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April 30, 2024
 

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David Burleigh
For David Burleigh's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2011
Mirrors are nothing but eyes
FOREST OF EYES: Selected Poems of Tada Chimako. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Jeffrey Angles. University of California Press, 2010, 164 pp., $19.95 (paper) These are the lines from which the title of this poetry collection comes:
CULTURE / Books
Dec 19, 2010
Final word on the year's best reading
Like the ancient Greeks who were outnumbered by Persian hordes at the battle of Thermopylae, a motley gathering of British and Indian troops was almost overpowered at Kohima, but managed to resist the Japanese forces intent on taking India. Only a regiment, not a whole division, of Japanese soldiers was expected, and the struggle was bitter and prolonged.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 14, 2010
Bloody imperial rumble in Burma's jungle
The prologue to this stupendous book opens in Yamagata, where a Japanese general from World War II is struggling to atone for the deaths of soldiers who lost their lives under his command in India. They had been trying to mount an assault from Burma, which Japan had already conquered.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 8, 2010
The future lies under a different sky
Of Indian and Swiss parentage, Meira Chand grew up in England and began to publish novels while living in Japan. This is her eighth full-length work of fiction, and of those, only two have been unconnected with this country — though one of those, "House of the Sun," set in India, is probably her best book. Four have been historical recreations, and they include her new novel about Singapore, where the author now lives.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2010
Indomitable Karen of Burma
This is an impassioned book, the story of an insurgency in Burma drawn from interviews with those who experienced it. The narrative tells how the writer, Mac McClelland, traveled to Thailand to work as a volunteer with a group called Burma Action, and stayed for several weeks, teaching English.
CULTURE / Books
May 30, 2010
A double dose of haiku
Of the many cultural exports from Japan, the haiku has been one of the most successful, if recognizability is anything to go by.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 21, 2010
From the edge of darkness, a diary of wartime Burma
"Theippan Maung Wa" is the pen name under which a Burmese member of the Indian Civil Service wrote stories about his work for the British administration in the 1930s. The 150 tales that he composed, in a new and simple style, were popular contemporary reading and are still admired, some having been translated into English. But the author did not survive to enjoy his reputation.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 31, 2010
Fitting farewells for the poet James Kirkup
The coincidence between the titles of these two volumes is accidental, but nonetheless fortuitous, for together they serve to memorialize the English poet James Kirkup (1918-2009), who died on May 10 last year.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 27, 2009
First glimpses of a new world
THE LURE OF CHINA: Writers From Marco Polo to J.G. Ballard, by Frances Wood. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2009, 283 pp., £19.99 (hardcover) Not many readers follow the adventures of Robinson Crusoe as far as China, or even realize he went there. But the first volume of the famous story was such a success that author Daniel Defoe quickly wrote a second volume the same year, 1719, which took the protagonist to China. It was natural in some ways that China should provide the exotic and interesting locale for the second tale, since it was by that time a rich part of the Western imagination, known from the writings of Marco Polo and other travelers.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 4, 2009
Positive take on Japan's supposed dark age
THE EDO INHERITANCE, by Tokugawa Tsunenari. I-House Press, 2009, 200 pp., ¥2,500 (hardcover) The Edo Period (1603-1868) is frequently regarded as a dark, repressive age, when Japan was held in an iron grip by a military government that had closed its borders to the outside world. "The Edo Inheritance" seeks to challenge and correct this slanted image.
