A Japan Times columnist since 2000, Hiroaki Sato has won prizes for his translation of poetry (PEN American Center, Japan-US Friendship Commission). A paperback edition of his "Legends of the Samurai" has recently appeared. He is now working on a second collection of samurai tales with their origins.
For Hiroaki Sato's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
In this slim, beautifully illustrated book, historian Jan Morris details an account of the battleship Yamato's final, suicidal run near Okinawa at the end of World War II.
Here, Inuhiko Yomota takes on Yoshito Ohno (born 1938), the "mythical figure" of butoh — a genre so undefinable that poet Miyoshi Toyoichiro once called it "a dance, performance, acting, or whatever you like." Donald Richie (1924-2013) wrote of his friend, and founder of ...
For the past half-century Kazuko Shiraishi has represented Japan in a number of international poetry festivals and conferences — in at least 28 countries, she tells me in a recent interview. Sea, Land, Shadow, by Kasuko Shiraishi, Translated by Yumiko Tsumura.64 pages NEW DIRECTIONS, Poetry. She says ...
Despite widespread perceptions, not all "comfort women" were coerced into that existence, and not all were treated badly.
There are many sources to learn the facts behind the world's unceasing aerial bombardment.
August is a time for remembering much about Japan both before and after World War II.
I first met James Lee Byars in Kyoto in early 1967 and, at his invitation, participated in his "performance." At the time I didn't know that he'd been back and forth between Japan and the U.S. for nearly a decade already. I was also ...
Idealized notions of America's past are coming into question.
Rand Castile, who passed away last month, was a noted curator of Japanese art.
Burton Watson, the foremost translator of Chinese classics and poetry into English, chose to live much of his long life in Japan.
