-- おそろしいメノナイト日記 -- Mennonite Oku no Hosomichi

when Mishima killed himself

2012-01-10T14:02:00.001-08:00

when Mishima killed himself
the department exploded

switchboard lit up
like a Christmas tree

incoming despatches like bomblets
secretaries scurried

Golden Temple groaned
like some enormous music
in whose imagination?

death poem, with splash of blood
masurao, or just
another lost shark

thinkpiece for yearend

2011-12-31T09:42:00.000-08:00

sent away to braincamp
made to ponder
sins of omission and commission
in solitary confinement

no joy in this cell
no symbol
no music of the spheres
mere thought

at irregular intervals
harsh noises on radio earphones
alien screams
in infinitudinous space

no time
the thinkers were wrong
meditation leads to
no enlightenment

thought no proof
of being
merely clicks
of mechanistic synapses

in infinitudinous
black time
no cycle no light
in saecula saeculorum

Midwinter

2011-12-21T16:29:00.001-08:00

Kunisada

The Succession

2011-11-30T09:43:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011

Fujimura says 'stable' system of Imperial succession needed

By MASAMI ITO

Staff writer

A way has to be found to secure a "stable" accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Friday, expressing concern over the small number of successors to the crown.

The remark by the top government spokesman came a day after Emperor Akihito was discharged from the University of Tokyo Hospital, where he was admitted for bronchial pneumonia Nov. 6.

The Imperial House Law stipulates that only males can ascend the throne, which only leaves Crown Prince Naruhito, his brother, Prince Akishino, and Akishino's son, Prince Hisahito, to succeed the current Emperor. During a news conference Friday morning, Fujimura said a thorough discussion is necessary to resolve the issue.

"The government is aware that future anxiety over securing a stable succession has not been resolved," Fujimura said. "Maintaining a steady succession is an issue that relates to the core of the nation and the government will consider it based on thorough discussions from various levels of the public."

Fujimura revealed during the news conference that Grand Steward Shingo Haketa of the Imperial Household Agency visited Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda last month and expressed his concern over the decreasing number of females in the royal family.

Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011

Honoring the fallen: Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko offer flowers Tuesday at a memorial service in Tokyo for firefighters who died on duty in the past year. KYODO

Prince cites age limit for emperors

Kyodo

Prince Akishino, who turns 46 on Wednesday, has said it will become necessary to hold a public debate on whether an age limit is needed for emperors, who currently serve for life.

The youngest son of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko made the remark at a news conference he held together with his wife, Princess Kiko, 45, ahead of his birthday.

The 77-year-old Emperor resumed his official duties Tuesday after being hospitalized for 19 days this month for bronchial pneumonia.

Introducing a retirement age for emperors is "one idea" and "discussions should be held including at what age to draw the line," he said, noting that the aging speed differs depending on the individual.

Under the 1947 Imperial House Law, the next male in line ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne upon an emperor's death. Emperor Akihito's eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito, currently ranks first in line to the throne, followed by Prince Akishino.

...

The idea has emerged as there are currently only a few males who are eligible to ascend the throne. Prince Akishino's 5-year-old son, Prince Hisahito, is now the sole heir eligible to succeed to the throne in his generation.

Japan Times

TPP OPPO

2011-11-08T06:40:00.000-08:00

Todaiji Opens New Museum

2011-10-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011

Todaiji unveils museum to show ancient treasures

Kyodo

NARA — The Buddhist temple Todaiji, a World Heritage site in the city of Nara, opened a museum Monday to exhibit its Buddha statues and other historic art.

In the light: A statue of Fuku Kenjaku Kannon bodhisattva is one of the main exhibits at the Todaiji museum that opened Monday at the temple in the city of Nara. KYODO

First conceived 30 years ago, the museum provides the temple with an open facility to show its numerous treasures.

The five-room facility has an exhibition floor of about 600 sq. meters and is located in the temple's cultural center near the Great Buddha Hall. The main exhibits include sunlight, moonlight and Fuku Kenjaku Kannon bodhisattva statues.

"I had thought Buddha statues would look better in temples, but they were more beautiful than I had imagined," said the museum's first visitor, Hideki Nakamura, a 42-year-old writer.

The admission fee is ¥500 for adults and ¥300 for elementary school students.

JAPAN TIMES

Politician on Shikoku Pilgrimage

2011-10-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011

Kan resumes Shikoku pilgrimage

By NATSUKO FUKUE
Staff writer
Naoto Kan, who stepped down as prime minister last month, has resumed his pilgrimage to Shikoku's 88 famed temples, arriving at the 54th, Enmeiji, in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, on Monday.

Japan Times

バイアブラショック 2

2011-09-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

バイアブラショック

2011-09-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

元嘉暦は、５世紀の雄略天皇の時代から既に使われていた可能性が指摘されている。今回の大刀に書かれた「庚寅正月六日庚寅」のうち、５７０年と１月６日の干支が「庚寅」というのは、いずれも元嘉暦と一致する。

2011-09-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

Sword unearthed bearing Chinese sign for year 570

FUKUOKA -- An ancient sword bearing kanji characters that show the year 570 according to the Chinese sexagenary cycle has been unearthed from an ancient burial mound here, the local education board announced on Sept. 21.

The discovery made by the Fukuoka Municipal Board of Education is consistent with the Chronicles of Japan, one of Japan's oldest history books, which says Japan imported the Chinese calendar from Paekche, one of the countries that existed on the Korean Peninsula.

It is an epoch-making discovery in that it is the oldest item showing that Japan used a calendar in ancient times.

It was the seventh sword with inscriptions of characters excavated from an ancient burial mound, and fourth with the inscriptions of characters indicating years. All the previous ones had been discovered before the 1980s.

Education board officials said they found the 75-centimeter-long steel sword in the stone chamber of the G6 mound at the Motooka burial mounds in Nishi Ward, Fukuoka, which are believed to have been built sometime around the mid-seventh century, along with mid-seventh century earthenware.

X-ray photos of the sword show that it bears 19 Chinese kanji characters, each measuring 5 millimeters square. Experts say the swords were inscribed with the characters and that either gold or silver were poured into the characters, adding that the sword was made in Japan.

The characters show that the sword was produced in 570 by the Chinese sexagenary cycle, a rotation of 60 terms to show years.

"The sword was produced on Jan. 6, 570. It was wrought about 12 times," the characters read.

There is a large time difference between when the sword was made and when the burial mounds where the weapon was found were built.

