Writers In Kyoto

Page 37 of 65

Writers in focus

Open mike with Ken Rodgers

January 11, 2020
Ken performing at the WiK year-end Words and Music party in December

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 enriching the expatriate experience for those living in the ancient capital.

_________________

The Pillowbook of Moe Uzumasa
Getting behind a microphone reminds me of a time back in the early 90s, when I had a brief but illustrious career as a pirate radio DJ at Shinchihaya, David Kubiak’s community space up in the forest on Yoshidayama – now a secluded café called Mo-an.

Mounting a short antenna on the roof, David wired up a totally illegal micro-FM transmitter. I had a few LPs and was running a little monthly writers group there called the Word Exchange — also emceeing Kyoto Connection, so I was nominated to be DJ for its initial, and probably only broadcast.

Songwriter/busker Richard Goodman starred as ‘live guest.’

Due to the elevation, one listener heard us down in Fushimi.

We were pioneers.

Later Seibu Kodo at Kyodai set up a legal local mini-FM station.  As I remember, David and Kathy suggested the name of the corporate FM Kokoro, when it started up.

Tonight I was planning to read you another pseudo-Buddhist sermon about dog-nature, elephant-nature, Buddha-nature and human nature. But since reading Chris Mosdell‘s new book, The Radicals, which is packed with historical tropes of classical Kyoto, I started looking for more present-day references to Kyoto culture, which is clearly still morphing.

Naturally enough, I thought of the Kyoto Municipal Transportation Bureau and its Get On! Kyoto City Subway campaign. ….Of course.

Mainly due to the extreme expense of full-scale archaeological surveys on every new development, by 2010 the subway had a budget deficit of 8.6 billion yen.

With 300,000 riders per day, they desperately needed an additional 50,000 passengers.

The solution? The super-cool subway and bus-tripping anime-style subway girls: Moe Uzumasa, Misa Ono, Saki Matsuga, Moe’s big sister Rei Uzumasa, and a clan of supporting characters.

So I’d like to introduce to you

The Pillowbook of Moe Uzumasa

Like Sei Shonagon, Moe loves making lists:

Things that Seem Close, but are Distant

The moon, over Higashiyama.

Harry Potter World at Universal Studios, in Osaka

Things that Seem Distant, but are Close

College entrance exams.

The fans who donated 10,422,000 yen for our 12-minute Subway Girls animation, Chikatetsu ni Noru.

Things Not Worth Doing

Traveling by Keihan, or Hankyu lines.

Not that I’d even think of doing that myself, but I hear they have some “premium cars,” that are absurdly modernistic, and others that are just hideously old-fashioned.

Things That Suck

Junior-high kids with no stuffed toy mascots hanging off their schoolbags.

Junior-high kids with ridiculously huge stuffed toy mascots hanging off their schoolbags.

My agent, for never letting me wear my pre-ripped jeans and L.A. vacation T-shirt in public.

Things That Really Suck

Being 17 years old ever since 2011.

That elderly gaijin who follows me around. Grey beard, red monkey face; elbowing his way through closing doors, leaning over my shoulder to see what I’m texting.

He just has no idea of subway etiquette.

Once he even asked me which was my favorite platform.

I said ‘Line.’ We all use it.

He just looked at me, like I hadn’t aced my Eiken test 5 years straight, and said,

‘Um, which station?’

I was like “Oh, FM Kokoro,” and he laughed and wrote that down, the idiot.

No-one under 50 listens to radio anymore.
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For other pieces by Ken, see this travel article, or this D-Day memoir, or this celebration of Kyoto Journal’s 30th anniversary.

Featured writing

A Year in Review

December 23, 2019

a year in review — a haphazard collection of unruly short verse

by Lisa Wilcut

SPRING

blossoms assembling
to view springtime crowds below––
beckoned by sake, smoke and laughter
 

the whole body of the bird on the ledge 
vibrating with the effort of each note
down to its last 
                  tail 
                        feather 
 

in the sunny spot 
on the wide-open verandah
where I was just trimming my nails, 
a sparrow reading the sports page
 

locking eyes 
   with a caterpillar 
       on a cabbage leaf
in a showdown 
over dinner

LATE SPRING / EARLY SUMMER

eyes as flooded as the paddies 
at the beauty of 
scenes reflected there
 

~after planting a field of rice destined for sake:
 

tiny frog singing his heart out 
in a rice paddy sown just today
–drunk already
 

raindrops falling, seeds of sound 
that blossom in the evening
into a thousand froggy voices

