protectivearts

KAGAMIBIRAKI 2022

Mike Napoli introduced the Kagamibiraki celebration to our visitors – this is a celebration of the prior year and an opening of the new. Takumi Suzuki provided the cultural background for the kagami mochi. Stacked rice cakes, kagami mochi, are placed at the ceremonial center of the dojo, the shinzen. Kagami mochi are shaped likeContinue reading “KAGAMIBIRAKI 2022”

Disgust

Molly Young covered the topic of disgust in her December 27, 2021 article in The New York Times Magazine, “How Disgust Explains Everything.” Her protagonist is Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Young’s article is a quick introduction to the topic and Rozin’s work is important as an expansion ofContinue reading “Disgust”

Christmas, 1796

The ghost of Christmas past haunts us. Most of the Christmas traditions we Americans cherish are refinements and reinventions of the late Victorian era: Christmas trees, stockings and carols didn’t much exist before the 1840s. They were formalized during the reign of Queen Victoria, who, with Prince Albert, popularized the decorated evergreen and the domesticContinue reading “Christmas, 1796”