sake brewery

More sake photos – this time of a fantastic brewery in Chiba. The sake-kura is called Terada Honke. Many thanks to photographer and friend Everett Kennedy Brown for the introduction.

The special thing about the brewery is  their completely traditional methods. They use organic rice and natural sake yeast that lives in the walls and air of the brewery.

Like other sake breweries they mostly make sake during the winter months, but I was lucky enough to catch them preparing a small batch. This rice had just been steamed.

Here it is transferred to a cedar-wood lined room.

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Japan Sake Fair

The annual Japan Sake Fair at Ikebukuro Sunshine City must be the best kept secret of the alcohol world. 3000 yen for all the sake you can drink, from all over Japan, and the best sake in Japan to boot.

On the plus side I had a free press pass. On the minus side, I was supposed to be taking pictures so couldn’t indulge quite as much as I’d like!

The fair was on two floors. Downstairs were about 500 sakes (yes, 500) lined up for tasting. A lot of the people here looked pretty serious – maybe sake sommeliers, or brewers scouting out the competition.

Something I only realised this year was that the real action is upstairs. There were stalls from each of the prefectures in Japan (except Kagoshima, which is the only prefecture without a sake brewery, I’m told). They all had sake you could sample.

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The Seiko-Epson Micro Artist Studio

The Micro Artist Studio in Nagano prefecture is where Seiko-Epson make their Sonnerie luxury watch. I was up there for a story earlier this year.

Each Sonnnerie costs 15.7 million yen and is made from 630 parts over 12 months.  There are 12 “micro-artists” in the workshop but all the watches are assembled by this man:

Until this job I didn’t know that Epson (or rather, Seiko) started off making watches. Apparently that’s where all the precision technology they use in their printer nozzles etc started out.

They also make other Spring Drive watches up in Nagano. (The Spring Drive is a rather complicated hybrid mechanical quartz mechanism). Many of the watchmakers are women. I was told they are more patient and dexterous than male artisans.

This guy really looked the part:

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Miso photos

One of the best things about being a journalist are the tit-bits of knowledge pick up along the way and which can really enrich your life.

This story I recently did on miso is a good example. I’m not sure I’d ever had proper miso before, but I doubt I’ll be able to go back to the 400 yen supermarket kind again.

This is a picture of Kousuke Ishii of Ishii Miso in Nagano. (Nagano prefecture is famous for miso and produces about half the miso consumed in Japan).

Their miso costs 3 to 5 times the ordinary kind. It is made from organic Japanese soy and matured for up to three years in these barrels. The company only sell through their factory shop, to people taking tours of the factory, and by mail order.

Best miso I’ve ever had.

If you want to check out miso in Tokyo, try Sano Miso, who have their main shop in Kameido. The is the CEO of the shop Masaaki Sano.

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Hosoe Eikoh exhibition

Something special to announce today. The June exhibition at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan is no less than THREE sets of photos by world-renowned photographer Hosoe Eikoh. (It runs from 30 May to 27 June. Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert blogged on Saturday’s opening party over at Tokyoland.)

One important thing to mention is that the exhibition would not have happened without FCCJ member Henry Scott-Stokes, who wrote a wonderful biography of Mishima Yukio and introduced Hosoe-san to the club.

I’ve already met some fantastic photographers through organizing the FCCJ exhibitions, but Hosoe-san is one of the leading figures of post-war Japanese photography. I feel privileged to be involved, and thoroughly inspired.

The Ordeal by Roses prints were produced by Hosoe’s son Kenji, who is an expert in platinum printing. Hosoe told me that Mishima never blinked during the photoshoot.

Here is a short text I wrote for the exhibition.  Please check out the photos  if you can.

Ordeal by Roses (Barakei)

“Between 1961 and 1962 Eikoh Hosoe took a series of portraits of Yukio Mishima at the novelist’s Tokyo home. In the most famous the novelist clutches a rose in his teeth. The dramatic tone of this series perfectly captures the author’s menacing theatricality. Yukio Mishima eventually committed suicide by seppuku in 1970.”

