David Burleigh - The Japan Times

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Mar 20, 2005

THE HUNGRY TIDE, by Amitav Ghosh. HarperCollins, 2004, 403 pp., £10.99 (paper). Piyali Roy, the daughter of Bengali immigrants to the United States, is spotted standing on a railway platform. She is dressed in the clothes "of a teenage boy." The man who distinguishes her from the crowd, as a stranger and a foreigner, is a middle-aged businessman from Delhi called Kanai Dutt.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Mar 6, 2005

New Western poetry from an old Japanese tradition

THE TANKA ANTHOLOGY, edited by Michael McClintock, Pamela Miller Ness & Jim Kacian. Red Moon Press, 2003, 231 pp., $24.95 (cloth). EDGE OF LIGHT: The Red Moon Anthology of English Language Haiku, edited by Jim Kacian et al., Red Moon Press, 2004, 175 pp., $16.95 (paper). The haiku, already well established as a poetic precursor overseas, has now been followed by the tanka. The popularity of one type of short poem from Japan has led to a deepening interest in other forms that the same tradition has to offer.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Nov 28, 2004

A clever yarn crafted from a hoax

MY LIFE AS A FAKE, by Peter Carey. Faber & Faber, 2004, 276 pp., £6.99 (paper). One of the most stunning acts of literary criticism in modern times was perpetrated in an Australian magazine called Angry Penguins during World War II. It consisted of a small body of faux experimental poetry, purporting to be the work of an obscure garage mechanic who had recently died, and to have been discovered by his sister. The editor was completely taken in.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jul 11, 2004

Bedroom poetry beckons

EROTIC HAIKU (bilingual), edited and translated by Hiroaki Sato, illustrated by Emi Suzuki. Tokyo: IBC Publishing, 2004, 114 pp., 1200 yen (paper). Since Eros was the god of love, in the sense of sexual desire, so "erotic," the dictionary explains, means "arousing or concerned with this." The cover of this little book is pink, and the front features the arched thighs and bottom of a naked woman. Between the covers are just over a hundred short poems, mostly by American poets, together with translations into Japanese.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

May 16, 2004

Spring, summer, fall and winter haiku

HAIKU: A POET'S GUIDE by Lee Gurga, Illinois: Modern Haiku Press, 2003, 170 pp., $20 (paper). HAIKU: The Poetic Key to Japan, selected & introduced by Mutsuo Takahashi, photographs by Hakudo Inoue, design by Kazuya Takaoka, translated by Emiko Miyashita & Lee Gurga. Tokyo: P.I.E., 2003, 400 pp. (approx.), 3,800 yen (paper). These two new books on haiku are complementary. One is a guide to haiku practice, mainly as it has developed in the United States, and written by one of its major practitioners. The other is a selection of 100 haiku in Japanese, chosen by one of Japan's most important modern poets, lavishly illustrated and with English translations. Though the two books approach the subject from opposite directions, the author of the first book has a hand in the second too.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Apr 11, 2004

Religion of the East through the eyes of the West

THE BUDDHA AND THE SAHIBS: The Men Who Discovered India's Lost Religion, by Charles Allen. John Murray, 2003, 322 pp., £8.99 (paper). The story begins with a botanist. At the end of the 18th century, a Scottish doctor named Francis Buchanan was employed to carry out surveys of Burma and Nepal, neither of them with ease, the latter with great difficulty, while on missions to those countries. While he was engaged on this, he obtained glimpses of a new religion.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Feb 8, 2004

Thieves and smugglers of Southeast Asia

THE LOST HERITAGE: The Reality of Artifact Smuggling in Southeast Asia, by Masayuki Nagashima. Bangkok: Post Books, 2002, 190 pp., 235 baht (cloth). One of the more disheartening sights for the visitor to Southeast Asia is the sight of headless or dismembered statues at important cultural and religious sites. The reason that the heads and limbs are often missing, as Masayuki Nagashima explains in this book, is not the result of natural erosion, but because they have been stolen and put up for sale.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Oct 19, 2003

