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BOA Podcast 34—Angus Waycott Walks Sado Island

December 14, 2023


Author and travel-writer Angus Waycott talks about his book Sado: Island of Exile based on his 8-day walk around the island off Niigata Prefecture in the Japan Sea. He gives us in-depth accounts of: a mujina (tanuki-worshipping) cult, funa-ema (literally “ship horse pictures”), exile (including those of Zeami and Buddhist priest Nichiren), and the controversy behind the Kinzan gold mine and its “slave labor,” all topics which he recorded in his book Sado: Japan’s Isand of Exile originally published by Stone Bridge Press in 1996, and re-issued as an e-book by the author 2012, and 2023.

Book Description: “Given the choice, no-one ever went to Sado. For more than a thousand years, this island in the Sea of Japan was a place of exile for the deposed, disgraced or just plain distrusted — ex-emperors, aristocrats, poets, priests and convicted criminals alike. This book rediscovers the exiles’ island, explores the truth about its notorious gold mine, tracks down a vanishing badger cult, and drops in on the home of super-drummer band Kodo. Along the way, it paints a vivid picture of one of Japan’s most intriguing backwaters, now emerging from a long exile of its own.”

 

Waycott’s favorite books on Japan are:

Memories of Silk and Straw, by Junichi Saga (transl. Gary Evans)

Women Poets of Japan, edited by Ikuki Atsumi and Kenneth Rexroth (New Directions 1982)

Sengai: The Zen of Ink and Paper by D.T. Suzuki (Shambhala, 1999)

 

About the Author

Angus Waycott is an author and travel writer whose books have been published in the UK, USA, Japan and the Netherlands. He has been the voice of TV news broadcasts, commercials and award-winning documentaries, has voiced “character” parts in game software and anime productions, and has worked as a copywriter, publisher, teacher, translator, lighting designer and staircase builder. His books are Sado: Japan’s Isand of Exile, Paper Doors: Japan from Scratch (2012), The Winterborne Journey: along a small crack in the planet (2023), and National Parks of Western Europe (2012).

Check out his short video on Sado Island.

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press. Check out their books on Japan at the publisher’s website. Amy Chavez, podcast host, is author of Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan and The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island.

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast.

 

 

Podcasts

BOA Podcast 33—Ai and the Future of Books

November 17, 2023


Publisher Peter Goodman and author/translator Frederik Schodt talk about artificial intelligence as it relates to writing and publishing books.

Schodt’s book Astroboy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution was recently listed as one of the books used to train generative AI. Peter Goodman is publisher of Stone Bridge Press (our podcast sponsor), and released Schodt’s Astroboy Essays in 2007. Both of these guests are going to give us their views on AI, the use of published books to train artificial intelligence, the issues of copyright, fair use and plagiarism, and what the AI industry should be doing to move forward and make the advancements beneficial for everyone involved.

If you’re an author and would like to find out if your book was one of 183,000 used to train AI, see this article in The Atlantic:

Link to The Atlantic
The search engine The Atlantic devised to use to see if particular titles were used to train generative AI.

Frederick Schodt is author/translator of  The Osamu Tezuka Story (Stone Bridge Press, 2016), Manga, Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics (Kodansha, 2013) The Astro Boy Essays (Stone Bridge Press, 2007) and My Heart Sutra: The World in 260 Characters (Stone Bridge Press, 2020, read our review), Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe: How an American Acrobat Introduced Circus to Japan and Japan to the West (Stone Bridge Press, 2012) and Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 2013).

You can find Schodt on his Website, on Twitter(X) @fschodt and on Facebook

You can listen to our podcast with Schodt, where he talks about Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe and Native American in the Land of the Shogun, at BOA Podcast 32: Frederik Schodt and Historical Non-Fiction on Japan.

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press. Check out their books on Japan at the publisher’s website.

