This piece by Gwynne Dyer is one of the best assessments of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I’ve seen. Far from the standard pap you get from the US media, a fiction foisted on us almost daily in which the persecuted and outnumbered Jews fight bravely against a savage horde of crazed Arabs bent on their singular [...]
The Japanese language is in trouble. The arrival of the Digital Age finds it increasingly at the mercy of the media and the marketplace, each better equipped today than at any other time in history to shape society, culture, and the modern vernacular. The rush towards globalization and eager pursuit of the technological tools that [...]
Yoshida Kaneyoshi was born sometime around the year 1283 into a family of hereditary Shinto diviners. His considerable facility with poetry led to an early position in the Kamakura court, where he served as a steward to Horikawa Tomomori. Later, around 1313 and for reasons unknown, he opted for the life of a Buddhist monk [...]
Ihara Saikaku (1641-93) was born Hirayama Tougo in Osaka to a prosperous merchant family. Little is known about his early life, but his wife died young and his only daughter shortly thereafter. Rather than enter the priesthood as might have been expected under the circumstances, he began traveling extensively and writing. He was recognized initially [...]
The Heian Court: a shimmering world of princes and princesses, courtesans and courtiers, noble men and women that together comprised the yoki hito, or “Good People.” For an age known primarily for its embrace of the arts and other aesthetic pursuits, one might suppose that the predominance of poetry, painting, and song in court life [...]