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Writers in focus

Accidental Real Estate

by Cody Poulton

When I moved back to Kyoto in August I had to find somewhere to live for the long term. The old house in Katsura was no longer liveable; besides, I wanted to be closer to town. A friend of a friend, Mr. Fujita, was a real estate agent, so I asked him if he could find me a few places to look at. I told him my price range and roughly where I wanted to live. In a couple of days, he had three places lined up, so we met the next Saturday to see them. The first was an apartment in a condominium building, the second a machiya, or traditional townhouse, and the third was a three-bedroom house built sometime in the ’eighties not far from the river.

It was a blazingly hot day just before Obon, the festival when the spirits return from the dead to be entertained by their offspring. After three days, the spirits are sent home with bonfires on five of the surrounding mountains. If you can stand the heat, it’s one of the most beautiful of Kyoto’s annual festivals. Many try to find the roof of a taller building to witness the lighting of the okuribi, or “sending fires.”

We first visited the condominium apartment, which was located on the top floor of a high rise in the north of town. Though an older building, I was assured that it had been built after strict laws had been enforced to make tall structures like that safe in all but the most devastating of earthquakes. The apartment had been completely renovated, with new flooring and wallpaper and a new kitchen with an induction range. The only thing unchanged apparently was the toilet, from which issued a mouldy smell, which bothered me. Mould had been one of the things that had driven me out of our old house in Katsura.

The best part of the place, however, was the extraordinary view to the west, north, and east of the city. From the bedroom windows I could see four of the five mountains where they light the bonfires of Obon. To the west was Mt. Funaoka and Hidari Daimonji, and behind that Atago, Kyoto’s highest mountain; to the north, Takagamine and Kurama; to the northeast, Mt. Hiei; and east, Nyoigatake, otherwise known as Daimonjiyama. These mountains to the east and west are called Daimonji because the character for “big” (大) is traced out on their slopes. The outlines of a sail ship and the characters 妙法 (myōhō), meaning “wondrous dharma,” were inscribed on the sides of two other mountains to the north. A fifth mountain with the image of a torii gate was hidden behind a hill over to the northwest in Arashiyama. You could see it only if you lived over that way.

I thought to myself, what a great place to throw a party when they light up the mountains at Obon! But better yet was the effect when I opened all the windows. A refreshing breeze blew through, from west to east. One hardly needed the air conditioning. For most anyone in this city, which sits in a basin hemmed in by mountains, the summer is oppressively hot and humid and one can scarce survive it without the blast of an air conditioner.

The second place we saw was the machiya, which was located further to the north behind Imamiya Shrine. The place had been modernized with a new kitchen and bathroom, but it was hot upstairs and it was hemmed in by other houses. I imagined the downstairs would be dark and cold in the winter. The third place was a fine house, well built, but much too large for a single person like myself.

I could have asked the realtor to show me more places, but classes were beginning soon, I was sick of moving from one Air BNB to the next, and I was taken with the first place I’d seen. I am not one for making snap decisions, especially on first impressions, but I liked what I saw and knew I couldn’t find anything like it anyplace else. After a couple of weeks of negotiations and pieces of paper passing back and forth, the contract was sealed and I had the keys.

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Event Announcement: Timon Screech (January 21st)

Photo from SOAS website

Members and Followers of Writers in Kyoto are cordially invited to join Timon Screech for a presentation on the topic New Light on Nikkō: The Cult of Tokugawa Ieyasu as Great Avatar.

<Event Date>
January 21st, 2023 (Saturday)

<Time>
16:30 ~ 18:00 (Doors open at 16:15)

<Venue>
Ryukoku University Omiya Campus, East Hall, Room 208 (approx. 10 minutes on foot from Kyoto Station’s Central Entrance and next to Nishi Hongwanji Temple) [Google Maps ; Building #10 in the image below]

From the Ryukoku University Website: Omiya Campus|Location & Access|About|Ryukoku University You, Unlimited


<Participation Fee>
Free for paid members of Writers in Kyoto. For other participants, a one-coin donation of 500 JPY at the door would be appreciated.

*Please RSVP if possible by clicking on this link and entering the names of people who plan to attend.

—————————————
Courtesy of Wikipedia….

Timon Screech FBA (born 28 September 1961 in Birmingham) was professor of the history of art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London from 1991 – 2021, when he left the UK in protest over Brexit. He is now a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto. Screech is a specialist in the art and culture of early modern Japan.

In 1985, Screech received a BA in Oriental Studies (Japanese) at the University of Oxford. In 1991, he completed his PhD in art history at Harvard University. As well as his permanent posts, he has been visiting professor at the University of Chicago, Heidelberg University, and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and guest researcher at Gakushuin University and Waseda University in Japan, and at Yale, Berkeley and UCLA in the USA. His main current research project is related to the deification of the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu, in 1616-17, and his cult as the Great Avatar.