TSUYU

~ume shigoto
birdsong leaking out 
    of the June rain–
hototogisu at the window 
       come to eavesdrop on the scent of ripe plums


plum rain’s whispered roar
scent of secrets murmured there
fragrance resounding


like your eyes after a good cry,
the hydrangeas dyed by the rain
a deeper shade of blue

LATE SUMMER / “REAL” SUMMER

lacy shawl of rain
this day has worn since dawn–
she puts away now, bare breasted
to the applause of cicadas 
 

faster than the last cherry blossoms fall, 
the stars––one by one–– 
melt into the dawn
 

sitting out in the garden all night
where did I ever get the idea that 
  somewhere 
there is any line between today and tomorrow?
 

the chickens have eaten half my eggplants again—
a fair trade, I suppose, 
for a morning scramble

AUTUMN

pouring down the concrete steps like an anthill disturbed
––elementary students in matching yellow bucket hat
 

the fruit fly sitting on the moon 
reflected in my sake cup
come to share a drink with me 
 

ginko leaves on the checkered sidewalk–
Horikawa Go Tournament
playing out again in technicolor

WINTER

the lean silhouette 
of sakura’s winter branches––
bare arms elegant against the moon
 

a grace unknown
to springtime ruffles
 

a single strand of
   tinsel
        flutters
on the fir tree at the curb
––
then,
  letting go of the branch,
              riding the wind 
      across the world
 

 ~the 20th night festival at Motsuji
 
 bonfire licks the depths
         of night
 ––sky, dark, taking it all
 more, more! it cries 
         –feed my hungry stars

Featured writing

Preston’s Villanelle

December 19, 2019

The following poem, a contemporary take on the Californian Dream, was delivered at the 2019 bonenkai by Preston Keido Houser, who followed it up with a shakuhachi piece in lighter vein.

A villanelle is a fixed-form poem consisting of five tercets and a quatrain and follows a specific rhyme scheme using only two different sounds.

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At land’s end there’s not much to hear
Lamentations of a blood-soaked legacy
Hymns of a haunted hemisphere

The severed scalp a poisonous souvenir 
That punctuates a psychotic reverie
At land’s end there’s not much to hear

Where once the glee of corporate cheer
Now the anguished cries of a doomed destiny
Hymns of a haunted hemisphere

Wailing women silenced by war profiteer
Frantic families imprisoned by poverty
At land’s end there’s not much to hear

Where once a hectic hope of frontier
Now the hush of extinguished epiphany
Hymns of a haunted hemisphere

Fueled by a frenzy of consensual fear
And this-land-is-your-land hypocrisy
At land’s end there’s not much to hear
Hymns of a haunted hemisphere

—Preston Keido Houser

2019



For more by Preston see here, and for another villanelle please click here.

Writers in focus

Ogura haiku

December 17, 2019

Mayumi Kawaharada writes: At the beginning of autumn, on a sunny day, I joined a volunteer event of fixing bamboo fences alongside the bamboo forests in Arashiyama. It was organised by a NPO called “People together for Mt. Ogura”. My haiku master , Stephen H Gill, is one of the cofounders of this group. They have been working on Mt. Ogura for more than a decade to fix problems arising from environmental damage.

Once a year, Stephen Gill organises a Ginko (composing poetry while strolling), combined with the NPO’s volunteer work. The bamboo fences belong to Okouchi Sanso villa, which was built by former movie actor, Okouchi Denjiro (1898-1962). Since the current owner appreciates our work, they allow us to enter their garden for free, after finishing our work fixing the bamboo fence.

A big blue heart
cut out from the mackerel sky …
Birds singing

This distant view
From an ancient actor’s moon viewing terrace , 
All to myself!

A new movie star
Posing for my cell phone—
Mischievous mantis

The garden at Okochi Sanso is marvellous!
However, there was something sad I found while fixing the fences;

Tourist’s scribble
on the bamboo cut down:
“I love you”

************
People together for Mt. Ogura;
https://infoptogura.wixsite.com/npo-pto
Bamboo fence fixing event report; 
https://hailhaiku.wordpress.com/tag/mt-ogura/

For more by Mayumi, see her previous posting of haiku pics.

Heritage and Tourism follow-up

December 14, 2019

Culture and tourism has become a big topic worldwide, and two months after WiK’s Heritage and Tourism symposium, Unesco and Unwto came to town for the 4th UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture, which was followed by a two-hour Kyoto City symposium on promoting sustainable culture and tourism. I found the former more stimulating than the latter because of the practical measures put forward. (UNWTO is the United Nations World Tourist Organisation.)