According to the Chronicles of Japan published in the eight century, Paekche dispatched a calendar expert to Japan in 554 in response to a request by Japan the previous year. The calendar that the expert brought to Japan at the time is believed to be the Genka calendar made in Song during the era of Southern and Northern Dynasties in China from the early fifth to late sixth centuries.

Experts have pointed to the possibility that the Genka calendar had been used in Japan since the era of Emperor Yuryaku in the fifth century.

The inside of the G6 mound of the Motooka burial mounds in Nishi Ward, Fukuoka, where the sword has been found is pictured in this photo courtesy of the Fukuoka Municipal Board of Education.
The inside of the G6 mound of the Motooka burial mounds in Nishi Ward, Fukuoka, where the sword has been found is pictured in this photo courtesy of the Fukuoka Municipal Board of Education.

The date written on the sword matches that of the Genka calendar.

Professor Yasutoshi Sakaue of ancient Japanese history at Kyushu University describes the sword as important proof that the Genka calendar became widespread in Japan after the Chinese calendar expert visited Japan in the sixth century.

"It is the first time that an item bearing a date based on the Chinese sexagenary cycle has been found in Japan. It is evidence that someone who inscribed the sword with the characters knew the Genka calendar," Sakaue said. "It is the first concrete evidence showing that the Genka calendar spread in Japan following the calendar expert's visit to Japan."

The sword will be displayed at the Fukuoka City Archeology Center from Sept. 28 to Oct. 9.

Click here for the original Japanese story

(Mainichi Japan) September 21, 2011

KUSAMA YAYOI

2011-09-01T14:56:00.001-07:00

GRAND ORGY TO AWAKEN THE DEAD AT MoMA

Yayoi Kusama in "Performance Self-Obliteration by Dots," (1968) HAL REIFF

www.watarium.co.jp

Japan Times

The Early Modern Medieval

2011-09-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

The Early Modern “Medieval”: Reconstructing Japanese Pasts

University of Michigan
October 7-8, 2011

http://japanesepasts.lsa.umich.edu/index.php

Nippon Fifty

2011-08-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

Danjuro

2011-08-08T17:46:00.000-07:00

Aoi no Ue

2011-07-30T08:57:00.001-07:00

yamato nadeshiko

2011-07-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

Noho Theatre Group

2011-07-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

Noho Theatre Group

Hiraizumi

2011-06-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Takasago and Pagoda

2011-06-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

Idoru

2011-06-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

Gaga in Japan

2011-06-23T04:56:00.001-07:00

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Lady Gaga visits for tsunami event

Kyodo

NARITA, Chiba Pref. — Lady Gaga, one of the most successful pop singer-songwriters at present known for her out-of-the-box style of fashion, arrived in Japan on Tuesday to attend a charity music event for survivors of the March 11 quake and tsunami.

Mobbed: Lady Gaga (left) arrives at Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture on Tuesday. AP

Responding to cheers from some 200 avid fans who waited for her arrival at Narita airport, the 25-year-old American, dressed in green from head to toe, raised her left hand sporting a wrist band bearing a message, "Nihon no tame ni Inori o" (Pray for Japan). Revenues from selling the wrist bands go to disaster survivors.

Japan Times

Domination and Diminution: The Shrinking of the Shamaness into the Anime Miko

2011-05-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

The Shrinking of the Shamaness

by Chris Feldman

Hundreds of prostitutes and pimps

2011-05-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Hundreds of prostitutes and pimps rallied Tuesday near a red-light district in Seoul to protest a police crackdown on brothels, with some unsuccessfully attempting to set themselves on fire.

Kashima

2011-05-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

Japan Times

Mr. Keene's Noble Decision -- Japan Times Editorial

2011-04-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Mr. Keene's noble decision

Mr. Donald Keene, a prominent scholar of Japanese literature and Columbia University professor, has decided to make Japan his permanent home and has begun the process of becoming a naturalized Japanese citizen, it was reported last week. In an interview with NHK, the 88-year-old Japanologist said that now that Japan has suffered tremendously from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, he would like to express his "faith" (shinnen) in Japan, which he stated he loves. He went on to say, "I married a woman called Japan."

Mr. Keene has a residence in Tokyo and spends about half a year annually in Japan. His decision to become a Japanese citizen is an expression of the strong solidarity he shares with the Japanese people at a most difficult time — especially with those in northeastern Japan who have lost their loved ones, property or communities in the disasters, and those who are living in the shadow of the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. His decision should give every Japanese citizen a feeling of joy and encouragement, especially because so many foreigners left Japan in the wake of the disasters.

Mr. Keene read "The Tale of Genji" in translation while at Columbia, studied Japanese in the U.S. Navy and served as an intelligence officer in the Pacific region during World War II. After the war, he studied Japanese literature at Columbia, Harvard, Cambridge and Kyoto universities. Japanese authors he translated include Yoshida Kenko, Matsuo Basho and Yukio Mishima. He also wrote many books, including "Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan." He received Japan's Order of Culture in 2008.

For their part, Japanese should take a cue from Mr. Keene's love for Japan by developing a greater appreciation of Japanese culture and tradition (without becoming insular), making efforts to protect Japan's natural environment and building a society in which the socially weak are never abandoned.

Keene on path to Japanese citizenship

2011-04-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

Kyodo

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Donald Keene, a prominent scholar of Japanese literature at Columbia University, has decided to move permanently to Japan after he delivers his final lecture at the university later this month, sources close to him have said.

The 88-year-old professor emeritus has started the process of acquiring Japanese citizenship, they said.

While he has been spending half of each year in Japan, he determined around January to live in the country full time, partly because travel has become physically demanding for him.

The sources also indicated the March 11 calamity has distressed him and intensified his desire to make Japan home.

He was awarded the Order of Culture in 2008.

Sacred Turtle in Vietnam

2011-04-03T15:34:00.000-07:00

'Sacred' Turtle In Vietnam's Hoan Kiem Lake

04/ 3/11 12:03 PM ET AP

HANOI, Vietnam -- An ailing giant turtle considered sacred by many Vietnamese was captured in a lake in central Hanoi on Sunday by rescuers who hope to give it medical attention.

Thousands of onlookers cheered at Hoan Kiem Lake as the mammoth creature was pulled in after escaping capture last month.

It took 50 workers two hours to net the turtle and lure into a cage which was then transported by boat to a small island that was recently expanded and equipped with a small pond, known as the "turtle hospital," said Ha Dinh Duc, who has studied the creature for 20 years and considers himself its caretaker.

