Kyoto Journal Issue KJ96
INSIGHTS FROM ASIA
Kyoto Journal is an award-winning,
quarterly magazine founded in Kyoto, Japan,
presenting cultural and historical insights from
all of Asia since 1987.
ALL
- ALL
- FICTION, POETRY & REVIEWS
- HIDDEN JAPAN
- IN TRANSLATION
- INSIGHTS FROM ASIA
- OUR KYOTO
- TOKONOMA
Invitations to Stillness: Japanese Gardens as Metaphorical Journeys of Solace
The practice of garden-making in Japan has a long history and over the last 1500 years, there have been many changes in perceptions of what constitutes a garden. Although Japanese gardens have been influenced and inspired by the introduction of new religions and philosophies, we can surmise that there has always been a spiritual dimension to Japanese landscaped space.
Six Thousand Lessons
During these years of travel, my understanding of what diversity means has changed. I began with an intuition, that the world was, from place to place and from culture to culture, far more different than I had been led to believe. Later, I began to understand that to ignore these differences was not simply insensitive but unjust and perilous.
By Any Other Name…
Tiberiu Weisz contends that contact between the Hebrews and the Chinese started probably sometime around 980BCE. If this is true, Israelite presence would have left traces in the historical records kept by the Chinese since their earliest dynasties.
Matsumoto Hajime of Masutomi Soba Restaurant
“After the war, flour was rationed in Kyoto, so a fixed number of noodle manufacturers was established. The result is that all udon and soba noodles in Kyoto are basically alike…”
From Abacus to Zen: A Short History of Tuttle Publishing
The Tuttle story stretches back to the printer Richard Tottel (1553-1593) of Fleet Street, London, who first published Thomas Moore’s Utopia, and compiled the first English poetry anthology, Songes and Sonettes…
Confronting Disaster
In Ghosts of the Tsunami, Richard Lloyd Parry confronts us with the startling human reality of this astonishing disaster. Parry’s chief concern is with the harrowing events that transpired at Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, a heartbreaking drama that is notorious in Japan but perhaps less well-known internationally.
Senzo: The Japan Cosmology of Abdullah Ibrahim
‘For me, the application of the concepts of budo is the same as we play in jazz music. Musashi Miyamoto said, “Under a sword lifted high, there’s hell to make you tremble.” It’s basically the same principles when you play jazz music.’
Glossary of Japanese Onomatopoeia for Gaijin
While living in Hokkaido and studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, my friends and I surrendered to laughter every time we encountered Japanese onomatopoeia. Connecting these unique expressions with daily life as JET teachers became a useful, stress-free way to memorize them…
on the blog
KJ is delighted to be partnering with the Kyoto realtor Hachise, a specialist in machiya traditional houses, for four consecutive issues.
In this first instalment, we take a look inside one of their beautifully renovated KyoTreat vacation homes and talk to Executive Director Nishimura Naoki about why these houses have so much appeal and his own hopes for the future of Kyoto’s traditional townscape.