Amy Chavez, podcast host, is author of Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 2018) and The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island (Tuttle Publishing, 2022)

Don’t miss another author interview! Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast.

Podcasts

BOA Podcast 32: Frederik Schodt—historical non-fiction on Japan

October 21, 2023

Frederick Schodt is an author and translator with many books under his belt including The Osamu Tezuka Story (Stone Bridge Press, 2016), Manga, Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics (Kodansha, 2013) The Astro Boy Essays (Stone Bridge Press, 2007) and My Heart Sutra: The World in 260 Characters (Stone Bridge Press, 2020, read our review).

But today he is going to talk about his historical non-fiction books, both published by Stone Bridge Press (sponsor of the Books on Asia podcast). First, we’ll talk about Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe: How an American Acrobat Introduced Circus to Japan and Japan to the West (Stone Bridge Press, 2012) and Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 2013). Both books are accounts of American men who pioneered US-Japan relations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the first part of the show, Schodt talks about “Professor” Risley, an acrobat of the mid-nineteenth century who starts his own circus in the US, which he then takes to Japan. His trademark move involved juggling his two small sons with his feet. See an example of what is now known as the ‘Risley Act’ in this video we found on Youtube:

Risley later starts a Japanese circus which he takes touring around the world, and that’s when things start getting really interesting!

The other book we discuss is Schodt’s biography of native American Ranald (pronounced Raynald) MacDonald, who makes his way to Japan during the Edo period and ends up not just teaching English, but having a hand in negotiations with Commodore Perry and the opening of Japan.

Schodt’s favorite books on Japan are:

Giving up the Gun, by Noel Perrin (D.I. Godine, 1979)

The Chrysanthemum and the Bat/You Gotta Have Wa) by Robert Whiting (Dodd, Mead, 1977/Open Road Media, 2022)

Hojōki: Visions of a Torn World, by David Jenkins and Michael Hoffman (Stone Bridge Press, 1996)

About the Author

Frederik L. Schodt is a writer, translator, and conference interpreter based in the San Francisco Bay area. He has written widely on Japanese history, popular culture, and technology. His writings on manga, and his translations of them, helped trigger the current popularity of Japanese comics in the English-speaking world. He was awarded the Special Category of the Asahi Shimbun’s prestigious Osamu Tezuka Culture Award, and in 2009, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, for his work helping to promote Japan’s popular culture overseas.

You can find him at his Website, on Twitter(X) @fschodt  and on Facebook

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press. Check out their books on Japan at the publisher’s website. Amy Chavez, podcast host, is author of Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 2018) and The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island (Tuttle Publishing, 2022)

Don’t miss another author interview! Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast.

 

 

Podcasts

BOA Podcast 31: John Grant Ross on Taiwan & Japan

June 10, 2023


John Ross, a New Zealand writer based in Taiwan, has spent three decades in Asia, starting as a freelance photojournalist then becoming an English teacher and author. His works include Formosan Odyssey: Taiwan, Past and Present, You Don’t Know China: Twenty-Two Enduring Myths Debunked, and Taiwan in 100 Books. He co-founded a publishing house focused on East Asia called Camphor Press and co-hosts Formosa Files, a weekly podcast on the history of Taiwan.

Podcast host Amy Chavez introduces John Ross who informs her that where he lives in Taiwan is known as the birthplace of the inventor of instant noodles: Momofuku Ando. Ross explains why he moved to Taiwan in 1994 and how his plans for writing a book about the Mongolian manbeast was waylaid as he instead embarked on an epic journey in 1999 which became Formosan Odyssey: Taiwan, Past and Present. This first book is about travel, history and small town-life in Taiwan.

Amy and John talk about Japan’s occupation of Taiwan and the legacies the Japanese left behind such as education, infrastructure, railroads, etc. Ross talks about Taiwan’s long history of attempted colonialism from the Dutch, French, and Ming Loyalists.