He said it will be kept on the island for medical treatment, but it's unclear how long it will take. Concerns mounted after the turtle was spotted with lesions on its head and shell, prompting the government to form committees and employ hundreds of workers to frantically clean debris and pollution from the lake.

The reptile is estimated to weigh about 440 pounds (200 kilograms) and is one of the world's most endangered freshwater turtles. There is one other turtle of the same species, known as Rafeteus swinhoei, in Vietnam and two others in a Chinese zoo. But its value to the nation has nothing to do with how rare it is.

Scientists say it is at least 80 years old, but many Vietnamese believe, as legend has it, that it is the same mythical creature said to have helped Vietnamese King Le Loi fend off the Chinese nearly six centuries ago.

After the victory, the king was said to be boating on the lake when a giant golden turtle rose to the surface and snatched the sword with its mouth before plunging deep into the water to return it to its divine owners.

Hoan Kiem Lake, which serves as the capital's centerpiece, translates as "Lake of the Returned Sword."

Temple of the Benevolent Turtle

Kashu Juku Noh Theater in Philadelphia, March 21

2011-03-22T04:56:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia Inquirer

The Hello Kitty Bandit

2011-02-06T05:07:00.000-08:00

Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011

Hello Kitty helps ID burglary suspect

SAITAMA (Kyodo) A 36-year-old truck driver suspected of involvement in hundreds of burglaries in Gunma and Saitama prefectures between 2004 and 2010 was likely wearing Hello Kitty sandals during the crimes, just like when he was arrested, according to Saitama police.

Masakazu Kanda, now on trial at the Saitama District Court for theft and other charges, was wearing pink sandals bearing the famous feline character when he was walking on a street in Saitama Prefecture last June, catching the eye of police officers after footprints collected from burglarized residences showed that the perpetrator had worn Hello Kitty sandals.

The officers questioned him on the spot and arrested him after finding he was in possession of a screwdriver believed to be used for breaking into houses.

According to the Saitama Prefectural Police, Kanda was allegedly involved in 452 burglary cases involving a total of ¥55.5 million.

Japan Times

Princess Harokiti

English Pedagogy in Japan

2011-01-22T06:33:00.000-08:00

English classes mostly in Japanese

Kyodo News

Only 20 percent of teachers of English oral communications at public high schools were giving classes in the language in 2010, despite the "100 percent" target three years from now, a governmental survey showed Friday.

The ratio was also low among teachers for cross-cultural understanding classes included in English language courses, with only 35 percent of them found to be using English, the survey by the education ministry indicated.

As new high school education guidelines will start in the academic year beginning in April 2013 that basically require all teachers of English classes to use the language, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry said it intends to instruct schools to raise the level for a smooth transition.

The survey was conducted in August, targeting all full-time public high schools. The teachers polled did not include special aides such as foreign assistant language teachers, according to the ministry.

Of the surveyed teachers of oral communications classes, 33 percent said they use English about half the time, while 41 percent said they use it less than half. Those who said they hardly use English totaled 6 percent.

The survey also showed that 49 percent of the 23,985 teachers of English have records of high English proficiency, including scoring 550 or higher in TOEFL exams. While the number of teachers of English rose by some 2,000 from the previous survey in fiscal 2007, the percentage fell from 51 percent as the overall number of teachers increased.
The Japan Times: Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011
(C) All rights reserved

Japan Times

Governor pitches cash for TOEFL-sharp Osaka schools

By ERIC JOHNSTON

Staff writer

OSAKA — Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto plans to offer a total of ¥500 million to high schools whose students score highest on the Test of English as a Foreign Language to boost competition and raise the level of language proficiency.

The plan, meant to reward the high schools in the prefecture with the best English education programs, was recently conveyed to the prefectural board of education and will go into effect next year if approved.

Between 50 and 100 students at each of the prefecture's 234 public and private high schools would be selected to take the test, which is often used by foreign universities in evaluating nonnative English speakers for admission. The average TOEFL score for each school would then be tallied, and schools with the top 50 scores would receive ¥10 million each to further their English programs.

The governor's proposal comes amid growing concern in Osaka and nationwide that Japanese students are becoming more insular.

It also follows years of warnings by business leaders and politicians that students' lack of English ability puts Japan at a competitive disadvantage against countries such as South Korea and China, where there is a strong emphasis on TOEFL scores.

In 2009, the mean score of all Japanese taking the Internet version of the TOEFL was one of the lowest in Asia and well below all of the major Asian economies.

This version of the TOEFL tests speaking ability as well as listening, reading and writing, and emphasizes the kind of English used in academia.

Japanese did better on the traditional paper test, which only measures listening ability, reading and writing with a mean score just lightly above or below most major Asian economies.
Extracurricular arrest

OSAKA (Kyodo) An Osaka schoolteacher was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of groping a female high school student on a commuter train, police said.

Yoshito Habu, 57, a temporary teacher at the Senbon Elementary School, allegedly put his hand inside the girl's panties at around 7:20 a.m. aboard a train on the JR Hanwa Line, the police said, adding that a man who witnessed the incident apprehended Habu.

The teacher has admitted to touching the girl's underwear but denied putting his hand inside them, according to investigators.

The Japan Times: Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011
(C) All rights reserved

brown leaves, New Year

2011-01-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

down the street
in the neighborhood
gem of a park
I've watched twenty-five years
come and go, more or less

this New Year's Day
hackneyed black boughs
painted against the snow
haiku-like

but an oak tree still unaccountably
bears up
its withered brown leaves
and I wonder
why I've never noticed
this tree before -- the sole tree
with branches not entirely barren and bereft

must be my age, or the oak's,
whose leaves shudder a bit in
the slight breeze, this
sunny New Year's Day

this year I'll have the thrill of
watching for something fresh,
after twenty-five years
a novel phenomenon --
shriveled brown leaves pushed
off into space
as fresh green blades take
their place

--Ross Bender

A Spider's Thread

2010-12-15T16:20:00.000-08:00

hurt durations

2010-12-07T07:52:00.000-08:00

hurt durations: poems 2009-2010

by ross bender

hurt durations

Einstein with Turtle

2010-11-18T10:54:00.001-08:00

Fu Xi with Turtle

2010-11-06T10:27:00.001-07:00

Hakuho Komokuten

2010-11-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

Heavenly image: Sumo grand champion Hakuho poses next to the 4-meter-tall statue of the heavenly king Komokuten at Rengein Tanjoji in Kumamoto Prefecture on Wednesday. The statue was modeled after the Mongolian grappler. KYODO PHOTO

Japan Times

Hello Kitty's Kawaii Paradise

2010-10-23T06:05:00.000-07:00

Hello Kitty — the 'constellation'
Kyodo News

An indoor theme park dedicated to Hello Kitty, Sanrio Co.'s popular cat character, opened Friday in Tokyo with many tourist-friendly spots, including a multilingual planetariumlike theater.

