Art news in Kansai,
courtesy of Kansai Art
Beat:
"Kansai Art Beat
is Kansai's art & design events calendar. A free bilingual site
listing approximately 300 venues along with complete up-to-date information
on their current and future events."
+ Free sign-up for for e-mailed notifications of events at your favorite
Kansai galleries.
April
17: Announcing
an interview
with our multi-talented Fiction Editor Leza Lowitz, by Suzanne Kamata,
appears this month at the Women
on Writing (WOW) website.
At
the JWC, I talked about embracing chaos and uncertainty. Keats ascribed
poetic genius to a kind of anti-talent, or Negative Capability. “That
is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without
any irritable reaching after fact & reason.”
March
25: We are
delighted to welcome Nina Melendez Ibarra and Kimberly Hughes to KJ,
as new contributors to KJ's unique and widely diverse 10,000
Things series of "multicultural webfinds," pioneered by
Jean Miyake Downey (check out Jean's excellent recent posting to
Japan Focus on Article 9!)
Nina
Melendez Ibarra is a creative writer with heritage from two
islands across the globe: Sri Lanka and Puerto Rico. She spent her childhood
between the U.S., France, and Puerto Rico, and considers all three countries
her homes. She finds inspiration in the subtle but powerful movements
made by ordinary people to spread peace and cross-cultural communication; and
her own involvement with disadvantaged youth in the U.S., Ghana,
and Japan has solidified her concern for children's issues. Her love and
curiosity for cultures has carried her around the world; currently
to Kyushu, Japan where she now resides.
Her first 10,000 Things posting
is a profile and interview
with Kip Fullbeck, originator of The Hapa Project.
Kimberly
Hughes grew up in the Southwestern United States (Nevada and
Arizona) and felt drawn to explore the world from an early age. She
studied abroad twice as a university student, in Limoges, France, and
Hiroshima, Japan. After spending several years working in the international
education field and obtaining her M.A. in sociocultural anthropology,
Kimberly landed in Tokyo, Japan in 2001. Since this time, she has been
a freelance translator, writer, editor and community organizer in fields
relating to peace, social justice and human rights. Her latest interests
are in Buddhist philosophy, as well as the conversion of the political
and the spiritual to create powerful social change.
Kimberly's article "Hope Amidst the Pain"
in KJ #68 introduced a grassroots Japanese network giving voice and
support to citizens of Iraq.
March
12: KJ #69
has been mailed to subscribers and contributors.
February
15: Peace
On, an NGO member of the Iraq Hope Network featured in
KJ #68 ("Hope Amidst the Pain," by Kimberly Hughes) is holding
an exhibition of paintings by Iraqi artists (mostly recent works) at
Shibunkaku-kaikan gallery in Kyoto until Sunday 17th. It's one block
west of Hyakuman-ben on Imadegawa, south side, 2F.
One of the most interesting works is by Ala
Bashir, formerly Saddam Hussein's personal physician.
former head of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Baghdad University,
and author of 'The
Insider: Trapped in Saddam's Brutal Regime.' See also Telegraph
profile.
Open 11am-7pm.
Iraq movies Ali & Isam, and The Thirsty will be
shown 2pm to 4:30pm Sat & Sun.
Live Arabic music Sunday 6-8pm
Peace On is raising money to build a school in Iraq.
February
12th:
KJ #69 is in final production, soon to go to the printer.
We seem to have had some problems with slow mail deliveries lately,
and non-arrivals. If you should have received #68, and haven't yet,
please let us know.
January
14th:
Message from old friend of KJ & way-back contributor Sidney Atkins:
Finally
I've gotten around to posting the 5th Chapter of "Six Records of
a Floating LIfe", this installment titled "Mountains and Rivers
Without End". Here's the address:
http://www.telcomplus.net/satkins/photo6.html
I was a little superstitious about this one, feared
I might never get a chance to do it, only four of Shen Fu's original
"Six Records" survive, the other two are lost forever...
