Pitt’s Asian Studies Center Declares February “Japan in Pittsburgh" Month

The Asian Studies Center in Pitt’s University Center for International Studies is cosponsoring a series of programs, lectures, and art programs in February—all of which celebrate Japanese culture.

Highlights include the following.

Exhibitions:

Feb. 5

An art exhibition titled The Prints of Tsukioka Kôgyo will run through April 7 in the Frick Art & Historical Center, 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze. For more information, call 412-205-2022 or visit www.frickart.org.

Feb. 17

Pitt Asian Studies Center students will maintain a booth from noon to 4 p.m. on Feb. 17 and 18, leading educational activities relating to Japanese culture during a program titled Jump to Japan: Discovering Culture Through Popular Art, in the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, 10 Children’s Way, Allegheny Square, North Side.

Jump to Japan runs through May 18. Special classes in such Japanese art forms as marbling, origami, and wood block printing will be offered each week. For more information, call 412-322-5058 or visit www.pittsburghkids.org.

An art exhibition titled Modern Japanese Prints: 1868-1989 will run through April 15 in the Carnegie Museum of Art, 4400 Forbes Ave, Oakland. For more information, call 412-622-3131 or visit www.cmoa.org.

Performances:

Feb. 10  

Katsura Koharudanji will give a free performance of “Japanese Rakugo” storytelling at 1 p.m. in Pitt’s Frick Fine Arts Building Auditorium. This event is sponsored by Pitt’s Asian Studies Center and the University Center for International Studies, as well as the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and the Japanese Consulate of New York. For more information, call 412-648-7367 or visit www.ucis.pitt.edu/asc.

Feb. 13

“Song of the Bamboo and Pine,” a performance in the Frick Art and Historical Center’s Music for Exhibitions series, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Frick Art Museum auditorium. Call 412-371-0600 for tickets and more information.

Feb. 23

A night of Japanese Noh Theater with the double bill Aoi no Ue (The Lady Aoi) and Hagoromo (The Feather Cloak) will begin at 7 p.m. in the Stephen Foster Memorial’s Charity Randall Theatre. The performance is sponsored by Pitt’s Asian Studies Center and the Frick Art and Historical Center. For tickets and more information, call the Pitt Repertory Theatre Box Office at 412-624-PLAY (7529) or visit www.play.pitt.edu.

Lectures:

Feb. 15

Mae Smethurst, professor in Pitt’s Department of Classics, and Pitt history professor Richard Smethurst will deliver a lecture titled “Tsukioka Kôgyo and the Art of the Noh Theater” in 4130 Posvar Hall. This free event is part of the Pitt Asian Studies Center’s Asia Over Lunch Lecture Series. For more information, call 412-648-7370 or visit www.ucis.pitt.edu/asc.

Feb. 23

Noh actor Hisa Uzawa will discuss the life of women actors in a profession that is dominated by men during a free public event at noon in 4130 Posvar Hall.

Feb. 28

Ian Reader, professor and chair of Japanese Studies and director of the Japan Centre at the University of Manchester, will deliver a lecture titled “Dangerous Religion? Cultural Constructions of Religion in Post-Aum Japan and Their Wider Implications” at 4 p.m. in 4127 Sennott Square.

For a full listing of “Japan in Pittsburgh” events, visit www.ucis.pitt.edu/asc.