Ways with Words (at Dartington Hall, Totnes, UK) by John Dougill For the past week I’ve been attending a literary gathering deep in the Devon countryside. Medieval buildings, beautiful grounds, gorgeous countryside and Britain’s finest residential festival, with ten days of simultaneous talks by the country’s top selling authors. This year coincided with a spell …Read More
Tag: John Dougill (Page 2 of 2)
Sanshi suimei – purple mountains and crystal streams So runs the epithet about Kyoto which the nineteenth-century historian Rai Sanyo used as the name for his study by the banks of the Kamogawa (the thatched cottage still stands next to Marutamachi; see photo below). From there he must have had a clear sight right along the Eastern …Read More
It’s on the outskirts of Kyoto. It’s in spacious woodland. It dates back to the eighth century and pre-Heian times. It’s little-known, but once it was counted amongst the top 22 shrines of Japan. Oharano Shrine is closely associated with the powerful Fujiwara clan. It was set up by the dominant family at the time …Read More
Review of TOKYO POETRY JOURNAL VOL. 5: ‘JAPAN AND THE BEATS’ There’s something deliciously cool about ToPoJo 5. There’s a handwritten poem on the front cover by Nanao Sakaki, with GWOOON BALI BALI! crying out for attention. There’s a back cover photo of Allen Ginsberg et al. in which his hair, jacket and tie stand …Read More
Our attention has been drawn to a useful resource in Japanese of poetry about Kyoto. It’s part of an extensive website called Japan Note, covering various aspects of history and culture as can be seen on its home page. For 20 waka poems in Japanese about Kyoto, click here. For 30 different tanka in Japanese …Read More
Book Launch Nov 18, 2017 Report by Andrew Sokulski Zozaya, WiK intern Saturday night a splendid celebration was held in high spirits for the book launch of John Dougill and John Einarsen’s Zen Gardens and Temples of Kyoto. There were writers, artists, scholars, priests, tour guides and Kyoto Journal interns in the audience. A wonderful musical performance was held, …Read More
(John Dougill writes…) News comes of the passing away of Edith Shiffert (1916-2017), long time resident poet and a revered figure for those of us who belong to Writers in Kyoto. Other English-language authors lived in Kyoto before her, but for the postwar generation and those who followed in their footsteps, Edith was a groundbreaking …Read More
John Dougill writes… Lafcadio Hearn had a taste for the macabre, as is well-known from his Kwaidan (1903) collection of strange stories. In Ghostly Japan (1899) contains one such story which is set in Kyoto. Fittingly enough, it concerns a tengu, for the creatures were much associated with the city, particularly the northern area around …Read More
Lafcadio Hearn is famous for his association with Matsue, Kumamoto, Kobe and Tokyo. Not many people would associate him with Kyoto, yet he wrote a striking cameo entitled ‘Notes of a trip to Kyoto’ following a visit he made on October 23-25, 1895. It was included as a chapter in Gleanings in Buddhafields (1897), and …Read More
Q&A with John Dougill
WiK Writing Competition
Ninth Annual Writing Competition Winners (2024) (Coming in Mid-May)
Previous years:
Eighth Annual Writing Competition Winners (2023)
Seventh Annual Writing Competition Winners (2022)
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
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