Includes some excellent photos of northern Kyoto, Kitayama – and
Nagaragawa. Those were the days.
A great series.
December
24th:
We are delighted to welcome Lois P. Jones as a contributing
editor. In particular, she will be helping poetry editor Patricia Donegan
to make poetry a stronger and more diverse element in KJ. Lois was born
in Chicago, Illinois and currently lives in Glendale, California. Her
poetry has been published in state quarterlies, anthologies, ezines and
internationally in Argentina’s Los Andes – and in
KJ. She is co-editor of A
Chaos of Angels and the founder of Word
Walker Press. In 2006 she co-wrote The Miracle of Mendoza,
a three-part series documenting Argentina’s wine industry. Lois
has workshopped under Mark Doty, Matthew Sweeney, Paul Muldoon and others
at the annual San Miguel Poetry Week in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
You can find her as co-host at Moonday’s monthly poetry reading
in Pacific Palisades, California and hear her poetry in recent and upcoming
interviews on Poet’s Cafe, a Pacifica
Radio broadcast in Southern California. (Her
most recent reading/interview here:
scroll down to Poet's Corner, Dec. 26th 12:00 noon; includes 'Father'
which appeared in KJ #66).
December
23rd:
KJ 68 is out, has been mailed
to contributors and subscribers, and is in selected bookstores in Japan.It
is on its way to our distributor in North America, will be in stores
there in late February.
December
9th: Again
this year we were pleased to be invited by the Pushcart
Prize to nominate six articles (by US writers) published
in KJ during the last year. The final selection was as follows:
1. "Siddartha
and the Great Bird" – Heinz Insu Fenkl, KJ#65
2. "Little Soman's Little War" – Keith
Harmon Snow, KJ#67
3. "A Day and a Half of Freedom" – (Tr.)
Ralph McCarthy, KJ#66
4. "Nakahara Chuya & the Art of Translation"
– (Tr.) Christian Nagle & Ry Beville, KJ#66
5. "Origami Lion" – Jacob Adelman, KJ#67
6. "The things we've been through together"
– Gail Gutradt, KJ#68
November
8th:
Singapore-based KJ
Contributing Editor Vinita Ramani sent photos of her
recent wedding.
click on photos to enlarge...
We wish her and her husband every happiness and success!
October
30th:
Nepalese sitar master
Sawari Joshi will perform at the Kampo Museum on November
3rd at 11am and 3pm.
Also, a Jazz singer from Mississippi, a drummer from New York, and a
bass player from Australia will perform jazz at 3pm.
The concert will be held to open ARTS IN NEPAL, a special exhibition
on traditional Nepalese arts, Nov 3- Feb11.
The Kampo Museum is located across Okazaki-michi, at the southeast corner
of Heian Shrine (Closed Dec. 27-Jan 4th).
click on image to enlarge...
October
19th:
We're
delighted to announce that KJ has been nominated again, for the 11th
successive year, for the annual Utne Independent Press Awards:
UTNE
READER ANNOUNCES THE NOMINEES FOR 19th ANNUAL UTNE INDEPENDENT PRESS
AWARDS 2007
– 111 STANDOUT PUBLICATIONS MAKE IT TO THE FINAL ROUND
Minneapolis,
MN (October 18, 2007) –Utne Reader
has officially announced its nominees for the magazine’s 2007
Independent Press Awards, which honors the very best in independent
media from the pool of more than 1,300 sources Utne uses to cull its
content. Among the 111 nominees selected were old favorites as well
as a number of newcomers. Utne will announce the winners in January/February
2008.
Magazines (General Excellence)
ColorLines
Columbia Journalism Review
Discover
Film Comment
Foreign Policy
Kyoto Journal
The Sun
The Wilson Quarterly
ABOUT UTNE READER
Since 1984, Utne
Reader has been a leading voice for independent thinkers,
bringing readers an informed point-of-view on issues ranging from the
environment to the economy and from politics to pop culture—the
kind of stories you’ll find in the mainstream media months or
years from now. Utne Reader taps into the pulse of what’s
emerging in the culture by engaging with the most visionary thinkers
and doers of our time and by presenting the best articles and ideas
from thousands of indie publications, websites, blogs, newly published
books, films, and other off-the-beaten-path sources.