A representative from Barcelona speaks of the city’s measures for dispersal

There were 600 delegates from over 50 countries. As is usual at such gatherings, there was a lot of fine rhetoric using feel-good generalisations. Buzzwords included community-centred, sustainable development, responsible tourism, dispersal, mutual respect, destination management, forging partnerships, intercultural benefit, human resources, citizen initiative. Of those sustainable was the most used, and there seemed universal acceptance that despite worries about climate change tourism was bound to increase even more dramatically than heretofore. “Travel, enjoy, respect,’ is the favoured Unesco slogan.

One of the most interesting talks I heard concerned an initiative in S. America to train local businesses and craftspeople in digital skills in order to advertise themselves to tourists. The project had trained an impressive total of 120,000 people. (Related to this was an online campaign in Barcelona to draw people away from tourist hotspots by advertising new festivals, concerts and shopping suggestions away from the city centre.)

Another talk that caught my attention was a speaker from the Council of Europe who spoke of 38 transnational Culture Routes that have been set up with passports for stamping (in the manner of Japanese pilgrimages). The routes include not only famous tourist spots but villages along the way with a special restaurant or craft and art centre. The routes were based on thematic clusters, such as religious heritage / art and culture / early Europeans / landscape and handicraft etc. Walking and cycling was encouraged. It struck me as something Japan could do on a cross-prefectural basis, because the division between prefectural tourist boards can often be more rigid than between nation states in Europe.

Participants in the Kyoto City seminar, with mayor Kadokawa in characteristic kimono on the right

Following the main conference, there was a symposium for promoting sustainable culture and tourism put on by the Kyoto City Tourism Association. The head of Ninna-ji spoke of restoring the temple following typhoon damage, which had led to greater involvement by local citizenry and the temple welcoming photography as opposed to its previous policy. A spokesman from Shimogamo Shrine spoke of how the shrine had exploited its rugby connection to increase tourists.

Kyoto city mayor Kadokawa noted that Kyoto had come no. 1 in a STG survey (Sustainable Tourism Growth) and how highly valued ‘the Kyoto model’ was by Unesco and Unwto. In 2018 Kyoto received 15.8 million overnight visitors, representing a 60% increase since 2000. In the light of this, the city has worked to decrease waste, energy consumption and road congestion.

In response to overtourism, Kyoto has taken various measures, one of which is addressing the seasonal imbalance by running such campaigns as Visit Kyoto in Winter. As a result the seasonal gap had lessened from 3.6 to 1.4 over the past few years. There had been an increase of 10% in stayers because of the increase in accommodation, while at the same time the city was working on shutting down unsuitable accommodation that caused nuisance to the citizenry. And there was also effort being put into redistribution as opportunities arise for practical participation rather than just sightseeing. There was publicity too to teach tourists Kyoto manners, and this was contributing to other countries learning good values from the Japanese (something incidentally that was very much evident during the rugby World Cup. A commentator on the BBC World Service suggested that his experience in Japan had made him a better person).

Other points of interest raised by Kadokawa were that 80% of visitors to the city are Japanese, that 38,000 buildings had to alter or dispose of signboards because of a city ordinance restricting their use, that there are 50 policies in place to unite visitors and tourists, and that revenue from the recently introduced accommodation tax would be spent on education to pass on Kyoto culture to future generations (third grade students will be introduced to tea ceremony and ikebana). He also said, interestingly, that the city has 2000 temples and shrines (contradicting the figure of 3000, as is often stated), and that of that number only 1% were overcrowded. That would mean 20 temples and shrines. I tried to work out what they might be: Kiyomizu, Fushimi Inari, Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, Ryoanji….. then if one includes cherry blossom and maple season several more could be easily added.

Disappointingly there was no question period, so some of the most pressing issues didn’t get discussed at all. There was a self-congratulatory tone to the symposium which those travelling on overcrowded buses in the city centre might take issue with, but one thing the conference as a whole did impress on me was that the matter of overtourism is being seriously addressed by authorities worldwide even if some of the more severe problems are far from being solved.

Kyoto city mayor and Kyoto prefectural governor receive copies of the Kyoto Declaration produced by participants, subtitled Investing in Future Generations

WiK Bonenkai 2019

December 11, 2019

Report by Iris Reinbacher…

On the evening of December 8, WiK held its bonenkai, a yearly tradition under the theme of “Words and Music” (for last year’s account, see here). We celebrated the old year, which not only brought a new era to Japan as a whole, but also proved to be a very successful one for our members: several new books published and a wonderful third Anthology, Encounters with Kyoto!

