Fujiwara Teika (1162-1241) was a Japanese poet and literary theorist of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. He ranks among the greatest poets in the history of Japanese literature. Teika is best known for verse of haunting beauty and rich symbolism. His ideal of Yoen (ethereal beauty) was a unique contribution to the poetic tradition of Japan.

All of these featured poems are taken from Fujiwara Teika's "Superior Poems of Our Time", translated by Robert H. Brower and Earl Miner, a thirteenth century collection of Japanese poetry. The work consists of a short critical essay by Teika and a carefully arranged sequence of eighty-three poems by other hands. His essay discusses the state of poetry in the early thirteenth century and offers advice and standards for aspiring poets; the sequence of poems teaches the same standards by example.

Despite the title, the poems are taken from the full range of Japanese poetry to Teika's time, with emphasis on the preceding three centuries. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the sequence is its unique construction. As the translators demonstrate in their introduction and commentary, the poems are linked by subtle techniques of association and progression into a unified whole that can be read as a single long poem of more than 400 lines.

books.google.com/books/FujiwaraTeika

Fujiwara Teika is featured in Sanbusaku 1 三部作

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, born 1886 in Tokyo, was a one of the major writers of modern Japanese literature. He studied Japanese classical literature at Tokyo Imperial University from 1908, but dropped out in 1911. Tanizaki is best known for his stories about the influence of the West on the old cultural heritage of his native country, and his depiction of a shocking world of sexuality and destructive erotic obsession in some of his works. His representative works include Naomi, A Portrait of Shunkin, In Praise of Shadows, and The Makioka Sisters.

amazon.com/In-Praise-Shadows-Junichiro-Tanizaki

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki is featured in Sanbusaku 1 三部作

Kazuo Ohno, one of the most inspirational figure in Butoh dance, was born in Hakodate City, Hokkaido in 1906. In 1926, Ohno entered the Japan Athletic College. After graduation, he worked as a physical education teacher at Kanto Gakuin High School. Ohno started to learn dancing with two of Japan's modern dance masters, Baku Ishii and Takaya Eguchi. In 1938 Ohno was drafted into the Japanese Army, and went to the front in China and New Guinea for 9 years. In the 1950s, Kazuo Ohno met Tatsumi Hijikata, who inspired him to develop a new form of dance, which he named the Ankoku Butoh. In 1977, Ohno premiered his solo Butoh work directed by Hijikara, "La Argentina Sho," which became a Butoh masterpiece. Ohno remained active as a Butoh dancer after his 90th birthday. His last overseas performance was "Requiem for the 20th Century" held in New York on December 1999 when he was 93 years old. He was awarded a cultural award from Kanagawa Prefecture in 1993, a cultural award from Yokohama city in 1998 and the Michelagelo Antonioni Award for the Arts in 1999.

kazuoohnodancestudio.com

Kazuo Ohno is featured in Sanbusaku 1 三部作

Miya Ando is a Japanese-Russian/American artist born in 1978 in Los Angeles and raised between a Buddhist temple in Okayama, Japan and coastal Santa Cruz, California. Ando graduated from UC Berkeley and left a Master's in East Asian Studies at Yale to become an apprentice to a master metal smith in Japan. She is a descendant of Bizen sword maker Ando Yoshiro Masakatsu, and honors her lineage by exploring impermanence, transformation and transcendence through metals and light. Ando has exhibited both nationally and internationally. Her work is included at Aldrich Contemporary, the Newhouse Center fro Contemporary Art, the Byzantine Museum in Greece, and in Chapman University's private collection.

Miya Ando currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

miyaando.com

Miya Ando is featured in Sanbusaku 1 三部作

Tokujin Yoshioka is a Japanese designer based out of Tokyo. He is considered one of the most innovative contemporary designers, utilizing unconventional materials to create objects and spaces. His work is in the permanent collections of leading design museums, including MoMA New York, the Victoria and Albert in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Yoshioka studied and worked under Issey Miyake and Shiro Kuramata before establishing his own practice in 2000. He has collaborated with Hermès, Cartier, and Swarovski, and some of his most famous designs include the Honey-Pop Chair, Tokyo-Pop Chair, Venus Chair, and Panna Chair.

tokujin.com

Tokujin Yoshioka was published by Rizzoli New York in October 2010. It was written by Tokujin Yoshioka and Kazuo Hashiba.

Tokujin Yoshioka is featured in Edition: Rizzoli: New York and Sanbusaku 1 三部作

Yukio Mishima, born in 1925, was a Japanese author, poet, actor and film director. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1947 and obtained a position as an official in the government's Finance Ministry. However, he resigned during the first year and became a professional writer. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His major works include Thirst for Love, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and The Sea of Fertility tetralogy. Mishima was also known for his natural bodybuilding and modeling career. He was featured as a photo model in Eikoh Hosoe's Ba-ra-kei: Ordeal by Rose.

egs.edu/library/yukio-mishima/biography

Yukio Mishima is featured in Sanbusaku 1 三部作

Born in 1363, Zeami, also known as Kanze Motokiyo, is one of the greatest playwrights and theorists of Japanese Noh theatre. The modern form of Noh theatre is credited to Zeami and his father, Kan'ami. Zeami is credited with approximately 90 of the existent 230 Noh plays. In 1422, he retired to become a Zen monk, allowing his son to succeed him. He passed away in 1443.

the-noh.com/en/zeami

Zeami is featured in Sanbusaku 1 三部作