Samuel Grolmes - The Japan Times

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Samuel Grolmes

For Samuel Grolmes's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Apr 18, 2004

Surviving uncharted waters, unknown lands and shogun's scrutiny

SAMURAI WILLIAM: The Englishman Who Opened Japan, by Giles Milton. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002, 337 pp., $14 (paper). Samurai William is, of course the English navigator, William Adams, whose story was so effectively fictionalized by James Clavell in the novel "Shogun." Giles Milton has produced a historical narrative that is no less intriguing than Clavell's novel. Adams was navigator on the Dutch ship Liefde that departed from Rotterdam the spring of 1598 with a fleet of five ships bound for the unknown islands of Japan. It was the only ship to arrive in Japan, making landfall on Kyushu in April 1600.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jul 20, 2003

Taking readers to the edge

RUNNERS IN THE MARGINS: Poems by Akira Tatehata, translated by Hiroaki Sato. Vermont: P.S A Press, 2003, 103 pp., $12.95 (paper) The poet Akira Tatehata has a wide-ranging imagination as rich, and yet as controlled, as the brush of the most delicate artist. His poems are sometimes playful, sometimes philosophical, but always a surprise. He is indeed a major poet who has moved Japan's modern poetry into new territory by choosing prose as a medium. As Jerome Rothenberg has written, Tatehata has "the ability to move clusters of language and perception into larger assemblages," a narrative that escapes from narrative to create a world that startles us so we can see.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

May 4, 2003

Still howling with emotion

HOWLING AT THE MOON: Poems and Prose of Hagiwara Sakutaro, translation and introduction by Hiroaki Sato. Kobenhavn & Los Angeles, Green Integer, 2002, 316 pp., $11.95, (paper) Hagiwara Sakutaro is one of Japan's most important, and most cherished poets. His first volume of poetry, "Howling at the Moon" (Tsuki ni Hoeru), published in 1917, remains one of the most readable and most popular books of poetry in Japan. His second volume, "The Blue Cat" (Aoneko), came out in 1923. The startling innovation that Hagiwara brought to Japanese poetry was the successful use of colloquial language, a contrast to the formal, long standing 5-7-5 syllabic verse that dates back to the earliest period of Japanese literature, and survives today in the still popular tanka and haiku.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Feb 23, 2003

Poet reaches for a world beyond reality

THE VILLAGE BEYOND, Poems of Nobuko Kimura, translated by Hiroaki Sato. Vermont: P.S., A Press, 2002, viii + 54 pp., $10 (paper) Nobuko Kimura has published six volumes of poetry, the first, "Collected Poems of Kimura Nobuko" (Kimura Nobuko Shishu), in 1971, and the most recent, "Going Around the Day" (Himeguri), in 1996. Although clearly in the Surrealist camp -- she draws both from her dreams and her everyday life to create a world in which fantasy and reality intermix -- Kimura subscribes to no established poetic group or school, and has created and maintained a distinctive poetic voice.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

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

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.

For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on

By Lance Henderstein

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

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