After the obligatory hellos and how-have-you-beens, and a sufficient amount of Pizza, Fish’n’Chips and Guinness, we moved on to the entertainment, with MC Ted Taylor.

Michael Greco started off Set One reading a piece from his new book situated in the jungle of Borneo. The book was dedicated to his young daughter, who had also joined the party. Then, Rebecca Otowa read a short story from her third book about the secrets of shoe-swapping (black sneakers only, folks!). James Woodham followed with performance poetry bursting into song, and epic nonsense poetry which was not quite as nonsensical as it seemed. Preston Houser looked back on 38 years in Japan with a poem followed by the longing tones of his shakuhachi. The set continued with last year’s Competition Winner Lisa Wilcut‘s tanka covering one year in Kyoto, perfectly describing the seasons in a few well-chosen images. Finally, together with a bit of help from the audience, Kevin Ramsden closed the set with his celebrated Kyomojo poem that won him the local prize in our last year’s Writers Competition.

Thoroughly loosened up, we took a break with more chats and more drinks.

A break for performers and audience

Set Two opened with “Drongo”, an Australian idiot who prominently features in Ian Richards‘ new book. Mark Hovane added a reflective and dramatic touch with his thoughts on “mitate” and how it relates to the winding paths in tea gardens (a demonstration was included.) Afterwards, Mayumi Kawaharada read haiku about Kyoto life, accompanied on the saxophone by Gary Tegler. Ken Rodgers read a bit from Robert Brady’s Langdon Chronicles as well as a comical piece of his own, and as the last reader of the evening Robert Yellin explained why pottery is really the same as poetry, to a background of Gary Tegler’s improv jazz.

The final bit, a musical piece with Ted Taylor and Gary Tegler almost didn’t take place, had it not been for Ted’s willingness to compensate for the lack of a drum kit, which of course was highly appropriate for a jazz piece (with or without drums) by Thelonius Monk.

A piece for saxophone with or without drums.

We all had a very enjoyable evening and would like to thank all the participants on the stage and those who were content to make up the audience. A shout-out too to the Gnome Irish Pub, who allowed us use of the venue without charge and provided nourishment for our bodies in solid and liquid form to complement the food for thought provided on stage.

We wish you all a successful 2020 and hope to meet again soon!

Featured writing

13 Temple Kyoto Pilgrimage

December 10, 2019

Prompted by Nick Teele’s account of reviving a 33 temple pilgrimage, a website reader from Denmark named Esben Andreasen has submitted an account of his own 13 temple pilgrimage to Kyoto. The piece below is an edited translation of his article which originally appeared in a Danish journal.

Esben’s first visit to Japan was in 1982 as a member of ‘The Japan Foundation Secondary School Educators Study Team’, a visit that started his craze for Japan. Since then he has visited Kyoto twenty times, his longest stay being half a year at Otani University studying Jodo shinshu (True Pure Land sect).

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Ninna-ji (photos by John Dougill)

ASPHALT PILGRIM IN KYOTO
by Esben Andreasen

My childhood public library smelled of old books and varnish. I remember I saw a folder saying: ”Plan Your Readings” and I wondered who the wise librarian was who wrote it? Is it at all possible to plan? Where to begin and where to end? Who to decide what interests me? And now, almost 70 years later I wonder if I have frittered away my life as a reader? Maybe I would have been a totally different person, if I had followed the librarian’s advice? I do not think I even read the folder.

Nowadays in Kyoto I have countless possibilities when it comes to visiting temples, and I can see that a plan is a helper, otherwise I grow dizzy. So instead of following sheer impulse, or visiting temples I have visited before, I need new inspiration and choose a website which offers a small pilgrimage to thirteen temples, each with a Buddha or a Bodhisattva, called Kyoto Jusan Butsu and start out as an asphalt pilgrim. The inspiration I get from Michael Pye’s Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage (Equinox Publishing 2015).

Pilgrimage in a city sounds easy, but I could have chosen something very much easier. 88 miniature temples visited in 2-3 hours is also a possibility, but I do not take the easy way.

To-ji pagoda

A few remarks on a practical nature. First, I do not walk all the way but use bus, subway and local trains. Still, my soles are very sore after a day’s walking, because I walk a lot. Secondly, I do not spend much time at each temple. My record is 10 minutes. Thirdly, the main obstacle is finding one’s way. I praise my smart phone, the GPS and Google Maps.

