Events (archived) – Writers in Kyoto

Event Reminder: Authors Susan Ito and Suzanne Kamata in Conversation (July 27th)

WiK Admin — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 04:32:04 +0000

Several years ago, Susan Ito and Writers in Kyoto member Suzanne Kamata were co-fiction editors of an online journal called literarymama.com. Now they meet again in Japan, where they will discuss Susan’s recently published memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, about being a biracial individual raised by adoptive Japanese American parents, and finding her Japanese birth mother and white birth father’s families.

Susan will read a few brief excerpts. Both authors will also speak about writing in general, as well as Susan’s connection to Japan, and there will be plenty of time for questions. There will also be a reading by students accompanying Susan 30 minutes before the main talk begins.

Event Details:
■　Date and Time: July 27th (Saturday), 2:00pm~4:00pm
■　Venue: Ryukoku University Omiya Campus, East Building, Room #302
　　(Google Maps Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pJrXp4xcakTfcjnh7)
■　Participation Fee: Free

More details can be found in our original event posting here.

Sign-up Link for Talk with Allen Weiss, Author (Sunday, May 19th)

WiK Admin — Fri, 10 May 2024 22:29:36 +0000

Allen S. Weiss will talk about his forthcoming book Illusory Dwellings: Aesthetic Meditations in Kyoto (Stone Bridge Press) https://www.stonebridge.com/catalog/illusory-dwellings

◆Date: Sunday 19th May, 5.30 pm~

◆Participant Limit: 20

To reserve your spot, please access this link:
https://chouseisan.com/s?h=2d35264c4f4c42b79e2ef2f8b75f3be0

Click “Add Attendance”. Then enter your name and be sure to click the check mark before clicking “Submit”.

Your participation will not be counted if the check mark is not selected.

Once the number reaches 20, even though it is still possible to input names on the signup page, it will not be possible to participate.

If your name is included in the first twenty people on the list with a check mark, your spot is secured.

◆Venue: Robert Yellin Yakimoto Gallery

(Robert’s gallery is located near Ginkakuji, close to the start of Philosopher’s Walk. For access see the following link, the bottom right corner of which is headed “Download Our New Location Map”.
https://japanesepottery.com/about-us/gallery-tour/)

Long-term Writers in Kyoto member Allen Weiss has a particular interest in the aesthetics of Kyoto, a city which he considers his second home. A lecturer and researcher for New York University/Tisch School of the Arts, he counts amongst his specialties aesthetic and performance theory; experimental performance; landscape architecture; gastronomy; and sound art. He has written several books touching on Kyoto, and his forthcoming publication also features the city.

Also see this link on the Writers in Kyoto website:
https://writersinkyoto.com/…/10/news/19-may-allen-weiss

This event is BYOB but please be sure to remove any rubbish you create.

July 27: Susan Ito on writing

John Dougill — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:05:00 +0000

Susan Ito (author of I Would Meet You Anywhere) in conversation with Suzanne Kamata

Time: Saturday, July 27, 2024, 2:00-4:00PM

Place: Kyoto Ryukoku University, Omiya Campus, East Building, Room 302 (Building 10 on the link below.)
https://www.ryukoku.ac.jp/english2/about/access/omiya.html

(As an opening act, Ito’s students from Northeastern University will share some of their writing generated in Kyoto.)

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The critically acclaimed Susan Ito will be accompanied on her visit to Kyoto from northern California by students on her writing course. Susan specialises in memoir. Managing the event will be our own Suzanne Kamata, also a memoirist and well-known to WiK for her many articles and award-winning book. This will be a special chance for members to interact with others who have a keen interest in writing.

The presenters write that, ‘Several years ago, Susan Ito and Suzanne Kamata were co-fiction editors of an online journal called literarymama.com. Now, they meet again here in Japan, where they will discuss Susan’s recently published memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, about being a biracial individual raised by adoptive Japanese American parents, and finding her Japanese birth mother, and white birth father’s family. Susan will read a few brief excerpts. They will also talk about writing in general, and Susan’s connection to Japan, and there will be plenty of time for questions.’

The following is taken from an interview by Leslie Lindsay in the Hippocampus Magazine ..

“Susan is a ‘hanbun-hanbun’ (half-and-half) Japanese-Caucasian writer adopted at just several months of age by a Japanese couple in New Jersey. Her mother, in her Bronx accent, often said ‘the place you came from, where you got you ;’ Susan knew she was adopted, but she didn’t know anything about her birth parents.

Susan’s work has appeared in The Writer, Growing Up Asian American, Choice, Hip Mama, Literary Mama, Catapult, Hyphen, The Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and has been awarded residences at The Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook, and the Blue Mountain Center. She has performed her solo show, The Ice Cream Gene, around the U.S. Susan lives in Northern California and teaches at Mills College/Northeastern University, and Bay Path University.”

June 16: Words and Music

John Dougill — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 03:38:31 +0000

This year’s Words and Music summer event is being organised by Rebecca Otowa.

The event will be held at Gnome Bar, Kyoto, near Kawaramachi Nijo on Sunday, June 16, 2024, 6-9 pm.

Since the staff at the bar have asked to be informed of the numbers of people, please RSVP to Rebecca before May 20 if you wish to attend. An email will be sent out to members before that as a reminder. There will be a menu list with options for ordering beforehand as has been the case previously.

WiK is looking for people to perform with readings or music at this event. People who wish to perform, please email Rebecca or contact her by FB Messenger if you are on that.

PS Dues for next year will be payable at this time, as the event marks the deadline for payments. If you wish to pay in person, please make sure to bring along Y3300, preferably in an envelope with your name.

Mark Richardson giving a reading of his poetry at a previous Words and Music event in The Gnome

Lawrence Barrow and other members of the audience listen to the wartime words of Zen masters

Lisa Wilcut on Translation

Rebecca Otowa — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:30:49 +0000

ZOOM TALK on SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers International)
March 22, 2024
Report by Rebecca Otowa

Lisa Wilcut and covers of the original book and her translations

Last night I joined 25 people from around the world, mostly Japan, to hear WiK member Lisa Wilcut talk under the title of “What it Takes to Bring a Picture Book to Life in Another Language”, about her translation of Akira wa Akete Ageru, a children’s book by Shinsuke Yoshitaka. Members will recognize Lisa from her able handling of Zoom talks in WiK, but she has many other strings to her bow, as evidenced by this talk.

Yoshitaka’s work, especially his cute illustration technique, is familiar to readers in Japan. Lisa’s translation is in both UK and US versions, and the US version – I Can Open It for You – was the subject of this talk, which focused on the translation of Japanese onomatopoeic words into English.

This is the charming story of a little boy who has to ask his mother and father to open packets and bottles for him, and dreams of a day when he is bigger and will have his own business opening all kinds of packages for everyone. The sound of the opening packages, bottles, boxes, etc. is rendered in Japanese onomatopoeic words, which we all know are very idiosyncratic. How did Lisa come up with the English for Japanese words such as Pa -! and Ri-ri-ri-ri! ? Well, she invented a lot of them by listening to the actual sounds of opening and trying to render them in English spelling. Some had repeated vowels or consonants (e.g. “pssht” for a can of soda) to make the sounds longer if the opening sound was long, or “swop” for a short sound like a soy sauce bottle opening.

When the little boy imagines having a magic wand to open larger things, Lisa generally went with more familiar onomatopoeic words in English, such as “zap”, “ping”, or “boom”. She even started to rhyme the words and imagined them building in a crescendo to the ultimate opening, which shows the little boy in space opening the entire Earth in his imagination.

There were one or two typically Japanese pictures, which were seen as universally understandable – for example, a man dressed as an oni (monster or demon) whose mask opened to show he was not scary at all.

The whole talk, in which Lisa shared her experience of rendering sound words into English, reminded me of MAD Magazine’s Don Martin, who was a master of the onomatopoeic word in English, and of the old TV show Batman, which had sound words to suit the action like “Wham!” and “Bop!” written right on the screen in imitation of the words in comic strips, usually decorated with red and yellow flashes of lightning, jagged borders, etc.

