SundayArts visits Japan Society for a glimpse of "Fiber Futures: Japan's Textile Pioneers," which showcases the dynamic field of Japanese fiber art.

Through 140 masterworks of paintings, woodblock prints, and books, Designed for Pleasure examines—in the context of Japan’s famous floating world—aesthetic, social, and commercial forces active in contemporary art today: fashion, celebrity, marketing, and popular culture. Ukiyo, literally, “floating world,” means something like “going with the flow.” In practice, this implied disporting oneself in the pleasure [...]

…Continued from Part 1 Shu-Ying Li describes herself modestly as just “a Chinese girl trying to be a Japanese girl.” This week, she is at the end of a run of six performances at New York City Opera in the title role of Madama Butterfly, perhaps the most famous Japanese character in all of opera. [...]