You must be patient and prepared for challenges and frustrations. At least two temples on the list were no longer part of the pilgrimage, but other temples had taken over. And it was hard to find which. At one temple I was told that yesterday it was open but not today. ”Come again, maybe you are lucky next time.” Some monks are a bit arrogant, especially at the popular and famous temples.

On the other hand you are met with great friendliness at more humble temples, where there are fewer tourists. Many important temples only rarely exhibit their age-old sculptures and even less famous sculptures of which you must not take photos. But that does not bother me too much, because – to use a worn-out expression – not the goal but the way is what counts, although it is not the prescribed aim. I may be meeting with a happy car-owner who dusts his fine Jaguar on a sunny morning with a broom of ostrich feathers! ”A real beauty!”, I tell him and he becomes very proud. Or I may pass by Kyoto station – much too big for the city – and stop, because a number of jazz big bands – mostly girls – are giving a resounding concert, one band after the other. Or I may pass a shrine where I see a couple of Western-looking faces in relief who turn out to be Edison and Hertz! Electric gods! Or I nay visit a temple for cats and another one for hogs on my way! It makes you wonder.

The difference between long and dusty pilgrimages like ”il camino” and city pilgrimage is striking. You walk for days in northern Spain, in your mind you have turned over your life till you get nauseous, and then you experience what it is to be empty. You have simply run out of mental effort, so why not simply put one foot down after the other and give yourself a rest?

An asphalt pilgrim has no rest. Watch out, all the time. Bicycles on the sidewalk are a danger, and even though the cyclist bears the responsibility, it is no fun being run over. And then constantly attend Google Maps not to lose your way. The GPS must have been invented by the Japanese.

Now, to the point. The above-mentioned website and Michael Pye’s book have the following temples:

  1. Chishaku-in (Fudo Myo-o)
  2. Seiryo-ji (Shaka)
  3. Reiun-in (Monju)
  4. Daikomyo-ji (Fugen)
  5. Daizen-ji (Rokujizo) (Jizo)
  6. Sennyu-ji (Mitera) (Miroku)
  7. Inabayakushi-ji (Byodo-ji) (Yakushi)
  8. Senbon Shakado (Daiho onji) (Kannon)
  9. Ninna-ji (Seishi)
  10. Hokongo-in (Amida)
  11. Hokan-ji (Yasaka no To) (Ashuku)
  12. To-ji (Kyu-ogokokuji) (Dainichi)
  13. Horin-ji (Kokuzo)

But the list needs revisions. Number 3 on the list in 2018 is Kaiko-ji and number 11 in 2019 is Zuishin-in. Who the divinities are is not clear.

But it is clear that the pilgrim meets the characteristic inclusiveness of Japanese religion, here Buddhism. The temples are mainly Shingon (Esoteric Buddhism), but also Jodo (Pure Land Buddhism) and Rinzai (Zen Buddhism). Members of all denominations have no qualms of conscience when they visit temples belonging to other sects. The borders are fluid and often the Japanese Buddhist does not know to which she/he belongs.

Reiun-in

The Kyoto Jusan Butsu pilgrimage is very new. According to Michael Pye it was set up in 1981, in imitation of a similar sequence in Osaka. The 13 stages reflect 13 memorial days on which to honour and pray for the soul of a departed family member: 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, 35th, 42nd, 49th, 100th  day, followed by 1st, 3rd, 7th, 13th and 33rd anniversary. During the first 49 days the departed soul is a hungry ghost (gaki) in need of rest and in a dangerous situation, which explains the frequent memorial days at the beginning. After that the intervals grow longer and longer. But to practically minded Japanese there is no need to visit the temples in this order or on the exact days. It is sufficient that you visit the temples when you can, think of the departed relative and contemplate your own life.

For a dedicated religious follower the transactions at the temples consist of three phases: When the pilgrim arrives he/she asks for permission to visit the temple, explaining the motivation for the visit to the chief monk or priest; then the act of devotion in front of the Buddha or Bodhisattva statues, consisting of a recitation (often the Heart Sutra) and a prayer or petition to the divinity (good health, success at work, family happiness – or similar wishes for this-worldly benefits (genze riyaku)); and finally the temple issues a documentation of the visit in the shape of a calligraphy which the pilgrim pays for and pastes into the pilgrimage book (nokyocho), a kind of ring binder. All in all, a quid pro quo situation.