There were some very good questions, and the talk was attended by Rico Komanoya, editor of the actual book, and some other familiar (to me) faces, including Avery Fisher-Udagawa from SCBWI and Lynne Riggs from SWET. The emcee was Susan Jones of SCBWI.

Thanks to Lisa for permitting this event to be covered by WiK, and to SCBWI for hosting.

April 14: Simon Rowe

John Dougill — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 23:55:24 +0000

In-conversation with Simon Rowe, Sunday, April 14, 2024 — 3pm – 5pm

(Room for up to 10 people in David Duff’s house/library)

Simon Rowe grew up in small town New Zealand and big city Australia when orange Fanta came in glass bottles and AM radio was king. Based in Himeji city, Hyogo, he has been penning travel stories, screenplays, blog posts, short and long fiction for well over two decades. His writing has appeared in TIME (Asia), the New York Times, The Paris Review, CNN Traveller, South China Morning Post, and The Australian. His short fiction includes Good Night Papa: Short Stories from Japan and Elsewhere, as well as the 2021 Best Indie Book Award winner, Pearl City: Stories from Japan and Elsewhere. His newest work, Mami Suzuki: Private Eye (Penguin, 2023), follows the adventures of a Kobe single mother private detective across western Japan.

Simon will cover:

Travel writing: the early days
Self-publishing short fiction: writing processes, crowdfunding and marketing
Pitching a proposal to Penguin Random House
Signing with a literary agent
Working with PRH: publisher vs author roles (blurb hunting, social media etc.)
Surviving four literary festivals and a book tour of India

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Participants: 8 persons, WiK members only (plus Simon Rowe, David Duff and John D)

Registration: A link to the registration form will be provided to WiK members by email.

Place: David’s house is located north of Shimogamo Shrine just off Shimogamo Hondori, near the Ippon Matsu bus stop. See directions below.

From Demachiyanagi walk across Shimogamo Shrine and proceed north along Shimogamo Hondori to the last traffic signal before Kita-oji. Turn right and walk less than five minutes to a bridge over a small stream running towards the shrine. The house is first on the left. (Any problems on the day, ring 080 4028 3158.)

19 May – Allen Weiss

John Dougill — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 13:16:27 +0000

Sunday 19th May, 6.00 pm, at Robert Yellin’s gallery

Allen S. Weiss will do a reading from his forthcoming book Illusory Dwellings: Aesthetic Meditations in Kyoto (Stone Bridge Press) https://www.stonebridge.com/catalog/illusory-dwellings

Long-term member Allen Weiss has a particular interest in the aesthetics of Kyoto, a city which he considers his second home. A lecturer and researcher for New York University/Tisch School of the Arts, he counts amongst his specialities aesthetic and performance theory; experimental performance; landscape architecture; gastronomy; and sound art. He has written several books touching on Kyoto, and his forthcoming publication also features the city. For an account of a previous talk for WiK, please see here and for more about his books click here or here.

To learn more about Robert Yellin’s gallery, see here.

Talk with Everett Kennedy Brown (February 18th, 2024)

Karen Lee Tawarayama — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 03:54:57 +0000

Nine people gathered at Writers in Kyoto member David Duff’s house/library (quite impressive!) in Shimogamo to listen to a talk by the noted photographer Everett Kennedy Brown. Aside from his unusual and beautiful collodion wet-plate photography, a technique from the 19^th century, he has written several books in Japanese including “Archaic Future” (ひとつながりの記憶), a collection of images from the Izumo region which began as a tribute to Lafcadio Hearn, and 京都派の遺伝子, a look at the arts of Kyoto through images and talks with eminent Kyoto artists and thinkers. He is presently working on a book in English, Kyoto Dreamtime.

Everett’s talk ranged widely from childhood experiences related to Japan (his father told him stories about bicycling around Japan as a member of the Occupation Forces after World war II) to his immersion in Shugendo training methods, including standing under waterfalls, sometimes at night, when he had spiritual experiences which allowed him to intuit energies from past ages in Japan, to his writing, including why he writes in Japanese and how this “opens the intuitive areas of the brain” (from his website). His talk concluded with a flourish on the shofar, an instrument made from an animal horn sacred to the Jewish people, which for me was connected with his experiences blowing the conch shell which is inseparable from the image of the yamabushi (mountain priest).

His talk hinted at various other interests, including organic farming, echolocation (the way human beings may locate themselves in their environment by sound), new ideas in neuroscience, and time travel. Any of these could be a talk on its own.

Everett’s website includes images of his monochromatic photographs, which are remarkable for their attention to depth of field and evocative quality of bringing to a dark, brooding life the soul of Japan as he sees it.

The gathering extended past the planned time of two hours, with John Dougill presiding and asking Everett some questions about his work, and plenty of time for participants to ask questions both formally as part of the talk, and afterwards informally.

Thanks very much to Everett Kennedy Brown for speaking on so many interesting topics, to David Duff for opening his home to us, and to Karen Lee Tawarayama for organizing.

John Dougill had prepared many questions for Everett

Everett prepares to play the shofar

For details about Everett’s photojournalism, artwork and writings, see his website here.

For his Ted Talk on landscape and memory, see here.

The Voices in Rocks, the first chapter of Everett’s novel Kyoto Dreamtime, can be read at this link of the Writers in Kyoto website.

Event Announcement: Timon Screech (January 21st)

WiK Admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 05:58:00 +0000

Photo from SOAS website

Members and Followers of Writers in Kyoto are cordially invited to join Timon Screech for a presentation on the topic New Light on Nikkō: The Cult of Tokugawa Ieyasu as Great Avatar.

January 21st, 2023 (Saturday)

16:30 ~ 18:00 (Doors open at 16:15)

Ryukoku University Omiya Campus, East Hall, Room 208 (approx. 10 minutes on foot from Kyoto Station’s Central Entrance and next to Nishi Hongwanji Temple) [Google Maps ; Building #10 in the image below]

From the Ryukoku University Website: Omiya Campus｜Location & Access｜About｜Ryukoku University　You, Unlimited

Free for paid members of Writers in Kyoto. For other participants, a one-coin donation of 500 JPY at the door would be appreciated.

*Please RSVP if possible by clicking on this link and entering the names of people who plan to attend.

—————————————
Courtesy of Wikipedia….

Timon Screech FBA (born 28 September 1961 in Birmingham) was professor of the history of art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London from 1991 – 2021, when he left the UK in protest over Brexit. He is now a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto. Screech is a specialist in the art and culture of early modern Japan.

In 1985, Screech received a BA in Oriental Studies (Japanese) at the University of Oxford. In 1991, he completed his PhD in art history at Harvard University. As well as his permanent posts, he has been visiting professor at the University of Chicago, Heidelberg University, and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and guest researcher at Gakushuin University and Waseda University in Japan, and at Yale, Berkeley and UCLA in the USA. His main current research project is related to the deification of the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu, in 1616-17, and his cult as the Great Avatar.

In July 2018 Screech was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).^[1] Screech’s work had been translated into Chinese (Taiwan and PRC), French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish and Romanian. His leisure interests are aleurophilia, learning Burmese, and cultivating the former Kingdom of the Ryukyus.

