Word: kitagawa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
These, like the doings of sumo wrestlers and high-class prostitutes, gave a rich subject matter to 18th century graphic artists like Suzuki Harunobu, Kitagawa Utamaro and the theater caricaturist Toshusai Sharaku, whose image of the actor Otani Oniji III playing a samurai's manservant, all red-rimmed eyes and stylish snarl, is a deliciously succinct expression of fictive bloody-mindedness. Through the medium of prints, the range of things that could be depicted widened to take in all Japan. Katsushika Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji and Ando Hiroshige's Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido...
...dean of Hong Kong's ivory trade. He has never been to Africa, and the only elephant he has seen was in the Paris zoo. Yet he is a major conduit for ivory entering both Hong Kong and Japan. In February he helped Tokyo's largest trader, Koichiro Kitagawa, purchase nearly five tons of Sudanese ivory for $1 million from another Hong Kong dealer. In 1987 he engineered the purchase of 26 tons of Congo ivory by the Osaka trader Kageo Takaichi. The $3.5 million shipment contained 2,052 tusks...
...many as 30,000 Japanese draw their living from ivory -- as traders, carvers and merchants. But the import trade is controlled by a few. Two men, Takaichi in Osaka and Kitagawa in Tokyo, have accounted for as much as half the ivory entering Japan in recent years. Kitagawa, 47, is a stern man who presides over an industry in turmoil. He was twelve when he was introduced to what has been his family's business for nearly a century. His showroom, scanned by video cameras and kept moist by humidifiers, features a towering ivory pagoda and cases filled with ornate...
Only once has Kitagawa been grazed by the ivory scandals of Africa. That was four years ago, when he paid millions for 30 tons of ivory bearing Ugandan documents. The papers were false. Kitagawa says he believed the documents were valid and trusted the ivory's seller, whose name he no longer remembers. There is no evidence that Kitagawa violated any laws, but the rules allowed him to purchase ivory that had been confiscated or whose origins in Africa were lost in the myriad transactions between that continent and Japan. Under "country of origin," some of the export permits...
...than three months, the Japanese were not officially informed that Hirohito suffered from cancer until after he died. Within moments of the death announcement, mourners converged on the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. "Since he fell ill, I've been praying every day for his recovery," said office clerk Yuko Kitagawa, 32, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm just sad." The National Police Agency mobilized 15,000 police to patrol the Imperial and Togu palaces. Many flags flew at half-staff; others were adorned with black ribbons. Japan's stock and bond markets, regularly open on Saturday, were closed. Government...