Fugaku Taiko Concert

The fantastic Taiko performance will be coming to Davidson College!!

January 25th
8:00pm
Tickets $15 non-Davidson college students, $8, Davidson college students.
Davidson College will be selling ticket at Davidson College Box Office starting from December 3rd, 10:00am. Phone number is :704-894-2135. Ticket sale website is:
http://www.davidson.edu/tickets

This incredible taiko drumming ensemble has traveled all the way from the Mt. Fuji area of Japan. Fugaku Taiko, founded in 1977, presents more than 100 performances a year in Japan and around the world. They were also the first taiko group to discover the benefits of taiko therapy for mentally handicapped individuals, and their touring ensemble now features several handicapped players.

Fugaku Taiko's performance is sponsored by the Davidson College Union Board, the Japanese Teachers' Association of Charlotte & Gastonia, and Triangle Taiko.

The performance is made possible in part by the generous support of the Nippon Taiko Foundation. Fugaku Taiko is the first group from the Foundation to visit the Southeastern United States. Don't miss this great opportunity to enjoy the energy and artistry of professional Japanese taiko in your own backyard!

Please spread the word about this fantastic performance!

Please visit this website for more information about Fugaku Taiko.
http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x29125.xml

Thank you very much

Thank you very much everyone for taking this class.
This semester is finally ending soon.
This semester was a very hard one for me.
My life was soooo scheduled and always busy. I made a lot of disorganization and confusion in the classes, then many things didn't work well. So many things made me crazy, and I was always worried about something. I sometimes didn't want to go to class and didn't want to stand and speak in front of the students.
But anyway I hope everything will be fine in 10 days or so.
I'll go back to Japan for about two weeks and hope it's refreshing my mind.
Anyway, thank you again, and see you at the final presentation.
Final presentation is:
December 13th Thursday at 5pm
If you have any question about the presentation, please don't hesitate to call me (704-975-3191). Please don't make some confusion at the last minute on the presentation day. Please call me as soon as possible if you got any problem.

Pictures for Meiji-Heisei Periods

Meiji Emperor
























Kido, Takayoshi (or Katsura, Kogoro)


























Saigo, Takamori


























Okubo, Toshimichi


























Okuma, Shigenobu


























Itagaki, Taisuke


























The 1st Prime Minister Ito, Hirobumi (on 1000yen bill)













U.S.President Theodore Roosevelt


























Taisho Emperor


























Prime Minister Okuma, Shigenobu


























Prime Minister Hara, Takashi


























Showa Emperor


























Showa Emperor with Douglas MacArthur


















Prime Minister Yoshida, Shigeru


























Prime Minister Sato, Eisaku with Richard Nixon



























Prime Minister Ikeda, Hayato



















Prime Minister Tanaka, Kakuei with Richard Nixon

Ikebana Project by Kathryn & Ha

This is our extra credit flower arrangement assignment. Everything we used with the exception of the ornamental flowers came from the UNCC campus. Everything is real ... and free!

This is Kathryn's moribana style.

"I ran into a thorn bush for this!"

This is mine.

Yatta!

Spring and Autumn themes.

This project was really fun! ikebana wo sugoi desu yo! It was fun looking for the plants and then putting them together. We bought 2 ornamental flowers from Harris Teeter, and rummaged and pilfered through UNCC's bushes for the rest... don't report us, onegai!

We did think about using fake flowers but those cost money and the free ones are easy to get. Free is a price we're willing to pay.

We'll return the kenzen to you next class, Shoji sensei.

cold

i got cold. i need to get better coz im going for a ski trip next week.
i remember a few years ago i went for a ski trip although i was having a cold.
it was the worst ski trip. on the first day, it was raining, so we couldn't ski. second day, i didnt ski much coz i was so sick. additionally i got a speeding ticket on the way there. it was the third ticket within almost jsut a month. the cop pulled over me for only 10 miles over, damm it, cops are everywhere. (sorry if any of you are cops.) i had to go to driving class, and i had to cancel a japanese class for that.
i think canceling class is more often in japanese colleges than here in america.
also, some book said professors are avaragely coming to the class 14 min late and finish the class 14 min early. isn't that nice?
anyway i have to get better from this cold. i'm going buy some medicine. i wanna enjoy sking/snowboarding in the thanksgiving break. then after the thanksgiiving, the semester is almost over. that's great. i'm going back to japan this winter.
i'm spending new years day in japan after 6 or 7 years. i'm looking forward to it.

Kurosawa

i guess many people didn't like the movie "throne of blood" from last week, then i saw a review saying, "I was somewhat creeped out by the old man spirit and Isuzu Yamada's black teeth." haha.
the married women were supposed to paint their teeth black since very old time period. the teeth of some Haniwa (sculptures to protect the spirit of the dead kings in Kofun Period) were black. this custom remained until the Meiji Period.
anyway this movie and its director, Kurosawa are highly rated in the movie fans in the world.
but actually many young japanese people have no interest in kurosawa movies. sometimes it's funny that the people who are famous worldwide are not too famous in their native countries. a friend of mine traveled to England and tried to talk about an English mystery novelist, Agatha Christie. The British people she met didn't know very much about Christie. Also, I saw one of the greatest athletes in the Olympics, Carlton Lewis saying on TV that he is treated as a hero in Japan, but few people recognize who he is in America.
i wonder why?

Throne of Blood Review from David Quigley

I am a fan of Shakespeare, so I was curious to see how this film did with adapting the story of Macbeth to Japan. I should have known that Kurosawa would come through, as he always has. The movie was beautifully made, with Kurosawa giving a nod to the Noh theater that obviously influenced his direction. It is a tragedy that ends with the death of a character who was a victim of his weakness and surroundings. He was lured into a false sense of security by the ghost telling him that he would come to power, only to be deceived by his wife and her tricky ways. We get to witness a good character go bad and eventually somewhat insane. I actually liked Mifune's character, even though he did some terrible things. In the end, though, when his own archers turn against him, Mifune's character is brought down dramatically (which would be expected in Noh theater). His bad acts, in a karmic sense, caught up with him and all of his lust for power was all for nothing as he died as a result of it. Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. I think Mifune is a fantastic actor and Kurosawa is always at his best. The story was tragic and haunting, but perfectly adapted from Shakespeare to Japan.