Review by John Rucynski The Nature of Kyoto is the fifth anthology from Writers in Kyoto (WiK), a “group of published and self-published English-language authors working or living in the city.” Anthologies always run the risk of focusing on too narrow a theme, attracting a certain number of readers, but giving pause to many others More…
Tag: Kyoto
Review—Structures of Kyoto: Writers in Kyoto Anthology 4
Judith Clancy and Alex Kerr book-end this remarkable publication offering insight into the physical, spiritual and artistic elements of Kyoto.
Review by Renae Lucas-Hall Judith Clancy and Alex Kerr book-end this remarkable anthology (edited by Rebecca Otowa and Karen Lee Tawarayama), a publication offering incredible insight into the physical, spiritual and artistic elements of Kyoto. In the Foreword, Clancy reminisces on the past fifty years she has spent in Japan’s ancient capital, commenting on how More…
Review—The Gion Festival: Exploring its Mysteries
Review by Cody Poulton It’s a bitter irony that a festival that is nearly as old as Kyoto, dedicated to ridding the city of pestilence in the hot and sticky month of July, was cancelled by the world-wide coronavirus pandemic last year. 2021 bodes no better: the great processions of splendid floats through the city, More…
Waking to Snow — Poems by Robert MacLean
Three Poems from Robert MacLean’s new book Waking to Snow (Isobar Press, Oct. 2020) My First Guide to Kyoto Next-door neighbour’s pug-nosed Sakura tied up all day whimpering beneath the stairwell: no way to treat the earliest cherry blossoms in Kyoto. So I take him for a walk – rather he takes me, charging More…
Interview with Alex Kerr: The Importance of Mentors
Known to most as the author of Lost Japan, Dogs and Demons and, more recently, Another Kyoto, Alex Kerr came of age in 1970s Japan, a golden era when he hung around with other notable foreign residents such as antique dealer David Kidd, curator Alexandra Munroe and Zen abbot John Toler. Alex took time More…