Category: Japanese Event

  • Animator Talk – OGAWA Iku: Stop-Motion in Motion

    Animator Talk – OGAWA Iku: Stop-Motion in Motion

    Date: Friday 29 November 2024, 13:00 GMT

    Online talk event hosted on Zoom
    Free to attend – booking is essential
    This talk will be given with British Sign Language interpretation

    Book Your Space Now

    Promotional image for Pokémon Concierge
    ©2023 Pokémon. ©1995-2023 Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK Inc.

    About the Event

    As part of the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival 2024, and in partnership with Japan Foundation London, animation director Ogawa Iku is joining us for a very special talk revealing the behind-the-scenes of stop-motion film-making.

    Giving exclusive insights into the direction and character creation processes of the animated works he has been involved in, such as HIDARI (screened at the 2024 Kotatsu Festival) and Netflix’s Pokémon Concierge, Ogawa will discuss what it is like to work in the Japanese animation industry – don’t miss this rare opportunity to discover its fascinating inner workings!

    This talk will be given with British Sign Language interpretation.

    Screenshot from HIDARI directed by Iku Ogawa
    ©dwarf/Whatever Co./TECARAT

    About Ogawa Iku

    Born in Tokyo in 1988. Completed a master’s degree in animation at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts. He started creating stop-motion animations in graduate school and Joined dwarf studios in 2016.

    His main works are the Netflix series Pokémon Concierge (nominated for the “Best Direction – TV/Media” category at the Annie Awards), the Netflix series Rilakkuma’s Theme Park Adventure (episodes 2 and 5), the NHK Puchi Puchi Anime Akikan no Tsuna (Tuna in an Empty Can), HIDARI (co-directed with Kawamura Masashi), and more.

    Book Your Space Now

  • Koji Yamamura: In The Studio Where Japan’s Leading Animation is Born

    Koji Yamamura: In The Studio Where Japan’s Leading Animation is Born

    Koji Yamamura: In the studio where Japan’s leading animation is born.

    Kotatsu Festival teams up with our partner The Japan Foundation (London) again this year, to offer the opportunity to virtually meet Koji Yamamura, leading creator of Japanese animation such as the Oscar-nominated Mt.Head (2002) and a regular contributor to the UK animation scene, including the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival. Koji returns this year to discuss his stellar career spanning over three decades.

    In conversation with film critic, film-maker, and visual artist, Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, this online event will be an unmissable opportunity for animation-lovers and aspiring makers of animated work to gain a first-hand practical insight into the workings of a successful animation studio.

    Tickets are free but booking is required.

    To attend the event you will be required to use Zoom, so please download and install the Zoom client prior to the date of the event. Once your registration is accepted, we will send you an access code on the day of the event.

    Saturday 15th October from 13:00 (BST)

    Booking Available Here

    Suitable for all ages

  • Japan Day at Cardiff Central Library

    Japan Day Poster - English

    Cardiff Central Library will be hosting Japan Day to celebrate Japanese Culture and Literature on 27th May. Japan Day is organized in partnership with local Japanese community members.

    Lots of activities for all such as Calligraphy, Origami, Manga and Kimono Fashion Show, and much more.

    Please come and experience a taste of Japan!

  • Japan Day at Cardiff Central Library

    Japan Day at Cardiff Central Library

    Japan Day Timetable _25 May 2013_

    Cardiff Central Library will be hosting Japan Day to celebrate Japanese Culture and Literature on 25th May. Japan Day is organized in partnership with local Japanese community members and the Cardiff based Saturday Japanese School in Wales.

    Lots of free activities for all such as Calligraphy, Origami, Haiku, Manga and Language workshops, and much more.

    Please come and experience a taste of Japan!

  • Princess Mononoke the Play

    The New Diorama Theatre in London with the co-operation of Studio Ghibli, Whole Hog Theatre presents the world’s first theatrical staging of Hayao Miyazaki’s renowned animated film.

