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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
LIFE / Travel
Apr 25, 2015
The temporal shift of Ainokura village
The tour conductor waved her flag furiously as she directed the bus driver into the last remaining slot in the parking lot that serves the village of Shirakawa-go.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Apr 4, 2015
Okinawa: In the crosshairs of war
"We always seem to be at the tail end of history, dragged along roads already ruined by others."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 28, 2015
Soraku-en: Kobe's well-grounded garden
On Jan. 17, 1995, as the city of Kobe suffered one of the country's worst earthquakes in living memory, the rocks, artificial hills and root systems of Soraku-en, a Meiji period (1868-1912) circuit garden, held firm.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 28, 2015
Morbid beauty and charged sexuality of Yasunari Kawabata's 'Thousand Cranes'
Yasunari Kawabata's tense 1952 novel contains all the writer's hallmarks: beautiful language, obsessive sexuality and contempt for the era.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 21, 2015
The wanderer, writer and suspected spy who embraced Japan
T.S. Eliot may have written that "April is the cruellest month," but for Roger Pulvers, this spring is an extraordinarily felicitous one. In March, an English translation of his novel "Starsand" was published and in April, translations will be released of both an anthology of tanka poetry by Takuboku...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 14, 2015
A tragic story of red tape and fatal ineptitude
At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, a 9-magnitude megathrust earthquake triggered a tsunami that slammed into the aging Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant along the country's northeastern coastline, less than 250 km north of the capital. In the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, the plant's power systems...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 28, 2015
The origin myth that beat the drums of war
Since the 18th-century — the age of English historian Edward Gibbon — Western theories of history have held that the past consists of causes, effects and events; there are no determining laws or theorems, and no divine purpose. This is the opposite of the view held by the classic Chinese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 21, 2015
The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan
...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 7, 2015
Taking a critical look at the prison of history
Those who write about history do so at their peril. The difficulties are manifest: how to contribute anything meaningful, to be divergent but remain credible and to research the past without losing sight of the present.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 10, 2015
Between a rock and an art place in Kurashiki's merchant quarters
Timing, as they say, is everything. With a bad habit of turning up to places and appointments too early, I often find myself wandering through train stations and pocket parks, and past the shuttered doorways of shops.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 27, 2014
Mishima: sliced from the shackles of time
Henry Scott Stokes, Yukio Mishima's first biographer, once told me that the thing he most remembered about the writer was his exquisite manners — one of those telling details that lend a touch of authenticity to the work of those who knew Mishima personally. Because biographies are such intensely...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 27, 2014
Isolation helps preserve Ishigaki's unique charm
In his 1926 story, "The Man Who Loved Islands," D.H. Lawrence wrote, "Isolate yourself on a little island in the sea of space, and the moment begins to heave and expand in great circles, the solid earth is gone, and your slippery, naked dark soul finds itself out in the timeless world."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 29, 2014
Mirei Shigemori: at home with stone
Between the years 1924 and 1975, Mirei Shigemori (1896-1975) designed more than 180 gardens in Japan, an extraordinary creative output by any standard.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Nov 16, 2014
A slice less ordinary: the 'cheese guy' of Okinawa
Briton sells cheese-eating culture to Okinawa and a taste of the Ryukyus to the rest of Japan as a retirement hobby morphs into a business.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 1, 2014
Cultivating shrunken worlds in Bonsai-mura
Omiya is one of greater Tokyo's rare pockets of residential comfort that can accurately be defined as middle class — a trait it shares with places such as Chiba's Ichikawa Mama or southwestern Tokyo's Denenchofu district.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Oct 18, 2014
The Great Wave
The phrase oyatoi gaikokujin refers to foreigners hired by the Meiji Era government and various educational institutions to impart their skills to Japanese eager to advance in the modern world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Oct 4, 2014
A Drifting Life
Readers tired with the glut of violence, wonderment and sentimentality that defines manga fantasies centering on characters with extraordinary powers and cute, eroticized females will find the unsparing social realism of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's autobiographical "A Drifting Life" a breath of fresh air.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 20, 2014
Glimpses of Lafcadio Hearn's Matsue
The Matsue-bound train I boarded at Okayama Station was pointedly named Yakumo, a reference to its destination's best-known former resident: Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), whose adopted Japanese name was Yakumo Koizumi.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 6, 2014
Kanazawa City: the architecture of tea
One of the first things you see as you exit Kanazawa Station is a giant brass sculpture of a teapot sunken drunkenly into a mound of grass or, depending on your interpretation, tilting to fill a cup of the refreshing green brew the city is noted for. That a municipal piece of art should be dedicated...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 30, 2014
Kiun-Kaku: a garden of elegant period taste
Despite the seasonal limitations for visiting, the Atami Baien, a plum garden, is a better-known sight that the Kiun-Kaku garden, which is an all-seasons landscape also found in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture. Perhaps it is the thirst for scale that has prioritized the plum trees in their large hillside...
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.
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.
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.
Unraveling the Japanese prose of Yukio Mishima
Author Yukio Mishima accepts the Arts Festival Award in the drama category at the 20th Arts Festival Award Ceremony on Jan. 22, 1966.
New Taiwan president to set tone for ties with China at inauguration
Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te arrives at the CyberSec 2024 Exhibition in Taipei on Wednesday.
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.
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.

Podcast

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[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.
How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there
Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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