JFNY NEWSLETTER | May 2nd, 2025 🎬 | | Welcome to May! 🌷 For those interested in grants, we have two new opportunities for you, now accepting applications. Plus, check out the latest lineup for JFF Theater, beginning this month. And for those interested in exhibits, a new exhibit hosted by one of our grantees is starting May 10. Read below for more on these and much more. |
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Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us
Part I: May 9-31
Japan Society (New York, NY)
Part II: June 5-29
Metrograph (New York, NY)
With Japan Society and Metrograph, the Japan Foundation, New York is proud to co-present "Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us," a 30-film, 2-part retrospective dedicated to one of the greatest Japanese cinema masters on the 120th anniversary of his birth. This retrospective marks the first in New York for the Golden Age film master in 20 years.
Tickets for both parts are on sale now!
→BUY TICKETS [Japan Society]
→BUY TICKETS [Metrograph]
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Available until July 31 (10pm EDT)
It's time for a new selection of JFF Theater films! These films are divided into special features: Aomori - Threads Across Time, Ishikawa - Hands that Ferment History, Kagoshima - Where Festivals Strengthen Bonds and Okinawa - Soul-Stirring Sounds and Dances.
Featuring:
- Ito
- The Genealogy of Sake
- A Handful of Salt
- Love and the Grand Tug-of-war
- Three Sisters
- Nabbie's Love
In addition to these films, several videos exploring the cultural aspects of these regions more in depth are also available for viewing:
- Ki&Ki: Blending Old and New Sounds With Shamisen
- Aomori Museum of Art
- Traditional Puppet Theater: Bound by Spirits
- Kirishima Open Air Museum
- Ryuku Buyo: Okinawan Soul
- Honensai: Prayers for the Harvest
- Sakurakaza Theater (Okinawa, Japan)
- Nago City Hall - Built Environment
→WATCH NOW
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JFIPP Research Fellowship Applications Now Open!
The Japan Foundation is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Partnership Program (JFIPP Research Fellowship). This program supports international research and collaborative activities that address current and future issues facing the Indo-Pacific region and the wider world.
→LEARN MORE
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U.S.-Japan Community Grassroots Exchange Program Grant Applications Now Open!
Accepting Applications until July 7, 5PM (EDT)
We are now accepting applications for the U.S.-Japan Community Grassroots Exchange Program Grant. This program aims to support the creation and/or expansion of Japan-themed programming and activities for local communities and beyond.
There will also be an online info session on June 4 at 2pm (EDT) to explain the grant in more detail and walk through the application process.
→LEARN MORE
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For Your (Virtual) Shelf: Poetry & Haiku
National Poetry Month may be over, but it's never too late to dive into a good book of poetry! Here are a few of our recommendations for both poetry enthusiasts and novices alike!
📖 MAY VOL. 1 THEME: Poetry & Haiku
📕 MAY VOL. 1 BOOKS:
- A Beginner’s Guide to Japanese Haiku
- By William Scott Wilson
- This comprehensive intro to Japan's beloved haiku poets features 26 poets (including the Great Four: Basho, Shiki, Buson & Issa) and 550 haiku from the 15th century onward
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How to Read a Japanese Poem
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By Steven D. Carter
- A how-to guide for understanding the mechanics of Japanese poetry of all genres and periods, designed for students. Includes more than 200 examples
- My First Book of Haiku Poems
- By Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen
- This award-winning bilingual book is designed for young children interested in haiku and includes poetry both in the original Japanese script and the English translation
Not what you're looking for this time? There are plenty more books of all genres available. Visit the JF USA Digital Library today!
→LEARN MORE
You will need a library card to be able to borrow and place holds for the books in the digital library. Visit the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles website below for instructions on how to get your digital library card.
→LEARN MORE
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From May 10 until August 30
Judd Foundation (New York, NY)
Judd Foundation presents an exhibition of work by Yuji Agematsu. Visitors will see three hundred and sixty-six of zips, tiny devotional sculptures Agematsu fashions from detritus he finds in the New York streets and then gardens inside the cellophane sleeve of a cigarette pack. These zips memorialize his daily walks taken in a year of 2024, one for each day.
→LEARN MORE
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Reflections of a Changing Japan: The Evolution of Shin Hanga
Ongoing until June 29
Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, MA)
Visitors can explore 40 works in this exhibition dedicated to Shin Hanga, a printmaking movement that emerged in early 1900s Japan. Reviving traditional Edo-period techniques while incorporating modern artistic methods and themes, Shin Hanga produced works that are both distinctly Japanese and globally resonant. Many of the pieces on view are being publicly displayed for the first time.
→LEARN MORE
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Shin Ka: Inner Gardens of Reflection
Ongoing
The Japan Information & Culture Center, Embassy of Japan (Washington, DC)
Highlighting the traditional roots and contemporary adaptations of Japanese gardens, this exhibition focuses on the Memorial Healing Garden at Oregon State Penitentiary, designed by renowned landscape designer Hoichi Kurisu. Through photographs, interactive dry landscape gardens, and recorded personal accounts, it amplifies the voices of adults in custody who tend the garden, sharing their transformative experiences.
→LEARN MORE
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On Education
Ongoing until August 17
Amant (Brooklyn, NY)
On Education brings together works by 35 international artists, including Japanese artist Tetsuya Ishida, that approach education from unconventional perspectives. These works offer alternative, more productive methods of education in environments disrupted by endemic underfunding, spiraling culture wars, unsustainable debt, and the lasting impacts of racism and colonialism.
→LEARN MORE
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Japan Night
May 9, 5:30pm
Edison Ballroom (New York, NY)
Next week! Join members of the NYC community for this showcase of modern and traditional Japanese culture the day before the Japan Parade on May 10. This exclusive one-night event will feature performances by the cast of the musical adaptation of the manga, ATTACK on TITAN: The Musical, MIYABI Koto Shamisen Ensemble led by renowned Japanese koto player Masayo Ishigure, and singer-songwriter and former captain of NMB48, Sayaka Yamamoto.
→LEARN MORE
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Image #6 Credit: Yuji Agematsu, Zip: 01-01-2024 – 12-31-2024. Detail, mixed media in cigarette pack cellophane wrapper, 366 wrappers, each approx: 2 1/4 x 2 1/8 x 3/4 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
Image #7 Credit: Yamamura Toyonari (Koka), Dancing at the New Carlton Hotel in Shanghai, 1924, multicolor woodblock print, Stoddard Acquistion Fund, 2000.26. Image courtesy of the Worcester Art Museum.
Image #9 Credit: Installation view of On Education, March 20–August 17, 2025, Amant, Brooklyn, NY. Photo: New Document.
| | For inquiries, please contact: NY_info@jpf.go.jp | | | | |
