own outlets of creativity and originality in a world increasingly full of homogenous art. He adores rainbows and gradients, usually combining the two together in seemingly simple compositions. While they may appear as merely faded strips of color upon initial viewings, closer inspection reveals carefully juxtaposed stripes purposely placed to create smooth transitions between shade and hue. In many ways, this deceptive minimalism sums up how the avant-garde movement and conceptual art alike are oftentimes far more than their artifice may initially let on.

24. Junpei Satoh

Junpei Satoh finds inspiration in “Western” painting conventions, shunning the minimalism more expected of “Eastern” art. He favors portraiture, landscapes, and the natural sciences as his subjects and oil paints, watercolors, pen, and charcoal as his conduits. No matter who or what Satoh elects to portray, it will become fully realized in a naturalistic style concerned with accuracy accompanied by only the minimum of personal creative deviance.

25. Tachuu Naitou

Tokyo Tower dominates the skyline of one of humanity’s most populated metropolises, serving as one of the architectural icons of Japan and a source of pride for its citizens. It serves as a broadcast and observation station and, thanks to Tachuu Naitou, will survive any brutal earthquakes which may come its way. Naitou synthesized a flair for engineering with a keen creativity to create a series of simultaneously functional and aesthetic structures, with Tokyo Tower as his undeniable magnum opus. Because of Japan’s placement along a devastating fault line, architecture related to essential communication must remain as resistant as possible to earthquakes and tremors. Thanks to Naitou’s diligence, buildings in Japan and across the globe may withstand these horrifying natural disasters and help governments and aide workers better reach those affected by the resulting tragedies.

Because of pop culture’s preoccupation with anime and manga, the contributions of other Japanese artists may go unrecognized by mainstream American audiences. Likewise, impassioned fans of these cartoons and comic books may find themselves missing out on other creative contributions coming out of Japan that are just as worthy of their attention. These artists make for a great starting point for those hoping to learn more about painting, architecture, printmaking, sculpture, pottery, and ceramics originating from Japan and expatriate Japanese artists.

Me and my Iphone 4 walking around.
Took this picture for the station while I was waiting for the train this weekend.

BBC Copyright 2000 - written and directed by Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams

A documentary about women’s pro wrestling in Japan and the girls who pass through its hard training in their quest to join the ranks of fully fledged women pro-wrestlers. Set at the Gaea Japan’s Training camp, young trainee Saika Takeuchi struggles to pass her final tests.

Cast - Chigusa Nagayo, Meiko Satomura, Saika Takeuchi

“This fascinating film follows the physically grueling and mentally exhausting training regimen of several young wanna-be GAEA GIRLS, a group of Japanese women wrestlers.
The idea of them may seem like a total oxymoron in a country where women are usually regarded as docile and subservient. However, in training and in the arena, the female wrestlers depicted in this film are just as violent as any member of the World Wrestling Federation, and the blood that’s drawn is very real indeed. One recruit, Takeuchi, endures ritual humiliation not seen on screen since the boot camp sequences of FULL METAL JACKET.
In DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE, Kim Longinotto cinematically explored the previously unexplored world of the Tehran divorce courts. Working with co-director Jano Williams, Longinotto has been given access to shoot an insider’s verité account of this closely guarded universe.”
– Chicago Film Festival

The operation required about 30 police officers. After driving the animal into a fenced parking lot, several officers in protective gear slowly advanced with a net. As they pressed it into the final corner, the deer attempted to leap away. However, it was no use. The animal was captured.

The deer was put on the back of a truck and taken up to the mountains, where it was released. The deer’s release is shown at the end of the video clip. The deer appears to have difficultly walking, but that is apparently because it’s still groggy from the tranquilizers that had been used to subdue it.

[via probe]

Sex education that has already treated genitals sexual intercourse plainly and lightly in Europe and America in 1980’s(what extended in 70’s)
It drank and the review started.

②　http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSRV5xwf-Pk
③　http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw-jCYbGa-w
http://www.metacafe.com/tags/sun10ro/

[via Shibuya246]