(images ©Eikoh Hosoe)

Embrace

“In Hosoe’s 1969 to 1970 series of black and white nudes, “Embrace”, the very light and dark of the photographic print becomes a metaphor for the joining of male and female bodies. With an unflinching attention to the raw physicality of human flesh, Hosoe presents a work of rare erotic force. The introduction to the work’s first appearance in book form was written by Yukio Mishima.”

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Tokyo used camera shops

A while ago I posted on shops for new camera kit in Tokyo. Here’s the companion to that, a short list of my favorite used camera shops in Tokyo. But before I get started, a caveat:

Please bear in mind that this is a very subjective list; these are just places I’ve been recommended or stumbled across. I have bought and sold at some, but not all, and apologies if I have missed somewhere important.

5 shops, in no particular order . . .

1) Fujiya Camera, Nakano

Nakano was Tokyo geek central before Akihabara, and it has some of the best hobby shops in Tokyo, including cameras. There are several Fujiya shops in a small area. The biggest one has used cameras on the second floor. Check out Mandarake while you are in Nakano. No cameras, but everything else you could imagine!

2) Sanpo Camera, Meguro

Sanpo is the most inconviently situated of this list, but I suspect that is the point. They are VERY cheap. I’m not so sure about their used cameras, but they kitted me out with a new DLSR kit not so long ago for much less than anywhere else I could find. A favourite of pros.

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Geisha “image rights”

This is something I came across a few months ago and have been meaning to post on since.

The manga above is a bilingual PR magazine published by the “International Hospitality and Conference Service Association”. I’m not quite sure what the purpose of that organization is, but its office is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I found the magazine in my pigeon hole at the correspondent’s club.

As well as articles on bonsai, English haiku and an interview with the First Secretary of the Greek Embassy, there was a two page manga about a Kyoto maiko called “Ookini Maiko chan”. The bit above gave me a surprise. I suspect this is a gentle attempt by the Foreign Ministry to educate non-Japanese about “image rights” (肖像権) in Japan.

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Seeking Photographers

Tokyo Photojournalist welcomes applications for photo exhibitions at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan in Tokyo (FCCJ). I am the current chair of the exhibition committee.

To cut a long story short, the club doesn’t have a budget for prints, but we do have simple frames and the month long exhibitions are free of charge. So if you already have large prints or are prepared to make some, you are ready to go. We also host a small opening party and offer free membership for the duration of the exhibition. (The FCCJ is a private club, but the exhibitions can be viewed by non-members if they tell reception when they arrive).　 Read the rest of this entry »

An explosive assignment

Question: How do you launch a 120cm diameter, 420kg “yonshakudama” fireworks shell – the largest in the world?

Answer: Spend a year making it, bury a length of ex-oil pipeline in the ground, insert the shell, blast it 800 meters in the air, make sure spectators stay nearly a kilometer away, watch and enjoy.

Question: How do you photograph the factory where the shells are made?

Answer: Pretty much the same as normal except . . . I was instructed . . . not use flash in case it sets off explosive dust floating in the air.

One of the more anxiety-inducing assignments I’ve had of late.

This is a picture of Masanori Honda, the CEO of Katakai Enka Kogyo a major Japanese  fireworks maker. His company  produces possibly the world’s largest firework, certainly the largest circular shell. He’s standing next to it giving it a friendly pat. [a replica, luckily]

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Afghanistan photos at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club

The May exhibition at the FCCJ is by Gianni Giosue, a news and documentary photographer based in Tokyo. (Thanks Gianni for letting me post them here!).

Gianni took photos at the “Mobile Mini Circus for Children”, an NGO that provides education and fun for children in Kabul. I think the photographer had some fun with these too judging by bright colours and dramatic compositions.

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calling all English teachers in Japan

Are you an English teacher in Japan? Fancy becoming part of the Natural History Museum in London?

Tokyo-based artist and photographer Gary Mcleod is photographing English teachers in Japan as part of a project for the museum. When I met him last week he told me he was aiming for over 100 people, so there may be space yet.

You can contact him through his website, which has an impressive slide-show of English teacher photographs.

When I first saw the photos I’d assumed he had created the patchwork effect in Photoshop using a single image. In fact, he used a “hybrid” camera of  Nikon D70 and a 19th century lens, spent 20 minutes shooting the required number of frames for each portrait, then digitally stitched them together later.

