EXPLORE THE KYOTO JOURNAL
Discover quality writing from Asia in our award-winning magazine. Stimulating interviews and profiles; excerpts of works translated from Asian languages; fiction, poetry and book reviews, as well as a fresh look at the city KJ calls home.
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![MASAKO MASAKO](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/MASAKO-landscape.jpg)
A Princess Ever, an Empress Never?
These days, a woman probably has more prospects of flying to the moon than becoming a titled member of one of the few remaining royal families, whose duties are much less glamorous…
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Icing on the Cake: A Week in the Life of a Tibetan Sand Mandala
Every day, a team of three to four monks, each with a dust mask covering nose and mouth to prevent an accidental breath from destroying their efforts, drew the exquisitely complex image, from memory without the benefit of even a sketch.
![tonofreatureimage tonofreatureimage](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/tonofreatureimage1-landscape.jpg)
Hatching Beauty: Life in Tonoharu
The art illustrating that plot remains exquisite…especially notable are the views Martinson gives us of mundane Japanese life, scenes that any resident will recognize.
![Rovner Rovner](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/Rovner1-630x588-landscape.jpg)
Buddhism and Science
BY RASOUL SORKHABI
The mind is a natural bridge between science and Buddhism, for Buddhism, rather than focusing on a creator god, is based on the awareness and development of the human mind…
![curling curling](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/curling-landscape.jpg)
Curling
i have been a fern unfolding. in a forest of deep slanting shadows, close to the ground with its many tiny scratchings and slitherings, surrounded by the steady rumble and rush of a waterfall, i was a fern.
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Insider Outsider: The Way of the Yakuza
During my first interviews, O-oyabun was particularly eager to talk about ideology: The ‘Way of the Yakuza,’ ‘violating the law’ or ‘doing wrong things.’
![flies flies](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/flies1-1000x753-landscape.jpg)
A Swarm of Japanese Flies
…Flies, like crows, are generally not very well-liked. They are diurnal, but associated with the night and darkness; they are spawned in the heady days of summer but are attracted to the stench of decay…
![*compassionfeature *compassionfeature](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/compassionfeature1-630x377-landscape.jpg)
Clarity, Compassion, Peace
“Haiku mind” is a simple yet profound way of seeing our everyday world and living our lives with the awareness of the moment expressed in haiku — and to therefore hopefully inspire others to live with more clarity, compassion and peace.
![songoftea songoftea](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/songoftea-630x787-landscape.jpg)
Lu T’ung and the Song of Tea
The “Song of Tea” is one of the most beloved poems known by tea-drinkers the world over.
![TheBarter TheBarter](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/TheBarter-630x934-landscape.jpg)
The Barter
The first day we met, he introduced himself with these words: “I am Heinrich, from Bavaria, located in the south of Germany.”
![*setouchifeature *setouchifeature](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/setouchifeature1-630x377-landscape.jpg)
On Genji Monogatari: A Conversation with Setouchi Jakucho
“I started translating The Tale of Genji after turning seventy, though I had well prepared to start for many years by then…”
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Maverick Mushrooms
In Japanese, the general word for mushroom, kinoko, means “child of the tree.” Names of species then reflect specific trees plus the suffix –take (or dake), signifying “mushroom.”
![firefliesfeature firefliesfeature](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/firefliesfeature-landscape.jpg)
Fireflies
When the summer nights begin to resemble a damp wool blanket thrown over our house and the rainy season pounds relentlessly onward, my husband and I like to drive out to a village in the nearby mountains…
![*big-fishfeature *big-fishfeature](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/big-fishfeature-630x377-landscape.jpg)
Big Fish Eat Little Fish
After World War II, philosopher and critic Tsurumi Shunshuke started the highly-respected magazine Shiso no Kagaku (Science of Thought), serving for half a century as its editor and publisher. From the 1950s to the 1970s, he was an outspoken anti-war activist…
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Korean Protest Culture
In Korea, the traditional protest repertoire of marches, sit-ins, stones and Molotov cocktails is evolving; some of the new techniques remain confrontational, even violent. Others rely on technology, subtlety, inner strength and community…
![Chair in Taipei Woods Chair in Taipei Woods](https://kyotojournal2022.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/chair-taipei-woods-landscape.png)
On Chairs
A time-darkened chair of oak, it stood among other chairs of other kinds, empty of all but time and craft, in a warehouse for antiques; a sign said the chair had been made in England a couple of hundred years ago.