Next, Ross talks about Taiwan in 100 Books, how he chose the volumes that tell the story of Taiwan through their interesting back-stories, controversial texts, and some of the fabulist authors who brought the first information about Taiwan to readers around the world.

In You Don’t Know China: Twenty-Two Enduring Myths Debunked Ross explicates common misunderstood facts about various topics, including the Great Wall, Chinese medicine, fortune cookies, eating dogs, and Lord Macartney’s mission to China in 1793.

Lastly, Amy and John talk about other authors, their books and what led John Ross, Michael Cannings and Mark Swofford to form Camphor Press in February 2014. Ross, in charge of acquisitions, talks about filling the void between academic and big box presses. He gives kudos to other small presses such as Earnshaw Books, Stone Bridge Press, and Blacksmith Books who are all invested in bringing quality books to readers.

Amy introduces some Camphor Press books based on her own library. John adds some more titles to her list, including two by Pearl S. Buck, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature: The Exile: Portrait of an American Mother, and Fighting Angel: Portrait of a Soul.

John talks about the lost art of the travelogue and how the 1990’s era and the internet destroyed what should have been an enduring genre.

They discuss great travel writers such as Heinrich Harrer, Bill Bryson, and Ernest Hemingway.

John and Amy talk about how the travel genre is changing and where it is headed. Amy also mentions Alex Kerr’s upcoming book Hidden Japan: An Astonishing World of Thatched Villages, Ancient Shrines and Primeval Forests (Sept. 2023, but you can pre-order here) and how the author advises people to not go to these places, but rather be happy reading about them instead.

 

John Ross’s favorite travelogues are:

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

Land of Jade: A journey through India Through Northern Burma to China (1996), by Bertil Lintner

In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan, by John DeFrancis

Ross’s three favorite books on Japan are:

On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan by Leslie Downer

In Search of Japan’s Hidden Christians, by John Dougill

Charinko by Tom Gibb (an upcoming Camphor Press title)

Be sure to check out Ross’s books at the Camphor Press website or via Amazon. You can also visit him on social media at the following links:

Taiwan in 100 Books

Camphor Press (Sign up for the Camphor Press Newsletter by scrolling to the bottom of that page)

Formosa Files Podcast

 

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, publisher of fine books on Asia for over 30 years. Subscribe to the Books on Asia Podcast.

Podcasts

BOA Podcast 29: Stephen Mansfield talks Tokyo

February 3, 2023

Stephen Mansfield, author of Tokyo: A Biography , is a British writer and photo-journalist based in Japan. His photo-journalism work has appeared in over 60 magazines, newspapers and journals worldwide including the Kyoto Journal, CNN Travel and Nikkei Asia. To date, he has had twenty books published, four of them on the culture and people of Laos, several on Japanese gardens, and he has a chapter and essay in the anthology Inaka: Portraits of Rural Life in Japan (Camphor Press, 2020). Today he talks with us about Tokyo: A Biography (Tuttle, 2017), available available at online booksellers or any good bookstore. He has some interesting things to say, so please tune in at the above link, or subscribe to the BOA podcast.

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press. Check out their books on Japan at the publisher’s website. Amy Chavez, podcast host, is author of Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan and The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island.

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast.

 

Podcasts

BOA Podcast 28: Translating Hiromi Ito’s “The Thorn Puller” with Jeffrey Angles

January 24, 2023

 

 

Hiromi Ito author of The Thorn Puller (originally published in Japanese as Toge-nuki Jizo: Shin Sugamo Jizo engi) came to national attention in Japan in the 1980s for her groundbreaking poetry about pregnancy, childbirth, and female sexuality. After relocating to the U.S. in the 1990s, she began to write about the immigrant experience and biculturalism. In recent years, she has focused on the ways that dying and death shape human experience.

Jeffrey Angles is a writer, translator and professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University. He is the first non-native poet writing in Japanese to win the Yomiuri Prize for Literature, a highly coveted prize for poetry. His translation of the modernist classic The Book of the Dead by Shinobu Orikuchi won both the Miyoshi Award and the Scaglione Prize for translation.