October
14th:
Latest postings
at
Ten
Thousand Things
October
13th:
Welcoming three new
interns to KJ!
Maria Marangos
graduated from Fordham College at Lincoln Center, New York, majoring
with honors in history and international/intercultural studies (East
Asia), spending a junior year abroad at the School of Oriental and African
Studies in London. She is now a Monkasho Scholar and graduate research
student at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, in the Dept. of Japanese History,
specializing in Meiji period reforms.
Hamano Yuria is a student at Kinki University, who
has offered to volunteer with us this semester.
Courtney Sato, from Hawaii, is majoring in English
at Wellesley College, and is currently in
Kyoto through the AKP (Associated Kyoto Program) at Doshisha University.
Her poetry has
been published by the Hawaii-based literary journal Bamboo Ridge
October
4th:
Latest postings
at
Ten
Thousand Things
August 10th:
News
from Ben and Jennifer Brose, until recently sojourning
in Kyoto. (Ben contributed "The Dancing Dead" in KJ#66). Now
living on a hundred acres, on MacNab Cypress Road in the foothills of
the Sierra-Nevada mountains, their dwelling, Shobo-an, a small sub-temple
of Daitoku-ji in northern Kyoto that was disassembled and shipped to
California in the 1970's. Best news last: Walker Jerry Brose was born
in Grass Valley, at 5:19 pm on July 26th, 2007.
July
24th:The
KYOTO LIVES Project: an invitation to help create a special issue of
Kyoto Journal
To mark Kyoto Journal’s 21st anniversary, we
want to further explore – and involve – the Kyoto community
in a new interview-based special issue called “KYOTO LIVES.”
Back in 1991, our
ground-breaking first double issue, KYOTO SPEAKS, featured 58 intimate
interviews with Kyoto people, and reflected their views on Japan’s
traditional capital. We were alarmed to find that most of our interviewees
were resigned to the fact that the city’s unique sensibilities,
traditions, and community were relentlessly being wiped out by neglect
and by official policy.
Sixteen years later, we are relieved and grateful to see that rumors
of Kyoto’s death were premature. The city has not yet disappeared
under a layer of concrete, and is actually full of new and exciting
energies. While old buildings are still being destroyed, more and more
of them are being renovated by young entrepreneurs. Thanks in large
part to the efforts of the city government, the Kamo River area has
become a lively public space. Overall, there seems to be a truly resurgent
interest and dynamism in traditional culture. This city has much to
offer the world. Kyoto lives!
For KYOTO LIVES
we wish to honor our roots in the Kyoto community — to present
some of the people who make this great city what it is, especially people
who break Kyoto stereotypes. We are not soliciting conventional journalistic
interviews, but stories and perceptions that will surprise us, enlighten
us, engage us, and give us an entirely fresh and unexpected perspective
of Kyoto.
Download (MSW
format): Invitation
letter
If you are interested
in participating in this project (and would like to suggest someone
you'd like to interview, or see an interview with), please contact us
at feedback[at]kyotojournal.org
Kyoto
Journal #66 Release Event
Saturday May 19th at Kampo Kaikan 4F,
Okazaki
Special guest Andre Vltchek presented and discussed his full-length
documentary on the turbulent politics of Indonesia:
TERLENA – BREAKING OF A NATION
“Terlena” means to forget, to be off guard, or in oblivion…
Shot on location in Jakarta, Bandung, Depok, Yogyakarta and Bali, TERLENA
(http://www.millache.org/) investigates Indonesia’s turbulent
political past through Indonesian testimonies, including those of former
President Abdurrahman Wahid; novelist and former prisoner of conscience
Pramoedya Ananta Toer; leading historian Asvi Warman Adam; human rights
lawyer Ester Jusuf; Ilham Aidit (architect and son of the assassinated
PKI leader), and many other political and cultural figures.
