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November 22, 2024
 

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Stephen Mansfield

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Stephen Mansfield
Photojournalist and author Stephen Mansfield's work has appeared in over 70 publications worldwide, on subjects ranging from conflict in the Middle East to cultural analysis, interviews and book reviews. A longtime Japan Times contributor, his latest book is "Japan's Master Gardens: Lessons in Space & Environment."
CULTURE / Books
Aug 21, 2011
Poetry as stimulating as a stun gun
THE NEW YURI AND SELECTED YURI: Writing From Peeling Till Now, by Yuri Kageyama. Ishmael Reed Publishing Company, 2011, 134 pp., $19.99 (paper) In the babbling cosmos of contemporary literature, there have been a handful of distinguished cross-cultural writers who have made the English language their...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 7, 2011
Ultimate guide to boozing in Japan
DRINKING JAPAN: A Guide to Japan's Best Drinks and Drinking Establishments, by Chris Bunting, Tuttle Publishing, 2011, 272 pp., $24.95 (paper) I don't recall who wrote the line "If Venice is built on water, Tokyo is built on alcohol," but the author was spot on. Its not only the capital, but the entire...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 7, 2011
Step back in time down Chofu way
The map of Japan is full of intriguing holes and fissures, provincial areas that are not perhaps terrae incognitae in the strictest sense, but are nevertheless puzzlingly overlooked by visitors. Preserved by neglect, they are often proximate to better-known locales that sap the will of visitors to press...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 31, 2011
Garden of the gods: Sekizo-ji's stone solitude is worth seeking out
Almost every garden of importance in Japan is located within or near a center of culture. The dry landscape garden at Sekizo-ji Temple is that rare exception: a highly original, influential design in a little-known rural district.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 3, 2011
Have a hideously good time in Tono's past and present
The professor's snoring had kept me up until the wee hours of the morning. When I awoke, the reading light in the hostel's upper bunk was still on and a copy of "The Legends of Tono" lay open at the page where I had dozed off. With that book being full of hobgoblins, ravaging wolf packs and rural satyrs,...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 26, 2011
The other day of infamy
A TRAGEDY OF DEMOCRACY: Japanese Confinement in North America, by Greg Robinson, Columbia University Press, 371 pp., $29.95 (hardcover) The facts are well known. In the spring of 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, some 112,000 Japanese American citizens living on the Pacific...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 5, 2011
Exquisite designs for better living
TRADITIONAL JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE: An Exploration of Elements and Forms, by Mira Locher. Photography by Ben Simmons. Tuttle Publishing, 2010, 223 pp., $39.95 (hardcover) In Zen Buddhism there is a ceremony called "The Transmission." The ritual, both mystic and arcane, is little known in lay circles....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 29, 2011
Electrifying one-act lives
The late Meiji Era (1868-1912) to early Showa Era (1926-1989) saw the creation of a body of short, one-act dramas akin in their electrifying impact to the 1960s in Japan, with its upsurge in theatrical experimentation. This book begins with a telling quote from the playwright and director Osanai Kaoru,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 29, 2011
A garden pictogram lives on
Japanese gardens are often associated with temples, feudal estates or castles. Genkyu-en in Shiga Prefecture is certainly no exception, sited as it is adjoining a detached palace in the grounds of Hikone Castle, one of only a handful of the nation's feudal fortresses to have survived in its original...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 24, 2011
Lotus Stutra enlightenment
THE STORIES OF THE LOTUS SUTRA, by Gene Reeves. Wisdom Publications, 347 pp., 2010, $18.95 (paper) Gene Reeves is just the kind of preacher-teacher I like, one who lays his wares out, takes a step back and lets you appraise what he has to offer without obligation. Buddhism, like all religions, is best...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 3, 2011
Life's a breeze on far-out Miyakojima
Like tree rings, the islands of Okinawa contain cultures within cultures; ever more singular layers of age and time.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2011
Black ink, red blood
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PRESS NETWORKS OF EAST ASIA, 1918-1945, by Peter O'Connor. Global Oriental, 2010, 381 pp., £61 (hardcover) In the pre- and early war years, the big three newspapers at the center of the networks in Japan were The Japan Times, Japan Advertiser and the Japan Chronicle.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 30, 2011
Murin-an Garden: an ode to water
Surprisingly, as modernization swept through Japan in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), the number of traditional gardens increased. The clients, though, were now of a different order. Instead of the shoguns, their court aristocracy and feudal lords, the new patrons of these meticulously crafted sites of reflection,...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 30, 2011
Korea's haunted honeymoon island
THE CURIOUS TALE OF MANDOGI'S GHOST, by Kim Sok-pom. Columbia University Press, 2010, 114 pp., $24.50 (paper) Like the Indian novelist R.K. Narayan, who repeatedly set his characters down in the kitchens, back alleys and yards of his very own magical creation — the city of Malgudi — Korean writer...
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 26, 2010
The great Meiji bazaar: remodeling Tokyo
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2010
Mastering the enemy's tongue
Creating a language-learning program may not sound like the kind of material to set the readers' pulse racing, but author Roger Dingman has a unique and compelling story to tell.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 19, 2010
Final word on the year's best reading
Kicking his heels while waiting for a design commission to materialize, English architect Ralph Adams Cram might easily have frittered away his time getting pickled at the bar of the Rokumeikan, or in the perfumed chambers of Yoshiwara, but he chose instead to take to the byways of Meiji Japan on a survey...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 7, 2010
Remaining in Nanking and chronicling the horrors
The history of missionary work in Asia and the Pacific region has not always been exemplary, as we know from the eradication by religious zealots of entire micro-cultures in the name of Christ.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2010
Those risky, robust, resplendent architects of Japan
If Europeans are overawed by the architecture of the past, convinced that nothing as accomplished can ever be built again, this is where the Japanese, having none of these convictions or inhibitions, radically deviate, believing they can improve on the past, produce something more outstanding, or at...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 31, 2010
Okinawan garden majesty
The world's first gardens may well have been made of coral, natural clusters of underwater beauty that could be glimpsed through the transparent water. Perfectly tone-coordinated, balanced and formed, they were refined by nature to a degree that may have suggested the divine.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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