CULTURE / Books
May 24, 2009
The enduring tradition of tanka
WHITE PETALS by Harue Aoki. Shichigatsudo, 2008, 126 pp., ¥1,500 (paper)
CULTURE / Books
Feb 15, 2009
Opening your mind to open your heart
21-SEIKI HAIKU NO JIKUU / THE HAIKU UNIVERSE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: Japanese Haiku 2008, edited by Modern Haiku Association. Nagata-shobo, 2008, 216 pp., ¥2,500 (paper)
CULTURE / Books
Feb 15, 2009
Opening your mind to open your heart
HAIKU MIND: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness & Open Your Heart, by Patricia Donegan. Boston & London: Shambhala, 2008, 231 pp., $18 (cloth) 21-SEIKI HAIKU NO JIKUU / THE HAIKU UNIVERSE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: Japanese Haiku 2008, edited by Modern Haiku Association. Nagata-shobo, 2008, 216 pp., ¥2,500 (paper)
CULTURE / Books
Jan 4, 2009
The beauty of imperfection and much more
"Wabi-sabi," which is two words combined, represents in abbreviated form an elusive concept that is key to the understanding of traditional Japanese aesthetics. Indeed, rather than a single concept, it is a cluster of ideas that permeate artistic practice in Japan, or at least did so in the past. Now, as the titles of these books indicate, it is gaining currency abroad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / BEST OF BOOKS: 2008
Dec 14, 2008
Ready for a little Yuletide reading?
SAKHALIN ISLAND by Anton Chekhov, translated by Brian Reeve (Oneworld Classics)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 16, 2008
Worlds apart, yet related by tradition
A SLEEPING TIGER / DREAMS OF MANHATTAN: Simultaneous Poetry, Photographs and Sound, by Yoko Danno, James C. Hopkins and Bernard Stoltz. The Ikuta Press, Kobe, 2008, 28 pp., ¥2,500 (cloth) FLYING POPE: 127 Haiku, by Ban'ya Natsuishi, translations by Ban'ya Natsuishi and Jim Kacian. Allahabad, India: Cyberwit.net, 2008, 139 pp., $20 (paper)
CULTURE / Books
Aug 31, 2008
Spain to China: Letters of a lasting friendship
AUSTIN COATES: Souvenirs and Letters, by Ramon Rodamilans. London: Athena Press, 2007, 140 pp, £5.99 (paper) The Spanish author of this memoir recognizes early on just how much his subject, the British writer and historian Austin Coates (1922-97), like Coates' Vietnamese companion, "came from south-east Asia." And yet Coates was, in certain ways, a quintessential Englishman. It is a paradox that the letters and recollections delicately explore.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 10, 2008
Sharing Japanese poetry with the rest of the world
THE RABBIT IN THE MOON/TSUKI NO USAGI by Kayoko Hashimoto. Kadokawa-shoten, 2007, 260 pp., ¥2,667 (cloth) EARTH PILGRIMAGE/PELLEGRINO TERRESTRE/CHIKYU JUNREI by Ban'ya Natsuishi, English translations by the author and Jim Kacian, Italian by Luca Toma. Milan, Italy: Albalibre, 2007, 146 pp., 10.00 euro (paper)
CULTURE / Books
May 11, 2008
Who says there's no poetry in a game?
BASEBALL HAIKU: American and Japanese Haiku and Senryu on Baseball, edited with translations by Cor van den Heuvel & Nanae Tamura. W.W. Norton, 2007, 214 pp., $19.95 (cloth) In Ueno Park in Tokyo, among the museums and other attractions, there is a baseball ground. It is not large, and its name is not translated on the map available to visitors, but it is notable in one way. Called the Masaoka Shiki-kinen-kyujo in Japanese, it commemorates a haiku poet who died more than a hundred years ago.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 2, 2008
Verbal and visual tributes to the poetry of Santoka
HAILSTONES / ARARE / ZIARNA GRADU: Haiku by Taneda Santoka, English translations by John Stevens, Polish Translations by Wioletta Laskowska & Lidia Rozmus, with sumi-e by Lidia Rozmus. Deep North Press, 2006, 33 poem-cards, $50 (boxed) SANTOKA: A Translation With Photographic Images, English translations by Emiko Miyashita & Paul Watsky, with photographs by Hakudo Inoue. PIE Books, 2006, 400 pp., ¥3,800 (paper)
When will Japan intervene to support the yen?
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Raising kids in Japan as a single parent? It takes a village.
Making things work as a foreign, single mother in Japan isn't easy, but these tips and tricks can help you through the hardest parts.
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
JAL cancels international flight after captain gets drunk at Dallas hotel
A Japan Airlines' flight from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled last week after its captain got drunk at a local hotel.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

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