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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."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 3, 2010
Fukuoka: Designed for living
Inquiring as to the whereabouts of English-language bookstores in Fukuoka, the person at the Rainbow Plaza information center's desk straightaway handed me a printout of English listings, maps and directions. This, I began to realize, is a well organized city.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2010
How Japan embraced the advent of cinema
Japanese cinema was different from the very start. In the days of the silent movie, recitators called benshi, took it upon themselves not only to interpret the action, but to add their own vocal and acting embellishments as self-appointed supra-dramatists.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 29, 2010
Garden dualities
Traditionally, gardens patronage in Japan came from two sources: the nobility and the coffers of well-endowed temples.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 4, 2010
Amami Oshima: Take a trip to the cloud forest of the imagination
Despite the environmental mistakes of the postwar decades, the violation of a once pristine landscape, a recent trip to Amami Oshima, gave very real cause for hope. Some regions have always, it seems, been in good shape. Flying over the island's green, volcanic hills, I felt as if I were gazing down...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 4, 2010
Pearl Harbor: setting history straight
It is extraordinary the lengths to which some people will go to reorganize history to suit their own ends. There are still voices, for example, claiming that Emperor Hirohito knew nothing about Pearl Harbor, the aerial attack that launched Japan's holy war.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 6, 2010
Art rebel without a cause
Pulse waves from the art world of the early 20th Century may have been felt far and wide, but the movements, practitioners and individual works of art themselves were far from being globally coordinate.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 23, 2010
A radical in the stones
For many Japanese film buffs, the name Kishiwada is synonymous with Miike Takashi's 1997 movie "Young Thugs, Innocent Blood" — an example of a cinematic genre described by film auteur Donald Richie as "anarchic and set in the brutal and amoral present."
CULTURE / Books
Apr 11, 2010
Culture suffocated by consumerism: eyewitness tales of Tibetan women
The basic facts about Tibet are well documented. Once the Chinese were firmly in control, land seizures, interrogations, struggle sessions, torture and the pulverizing of Buddhist images were conducted with a degree of fury only possible at the hands of religious or political zealots. Over 95 percent...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 11, 2010
Under the volcano, Iwate's capital keeps its rich history alive
The signs of boredom on this first morning in Morioka are manifest. Arriving ill-equipped for the pouring rain, there is a limit to how much interest can be squeezed from the otherwise admirable station facilities. After two hours of window- shopping and an over-surfeit of canned coffees, I'm ready for...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 7, 2010
Way down south in Hateruma
In 1965, a Dutch anthropologist named Cornelius Ouwehand sailed with his Japanese wife, Shizuko, to the remote island of Hateruma to undertake research. The series of monochrome images they took of daily life, work and ritual there were eventually published under the simple title "Hateruma."
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2010
Propagation of a perfect storm
In Japan, often the only way to deal with history is to forget it. This defective resort deprives some people of the opportunity not only to learn from history but also to be absolved of it. Akira Yoshimura's novel about the American campaign to capture Okinawa deftly reflects the quandary faced by many...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 21, 2010
Truly unique version of the foreigner's tale
Like a Yemenese bride-to-be who first sees the countenance of her fiance in a photo presented by relatives, Rebecca Otowa experienced a presentiment of her future in a black-and-white image of a building, a 350-year-old farmhouse in rural Japan.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 31, 2010
Entrap, exploit and repeat
WESTERN POWER IN ASIA: Its Slow Rise And Swift Fall 1415-1999, by Arthur Cotterell. John Wiley & Sons, 2009, 439 pp., $29.95 (paper)
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 24, 2010
Adachi still lifes are sure to grow on you
Just 20 km east of Matsue, the impressive collection of paintings and ceramics at the Adachi Museum of Art in Yasugi City, Shimane Prefecture, is at risk of being upstaged by its six superlative landscaped gardens.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 17, 2010
Mystery made of a rationalist's nightmares
A blood-soaked woman, clutching a child, stands on a barren moor. This is the image of the ubume of the title. This creature, or figment, who may or may not exist, but who haunts the narrative of this novel, is defined as the visible form of the regrets experienced by a woman who has died during childbirth....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 20, 2009
Alexandria's library: A phoenix amid the tea fields of Uji
Recalling the glorious Heian Period in Japan's history from 794 to 1185 at once conjures up images of a world of courtiers, 12-layered kimono, elegant poetry competitions beside winding streams — and secret trysts in scented chambers.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 25, 2009
Ripping yarn of the oddball genius who uncovered China's greatest secrets
BOMB, BOOK & COMPASS: Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China, by Simon Winchester. Penguin, 317 pp., ¥2,100 (hardcover) There are certain extraordinary people whose lives are by no means pre-ordained. Joseph Needham was one such person. One of the world's leading biochemists, he would go on to...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 18, 2009
The popular consensus: What's not to like?
FOREIGNERS WHO LOVED JAPAN, by Naito Makoto & Naito Ken. Kodansha International, 2009, 255 pp., ¥1,200 (paper) Arguably, Donald Richie's "The Honorable Visitors," a series of profiles of foreigners who lived or put in significant time here, is the standard against which most writings on expatriates...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 27, 2009
The ink-stained road: impressions of Japan
JAPAN THROUGH WRITER'S EYES, edited by Elizabeth Ingrams. Eland, 2009, 336 pp., $29.95 (paper) Reviewed by Stephen Mansfield Recent years have seen a number of excellent anthologies of writings on Japan, including "Japan: True Stories of Life on the Road" and the superb "Southern Exposure: Modern Japanese...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 23, 2009
Rich material found in penury
It is 1995, that defining year of the Kobe earthquake, the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, the year a man in Osaka confesses to dismembering the bodies of three women at his home in Osaka; the year a Buddhist priest is arrested for raping over 100 women. The times are out of joint, and the author...
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.

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