TERLENA is also full of music (traditional and modern), moving from
historic footage to present-day realities, from political offices to
Indonesian countryside, art galleries and theater stages.
Andre Vltchek is an American writer, journalist, political analyst,
playwriter and filmmaker. Raised in Central Europe, he studied film
in New York, and has reported on military conflicts and social unrest
all over the world, predominantly in Southeast and South Asia, South
Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America. In over 10 years in Indonesia
he has covered all conflict zones including Ambon, Papua, and East Timor
- before and after its independence. He is the co-founder of Mainstay
Press (see
announcement below), and Asiana Press Agency, and a senior fellow of
the Oakland Institute, a progressive political think tank.
An extract from
his co-authored EXILE–Conversations with Pramoedya Ananta
Toer is featured in KJ #6. Andre also the author of a political
novel, Point of No Return and a book of non-fiction endorsed
by Noam Chomsky: Western Terror - From Potosi To Baghdad.
Late-breaking News....Congratulations!
Preston Keido Houser (a long-time KJ contributing editor)
received his shihan from Yoshio Kurahashi-sensei of the Muju-an
Shakuhachi Dojo, February 24, 2007, Kyoto, Japan.
Preston writes:
"I performed two pieces, one at the beginning of the recital and
another at the conclusion. The first was a Zen piece which I performed
solo, “Muju Shin Kyoku” which could be translated as the
“song of the heart/mind with no abode.” I also performed
the concluding piece, “Tamagawa.” with three shamisen musicians:
Kimiko Hayashi, Chieko Iwasaki, and Ikuko Sakai. I performed with Hayashi-sensei
in my very first recital over twenty years ago and I was honored to
perform with her again."
http://www.shakuhachi.com/
Feb
28: Announcing a new Asian news
source: Asiana
Press Agency
"While
many people of good conscience are decrying the growing media consolidation
in the hands of a few and the correlating dearth of truly progressive
voices, the founders of Asiana decided to take concrete steps to do
something about it. The agency exists to promote writers, filmmakers
and photographers who are firmly committed to a progressive ethos, and
are willing to utilize their talents in its furtherance.
It goes without saying that many progressive journalists, filmmakers
and photographers do not receive sufficient attention from mainstream
media outlets to properly promote their work. At Asiana, these individuals
will get top billing as we endeavor to match them with business entities
desiring to receive high-quality, timely research/writing deliverables.
Our very selective vetting process assures the best possible finished
product, and we guarantee full customer satisfaction.
Beyond our dedication to progressive causes, such as human rights, global
peace, environmental sustainability and equality for all, we have decided
to focus our attention on Asia — thus the name of our agency.
It has been said by more than a few knowledgeable commentators that
the global balance of power is shifting decisively to Asia, which is
projected to dominate this new century as Europe and the United States
become correspondingly less dominant. While this claim might be debatable
for some, it is beyond question the region has become a hotbed of economic
activity, boasting some of the fastest growth rates in the world —
mainly in China and India. As such, this part of the world will generate
some of the most important global stories and we will be there to provide
coverage, with the express intention of bringing them to a wider audience."
Editorial
Director Andre Vltchek is a novelist, journalist, filmmaker,
and cofounder of Mainstay
Press publishing house for political fiction. His recent
books include the novel, Point
of No Return, and a book of political essays, Western
Terror: From Potosi to Baghdad. Mr. Vltchek also produced
a 90-minute documentary film about Suharto's dictatorship and its impact
on present-day Indonesia, Terlena
- Breaking of a Nation.
A senior fellow at the Oakland Institute, he has covered various conflicts
and wars, including Bosnia, Peru, Chiapas, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Gujarat,
East Timor and Aceh. Fluent in six languages, Mr. Vltchek has worked
for both mainstream and independent publications and media outlets.
Presently he lives and works in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.
Technical Director David Elliott is a Web Administrator,
editor, and journalist. He specializes in designing and maintaining
Web sites for newspapers, and recently did so for the Daytona Times
and Florida Courier weekly periodicals. He has over ten years
of experience in online publishing, Web design, and Web programming.