Published work includes

2020: The Shogun’s Silver Telescope: God, Art & Money in the English Quest for Japan (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
2020: Tokyo before Tokyo: Power and Magic in the Shogun’s City of Edo (London: Reaktion Books & Chicago: Chicago University Press)
2011: Obtaining Images: Art Production and Display in Edo Japan [London: Reaktion Books & Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press]
2007: Oranda ga true: Ningen kōryū no edo bijutsushi [The Dutch Are Passing: Edo art and the exchange of persons]. Tokyo: [University of Tokyo Press].
2006: Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 978-0-203-09985-8; OCLC 65177072
2006: Edo no igirisu netsu [Britain in the Edo Period]. Tokyo: Kodansha. ISBN 4-06-258352-6
2005: “Pictures, the Most Part Bawdy: The Anglo-Japanese Painting Trade in the Early 1600s”, Art Bulletin. Vol. 87, No. 1, pp. 50–72.
2005: “Introduction”, Japan Extolled and Decried: Park Oeter Thunberg and the Shogun’s Realm. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
2005: Japan Extolled and Decried: Carl Peter Thunberg and Japan. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 978-0-7007-1719-4 (cloth); ISBN 978-0-203-02035-7 (electronic)
2003: Sex and Consumerism in Edo Japan. In: Consuming Bodies: Sex and Consumerism in Japanese Contemporary Art. London: Reaktion Books.
2002: “Dressing Samuel Pepys: Japanese Garments and International Diplomacy in the Edo Period”, Orientations. Vol. 2, pp. 50–57.
2002: “Erotyczne obrazy japonskie 1700–1820”. Universitas Kraków. ISBN 1-86189-030-3
2002: “The Edo Pleasure Districts as ‘Pornotopia’”, Orientations, Vol. 2, pp. 36–42.
2001:”The Birth of the Anatomical Body”, Births and Rebirths in Japanese Art. Leiden: Hotei Press.
2001: “The visual legacy of Dodonaeus in botanical and Human Categorisation”, Dodonaeus in Japan: Translation and the Scientific Mind in Tokugawa Japan. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
2000: The Shogun’s Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760–1829. London: Reaktion Books. (London). ISBN 1-86189-064-8.
1998: Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Imagery in Japan, 1720–1810. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 1-86189-030-3.
1997: Edo no karada o hiraku [Opening the Edo Body]. Tokyo: Sakuhinsha. ISBN 4-87893-753-X.
1996: The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-46106-5.

8/1 Zoom with Rebecca Otowa

WiK Admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2021 00:14:02 +0000

SUNDAY AUGUST 1, 2021
8:00-9:00 pm Japan Time

coming home far from home: meet the memoir writer’s series II

Interview with Rebecca Otowa, author of AT HOME IN JAPAN, hosted by Goshen Books

Free and open to the public

To reserve your spot: hello@goshenbooks.com

(The following originally appeared on the Goshen Books website)

Rebecca Otowa was born in 1955 in California, and at age 12 moved to Australia with her family. After graduating BA (Hons. Japanese Language and Literature) from Queensland University, she received a scholarship to study in Japan and went to Kyoto in 1978, abandoning her first preoccupation, orchestral music. She graduated MA (Japanese Buddhism) from Otani University and thereafter never left Japan.

While a student, she met Toshiro Otowa, an engineering student who was besotted by Australia, and with each other’s culture as a bond, they started dating and were married in 1981.

In 1986 the little family, which now included two sons, moved back to his ancestral home in Shiga Prefecture, adjacent to Kyoto, and set up housekeeping with his mother. Rebecca has lived there ever since, writing, drawing, teaching English, working in her garden, and participating in various local groups.

To date she has published three books, At Home in Japan (essays, Tuttle 2010), My Awesome Japan Adventure (children’s book, Tuttle 2013) and The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper (short stories, Tuttle 2019). All are illustrated by the author. She has also painted over 50 pictures of various genres, and held 2 shows (2015 and 2019).

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To learn about the artwork of Rebecca, see this page.
For the report of a lunch talk by Rebecca, click here.

Kai Fusayoshi exhibition

John Dougill — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 08:58:32 +0000

Up now near the Kamogawa delta on the west bank of the river there are some large boards exhibiting black and white photos by local photographer, Kai Fusayoshi. whose name will be known to many because of his involvement with Honryado coffee shop and Hachimonjiya bar. The blown-up photos cover the side of a building selling plants called Tanegen and were originally part of the Kyotographie exhibition in October, 2020.

The event follows Kai’s previous outdoor exhibitions, over 20 in all, dating back to 1978. On former occasions, the Tanegen owner’s son would sit outside roasting yams, and it would be a gathering spot for prominent scholars, musicians, streetwise students and middle school girls. Policemen and the homeless would drop by to check if they could find themselves in the photos.

The photos also acted as background to events by the river, such as a Black Tent Theater performance, popular singers Goro Nakagawa and Wataru Takada, and a talk by the Buddhist nun and literary figure, Jakucho Setouchi.

As well as the walls of Tanegen, the Kyotographie exhibition took in the small Benten Shrine next to the plant shop plus the sidewalks at the east end of Kawai Bridge.

In years past, according to the exhibition notes, the Kamogawa Delta was repeatedly flooded and the surrounding houses washed away. Nonetheless it was an important transportation hub, marking the southern end of the Saba Kaido (Mackerel Road). Along with the fish, other products such as rice and other goods arrived here from the town of Obama in the north of Kyoto Prefecture.

In the Edo times cheap inns lined the streets and there were lodgings for travellers and migrant workers. It was indicative of the way Kyoto has had to regenerate itself after disaster.

About the photographer
After dropping out of Doshisha University, Kai Fusayoshi has spent over 50 years photographing everything about Kyoto. Born in 1949, year of the Ox, he was instrumental in setting up Honryado, the noted alternative cafe and intellectual hub of the 1970s. (It was sadly burnt down a few years ago.)

In 1977 he held his first photo exhibition, and in 1985 he opened a bar in Kiyamachi called Hachimonjiya that became the haunt of academics and artists. He has produced over 40 publications with themes like Alleys of Kyoto, Beautiful Women of Kyoto, Children of Kyoto, and Kyoto Neko Machi Blues. In 2009 he won the Kyoto Art and Culture Award.

(Apparently the present exhibition was part of an autumn Kyotographie event featuring ten artists in fourteen venues. This included the Demachi Masugata Shopping Arcade, in which is located the Delta Kyotographie’s permanent space.)

Open mike with Ken Rodgers

John Dougill — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 11:51:42 +0000

Ken performing at the WiK year-end Words and Music party in December

At WiK’s Words and Music bonenkai on Dec 8, long term resident Ken Rodgers delivered the following piece. One time organiser of Kyoto Connection and managing editor of Kyoto Journal, Ken has been instrumental in enriching the expatriate experience for those living in the ancient capital.

_________________

The Pillowbook of Moe Uzumasa
Getting behind a microphone reminds me of a time back in the early 90s, when I had a brief but illustrious career as a pirate radio DJ at Shinchihaya, David Kubiak’s community space up in the forest on Yoshidayama – now a secluded café called Mo-an.

Mounting a short antenna on the roof, David wired up a totally illegal micro-FM transmitter. I had a few LPs and was running a little monthly writers group there called the Word Exchange — also emceeing Kyoto Connection, so I was nominated to be DJ for its initial, and probably only broadcast.

Songwriter/busker Richard Goodman starred as ‘live guest.’

Due to the elevation, one listener heard us down in Fushimi.

We were pioneers.

Later Seibu Kodo at Kyodai set up a legal local mini-FM station. As I remember, David and Kathy suggested the name of the corporate FM Kokoro, when it started up.

Tonight I was planning to read you another pseudo-Buddhist sermon about dog-nature, elephant-nature, Buddha-nature and human nature. But since reading Chris Mosdell‘s new book, The Radicals, which is packed with historical tropes of classical Kyoto, I started looking for more present-day references to Kyoto culture, which is clearly still morphing.

Naturally enough, I thought of the Kyoto Municipal Transportation Bureau and its Get On! Kyoto City Subway campaign. ….Of course.

Mainly due to the extreme expense of full-scale archaeological surveys on every new development, by 2010 the subway had a budget deficit of 8.6 billion yen.

With 300,000 riders per day, they desperately needed an additional 50,000 passengers.

The solution? The super-cool subway and bus-tripping anime-style subway girls: Moe Uzumasa, Misa Ono, Saki Matsuga, Moe’s big sister Rei Uzumasa, and a clan of supporting characters.

So I’d like to introduce to you

The Pillowbook of Moe Uzumasa

Like Sei Shonagon, Moe loves making lists:

Things that Seem Close, but are Distant

The moon, over Higashiyama.

Harry Potter World at Universal Studios, in Osaka

Things that Seem Distant, but are Close

College entrance exams.

The fans who donated 10,422,000 yen for our 12-minute Subway Girls animation, Chikatetsu ni Noru.

