by Edward J. Taylor We arise at 1:00 am, behind a man who has trekked Hiei-zan’s 40 kilometer Kaihōgyō over a thousand times before. After a quick prayer at Konpon-chu-dỏ, we suddenly move along the paths at a surprisingly quick pace. The rain has cleared but the clouds keep everything below the knees in darkness. …Read More
Author: WiK (Page 12 of 13)
by Rona Conti Tiny characters float within my vision as my fellow students are dedicatedly focused on writing the familiar to them but foreign to me. It is my first year of studying calligraphy. I love to watch Shimizu-san writing the most exquisite kana or onna-de (literally, woman’s hand), but know that I’ll never be …Read More
Reading Inaka: Portraits of Life in Rural Japanby Chad Kohalyk In a small city in western Canada — which one might call inaka by dint of the high ratio of giant pickup trucks and the 95% white demographics — a group of immigrant moms from Japan, most married to Canadians, decided to band together. Their …Read More
From a Work in Progress, by Malcolm Ledger Kyoto had seen very little of the war, though its truth had long struck bitter, painful blows. A world pregnant with unrealized hopes and dreams had now become wraith-like, tenuous, and contingent, its substance dim and opaque, melting away like warm breath on a cold, glistening mirror. …Read More
A Meditation by Robert Weis The first time that I experienced the beauty of Sakura trees was in April 2017, at the Yanaka Cemetery in Tokyo. A delicate breeze dispersed thousands of pink petals over the graves, in a poetic momentum that touched me deeply. For sure, I had seen Sakura before, in my home …Read More
by Cody Poulton It was the last weekend in February and I was eager to leave the house, which is generally colder and a good deal darker than outside at this time of year. When I suggested to my wife that we go on an outing, she remarked it was time to pay our respects …Read More
A Foreign Mom Navigates Human Relations In The Old Town When your life path meets a brick wall, look for a door By Kirsty Kawano | (First published by Savvy Kyoto) Making friends in a new town can be tough, but it’s even harder in an old one. I was at a Japanese cultural workshop …Read More
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 on his side, propped up on one elbow, he would spend hours on that folding metal bed with the thin …Read More
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 tips, whimsy, haiku sequence, haibun, wordplays, dialogue, experimental verse, etc. In short, anything that helps show the spirit of place …Read More
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 come up short. If you understand how busy supermarkets can get, you’ll appreciate how miraculous this is. But really, it’s …Read More
Kyoto 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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