-
Open mike with Ken Rodgers
At WiK’s Words and Music bonenkai on Dec 8, long term resident Ken Rodgers delivered the following piece. One time organiser of Kyoto Connection and managing editor of Kyoto Journal, Ken has been instrumental in…
-
Hoshi Matsuri (Edward J. Taylor)
A small group of us met at Keage Station and began the walk up to Agon-shu’s huge Hoshi Matsuri event in the hills above Kiyomizu-dera. I’d been wanting to go for years, but always seemed…
-
Review of ‘Tokyo: A Biography’
Book Review of Tokyo: A Biography by Stephen Mansfield (208 pages) Disasters, Destruction and Renewal: The Story of an Indomitable City Reviewer: Ian Yates Tokyo, the city, the metropolis, the legend, has always been overpowering…
-
Berryman on Ryoan-ji
Dream Song 73: Karesansui, Ryoan-ji by John Berryman (from his visit to Kyoto in 1957) The taxi makes the vegetables fly.‘Dozo kudasai,’ I have him wait.Past the bright lake up into the temple,shoes off, andmy…
-
The Old Man (Richard Holmes)
The Old Man on the Hillby Richard Holmes I could see him through the pillars that looked down over the charred remains. Smoke rose up languidly from debris scattered everywhere, interrupted by the occasional flame…
-
Last Snow (Kimura)
The Last Snow in Kyotoby Marianne Kimura I wrote this hoping that the last big snow in Kyoto (January 26, 2019) will NOT after all be the last snow ever in Kyoto. (It is so…
-
Kyoto Connections
(Review by John Dougill) Last night our friends at Kyoto Journal put on a spoken word event to coincide with the wonderful exhibition they mounted of foreign artists in Kyoto (until Feb 18). The venue…
-
Robert Yellin poems
1980s Poems I deal in demons Ya know what I mean? I see them in the daylight hours In banks, realtors outlets, Kiosks and inflatable houseboats. Pan and Prometheus know about The coming rain Another…
-
Western writers overview
Western Writers in/on Kyoto[A highly subjective and selective account…]By Ken Rodgers The first Europeans to set foot in Kyoto, in 1551, were the missionaries Francis Xavier and Juan Fernandez, seeking selfies with the Emperor Go-Nara,…
-
Here comes Kenji (Ramsden)
Here Comes Kenji by Kevin Ramsden It was late on a weekday afternoon, and James was nearly two-thirds into his second beer of the day. Raising his head from the reading of his newspaper, he…
-
A Single Thread (James Woodham)
A SINGLE THREADJames Woodham a single threadthe spider’s leaving light travelling along it breeze sliding it back a whiteness of wings –from the shore a heron liftsaway on water *********** egret takes to airwingtips grazing the lakegliding on shadow ***********…
-
Your Inner Witch
Meet Your Inner Witch in Just Five Easy Stepsby Marianne Kimura Introduction: I’ve had to find out a lot about witches in the course of writing academic pieces about Shakespeare’s plays with witches, such as…
-
Six Zen Limericks
by Preston Keido Houser There once was a monk from Tangier Whose prayers left him nothing to hear But by embracing the violence Of interminable silence Did a mantra appear to his ear There once…
-
Lunch with Rebecca Otowa
Lunch with Rebecca Otowareported by Lisa Wilcut WiK members gathered on the misty afternoon of March 14 for a lunch talk with Rebecca Otowa at Ume no Hana near Karasuma Oike. The congruence of season…
-
Catherine Pawasarat
Catherine Pawasarat: Self-Introduction for Writers in Kyoto It’s a pleasure to join Writers in Kyoto. I appreciate the warm welcomes and it’s heartwarming to see some old familiar names and faces. I grew up in…
-
Love in the time of COVID 19
Below are two more villanelles from Preston Keido Houser. A villanelle is a fixed-form poem consisting of five tercets and a quatrain which follows a specific rhyme scheme using only two different sounds. It originated…
-
Greenhouse Blues (Simon Rowe)
Greenhouse Bluesby Simon Rowe Last month a fortuitous thing happened. I discovered a large greenhouse beside the university where I work. It is used by the Faculty of Pharmacological Science to grow medicinal plants for…
-
Lafcadio Hearn’s Kyoto stories
John Dougill writes… Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was a most remarkable writer, at home in a range of genres. While a journalist in the US, he wrote sensational crime stories and lurid accounts of the grotesque,…
-
Truman Capote on Kyoto
Truman Capote on Kyoto, The New Yorker, November 2, 1957. The extract is taken from a lengthy interview with Marlon Brando in The Miyako Hotel during the filming of Sayonara. https://www.newyorker.com/…/11/09/the-duke-in-his-domain *********************“Below the windows, the hotel…
-
The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper
The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper And Other Short StoriesRebecca Otowa160pp A Personal Response by Ian ‘Josh’ Yates Though I have read a lot recently, I have written very little. I could blame any number of…
-
WiK’s 5th Anniversary
To celebrate WiK’s 5th Anniversary Celebration today, here is a list of all the activities and talks we have had over the past five years. There have been fun events like our bonenkai showcase of…
-
WiK titles for World Book Day
A SELECT LISTING OF BOOKS BY MEMBERS OF WRITERS IN KYOTO ******************* AMY CHAVEZ (non-fiction) Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan (Stone Bridge, 2018)Guide to Japanese customs & etiquette. Running the Shikoku Pilgrimage: 900…
-
Japanese Wood book review
Japanese Wood and Carpentry, Rustic and RefinedBy Mechtild Mertz(reviewed by Judith Clancy) Japan is a country whose primary building material is wood. Walking the old streets of Kyoto or entering a temple reveals…
-
Alex Kerr Reminisces
(The following article first appeared in Echoes: Writers in Kyoto Anthology 2017) Three Old Men of Kyotoby Alex Kerr Harold StewartDavid KiddWilliam Gilkey I don’t know if young men are like this any more, but…
-
Pierre Loti on Kioto
Before Lafcadio Hearn, there was Pierre Loti. The Frenchman is (in)famous in Japan for his 1887 novel, Madame Chrysantheme, which influenced the short story Madame Butterfly (1898) by John Luther Long. In collaboration with David…
-
Daniel Ellsberg in Kyoto
An intriguing blog entitled Ten Thousand Things from Kyoto carries an article suggesting that a chance encounter in Kyoto had world-changing repercussions. The meeting concerned Gary Snyder and Daniel Ellsberg, whose name is famous for…
-
Alan Watts on Kyoto (1)
In his autobiography, In My Own Way(1972), Alan Watts writes of having a curious affinity with Japan even in his childhood. His early impressions were shaped by Lafcadio Hearn through Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894),…
-
WiK Competition Results
by Karen Lee Tawarayama, Competition Organiser The judges of the Fifth Annual Kyoto Writing Competition are delighted to announce their decisions. This year, despite the unprecedented challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic, we received an…
-
Introducing Rona Conti
WiK welcomes new member Rona Conti, known for her calligraphy. The passages below are extracted from a longer account, ‘Encounters with Brushes Part One‘. About Rona Conti Rona Conti is a painter and calligrapher whose…
-
WiK Competition 2020 USA Prize
The judges found that it was easy to step into the mind of the photographer. A moment of silence and contemplation is provided for the reader. ***************** Capturing the Zen Spiritby Michael H. Lester Since…
© 2026 Writers In Kyoto
Based on a theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Recent Comments