“Spirit of Shizen – Japan’s nature through its 72 seasons” is an exhibition to be held this summer at Luxembourg’s Natural History Museum (www.mnhn.lu). The accompanying catalogue constitutes an anthology featuring essays and contributions by several WiK members (Amy Chavez, Karen Lee Tawarayama, Mayumi Kawaharada, Ted Taylor, Ed Levinson, Rebecca Otowa, Amanda Huggins, Jann Williams, …Read More
Category: WiK members (Page 7 of 25)
Authors who belong to Writers in Kyoto
A new publication features WiK members, Rebecca Otowa and Ted Taylor…. Blurb – A Passion for Japan brings together the stories of thirty long-term residents of Japan who have, among other things, gained behind-the-scenes access to one of Japan’s most famous festivals; worked as an interpreter and commentator in professional and amateur sumo; been ordained …Read More
Wintermoon, by Robert Maclean. Isobar Press, Tokyo, 2022. A review by Mark Richardson. I’m most at home with verse conventional to English from the 16th through the 20th centuries. I enjoy poems that argue or imply arguments. I want rhyme, well-framed stanzas, conceits. Give me Hardy, Herbert, Larkin, Frost or Bishop⎯or Seidel and Ogden Nash. …Read More
by Marianne Kimura After a tailor hits seven flies with one swipe, he embroiders the words “Seven at One Blow” on his belt and sets out to advertise his prowess to the world. Age 18A golden September day and she is returning to her dorm, Canaday Hall, the boxy, modern Harvard freshman dormitory, from a …Read More
by Richard Holmes It’s that time of the year again when people leave their March madness behind them and go nuts over flowers. You know, the ones that flower in all shades of pink all over Japan. There’s even a weather term named after them – the 桜前線 ‘sakura zensen’ or cherry blossom front. People …Read More
by Jann Williams, April 21, 2022 It was not until my mid-50s that a deep interest in Japanese culture was stirred, seeking lessons on how to connect people and nature in a quest for sustainability. The elements of nature are my guide, embedded as they are in all aspects of Japanese life – whether it …Read More
by James Woodham comb your hair with windlet the hills flow through your eyessun adorn your skin wind on the waterwind in my hair and the crow’s hollow notes dropping sun warm on the skinears full of the mountain streambreathing the blue sky to be free of nowas a bird takes to the airthe future floating …Read More
by Allen S. Weiss My desire to return to Kyoto has been frustrated for over two years due to the covid epidemic, just as work on my most recent book project, Illusory Dwellings: A Kyoto Travelogue, has been stalled for the same reason. But there are many ways to travel. A voyage has neither beginning …Read More
by Yuki Yamauchi Japan has magnetised many globally popular musicians such as John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga. Of course, David Bowie (1947-2016) is no exception, either. His interest in the country’s culture started in the 1960s and led the London-born artist to play the koto on ‘Moss Garden’, a track on …Read More
Exhibition of ‘Spirit of Shizen’ at Luxembourg’s Natural History Museum, July-August 2022 by Robert Weis Nature in Japan has long been awe-inspiring through the beautifully articulated four seasons, but also threatening due to recurrent natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, heavy rainfalls and tsunami. The traditional relationship between Japanese people, their culture and their …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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