Reviews of KJ

An Anthology of Good Things

I spent a good part of last weekend engrossed in the latest issue of Kyoto Journal. If you are not familiar with Kyoto Journal (shame on you!), it is a strictly non-profit, award-winning quarterly magazine, produced locally, taking as its theme fresh perspectives from Asia… and it’s good. Now I mean good primarily in terms of content, because the word “magazine” hardly does justice to Kyoto Journal’s consistent high quality, to the range of its content and to the sheer joy of reading it. But also let’s pay more attention to that word non-profit. Kyoto Journal has been produced for the last 23 years by an ever expanding community of volunteers. Not one person who contributes to its creation or production does so for profit. The people who make Kyoto Journal (and there are a lot of them) are motivated to do so by a simple desire to make something… good. So, more than a magazine, Kyoto Journal is an anthology of good things made by good people.

Kyoto Journal #73 takes as its theme traditional crafts and their relationship with the natural world. In his foreword, managing editor Ken Rodgers poses vital questions:

…preservation of nature and our craft heritage safeguards our greatest source of richness. So when and how did we begin to forget this? And what can we do now to revitalize this understanding?

... continued

—Michael Lambe (written before joining KJ as PR manager!), Deep Kyoto

"Kyoto Journal is an English-language, non-profit, quarterly publication established in 1986. Its subject matter is not limited to one city as the title may suggest. It reaches far beyond the borders of Japan’s former imperial capital, and aspires to be a gateway to understanding and appreciation of diversity, lifestyles, cultures and societies in all off Asia. Each edition is interdisciplinary in its approach and includes interviews, travel reports, poetry and prose, photo-essays, original illustrations, translations, as well as book and film reviews. They combine to give the reader a holistic point-of-view of selected topics. The journal is a forum for renowned journalists, creative writers, academics, poets and visionary thinkers who offer reflections on current issues that are relevant within Japanese and other Asian contexts....The overall content is refreshingly balanced and free of political opinionating, convoluted critique and academic analysis."

Klemm, Alexander 2009. "Kyoto Journal" Asian Journal of Literature, Culture and Society. Bangkok: Assumption University Press. Vol. 3, No. 01/02, April/October 2009. pp. 139-144. ISSN: 1905-856X

"Every issue of the Kyoto Journal is like a beautiful paperbound book, ninety-six pages of the most beautifully and straightforwardly designed magazine around. It is the unofficial English language rag of expatriate foreigners in Japan, though it tends to cover the whole of Asian culture from nation to nation. It has been around for about two decades, and no writers or artists are ever paid for their contributions, making it one of the most consistently high-quality "open source" publications anywhere, the recipient of countless awards for content and production."

– David Rothenberg
Parabola, May 2009

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Extracts from two online reviews of our Korea special issue:

"Published quarterly by an all-volunteer staff and funded by an academy for calligraphy in Kyoto, Japan, the Kyoto Journal, now 60 issues old, is Asia's preeminent digest for arts and social trends. Most impressive perhaps is that the journal's mostly western editorial team manages a near-total abnegation of the western prerogatives so ubiquitous in English-language print media, offering instead beautiful translations of Korean short fiction, poetry, and photography, interviews with key local culture figures, and articles ranging from protest culture to North Korea's art cult of its despotic leaders. In light of globalization, I believe focusing on local uniqueness is the only proper choice, even though it's so seldom made. In total, the issue offers 106 pages, all riding a special, seldom achieved balance between the serious concerns for the humanities and general readability."

–from David Frazier, of POTS magazine, in Taiwan.

"Kyoto Journal's Korea issue is simply packed with a wealth of always stimulating and intelligent essays, interviews, reviews and features about Korean culture. I especially liked Stephen Epstein's article on the history of South Korea's punk movement ("Punk as a Skunk"), David M. Lenard's great essay on "Korea's Lost Beeper Language" (I know foreigners here who still use beepers, having nothing to do with cellphones), Patricia Donegan's interview with South Korea's greatest living poet, Ko Un, and Donald Kirk's informed deconstruction of South Korea's conflicted national psyche and society. There are also features on North Korea's Kim cult, a history of Korean women's fiction, a typology of South Korean protest culture and, as always, a superb range of photographs artfully presented, from Robert Kowalczyk's B&W images of a bygone Korea to Koo Bohn-chang's vivid and almost pop photos of Korean masks. Other contributors include David A. Mason (author of "Spirit of the Mountains"), Brother Anthony of Taize and film critic Mark Russell of The Hollywood Reporter and Newsweek magazine – all of them locally based writers who know well of what they write."

–from Scott Bergeson, of Bug magazine, in Korea.

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KJ was shortlisted for the 8th consecutive year in the 2004 Utne Independent Press Awards, this time in three categories: General Excellence, Design, and Cultural/Social Coverage. Previous nominations include Art & Design Excellence (award winner, 1998), Local/Regional Coverage, Writing Excellence, Design, General Excellence, and Best Essays.