Anna Matsushita

 When I was young, I came across with a picture of two entertainers in Medieval Japan, called Kusemai dancer, and Shrabyoshi.   They were one of the prominent street performers in Medieval Japan, and they were mentioned in a book called “Seventy One Songs on Craftsmen", illustrating various craftsmen which was established at the end of 1500’s   Here is the link to the original painting of Kusemai dancer and Shirbyoshi. (On the bottle left) 狂言・能楽の歴史｜文化デジタルライブラリー (jac.go.jp)   (Kusemai dancer on the left, Shirabyoshi on the right )   能・世阿弥｜文化デジタルライブラリー (jac.go.jp) So, what are Kusemai dancer and Shirabyoshi ? Kusemai, also known as Mai-Mai (Roughly translated as "dance, dance") is a male street dancer, usually paired up with a singer, and dance while holding a folding fan. Shirabyoshi is a female dancer dressed in men’s clothe and sing song while dancing. Kusemai | the-Noh.com | Noh Terminology Shirabyōshi - Wikipedia   In a book of “Seventy

  One of the things which many of us missed during the COVID restriction might be a chance to go out and see arts and entertainments. I had a chance to go to Roppongi in Tokyo during the spring of 2021. Before going there, I vaguely heard about the name of an artist called Murakami Takashi. He is a Japanese contemporary artist, and his unique drawings were said to be quite renown among younger generation across the world. The characters he creates are painted in bright colours, very pop and catchy. At Roppongi, Mr. Murakami was organizing an art project called “ Ropongi Hills Takashi Murakami Project ”. Apparently his gigantic installation of humanoid flowers were among one of them. I saw the installation on some of SNS, thinking it must be impressive. Having actually faced with it, it indeed was an impressively large statue. I needed to look from a distance to see the entire structure. Many young people were taking photographs, and I sneaked in. I love this kind of project, which the

One afternoon in February, I met one of my friend in Yokohama for a lunch. It was just the day after I turned down a job offer from an organization in Tokyo. I initially informed my friend a good new of being offered a position. However, my instinct told me not to take that offer, as the people I met at the interview seemed so unhappy, frightened, hollow and lethargic. I know that I should take any chance, but meeting these people simply put me off and I wasn’t excited to receive the job offer at all. I met my friend at a restaurant and informed my decision. He has been helping me through the past months, introducing to various job agents and giving me plenty of advice when changing job. He is a cheery chap who is quite talented manager in banking and insurance field with lots of experience. I wanted to meet him, to get better influence from a successful person. Furthermore, I wanted to catch up with him as we haven’t met about 5 years or so. He suggested to meet at a restaurant which

  After spending a day at office doing nothing constructive but cancelling businesses, I was too exhausted. I treated myself a quick stop at a coffee shop. There, I saw on SNS with a strange figure of monster or mermaid-like creature. 『肥後国海中の怪(アマビエの図)』（京都大学附属図書館所蔵） Photograph courtesy of the Main Library, Kyoto University - Amabie The figure was called Amabie, which is believed to be a spirit or mermaid ( or maybe a merman ) , and said to have been discovered by local official in Kumamoto in Southern Japan about 150 years ago. According to Wikipedia,  legend has it as follows : According to legend, an amabie appeared in Higo Province (Kumamoto Prefecture), around the middle of the fourth month, in the year Kōka-3 (mid-May 1846) in the Edo period. A glowing object had been spotted in the sea, almost on a nightly basis. The town's official went to the coast to investigate and witnessed the amabie. According to the sketch made by this official, it had long hair, a mouth like bird'