Hello Kitty's Kawaii (cute) Paradise also has a restaurant and gift shop in its 891-sq.-meter facility at the Venus Fort commercial complex in the Odaiba district, near the expanded Haneda airport, which opened a new international terminal the previous day.

The theater shows a short program in Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese and English, and projects "constellations" in the shape of Sanrio characters. The restaurant serves Hello Kitty pancakes.

The facility's operator, PleasureCast Co., a subsidiary of Namco Ltd., said it is hoping for 700,000 visitors in the first year, including tourists from other parts of Asia using Haneda airport.

Japan Times

Nara 1300 Celebrations Continue

2010-10-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

Nara fetes ancient capital's 1,300th anniversary

NARA (Kyodo) A ceremony was held Friday in Nara to mark the 1,300th anniversary of the move of Japan's capital to Heijo-kyo, where it remained for much of the eighth century, with both Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko in attendance.

About 1,700 guests, including representatives of nearly 50 foreign governments, gathered outside the restored Daigokuden palace on the site of the former capital, as dancers dressed in uniforms of military and civilian officers of the period and court ladies welcomed them with ancient music inspired by China's Tang Dynasty.

A play was performed to depict the issuing of an Imperial edict ordering the capital's move and also Japan's exchanges with China and the Korean Peninsula.

In 710, the capital was moved from Fujiwara-kyo, in today's Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, to Heijo-kyo, where the streets were arranged in a grid pattern. At the same time, Japan established a basis for a centralized government with a legal system and saw the flourishing of the cosmopolitan Tempyo culture that was influenced by the Tang Dynasty.

Except for temporary interruptions, Heijo-kyo prospered as the capital until 784, when the capital was moved to Nagaoka-kyo in today's Kyoto Prefecture.

Japan Times

若宮八幡秋季大祭裸祭り

2010-09-24T16:54:00.000-07:00

Wakamiya Hachiman Matsuri

Longest Noodle

2010-09-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

鳥取市で世界最長となる2,600メートルの

流しそうめんに成功しました。

鳥取市で19日、流しそうめんの世界記録が樹立されました。
鳥取市の山あいに設置された全長2,600メートルに及ぶ流しそうめん用の水路。
世界最長の流しそうめんに挑戦しようと、標高140メートルの山から、一握りのそうめんが流されました。
岐阜県では2010年6月、世界最長となる2,500メートルの流しそうめんに成功。
その記録を超えようと、地元の人など延べ150人が、10日ほど前から700本の竹を切り出すなど準備を進め、この水路を完成させました。
流し始めて50分、ついに、そうめんがゴールに到達。
住民の力で成し遂げた世界最長の流しそうめん。
参加者は、喜びに浸りながら、そうめんを味わいました。

FUJITV

postmodern culture

2010-09-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

the Chinese girl
and her elder mitochandrial sisters
billions and billions of them
prepare sumptuous food for
the proud barbarian youth with deep eyes
high nose and beard who
made confident by sex and publication
looks contemptuously through his mail
and reads the reviews which
written from a postmodern angle
completely miss the point

still life with cicadas

2010-09-11T15:15:00.001-07:00

two purple eggplants
and a brown hard-boiled egg
on the white kitchen counter while
outside a lone woodpecker drums
on a broken limb and cicadas
buzz, reaching a crescendo
at the end of summer

night train

2010-08-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

onto the opposite platform at night
the escalator disgorges a young woman
with a seeing-eye dog and rollerbag

alone on the night platform
without hesitation she follows her dog
into the traincoach door standing open

while above the full moon begins
its rise, and as my train slowly
pulls out I feel a bit anxious, forlorn

for a moment like a child
returning home late at night
after a long journey to the south

--Ross Bender

Awa Odori

2010-08-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

Amos in Goshen

2010-08-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

when they carried me down to this country
as a child, already the rites
were martial and harsh and the music was perverse

I sensed as only a child can sense that something
was rotten -- the lust for meat things
the thrill of acquisitiveness
the joy of beggaring your neighbor
orgasmic survival of the fittest

this terrifying fiendish swamp
whose creed was ultimate selfishness
whose blood was running money -- ah then
I discovered Ginsberg and it all made sense

how long ago? how long ago?
yet nothing has changed
drear mental concrete walls
big-mouth TV swallowing infants whole
brick ugly factory of Goshen High School

Kolymsky Heights of the mind
Siberia was hell and Stalin put me there
a phalanx of Nixons and fascist redneck principals

(some argue no equivalence of physical and mental suffering, but how quantify?)

how quantify torture? I've been
in maximum security lockdown since 1960
they got my number coming over the border
when they carried me down, an innocent, a naif

the next year they blew up Cuba
they shot a Kennedy, then another and crucified King

lathered naked Asian girls with jellied napalm
how to quantify terror?

they locked me up because I knew too much
here and there in shackles and restraints
here and there in screaming ugliness chemical
dungeons and junked Coney Islands of the mind

today I was rereading Howl, and Rexroth,
the whole boatload of sensitive useless old Beats
and it all made sense again, a cogent analysis

but times have changed and nothing has changed

dharma bums and queers and Quakers
immolated themselves at the Pentagon
I saw the monks flaming in the streets in Saigon
like the flower burning in the day

the moneychangers have set up
in the temple again -- no surprise
Moloch wants you for America's unending wars
flower children resisted! but the Hoosiers beat you down

(Savio told us to throw ourselves on the wheel but really! dude! how many times?)

how many times can the children jump in the river
break self on wheel of karma, dharma, what the hell
it stinks here, no joy in this cell, no solution here

and Goshen the genetic chemical restraint
bashes my head against its grey and stupefied walls
lacklove and vicious, cancer-production center
of the world, DNA Mennonite straitjacket, inquisitors,
they watch you in the Anabaptist panopticon --
what will the neighbors think?

you tried to escape and you failed
brain police locked you up and brought you back
thorazine, haldol, mellaril, and the beat goes on
you killed yourself and they dragged you back
from the dead to be a zombie in Goshen,
a useful cart horse for the bourgeoisie

but the light breaks, thrill codes blaze in the skylights
now Pegasus in yoke sprouts wings!
let's all fly away to the further shore and make love
for Babylon is fallen and America is damned

from Amos Stoltzfus, Amish Druid: A Memoir

In Memoriam Tuli Kupferberg

2010-08-11T19:45:00.001-07:00

Gundam

2010-07-25T06:33:00.000-07:00

Painting 70 Morningside

2010-07-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

I spent Columbia Commencement 1974 in the day room of the psychiatric ward of St. Luke’s Hospital, staring balefully across at the sacral bulk of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Amsterdam Avenue.