Feb
3:
Since August 2005, KJ contributing editor Jean Miyake Downey has been
sharing her extensive online research on multi-ethnicity, cultural cross-overs,
and other aspects of Asian diversity through her Ten
Thousand Things page (Multicultural Webfinds) on this website.
Today's additions include her 100th posting (...only 9,900 to go....)
We'd like to express our very sincere thanks for all the time and effort
Jean has put into this endlessly fascinating and thought-provoking feature,
and our best wishes for the success of her "Dragonfly Island"
part-history, part-travelogue... which she is still diligently researching
and revising...
Latest
postings:
Jan
29: We
are delighted to welcome Leza Lowitz on board as KJ fiction
editor, and Jenny Hall, as a contributing editor.
Leza was born in San Francisco and grew up in Berkeley, California. She
has a B.A. in English Literature from U.C. Berkeley, and an M.A. in Creative
Writing from San Francisco State University. She first made her way to
Tokyo in 1989, where she worked as a freelance writer/editor for The
Japan Times and Asahi Evening News, as an art critic for
Art in America, and as a lecturer at Rikkyo and Tokyo University.
After almost a decade in California, Lowitz relocated to Tokyo in 2003,
where she opened Sun and Moon Yoga. She has long been connected with
Kyoto Journal; readers may remember her appearance in “They
Who Render Anew,” our first In
Translation feature, and her poems in #53.
Lowitz has published over 14 books, including the best-selling Yoga
Poems: Lines to Unfold By (Stone Bridge Press), which was just issued
in paperback. Most recently, she has published a collection of short stories,
Green Tea to Go (Printed Matter Press), and co-authored Designing
with Kanji: Japanese Character Motifs for Surface, Skin & Spirit (Stone
Bridge Press) with Shogo Oketani, and Sacred Sanskrit Words: For Yoga,
Chant and Meditation (Stone Bridge Press) with Reema Datta.
She also edited The Japan Journals 1947-2004 by Donald Richie
(Stone Bridge Press). She has published six books of co-translations,
including the award-winning anthologies of contemporary Japanese women's
poetry, A Long Rainy Season and Other Side River (Editor,
Stone Bridge Press). Together with Oketani, she translated modernist poet
Ayukawa Nobuo’s America and Other Poems (forthcoming, Kaya
Press, 2007), for which they received the 2003 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission
Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature from the Donald Keene
Center for Japanese Culture at Columbia University.
Lowitz is the recipient of numerous honors for her poetry, fiction, and
translations, including the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Best
Book of Poetry and The Bay Area Independent Publisher’s Association
Award for Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By and the PEN Syndicated
Fiction Award. She has received an individual Translation Fellowship from
the National Endowment for the Arts, a California Arts Council Individual
Fellowship in Poetry, an Independent Scholar Fellowship from the National
Endowment for the Humanities. Other honors include the Copperfield’s
Dickens Fiction Award, the Barbara Deming Memorial Award in the Novel,
the Tokyo Journal Fiction 
translation
award, the Japanophile Fiction Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award for
Editorial Excellence, the Tokyo Journal Fiction Translation Award, and
two Pushcart Prize nominations in Poetry. Lowitz served as Reviews Editor
for Manoa journal for over a decade and edited two anthologies
of Japanese literature for Manoa. She can be reached at www.lezalowitz.com
and www.sunandmoon.jp.
Jenny
Hall, a Kansai resident from Australia, joins us as contributing
editor – having already provided articles and fine photos from
her extensive Asian portfolio. An Osaka-based travel writer and photographer,
Jenny is currently the travel editor for Kansai
Time Out magazine. As a member of the Kansai International
Photographers’ Association, she has taken part in two group exhibitions,
PEACEworks, (November at Kyoto Sangyo University, and December 2005
at Kyoto International Community House), and SLOW, (June 2006, Gallery
Prinz). More of her photographs can be found at http://jenny-hall.smugmug.com
Jan
28:KJ
#65 has been mailed out to contributors and subscribers. See our Current
Issue page for full content details. Sincere thanks to
all who helped to make it happen! In Japanese bookstores soon, and to
be released in the US in early March.
