This little Substack column is now two years old.
In this time I have written 110 posts on everything from Sashiko (Japanese embroidery) to Japan’s seventy two Seasons; to themes such as patience and hope. I’ve covered haiku and the zen art of cleaning. I’ve reviewed books and films, recorded meditations and podcasts. Check out the archives for all this and much more.
It’s still a niche little column with just over 300 subscribers, some paid (thank you!). I diligently put time and effort into my writing and recordings to bring you something imperfectly unconventional.
Ginko Walks
I’ve been busy recording a little course for paid subscribers blending my love of haiku with contemplative walking and creativity. This course called Ginko Walks will be available soon. This will be a series of guided walking meditations exploring the art of haiku. I do hope you can join me. A paid subscription is only £4 per month (about the price of a cup of coffee).
Japan Film Festival
In the meantime, don’t miss out on the Japan Film Festival online from June 5 - July 3. All completely free. At the moment I’m in the middle of watching Father of the Milkyway Railroad starring Koji Yakusho (Perfect Days), a family drama depicting the life of nationally-renowned Japanese author Miyazawa Kenji, told from the perspective of his father. The line up also includes Japanese TV dramas. Lots to explore.
What I’m reading
At the moment I’m reading Marie Mitsuki Mockett, Picking Bones from Ash which explores the struggles women face in accepting their talents, and asks what happens when mothers and daughters dare to question the debt owed each other. Fusing imagination and suspense, Marie Mutsuki Mockett builds a lavish world in which characters journey from Buddhist temples to the black market of international antiques in California, as they struggle to understand each other across cultures and generations.
Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s family owns a Buddhist temple 25 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In March 2011, after the earthquake and tsunami, radiation levels prohibited the burial of her Japanese grandfather’s bones. As Japan mourned thousands of people lost in the disaster, Mockett also grieved for her American father, who had died unexpectedly.
Seeking consolation, Mockett is guided by a colorful cast of Zen priests and ordinary Japanese who perform rituals that disturb, haunt, and finally uplift her. Her journey leads her into the radiation zone in an intricate white hazmat suit; to Eiheiji, a school for Zen Buddhist monks; on a visit to a Crab Lady and Fuzzy-Headed Priest’s temple on Mount Doom; and into the “thick dark” of the subterranean labyrinth under Kiyomizu temple, among other twists and turns. From the ecstasy of a cherry blossom festival in the radiation zone to the ghosts inhabiting chopsticks, Mockett writes in Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye of both the earthly and the sublime with extraordinary sensitivity. Her unpretentious and engaging voice makes her the kind of companion a reader wants to stay with wherever she goes, even into the heart of grief itself.
Her latest book The Tree Doctor is out in the UK and also on my reading list. I hope her books will soon be on yours.
What I’m writing
I’ve just finished a writing course with Alexandra Corrin Tachibana on Things Japanese exploring Japanese poetry forms: haiku, tanka, senryu, haibun, zuihitsu. Alex is a wonderful teacher bringing both fantastic contemporary examples of the form and prompts and exercises for us to explore the forms ourselves.
Here’s something I wrote on her course:
Inspired by Victoria Chang
I tell my children
Sometimes you plant a seed
And an unexpected flower blooms
Not the one you hoped for
But prepossessing and fragrant
I tell my children
Sometimes the map is wrong
It was torn, stained or creased
And leads you astray
To uncharted, unknown lands
I tell my children
All about clouds
As if naming things makes them real
When they will evaporate into fine rain
And we are left soaked in truth
If you’d like to try her approach for yourself you could try this forthcoming workshop with The Writing Well.
In this workshop Alex will guide you through the centuries from the magical tanka and zuihitsu of the ladies of the 10th-century court, such as Ono no Komachi and Sei Shonagon, to some incredible female contemporary writers, including Kimiko Hahn and Tamiko Dooley.
The workshop will illuminate different poetical forms and how Japanese cultural concepts might be useful tools for changing our writing mindset and enhancing our poems.
Highly recommended!
About me: I am a western Buddhist in the Triratna tradition and have been practising since 1986. I have a love and admiration for the simplicity and beauty of Japanese culture and aesthetics which appeals to my zen minded being. I am also a mindfulness and movement teacher, writer, and creative health professional.