That spring in a burst of manic fury I had completed my MA thesis on the Buddhist priest, Dōkyō, who seduced the Empress Shōtoku and tried to make himself Emperor of Japan in 769 AD. It was published in 1979 in Monumenta Nipponica, a musty academic journal edited by an elderly British Jesuit in Tokyo.

The Dōkyō affair was in the zeitgeist, albeit a highly esoteric zeitgeist, of the 1970s. Cappy Hurst (Columbia 1972) presented a paper titled “Dōkyō and The Virgin Empress” before the American Oriental Society in 1976. Also that year an eminent American student of Japanese Buddhism (fortunately not a Columbia man) published a vulgar “Ribald Classic” on the topic in the pages of Playboy magazine, including such shocking (and historically unverifiable) lines as the following:

“Then she would climb onto the lap of her statuesque master, fondle the long lobes of his Buddhalike ears and place her naked arms around the pillar of his neck. He, in turn, would look the look of great peace into her eyes and let rise within her the pagoda of his love.”

At the end of the decade Doubleday published The Vermilion Bridge, Shelley Mydans’ elegant novel of 8th century Japan, which, while a romantic fiction, is remarkably accurate in the historical details of the relationship which can be ascertained. And of course Donald Keene’s magisterial Seeds in the Heart (Columbia UP, 1999) reveals all the salacious particulars of the affair between monk and empress as imagined in later Japanese literature.

In fact, of course, contemporary 8th century documents don’t give all the scandalous details. And one modern Japanese historian has concluded that the relationship between Dōkyō and the Empress was the result of an attraction between two strong natures, and speculated that they may have been “just good friends.”

But the affair came strangely to the fore in the 21st century, as the Japanese Diet debated an amendment to the constitution to again permit a woman to occupy the throne as Empress in her own right. The death of Empress Shōtoku in 770 brought to a sudden end a powerful archaic tradition of strong female monarchs in Japan.

In the fall of 1974, in the grips of a monstrous depression, I moved into my “suite” at 70 Morningside Drive. I say suite advisedly, because the apartment for three consisted of three small bedrooms, a bathroom, and a cramped kitchen. The old tenement building had been converted, apparently in some haste, into a Columbia dormitory for graduate students. My bedroom, about 6 feet wide and 9 feet long, contained a bed with a lumpy mattress, a desk complete with chair and lamp, and a miniscule closet. It put me in mind of one of those medieval torture chambers known as “The Little Ease.”

Still, it had a splendid view of Morningside Park, and as the leaves changed color that fall my mood began to improve. With the encouragement of my patient advisor, medieval Japanese historian Paul Varley, I concentrated on finishing my remaining course work for the Ph.D.

(continued at "Painting 70 Morningside")

Italian firm releases new shirts to remove Hatoyama 'stain'

2010-06-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 19, 2010

News photo
Shirt out of luck: Angelo Inglese, president of Italian shirtmaker G. Inglese, shows off shirts Tuesday in Florence, Italy, resembling one worn in April by then Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama that Inglese says was not one of his makes. KYODO PHOTO

ROME (Kyodo) Italian shirt maker G. Inglese has released the Premier collection of multicolored patchwork shirts to remove the stain inflicted on its brand name when former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama wore such a shirt in April and drew media flak, its president said.

Angelo Inglese, president of the designer shirt maker based in the southern Italian city of Ginoso, said Wednesday he decided to release the eight types of high-quality checked shirts to counter the negative publicity his firm received when Hatoyama, reportedly a G. Inglese shirt buff, wore a checked patchwork shirt at a barbecue on April 4 at his official residence.

Hatoyama came under fire from CNN and other news organizations for wearing the red, yellow, green, purple and blue-checked plaid shirt at the event called "Real Hato Cafe." At the time, CNN quoted a designer as calling the shirt a "fashion disaster."

The patchwork shirt worn by Hatoyama was then reported to be the product of G. Inglese.

But the company's president told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in mid-May that Hatoyama's shirt was not his company's product, while describing the shirt as being of "shoddy" quality.

He said he sent a package of his company's shirts to the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo two days before Hatoyama's sudden announcement of his decision to resign.

He said he believes his shirts were handed on to new Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

Each shirt retails for 250 euro (about ¥28,000). Inglese said his company has already received a number of business inquiries from fashion buyers from Japan and the United States.

Japan Times

our friendly postal service

2010-06-09T09:43:00.001-07:00

the decline of Japanese culture, continued

2010-06-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Sexual imagery curbs in comics face no-vote
Kyodo News

A bill to tighten curbs on sexual imagery of minors in comics and animated films will be rejected by the largest force in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, whose session started Tuesday, sources said.

The Democratic Party of Japan and several small groups are threatening to vote down the bill on June 14 unless the metro government retracts it. But Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Tokyo can come up with a fresh bill if this one is voted down.

With the move, the new bill, which places various bans on comics and animated movies that depict sexual acts involving "nonexistent minors" — a definition of characters that readers or viewers would most likely assume to be under 18 — will likely face further debate this fall.

The bill urges the "anime" animation and "manga" comic industry to impose voluntary restrictions on the sale to minors of works that depict sexual situations involving "nonexistent minors."

It also designates some of those publications that deal with materials such as rape as "harmful materials," and bans minors' access to them.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Child sex in 'manga' — art or obscenity?
Graphic but healthy, free speech

By TAKAHIRO FUKADA
Staff writer

The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly is deliberating stronger regulations on sexual images of minors in "manga" comic books, animation and video games.

If the revised ordinance is passed, publishers will have to exercise greater restraint on content with sexual depictions of characters that people can assume to be underage. The tougher ordinance would also designate publications that express sexual violence and other material deemed outside the social norm as "noxious" and restrict young readers' access.

Cartoonists and others have lodged protests over the proposed crackdown, which was introduced by the metropolitan government, arguing it could violate the freedom of expression.

With the assembly debate heating up, The Japan Times interviewed a leading supporter and a vocal opponent.

