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Featured image for Key #14: Art and History
Article

Key #14: Art and History

Japanese history defies definition because the winner and the loser might end up being one and the same person!

Featured image for Key #13: Kenbu
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Key #13: Kenbu

Swords were about to become the first and most obvious victim of that legislation. Whether intentionally or not, the new government attempted to throw the baby out with the bathwater

Featured image for Key #12: Swords
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Key #12: Swords

Samurai's perception of the sword, eventually adopted by the whole nation, is best summed up in one short phrase: “the sword is a sacred treasure where a god dwells”!

Featured image for Key #11: Divine Buddies
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Key #11: Divine Buddies

Japan wouldn't be Japan if it didn't choose to combine the best of both worlds

Featured image for Key #10: Selective Irreverence
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Key #10: Selective Irreverence

The point of the project was to create a large number of sculptures depicting Buddha's followers - a time-consuming but hardly challenging task for a fine artist.

Featured image for Key #9: Dolls
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Key #9: Dolls

As a matter of fact, an intricate and completely self-sufficient doll culture has been thriving in Japan for at least 300 years

Featured image for Key #8: The Tale of Genji. Part II - A Thousand Years Later
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Key #8: The Tale of Genji. Part II - A Thousand Years Later

The time-machine presents costumes of the epoch in great detail but it's immediately obvious that the exhibition is about so much more than just costumes.

Featured image for Key #8: The Tale of Genji. Part I - Civilizational Books
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Key #8: The Tale of Genji. Part I - Civilizational Books

The problems, associated with the prescriptive nature of the major religious books, help to shift attention to a different kind of literature known as “literary monuments”

Featured image for Key #7: Food
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Key #7: Food

One might say that Japanese people don't bite their food, they nibble it!