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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:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 19, 2015
The ink-stained road: ‘age of innocence’
The idea of the journey is as old as the literate world. If we read the Old Testament as an edifying travelogue through the Levantine, the great Indian epics as picaresque fables, tales of wanderlust, the descriptive passages contained in these texts are not so far removed from the unfettered writings...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 12, 2015
Food for thought: A traditional Okinawan diet may help prolong life
The view that, if there is a Garden of Eternal Life, it is likely located in Okinawa, may be a touch exaggerated but few places offer better models for the correlation between food, health and longevity than Japan's southern islands.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 28, 2015
'Glory in a Line' reveals the complicated life of Tsuguharu Foujita
Arguably Phyllis Birnbaum's best biography to date, "Glory in a Line" examines the life of Japanese painter Tsuguharu "Leonard" Foujita.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 21, 2015
'The Power of Okinawa' is the most authoritative study of Ryukyu folk music
Of all the varieties of folk-music in Japan, Okinawa's is arguably the most vibrant and self-evolving. Astute listeners soon realize that each island group in the region has its own distinct microculture and musical traditions.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 14, 2015
Nishinoshima: Oki's island of sanctuary
Were it not for the well-nourished faces of the passengers suffused with keen expressions of expectation and purpose, the supine bodies, unpacked food, luggage and blankets strewn across the hard flooring of the ferry's modern equivalent of steerage class resembled those of a migrant ship.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 14, 2015
Critic Donald Richie reflects on Asia in 'Travels in the East'
The writer Donald Richie wore many hats: film curator and director, critic, essayist, writer of fiction, composer, cultural commentator extraordinaire and inveterate traveler.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 7, 2015
'The Book of Tea' is a transcendent view of life, art and Japan
To those unfamiliar with his name, Okakura Kakuzo was a pivotal figure in trying to make sense out of the clash between Western innovation in Japan and Oriental tradition. Self-exiled from the emerging modernism of the Meiji Era (1868-1912), Okakura traveled to India, China, Europe and, not without a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 17, 2015
'Base Nation' reveals the destructive tentacles of U.S. hegemony
People are often only aware of what is in their own backyard: the intrusiveness of a radar tower here, an ammunition dump there. David Vine's new book, "Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World," succeeds in shaking us out of our provincialism.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Oct 3, 2015
'Halo of Golden Light' reveals how Japan's ancient leaders harnessed Buddhist rituals
Like Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, the current Japanese emperor represents royalty in unbroken perpetuity, reformulated today into a fusion of timeless tradition and progressive democracy. And yet, the case of Japan is more complex, opaque and, at times, divisive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Sep 26, 2015
'The Art of Setting Stones' reflects on the beauty and meaning in Japanese gardens
Appropriating the Japanese garden as a vehicle to explore nature, beauty, relationships and death, the author begins with the premise that people "form the world around them into the shape of their philosophies," taking "mass and space, material and void" as content for their social structures, spiritual...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 26, 2015
'Sea of Opportunity' charts the history of immigrant Japanese fishermen in Hawaii
The common image of Japanese immigrants toiling in the sugarcane fields of Hawaii and — through years of sheer gumption — rising in the social ranks of the island is well established. Like the account I came across some years ago of Japanese pirates looting Mekong River villages in Cambodia,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 22, 2015
The experience of a 'Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage'
The pilgrimage experience is not singular. It can be a journey of enlightenment, a chance to improve your health or to expiate for a wrong deed. And there's also the more mundane business of administering to blisters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 8, 2015
Still waters run deep in Shizuoka's ancient town of Mishima
It was no coincidence that my custard tart, known locally as a Fujisancho cake, had been fashioned in the form of Japan's most sacred mountain.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 8, 2015
Memories of those marked by nuclear war
August, 2015. This is a month of great testimonials: outpourings of guilt, grief, consternation, remorse, atonement and, for those whose ends are not served by an honest reckoning of the past, evasion.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 4, 2015
Nothing is too bright for Ikuchijima Island
Islands can quickly lose their charm when they become attached to land masses. This, mercifully, has not happened to Ikuchijima Island in Japan's Geiyo archipelago, a cluster of islets in the Seto Inland Sea that, despite its two connecting bridges, feels defiantly detached.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 4, 2015
On mountain peaks and tourist trash
Discussing Mount Hayachine, ethnologist Kunio Yanagita observed that it stood on, "a somewhat different plane from the normal world." This could be a description of mountains in general, a landscape where we may experience nature in the raw, and even at times, a numinous presence.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 6, 2015
War and peace on Okinawa's Iejima Island
Beside their coastlines, there are other insistent geographical features that identify islands. In Okinawa, there is the great escarpment of Tindahanata on Yonaguni-jima Island, while Ishigaki Island has the strangely occult form of Mount Maapee, shaped like a sorcerer's hat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 30, 2015
Breaching the secretive sects of Shin-Buddhism
The tendency to perceive covert groups as reticent conspirators rather than curators of hidden knowledge is universal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2015
Sound waves: the music of Okinawa
How is it possible that a people who have experienced poverty, famine and discrimination, outlasted efforts at cultural annihilation and suffered the indignities of occupation can manage to celebrate life in song and dance with a passion and joy that belies everyday reality?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 2, 2015
Investigating 'impurity' in Tokyo's marginalized leatherwork districts
Because of irrational fears of contamination, Japan's hibakusha — the survivors of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — suffered discrimination. Try to imagine having an atom bomb dropped on you by a foreign enemy, then to have your own people turn against you. There is another...
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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