Speaker Series

The Japanese Inspiration for Madama Butterfly

In order to create the opera Madama Butterfly, composer Giacomo Puccini and his librettists, Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, studied Japanese culture through travelogues, printed music, sound recordings, and private study of the koto. Catherine Hughes, Director of Education & Community Engagement at Palm Beach Opera, explores these source materials and the ways the opera’s creators incorporated their cultural explorations into their work. The event includes a demonstration of koto technique by Yoshiko Carlton and a performance of excerpts from Madama Butterfly by a Palm Beach Opera resident artist.

Halloween Weekend at the Morikami

Join us in some spooky fun this Halloween Weekend. Halloween Weekend at the Morikami We encourage visitors to come in family-friendly costumes to join in the festivities. 10:00AM, Saturday, October 28, 2023 Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens 10:00AM, Sunday, October 29, 2023 Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens

Speaker Series: Takuichi Fujii: The Artist and the Person

Joint presentation by Curator Barbara Johns and Art Historian Sandy Kita Speaker Series: Takuichi Fujii: The Artist and the Person Sponsored by JM Family Enterprises Friday, May 5, 2023 Time: 1:00 pm Cost: FREE (with paid museum admission) Tickets are available on the day of the event on a first-come, first-served basis. Limited seating available … Read more

Speaker Series: Washi Textile Prints: Art of Imperfection (Wabi Sabi)

Yuko Kimura is a Japanese papermaker and print artist who celebrates imperfection in her work. She prints etchings onto handmade washi paper and onto antique Japanese book pages riddled with wormholes and stitches them together to form large collages.

Speaker Series: Ghosts, Changelings and Apparitions in Traditional Japanese Tales

Traditional tales are like thumbnail sketches of the Japanese psyche and a glimpse into submerged memories passed down through generations. Many of these stories are explanations of supernatural events that took place in specific locales that people have believed and often still believe to have been true. As tales of the “common folk,” they provide a counterpoint to high literature of individual classic and modern authors.