From a Work in Progress, by Malcolm Ledger The first installment of Ledger’s “Prologue to a War” was previously shared on our website in 2021. Our readers may wish to refresh their memories of the storyline at this link before moving on to the following. ***************** No less incontestable, awesome, and powerful, was the Imperial …Read More
Tag: Malcolm Ledger
Malcolm Ledger lives in a remarkable house, a restored ryokan situated by a wooded mountain stream in Kyoto’s north-west. So special is the setting that the prestigious Aman franchise chose it for the location of their Kyoto hotel. Though billed as a maple-viewing party, the event was more of a socialising and networking occasion. The …Read More
by Malcolm Ledger In the foothills of Mt. Hiei, in north-east Kyoto, is a Japanese cultural centre dedicated to the dance. Designed by the same architect who planned the State Guest House, it is a sprawling complex of rooms, magnificent gardens, stages, and halls. When money is little object, this is the result. The first …Read More
by Malcolm Ledger Ohigan – the autumn equinox – when the light fades and the bones begin to grow cold. A day for the Japanese to remember their dead. Outside my window, overlooking the little temple graveyard, a large black spider sits motionless between two pines, at the centre of a gigantic web, spread wide …Read More
by Malcolm Ledger A ’phone call brings the unexpected and sad news of the death of a long-time friend … “— melanoma – in the right armpit. By the time it was removed it was already seven millimetres deep. They tried chemotherapy, but it began to spread over the right side of his chest…and after …Read More
From a Work in Progress, by Malcolm Ledger Kyoto had seen very little of the war, though its truth had long struck bitter, painful blows. A world pregnant with unrealized hopes and dreams had now become wraith-like, tenuous, and contingent, its substance dim and opaque, melting away like warm breath on a cold, glistening mirror. …Read More
The Abyss I’m standing quite still on the edge of an abyss,As wide and as deep as the heart itself is,And though I’ve not noticed its vastness till now,I know it’s been there since before time began. And now that I’ve seen it, I can’t run away,For it opens wherever I go,Yawning and gaping, like …Read More
Another SinceWe metThere has beenNo oneElseFor me but youTookAnotherAnd cameTo regretIt. ************ By the River I sat on the banks of the darkening river, By the broad, slow stream, where the water runs deep, And the grasses of Autumn grew over my heart, Entangling me, rooting me there. I saw the leaves fall to the …Read More
Kyoto 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
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