In July 2018 Screech was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).[1] Screech’s work had been translated into Chinese (Taiwan and PRC), French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish and Romanian. His leisure interests are aleurophilia, learning Burmese, and cultivating the former Kingdom of the Ryukyus.

  • Published work includes
  • 2020: The Shogun’s Silver Telescope: God, Art & Money in the English Quest for Japan (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
  • 2020: Tokyo before Tokyo: Power and Magic in the Shogun’s City of Edo (London: Reaktion Books & Chicago: Chicago University Press)
  • 2011: Obtaining Images: Art Production and Display in Edo Japan [London: Reaktion Books & Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press]
  • 2007: Oranda ga true: Ningen kōryū no edo bijutsushi [The Dutch Are Passing: Edo art and the exchange of persons]. Tokyo: [University of Tokyo Press].
  • 2006: Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822. London: RoutledgeCurzonISBN 978-0-203-09985-8OCLC 65177072
  • 2006: Edo no igirisu netsu [Britain in the Edo Period]. Tokyo: KodanshaISBN 4-06-258352-6
  • 2005: “Pictures, the Most Part Bawdy: The Anglo-Japanese Painting Trade in the Early 1600s”, Art Bulletin. Vol. 87, No. 1, pp. 50–72.
  • 2005: “Introduction”, Japan Extolled and Decried: Park Oeter Thunberg and the Shogun’s Realm. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
  • 2005: Japan Extolled and Decried: Carl Peter Thunberg and Japan. London: RoutledgeCurzonISBN 978-0-7007-1719-4 (cloth); ISBN 978-0-203-02035-7 (electronic)
  • 2003: Sex and Consumerism in Edo Japan. In: Consuming Bodies: Sex and Consumerism in Japanese Contemporary Art. London: Reaktion Books.
  • 2002: “Dressing Samuel Pepys: Japanese Garments and International Diplomacy in the Edo Period”, Orientations. Vol. 2, pp. 50–57.
  • 2002: “Erotyczne obrazy japonskie 1700–1820”. Universitas Kraków. ISBN 1-86189-030-3
  • 2002: “The Edo Pleasure Districts as ‘Pornotopia’”, Orientations, Vol. 2, pp. 36–42.
  • 2001:”The Birth of the Anatomical Body”, Births and Rebirths in Japanese Art. Leiden: Hotei Press.
  • 2001: “The visual legacy of Dodonaeus in botanical and Human Categorisation”, Dodonaeus in Japan: Translation and the Scientific Mind in Tokugawa Japan. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
  • 2000: The Shogun’s Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760–1829. London: Reaktion Books. (London). ISBN 1-86189-064-8.
  • 1998: Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Imagery in Japan, 1720–1810. London: Reaktion BooksISBN 1-86189-030-3.
  • 1997: Edo no karada o hiraku [Opening the Edo Body]. Tokyo: SakuhinshaISBN 4-87893-753-X.
  • 1996: The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressISBN 0-521-46106-5.

Review: THE WAY OF THE FEARLESS WRITER: Ancient Eastern Wisdom for a Flourishing Writing Life

Book Review of The Way of the Fearless Writer by Beth Kempton (Piatkus 2022)) 

Reviewer: Rebecca Otowa

(Beth Kempton is a writer and mentor who spent a year in Kyoto in the nineties, and has travelled back and forth frequently since then. Her books may be found on amazon.com.)

Now that the New Year’s season has passed and we are safely into 2023, many of us might be thinking, “How can I make my next year of life meaningful?” Here’s a book for you to find meaning in your own writing life. 

The few moments of time for creativity that we carve out from the rest of our lives; the moments when we really feel we have something to express that has never been said in quite that way before; we wish to have them, and have more of them – no matter what our previous experience of writing has been. And we all think of ourselves as writers, else we would not be in this group. 

As Beth says (p. 70) “… being a writer has nothing to do with other people’s validation, having things published, or being paid to write… Being a writer is writing. Being a writer is capturing things that spill from your head and heart, and putting them on paper. Being a writer is expressing the human condition and experience of existence in words.” 

To this end, we can use this book as a guide to finding or re-finding our writing voice. Sprinkled liberally with anecdotes from her own experiences, Beth, who already has a flourishing online mentoring business called Do What You Love , and four other books published (including Wabi Sabi), here gives us guidelines for feeling our way (back) into the joy of writing. 

