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Netsuke Museum event
WIK Outing to Kyoto Seishu Netsuke Museum, Sept 26, 2020Report by Peter Macintosh A small, mask-wearing group of WiKers spent a couple of hours being educated in the not so well known world of netsuke.…
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Notes from Himeji
A traditional Japanese neighbourhood is a lot like a small fiefdom; it rolls with its own rules and rosters, elects its own committees, demands that its denizens perform seasonal duties such as river cleaning and…
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Short Story (Huggins)
Hitoshi knelt on a blue cushion in the doorway leading out to the garden. Every evening he opened the outer doors and the sliding screens regardless of the season, and waited for Michiko until long…
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The Heron Catchers (Pt 1)
(Editorial note: Due to WordPress formatting, the extract below is indented differntly from the original and may have lost clarity in the transposition.) David Joiner writes: ‘The following is a draft of the first chapter…
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The Heron Catchers (Pt 2)
This is the second part of an extract by David Joiner from his work in progress. For Part One with an introduction by the author, click here. (NB Because of WordPress rules, the formatting has…
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Interview with Lisa Twaronite Sone
1) Could you tell us a little about yourself?I moved to Japan to flee family expectations, and also to chase a guy. I first arrived in 1985 to study at Doshisha for a year, where…
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Chikubujima (Edward J. Taylor)
It takes some time getting to Chikubujima. You first must take a train up to Biwa’s narrow northern shoulder, eternally bullied by the brawny peaks of Hirasan above. A boat will then take you to…
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The Wind’s Word by James Woodham
The Wind’s Word (all photos by the author) intricate scripture – each leaf’s quiver the wind’s word on a page of air snail on his way down the rain soaked road easy grace of line…
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Essential Work (Short story)
by Lisa Twaronite Sone Not to brag, but my cash drawer always balances at the end of my shift. Not once in all of my decades behind a register has it ever gone over, or…
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Writers in Kyoto Present the Sixth Annual Kyoto Writing Competition
THEME: Kyoto (English language submissions only) DEADLINE: March 31st, 2021 (Midnight JST) GENRE: Short Shorts (unpublished material only) WORD LIMIT: 300 Words (to fit on a single page) FORM: Short poems, character studies, essays, travel…
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The Witches Play Macbeth
The Witches Play Macbethby Marianne Kimura In Birnam Wood, we’d all meet, all the witches, to dance. We’d twirl and skip under the stars with the god Pan. No dull churches for him: he could…
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Alex Kerr’s ‘Heart Sutra’
Review by Preston Keido Houser Kerr, Alex. Finding the Heart Sutra: Guided by a Magician, an Art Collector and Buddhist Sages from Tibet to Japan. Dublin: Allen Lane, 2020. 297pp. Ebook and paperback. I’ve been…
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Kyoto Journal update Dec. 2020
Ken Rodgers, KJ managing editor I greatly enjoyed talking with author Alex Kerr about his new book, Finding the Heart Sutra, on our WIK Zoom session on Sunday Nov. 29th. (A recording is available here—thanks…
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Today: Ten Tanka (Altoft)
William Altoft is a teacher in Bristol UK, who has links to Kyoto and draws inspiration from the Japanese tanka form. The following were written on the Bristol harbourside, as pictured below. (For more see…
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Edward Levinson introduction
Text and photos by Edward Levinson fall windtakes the unknown roadspreading wings 秋の風 未知の道行く翼伸ばすaki no kaze, michi no michiyuku, tsubasa nobasu People often ask me why I came to Japan and what its like to…
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Kyoto: A Literary Guide
This fascinating selection of Kyoto-specific literature takes readers through twelve centuries of cultural heritage, from ancient Heian beginnings to contemporary depictions. The city’s aesthetic leaning is evident throughout in a mix of well-known and less…
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Hōjōki talk (Stavros)
Hōjōki: seeking solace in the time of COVID A report by Jann Williams on the Zoom talk by Matthew Stavros (Nov 27, 2020) “The best way to understand the world today, is to hold up…
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Hōjōki – a Personal Response
by Chad Kohalyk A physical space for your inner self — reading a new translation of Hōjōki by Matthew Stavros My clearest memory of my grandfather is the little cot in his back room. Lying…
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Hans Brinckmann
Hans Brinckmann: Born in 1932 in The Hague, Hans grew up during the German occupation of Holland. Due to the dismal post-war conditions, he had to suppress his hope to become a writer. In order…
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Introducing Yuki Yamauchi
Hello. I’m honored to be one of the members of Writers in Kyoto. I’m Yuki Yamauchi, a translator of English and Irish literature and part-time event writer for The Japan Times. I have written about events in Kyoto,…
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Spiritual Journey to Kyoto
Michikusa Dreamingby Robert Weis [Michikusa, lit. ‘Grass on the Wayside’ is an autobiographical novel written by Soseki Natsume in 1915. The expression also means ‘wasting time along the way’.] One week to reach Kyoto from…
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