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Book Review: ‘Fallout: The Hiroshima cover-up and the reporter who revealed it to the world’

Not particularly just about the nuclear bomb itself the book is more about the covering up of both the immediate and ensuing adverse aftereffects of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima on the city’s inhabitants, the US Government’s and US Military’s propaganda and censorship to play these down, and the subsequent exposé by the WWII journalist, and author, John Hersey.

Book Review: ‘Honoured and Dishonoured Guests: Westerners in Wartime Japan’

For a subject that seems rarely to have been written about this is a welcome publication highlighting (and that is the operative term being used in this review) the experience of foreigners in Japan during WWII albeit in this review with reservations about some of the assertions it makes.

Book Review: ‘Things Remembered and Things Forgotten’ By Kyoko Nakajima

More usually a fan of non-fiction books about Japan it was with some uncertainty that this book was purchased on the back of the author’s reputation alongside a love of Japanese mystery in the vein of Studio Ghibli’s air of other-worldly imagination and incipient magic, and Kwaidan’s and Lafcadio Hearn’s tales of the Japanese supernatural.

‘Tokyo: Art and Photography’ at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

29 July 2021 – 3 January 2022

Ahhh… Edo, Edo, Edo… …city of dreams, and occasional nightmares… …as Kumagai Jiro Naozane in the final part of the Kabuki play ‘Kumagai Jinya’ (Kumagai’s Battle Camp) says about the fragility of human existence “Juroku nen wa hito mukashi, aa, yume da yume da” (Sixteen years, like a day. Ahhh! It’s a dream, a dream). And if any phrase best represents both the negative and positive potentialities that have emerged from the natural and man-made adversities that have afflicted Tokyo and best reflect, at least in the mind of this reviewer, its impermanence, of almost continual destruction and re-construction since its inception as Edo, it is this one.

Japan Stories それぞれの日本

A beautifully written patchwork of stories of contemporary Japan each of which focuses on and mainly revolves around one person with associated minor characters who, though obviously less important than the main character, are still intimately linked to each of the stories.

Book Review: Walking in Circles: Finding Happiness in Lost Japan. A Shikoku Memoir

For the second time in seven years Todd sets off on the 88 temple 1,400 km Pilgrim’s Trail (Shikoku Henro) around the smallest, and possibly least visited by foreign tourists, of Japan’s four principle islands; Shikoku.

Event Review: Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk at the V&A

Until Sunday 25th October 2020

(left to right) kimono bought by Freddy Mercury whilst on tour in Japan, Madonna outfit by Jean-Paul Gautier , Bjork outfit by Alexander McQueen

Corona virus information:

Book ahead to get a time slot and do get there at least 15 – 20 minutes beforehand because of the queues to get into the museum. Entry is via the Sackler Courtyard.

Book Review: Yasuke: The True Story of the Legendary African Samurai

The remarkable life of history’s first foreign-born samurai, and his astonishing journey from Northeast Africa to the heights of Japanese society.

A quite astonishing and meticulously researched biography which isn’t written in an academic style yet is suitable for both the general reader and history buff. Thoroughly engaging it reads like a novel and really does bring Yasuke’s story to life in a way that a purely academic tome could not have done.

In the pre-amble the narrative briefly touches on the aftermath of Akechi Mitsuhide’s overthrow of his liege lord Oda Nobunaga at Honnō-ji Temple in Kyōto and, as one of Nobunaga’s loyal vassals, Yasuke’s involvement. The story, broken down into three sections; ‘Warrior’, ‘Samurai’, and ‘Legend’, then turns in ‘Warrior’ to the arrival in Japan in 1579

Book Review: A Beginners Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations

A particularly idiosyncratic book this may not suit the tastes of some but is certainly one which provokes.

There are many and often inexperienced travellers to Japan who seem to think they understand the country after just one visit. The author and commentator Pico Iyer, who has lived in Japan for more than thirty-two years, seems to ‘beg to differ’. In this enjoyable romp, through a plethora of very varied perspectives from other commentators, philosophers and writers and also from his own experience during his time there, Iyer seems to assert that even after thirty-two years he no more understands

January 2020 Tea Event Minamoto Kitchoan London

Sample some of the best high quality Japanese teas available in the UK!

