Tokyo Junkie: Robert Whiting’s Japan
The government requested gang bosses to dispatch the most “unpleasant-looking” yakuza to the countryside for “spiritual training,”
Remembering 3.11: Faces and Voices of Resilience Part 2
Wanting good strong coffee and whisky and, most of all, jazz of all kinds, at full throttle, now more than ever….
Remembering 3.11: Faces and Voices of Resilience Part 1
Shoko Hashimoto’s face is a map of his life. It radiates intensity, strength, humour and boundless curiosity
Burn On, Joe! A 1960s Manga Icon Lifts Spirits Today
“Old man, I’m begging you… let me carry on… until there’s nothing left of me but white ashes,..”
Peering into 2021: Tanjiro Kamado Battles Big Tech
In the year of the coronavirus, one sixth of the entire Japanese population went to the cinema to watch Demon Slayer,
Mishima in the Twenty First Century
Can you imagine best-selling novelist Haruki Murakami leading a coup attempt against Japanese Prime Minister Suga?
The Return of Yukio Mishima
“It’s not an accident that Don Quixote encounters strange things,” he mused. “It’s caused by his personality… I’m a Don Quixote.”
The Gambler Vs. The Bodybuilder: Shuji Terayama Meets Yukio Mishima
Strangely enough, it is the approach of the iconoclastic Terayama that seems more in tune with traditional Japanese aesthetics
Sayonara, Bondo-san: Sean Connery’s Japan
Bond doesn’t go the full Lafcadio Hearn, but he does “become Japanese”
Harvey Weinstein Dates Princess Mononoke: How Studio Ghibli Went Global
“Why is the Deer God a god? Is that a Japanese thing? Is he a good god or a bad god?”