As an (irreverent?) outsider I have enjoyed walking many kilometers, meeting people and thinking of the peculiarities of Japanese culture, but I did not intend to perform the transactions. Between the serious pilgrim and myself there is a great variety of behaviour. Still, I bought my nokyocho (1500 yen), and in the end I got 13 calligraphies (300 yen each).

Walking with a plan is perhaps not such a bad idea.

Esben’s nokyocho (courtesy Andreasen)

Writers in focus

New Member Jay Crystall

December 3, 2019

Self Introduction – Jay Crystall

I was born in New York City in the 1960’s.  And that’s where I spent my entire life before moving to Kyoto in February 2011, weeks before the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake.

I never had designs on becoming a writer although I spent decades developing my musical style and songwriting.   The inescapable draw towards exerting myself creatively resulted in the roadkill of several mini-careers that ranged from Civil Engineer to Advertising Exec to Fine Arts Logistician.   Whether it was my two-piece industrial rock band Orchid Room opening for 80’s rockers Flock of Seagulls or being the fair skinned singer percussionist in Jamaica’s Children of Jah I knew my advent in this life was to dive in and make a dent in culture,  one way or another.  My YouTube channel (jaycrystall) and solo performances express my determination to blend culture and build bridges to and from Japan.  For sustenance  I own an English school and work at Doshisha University and a few hospitals.

Orchid Room

In terms of my writing, the phrase taiki bansei is what a NYC-based Japanese newspaper journalist referred to me as 20 years ago (大器晩成 – great talent matures late). I had the incredible fortune to meet Catherine Lenox, a well published ghost writer from Seattle, who was vacationing in Japan 4 years ago. Our friendship has led to the cross-Pacific collaboration that has become Lovesic in Kyoto, published with the support of Iron Twine Press. Japanese ceramic guru Robert Yellin was kind enough to contribute a prologue to this book:   

Seen through the lens of Buddhist wisdom, Lovesic in Kyoto is a journey through spirit, language, musicianship, and the beauty and contradictions of modern-day Japan. From racing through New York City subways to riding his bicycle past white-faced, kimono-clad maiko in Kyoto, author/expatriate Jay Crystall shares the colorful, twisting life path that led him to Japan. Told with wit and candor and backlit by myriad lessons, hilarious faux pas, and the slippery slope of self-discovery, he begins to unfold a lifelong dream of impacting culture.

I look forward digging in and getting to know more of the colorful Writers in Kyoto community.  Thanks!

Writers in focus

Drongo (novel by Ian Richards)

November 23, 2019

Extract from a new novel by Ian Richards, published by Atuanui Press and entitled, Drongo: A Kiwi Road Novel.

In which the hero, Andy, has hitched a ride with Mrs Macalister and her cat Silky. Though he has no license, Andy has convinced her to let him drive her car. Andy is 18 years old, wants to be a writer, and is carrying about his portable typewriter (nicknamed Half-Arse).