Things Not Worth Doing

Traveling by Keihan, or Hankyu lines.

Not that I’d even think of doing that myself, but I hear they have some “premium cars,” that are absurdly modernistic, and others that are just hideously old-fashioned.

Things That Suck

Junior-high kids with no stuffed toy mascots hanging off their schoolbags.

Junior-high kids with ridiculously huge stuffed toy mascots hanging off their schoolbags.

My agent, for never letting me wear my pre-ripped jeans and L.A. vacation T-shirt in public.

Things That Really Suck

Being 17 years old ever since 2011.

That elderly gaijin who follows me around. Grey beard, red monkey face; elbowing his way through closing doors, leaning over my shoulder to see what I’m texting.

He just has no idea of subway etiquette.

Once he even asked me which was my favorite platform.

I said ‘Line.’ We all use it.

He just looked at me, like I hadn’t aced my Eiken test 5 years straight, and said,

‘Um, which station?’

I was like “Oh, FM Kokoro,” and he laughed and wrote that down, the idiot.

No-one under 50 listens to radio anymore.
______________________

For other pieces by Ken, see this travel article, or this D-Day memoir, or this celebration of Kyoto Journal’s 30th anniversary.

Preston’s Villanelle

John Dougill — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 23:04:57 +0000

The following poem, a contemporary take on the Californian Dream, was delivered at the 2019 bonenkai by Preston Keido Houser, who followed it up with a shakuhachi piece in lighter vein.

A villanelle is a fixed-form poem consisting of five tercets and a quatrain and follows a specific rhyme scheme using only two different sounds.

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At land’s end there’s not much to hear
Lamentations of a blood-soaked legacy
Hymns of a haunted hemisphere
The severed scalp a poisonous souvenir
That punctuates a psychotic reverie
At land’s end there’s not much to hear
Where once the glee of corporate cheer
Now the anguished cries of a doomed destiny
Hymns of a haunted hemisphere
Wailing women silenced by war profiteer
Frantic families imprisoned by poverty
At land’s end there’s not much to hear
Where once a hectic hope of frontier
Now the hush of extinguished epiphany
Hymns of a haunted hemisphere
Fueled by a frenzy of consensual fear
And this-land-is-your-land hypocrisy
At land’s end there’s not much to hear
Hymns of a haunted hemisphere
—Preston Keido Houser
2019

For more by Preston see here, and for another villanelle please click here.

Nov 24 – Chris Mosdell at home

John Dougill — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 05:29:03 +0000

Wordsmith Chris Mosdell has had a high profile career as scriptwriter, lyricist, poet, author, performer and experimentalist, working with some of the top people in Japan. We are delighted therefore to announce an opportunity to hear firsthand from this most original of writers, who will be coming from Tokyo specially for the occasion. (Participation limited to WiK members, and reservations are now fully booked.)

The event will take place in the late afternoon at Chris Mosdell’s attractive house in Okazaki (see pics below). He will talk about his early work with Sakamoto Ryuichi and Yellow Magic Orchestra, his experimentation with visual music, his collaboration with the poet Tanikawa Shuntaro, as well as his newer work with anime movies and collective poetry. Refreshments provided. Afterwards those who wish will adjourn to a local soba shop.

Place: UTA YOMI DORI 京都市左京区岡崎法勝町83-1
83-1, Okazakihoshojicho Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606-8333
(UTA YOMI DORI is the name of the house. It is actually the Heian name for the bush warbler – literally translated as “The bird that recites poetry”.)

Directions: If you’re starting at the traffic lights in front of Okazaki Jinja on Marutamachi Dori, cross over and walk down the street opposite. (There’s a big supermarket on the corner.) At the junction at the bottom of the road, veer slightly right and continue down, past the ryokan “Rakuyoso” and take the next left (before you reach the hotel Jardin de Fleurs!). UTA YOMI DORI is 100 yards on the right.

Time of event: 4.30 pm (doors open from 4.00)

Fee: The charge for this special occasion will be Y4000, which includes a signed copy of Chris’s latest publication, The Radicals (normally selling at ¥5000).

(From the back cover): THE RADICALS is a collection of narratives pertaining to the ontology of a nation––a poetic shrine to a people, a culture, and a social milieu––built on the roots of a country’s written language. From the founding components of kanji (ideograms), the bushu (radicals) document the historic landscape of Japan––its literary figures, its heroic warriors, and its emperors, artists, gods and warlords––through interwoven characters and continua that embody a spirit of place.

Via a series of emblematic pictograms (sun, woman, tree, fire, king) the centuries of the Eastern Isles are envisaged, with poems exemplifying the anthems of a nation, the seasons’ rice-planting songs, the sutra to the gods. Yet, against the bedrock shores of the Kingdom of Yamato (ancient Japan), wave after wave of hyperkinetic imagery from the hub of Mosdell’s contemporary creative centre, the immense metropolis of Tokyo, crash in. Here is an allegory of the Japanese identity. A mosaic, a thousand shards gathered up to represent a vast momentous chronicle of a country.

To learn more about Chris, please see his website or this lengthy Wikipedia page about him.

WiK Anthology 3 launched

John Dougill — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 05:02:23 +0000

On Saturday, June 22^nd, WiK held the official launch party for the 3^rd Writers in Kyoto Anthology, called Encounters With Kyoto. About half of WiK’s members came all the way to Umekoji Park’s Midori Building, where Jann Williams had set up a room full of food, drinks, and books, of course.

After everybody got a cup of sake, the first half of the launch party began with John Dougill’s reminiscences of starting the Writers in Kyoto group in 2015. He also presented all three Anthologies, from the first one that was collated copied pages to the current one which is available on amazon (click here).

Chief editor, Jann Williams

We continued with readings of contributors, headed by Jann Williams, chief editor of the current Anthology. Readings by Ken Rodgers, Mayumi Kawaharada and Marianne Kimura followed. Afterwards, there was a break for our members to mingle and enjoy more sake, international snacks and conversations ranging from the serious to the light-hearted.

The second half of the party began with a speech in honor of Juliet Winters Carpenter, who, after 44 years in Japan, will move back to the US in the near future. As a parting gift, John Dougill presented her with a copy of the third Anthology, signed by all members who were present. Then there was an introduction by Mark Richardson of his latest book “The Wings of Atalanta, followed by a reading about a dramatic moment in US race relations.

Mark Richardson reading from his new book, The Wings of Atalanta

There were more readings from our book, this time by Fernando, Iris, Mike and Karen, and in the end, Juliet talked about how she came to Japan in the first place, why Kyoto is really the best city in the world, and what her latest endeavours were.

After some more sake, sweets and general mingling, the official book launch party was closed. However, in true Japanese style, some members made their way to a private “nijikai” (second party).

If you could not join the party, you can experience the works of our members collected in our third Anthology called “Encounters With Kyoto”, which is available in print on amazon in Japan, the US and the UK (ebook may be coming soon).

Juliet Winters Carpenter, delighted with her signed copy

Mike Freiling introducing his poems

Karen Lee Tawarayama explaining what motivated her to write about ropes made from women’s hair exhibited at Higashi Honganji

Richard Lloyd Parry talk

John Dougill — Mon, 13 May 2019 20:27:54 +0000

Richard Lloyd Parry talking about journalism and his non-fiction books, May 12

‘Kyoto gaijin are different. Tokyo gaijin are there for money or sex. Kyoto gaijin are here for Zen, or lacquerware, or Heian poetry, or to learn shakuhachi. Nearly everyone plays shakuhachi!’ So began the absorbing talk by Richard Lloyd Parry at Ryukoku’s new stylish building on the Omiya campus, next to the World Heritage site of Nishi Honganji.

As is the case with many of us, Richard’s path to Japan had been a matter of chance and good fortune. In his case, particularly so. At the age of 16 he won a trip to Japan on a tv show. After studying English Literature at Oxford, he got into freelance journalism before being sent to Japan by The Independent. It was 1995 and the end of the postwar expansion period – The Hanshin earthquake, the Sarin attack, the consequences of the bursting of the bubble. Seven years after arriving Richard was offered a job with the world’s oldest surviving newspaper, The Times.