Out of the ordinary

SELECTED POEMS 1976-2001, by Peter Robinson. Manchester, Britain: Carcanet, 2003, 139 pp., £8.95 (paper). NO VISION WILL TELL: 100 Selected Poems 1992-2002, by Scott Watson. Sendai, Japan: Bookgirl Press, 2002, 123 pp., 1,500 yen (paper). Both of the poets reviewed here, one British and the other American, live and teach in Sendai. Peter Robinson, from England, is a professor at Tohoku University as well as an anthologist and critic. His poetry is tentative, reflective and analytic. In keeping with the tradition of such scholar-poets, he offers gentle and thoughtful explorations, rather than verbal pyrotechnics. His is a poetry that relishes silence, and expects the reader to listen closely.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Sep 14, 2003

Poetry: a language without borders

KIYOKO'S SKY: The Haiku of Kiyoko Tokutomi, translations by Patricia J. Machmiller & Fay Aoyagi. Illinois: Brookes Books, Decatur, 2002, 128 pp., $16 (paper). SELECTED HAIKU, by Takaha Shugyo, translations by Hoshino Tsunehiko & Adrian Pinnington. Tokyo: Furansudo, 2003, 108 pp., $16 (paper). These two books provide a view of the interconnected and expanding haiku world. Born in a silkworm-growing community in Kyushu, 1928, Kiyoko Tokutomi was separated from her native tongue after she met her future husband, Kiyoshi.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Apr 13, 2003

Making a stanza for life

HOW TO HAIKU: A Writer's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms, by Bruce Ross. Tuttle Publishing, 2002, 167 pp., 1800 yen (paper); TAKE A DEEP BREATH: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace, by Sylvia Forges-Ryan & Edward Ryan. Kodansha International, 2002, 129 pp., 1,800 yen (cloth); THE NICK OF TIME: Essays on Haiku Aesthetics, by Paul O. Williams. Press Here, Foster City, California, 2001, 112 pp., $12 (paper) Haiku seems to induce a desire to discover and explain. What is to be discovered is an essence, a reductive key to the understanding of a culture. And when it has been revealed, it must be taught.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Mar 30, 2003

The young, the beautiful, the talented

COLLECTION OF BEAUTIES AT THE HEIGHT OF THEIR POPULARITY: A Novel, by Whitney Otto. New York: Random House, 2002, 283 pages, $23.95 (hardcover) When we think of Japonisme, it is primarily in the decorative arts -- a painting of a European woman holding a Japanese fan or wearing a kimono, some oriental objects on the mantelpiece behind her -- rather than in terms of filmic or literary influence. It is mostly the decorative influence that this book picks up.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jul 28, 2002

A mother lode of beauty and horror

THE STONE OF HEAVEN: The Secret History of Imperial Green Jade, by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark. Orion, 2002, 352 pp., 8.99 British pounds (paper) This book is one of a newly emerging genre: history told from the viewpoint of a single item. Other studies have already looked at subjects that ranged from flowers and foodstuffs (the tulip, the potato) to natural and man-made dyes (madder red, mauve). Generally they tell a tale of discovery, improvement and success. By contrast, "The Stone of Heaven," though it revels in luxury, ends as a journey to the heart of darkness.

LIFE / Language

May 10, 2002

Haiku celebrates overseas offspring, reconnects with nature

Can there be another country in the world where poetry is almost as regular a feature in newspapers as the weather forecast? Many -- perhaps even most -- newspapers in Japan carry columns of poetry on their pages. It is made easier by the fact that Japanese poems are traditionally very short, and that many can be written in a single line.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Apr 14, 2002

New twists on a venerable tradition

EINSTEIN'S CENTURY: Akito Arima's Haiku, translated by Emiko Miyashita & Lee Gurga. Brooks Books, 2001, 128 pp., $16/2,000 yen (paper) GENDAI HAIKU 2001/JAPANESE HAIKU 2001, edited by Modern Haiku Association. YOU-Shorin Press, 2000, 297 pp., 3 yen,000/$30 (paper) A FUTURE WATERFALL, by Ban'ya Natsuishi, translated by Stephen Henry Gill, et al. Red Moon Press, 1999, 59 pp. $12 (paper) It is natural enough, in haiku as in other things, to take a look forward or backward at the beginning of a new century. That the three volumes under review do so according to the Western calendar, and not the traditional Japanese one set by the emperor's reign, is indicative of the interaction between the two cultures and the influence this has had on haiku.