Be sure to check out Jeffrey Angles’s book The Thorn Puller available at online booksellers or any good bookstore.

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press. Check out their books on Japan at the publisher’s website. Amy Chavez, podcast host, is author of Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan and The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island.

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast.

Podcasts

BOA Podcast 27 Sarah Coomber: The Female Experience Teaching in Japan

December 9, 2022


Sarah Coomber is the author of The Same Moon (Camphor Press, 2020), a memoir about what happened when she traded out her wrecked Minnesota life for two years in rural Japan. The Same Moon is possibly the only book about the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) experience written from a woman’s point of view. Sarah joined JET in 1994, when the government-sponsored program was in it’s infancy.

In this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, she talks about being a single woman in Japan at that time, expectations at work and gives advice on what women should consider before moving to Japan to teach English.

At the very end of the podcast, Sarah shares with us her top three books on Japan, and why:

1. Shogun, by James Clavell

2. The Accidental Office Lady: An American Woman in Corporate Japan by Laura Kriska

3. A Half-Step Behind: Japanese Women Today, by Jane Condon

(Note: Affiliate links are for Amazon US and may not direct you to the appropriate book for Amazon stores in other countries)

author photo

About the Author: Sarah Coomber has since worked in public relations, journalism, science writing and advocacy, and has taught English at the college level. She has an MFA in creative writing from Eastern Washington University, a master’s in mass communication from the University of Minnesota and level four certification in the Seiha School of koto. In Minnesota she writes, manages communications projects, coaches other writers and teaches yoga.

 

 

 

Find her online at her website or sign up for her newsletter. You’ll also find her at the following social media links:

Twitter: @CoomberSarah
Instagram: @sarahcoomberwriter
Facebook: @sarahcoomberwriter
LinkedIn: @sarahcoomber

Correction: In the podcast, we incorrectly identified John Ross as a guest on the Formosa Files podcast. He is a co-host, with Eryk Michael Smith. Apologies!

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press. Check out their books on Japan at the publisher’s website. Amy Chavez, podcast host, is author of Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan and The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island.

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast.

Podcasts

BOA Podcast 26: Azby Brown on Sustainability and his Book “Just Enough”

October 27, 2022


In this episode of the BOA podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with Azby Brown, author of Just Enough: Lessons from Japan for Sustainable Living, Architecture, and Design. Brown is an expert on Japanese architecture, design and environment. He has lived in Japan since 1985. His previous books include The Genius of Japanese Carpentry, Small Spaces, The Japanese Dream House, and The Very Small Home.

Some topics discussed in this episode are Edo Period sustainability measures, SDG’s, architecture of old Japanese houses, the Kamikatsu Zero Waste town, and future measures Japan is taking to become more sustainable.

book cover

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press. Check out their books on Japan at the publisher’s website. Amy Chavez, podcast host, is author of Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan and The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island.

Subscribe to the Books on Asia podcast.

Podcasts

BOA Podcast 25: Traveling Japan as a Blind Person, with Maud Rowell

September 21, 2022


In this episode of the BOA podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with Maud Rowell about her new book Blind Spot: Exploring and Educating on Blindness (404 Ink, 2021). Maud is a freelance journalist and writer from London. She went blind at 19 while traveling in South Korea. Two months later, she went on to begin a four-year degree in Japanese Studies at University of Cambridge including one year at Doshisha University in Kyoto. She trained in journalism at City, University of London, and over the course of the pandemic, wrote her first book Blind Spot: Exploring and Educating on Blindness. In the summer of 2021, she won the Holman Prize run by San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and received a grant to travel around Japan and write about her experiences.

On this episode of the BOA Podcast, Maud talks about traveling around Japan, and what makes Japan’s big cities so user-friendly for the visually impaired.