Kyoto Journal issue #79 

- An Unfamiliar Home - 

is now out!

Kyoto Journal issue # 79

 #79 is out! 

Includes selections from Pure Land Mountain; 

also, check out Japan postcards from the early 1900s

KYOTO JOURNAL DIGITAL NOW OUT!  

** Sign up for free issue **

The folks over at Kyoto Journal recently announced release of their 77th issue, after a long transition from print to digital (and a complete website rebuild). This puts KJ back on track as a quarterly publication providing "insights from Asia."

The 22 articles in this issue (200 pages+!) take readers beyond the ancient capital to Hiroshima, Tokyo and Fukushima, on to Korea, China, Nepal, Tibet, India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, delving into film and fiction, poetry, "off-the-beaten-track" travels, craft and calligraphy, architectural and archaeological investigations, yoga, post-disaster initiatives, and reviews, finishing up right here on Pure Land Mountain.

A KJ 77 sampler is available at: http://kyotojournal.org/current-issue-digital-edition/

And a full contents list, here: http://kyotojournal.org/current-issue-digital-edition/)

If you go to KJ's homepage, http://kyotojournal.org/, you can sign up for an occasional newsletter — and receive a free download of a classic issue, KJ 73.

A one-year subscription to KJ (4 issues) is just 4,000 yen.

"IN JAPAN, 'HERBIVORE' BOYS SUBVERT IDEAS OF MANHOOD"

Meant to post on this later but in my yesterday hurry of busy, mistakenly published a brief memo and link for about 15 minutes before I realized it, unpublished but then got an appreciative note from Lisa who saw it on her RSS feed, so I'm putting it back up here unfinished just with the link, too busy at the moment to get satisfactorily back to this subject of "grass-eating/herbivore men" (soushoku danshi) and do it enough justice a la moi, in re some other perspectives I have on the matter that have been blending in my head, and other earlier related but untagged posts I have to search for rush rush rush so for the moment this is it...

+

"The six men on stage included a poet, a break dancer and a filmmaker. They pounded rhythms on the dhol drum, modeled fresh fashions, slathered whipped cream on bare skin and discussed their passion for community service.

This is the "Mr. Hyphen" contest, a faux pageant in the San Francisco Bay area aimed at redefining the image of Asian-American men beyond nerdy, sexless stereotypes."

--w/thanks to Lisa

KYOTO JOURNAL #69 NOW OUT


Another exceptional blend of perspectives...

JAPANESE ROOTS

"Just who are the Japanese? Where did they come from and when? The answers are difficult to come by, though not impossible ― the real problem is that the Japanese themselves may not want to know. Unearthing the origins of the Japanese is a much harder task than you might guess. Among world powers today, the Japanese are the most distinctive in their culture and environment. The origins of their language are one of the most disputed questions of linguistics. These questions are central to the self-image of the Japanese and to how they are viewed by other peoples. Japan's rising dominance and touchy relations with its neighbors make it more important than ever to strip away myths and find answers."

Excerpted from an impressive summary
of the mystery that is Japan,
by Jared Diamond.

Looks like it won't be a 'mystery' for long though...

KYOTO JOURNAL#67 IS NOW OUT.

"Thought-provoking perspectives from Asia."
Ken Rodgers has put a sidebar on the KJ page,
with a link therein to some of my previous 'Rambles,'
and one of them, Under Jurassic Skies,
at the bottom of the KJ page!
Thanks, Ken!

Kyoto Journal #66

is now out, gracing fine bookstores everywhere...