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

We were swinging a little leftwards…I swung us back harder to the right…it meant we started into a turn, so I thought we might as well go on heading that way anyhow…I thought there were lots of small, interesting-looking cross streets coming up, and we’d probably get into one or other of them…it might even be a good idea to pull over someplace. There was a bad, dull thud around us which reverberated throughout the car…everything jumped and skidded, and I heard a mysterious, long squeal…then I realised that the squeal was coming from me, because my hands and shoulders were being showered with glass…something had slammed into the edge of my side of the car, up near the engine, and we’d been shoved hard over towards the left half of the road…the car had stopped moving, which was just as well since I wasn’t driving it anymore…I wasn’t doing much of anything, except for thinking how my head felt rattled and a bit twitchy on my neck. The truck that appeared to have hit us was coming to a halt just a little further up the street…I noticed its wing-mirror was half torn off, and the left side along the cab looked pretty well smashed…I could scarcely believe the whole event was all over, and I seemed to have missed a lot of it. So, I thought, this is a traffic accident. I glanced across at Mrs Macalister…she was still there, sitting almost motionless, with Silky still clasped in her lap…she had her face craned forward and was staring at the intricate cracks in what remained of the front windscreen… her features had settled into a peculiar, frightened smile that suggested nothing was wrong. With an effort I pushed open the damaged door next to me…I stepped out into the street, and thought the whole car looked as if a giant had tried using it to make a milkshake…underfoot there were bright, slippery globules of safety glass spread out on the tarseal in a beautiful twinkling sheet…I could see that the truck driver was already hurrying towards me around the side of his cab…he was a big, rough-faced man dressed in loose, grease-smudged olive-green overalls, and he was stamping on the road with each step in heavy steel-capped boots. ‘What the bloody hell were you doing?’ the truckie yelled at me as he approached. He was trembling from anger and perhaps from shock…I raised both hands with my palms up and out to show that I didn’t want any fuss…I opened my mouth to apologise. The truckie moved closer and caught me on the jaw with his fist…the blow was solid…it flung me back against the bonnet of Mrs Macalister’s car…I sank downwards to the road and spent a moment taking in what had happened. The urgent panting of the truckie’s breathing was just above my head…I glanced up and saw he was standing almost right over me, glaring down, and so I started getting to my feet…I had to use the car’s tyre as support…my sandshoes slid amongst the safety glass…without waiting for me to be properly upright in front of him, the truckie swung at me again…his blow brushed past the edge of my cheek. ‘I’ll fucking kill you!’ he yelled. He seemed sincere…after all, my face hurt, and he’d already had one good try at running me over…but while I was considering this, the truckie collected me with a solid punch once more…my entire body jerked from the impact. ‘You bloody little, fucking, bloody bastard!’ the truckie was yelling. At least, he was probably shouting something like that, because by now I’d straightened up and was too hell-bent on escaping to pay careful attention…I concentrated on circling round the rear of the car to keep some space between myself and another attack, but the truckie was coming after me fast…I skirted along the passenger’s side in an effort to put still more of the car between us…within the vehicle’s interior Mrs Macalister’s head and shoulders suddenly came into view nearby through the windows…I saw she’d reached up with one arm to clutch in desperation at the top of her seatbelt strap, next to her cheek…her lips were moving as if she was repeating some sort of phrase and I thought it might be ‘oh dear,’ since that was the gist of the message on her face.
‘I’m sorry, Mrs Macalister,’ I called to her.
The truckie was still coming for me gamely…he was still shouting, but I was glad to see his heavy boots were slowing him down…I kept scrabbling and circling round the corners of the car to try and hold him at a distance, and within a moment or two I got to the open, shattered door on the driver’s side again…quickly I dived in and reached past the front seat for the rear of the vehicle…I lunged for my bag and Half-Arse…Mrs Macalister shrank away, and from her lap Silky astonished me by hissing at me in fury.
‘I really am sorry, Mrs Macalister,’ I yelped.
I wriggled myself out of the car and found the truckie had managed to get close again…this time I swung hard at him with Half-Arse and backed him off…it felt like a small victory for literature…then I started to run pell-mell up the road with my duffle-bag and the typewriter…the truckie responded by chasing me some more…evidently he hadn’t finished trying to kill me and believed there was hope. The thought popped into my mind that it was morally wrong to turn tail…it was possibly illegal, but I was an artist and I felt an obligation to future readers to keep myself safe…even so, I’d never heard of a major author who’d fled for safety from a long-distance truck driver before…for a few instants I thought he was actually going to catch me…but I ran as if my life depended on it, which it probably did…gradually he seemed to tire, and I just kept right on going. I reached the ferry terminal at a determined jog-trot…my lungs were burning and the sensation went all the way up into my windpipe, and it took me some considerable while to recover my breath…I still felt bad about leaving Mrs Macalister, but the feeling didn’t last for long…she struck me as the sort of over-cautious person who had miles of insurance…now she was going to be glad of it.

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

Ian Richards hails from New Zealand is an Associate Professor of English literature at Osaka City University. His first book Everyday Life in Paradise was a finalist in the 1991 Heinemann Reed Award for best book of fiction. His biography To Bed at Noon: The Life and Art of Maurice Duggan (Auckland University Press, 1997) was nominated for the Montana Best Book Award. Richards’ stories have been broadcast on Radio New Zealand and appeared in numerous magazines including Landfall, the NZ Listener and North and South. Richards was born and raised in Palmerston North and received his PhD in English from Massey University.   

To listen to an interview with him on Radio New Zealand about the writing of Drongo, please click here.

Writers in focus

Introduction to Mark Schumacher

November 19, 2019

SELF INTRODUCTION by Mark Schumacher

Wanna get tangled up and confused? Jump inside my mind. After twenty-five years of studying Japan’s divinities and demons, only now do I realize I’m in over my head. Japanese religious studies is not just Japanese. It is the study of Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, yin-yang theories, zodiac cosmology, star worship, mountain asceticism, shamanism, nature cults, animism, and more. All these ingredients got blended together in Japan – they are still being mixed together into an endearing and powerful cocktail, and I’m drunk on it. Japanese religious studies is excitingly confusing, complex, and syncretic.

