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BLOGS BY KJ ASSOCIATES & CONTRIBUTORS

Bob Brady
Pure Land Mountain

Ted Taylor
Notes from the Nog

Sushma Joshi
The Global & the Local

Mark Mordue
The Basement Tapes

Leanne Ogasawara
Tang Dynasty Times

David Cozy (& friends)
Only a Blockhead

Eric Gower
The Breakaway Cook

Philip Cunningham
Tiananmen Moon

Preston Houser
Kyoto Meditations
(shakuhachi podcasts)


"Every issue of the Kyoto Journal is like a beautiful paperbound book, ninety-six pages of the most beautifully and straightforwardly designed magazine around. It is the unofficial English language rag of expatriate foreigners in Japan, though it tends to cover the whole of Asian culture from nation to nation. It has been around for about two decades, and no writers or artists are ever paid for their contributions, making it one of the most consistently high-quality "open source" publications anywhere..."

– David Rothenberg
Parabola, May 2009


"I don't know of any magazine where the design and content so seamlessly blend as Kyoto Journal. The English-language quarterly's circumspect cultural critique is never compromised but is in fact strengthened by the graphic design. The peaceful, stylish design is just as original and scintillating as the magazine's approach to the ideas, interviews, poems and discussions it contains... Kyoto Journal is forever looking for original ways of depicting people and life... We recommend it highly."


– Marco Visscher
Ode
, Jan/Feb 2005


In October 2007, KJ was short-listed for the 11th consecutive year, in the Utne Independent Press Awards, for General Excellence.

In 2004 KJ was nominated by the Utne editors
for awards under three categories: General Excellence, Design, and Cultural/Social Coverage.

Previous nominations included Art & Design Excellence (award winner, 1998), Local/ Regional Coverage, Writing Excellence, Design, General Excellence, and Best Essays.


Worth checking out:

50th anniversary of Rip-Rap - Gary Snyder at U-C Berkeley Nov. 23 2009

Cold Mountain

The Beats in Asia

Ashoka videos

TED Talks

Thought-provoking perspectives from Asia...

A non-profit volunteer-based quarterly magazine established in 1986, Kyoto Journal offers interviews, essays, translations, humor, fiction, poetry and reviews, accompanied by memorable photo-essays, original illustrations and award-winning design. No hype, minimal advertising, maximum reading value.

KJ#73 (CURRENT ISSUE):

top
Morimoto header

Years of war, genocide and misrule devastated the Cambodian economy and society, leaving most Cambodians poor and focused only on survival. The cataclysms that swept away millions of lives also destroyed the land, burning forests and riddling the soil with countless landmines. Declaring “year zero” the Khmer Rouge willfully tried to strip the nation of its rich culture and heritage.

Today, in concert with efforts to rebuild shattered lives, some projects aim to restore arts such as music, dance and architecture. The casualty that Japanese expatriate Morimoto Kikuo is trying his hardest to save is Cambodia’s traditional art of silk weaving and dyeing. At its heart, Morimoto’s is an “eco-cultural” enterprise bringing back lost skills as well as the vanished raw materials they require, once plentifully provided by the land.

continued...


Extract from “To Learn from the Forest”
by Ito Akira

Ito extract
Ito Akira: A pilgrimage to Buddhist holy sites


Growing like thunderheads all summer long, the trees and plants of the woodlands thrive and cover every bit of the mountain until they finally begin to lose their momentum, and in the dark shadows of a forest which has gone through its adolescence and prime, one feels a touch of sadness.

continued...

From "A Different Kind of Luxury" by Andy Couturier, forthcoming from Stone Bridge Press.


KJ Contributing Editor Jeffrey Irish featured in Wall Street Journal Dec 12, 2009:

"The American Who Manages the Decline of a Japanese Hamlet"


INEB top image
Photographs courtesy Bhanuwat Jittivuthikorn, www.bhanuwatstudio.com 

The International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) held its 20th Anniversary Conference near Chiang Mai, Thailand, in mid November 2009. Over 300 delegates attended the conference representing most South, South East and East Asian countries, as well as Australia, South Africa the United States, Holland, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

...continued


KJ Online Special – Short Fiction


Untied
by Kelly Luce


That night at the cheap sushi place in Osaka, Yumiko was complaining about her boyfriend with impressive fluency. As her English teacher, I had noticed that she spoke best when upset—it took her mind off making mistakes.

