Tag: Japanese Culture

— EusReads —

Book Review: Japandemonium Illustrated by Toriyama Sekien, translated by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt

September 21, 2020
Japandemonium Illustrated by Toriyama Sekien

My love for folklore should be pretty well-established by now, so I don’t think you’ll be surprised to know that I made a trip to Library@Orchard just to find a copy of Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopiedias of Toriyama Sekien. As with An Introduction to Yokai Culture, I found this by searching “yokai” in the… Read More Book Review: Japandemonium Illustrated by Toriyama Sekien, translated by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt

— Misc —

I met a Geisha online and you can too!

July 5, 2020
Meet Geisha Online Experience

Last Saturday, I met a geisha online!! This would be my second time meeting a geisha (first being the Kimono competition in Kyoto) and my first time meeting a Hakone geisha. As a quick background, Geisha (or Geigi) can be found in the following prefectures [1]: Kyoto : Kamihichiken Geigi (上七軒芸妓)、Gion Koubu Geigi (祇園甲部芸妓)、Gion Higashi Geigi (祇園東芸妓)、Pontochou… Read More I met a Geisha online and you can too!

— EusReads —

Reading in Japanese: Family and Sex in the Middle Ages by Takahashi Hideki (中世の家と性）

February 21, 2020
Family and Sex in the Middle Ages by Takahashi Hideki

This will be, I hope, the start of a new series. One of the things I planned to do more of this year was to read in Japanese, and I had the perfect opportunity when I was given a stack of books for the World of Genji project. It was pretty hard to decide what… Read More Reading in Japanese: Family and Sex in the Middle Ages by Takahashi Hideki (中世の家と性）

— With Love from Japan —

Ikebana Lesson

October 15, 2016

I went for a talk on Ikebana today, and it was hugely instructive. The instructor is from the 草月流 (そうげつりゅう; Sougetsu school) of Ikebana, which is a pretty popular school derived from 池坊 (いけのぼう; Ikenobo School). She was arranging flowers as she talked, and I learnt quite a few things that I thought I’d share… Read More Ikebana Lesson

— With Love from Japan —

My First Kabuki Show!

June 23, 2014

Sometime back, I blogged about 船乗り込み (funanorikomi) and mentioned that I was excited to watch my first Kabuki show. Well, yesterday was the day! Thanks to KUFSA (Kyushu University Foreign Students Association), I got to watch 劇団やまもも (gekidan yamamomo – Yamamomo acting troupe) for free at 那珂川 (Nakagawa). Before the show.  Once we arrived, we we brought to… Read More My First Kabuki Show!