2016/07/25

kyara Ben (character Bento)

Feature story Sunday morning on National Public Radio (USA), web version includes photos:

[Excerpt]

Packing your child's lunch calls for a whole different level of preparation in Japan. There, moms often shape ordinary lunch ingredients like ham or rice into cute little pandas, Pokemon or even famous people's faces

       It's called character bento, and there's considerable pressure to produce these cute food creations. Tomomi Maruo has been teaching how to make character bentos, or "kyaraben" for short — at her home for the past 13 years.

       "My kid brought kyaraben to the kindergarten and his friends saw the bento and moms started asking me how to make kyaraben so that's how I started teaching," Maruo said.


[related story-1These Parents Make Lovely Lunch Bag Art. Not Everyone Is Pleased

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/04/29/401283301/these-parents-make-lovely-lunch-bag-art-not-everyone-is-pleased


[related story-2] In Japan, Food Can Be Almost Too Cute To Eat

2016/07/14

visual essay - Japan's exclusion zone around Fukushima reactors

This visual essay appeared July 14, 2016 at Digital Photography Review
Compare the interactive media essays at Magnum Photos,
<> Walking Kesennuma after the 2011 tsunami, part 1, http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/tsunami-streetwalk-1-kesennuma

<> Kesennuma streetwalk, part 2, http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/tsunami-streetwalk-2-kamaishi

=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
[excerpt from DPReview, http://www.dpreview.com/news/6195625964/photographer-captures-the-ruin-of-fukushima-s-exclusion-zone]

Keow Wee Loong, a Malaysian photographer currently based in Thailand, snuck into the zone with his fianceé to document the current state of Fukushima's abandoned towns – and what was left behind. From a supermarket picked over by wild animals, forgotten laundry at a laundromat and a wall calendar forever frozen on March 2011, his photos show the eerie remains of daily life brought to an abrupt halt.

You can see more of his Fukushima photos and his photography on his Facebook page.

2016/07/08

case studies 2011 Japan, disaster reconstruction

This special issue of the online journal includes 3 articles that focus on Japan after the disasters of 1995 (Kobe earthquake) and 2011. As well, there are two short video links.

Asian Ethnology. Guest edited by Philip Fountain, Levi McLaughlin, Patrick Daly, and Michael Feener. 

The authors suggest new theoretical perspectives on guiding frameworks such as "religion," "disaster," "development," and "Asia" as they provide case studies of religious responses to recent disaster events in Asia. Many of the special issue's articles focus on Japan.
In particular, the pieces by McLaughlin, Miichi, and Graf discuss ways Japanese religion has transformed in the wake of the 1995 and 2011 disasters.


The articles in the issue are as follows:

  • FOUNTAIN, PHILIP, AND LEVI MCLAUGHLIN

    Salvage and Salvation: Guest Editors' Introduction [1-28] Vol 75:1 2016

  • BENTHALL, JONATHAN

    Puripetal Force in the Charitable Field [29-51] Vol 75:1 2016

  • SAMUELS, JEFFREY

    Buddhist Disaster Relief: Monks, Networks, and the Politics of Religion [53-74] Vol 75:1 2016

  • BHATTACHARJEE, MALINI

    Sevā, Hindutva, and the Politics of Post-Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction in Rural Kutch [75-104] Vol 75:1 2016

  • MCLAUGHLIN, LEVI

    Hard Lessons Learned: Tracking Changes in Media Presentations of Religion and Religious Aid Mobilization after the 1995 and 2011 Disasters in Japan [105-137] Vol 75:1 2016

  • MIICHI, KEN

    Playful Relief: Folk Performing Arts in Japan after the 2011 Tsunami [139-162] Vol 75:1 2016

  • FOUNTAIN, PHILIP

    Mennonite Disaster Relief and the Interfaith Encounter in Aceh, Indonesia [163-190] Vol 75:1 2016

  • FEENER, R. MICHAEL, AND PATRICK DALY

    Religion and Reconstruction in the Wake of Disaster [191-202] Vol 75:1 2016

  • GRAF, TIM

    Research Note: Documenting Religious Responses to 3.11 on Film [203-219] Vol 75:1 2016

  • In addition, Tim Graf (Heidelberg) produced two short vignettes to accompany the issue. The first documents a new festival at the temple Jōnenji that grew out of temple-based relief efforts after the March 11, 2011 tsunami in northeast Japan, and the second introduces a training program for "interfaith chaplains" that is led primarily by Buddhist priests and is now underway at Tōhoku University in Sendai.

    Asian Ethnology is open source. Please click on the link below and select "Vol. 75" for Salvage and Salvation. Click on the Vimeo links for Graf's film vignettes:

    http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/./asian-ethnology/listofjournals/

  • https://vimeo.com/141396760 and https://vimeo.com/141380269