2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven, the world-renowned German composer of so many masterpieces everyone knows, including the all-familiar Fifth Symphony with its infamous phrasing and his three major sonatas Pathétique, Moonlight, and Passion. In the first part of this article, we explore the life and roots of this master of classical music.

Located in the Harajuku-Omotesando area, the Ota Memorial Museum of Art is known for its extensive collection of ukiyo-e woodblock prints. The museum is popular with ukiyo-e lovers both in Japan and overseas, and now its official Twitter account is gaining ever more followers for its detailed explanations of the museum’s pieces and introduction of prints featuring charming animals and adorable children. In 2020, the museum’s Twitter page gained a great deal of attention when it tweeted the Kanai anzen o mamoru Junishi no zu (Twelve Animals to Protect the Safety of the Home) （The production year unknown）, an amalgamation of the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac, as a prayer for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mirai e no Manazashi (“gaze toward the future”) Performance was presented on September 15, 2019 by Inclusive Field for Dance at Ushigome Tansu Kumin Hall in Shinjuku City. Inclusive Field for Dance is a nonprofit organization that engages in creative expressions while respecting each other’s individuality regardless of age, gender, body size, or disability. It holds a regular twice-a-month activity centering around its members who engage in creative work and exchanges along with visitors and other experienced participants. The group also holds performances around Japan and abroad as well as workshops at various locations including educational institutions.

Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo (TOKAS Hongo) presented a lecture and tour entitled “Learning and Experience: History of Hongo Through Architectural Tour ” on February 8, 2020. Participants selected by lottery learned about the history of Hongo as they walked the neighborhood’s streets and toured the local architecture, guided by WADA Nahoko, architect and founding member of Access Point: Architecture – Tokyo, which plans and conducts architecture tours in Tokyo.

Well-versed in a diverse range of disciplines that include not only painting, but subjects from medicine and biology to physics and engineering, the quintessential Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci came to be known as the universal genius. Though even today in 2019, 500 years after his death, much remains shrouded in mystery, he has clearly had immeasurable influence through the respect he gained from artists and scholars alike.

Takashi Yanase is known as the father of the popular anime character Anpanman. Yanase’s 100th birthday was marked in 2019 with a commemorative exhibition and the announcement of the first recipient of the Yanase Takashi Cultural Award honoring conscientious art activities for children.

SUPER OPEN STUDIO is an annual event held in the area around Kanagawa Prefecture’s Sagamihara, a city that is home to a number of art colleges, which began in 2013. During the event, studios in and around the city open their doors to the public. We spoke with Masaya Chiba, one of the SUPER OPEN STUDIO founders and this year’s director, and Yukiko Oyama, this year’s director.

Outdoor x Art x City: Trolls in the Park is held in Nishi-Ogikubo, a Tokyo neighborhood that is home to numerous small shops and lush, natural parks. The event features an array of artwork and performances by both Japanese and overseas artists in the streets between Zenpukuji Park and Nishi-Ogikubo Station. Held November 3 (Sunday, national holiday) to 23 (Saturday, national holiday), the work of 55 art groups were focused on the 2019 theme, “whispers.”

Yasujiro Ozu was a film director who consistently depicted the evolvement of Japanese families. His movies are grounded in his own aesthetic sense regarded as “Ozu-cho” (Ozu tone), and are characterized by compositions shot from low camera angles and quiet dialog. This column will discuss this filmmaker who had many uncompromising particularities.

The Edo-Tokyo Museum, located in Tokyo’s Ryogoku, reopened in the summer of 2019 following the renovation its two performance halls. The halls have been redesigned to give all audiences, regardless of age, gender, or disability, the opportunity to enjoy traditional Japanese performing arts. To commemorate the reopening, the museum staged the Edohaku-Yose Special, an extra-special version of the Edo-Tokyo Museum Vaudeville regularly held in the museum’s Permanent Exhibition Room, in the renovated Large Hall. We were on hand to experience the inaugural performance, Rakugo and Noryo Sumiyoshi Odori.

For today’s interview, we will focus on crowdfunding as a topic “on money for creating and presenting work.” We talked with Takeshi Otaka, the head of MOTION GALLERY, a crowdfunding platform geared toward supporting creative endeavors.

Shopping Street connects the Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station to the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. It was in this location that the Fukagawa Shiryokan-dori Shopping Street Cooperative Association began the Scarecrow Contest in 1998. Why did this take place in Kiyosumi-shirakawa, an area that has no connections to farming? We asked Toshihiro Wakebe, the man who started it all, about the event’s history.

Known for works such as A Wanderer’s Notebook and Floating Clouds, Fumiko Hayashi (1903-1951) was a writer who lived from the Meiji to Showa periods. Today, the house where she spent the later years of her life hosts the Hayashi Fumiko Memorial Hall. In order to preserve the building, only a part of the atelier wing and the garden are usually open to the public, but three times a year, guided tours are organized to provide visitors with an opportunity to explore the interior of the house.

A conspicuous force in yoga (Western-style Japanese painting) during the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras, Ryusei Kishida was a solitary figure, greatly influenced by modern French painting and focused on developing his own style of yoga painting. Following a path that was anything but straight, Kishida gradually found his unique style as he moved closer to the secrets of the world of painting.

Each year in July and August, the Tobacco & Salt Museum in Sumida-ku holds its interactive exhibition, Summer Holiday Exhibition for Children. The exhibition’s theme this year was “gifts from the sea,” a popular exhibit visited by crowds of children. We report on the fun and educational displays regarding salt, as well as the daily hands-on workshops conducted throughout exhibition.

Now, it’s time to play, a 2019 exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, features works by six artists that combine to create a fun and exciting experience for adults and children alike. Immerse yourself in art that plays like a game; get lost in a piece designed like a maze. It may just be the curiosity and ideas born from the act of play that delivers the creativity to pull us out of this era.

A leading German composer of operas in the 19th century, Richard Wagner sought to elevate the drama in opera over the music, in contrast to Italian operas, which highlight the skills of the female opera singer. Toward this end, Wagner composed theatrical works and constructed his own theater to stage his dramas. Here we present a few episodes that reveal Wagner’s passion for music and drama, earning him a loyal base of enthusiastic fans in his own day and to the present.

The Artists’ Survival Methods column introduces facilities and initiatives that are useful to young artists. This segment begins a series exploring the struggles that students who want to be artists face, featuring a round-table discussion among art university students and alumni. The discussion was moderated by Akinori Kishi, who in researching the paths taken by students after graduating from art programs has interviewed nearly 100 art and music university students, graduates, and faculty members. The main opinions shared at the round-table follow.

The National Theatre is the place to see such traditional Japanese performing arts as Kabuki and Bunraku puppet theatre. It is here that each year in June and July the Japan Arts Council hosts a program to help viewers appreciate Kabuki, featuring performances with supplementary explanations that are easy to understand even for first time audience members. On June 17, 2019, as part of this year’s program, the council hosted Discover KABUKI—How to Appreciate Kabuki in English, as well as its first Kabuki Workshop for Foreigners.

Giacomo Puccini was one of the most prominent composers of Italian opera active in the late 19th century through early 20th century. His depictions of ill-fated heroines through sweet, enchanting melodies have to this day continued to captivate opera fans around the world. In this section, we look at the fascinating aspects of Puccini who brought many enduring masterpieces into the world.