NATIONAL MUSEUM TO HOLD OSHOGATSU: NEW YEAR'S DAY FAMILY FESTIVAL ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, 2008

The Japanese American National Museum will open 2008 with its annual “Oshogatsu: New Year’s Day Family Festival” and also will close its popular exhibition, Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden(, on Sunday, January 6, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Little Tokyo. The public is invited and admission is free.

"Oshogatsu: New Year’s Day Family Festival" will be highlighted by performances, arts and crafts geared for families and special activities created by Giant Robot magazine, which focuses on Asian pop culture and art. The National Museum currently has installed Giant Robot Biennale: 50 Issues, which brings together contemporary artists with association with the magazine, which marked the occasion of its 50th issue. This exhibition, which drew a record 2,700 people to its opening, will close on Sunday, January 13, 2008.

Set to perform as part of the oshogatsu program is Eth-Noh-Tec, a San Francisco-based interdisciplinary theater company that combines spoken word and precision choreography. Eth-Noh-Tec’s Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo will present various folktales and stories of ancient Asian mythologies at both 1 and 3 p.m. The subject matter is suitable for kids of all ages.

Other activities include creating your own daruma puppet and learning to make a special origami for New Year’s. Families will also be able to take their own Polaroid to be part of the Museum’s community New Year’s card. All materials will be supplied and volunteers will be available to help in each activity. These activities, among others, will be held from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Oshogatsu (the New Year) is the most important occasion in Japanese culture. Much preparation is done beforehand, including a thorough cleaning of homes, the paying of debts and the completion of tasks or projects. The New Year marks a number of firsts for each individual and their families, including first meals, often eating food related to good health, and first visits to their temples. Individuals also make resolutions for the coming year. Traditionally, the National Museum has marked the New Year with arts and crafts and performances on the first Sunday of the year following New Year’s Day.

Landscaping America tells a core Japanese American story. Gardens were among the first forms of Japanese culture to gain popularity in the United States, but as Landscaping America reveals, West Coast Japanese Americans made gardening into a viable vocational niche while reinterpreting Japanese garden traditions which contributed to the diversity of the American landscape. Japanese American gardeners were the backbone of many Nikkei communities throughout the West Coast. Opened in June of 2007, Landscaping America has been extremely popular to the Museum’s Japanese American members, who often were themselves gardeners, are related to gardeners, or know people who worked as gardeners. Some visitors have come from out of state to see the exhibition.

For more information, call the Japanese American National Museum at (213) 625-0414.