    Using giant puppets made from recycled materials, visceral, physical storytelling and original live music, Studio Ghibli’s epic ecological fable is re-told for the stage.

    Princess Mononoke is a 1997 epic historical fantasy feature film set specifically in the late Muromachi period of Japan but with numerous fantastical elements. The story concentrates on involvement of the outsider Ashitaka in the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans of the Iron Town who consume its resources. There can be no clear victory, and the hope is that relationship between humans and nature can be cyclical.

    Dates and Ticket Prices
    Tuesday 2nd – Saturday 6th April, 19:30.
    Saturday Matinee @ 15:30.
    £13.50 / £11 (Concessions)

    Unfortunately due to popular demand, the play is already sold out!!

  • Hyper Japan

    The UK’s biggest J- Culture event Hyper Japan is being held at Earl’s Court in London. This event features Animation screenings, Cosplay, Japanese Street Fashion Show and much more.

    Professional Calligrapher and Kendo master Yukiko Ayres will be giving demonstrations of Joudo, Kendo, and Calligraphy. Joudo is a type of martial arts which uses a wooden stick called Jo or wooden sword.

    Yukiko will be attending Hyper Japan on the following dates.

    24th February　Jyodo　17:00 ~ 17:30
    25th February　Kendo　12:00 ~ 12:30
    25th February　Kendo　17:00 ~ 17:30
    25th February　Jodo　 15:00 ~ 15:30
    26th February　Jodo　 15:00 ~ 15:30

    On Sunday 26th Yukiko will be supporting the Calligraphy Workshop which is organized by the Japan Society.

    Please come along and enjoy a sense of Japan.

  • Japanese Saturday School 30th Anniversary Concert

    Our Festival Steering Committee member Midori Matsui, MBE is organizing a charity concert to celebrate 30th anniversary of The Japanese Saturday School, Whitchurch, Cardiff.

    The event will take place on Saturday 18th February 2012 at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm), at the Canton Uniting Church, Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff, CF5 1LQ.

    On the bill are Saya Okada (Piano), Yuta Tsubone (Clarinet) and Robert & David Childs with the Cory Brass Ensemble.

    Tickets are £10 (£8 concessions),  children under 14 can get tickets for just £5.

    Tickets are available from:

    Midori Matsui 029 2069 1803 / 07791 805 710 or gwyrdd@ma.kew.net.

  • Invitation to a Kamishibai

    Kamishibai, made from the two Japanese words for “paper” and “drama”, is a form of Japanese storytelling, originally from the Japanese Buddhist temples of the 12th century. Usually a storyteller sits behind or to the side of a small, free standing stage, while pictures on the stage are used to tell a story. Each picture has writing on the back, to be read out over each subsequent picture.

    Picture of Maki Saji performing her kamishibai
    Maki Saji performing her kamishibai

    We would therefore like to invite you to a series of Kamishibai events taking place in Southampton and Cardiff in September, presented by Maki Saji, a 24yr old nun from the Myozoji Buddhist Temple at Izu Peninsula in Japan.

    There are 4 dates as follows:

    19/09/11 University of Southampton 5:30pm
    21/09/11 Wales Millennium Centre 12:30pm
    22/09/11 Caerleon Town Hall 7:30pm
    24/09/11 Canton Uniting Church, Cardiff 7:30pm

    The tickets are free of charge, but please book in advance to avoid disappointment.

    Enquiries should be made to:

    Suiohkai at qwyrdd@ma.kew.net or
    Telephone 029 2069 1803.

    The event poster can be viewed or downloaded HERE.

    Tower of a Thousand Cranes

    Statue of Sadako Sasaki in Hiroshima
    Statue of Sadako Sasaki in Hiroshima

    The story being told is called “Tower of a Thousand Cranes” and recounts the tale of Sadako Sasaki who, at the age of two, was one of the many children whose world was pulled apart by the atomic bomb raid on Hiroshima in 1945. Though she had been left uninjured by the explosion, she died of leukaemia 10 years later. In 1953, when she was hospitalised, she started making 1000 origami paper cranes, praying that her wish would be granted for good health and a full recovery. She died however, two years later at the age of 12.