The book presents writing as a practice for self-awareness, staying in the present, even enlightenment, and is based on three Gates of Liberation of Buddhist practice, called Mugenmon (The Gate of Desirelessness), Musoumon (The Gate of Formlessness) and Kuumon (The Gate of Emptiness). For each Gate section, there are four chapters, plus a Journey Note and a Ceremony when the Gate is safely passed. Tucked into each chapter are writing prompts in boxes, called “Write Now”. Other suggestions for writing are also provided, based on the theme of the chapter.

So, that covers the writing. Where does the “fearlessness” come in? I would say, both as a writer and as a Buddhist practitioner, that the book doesn’t pull any punches when it says that when you write, you may find yourself opening and mining memories of forgotten times, places and people and how they made you feel. It takes fearlessness to keep going when this happens, but the rewards are great. Because writing is, according to Beth, “about ritual, dedication and commitment, developing an acute awareness of beauty, dancing with inspiration, listening to the world outside yourself and going deep within.” (p. 7)

Sound like a tall order? It may seem daunting. But please allow me to add something of my own to this. Recently I had a long talk with a 26-year-old Assistant Language Teacher in my town (from Jamaica!), and she said that one of her perennial problems was that she lacked discipline. After many years of struggling in this department myself, I have come to the conclusion that within our character, either there is a bent toward self-discipline, or there isn’t. I know, after many trials, that to say to myself, “From now on, I’m going to do A every day” is a recipe for disaster. If you are a self-punishing type, it can be excruciating when, as inevitably happens, you fall from that lofty peak.

But I am not without self-discipline. I usually finish what I start, eventually. It’s just that I have found that, for me, making lists and telling myself, “if I don’t do this, I’m a terrible person” just doesn’t work. The Buddhist practice I am now doing says that everything, success, failure, whatever, is part of the path. And the path is something we will be walking all our lives, perhaps many lifetimes. So what’s the rush? What I told the ALT was this: Pick just one activity that you consider a high priority, whether it is eating breakfast, some cleaning chore, anything, and try to do it for a month. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t do it every day. Just keep track of the number of days you did do it. At the end of the month, if you are satisfied with the total number of times you managed to do it, add another activity. If not, do another month concentrating on the first activity. And perhaps it would be good to consider WHY, sometimes, you were unable to do it. Maybe there was just no time that day, or your routine was disrupted. Maybe you just didn’t feel like it. And that’s OK. I did this in December with stretching exercises and walking. When I totaled them up, I found that I had only done these things 2/3 of the days of December. Well, that’s a lot better than 0. Maybe January will be better. 

But some people thrive on this kind of discipline. No less a writer than Stephen King suggested that aspiring writers “write something every day”. A ritual can help, as Beth suggests. Treating writing time as a really important thing, not relegating it to minutes of tired time just before bed, etc., can help too. I think personally that it is important to know yourself when you attempt this kind of discipline. I think that just jumping in and writing can help with this self-awareness too. That’s really what Beth’s book is about. Self-awareness often requires fearlessness. 

If you feel that now, in the New Year, is the time to pick up the reins (or the pen, or the keyboard) and write, this book provides an easy-to-read, friendly guide to doing that. 

Writers in focus

An unexpected encounter in the cosmos of Kyoto

by Kirsty Kawano

It was one of those sparkling summer days when the pale blue sky seems to stretch higher than usual. I was running errands near home and took the path along the river to avoid traffic and enjoy the view. I looked back and forth to the river as I cycled along, spotting some of the usual inhabitants – the eponymous ducks, herons and little egrets – and then, an unexpected one. I stopped my bike to gawk at it. At the edge of the grassy bank in the middle of the river was one of those things that there’s a sign about down at Demachiyanagi. A “neutrino,” or something, because that’s not the right word – but something like that. And if I’ve ever seen a South American beaver-like rodent smile, that’s what it was doing now. The audacity! And then, just like that, in the brilliant sunshine of a Kyoto summer, it took a moment to give its butt a good, long scratch.

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Poetry that is about the ancient capital or was set in Kyoto

Three Poems by Robert Weis

Sea of Clouds (the art of change)

The November sun
Dazzles our faces with eyes closed
The bright glow of coloured leaves
Is not of this world
Here, today
It is another universe
That looks like the world
As it is
Of islands, rivers, mountains, oceans
A monochrome universe
Emerges from the stone
Expanding my mind
Falling on the moss
Like shooting stars
The maple leaves
Swept by the autumn wind
Or by the gardener
In the twilight
From the path of Yoshida Hill
I walk along the candlelight on the ground
A black butterfly
As big as my hand
Escapes from the darkness of the undergrowth
- Or is it a bat?
A tiny tea house
Above the bamboo grove of Kodai-ji temple
Under the full autumn moon
That illuminates the scarlet maples
And the cold of a night
Full of promise
Drop after drop
The basin of water fills
With the inebriation of life
Under the amazed gaze
Of a wise man silent
Like the passing of time
Small granite monk's heads
In a sea of green moss
Smile at life
As well as to death
Autumn rings hollow
Under the crackling sound
Of leaves tinged 
With the past
I watch my thoughts
Reflected in the clear water 
Of the lotus pool
Then floating
Like a sea of clouds
In a distant sky.

