The past couple of weeks have been filled with all sorts of interesting and important news stories. Here’s our media roundup, where we compile some of the top articles that cover everything from new Osamu Tezuka releases to an intriguing Chinese space mission. Get your fill below:
10/7: Osamu Tezuka’s ‘Under The Air’ and ‘The Crater’
North American publisher Digital Manga Inc. hinted that it will soon publish Osamu Tezuka's "Under the Air" and "The Crater" manga, among others.
“Even though I know intellectually that he was a prolific creator with a career that spanned five decades, I’m always a little shocked at the sheer amount of “new” work from Osamu Tezuka — work that’s never been brought to America despite its creator’s worldwide popularity. Over the past few years, the folks at Digital Manga has been steadily making an effort to collect some of the legendary creator’s more obscure work, and now, they’re back with their latest.
Launching this week on Kickstarter (with a slightly NSFW cover), Digital Manga’s latest campaign aims to reprint Under the Air, with stretch goals including new printings of Melody of Iron and The Crater, following up on the company’s previous campaigns to reprint books like Storm Fairy, Clockwork Apple, and Alabaster.”
10/11: The ‘onsen’ retreat that transformed Natsume Soseki
In 1910 in Shuzenji, an onsen (hot-spring) town, one of Japan's most famous literary authors, Natsume Soseki had an intense near-death experience that affected him and his writing style for the rest of his short life.
“The 'collapse at Shuzenji’ stands at the midway point of that astonishingly prolific period. Soseki’s survival meant that this most precious of literary careers was pulled back from the point of oblivion and given a second act — one that was as equally productive as his first six years, and during which he wrote works such as 'Higan Sugi Made' ('To The Spring Equinox and Beyond'), 'Kojin' ('The Wayfarer') and 'Kokoro.' The key question is: how did the 'collapse' affect the rest of Soseki’s writing career?”
10/14: A hive of sonic activity stirs on Kafka’s Ibiki release
Kafka’s Ibiki, a Tokyo-based band, is putting out some interesting experimental instrumental music.
“There’s something curious happening on 'Nemutte,' the sophomore album by Tokyo-based instrumental trio Kafka’s Ibiki. When it performs live, the group specializes in long, patiently evolving improvisations that occupy a liminal zone between jazz, ambient, minimalism and experimental rock.”
10/18: China launches two-man crew to station module
China launched two astronauts, or “taikonauts,” into orbit for a planned month-long stay aboard the Tiangong-2 – “Heavenly Palace” – space station module, China’s sixth and longest piloted space flight to date.
“Chinese President Xi Jinping sent congratulations to the launch team, saying the Shenzhou-11 mission with Tiangong-2 ‘marks a new milestone in our manned space flight mission in China.’
Tiangong-2 is China’s second experimental space station module, an upgraded habitat with improved life support systems, power, communications and research equipment.
The goal of the mission is to carry out a variety of experiments while testing the module’s critical systems to pave the way toward construction of a large multi-module space station around the end of the decade.”
10/19: Ansel Adams’ photos of life at a Japanese internment camp
Ansel Adams, the brilliant American photographer, visited the Manzanar War Relocation Camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the summer of 1943. These 46 photos poignantly capture life for the 110,000 Japanese Americans who were forced to live and suffer away from their homes.
"Invited by the warden, Adams sought to document the living conditions of the camp's inhabitants.
His photos were published in a book titled 'Born Free and Equal: The Story of Loyal Japanese-Americans' in 1944, with an accompanying exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
In 1965, when he donated the images to the Library of Congress, Adams shared some thoughts on the project:
'The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and dispair [sic] by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment,' he said."