Yukari Fujimoto, a 50-year-old associate professor of girls manga and gender at Meiji University in Tokyo, is opposed to the revised ordinance, saying it is rife with problems and is a "bad law."

Fujimoto said a law already exists to keep juveniles from being exposed to hardcore pornography. She suspects that the revisions could lead to regulating all content of a sexual nature depicting minors.

Under the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's desired changes, businesses and residents would be obliged to recognize that materials positively depicting sexual acts of minors can hamper the ability of children to develop a "healthy" attitude about sex and to keep such material out of the hands of minors.

Fujimoto said that if the ordinance takes effect, it would take only one person to step forward and brand, for example, a comic book or game that depicts sexual acts involving high school students as "unhealthy" to have such works removed from stores.

Unless the metropolitan government's plan is dropped, "movements to suppress undesirable books will begin," Fujimoto said.

Japan Times
Japan Times

Nara 1300 Map

2010-06-01T19:12:00.001-07:00

if you want to know who we are

2010-05-13T19:03:00.000-07:00

we are gentlemen of Japan

Nara 1300

2010-04-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

Japan Times

where the crakeberries grow

2010-04-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

"Well, the White Goddess is the most ancient goddess in Europe, Asia and Africa; and she's white for various reasons - white in a good sense and white in a bad sense. She's the person who makes poets write poems and she puts them through ordeals and gives them a hell of a time; and eventually if they don't kill themselves, or otherwise disgrace themselves, she forgives them and then they go to Paradise, the Welsh Paradise-which is the same as the Irish tree Paradise. She subjects the poets to a number of deaths; and when they've died often enough she relents: and the reward for having suffered a succession of White Goddesses is to meet the Black Goddess. The Black Goddess is represented in Greek mythology by the figure of Mother Night. Mother Night sits in the cave and repre- sents wisdom, honour and justice; and in front of her sits a White Goddess calling attention to her oracles by beating a brazen drum. That is what happens to poets. Eventually, if they have satisfied her ordeals, they get through to the Black Goddess. And are in a position to say what they know without suffering ... I hope one day I shall meet the Black Goddess."

-- Robert Graves

Embracing the Sands

2010-04-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

陶陶孟夏兮，草木莽莽。
傷懷永哀兮，汩徂南土。
眴兮窈窈，孔靜幽墨。
冤結紆軫兮，離愍之長鞠；
撫情效志兮，俛詘以自抑。

刓方以為圜兮，常度未替；
易初本由兮，君子所鄙。
章畫職墨兮，前度未改；
內直質重兮，大人所盛。
巧匠不斲兮，孰察其揆正？
玄文幽處兮，矇謂之不章；
離婁微睇兮，瞽以為無明。
變白而為黑兮，倒上以為下。
鳳皇在笯兮，雞雉翔舞。
同糅玉石兮，一而相量。
夫黨人之鄙妒兮，羌不知吾所臧。

任重載盛兮，陷滯而不濟；
懷瑾握瑜兮，窮不得余所示。
邑犬群吠兮，吠所怪也；
誹駿疑桀兮，固庸態也。
文質疏內兮，眾不知吾之異采；
材樸委積兮，莫知余之所有。
重仁襲義兮，謹厚以為豐；
重華不可牾兮，孰知余之從容！
迸固有不并兮，豈知其故也？
湯禹久遠兮，邈不可慕也。
懲違改忿兮，抑心而自彊；
離湣而不遷兮，願志之有象。
進路北次兮，日昧昧其將暮；
含憂虞哀兮，限之以大故。

亂曰：
浩浩沅、湘兮，分流汨兮。
修路幽拂兮，道遠忽兮。
曾唫恒悲兮，永嘆慨兮。

世既莫吾知兮，人心不可謂兮。
懷情抱質兮，獨無匹兮。
伯樂既歿兮，驥將焉程兮？
人生稟命兮，各有所錯兮。
定心廣志，餘何畏懼兮？
曾傷爰哀，永嘆喟兮。
世溷不吾知，心不可謂兮。
知死不可讓兮，願勿愛兮。
明以告君子兮，吾將以為類兮。

spring mists will cover the eastern mansion

2010-04-02T18:24:00.000-07:00

A curtain of pearls hangs before the hall of jade,

And within is a lovely lady,

Fairer in form than the gods and immortals,

Her face like a blossom of peach or plum.

Spring mists will cover the eastern mansion,

Autumn winds blow from the western lodge,

And after thirty years have passed,

She will look like a piece of pressed sugar cane.

--Han Shan, tr. by Burton Watson

I sold my soul to a big-breasted girl

2010-03-22T06:37:00.000-07:00

This blog has moved

2010-03-11T15:30:00.001-08:00

This blog is now located at http://menonaitonikki.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://menonaitonikki.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

have I a body?

2010-03-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

Have I a body or have I none?

Am I who I am or am I not?

Pondering these questions,

I sit leaning against the cliff while the

years go by,

Till the green grass grows between my feet

And the red dust settles on my head,

And the men of the world, thinking me dead,

Come with offerings of wine and fruit

to lay by my corpse.

-- Han-Shan, tr. by Burton Watson

hotoke ni wa

2010-02-28T09:18:00.000-08:00

hotoke ni wa
sakura no hana o
tatematsure
waga nochi no yo o
hito toburawaba

When gone in death,
I'll take cherry blossoms
as your rite for me . . .
if any wishes to make memorial here
for me in my life over there

-- Saigyō; tr. William R. LaFleur

Yakushi Nyorai

2010-02-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

Breasts -- Gary Snyder

2010-02-19T18:43:00.000-08:00

That which makes milk can't help but concentrate
out of the food of the world
right up to the point where we suck it,
poison, too ...

