Michael Hoffman is a fiction and nonfiction writer who has lived in Hokkaido by the sea almost as long as he can remember. He has been contributing regularly to The Japan Times for 10 years. His latest novel is "The Naked Ear" (VBW/Blackcover Books, 2012).
For Michael Hoffman's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
A Heian Period text reads, "Ladies must often depend on men who are nothing to them — it is the way of the world." In Japanese literature, not much has changed.
As a new year dawns, find calm and beauty in the vanished world of Murasaki Shikibu's 'The Tale of Genji.'
John Lennon recognized her sometimes startling originality. His fans didn’t. It looks like they were wrong.
Their paths may be different, but the devotion to God and gods that two men display in different parts of the world changes the religious landscapes of both.
Personal anecdotes suggest that happiness is a private pleasure, something that can be best enjoyed away from the chaos of the world outside.
“Modern global history” is to be made a compulsory subject in senior high schools in Japan from 2022.
A group of travelers comes to a river and must decide whether or not to cross. Scornful of danger, the young lord among them proceeds … and samurai politics soon come into play.
Civilization overwhelmed Japan’s indigenous population about 100 years ago.
A panel of four men at the tops of their fields discusses what it means to be a leader and comes to the conclusion that Japan doesn’t necessarily breed them.
Born in the mid-17th century, during the earlier days of the Edo Period, novelist Ihara Saikaku explored love in "Five Women Who Loved Love."