What does he like about his job? Variety, diversity, travel, investigation, the research, the unpredictability; ‘Above all, I like writing,’ he concluded. His career had taken him to some dangerous places too – wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor and Kosovo. Conflict with Japan’s ultra-rightists too. He appeared to have a remarkable sang-froid.

As for his books, he noted that journalists often turn to longer works because articles are so limiting. Typically there are just 700 words to play with. With such tight limitations, it’s impossible to do a subject justice. Compared to journalism, book writing was a different style of writing altogether, much like running 100 meter dash compared to a marathon. Whereas cliché was the friend of the journalist; book writers had to take more care. It meant that he’d taken time off – unpaid – in order to write his books. As well as one about Indonesia, there were two best-sellers about Japan – People Who Eat Darkness (2012) and Ghosts of the Tsunami (2018).

The first of the books concerned the murder of a young English hostess, Lucie Blackman, which was an unusual case in many ways, particularly in terms of the psychology of the killer and the trial which he faced. Japanese police are excellent in many respects, but in terms of police procedural and collecting evidence they do not excel. In this case they emerged with great discredit. The second of the books was sparked by the aftermath of the Tohoku tsunami and the remarkable dignity of survivors. No squabbling or self-pity, but self-discipline, generosity and collaboration. It was not just the best of Japan, but the best of humanity.

The book he wrote of his experiences in Tohoku centred around a primary school where 74 schoolchildren had perished – the whole school except for four children and one teacher. As it turned out, the children had died unnecessarily and a cover-up had taken place, raising questions about responsbiity, preventative measures and the Japanese justice system.

It turned out that the books were not so much investigations of crimes, as enlightening enquiries into the nature of Japanese society. Richard let slip that he’s presently contemplating another book though he was reluctant to divulge what the subject matter might be. There were a lot of people in the audience who will be eagerly awaiting the day the book comes out.

Kyoto Journal (Ken Rodgers) interacts with Japan Times (Amy Chavez) in the networking following the talk

Reggie Pawle presentation

John Dougill — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 23:55:36 +0000

Reggie Pawle combines being a Kyoto psychotherapist with being a Zen practitioner, which has enabled him to explore the world within while helping others find their true selves. Zen and psychotherapy go back to the 1950s in fact, with Carl Jung holding ground-breaking discussions in 1958 with Hisamatsu Shinichi, a Zen philosopher with the Kyoto School. Alan Watts claimed that psychotherapy was the closest the West comes to Zen, because they both aim at a change in consciousness.

Reggie’s spiritual journey began with an LSD trip in 1970, followed by a commitment to celibacy and the quest for enlightenment. It led to such places as India, China and the Far East. It led too to Ram Dass and his book Be Here Now. Eventually it brought him to Kyoto’s Myoshin-ji and then Hossho-ji in Obama. With a mixture of pleasing anecdotes punctuated by spiritual insight, Reggie took us along on his journey through life, and the audience hung on his every word. Like others, he’s suffered pain and setbacks, struggled with koan, but something inside compelled him to continue. As a questioner pointed out, few people do.

Reggie talked for over an hour, and one sensed he had enough material and certainly enough energy to continue for at least another hour. ‘To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.’ The words of Dogen, founder of the Soto sect, clearly resonated with him at a deep level. Questions came in quick succession and sadly had to be cut off in order to meet our dinner reservation. There were eighteen in all at the party, marking our fourth anniversary, and the craft beer was accompanied by some fine conviviality and new connections. Thanks go to Reggie for helping make the event such a success (his life story can be found below the pictures.)

Reggie Pawle writes…

I have gone on a meandering path in life from where I grew up, which was in the rural state of Maine in the U.S.A. I was brought up to follow in my family tradition (seven generations before mine) of being a Protestant Christian minister, I was a religion major in university, but I took a turn of some kind during a LSD trip in 1970. Since that turn I have studied, lived, and worked where my interests have led me. At that time I was inspired by Ramdass, an American who practiced yoga in India, so in 1972 I went to India and Nepal to study yoga.

In addition to having various yoga experiences, I also had many cultural experiences and got hooked on the combination of adventure, new cultures to understand, and spiritual seeking. In 1974, when I was having problems with yoga, Ramdass told me that my heart was ok, but my mind was a mess, and he recommended some good old Japanese discipline, so he introduced me to a Japanese Zen monk (Joshu Sasaki) from Myoshinji Temple in Kyoto. This began my connection to Kyoto and Japan.

In 1987 I was refused a visa to India, which led me to travel in other countries in Asia, which I loved, and because I had run into a road block in my Zen practice, in 1989 I came to study Zen in Japan for the first time. I met my teacher, Sekkei Harada, in 1990, at Hosshinji Temple in Obama-shi, Fukui-ken, and after that I visited Japan annually to practice Zen with Harada Roshi until I moved to Kyoto to live in 1999. My practical reason for this move was that I was working on my dissertation, which was interviewing six Japanese Zen monks about Zen and psychology. I found a home in Kyoto.

Reggie and ‘the holy book’ – Be Here Now by Baba Ram Dass

Along with being able to deepen my Zen practice, my time spent at the monastery opened many doors for me and gave me a huge access to the tradition of Zen. Thanks to my monastery “credentials,” despite my mediocre Japanese, I have always had access in Japan to my study and professional interests. I also in Kyoto had an endless variety of cultural experiences, met my Japanese wife (I got married for the first time at age 58), and received work in my field – both psychotherapy in private practice and teaching cross-cultural psychology at Kansai Gaidai University in Hirakata.

Being in Japan also increased my access to other parts of Asia, which allowed me to develop a natural affinity that I felt between my Zen practice and Ramana Maharshi’s (Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, India) practice of “Who am I?”, study Daoism and Tai Chi in China, and enjoy travel in Southeast Asia. In 2015 due to mandatory age 65 retirement I lost my job at Kansai Gaidai, which resulted in getting a new job at Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand, teaching counseling psychology to graduate students. I have returned to Kyoto after three years of my eyes being opened to a new culture, now half-retired, and very happy to be back in our wonderful Japanese-style house and Kyoto life. I am still working as a psychotherapist in private practice and as a student counselor at Kansai Gaidai, but no more teaching, only occasional seminars and lectures.

With-Zen-ancestors-Bodhidharma-statue-
Dogen-hanging-writing-in-kanji

Since arriving in Japan I have written on a variety of subjects, mostly connected to cultural issues and to the integration of Western psychology with the Asian traditions, focusing on Zen, Japanese culture, and Daoism. Some of my articles have appeared in local publications such as Japanese Religions, Kyoto Journal, and Kansai Time Out. I have had a couple of book chapters, one on Zen and psychology and the second on Daoism and psychology, and some journal articles (see my blog for details).

Now that I have more time, one of my main goals is to write. I have three projects that I am currently working on. One is a study of Japanese and Western marriages, one is the use of Daoist ideas and principles for conflict resolution, and the third is writing short articles for my blog on cultural and Buddhist psychology. I am hoping that Writers in Kyoto will serve as an inspiration and support for me to complete these and more writing projects. Writing a book seems like an ephemeral dream right now, but maybe some day…

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For more about Reggie Pawle and his psychotherapy work, see www.reggiepawle.net

Writing retreat in Shikoku (May 17-19)

John Dougill — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 13:25:08 +0000

The following piece below is extracted from a website giving much fuller information. Click here to see it…

Full title for the book on which the retreat is based is

The Abundance of Less: Lessons in Simple Living from Rural Japan

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For the first time in twelve years, in May of 2019, professional writing teacher, author of The Abundance of Less, and winner of the 2017 Nautilus Award in Sustainable Living, Andy Couturier, will be leading a small group of travelers to the mountains of Japan–the beautiful village of Kamikatsu on the southern island of Shikoku.

Using writing as a tool for self reflection (“non-writers” welcome), we can understand the forces–internal and external–that pull us way from the truly satisfied life we know we can live.