These days, I’ve started to focus on Japan’s hybrid, multifaced, and ever-changing deities. It has opened a new door into confusion and complexity. The intricately interlaced Buddhist-Hindu-Kami matrix is akin to the primordial soup, and even today it keeps spinning around and turning out even more recipes. After nearly a quarter century learning the names of the gods, their functions, and their mythologies, I’ve only just begun to zero in on the “Japanization” of foreign gods, the “domestication” and “cutification” of these imported deities, and the commercialization of most religious icons.

Another new area of great interest to me involves the “modernization” of Japan’s gods. Below is the ABSTRACT from a lecture I recently presented (Oct. 2019) at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo:


THE PANTHEON OF GODS in Japan continues to grow in modern times, just as it did in bygone centuries. In the last five decades, Japan’s religious institutions and religious-goods industry have devised new roles and new iconography for age-old Buddhist divinities. Some of the newer forms are derived from older manifestations, but some are entirely new. This lecture focuses on two of Japan’s most beloved saviors – Jizō and Kannon – and the new “modern” roles they play in memorial services for miscarried, stillborn and aborted children; in staving off dementia in the elderly; in granting sudden and painless death to senior citizens who don’t want to burden their families or don’t want to die from a long unpleasant illness; and in providing dedicatory services for deceased pets. The central concern of these new roles is death. This aligns well with the economic base of Japanese Buddhism, which for centuries has revolved around the provision of mortuary services. More and more temples are catering to modern social concerns. By introducing old gods in new formats to address changing social needs, funerary Buddhism has remained an integral part of Japan’s contemporary religious landscape.

Another focus of my research is to highlight the accelerating speed at which Japan is domesticating and cutifiying its myriad deities and ritualistic landscape. Commercial sales of religious goods by the secular retail sector are also expanding into all new product lines at accelerating speed. For more on this research, see:

NEW DUTIES FOR OLD DEITIES.
THE EVER-CHANGING FACE OF JAPAN’S RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE.
DOMESTICATION, CUTIFICATION, & COMMERCIALIZATION OF RELIGIOUS ICONS

The message seems clear – adapt to the times, address changing spiritual needs, remain relevant as society changes. Otherwise get swept into the historical dustbin.

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

QUICK RESUME FOR MARK SCHUMACHER Schumacher is a longtime Japan resident based in Kamakura. He works out of his home. For nearly three decades, he was a writer, editor, PC consultant, and translator (J-E) for major corporations in the US, Japan, Taiwan, and elsewhere. Since 1995 he has served as webmaster, writer/designer, and consultant for numerous Internet companies (both Japanese and foreign). Today he is an independent scholar of Japanese Buddhist statuary, and author of the popular A-to-Z Photo Dictionary of Japan’s Buddhist & Shinto Deities (online since 1995). He holds seminars on Buddhist art topics and serves as an art historian, researcher, and appraiser for various museums, scholars, collectors, and art associations. He is also the president of Sake Connections, a Japan-based exporter of premium Japanese sake, and in his spare time runs a small firm exporting modern Buddhist statuary. Japan Times interview with Schumacher, http://onmarkproductions.com/Buddha-Statues/?page_id=323Videos with Schumacher, http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/videos-buddhism-shintoism.htmlA-to-Z Photo Dictionary of Japanese Religious Icons, http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/buddhism.shtml
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Mark Schumacher turned sixty years old in 2019. In this photo he is shown wearing a red-colored cap and vest known as Chan-Chan-Ko ちゃんちゃんこ, which signifies his rebirth, his “second infancy,” his Kanreki 還暦 birthday (kan = return, reki = calendar). The traditional Japanese calendar was based on the Chinese Zodiac calendar, which was organized into 60-year cycles. The cycle of life returns to its starting point in 60 years, and as such, kanreki celebrates that point in one’s life when one’s personal calendar returns to the calendar sign under which one was born. Traditionally, friends and relatives are invited for a celebratory feast on one’s 60th birthday. It is customary for the celebrant to be given a red cap and wear a red vest. These clothes are usually worn by babies and thus symbolize the celebrant’s return to his/her birth. MY ZODIAC SIGN. I am a bore! Actually, I am a zodiac BOAR. The Buddhist patron of boars is Amida Buddha. And the Big Buddha of Kamakura is Amida. Talk about winning the ovarian lottery.　

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