Just over a century ago, as the Spanish flu was raging across Japan, the Bunriha Kenchikukai emerged as the country's first architecture movement. The 100 Years of Bunriha: Can Architecture Be Art? exhibition (running through 7 March at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto) traces the group's short but influential career through a wealth of documents, blueprints, photographs, models, and films. more...

The northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island of Honshu, Aomori has some 3,000 Jomon-period archaeological sites -- even its capital city lays claim to a whopping 400. The prefecture is home to half of the 17 sites in northern Japan that are now under review for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list. In fall 2020 I visited three of these and their affiliated museums, as well as the excellent Aomori Prefectural Museum. There is a staggering body of material still coming from these excavations, which curators and other scholars continue to study and debate for insights into the Jomon: a prehistoric, pre-agricultural society that subsisted across Japan's islands for more than 12 millennia, and whose people created some striking art along the way. more...