The journey will combine time for writing and reflection with encounters with some inspiring Japanese people who are pioneering a new way of living. They have rejected the commercialism and status-consciousness of mainstream Japanese society and live lives of deep contact with the natural world.

There will be time for slow walks in the mountains, visits to Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and daily baths in a rural hot springs by a rushing river. And every day we will go deeper into ourselves and into our experience by using writing to help us discover “The Good Life” for ourselves.

Instead of “the cornucopia approach” that many tours to Japan take, this journey will be slow, rich, centered in order to support personal reflection, connection with nature, and community building among group members and villagers.

Instead of zooming all over the country, we will stay in one beautiful village for ten days so we can deepen into our internal reflection, and have plenty of time to write.

We will stay at hot spring with an inn beside a rushing river for most of the ten days, with an overnight trip to the sacred Shinto Todoroki waterfall complex (over eight huge waterfalls) with an overnight by the ocean and a visit to temple on the Buddhist pilgrimage.

Lodging will be modest but comfortable, in line with the theme of simplicity and respect for the natural world. Meals will be primarily vegetarian and incredibly delicious.

Dates: May 17-27, 2019
Location: Kamikatsu Village, Tokushima Prefecture

This is a journey for people who have read The Abundance of Less and who want to go deeper. By meeting people profiled in the book, Atsuko Watanabe, (chapter 3) and Osamu Nakamura, (chapter 2), and by guided writing experiences, you will find the tools to bring your life more in line with your values–individual, environmental and social.

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For details of the price, application process and style of retreat, please see this link. For a review of the book on which the retreat is based, The Abundance of Less, please see this link by Edward J. Taylor.

Zen for Foreigners

John Dougill — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 10:43:48 +0000

Micah Auerback with his copious research notes

At a dinner talk on March 3, Micah Auerback introduced us to research he is doing on the first outreach by Zen practitioners in Japan to Western foreigners. Currently on sabbatical from the University of Michigan, Micah is a specialist in Japanese religion and author of A Storied Sage, about the changes in depictions of the historical Buddha in Japan.

On this occasion Micah told us of the events at Enpuku-ji in the city of Yawata in the 1930s. Apparently the idea to reach out to foreigners was the brainchild of the head priest, Kozuki Tesshu (1879-1937), former abbot of Myoshin-ji, who believed in spreading Zen to Westerners by giving them a feel for the religion without subjecting them to the kind of rigorous regime demanded of Japanese. Western beds, for example, along with Western food and comforts. Although Kozuki did not speak English, he was aided by Ogata Sohaku (1901-73) who did, and who was attached to Shokoku-ji.

In an article of 1935, Ogata wrote of two types of Westerners with an interest in Zen. The first group were motivated by disillusionment with Christianity, prompting Ogata to note that Buddhism was a superior and more rational religion. Other Westerners were said to be motivated by a love of the Orient, and Ogata has some cutting remarks about them…

For people of this variety, simply to visit a Zen temple, far from the dust of the world, is itself already a great joy, and they feel limitless satisfaction at having a cup of tea with a Zen monk who wears rough garments on his body, but who dons silk in his mind. Sitting together with unsui, [practitioners of Zen] silent in a soundless hall, they come to feel as if they too have renounced the world, and when they walk through the spotlessly swept gardens of the training temple, they feel just as if they have transformed into a figure in an ink-painting… To arrange soup, bread, and butter on the dining table – and when it’s time for the meal, to hear the calm sounds of the sutra – is, they say, much more introspective and noble than beginning a dinner party with music in the Western style. Thus what these people want seems to be a lifestyle and a mode of sensibility that are purely Oriental…. while we are evaluating whether Westerners could possibly understand Zen, a letter arrives from their homelands, written by a blue-eyed foreign monk who wears a haori jacket and sits on tatami, saying “Amongst the Japanese I think that the unsui in the training hall and the geisha girls are the most impressive. They are always alert and on guard everywhere.”

The provision of a hostel for Westerners at Enpuku-ji provoked a short news item in the New York Times, noting that it had been ‘specially built for foreign comfort’ with electric heaters, running water and foreign plumbing. It also noted that the sermons of head priest Kozuki would be translated by Daisetsu Suzuki, who had lived in the US and had an American wife.

Among the copious handouts Micah kindly presented the group with was a fascinating list of contents for a yearbook published by the Osaka Mainichi for 1932-33. Amongst such featured items as ‘Olympic [sic] and Japan’, ‘Japanese Women as Lawyers’, and ‘Geisha Becoming Dance Minded’ is a full page article on a ‘Zen Hospice’ with the subtitle ‘Unique Attempt in Japan to Propagate Zen Teaching Among Foreign Devotees’. One of the most striking items is a picture of the Meditation Cave, which summons up thoughts of asceticism and Bodhidharma. In fact the cave was specially built for the exclusive use of foreign students with consideration for their comfort and fitted with tatami and heating.

Micah tells us he still has loose ends to follow up before he completes his picture of what went on exactly, and that eventually his research will end up in an article or articles about the Enpuku-ji experiment. We look forward to seeing the result and reading more of this intriguing tale.

1950s Kyoto (Hans Brinckmann)

John Dougill — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 10:51:09 +0000

Guest speaker, Hans Brinckmann

What was it like in Kyoto in the 1950s? You hardly ever saw foreigners, for one thing. If you did, you stopped to say hello. That was the Kyoto a banker from Holland called Hans Brinckmann got to know and love. Though he lived in Kobe, he visited whenver he could at weekends. As he got to know the town, he fell in love with it.

Hans Brinckmann arrived in Japan in 1950 to work in a bank in Kobe. He started learning Japanese despite the warnings of his sub manager that it would damage his mind. In 1954 he was transferred to Tokyo, where he missed his outings to Kyoto, so he was glad to get back to a post in Osaka. His favourite places included the bamboo grove in Imagumano Shrine; Tofukuji where he made friends with a monk who complained of ills from the rigorous regime of the Zen monastery; and a ryokan called Takeya, which he got to like despite the austerity of conditions there and the perishing cold.

Like others before him, he went though cultural conundrums about how to reconcile East and West, coming out on the Japanese side of things. The world was not simple black and white, right or wrong, as the Western ego insisted, but a more modest grey made up of maybe, sighs and silences.

One key event was attending an exhibition by Paul Reps of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones fame. He had done wonderful freehand calligraphy of whimsical words on Japanese ‘washi’ paper. “Drinking a cup of tea, I stop the war,’ was one of the verses. Later Hans got to know him in his Ohara home. (Reps is now considered one of America’s first haiku poets.)

A more important friendship was with the poet Shimaoka Kenseki, who introduced him to all manner of artists, potters and monks. One of the most colourful was a poet and personality called Ichida Yae san, an heiress who wore her kimono in defiant mock Heian style and was known as the second Ono no Komachi for her beauty. She is said to have been the model for one of Tanizaki’s heroines.

Hans was closely involved in setting up Kyoto’s first Dutch restaurant, though alas it went out of business after two years. He also took part in the English edition of a Japanese poetry publication called New Japan Pebbles, but it too only survived six editions. All the while he enjoyed networking with Shimaoka, who was not only a poet, but a teacher and columnist with a wide range of friends – a gynecologist, an obi maker, a building contractor. One person Hans befriended was the potter, Katoh Sho, who dealt in tea ware.

A rapt audience hanging on to the well-crafted words of Hans Brinckmann’s memoirs. (Photo Ken Rodgers)

But the most significant of the encounters in Kyoto came through an unexpected and unrequested omiai he had, with just two hours’ notice. It turned out the couple shared the same literary and pottery tastes, and when she happened to brush his arm he ‘flexed his banker’s biceps in acknowledgement’. The pair married and spent a happy life together until her death in 2007.

Hans has published many articles and books, covering poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Asked about his writing process, he said it was different for each genre. Fiction he could see unfurling in his imagination, non-fiction required constant fact checking. He confessed to being a slow writer, though the volume of publication would suggest he’s a hard worker.

