Pitt's Asian Studies Center Declares February Japan in Pittsburgh Month

PITTSBURGH-February is Japan in Pittsburgh month at the University of Pittsburgh. 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 the Japanese culture.

Highlights include the following:

Exhibitions:

Feb. 3 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. Additional prints from the collection are being displayed in the lobby of Pitt's Frick Art and Architecture Building through April 7.

Feb. 17 Pitt Asian Studies Center students will maintain a booth from noon to 4 p.m. through Feb. 18, leading educational activities relating to Japanese culture during a featured 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 are offered each week. For more information, call 412-322-5058 or visit www.pittsburghkids.org.

Feb. 17 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 the Frick Fine Arts Building Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland. 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 &Historical Center's Music for Exhibitions series, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Frick Art Museum auditorium, 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze. 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) begins at 7 p.m. in the Charity Randall Theatre in Stephen Foster Memorial, Forbes Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard, Oakland. The performance is sponsored by Pitt's Asian Studies Center and the Frick Art & 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. 1 Blaine Connor, a Ph.D. candidate in Pitt's Department of Anthropology, will deliver a lecture titled "Can a Public Servant Have a Private Life? Teachers in Nagasaki's Outer Islands," at noon, Room 4130, Posvar Hall,

230 S. Bouquet St., Oakland. 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. 8 Thomas Hare, a professor of comparative literature at Princeton University, will deliver a lecture titled "Songs and Subjects in Medieval Japan" at 2:30 p.m., Room 3504, Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave., Oakland. For more information, call 412-648-7367 or e-mail dakis@ucis.pitt.edu.

Feb. 15 Mae Smethurst, professor in Pitt's Department of Classics, and Richard Smethurst, professor in Pitt's Department of History, will deliver a lecture titled "Tsukioka Kôgyo and the Art of the Noh Theater," at noon, Room 4130, Posvar Hall, 230 S. Bouquet St., Oakland. 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, at noon, Room 4130, Posvar Hall, 230 S. Bouquet St., Oakland. The event is free and open to the public.

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., Room 4127, Sennott Square, 210 S. Bouquet St., Oakland.

Visit www.ucis.pitt.edu/asc for a full listing of events.

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01/31/07/scl