@mgwatson
Premodernist. Retired from teaching but not from research (nō drama, medieval Japanese prose writings). Moved to Iwaki, Fukushima-ken, after 44 years living in Yokohama and Tokyo. Photos of sea, mountains etc. posted to Pinksky and Instagram (wldnsmkt).
I love the yellow leaves of the 銀杏 (ichō) tree, but note that the correct spelling is ginkgo. The weird spelling came about because of a mistake in transcribing the notes written by Engelbert Kaempfer, who read the term 銀杏 as “gin+kyō.”
Hóng lóu mèng 紅楼夢 news! Fascinated to see that the handwritten manuscript of David Hawkes’s translation (The Story of the Stone) is available for viewing online. 2,210 pages. Chapeau!
www.cuhk.edu.hk/rct/DavidHaw...
From what I’ve heard—memory refreshed by Wiki entry—Hawkes did good work building up Chinese studies at Oxford but was then freed of admin and teaching duties by his appointment to All Souls College where he could focus on HLM translation until early retirement to Wales.
David Hawkes’ undergraduate degree was in Oxford. He was one of the bright linguists who was trained in an Asian language in London in WWII. Continued Chinese studies in Beijing, returned to Oxford… No Harvard connection there. My Oxford DPhil adviser was envious of Hawkes retiring early (1/2)
March 1st, I mean. Must have May on my mind because M and I have been invited to give talks then, in Munich and Zürich. Feel like I am coming out of hibernation.
Excited to be participating in this event on Sunday, May 1. I’ll be reading excerpts from a noh play I have translated. Looking forward to meeting many experienced Japanese-English translators whose work I admire.
www.humanarts.jp/2026/02/21/j...
#5worksby5authors
New tag. Must be getting close with authors like ENCHI Fumiko 円地文子(1905-1986); ŌE Kenzaburō 大江健三郎 (1935–2023); TSUSHIMA Yūko 津島優子 (1947–2016); MIZUMURA Minae 水村美苗 (b. 1951); MURATA Sayaka 村田沙耶香 (b. 1979). Esp if short stories, novellas, and non-fiction count.
#haveread5worksby5authors
Of more recent Japanese works read in Jp or translation.
ENDŌ Shūsaku 遠藤周作 (1923-1996)
MISHIMA Yukio 三島由紀夫 (1925-1970)
MURAKAMI Haruki 村上春樹 (b. 1949)
TAWADA Yōko 多和田洋子 (b. 1960)
OGAWA Yōko 小川洋子 (b. 1962)
(1/3) and not quite up to 5 novels with many more including…
My take: #haveread5worksby5authors
l have read 5 or more novels by these Japanese novelists in Jp or translation.
NATSUME Sōseki 夏目漱石 (1867-1916); NAGAI Kafū 永井荷風 (1879-1959); TANIZAKI Jun’ichirō 谷崎潤一郎 (1886–1965); KAWABATA Yasunari 川端康成 (1899–1972); DAZAI Osamu 太宰治(1909-1948). (1/2)
Jay Rubin’s _Making Sense of Japanese_. Recommended!
#academichumor abounds in Jay Rubin’s _Making Sense of Japanese_. Very amusing joke in the Preface. Best one so far in the discussion of wa/ga. I should have read this decades ago. 45 years in Japan and still discovering things I get wrong.
@chrisbrockett.bsky.social As a (former?) Kiwi you might be amused to learn that CiNii has given our 能楽 companion a new subtitle:”a comparative study of inclusive approaches within education systems in France and Aotearoa New Zealand”. Oh well, at least there are copies in some 15 libraries.
Final glossary entry defining “taxis” (1) meaning in ancient commentaries on Homer (2) “what narratologists used before Uber.” Liverly 2019: 256.
#academicHumor Enjoyed an unexpected joke in the last glossary entry in _Narratology_ (2019) by classicist Genevieve Liveley, a very lucid account of tangled history of narrative theory. Need to work through more tomes in my #tsundoku collection of #narratology - moments of light relief appreciated!
HLM, I meant. I also miss characters like Aroma, Musk, and many others. (Chen uses the names of the Penguin translation.) find it odd that Chen tries to show some key male characters in a more positive light, while treating key female figures in a more negative way. Xifeng is nicely complex, though.
