Is it true that only a suicide stops a Japanese train from running on time? Why did her father always ask questions about death? In his last letter he’d asked if she knew anyone who had visited Aokigahara, the so-called Suicide Forest. He said he’d read about it in National Geographic, that you could sense …Read More
Category: Featured Writers (Page 1 of 26)
Writers in focus
by Cody Poulton During the corona curfew in early March of the year before last, I went to photographer Kai Fusayoshi’s legendary bar, Hachimonjiya. Many readers here will know that Kai has been taking beautiful photos of ordinary people just going about their lives, along the river and in the streets of Kyoto, ever since …Read More
Fourth in a series about Japanese authors of Kyoto
The third installment of a series on Japanese writers of Kyoto.
Part 2 of a series on Japanese writers who used Kyoto as a setting in their works.
Part 1 of a series on Japanese writers who used Kyoto as a setting in their works.
In Kokoro (Chapter 4 Section 6) Hearn writes of ‘Dai-Kioku-Den’, which is how Heian Jingu was known on its establishment in 1895. Hearn was in town for the celebrations to mark the grand opening of a monument to mark the restoration of imperial supremacy. (Shrine and temple were used interchangeably in early Meiji, before the …Read More
A Short Story by Rebecca Otowa Introduction We don’t know very much about the 12 Apostles of Jesus, his constant companions during the latter part of his life, except that Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, and another pair of siblings, James and John, were fishermen; and the writer of one of the Gospels, St. …Read More
Each of Us a Petal (Victorina Press, 2024) by Amanda HugginsReview by Rebecca Otowa A member of Writers in Kyoto, the author has won prizes and honorable mentions in the WiK Writing Competition, and her work has been included in WiK anthologies. (A short bio follows the review.) The present book is a collection of …Read More
by Rebecca Copeland Sometimes it’s the unexpected detours that provide the greatest pleasure. Last week, I spent the afternoon with PhD student Ran Wei, who has been in Osaka on a Japan Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. We had planned to meet at Kyoto’s Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, tour the garden, and then enjoy a long and …Read More
WiK Writing Competition
WiK Anthologies
The Nature of Kyoto (2023)
Eds. Lisa Twaronite Sone & Robert Weis
Foreword by Pico Iyer
Structures of Kyoto (2021)
Eds: Rebecca Otowa & Karen Lee Tawarayama
Foreword by Judith Clancy
Encounters with Kyoto (2019)
Eds: Jann Williams & Ian Josh Yates
Foreword by Juliet Winters Carpenter
Echoes (2017)
Eds: John Dougill, Amy Chavez, & Mark Richardson
Preface by Alex Kerr
Recent Comments