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Self-Introduction: Rick Mitcham
Self-Introduction: Rick Mitcham My full name is Roderick Ellis Mitcham, but please call me Rick. At the start of the various English-language courses I teach here in Kyoto, I use my name to introduce myself.…
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Words and Photos (John Einarsen)
Some Words and Photographs By John Einarsen The words attached to a photograph can radically alter how we “read” or understand it. Words give context, intended or unintended. One’s experience of an image often depends…
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Travelling North (Rowe)
Travelling North by Simon Rowe Uramoto was short, in his thirties, with a buzz cut and a smile that practically broke his face in half. At eight p.m. he fired up his Fuso and told…
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1950s Kyoto (Hans Brinckmann)
What was it like in Kyoto in the 1950s? You hardly ever saw foreigners, for one thing. If you did, you stopped to say hello. That was the Kyoto a banker from Holland called Hans…
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Kamishibai (Sydney Solis)
WiK member Sydney Solis has a longstanding interest in kamishibai, the Japanese art of picture story telling. She has created and published six titles of her own which can be found here. One of them…
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Award-winning novelist (Wataya)
Risa Wataya From Wikipedia Risa Wataya (綿矢 りさ), born February 1, 1984, is a Japanese novelist from Kyoto. Her short novel Keritai senaka won the Akutagawa Prize and has sold more than a million copies. Her work has been translated into…
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2016 Competition Winner
As the deadline nears for the 2019 Writers in Kyoto Competition (March 31), we turn back the clock to look again at some of the winning entries from years past to see if there is…
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WiK 2017 Anthology (Yellin)
One of the pieces in the Second WiK Anthology (Echoes, 2017) was by Robert Yellin, international expert on Japanese pottery and owner of the Yakimono Gallery. The following piece is an extract only; the full…
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Zen for Foreigners (Micah Auerback)
At a dinner talk on March 3, Micah Auerback introduced us to research he is doing on the first outreach by Zen practitioners in Japan to Western foreigners. Currently on sabbatical from the University of…
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Free ebook limited offer
Free ebook of the WiK 2017 Anthology now available from amazon. Contributions by Alex Kerr, Amy Chavez and Eric Johnston, amongst others. Poetry, fiction, non-fiction and stunning illustrations by John Einarsen of Kyoto Journal fame.…
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Writing retreat in Shikoku (May 17-19)
The following piece below is extracted from a website giving much fuller information. Click here to see it… Full title for the book on which the retreat is based is The Abundance of Less: Lessons…
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Competition winner 2018
With ten days left to the deadline for the 2019 competition, WiK is reposting a winning entry from last year in order to stimulate the thoughts of those hesitating about entering….. (Full details about how…
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An Ode to Salty Dogs (Rowe)
Island of the Wind Child There’s an island off the coast of western Honshu Where six men in kayaks camp beneath moons Sometimes a crescent, sometimes a half But beware a full moon The king…
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Okuni by Lafcadio Hearn
Many of us will be aware of the Okuni statue that stands near Shijo Bridge. The statute shows her cross-dressed as a samurai, in acknowledgement of the plays she put on at the riverbank that…
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Donald Keene in Kyoto
The following is taken from ‘Donald Keene: The American Who Became Japanese’ by Oliver Jia. (Click here to see original.) After the American occupation of Japan ended in 1952, restrictions on outsiders entering the country…
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Reggie Pawle presentation
Reggie Pawle combines being a Kyoto psychotherapist with being a Zen practitioner, which has enabled him to explore the world within while helping others find their true selves. Zen and psychotherapy go back to the…
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Ghosts of the Tsunami (Parry)
(Richard Lloyd Parry will be speaking at Ryukoku University, Omiya campus, on May 12. All welcome; see right hand column for details. The book review that follows is a slightly amended version of the posting…
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Lloyd Parry’s ‘People Who Eat Darkness’
Book review by Josh Yates People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo – and the Evil by Richard Lloyd Parry (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux,…
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Lovsic in Kyoto
News of a new book set in the contemporary city. The Kindle version on amazon japan has a discount for ¥988. Here’s the press release, which is a model of marketing. We’ll carry a review…
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Richard Lloyd Parry talk
‘Kyoto gaijin are different. Tokyo gaijin are there for money or sex. Kyoto gaijin are here for Zen, or lacquerware, or Heian poetry, or to learn shakuhachi. Nearly everyone plays shakuhachi!’ So began the absorbing…
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Kyoto Soundscape
Radio Gidayū Created by Allen S. Weiss and Daisuke Ishida for the Klangkunst program of Deutschlandradio Kultur Berlin, 2014, commissioned by Marcus Gammel, Radio Gidayū is simultaneously a soundscape of Kyoto, a sonic travel diary,…
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2019 Competition USA Prizewinner
(For a full list of prizewinners, please click here on 2019 Competition ). Fadeby Samantha JC Hoh, Philadelphia, USA “Did you know cicadas actually live for many years?” Tak, tak. Our sandals smack the stone…
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2019 Competition Kyoto winner (Ramsden)
Kyomojo (by Kevin Ramsden, British, Kyoto resident) A one, two three … Scoffin’ down a bento / slippin’ in a sento / Air BnB for rento Yamazaki whisky / pickled veg from Nishiki / horumon…
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WiK Competiton 2019 Third Prize (Kimura)
[In keeping with long-time legends of the ghosts and spirits that reside in Kyoto, this piece reminded the judges of the Kwaidan stories gathered by Lafcadio Hearn, simultaneously chilling and tender.] Yurei Ame/ Ghost Candyby…
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WiK Competiton 2019 Second Prize
“Sunrise Over the Kamogawa” by Ina Sanjana (UK citizen living in Kyoto) From the judges: “Homelessness within Kyoto is a rarely discussed topic, and Kamogawa Park is often viewed more as a recreational area for…
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WiK Competition 2019 First Prize
Writing on behalf of the judges, Competition Organiser Karen Lee Tawarayama comments that this , “A vivid account of the atmosphere surrounding Gozan Okuribi, the final Buddhist festival of the Obon season, touching on the…
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Encounters with Kyoto: WiK Anthology 3
On sale now from amazon.com, amazon.co.jp and other Amazon marketplaces. (Revised 2021) Edited by Jann Williams and Ian Josh YatesForeword by Juliet Winters Carpenter Inside these covers lies the third collection of enticing works by…
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Way Back When (James Woodham)
Way Back When On my doorstep happy as an utter fool I gaze at Mount Hira. Wind in the arms of the May-leaved trees, a chill on my skin. I think of Cid Corman and…
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D-Day memoir (Rodgers)
WiK member Ken Rodgers (Managing Editor of Kyoto Journal ) writes… With the 75th anniversary of D-Day currently in the news, I was reminded of WiK’s Battle of the Somme reading a few years back,…
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Walking on Water (Edward J Taylor)
Walking on Water with Jesus I can’t remember where the initial idea came from, but I do know that it was three years old. I thought it would be interesting to walk the Kamogawa in…
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