And what does the great lover of Kyoto think of the city now? You hear more Chinese than Japanese in the streets, he says. It’s difficult to even recognise some of the areas. But notwithstanding he remains a strong admirer of the city and its people because of their modest dignity and pride in upholding tradition. For personal reasons Hans now lives in Fukuoka, but he still makes an effort to revisit the city he fell in love with all those years ago.

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For a listing of Hans Brinckmann’s work, both in English and Japanese, take a look at this amazon page. Of particular note here is the collection of short stories, The Tomb in the Kyoto Hills.. For the website blog of Hans, with videos and his writings, see here.

Hans Brinckmann in white shirt and his translator, Hiromi Mizoguchi, left in white shirt

Books by Hans Brinckmann (with thanks to Deep Kyoto)

The Magatama Doodle
Part personal memoir, part professional flashback, part socio-cultural commentary, this title chronicles the author’s experiences during his twenty-four years (1950-74) of living in Japan as a reluctant banker. It also touches on some of the significant changes that have taken place in Japanese society since the mid-Seventies.

Noon Elusive
An American architect in Paris, a Balkan parachutist, a Dutch diplomat in Japan, a New York heart surgeon, an English undertaker-the characters are as colourful as they are diverse. What they have in common is that they are all in the throes of personal crisis, mild and manageable, or severe and harrowing. Consciously or not, they are all in search of the high noon of life.

Showa Japan
Japan’s Showa era began in 1926 when Emperor Hirohito took the throne and ended on his death in 1989. The formative age of modern Japan, it was undoubtedly the most momentous, calamitous, successful and glamorous period in Japan’s recent history. Today, Showa is a beacon for nostalgia that is memorialized yearly in a national holiday. An era of growth and prosperity, it saw Japan go from an isolated, embattled nation to a peaceful country holding the exalted position of the world’s second largest economy.

The Undying Day
A widowed water bird in an Amsterdam canal… abandoned villages ‘flitting fitfully by’ as he rides the Eurostar to Paris… the sun, ‘averse to setting, extending the you-filled day’… such are the diverse sources of inspiration for Brinckmann’s poetry.
Unconstrained by locale or subject matter, his lines celebrate the marvel of love and ponder life’s irretrievable losses. He is no stranger to whimsy either, nor to the search for life’s ultimate meaning.

The Tomb in the Kyoto Hills
A striking and highly engaging collection of stories. The offerings include A Leap into the Light, the compelling tale of a Dutch businessman’s secretive life with the young daughter of his late Japanese mistress; Kyoto Bus Stop, about the chance encounter between a visitor from Europe and a mysterious young French woman in Kyoto; Pets in Marriage, which chronicles a Japanese married couple and their respective preference for cats and dogs, which comes to a head at the foot of Mt. Fuji; Twice upon a Plum Tree, an exploration of a Dutch diplomat’s ambivalence about a Japanese woman he once loved; and the title story, The Tomb in the Kyoto Hills, about a Chicago-based lawyer who moves his family to Japan to find the truth of his origins once and for all.

In the Eyes of the Sun
Peter van Doorn, dreams of life with a camera. His leftwing father, Eduard – a journalist and former WWII photographer – at first supports his son’s ambition and even gives him his wartime Leica. But when Peter tries to save someone from a fatal accident instead of “capturing the moment of violent death,” Eduard decides that his son lacks the guts for “real” photography, the kind he practiced during the war, the only kind of photography “worthy of a man,” even in peacetime. He forces Peter into overseas banking instead. Starting in 1953, Peter’s exotic career takes him from his native Holland to Singapore and on to Chicago where he marries a socialite. But his dream never dies, and at last, in 1978, he sacrifices his stable career and family to embark on the life of a freelance photographer – in New York.

WiK bonenkai 2018

John Dougill — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 03:31:33 +0000

Presenters at the WiK Bonenkai: Jann Williams, Gary Tegler, Judith Wnters Carpenter, Milena Guziak, Rebecca Otowa, Eric Bray, Mark Hovane, Joe Cronin, Robert Yellin, Mark Richardson, Ted Taylor, and Ken Rodgers (collation by Karen Lee Tawarayama)

The WiK bonenkai, held in the cosy surrounds of Philippe’s bar off Kiyamachi, proved a lively and heartwarming evening as bonhomie was interspersed with the showcasing of the remarkable talents of the foreign community in Kyoto. At times this was reminiscent of the old Kyoto Connection days, and it was good to see the organiser of that event, Ken Rodgers, in attendance here and revealing some of his Buddha nature.

Thanks to convener Milena Guziak, the event was nicely structured with two sessions of performances, with each presenter limited to four minutes. The format worked well and everyone managed to pack their material comfortably within that limitation. Jann Williams kicked us off with some thoughts about her longterm project on the elements and Japan, Gary Tegler delivered some wonderful Robert Brady pieces in those sonorous tones of his, and this was appreciated by the group to the extent that it won first prize for best performance. Gary was followed by Judith Winters Carpenter who recited a piece from her recent translation about Sakamoto Ryoma and his first kiss. It was with a woman from Nagasaki and involved some amusing linguistic and cultural differences. A well selected passage and a wonderful bit of translated prose from Shiba Ryotaro’s novel that won my own personal vote for first prize.

Event organiser Milena read out a deeply personal piece, given sympathetic urging by the audience as she successfully managed to overcome her nerves. Rebecca Otowa, a relative newcomer to the group, has already shown how much she has to contribute to WiK despite living a considerable distance away in the countryside. Her piece concerned the merits and demerits of living on in Japan, with the former given affirmation for the way Japan helps shape our perceptions and better appreciate the world around us. The first set was rounded off with Eric Bray playing a couple of the songs from his recently released CD. Mark Richardson took the drums, Mark Willis backing up on mandolin and Gary Tegler joined in with improvised sax solo. The strong blues element got the small venue in the groove as words turned into music. (Lyrics of Eric’s CD can be seen here.)

The second session kicked off with Mark Hovane talking of his appreciation of the Japanese love of seasonality before giving the best performance of a single haiku that I myself have ever heard. It was by Basho. Judging the audience’s mood correctly, he took a long pause while holding up a suitably shaped stone backed by seasonal greenery: winter winds blow / the rocks sharpened / among the cedars. Following this Joe Cronin spoke of Isabella Bird and her translator companion, the much younger Ito, about whom he has been doing some research. Dealing with such a redoubtable woman, a pioneer of the most intrepid kind, cannot have been easy linguistically or temperamentally for the 20 year old. Next Robert Yellin gave us a bit of the Beats, starting with Gary Snyder, adding one of his own and then finishing with the inimitable Nanao Sakaki (See Japan and the Beats.) Talking of inimitable, Mark Richardson is a poet with a unique and distinctive voice whose contemporary verse incorporates humour, politics, cultural digs and a touch of anarchy. He treated us to a great example, a form of creative expression that must act as a great release from his scholarly work on Robert Frost. (For Five Poems by Mark, click here.) Next up was Ted Taylor, reading a piece he’d written for an anthology about an overheard conversation which produced ripples of laughter around the room. The final session of the night was by Ken Rodgers talking of buddha nature and what it meant to him. (You can see a whole posting on that subject by him together with some stunning photos by clicking here.)

An excellent evening, I think everyone agreed, and a format we may try again for our summer session in June or July. Thanks to all who came and helped make a warm event amidst the early winter cold. Thanks above all to Milena who put together the whole event.

John Dougill, WiK coordinator

Rebecca Otowa in full flow

Poet Mark Richardson takes to the drums for a set with Eric Bray

Eric Bray and band

Mayumi Kawarahada, our Japanese liaison officer

Organiser Milena with the open mic

Dinner with Vauhini Vara and Andrew Altschul

John Dougill — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 17:13:28 +0000

Middle of the table on the left, Vahina Vara, and opposite her, Andrew Foster Altschul. WiK members left to right, Ian Richards, (Yuki from Japan Times), Jann Williams, Josh Yates, Gordon Maclaren, Eric Johnston, Juliet Carpenter and Gary Tegler. (photo John D.)

