SAN FRANCISCO — Manga art is finally reaching a museum in the United States! The first large-scale manga exhibition in the Americas, “Art of Manga” is being held at the de Young Museum in San Francisco through Feb. 1, displaying works by leading Japanese mangaka such as Eiichiro Oda, Rumiko Takahashi and Jiro Taniguchi together as works of art.The event focuses on providing an immersive experience that draws visitors into the world of manga with exhibitions including about 700 original drawings and other items. Rough sketches and tools actually used by creators such as pens and paper are also on display.The exhibition was planned by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, research director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. She said she hopes visitors will recognize the artistic quality and power of manga.Hirohiko Araki and Mari Yamazaki, two of the featured artists, gave exclusive interviews to The Yomiuri Shimbun at the exhibition venue.

There are some unmissable films about Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023) and his music that has been left behind after his death.A prime example is “Opus” (2023), directed by Neo Sora, which shows Sakamoto playing the piano in a studio in Shibuya, Tokyo, in the autumn of 2022, several months before his passing. Every movement he makes as he sits at the piano, every breath he draws and, above all, every sound he makes are rendered unforgettable in this supreme swan song of Sakamoto.“Tokyo Melody Ryuichi Sakamoto” (1985), which will show at theaters in Japan from today, is a 4K restored version of a documentary film created nearly 40 years before “Opus.” It is an old film, but it contains precious portraits of Sakamoto and the sounds in Tokyo, his birthplace, at the time.The film was produced by the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA) and directed by multimedia artist Elizabeth Lennard. At 62 minutes, it is not a long work, but what it depicts is colorful and rich in content. On screen, Sakamoto, then 32, freely talked about the status quo of music and Japanese culture as well as about himself. He was working on his fourth solo album, “Ongaku Zukan” (“Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia”), back then and explained how he created songs for the album.

This year’s winners of the Akutagawa Prize were announced Wednesday in Tokyo. Makoto Toriyama and Ushio Hatakeyama won the Akutagawa Prize.

“Cat carving” is the art of meticulously carving wooden statues of cats that capture their attractive gestures, poses and expressions. The adorable cat statues created by woodcarving artist Makoto Nishi are sure to captivate anyone.

Ten years since Netflix launched in Japan, the streaming platform has ventured into its first Japanese period drama series. “Last Samurai Standing,” whose Japanese title is “Ikusagami,” centers on former samurai who, ousted from society in the early Meiji era (1868-1912), fight for their lives in a deadly game of survival.Junichi Okada, who has taken on three roles in the series — lead actor, producer and action choreographer — recently sat with The Yomiuri Shimbun for an interview and spoke about his passion for period films and dramas.The series has been distributed worldwide exclusively on Netflix. It depicts martial artists and former samurai, displaced societally due to a decree banning swords, who race to Tokyo from Kyoto, killing each other along the way in pursuit of a huge cash prize. Okada plays Shujiro Saga, feared by his peers as a legendary swordman.“I wondered how well I could embody such a powerful samurai, and focused on quality to convey it authentically,” Okada said. Of course, quality must accompany substance. In a scene in which Shujiro duels a mighty opponent, Okada portrays fierce sword fighting at a pace almost too quick for the eye to follow. No editing or filming techniques were used to speed up the action. Instead, “we tried to convey to viewers the sense of how much the fighting was accelerating at a realistic speed,” said Okada.

JAM Project, a group of singers specializing in anime songs (anison), held a series of concerts in Osaka and Yokohama in November to celebrate the 25th anniversary.JAM stands for Japan Animation Song Makers. The unit is led by singer Hironobu Kageyama. The group was launched in 2000 to create and sing theme songs that would fit well with Japanese anime, which is popular around the world. Kageyama and other JAM members have sung the theme songs for various popular anime such as “One-Punch Man” and tokusatsu live-action superhero series including “Garo” and “Tomica Hero Rescue Fire” and “Super Robot Taisen” (“Super Robot Wars”) video games.The other artists that make up JAM are singers Masaaki Endo, Hiroshi Kitadani, Masami Okui and Yoshiki Fukuyama — all talented artists who also have busy solo careers.I attended the first of their two concerts that were held in Yokohama, titled “JAM Project 25th Anniversary Live Final Countdown.” It was a brilliant concert that could only have been executed by veteran singers with a wealth of performing experience. The concerts attracted an audience of about 8,200 in total.The venue was Yokohama Buntai, a big hall that can accommodate several thousand people. Even so, there was no eye-catching set or staging, and there were no big displays on either side of the stage that showed close-ups of the artists’ faces. The place was set up in such a minimalist way that I felt that I had wondered into a huge club that had suddenly appeared in town. Because of that, the songs were overwhelming and moving.