Amy Chavez talks with Robert Whiting about his recently released book Gangsters, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies: The Outsiders who Shaped Modern Japan (Tuttle, April, 2024).
Show Notes:
Archives: Podcasts
BOA Podcast 35—The Healing Power of Poet Ōtagaki Rengetsu
In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, host Amy Chavez talks to author John Stevens about his latest book The Lotus Moon: Art and Poetry of Buddhist Nun Otagaki Rengetsu (Floating World Editions, Aug. 2023).
Book’s Features:
The most comprehensive English-language presentation of the work of famed nun and artist Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875)
• Presents 90 of Rengetsu’s painting and pottery works in over 242 full-color photos
• Written by Professor John Stevens, the foremost Western authority on Rengetsu
• Includes Japanese kana, romanization, and English translations, with commentary for all entries
• Provides an intimate portrait of the life and work of one of the most remarkable women in Japanese culture
• Offers insights into significant thematic and cultural concerns of 19th-century Japanese art
Ep 35 transcript:
BOA Podcast 34—Angus Waycott Walks Sado Island
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.”
Show Notes:
BOA Podcast 33—Ai and the Future of Books
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:
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).
(Note: Since this podcast recording, Frederik Schodt has been inducted into the Manga Publishing Hall of Fame)
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)
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BOA Podcast 32: Frederik Schodt—historical non-fiction on Japan
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.
Show Notes:
BOA Podcast 31: John Grant Ross on Taiwan & Japan
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.
Show Notes:
BOA Podcast 30: Japan in 31 Passions, with John Rucynski
John Rucynski, editor of A Passion for Japan: A Collection of Personal Narratives is originally from upstate New York, has been living in Japan on and off since 1994. He is currently associate professor in the Center for Language Education at Okayama University. In 2022 he self-published A Passion for Japan through Blue Sky Publishing.
Podcast 30 Show Notes:
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BOA Podcast 29: Stephen Mansfield talks Tokyo
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.
BOA Podcast 28: Translating Hiromi Ito’s “The Thorn Puller” with Jeffrey Angles
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.
BOA Podcast 27 Sarah Coomber: The Female Experience Teaching in Japan
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)
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.