December 2 at Kushikura near Oike Takakura, eight WiK members had an enjoyable dinner evening with Vauhini Vara, journalist, fiction writer and winner of the O. Henry Prize, together with her husband novelist Andrew Foster Altschul, author of Deus Ex Machina and a former fellow at the Breadloaf and Sewanee Writers conferences. Between them the couple have a glittering array of achievements and were visiting Kyoto for five days while working on Semester at Sea, a study-abroad programme that takes place on a ship. Thanks to Eric Johnston for organising the event.

From Wikipedia…

Vauhini Vara is a journalist, fiction writer, and the former business editor of newyorker.com. She lives in Colorado and is a contributing writer for the New Yorker’s website. Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, she was raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan (Canada) and in Oklahoma City and Seattle in the United States.

Guest Vauhini Vara in red, middle right (photo Josh Yates)

She was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal for almost ten years, where she covered Silicon Valley and California politics. In 2013, she left the Wall Street Journal to launch Currency, the business section of newyorker.com. She has written for Harper’s Magazine, Fast Company, The Atlantic and Businessweek and WIRED. In 2017 she worked as a staff writer for California Sunday, covering politics in the western United States

Vara is a recipient of the O. Henry Award for her fiction writing, and has published stories in Tin House, ZYZZYVA, among other publications. She studied writing at Stanford University and the Iowa Writers Workshop.

Andrew Foster Altschul is an American fiction writer. He is the author of the novels Deus Ex Machina, which Michael Schaub, in his NPR review, called “brilliant… one of the best novels about American culture in years,”^[1] and Lady Lazarus, and his short fiction and essays have been published in Esquire, McSweeney’s, Ploughshares, Fence, and One Story. His short story “Embarazada” was selected for Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014 and his short story “A New Kind of Gravity” was anthologized in both Best New American Voices 2006 and the O.Henry Prize Stories 2007.

Guest Andrew Altschul middle left (photo Josh Yates)

In 2016, with Mark Slouka, he co-authored Writers On Trump, an open letter opposing the candidacy of Donald Trump for President that was signed by nearly 500 writers, including ten winners of the Pulitzer Prize. He has written for political venues including The Huffington Post and Truthdig, was a contributing author of Where to Invade Next (McSweeney’s, 2008), and was the co-organizer of the Progressive Reading Series, a series of literary readings in San Francisco that raised money for progressive political candidates from 2004-2008. From 2008-2011 he was the founding books editor of The Rumpus, an online magazine started by Stephen Elliott in late 2008. He remains a contributing editor to The Rumpus, as well as to the literary journal Zyzzyva.

He currently teaches at Colorado State University. He is married to The New Yorker journalist and fiction writer Vauhini Vara.

(photo Josh Yates)

(photo Kushikura staff)

Yumiko Sato music therapist

John Dougill — Sat, 24 Nov 2018 16:57:26 +0000

Yumiko Sato at the Mughal Indian restaurant, where she talked about cultural differences between the US and Japan in terms of hospice care and attitudes to dying

A lunchtime talk on Nov 24, 2018

Born and raised in Japan, educated at university in America, Yumiko has experience of working with dementia patients and the dying in both the US and Japan. Her speciality is music therapy, and as well as the guitar she plays harp. ukelele and Native American flute. Her experiences on both sides of the Atlantic have led to her writing two books in Japanese about her experiences. She currently lives with her husband in Washington DC, and is over here for a short lecture tour in Japan. WiK was delighted she could find time to stop off at Kyoto on her way from Kobe to Tokyo.

So what are the main differences in terms of treatment of the dying between the US and Japan? Yumiko suggested it had to do with the treatment of the individual needs of the patient in the US compared with a focus on doctors and medical procedure in Japan. For instance, patients are much more likely to be kept artificially alive in Japan, whereas a patient’s wish to be taken off machine dependency would be respected in the US. Death with dignity is gaining currency in the West but not in Japan, where euthanasia was once carried out on the mentally ill and is now considered taboo. According to the internet, ‘As of April 5, 2018, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have death with dignity statutes; the Hawaii statute, approved in 2018, goes into effect on January 1, 2019. In Montana, physician-assisted dying has been legal by State Supreme Court ruling since 2009.’

As might be expected, individual rights are much more recognised in the US than Japan. Living wills for instance have legality in America, but not in Japan where the doctor can overrule them ‘Doctors are God,’ is a Japanese saying. Moreover, practices such as tying patients’ hands to the side of the bed are common in Japan (to prevent tubes being taken out), but are considered unethical in the USA. Morphine use is much less common in Japan than the US, where pain has been eliminated for the dying. In Japan painful death is still common, even in cases where patients ask to be put out of their misery. This may be due to stigma, Yumiko felt, with doctors wishing to guard their reputation. (It’s also said to be part of ‘gaman culture’.)

Finally, Yumi considered attitudes to dying, and here she didn’t find there was much of a cultural difference. Patients everywhere had different levels of contentment with their lives and it depended on the individual. One interesting point was that though religion was supposed to be a great consolation and there were those who felt assured of going to heaven, there were also those convinced they were going to hell.

Music had helped her soothe and comfort patients, evoke warm memories in those with dementia, and above all build relationships with patients who were then able to open up about their feelings. There were many individual anecdotes, but one in particular lingered in the memory. A particularly wealthy man who had seen success in the material things with which he surrounded himself had realised in the face of death that it all counted for very little. “We don’t take what we’ve gained, we only leave what we’ve given,’ is how he put it.

Our many thanks to Yumi. ‘Can music save your mortal soul?’ asked Don McLean. After listening to her talk, we can definitely say yes!

Elemental Japan

John Dougill — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 23:39:30 +0000

The lunch discussion group on Oct 28, with presenter Jann Williams third on the left

For the past few years Australian Jann Williams has been a valued supporter of Writers in Kyoto, while researching her magnum opus on the effect on Japan of the elements, whether physical or in the form of the Chinese and Buddhist five elements theories. At a lunch discussion on Oct 28 with a group of seven other WiK members she talked of her work so far and sought input on how best to proceed, particularly in organisational terms since she has amassed so much material.

As an environmental scientist, Jann is interested in patterns that form in the landscape. For her PhD, she focused on the transformative effects of fire and the ability of the earth to recover. She’s been involved too in conservation and eco-system services, such as putting value on nature so as to encourage its preservation. She sees the elements as another way of connecting to nature, particularly in the universality of fire and water. That was the inspiration for the name of her first blog ‘Fire Up Water Down’.

Jann Williams in elemental mode

The reason Jann chose to focus on Japan was largely to do with Shinto being the sole example of an animist religion still guiding the thinking of an industrialised country. She was also inclined to admiration of the aesthetics and values of Japanese culture, a feeling intensified with her experience of an Oomoto course she took. In many ways Japan is an obvious country in which to explore the elements because of its position on the ring of fire, meaning volcanoes, hot springs and earthquakes are common, as well as being in the typhoon belt with the consequences that brings.

When it came to the contents of her research, it seemed there was nothing in Japanese culture that was not included! From esoteric Buddhism to the tea ceremony, from Shugendo to food, there was little that had escaped Jann’s attention. She held up a map of Japan and talked too of her journeys from Hokkaido to Yakushima in quest of elemental extremes. Some of the stories associated with these travels can be found in her second blog ‘Elemental Japan’.

In the discussion that followed there was an interesting and valuable exchange of ideas and some good suggestions made as to what form the organisation of the material might take. A journey into each of the elements. The ‘gorinto’ (cemetery stupa) as vector into the elements. A book of photos, with captions and explanations of their significance. The general consensus was that there was enough material for five or six books.

Whichever way Jann inclines in her approach, we wish her well. WiK has had some successes in making connections and helping promote members’ work. But Jann’s work is the closest to our hearts because of her association with the group from the very gestation of her all-encompassing vision. She reckons on three more years work to complete her project. Reader, please watch this space.

Karen Lee Tawarayama, Sho, Ken Rodgers and Jann

New members Michael Freiling and Milena Guziak

Ted Taylor takes the limelight, with Rebecca Otowa behind him, followed by John D, Karen, Sho, Ken, Jann, Milena and Michael