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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
Sep 23, 2007
The sentence for keeping a journal
Confessions: An Innocent Life in Communist China, by Kang Zhengguo. W.W. Norton & Co, 2007, 443 pp., $27.95 (cloth) For Kang Zhengguo it all started when he began keeping a diary. In Maoist China, with no place for privacy, even an innocent record of daily life could be an incriminating document.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 15, 2007
Dive into the lower depths
PIERCING by Ryu Murakami. Penguin Books, 2007, 185 pp., $13 (paper) While his wife sleeps contentedly, a father hovers over the crib of his baby daughter, a penlight in one hand, ice pick in the other. Pressures are banking up inside the nervous system of a man who gets goose pimples while soaking in...
CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2007
Listening to history's creaking bones
ORACLE BONES: A Journey Between China's Past and Present, by Peter Hessler. HarperCollins, 2006, 491 pp., $26.95 (cloth) Beside their obvious antiquity, why should heaps of cattle shoulder-blades and turtle shells dating from the 13th and 14th centuries B.C. be of such immense importance to today's...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 18, 2007
Strange stories from Canadian suburbs
Nectar Fragments, by Michael Hoffman. AuthorHouse, 2006, 564 pp., $23.49 (paper). In the manner of the anthropologist, Michael Hoffman, in his latest collection of short stories, stakes out a small piece of terrain then proceeds to examine the life within its coordinates. The name of this plot is Nectar,...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 26, 2006
A colloquial style of literature tourism
JAPAN: A Traveler's Literary Companion, edited by Jeffrey Angels & J. Thomas Rimer, foreword by Donald Richie. Whereabouts Press, 2006, 232 pp., $14.95 (paper). It was purely by chance that I read the stories in this anthology while visiting the very same locations that provide their setting, though...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 22, 2006
Exploring the cobwebs and exposing some dirt
ISTANBUL: Memories of a City, by Orhan Pamuk. Faber & Faber, 2006, 348 pp., £8 (paper). Turkey it seems has always inspired fear. The memory of advancing Turkish units camped outside the gates of Vienna haunted the European mind for centuries. "Where the Turk treads, no grass grows," ran one saying...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 27, 2006
Man's plunge into the Eros trap
ERO-SAMURAI by David D. Duff. iUniverse Inc., 138 pp., 2006, $14.95 (paper). Hearing several malicious comments about this book, I was eagerly predisposed toward it. Sub-titled "An Obsessed Man's Loving Tribute to Japanese Women," this is not the first politically incorrect work on Japan, but because...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 30, 2006
Working for and beyond the call of hospitality
WELCOME TO SAWANOYA, Welcome to Japan, by Isao Sawa. Omega-Com Inc., 2006, 203 pp., 1,200 yen (paper). It seems at times as if, by common consent for the other's altering tastes, that East and West are exchanging positions. The West's love of the subtle side and back lighting, in the spirit of Junichiro...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2006
Adventures in Gerontology
THE OKINAWA DIET PLAN by Bradley J. Willcox, D. Craig Willcox and Makoto Suzuki. Three Rivers Press, 2005, 432 pp., $14.95/2,300 yen (paper). In works like "Awakenings" and "The Island of the Color Blind," neurologist Oliver Sacks showed how serious medical subjects could, in the right hands, be turned...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 4, 2006
Pensive view of a city's declining identity
KYOTO: A Cultural and Literary History, by John Dougill. Signal Books, 2006, 242 pp., 2,500 yen (paper). "Everyone knew," the wartime narrator of Hisako Matsubara's Kyoto novel "Cranes at Dusk" relates, "there was not a single Japanese city of over a million people that hadn't already been bombed." But...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 30, 2006
Shower of light on Eastern philosophy
LIGHT FROM THE EAST: A Gathering of Asian Wisdom, by Frank MacHovec. Stone Bridge Press, 175 pp., 2005, $16.95 (paper). The notes to this book tell us that author Frank MacHovec is a retired psychologist who began his study of Eastern philosophies as a Marine during the Korean War, one who wanted to...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 6, 2005
A modern master of an old tradition
MIREI SHIGEMORI: Modernizing the Japanese Garden, by Christian Tschumi, photographs by Markuz Wernli Saito. Stone Bridge Press, 128 pp., $18.95 (paper). A revival of interest in the dry landscape garden of Japan both domestically and internationally took place during the early Showa Era (1926-1989),...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 18, 2005
Sweet Mysteries of the Orient
THE ASIAN MYSTIQUE, by Sheridan Prasso. Public Affairs Books, 437 pp., 2005, $27.95, 2,850 yen (cloth). Apparently, there are still Western men who believe that the East is an obliging seductress, mass producing an endless line of voluptuous women, whose laconic sexual pliancy is only exceeded by their...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 31, 2005
Breach the defenses of marriage with a smile
FORTRESS BESIEGED, by Qian Zhongshu. Penguin Classics, 2005, 426 pp., £18.99 (cloth). 1937 was a rotten year for China. Japanese forces moved their operations from the Peking to the Shanghai region, the Nationalist lines in Nanjing collapsed, and the remnants of the resistance moved their troops deeper...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 10, 2005
Where Zen is perfectly at home
ZEN AND KYOTO, by John Einarsen. Uniplan Co., Inc, 2004, 135 pp., 2,381 yen (paper). Like heaven and hell, or the elements of earth and rock, Zen and the city of Kyoto are joined at the hip.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2005
Coating the truth to make fiction
THE COAT THAT COVERS HIM AND OTHER STORIES, by Michael Hoffman. Authorhouse, 2004, 632 pp., 2,940 yen (paper). Japan, having contrived the image of itself as a manifestly gentle society, the spiritual home of garden gnomes and all that is cute and cuddly, is now awakening to a manifestly dysfunctional...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 9, 2005
Life in the land where boredom is not an option
Writer, commentator and film specialist Donald Richie has had a good year, on that saw, among other things, the publication of "The Japan Journals" and his receipt of the Rising Sun With Gold Rays, a prestigious award honoring a lifetime of achievement in the arts. Here he shares his thoughts.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 9, 2005
The occupied days of the ultimate observer
THE JAPAN JOURNALS: 1947-2004, by Donald Richie. Stone Bridge Press, 2004, 494 pp., $29.95 (cloth). In "The Japan Journals," American writer Donald Richie has acted to the letter on Rimbaud's conviction that the first study for the man who wants to be a poet "is to know himself, completely. He must search...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 12, 2004
Brewing emotions and desires
GREEN TEA TO GO: Stories from Tokyo, by Leza Lowitz. Printed Matter Press/SARU Press international, 177 pp., 2004, 1,500 yen (paper). Is there such a thing as women's literature -- books that authorize a unique take on life, as opposed simply to literature penned by women, work tinged with female sensibilities?...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 14, 2004
Two Zen portals: different yet the same
ZEN INKLINGS, by Donald Richie. IBC Publishing, 132 pp., 2004 (new edition), 1,400 yen (paper). THE NEW ZEN GARDEN, by Joseph Cali, photos by Satoshi Asakawa. Kodansha International, 87 pp., 2004, 3,500 yen (cloth). One opens a book by Donald Richie with certain expectations -- namely, that it will be...
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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