Gary Snyder, Axe Handles

Breasts -- Gary Snyder

the decline of Japanese culture

2010-01-31T19:52:00.000-08:00

morning these chains

2010-01-27T10:48:00.000-08:00

morning these chains old loves
caress you again

a footprint in neatly raked asphalt
the old tar pits

"Tu a souffert de l’amour à vingt
et à trente ans”

now you are on the West Coast
flying to Japan
with a girl who says she loves you
but her moods are not your moods

the white-gloved driver at Narita
conducts you to the old stone house
of Yokohama
haunt of foreign devils rising from
distended graves

shackled down again
in the little room, your Muse approaches,
your Muse of many names -- Catatonia,
Miss Dance, Lady Echo, Toyotamahime,
the White Heron -- she enters and in her train
the familiar sky horses -- you mount
and ascend, flying to the moon in the company
of the pihi, the hoopoe, the phoenix

now you are in the Midwest
flying to hell
the Mennonite farmers are angry, schizoid
in the locked ward your tablemate is psychotic
whereas you are merely
suicidally depressed

now you are in the Hamptons in the lap
of improbable luxury
with a Chinese girl who wishes you to fuck her
on the pristine beach
you oblige

morning these chains old lives
caress you again
but the air is pure, the momiji bleed
deep red, even in winter

the air has changed, and the century
and the melancholy humors

new times, new moods
this ancient world
welcomes you again

-- Ross Bender

victory

2010-01-07T17:58:00.000-08:00

Fuji -- Banshun

2009-12-13T11:47:00.000-08:00

富士 . . . 晩春

美

かくも単純に

かくも無意味に

常にあり

常にあり続ける

たとえ山々が揺れ動いても。

神々が自らの喜びとして創られた

自らの像として

美として。

大倉純一郎訳

カイ・ニエミネン選詩集　「森で誰かが．．．」　（本多企画　宮崎　2000）　より

-- Kai Nieminen

Amish Druid, 1967

2009-12-12T06:41:00.001-08:00

San Francisco Oracle, Vol. 1, #7

strange women approach me

2009-12-10T08:12:00.001-08:00

strange women approach me on the bus
wanting to know my business
they’re subtle
asking for directions
asking for a cigarette
don’t they know you can’t smoke on the bus?

might be social workers
might be ladies of the night
might be a honey trap
you never know
when you’re riding the bus

that’s why I just say no
keep staring ahead in the distance
watching the streets go by
and the people dancing
murals, coffee shops, hair braiding salons

and days go by

you see women on the bus
you think you recognize
exotic women in rain ponchos
with the Chinese character for “the way”
(in Japanese “michi”)

when you get a little closer
it’s some football logo
you feel foolish for having asked
“why are you wearing ‘michi’ on your poncho?”
they must think you’re nuts

that’s why I just say no
when I get the impulse
to talk to strangers
keep staring ahead in the distance
watching the streets go by

--Ross Bender

gone far to the northeast . . .

2009-12-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

tsune yori mo
kokorobosoku zo
omōyuru
tabi no sora nite
toshi no kurenuru

A forlorn feeling,

this time more sharp than ever:

journeying along

under a vast sky where I see

the old year sink to its close.

--Saigyō, tr. William R. LaFleur

Donald Keene at the Tomb of Basho

2009-11-25T19:41:00.000-08:00

search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20090906x1.html

Seed Pods, Gary Snyder 1967

2009-11-25T19:30:00.000-08:00

San Francisco Oracle, Vol. 1, #7

Father Divine

2009-10-24T08:01:00.000-07:00

Donald Keene Part 1

2009-09-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20090906x1.html

Lord, It's the Samurai

2009-08-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

www.asiansart.org/samurai1.html

Let the gleam of naked swordblades transport you to a time when samurai used them to slice noses off of an estimated 38,000 victims, buried in this mound in Kyoto, one of at least a couple such "nose tombs" in Japan.

Kemari at Tanzan Shrine

2009-08-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

la via del tren subterraneo

2009-08-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

All summer I roamed the vast expanses of the New York City transit system like a solitary cloud drifting with the wind, intoxicated by the elegant surrealist poetry posted in the graffiti-draped subway cars:

La via del tren subterraneo es peligrosa. Si el tren se para entre las estaciones, quedese adentro. No salga afuera. Siga los instrucciones de los operadores del tren o la policia.

a coney island of the mind

2009-08-11T12:13:00.001-07:00

In the summer of 1968 I went to New York and discovered the subway. My first trip was out to Coney Island, in homage to Ferlinghetti. The sand was dirty and the roller coasters shabby.

Let's go

Come on

Let's go

Empty out our pockets

and disappear

Missing all our appointments

and turning up unshaven

years later

old cigarette papers

stuck to our pants

leaves in our hair.

Let us not

worry about the payments

anymore.

Let them come

and take it away

whatever it was

we were paying for.

And us with it.

--Junkman's Obbligato, Lawrence Ferlinghetti

dosojin no maneki ni aite...

2009-07-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

I seemed to be possessed by the spirits of wanderlust, and they all but deprived me of my senses. The guardian spirits of the road beckoned, and I could not settle down to work

--Oku no Hosomichi, Matsuo Basho, tr. Donald Keene

sozoro kami no mono ni tsukite kokoro o kuruhase, dousojin no maneki ni aite . . .

コスプレー Philly 2009

2009-04-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia Cherry Blossom Festival 2009

2009-04-14T10:05:00.001-07:00

Yaguchi Yorifumi 1985 -- "Ancestors"

2009-03-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

For latest Yaguchi poems, see CMW Journal -- Yaguchi Yorifumi Issue

Project Contacting Younger Churches, Hokkaido, 1967

2009-02-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

Yorifumi Yaguchi, the pastor of the two small congregations in Sapporo, has a strong conviction that he should be self-supporting and has been quite vocal in promoting this as the pattern for other ministers. This has created some tensions in the conference. Yaguchi teaches American literature and poetry and one Bible course at Hokusei University in Sapporo. He works with the students there as an unofficial counselor and invites them to come to his church for Bible studies. Many of them do attend the Yuai congregation. Yaguchi is somewhat critical of the missionaries for “with only a few exceptions,” he says, “they do not have a thorough understanding of Japanese culture; they do not use the Japanese language correctly; they read very few Japanese books and journals.”

He also feels that the church is too pastor-centered. He himself prefers a lay ministry and has not as yet accepted ordination. He feels that the church in Japan is unduly influenced by prevalent images of its proper forms, structures, programs, etc. which are current in other demoninations. He also feels that the church has been too strongly influenced by Japan Christian College. He said that the Japanese Mennonite Church is not authentically an Anabaptist-Mennonite church. Pastors do not know what this is and the missionaries, in his judgment, have not taught them.

Yaguchi and Takio Tanase are the two major leading influences who are leading the Japanese Mennonite Church into the Anabaptist stream of life and thought. Neither one is pushing a Mennonite line but only what he thinks is the Biblical perspective. Yaguchi feels that vital issues in the church cannot be thoroughly discussed because they are too emotional. We can only discuss up to a point, he says. He was the only one who had brought lay leaders from each of his congregations with him to the pastors’ conference at Furano although the other pastors had tried to do so as well.