    The Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima, also known as the Tower of a Thousand Cranes, was unveiled in the Peace Memorial Park in 1958 as a memorial to Sadako Sasaki, and stands today as a silent symbol for peace and harmony. The monument houses a 9m bronze statue of Sadako holding a golden crane over her head. The monument gathers over ten million cranes each year, and innumerable colourful cranes adorning the walls have now become a symbol for peace all across the globe.

    To enable more people to know about Sadako, Maki Saji created a kamishibai based on the story and the 1000 origami cranes, and she has presented it around the world.

    Her message is simple: to highlight the misery and futility of war, and the importance of life itself.

  • Shonen Knife

    Live Review – Buffalo Bar, Cardiff, 21st August 2011

    Shonen Knife may not be a name you’ve heard much before, but they have been around since 1981 and have achieved worldwide renown with coverage from the likes of the BBC via DJ John Peel. They are an all-girl pop-punk trio, heavily influenced by bands such as The Beach Boys and The Ramones. In fact they have just released a cover album called ‘Osaka Ramones – A Tribute to the Ramones’ as a tribute to their favourite band, and featuring classics such as ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’, Rock’n’Roll High School’, ‘Rockaway Beach’ and ‘Sheena is a Punk Rocker’. Perhaps their most famous fan, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, is quoted as saying:

    “When I finally got to see them live, I was transformed into a hysterical nine-year-old girl at a Beatles concert.”

    Kurt Cobain, Nirvana

    Celebrating 30 years of continued success, Shonen Knife set out on a UK tour and played the Buffalo Bar in Cardiff on Sunday 21st August 2011. The first support band were Super Cute Voices hailing from Aberystwyth, and being very reminiscent of quirky Japanese popsters Polysics went down quite well indeed. Next up were Cardiff based Victorian English Gentlemen’s Club, an experimental three piece band. When they got a groove going these were very good, but sometimes they were a little too segmented dropping out to a weird tempo section almost for the sake of experimenting.

    Osaka Ramones
    Osaka Ramones Album

    At last Shonen Knife took the stage and it seemed that’s what everyone was waiting for. Immediately the crowd pushed forward and there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air. They kicked off with the usual “Konnichiwa”, which immediately got the crowd going and within seconds everyone was smiling and dancing, an atmosphere which got better and better as the gig went on. Shonen Knife have an extremely infectious stage presence, with bass player Ritsuko sporting the biggest smile ever for the entire gig, and new drummer Emi generally being happy and energetic throughout.  It is very difficult not to end up smiling, and loving every minute.

    Free Time
    Free Time Album

    They also played at Buffalo Bar back in August 2009, a point which lead singer Naoko raised during introductions, stating that they enjoyed it so much they wanted to come back. So keep an eye out for them, you will not regret it.

    Find out more about Shonen Knife on their official website at http://www.shonenknife.net.

  • Japan Charity Craft Fair Report

    We would like to report that Japan Charity Craft Fair held yesterday in Caerphilly was a great success. We had lovely weather with lots of people turning up, and we raised £320 pound, this goes to  Save the Children Japan Appeal and also Muslin Square Project. Thank you so very much for all your support for children and parents who were effected by disaster in Japan. We had lots of fantastic stalls such as Amigurumi artist greenpixey, local artist Steve John, handmade cards by  Vanessa Feuillade, local artist who makes personalized dolls Itsameedoll and so on.

    The most popular event was a Japanese Calligraphy demonstrations by London based artist Yukiko Ayres. This was a very rare chance for people in Wales to see professional Japanese Calligraphy. People were gathered around Yukiko  all the time and asked to write their names in Japanese. It was very nice of Yukiko to come down to Caerphilly to show her support.

    Lots of children lost their parents and family, and because of the severe damage of the tsunami and the long term effects of radiation, people in the disaster area need long term support. So please keep thinking about Japan, and supporting them.