Roberto beneath a textile reproduction of Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa Please introduce yourself. Hello! My name is Roberto Gómez. I’m from Mexico and I moved to Boston in 2019. In 2021 I joined the JSB community and, since 2024, I host JSB's film club. What is your connection to Japan? As any average kid back in the 80’s, I watched several animated cartoons created by or produced by Japanese creators and studios. I wasn’t aware of this connection yet. Then, I attended a...

By Isabel Hurwitz, Intern Spring 2026 “The Son Also Roses” from King of the Hill - Season Seven, Episode Six –“This one’s pretty.” –“Not according to the book.” –“But I like that mine’s a little off-center, it’s got wabi-sabi.” Is natural imperfection beautiful? For some time now, an audio clip from the animated series King of the Hill has been taking over platforms like TikTok, mentioning wabi-sabi as a part of an argument about beauty. The audio became so popular that it sparked a trend...

By Danielle Cochran, Volunteer Lafcadio Hearn in 1889 Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, who went by Lafcadio, was born in 1850 on the Greek island of Lefkada, his namesake. The second of three sons, his Irish father Charles Bush Hearn was a surgeon in the British army and his Grecian/Maltese mother was Rosa Antonia Cassimati. At the age of 6 he was brought to Ireland and his parents eventually divorced and his father remarried. Hearn and his brother were sent to live with separate relatives at 7 years...