Manabeshima

Under the clouds diving into water
The absence of a new beginning
In the middle of this inland sea
Calm as a shoreless lake
I consider the possibility of an island
Swaying in the wind
- A solitary jellyfish!

Kiyotaki or the valley of bliss

The number eight bus abandons me at the curve
Stone stairs going down
Stone stairs going up
The face of the Buddha is invisible
In this mountain temple
The Japanese maples smile
Behind their faces scorched by the sun
And the coolness of the mountain nights
Stairs again and again
The sound of a Japanese lute
Makes the humid air vibrate on the river
I follow the path that follows the water
Climbing over blunt rocks
And suddenly the sight of a vermilion bridge
Amidst the vermilion maples
A man is fishing with a line
Sitting on the granite pebbles
As in an old print by master Hiroshige
- The hanging bridge of dreams.

*************************

These poems have been translated from French by the author. The book Rêves d’un mangeur de kakis is available from the publisher (www.michikusapublishing.com) or directly from the author.

For other writing by Robert Weis, see Mind Games in Arashiyama, or 71 Lessons on Eternity. For more on his travels, see his account of a walk from Ohara to Kurama here, or his spiritual journey to Kyoto here. His account of Nicolas Bouvier in Kyoto in the mid-1950s can be read here.

Writers in focus

Rock Band Queen and Kyoto

by Yuki Yamauchi

The relationship between David Bowie and Kyoto is a source of endless fascination. Less well known is the connection between the city and the mega rock band Queen. Like Bowie, who I wrote about in April, Freddie Mercury was particularly attracted to Kyoto. 

Queen has several links with Japan. For example, more than 1,000 fans flocked to Haneda Airport to glimpse the quartet during the 1975 Sheer Heart Attack Tour, their first tour of Japan. In addition, Japanese lyrics account for a part of “Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together),” a closing track on the 1976 album ‘A Day at the Races’.

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Writers in focus

The dharma of natural laws

by Preston Keido Houser

The dharma of natural laws
Initiate a sublime conclusion:
“No cause, no cause.”*

Zen sermons for all their flaws
Frame an eloquent elocution
The dharma of natural laws

To escape ideological claws
One source of absolution:
“No cause, no cause.”

Dreams must give us pause†
The crystal clarity of illusion
The dharma of natural laws

Being beyond is will or was
Exalt religious revolution:
“No cause, no cause.”

No curse no applause
Only a salient solution:
The dharma of natural laws:
“No cause, no cause.”


*cf. King Lear (4.7.75).
†cf. Hamlet (3.1.68).

******************************************

Preston Keido Hauser is a longtime member of Writers in Kyoto, a poet and a player and teacher of the Japanese wind instrument shakuhachi. He has been in Kyoto since 1981. His website may be found at www.keidokyoto.wordpress.com. To read more of his work on the WIK website, click here.

Authors who belong to Writers in Kyoto

The Back Way to Kiyomizu-dera

by Steve Alpert

The secret back way to Kiyomizu-dera begins on Shichi-jo Dori. It’s a secret now because the city of Kyoto over the last thousand or so years has grown up around it. Back in the Heian Period (794-1185), and maybe a little after that, it would have been how you got to Kiyomizu from the old Imperial Palace just south of what later became Nijo Castle. A visit to Kiyomizu was a popular outing for Imperial concubines of the day.

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BORN ABROAD, WRITING IN JAPAN: A Bilingual Live/Zoom Streamed Event in Shizuoka University

Image taken by Steve Redford and used as the poster & program image.

by Rebecca Otowa

On November 19, 2022, Shizuoka University professor Steve Redford celebrated his retirement with a very ambitious event. He invited two resident-in-Japan writers to join him in an event in which the three talked about their early lives, why they came to Japan, and their experiences of writing in English in Japan. They interspersed these personal tales with readings from their published works. About 50 live participants and 18 Zoom participants enjoyed the event. 

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Writers in Kyoto Present the Eighth Annual Kyoto Writing Competition

◆ THEME: Kyoto (English language submissions only)
◆ DEADLINE: March 31st, 2023 (23:59 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 in a fresh light. A clear connection to Kyoto is essential.

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