All very best
wishes to KJ readers, contributors, and volunteer staff!
–Ken Rodgers, managing editor
DEC.
7: Again this
year we were invited by the Pushcart
Prize to nominate six articles (by US writers) published
in KJ during the last year. The final selection was as follows:
1. “Writers and the War Against Nature”
— Gary Snyder, KJ 62
2. “Where is the Wild” — Robert Brady,
KJ 62
3. “Migrating Genius” — Stewart Wachs,
KJ 62
4. “A Pyrrhic Victory: Religion and Suppression in '30s
Japan” — Benjamin Freeland KJ 63
5. “Beingness, Seeking to Be” — Keith
Harmon Snow, KJ 63
6. “What's Wrong with Japanese Men” —
Kaori Shoji, KJ 64
DEC.
6: The December
issue of The Advocate has been published. Hard copies are available
at various locations around Tokyo, but if you're unable to get one,
you can check it out on the Printed
Matter Press website and download the whole thing!
THIS ISSUE INCLUDES:
"What's Corked at Coco Farm and Winery?" by Allison Campbell;
"Learning to Laugh (in Japanese)" by Melissa Caldera; "Discovering
Shinto" by Heny Hirose; Fiction by Donald Richie and Owen Schaefer;
Poetry by Leza Lowitz; Music, book, and film reviews; Columns and
events
NEW
MAGAZINE IN TOKYO CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS
Just a brief note to ask for written contributions to a new Tokyo magazine,
The Tokyo Advocate, which can be downloaded at www.printedmatterpress.com/
The magazine was started to provide an alternative to all the advertising-driven
English language publications in Tokyo.We want to provide intelligent,
informative articles about the arts and life in Japan.
We would especially welcome articles related to the work of NGOs/NPOs
and the issues that these organisations deal with: environment, social
problems, minority groups,etc. We would like to give people a chance
to read about topics which the mainstream media avoids and give a voice
to people who are otherwise ignored.
If you are interested in contributing to the magazine in any way, please
contact me at the address below. Articles should be between 1000-1500
words (negotiable) and we need submissions approximately a month before
publication.
Ian Priestley
ianpri[at]yahoo.com
NOV.
26: UNBOUND
LAUNCHED NOV 25th IN KYOTO
Over 100 guests helped us celebrate the release of the Kyoto Journal
2006 special issue "Unbound:
Gender in Asia" in Kyoto last night. We held the launch
at Sarasa,
Nishijin, a cafe/bar in a converted bathhouse located
in the weaving district of northern Kyoto. A slide show of images from
photographers and artists featured in the issue was projected onto the
wall, accompanied by music from DJ Kentaro & friends.
Many thanks to all our guests who enthusiastically joined the launch
party, some making the trip to Kyoto from as far away as Tokyo. Thanks
also to Sarasa Nishijin staff for their cooperation.
Special thanks to all KJ staff who helped with the event organisation
and braved the chilly Kyoto night air on the reception desk.
Photos
from Albie Sharpe and Stewart Wachs here,
and more, from Paul Crouse, here,
Matthias Ley, here,
Micah Gampel, here
and Jenny Hall, here.
Party
organizers Sally McLaren (special issue editor)
and Eric Luong (contributing editor/co-designer)
November
19: KJ
has been honored by being shortlisted again, for the 10th consecutive
year, in the
2006
Utne Independent Press Awards, this time also in the category
of International Coverage.
In 2004 we were nominated under General Excellence, Design,
and Cultural/Social Coverage. Previous nominations
include Art & Design Excellence (award winner,
1998), Local/Regional Coverage, Writing Excellence,
Design, General Excellence, and Best
Essays.
:
Many thanks (again!) to all our volunteer staff
and contributors!
...to
KJ News Archive
