My Kyoto Cats (Davd Duff) Kuma and Kinta were my first Kyoto cats, both blazoned with that distinctive tabby ‘M’ arched above their soft green eyes. Both had the same mother but different fathers so Kuma was a short hair while Kinta sported fluffy long hair. We shared a traditional Japanese home together and savored …Read More
Category: WiK members (Page 23 of 25)
Authors who belong to Writers in Kyoto
Edward J. Taylor writes: ‘As John Dougill, the editor of this Writers in Kyoto webpage, has been posting about Korean Shamanism at his blog Green Shinto, I thought that I’d submit a travel piece about a two-week meander up Korea’s east coast in 1997, playing connect-the-dots with the country’s sacred Buddhist and Shamanistic peaks, which …Read More
Goddesses and Ninjas: the mad, dashing world of Shakespeare interview with Marianne Kimura Q. It was a fiercely hot summer in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. How did you cope? A. I stayed indoors in my air-conditioned bedroom and sat on my futon writing papers. First, I wrote about the goddess in As You …Read More
July in Kyoto means the Gion Festival, the city’s premier event which stretches over the whole month and provides tourists with an array of glittering photo-ops. The piece below is an excerpt from “Kyoto Souvenir,” a book by Fernando Torres still in the preliminary stages which tells of buying a forsaken house in Higashiyama. (He describes …Read More
The summer that Japan hosted the World Cup was one of the highlights of my many years there. By day I was hitchhiking the 33 temples of the Kansai Kannon pilgrimage, while at night I’d return to a city somewhere to watch a match. I’d choose bars or pubs that had a connection to one …Read More
Gnome Poetry and Improv Evening (24/6/2018) There once was a monk from Madrid Who declared that his good deeds were hid. Not thinking a thought Nor seeking the sought, His doing was nothing he did. Capitalist cat chasing leaves As if they were mice American short hair Sometimes you get it back But …Read More
It’s not easy to draw crowds to poetry events, but WiK managed twenty plus customers last night packed into the Gnome for an evening of great variety. Each performer had five minutes to display their talents, and each took a very different approach to their five minutes of fame Thanks are due to all those …Read More
Mike Freiling Mike was born in San Francisco and attended USF as an undergraduate, where he first became interested in poetry at readings by Allen Ginsburg, Gary Snyder and others of that generation. At USF he also became interested in Japanese literature, as he and his friends read anything by Yukio Mishima that they could …Read More
“A white day” Fluffy white motifs Decorate a hospital window— Evanescent art Mountains and cars Wearing white caps— Frosty morning A cup of coffee At the hospital room— News of snowstorm Cars and buses Timidly on the road— Snowman smiles White footsteps Start vanishing at once— Wintry sun Evening grows …Read More
Kyoto – an elemental city Text and photos by Jann Williams Kyoto has a remarkable dimensionality inspired by the elements. In his cultural history of the city, John Dougill conceived Kyoto as eleven different ‘cities’ distinctively epitomising Kammu; Genji; Buddhism; Heike; Zen; Noh; Unification; Tea; Tradition; Geisha and Japaneseness. Elsewhere I have seen Kyoto referred …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
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