Yaguchi pastors the Yuai congregation, a small congregation in Sapporo which ministers largely to students from the university. Yaguchi takes turns in preaching with Marvin Yoder. They have developed a variety of patterns for the worship service with a strong emphasis upon round table discussions. The members are permitted to ask questions or to express themselves freely in the meeting. The group meets in a classroom of a school building, which creates a problem since they need to leave the building immediately after the morning service. They usually go to a restaurant where they share the noon meal and continue their discussions. (One problem is that most of these persons are students and can ill afford to buy their meals at the restaurant.)

Their discussions are very significant and include both theology and practical problems. Recently topics have been the question of war and peace with a view to determining what Christians, especially Mennonites, should be doing in this area. They have been looking at Menno Simons’ teachings on peace. Two members attended the 1967 Korean Work Camp sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee as a reconciliation project. It was reported that the Korean Christians are very militant in their anti-communism.

--Ross T. Bender, Project Contacting Younger Churches, 1968, pp. 3-7.
Report on a visit to Hokkaido, Japan in September of 1967. Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries. Copy in the Mennonite Historical Library, Goshen College

God of War

2009-02-15T19:26:00.001-08:00

矢口以文

Sapporo Jan. 2005

Yaguchi Yorifumi reads "Senso no Kami" (mp3)

--Yaguchi Yorifumi, Tenkoku no Enkai, Eihousha (Nihon Menonaito Bunshou Kyoukai), 2004

Yaguchi Yorifumi reads "God of War"
(mp3)

from The Poetry of Yorifumi Yaguchi: a Japanese Voice in English, ed. Wilbur J. Birky, Good Books 2006

Jesus, by Yaguchi Yorifumi

Furano 1967 -- Sky Carp

2009-02-05T19:03:00.000-08:00

photo by Charles Shenk

Furano 1967 -- Pastors' Retreat

2009-02-05T18:59:00.000-08:00

photo by Charles Shenk

Furano 1967 - Ross Thomas

2009-01-31T08:57:00.000-08:00

Ross Thomas Bender and Yaguchi Yorifumi
Pastors' Retreat
Furano, Hokkaido 1967
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries:
Project Contacting Younger Churches

photo by Charles Shenk

Furano 1967 -- Ross Lynn

2009-01-29T09:22:00.000-08:00

photo by Charles Shenk

にぐろの大きな女

2009-01-27T08:50:00.000-08:00

Yaguchi Yorifumi, 1972

Obama Japan Hula

2009-01-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

three times

2009-01-16T05:34:00.000-08:00

月,月また月
この夜の明き白き新月
天の原をさっと切れば
先月ふくらむ乳房覚えや
むかしの女の神
再三再四頭に幻
月,月,またふたたび月を数える

--Ross Bender

fat man

2008-11-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

188

2008-11-25T18:46:00.000-08:00

Bunka no Hi 2008

2008-11-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

枯れ枝に

2008-10-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

rhabdomancy at todaiji

2008-10-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

Miyajima Hakuba

2008-08-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

Miyajima Flying Horse

2008-08-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

Tamukeyama Ema

2008-08-11T14:51:00.001-07:00

theology of the mountain gods

2007-11-21T09:50:00.000-08:00

bad spirits descend
war against us from the northeast
so they say
we humans need protection
against ineffable malevolent beings

in Kyoto of old the mountains
blocked the path
of demons;
they shielded from attacks
of the unnamable evil ones

no temples on Mount Baker
hoary father
thou my glacial ancestor
you thunder in silent thunders
in the northeast

over Port Susan Bay you,
my volcanic kinsman
are you my god?
many gods in the Cascades?
on which mountain shall I worship?

on the upper air
spiraling up to the nimbus
eagles ascend
circle in widening gyre
crow flies straight, my totem

--Ross Bender

-- おそろしい メノナイト 日記 -- Mennonite Oku no Hosomichi

when Mishima killed himself

thinkpiece for yearend

Midwinter

The Succession

Fujimura says 'stable' system of Imperial succession needed

Prince cites age limit for emperors

TPP OPPO

Todaiji Opens New Museum

Todaiji unveils museum to show ancient treasures

Politician on Shikoku Pilgrimage

バイアブラ ショック 2

バイアブラ ショック

元嘉暦は、５世紀の雄略天皇の時代から既に使われていた可能性が指摘されている。今回の大刀に書かれた「庚寅正月六日庚寅」のうち、５７０年と１月６日の干支が「庚寅」というのは、いずれも元嘉暦と一致する。

KUSAMA YAYOI

The Early Modern Medieval

Nippon Fifty

Danjuro

Aoi no Ue

yamato nadeshiko

Noho Theatre Group

Hiraizumi

Takasago and Pagoda

Idoru

Gaga in Japan

Lady Gaga visits for tsunami event

Domination and Diminution: The Shrinking of the Shamaness into the Anime Miko

Hundreds of prostitutes and pimps

Kashima

Mr. Keene's Noble Decision -- Japan Times Editorial

Mr. Keene's noble decision

Keene on path to Japanese citizenship

Sacred Turtle in Vietnam

Kashu Juku Noh Theater in Philadelphia, March 21

The Hello Kitty Bandit

English Pedagogy in Japan

brown leaves, New Year

A Spider's Thread

hurt durations

Einstein with Turtle

Fu Xi with Turtle

Hakuho Komokuten

Hello Kitty's Kawaii Paradise

Nara 1300 Celebrations Continue

若宮八幡秋季大祭 裸祭り

Longest Noodle

postmodern culture

still life with cicadas

night train

Awa Odori

Amos in Goshen

In Memoriam Tuli Kupferberg

Gundam

Painting 70 Morningside

Italian firm releases new shirts to remove Hatoyama 'stain'

our friendly postal service

the decline of Japanese culture, continued

Nara 1300 Map

if you want to know who we are

Nara 1300

where the crakeberries grow

Embracing the Sands

spring mists will cover the eastern mansion

I sold my soul to a big-breasted girl

This blog has moved

have I a body?

hotoke ni wa

Yakushi Nyorai

Breasts -- Gary Snyder

the decline of Japanese culture

morning these chains

victory

Fuji -- Banshun

Amish Druid, 1967

strange women approach me

gone far to the northeast . . .

Donald Keene at the Tomb of Basho

Seed Pods, Gary Snyder 1967

Father Divine

Donald Keene Part 1

-- おそろしいメノナイト日記 -- Mennonite Oku no Hosomichi

バイアブラショック 2

バイアブラショック

若宮八幡秋季大祭裸祭り