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Tachibana Satsuki, Yose-Moji and the Memory of a Performing Art Unbroken Since Edo
Tachibana Satsuki, a yose-moji calligrapher in the Tachibana school, on the Edo-born lettering's history, her six years of training, and her tools.
Tokyo (City)
Zeami's Teachings, Rooted in Higo
Sakurama Ujin is the 21st-generation head of a Noh lineage that has carried the Konparu schools art from Higo to Tokyo for over four centuries. On the cypress stage where he still trains today, visitors can step briefly into a world shaped by his grandfathers teachings, inherited kata, and seven centuries of oral transmission.
Tokyo (City)
What the Fan Holds：The Dance Yukari Onoe Inherited
Yukari Onoe, a fourth-generation dancer of the Onoe school, on inheriting Nihon Buyō — not the name of iemoto, but the dance itself — through myth, a fan that holds a god, and a keiko-ba of memory.
Tokyo (City)
Carrying On a Generation, Dyeing the Iki of Edo
Third-generation dyer Takatoshi Nakamura discusses hikizome, Edo's quiet iki aesthetic, and carrying Fujiya Dyeing Studio's craft into a new era.
Tokyo (City)
A Life Given to Edo Kimekomi Dolls
Kenji Kanabayashi, third-generation head of Mataro, on 300 years of Edo Kimekomi dolls — the materials, the history, and a family trade passed down.
Tokyo (City)
Writing on the Curve
Kenichiro Murata, fourth-generation heir to Namidabashi Ōshimaya, on kago-moji, the outline-first lettering that lets characters sit on a curved chōchin.
Tokyo (City)
What a Bowl of Tea Reflects
Sokou Udagawa, 18th head of the Sowa school of tea, on chaji, wabi, and designing an entire evening around a single bowl of tea.
Tokyo (City)
The Laugh That Comes Later
Kyōgen actor Ohkura Motonari on holding a 700-year-old comic-theatre form intact.
Tokyo (City)
The Space Between the Flowers
Ikebana master Kouen Yokoi on arranging not flowers but the space between them—a craft over a thousand years old.
Kanto (Area)
Braiding a Thousand-Year Thread into the Present
A 300-year-old Tokyo workshop braiding silk cord by hand — Kiichiro Domyo on Yusoku Kumihimo and its living history.
Tokyo (City)
Toward the Unseen
A story-led interview with Takeda Tomoyuki, a Kanze-school shite-kata Noh performer, on prayer, discipline, and how Noh is handed down today.
Tokyo (City)
The Sword Polisher Who Chooses Not to Finish
Sword polishing (togishi): conserving Japanese swords centuries old — and the craftsman who hands them to the future.
Tokyo (City)
The Stroke That Cannot Return
A contemporary sumi-e painter rooted in a thousand-year lineage, on the single stroke that cannot return and a tradition kept alive by renewal.
Tokyo (City)
Zen, Beyond Self-Protection
A head priest in Asakusa on Rinzai Zen—a tradition some 800 years old in Japan—and quietly letting go of the comparing self.
Tokyo (City)
