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May 17, 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."
For Stephen Mansfield's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
CULTURE / Books
Sep 23, 2007
The sentence for keeping a journal
...
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...
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...
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
...
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...
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
Kishida defends planned rule to revoke foreigners' residency
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a meeting of the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Human bone-like objects found at Nippon Steel plant’s molten iron pot, with one worker missing
Police believe it’s highly possible that human bones found in a molten iron pot at Nippon Steel's Oita factory belong to a missing male employee.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Man suspected of using smart glasses to cheat on Waseda University exams
The Waseda University campus in Tokyo. An 18-year-old male test-taker is suspected of using smart glasses to cheat during the university's entrance exam.
Japanese billionaire sues Meta over investment scams using his image
Entrepreneurs Yusaku Maezawa (second from right) and Takafumi Horie (third from right) attend a study session on fake social media ads and investment scams at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on April 10.
Japanese rap creates its mecca in Pop Yours
Tokyo-based artist Jumadiba says he forgoes the label of simply “rap” for his music because the Japanese rap scene isn’t confined to a particular sound.
Who’s toughest on China? Biden’s tariff tactic ups ante as election looms.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about new actions to protect American workers and businesses from China's "unfair" trade practices, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Ishin struggles to set itself apart from other parties
Nippon Ishin no Kai Secretary-General Fumitake Fujita (right) speaks beside Yui Kanazawa, the party's candidate in the Tokyo 15th district by-election on April 28. Nippon Ishin lost in this by-election as well as another in Nagasaki held on the same day.

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