Venue: Minamoto Kitchoan 44 Piccadilly, London

Date: 25th January 2020

Time: 14.00– 17.00 (Please just pop in anytime during the event hours)

Admission: FREE

Book Review: Tokyo Stories: A Japanese Cookbook

Tokyo Stories is a journey through the boulevards and backstreets of Tokyo via recipes both iconic and unexpected!

Though having published other books (his humorous biographical essays ‘Tune in Tokyo: The Gaijin Dairies’, his own Brixton restaurant cookbook ‘Nanban: Japanese Soul Food’, and other cookbooks of classic and modern Japanese recipes; ‘Vegan JapanEasy’ and ‘JapanEasy’) Tim Anderson first began to impact on the public consciousness in the UK with his appearance on, and winning of, ‘Masterchef’ in 2011. Since then he has gone on to work as a freelance chef, food writer and consultant and is a regular contributor on Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube, the Kitchen Cabinet on Radio 4, and has appeared on various TV programmes such as

Review: 2019 Kabuki Kaomise – the National Theatre of Japan and the Shinbashi Enbujo

PART TWO

The November 2019 performance at the National Theatre of Japan was ‘Koko no Yushi Musume Kagekiyo: Hyuga-Jima’ (孤高勇士嬢景清: (四幕五場) 日向嶋. A Brave and Solitary Warrior Kagekiyo and his Daughter. 4th Act 5th Scene: At Hyuga Island). It was adapted from two Bunraku ‘Kagekiyo pieces’, the puppet plays ‘Daibutsuden Bandai no Ishizuen’ (The Eternal Foundation Stone of the Great Buddha Hall at Todaiji – 大仏殿万代石楚) by Nishizawa Ippu and a later re-working of this called

Review: November 2019 – the Festive Annual Kabuki Kaomise

PART ONE

The start of the Kabuki season, around November each year, is marked by what is referred to as the Kaomise (lit. face showing) performances. This is the time when the pre-eminent actors are seen on stage during performances intended to show off their skills. It has been a very important event in the Kabuki calendar in Edo, Osaka and Kyoto during and since the

October 2019 Tea Tasting Event

Sample some of the best high quality Japanese teas available in the UK!

Venue: Minamoto Kitchoan 44 Piccadilly, London

Date: 26th October 2019

Time: 14.00– 18.30

Admission: FREE

Exhibition Review: ‘Sakubei Yamamoto and the Rich Seams of Japan’s Coal Mining History’

4^th Oct – 15^th November 2019 at the Japanese Embassy in London

It was Monday 30^th July 1973 when, just before 620 am, Colin Burton (a maternal uncle), who had moved from Bolsover Colliery to work at Markham Colliery at Stavely in Derbyshire, stepped off the pit cage having had to ascend back to the surface during the early part of the shift. As he moved away twenty-nine fellow coal miners boarded the double decker pit cage to begin the journey down the shaft to join their shift mates on

The Taste of Chūbu

Where ancient and modern coexist!

Chubu, the most central region of the main island of Honshū (Chūbu means central), is made up of nine prefectures; Aichi, Fukui, Gifu, Ishikawa, Nagano, Niigata, Shizuoka, Toyama and Yamanashi. At the region’s centre lie the Japanese Alps, made up by the Northern Hida, the central Kiso and the southern Akaishi mountains.

The region offers an extensive range of attractions to visitors, both domestic and foreign including gardens, castles and temples; the tradition and culture of geisha, traditional costume, samurai, festivals, events and fireworks; wellness through

August 2019 Tea Tasting Event

Sample some of the best high quality Japanese teas available in the UK!

Venue: Minamoto Kitchoan 44 Piccadilly, London

Date: 31st August 2019

Time: 14.00– 17.00

Admission: FREE

Review: ‘Manga マンガ’at the British Museum 23 May – 26 August 2019

Dedicated to the victims of the Kyoto Animation fire in Uji City!

Belonging to Kōzan-ji temple in Kyōto the Japanese National Treasures the eight ‘Scrolls of Frolicking Animals’ and the ‘Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans’ called ‘Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga’ (animal-person caricatures) were painted between the 12^th and 13^th centuries by, it is thought, the artist-monk Toba Sōjō. They are credited by many as the earliest form of manga.

Fast forward nearly a thousand years and the Citi Exhibition ‘Manga マンガ’ at the British Museum (supported by CITI with logistics partner IAGCargo) is touted as the biggest