The trouble with the boyfriend was that Yumiko didn’t really love him. He was boring; he didn’t kiss hard enough. She’d just convincingly used the word “ambivalent,” in fact, when a purple running shoe rounded the bend behind a tub of wasabi. I blinked and it was still there, unhurriedly cruising the conveyor belt.

“…but love is not everything and I am getting old.” She bit her glossy lower lip. “You understand, Natalie?”

Maguro, shrimp, melon slice, wasabi, shoe.

Yumiko saw it too. The running shoe crept by, its frayed laces dangling over the edge of the counter, brushing the hot water taps.

...continued


KJ Online Special – Fiction

Yellow Elephant
By O Thiam Chin

 

When the wife stepped into the flat after a long day at the office where she worked as a paralegal, she saw the yellow elephant in the living room.The small two-room flat, located in a rapidly-aging housing estate, had been paid for in monthly installments for the past five years, mostly out of her income and savings; her husband refused to chip in after the second year of their marriage. He needed the money to pay for a new BMW 3-series, swanky work-clothes and nights out with his colleagues. She didn’t want to argue — they’d been having too many fights recently –- so she left him alone. They hadn’t talked for almost a month.

What caught her attention was the elephant’s intense color. It was bright yellow. In fact, it was brighter and richer than anything she had ever seen before. The yellow seemed like bright rays of sunlight, illuminating every corner of the small living room. Every part of the elephant was yellow, from its big toes to long trunk to its huge belly.

The beast didn’t notice the woman’s presence as it went on chewing the leather upholstery of the black sofa, ripping it into small pieces with its powerful trunk before putting the pieces into the pink gap of its mouth. Its movements were slow, controlled and purposeful. As it chewed, it carried on the work of tearing up the sofa as though it was a defeated, fallen prey.


 


Another fine video from Kai Keane...



An Open Letter to President Obama
"As global citizens who share your deep concern with issues of peace and nuclear proliferation, we believe your visit to Japan this fall offers an unprecedented opportunity to steer our world decisively towards the abolition of nuclear weapons..."

...see full text

An Op-Ed in the Japan Times
Hiroshoma Beckons Obama

By John Einarsen

For the past sixty-four years, the name ‘Hiroshima’ has conjured a nightmare vision for all humanity: the unthinkable specter of instantaneous atomic annihilation. Only by personally visiting Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the two cities that have experienced atomic bombing, can one begin to grasp the threat posed by the world’s present arsenal of nuclear weapons.

...see full text


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FULL CONTENTS LIST


Independent print magazines like KJ are finding distribution through bookstores increasingly difficult in the current world economic situation.

As a practical alternative, we strongly suggest a subscription
(just $50 for four issues, shipped world-wide, plus one free back issue) or individual direct order...

Subcriptions
In Japan: 4,200 yen
Elsewhere: US$50
(4 issues, shipping included)

More details here, or
subscribe online at Redwing.com


THE HEART SUTRA
- Kai Keane



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10,000 Things


"Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity of everything in the universe.

Our goal is to create a netroots venue that supports the culture of positive peace: actions for inner & outer peace, sustainability, diversity, social justice, & affirmative creative expression––in Asia (and everywhere).
––
Kim Hughes, Jen Teeter, & Jean Downey

# PEN New Year's Eve Writer's NYC Rally for Liu Xiao...

# Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Workshops in Tokyo ...

# Lydia Venieri: "Phosphor Stars in White Nights"...

# New Japanese Governmental Ainu Policy Promotion Panel...


# Palestinian Christians: We say love, mutual trust...

# Over 600 Kyotoites attend 12.22 Emergency Meeting ...

# Akira Maeda & Hundreds of Tokyoites Respond to Ultra-rightists in Kyoto...

# "It's You" - a poem by Misato Hamamura...


archive
(Old posts on KJ site)


Contact KJ at
feedback[at]kyotojournal.org