Baoyu is 19 years old when version opens. Notable characters from HLR are omitted, as are episodes focussed on poetry and drama. Rushes from one crisis to next. Personality traits present in HLR are exaggerated. Complexity reduced in figures like Granny Jia. A pity…
A telling comparison is with HLM’s depiction of Daiyu’s death and Pauline Chen’s account of the same in _The Red Chamber_ where Daiyu dies in abject poverty, cared by a kindly blacksmith. I am struggling to summon the spirit to finish Chen’s very disappointing retelling of the HLM.
Fascinating dismissal!
“Books, museums and languages can ‘delay dementia by five years’” (article in The Times, Feb 12, 2026)
Woke at 5, read in bed, caught 8:37 express and watched a German thriller I’d downloaded—with German subtitles. After seeing my doctor (long chat in Japanese), I decided to take a later train home, spending two hours in a museum. The article mentioned regular exercise so have that covered too!
Very helpful in thinking about what novels to assign for a course I will be teaching from April. So many works to choose from!
Love at the dawn
さむしろにつゆのはかなくおきていなば暁ごとにきえやわたらん
Atop my scanty coverlet
Fall fleeting dewdrops—
When you rise and go,
Every single dawn
I feel I fade away…
Kinkai wakashū 506
#wakapoem #wakapoetry #poem #love #Japan #lovepoem #和歌 #恋 #恋歌
My study, messy but a haven for reading and writing. Was running the screen on the left from a Mac Mini, but newly purchased MacBook Air 13” can be hooked to two external displays.
My study, messy but a haven for reading and writing. Was running the screen on the left from a Mac Mini, but newly purchased MacBook Air 13” can be hooked to two external displays. Ideal for today’s online reading circle of Genji monogatari manuscript.
Thanks! Eric Billington called me today - I went down to Winchester to see him, meeting up with Pete Stretton too (first time to see Pete since 1975). Eric texted me your WhatsApp details. All well with us here. Glad we moved to country (Machiko’s family home). Keep in touch.
In 2025 I made my Goodreads challenge target by reading (or listening to) 60 books. But though it’s handy in some ways, Goodread is also frustrating— ignoring choice of translator or edition . Much of what I do is rereading literary classics in different editions and languages.
Thomas Mann, A New Year’s Greeting to Japan (Ein Neujahrgruß an Japan). December, 1947.
Here’s to another year of reading well.. I’ll be posting some highlights of my 2026 reading here. Seemed appropriate on January 1st to begin with this small but profound essay of 1947.
I can’t see myself ever rereading the volumes of Proust that feature Albertine. This year I reread the first volume and most of the last of Recherche —and as it happens I also reread the first and last volumes of the Penguin 紅楼夢. But only because I was pressed for time! #teamDaiyu
And from this place, no less:
Artificial Intelligence
Tencent Research Institute
Peking University
Computer Science and Mathematical Sciences
WhatsApp: +1 323-xxxxxxxx
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I have received several—all linking to a paper of mine I uploaded to academia dot edu. “While recently reading your academic work, I've developed a keen interest in your "Hearing the bells of Gion Shoja: Transcultural and intralingual translations of Heike monogatari"…
A likely story! 無視 ignore!
Top left shows “first across Uji River” 宇治川先陣 (opening of Heike Monogatari, book 9). The other shows “Kogō” 小督 with Nakakuni (book 6), the subject of the first nō play I translated.
Moved last December from Yokohama to wife’s family home in NE Japan. Renovating, redecorating, recycling…, a busy year. Today finally decided where to hang watercolours by my father and a few old maps and prints. Here are ukiyoe in my “Tale of the Heike” collection. One bought in Paris flea market!
I like your use of the passive!
“it’s official: Jimbocho is the world’s coolest neighbourhood in 2035” - judging by number of non-Japanese tourists, it is increasingly popular.
Paradise for #bibliophiles looking for second-hand books, but “the world’s coolest neighborhood”? Much diversity in the customers in Isseidō, Kitazawa, etc. Restrain self to one purchase to a study on the “world of the Taiheiki”—14th century Japan? A rather different 世界. Cool, hot, or lukewarm.
Snow-capped Mt Fuji with camelia (tsubaki) in bloom. Photo taken from Meiji Gakuin University Yokohama campus, March 21, 2021.
Mt Fuji on a clear day. The view from the Yokohama campus of the university where I taught from 1986-2024. #MountainMonday #BlueSky #MeijiGakuinUniv