The camera is quite a piece of work. Gary told me he just walked into a second hand camera shop and asked “how do I fit these together?” The staff rustled about in a back room for a while then pulled out the necessary bits and bobs. Only in Japan!

I heard the title of his project, “Privilege” has ruffled some feathers. It seems that not all English teachers agree that its a “privilege” to come and work in Japan. As an ex-English teacher myself though, I have to say it was a privilege to come to Japan, get a good salary despite having little experience or qualifications, and then spend all day talking and learning about Japan. You might disagree.

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The fight against “Paris Syndrome”

Here’s a fun photo story from the Reuter’s blog. A group of Japanese expats in Paris are helping tidy the city in an attempt to ammeliorate the symptoms of “Paris Syndrome”.

According to Wikipedia, Paris Syndrome is:

“a constellation of symptoms primarily affecting mood which affects visitors working and vacationing in Paris, France.”

Basically, Japanese women who grew up reading  Palace of Versailles set manga and watching films like Amelie arrive in Paris to have their illusions instantly shattered by cigarette-butt littered streets and narky waiters.

Some vistors are driven to nervous breakdown. In 2006 the BBC reported that the Japanese embassy in Paris had to repatriate four tourists with a medic on the plane to help them in their distressed state.

I’ve always suspected a corresponding Tokyo Syndrome actually, people who come expecting servile robots and nymphomaniac women (or perhaps the reverse).

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multimedia commuter hell

Old photos and new media! Apologies to people who have seen some of these photos on my blog before. This is a set of photos I shot a while ago. The originals are in my archive.

I’ve converted them to B&W, plugged them into Soundslides, and added a soundtrack surreptitiously recorded on the Keihin-Tohoku commuter line.

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local flower festival

I was out in the park with my son this afternoon and came across this! It’s the local “sakurasaoh matsuri” – as written on the pink lantern.

My landlord says that our local area used to belong to sakurasoh (Japanese primose) growers. During this festival – the primoses are in bloom now – a portable shrine is carried past the old flower growing houses, and through the park.

What a perfect setting and perfect day. A few sakura trees were in full bloom: a late flowering variety.

I’ve been using my D200 as a back-up/home snap-shot camera ever since I upgraded to the D700. This was with the Tokina F4 12-24. Not bad at all. The Tokina is pretty fuzzy in the corners at F4 but the reds and greens are really vibrant.

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James Whitlow Delano exhibition at the FCCJ

This month’s exhibition at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Tokyo is by James Whitlow Delano.

I met James an FCCJ exhibition a few months ago and he very generously agreed to show his photos at the club. He’s a renowned photojournalist with a unique style, not to mention a great guy to work with. Here’s some of his very recently published work.

He’s based in Tokyo but spends much of his time travelling around the world. He uses – and only uses – a Leica, 35mm lens and black and white film.

(If you are interested in how James got where he is today, there’s a great interview on Digital Journalist. James turned down Harvard for photography, worked with Annie Leibovitz and Paul Jasmin in the US, then upped sticks to Japan, bought a Leica M2 and worked as a English teacher while building his photojournalism portfolio.)

This photo is of the aftermath of Cylone Nargis series, the storm that devastated Myanmar last May. The photos are on display in the main bar. They were were taken in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone. As he told me while we were hanging the exhibition,: “I saw more death that day than I’d seen in my life before”.

From the exhibition notice:

“On 2 May 2008 Cyclone Nargis, a category four storm, slammed into Burma’s (Myanmar) Irrawaddy River Delta which had received little or no warning to prepare by the government controlled media. The wind, rain, and 3m high storm surge took the lives of 130,000 mostly women, children and the elderly. Nargis severely affected at least 1.4 million people, crippling the former capital of Yangon. The government prevented desperately needed international aid entering the country in the aftermath.

By midnight, the windows of the Rangoon hotel room rattled violently. By 2am, trees could be heard snapping in two and tumbling down, some of them a century or more old. At dawn, a wicked wind sent sheet metal panels, torn from rooftops flying like newspapers but trailing sparks down the street. The next six days, were spent south by small boat down into the core of the storm zone.”

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