CULTURE / Books

Mar 27, 2001

Poetry for every mood and season

RYOKAN: Selected Tanka, Haiku, translated by Sanford Goldstein, Shigeo Mizuguchi & Fujisato Kitajima. Kokodo, 2000, pp. 218, 2 ,000 yen. LOVE HAIKU: Masajo Suzuki's Lifetime of Love: Translations by Lee Gurga & Emiko Miyashita. Brooks Books, 2000, pp. 112, 1,600 yen. UTSUMUKU SEINEN /LOOKING DOWN: Poems by Shuntaro Tanikawa, translated by Yorifumi Yaguchi & Gary Tyerar, with CD. Kyobunsha, Sapporo, Japan, 2000, pp. 182, 3,000 yen. How important is a poet's personal appeal? This question arises with each of these new volumes of translation, all of them bilingual. The three poets, otherwise quite different and unconnected, are only brought together fortuitously in this review.

CULTURE / Books

Dec 13, 2000

Book bites

MANGEKYO/KALEIDOSCOPE: Modern Senryu with English Versions, translated by Okada Hideo and Adrian Pinnington, boxed cards, XYLO Co. Ltd., 2000, 3,150 yen (+200 yen postage). This is a most unusual and attractive publication, consisting of four dozen short poems printed in Japanese on separate cards, with translations and comments on the reverse of each.

CULTURE / Books

Oct 17, 2000

Calm rejoicing in simple, ordinary things

OLD TAOIST: THE LIFE, ART, AND POETRY OF KODOJIN (1865-1944), by Stephen Addiss, with translations of and commentary on Chinese poems by Jonathan Chaves, Columbia University Press, 2000, 173 pp., $27.50. The photograph of Kodojin inside this book is very much what the title leads us to expect -- an elderly man in a kimono, with snowy white hair, a long straggling beard and a distant look in his eyes. It is the figure of a sage, familiar from Chinese paintings. But what is surprising is that the man himself is of relatively recent vintage.

CULTURE / Books

Sep 19, 2000

Poetry that brings countries together

THE WEATHER IN JAPAN, by Michael Longley. Jonathan Cape, 2000, 70 pp., 8 British pounds. HAY, by Paul MULDOON. Faber & Faber, 140 pp., 7.99 British pounds. A SMELL OF FISH, by Matthew Sweeney. Jonathan Cape, 2000, 64 pp., 8 British pounds. Irland and Japan: two countries at the far extremities of the Eurasian landmass, one an underpopulated single island, the other a populous archipelago. Recently they were linked in anniversary celebrations for Lafcadio Hearn, Japan's great apologist from Ireland, who was born 150 years ago on June 27.

CULTURE / Books

Apr 18, 2000

Reflective poems from well-lived lives

IN THE NINTH DECADE, by Edith Shiffert, distributed by Katsura Press, P.O. Box 275, Lake Oswego, OR 97034, USA, 1999; 78 pp., $14.95. KOMAGANE POEMS, by David Mayer, SVD, Techny Mission Books, Divine Word Missionaries, The Mission Center, Techny, Illinois, 1999; 93 pages, unpriced. "In the Ninth Decade" is Edith Shiffert's 11th poetry collection and the second she has published in her 80s. It is dedicated to her younger sister, who has just joined her as an octogenarian. The author was born in Canada in 1916, and came to Japan, following sojourns in Alaska and Hawaii, in 1963. She has lived in Kyoto ever since.

CULTURE / Books

Jan 4, 2000

Childish reading for kids and adults

TALE OF THE BAMBOO CUTTER, by Kawabata Yasunari, translated by Donald Keene, illustrations by Miyata Masayuki. Kodansha Intl., 1998, 177 pp., 2,300 yen. SOMETHING NICE: Songs for Children, by Kaneko Misuzu, translated by D.P. Dutcher, Japan University Library Association, 1999, 146 pp., 2,500 yen. These two delightful books are both bilingual, reasonably priced and suitable to give as presents. Adults would enjoy them, but they will appeal especially to children.

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