Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s recent speech in Kyoto

includes an anecdote about Hayao Kawai, the late Jungian-

trained author after whom a new literary prize in Japan–with

Murakami its first recipient–has been named.

(from The Asahi Shimbun site)

Reclusive novelist Haruki Murakami surprised and delighted the audience when he opened up about several topics during his recent speech at Kyoto University. Smiling and cracking jokes, the best-selling author and Nobel Prize contender was in high spirits from start to finish.

Murakami, 64, began his speech by saying, “I do not usually appear in public, but this is a special occasion, so I have emerged like a ‘kappa’ (a water goblin haunting mainly rivers). You may ask why I do not go out in public. I am a person who lives an ordinary life. I take the subway and bus to move around, and I shop at stores in my neighborhood. It would be troublesome if I was often approached on the street as a result of appearing on TV.”

Murakami told a funny anecdote about his daily life.

“Years ago, I went to renew my driver’s license. A staff member at the counter repeatedly called, ‘Haruki Murakami.’ When I went to the counter, the person asked me, ‘You have the same name as that famous novelist, don’t you?’ I answered ‘yes.’ I am like an endangered Iriomote wildcat. I beg you not to come close and touch me.”

The speech and interview, held May 6 at Kyoto University, was titled “Tamashii wo Miru, Tamashii wo Kaku” (Seeing a soul, writing a soul). The event was held to commemorate the establishment of the Kawai Hayao Monogatari-sho, Gakugei-sho (Kawai Hayao story prize and literary prize), in honor of the late psychologist Hayao Kawai.

During the event, Murakami touched on his friendship with Kawai.

“I rarely call someone ‘sensei’ (teacher), but I spontaneously called him Kawai-sensei,” Murakami said.

He also related one of Kawai’s puns: “(Kawai said that) one day the prime minister was late for a Cabinet meeting (when Kawai served as commissioner for cultural affairs). The prime minister apologized to the Cabinet ministers, saying, ‘I am sorry, I am sorry (a pun on ‘sori,’ Japanese for prime minister).’ “

“He was such a thoroughly silly man,” Murakami added.

To continue reading.

November 13, 2012

[Below is an announcement forwarded by JIPS for their

upcoming poetry reading at Osaka University on Nov. 17, 2012.]

****

Japan International Poetry Society

Meeting Saturday November 17, 2012: 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M.

Osaka University, Toyonaka Campus

http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/ja/access/accessmap.html

Directions in English: http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/access/index.html#toyonaka

Gengo Bunka Kenkyu ka Building 7, large meeting room on the 2nd floor: http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/ja/access/toyonaka.html

Admission: free Pre-registration unnecessary

Contact:  Trane DeVore, Osaka University

email trane@lang.osaka-u.ac.jp / traned@gmail.com

Come join us for a friendly poetry reading and discussion. Open to the public.

All are welcome. Languages used will be English and Japanese.  

Information about the scheduled speakers / readers:

Yoko DANNO is the author of several books and chapbooks of English poetry published in Japan and the USA. A collaborative work, a sleeping tiger dreams of manhattan: poetry, photographs and music by Danno, James C. Hopkins & Bernard Stoltz, translated from English, will be published (Mansards, Latvia) in September, 2012. Her English translation of “Songs and Stories of the Kojiki” was published by Ahadada Books (Toronto/Tokyo, 2008).

Trane DeVORE’s work has appeared in Mirage, Crowd, First Intensity, Chain, Salt Hill, 26, The Electronic Poetry Review, Poetry Nippon, and many other venues. He has published two books of poetry  “series/mnemonic” (1999) and “Dust Habit” (2005)  both with Avec Books. He currently lives in Osaka and teaches at Osaka University.

Loren GOODMAN is Associate Professor of Creative Writing and English Literature at Yonsei University/Underwood International College in Seoul, South Korea and Pacific Correspondent for The Best American Poetry Web Blog. He won a Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, selected by W. S. Merwin, for his poetry book “Famous Americans,” and is also the author of the poetry chapbooks “Suppository Writing” and “New Products.”

Jane JORITZ-NAKAGAWA is the author of seven volumes of poetry, most recently “Invisible City” (White Sky Ebooks, USA). Other 2012 publications include two chapbooks with quarter after press (USA), “flux of measure” and “season of flux,” and a poetry broadside, “blank notes,” with Country Valley Press (USA). She currently divides her time between Shizuoka and Nagano prefectures.

Kiyoko OGAWA is a poet, translator and essayist, writing monthly essays on world literature for “Saku.” She has published five English and three Japanese books of poetry, as well as an academic monograph on T.S.Eliot. Her work has been included in anthologies and journals such as “other side river,” “Sunrise from Blue Thunder,” “Prairie Schooner,” and others.

Eric SELLAND’s new poetry chapbook is “Still Lifes.” Translations of poems by Takagai Hiroya and Sekiguchi Ryoko appear in the current issue of “Big Bridge,” and his translation of Wago Ryoichi will appear in a forthcoming issue of “ElevenEleven.”

Goro TAKANO was born in the city of Hiroshima, and is assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Saga University, where he teaches English and Japanese literature. He obtained his M.A. from the University of Tokyo (American Literature), and his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (English/Creative Writing). His first novel, “With One More Step Ahead,” was published in by BlazeVOX (USA) in 2009.

Atsusuke TANAKA works as a high school mathematics teacher in his hometown, Kyoto. In 1991, the prominent poet Makoto Oka identified him in the journal “Yuriika” as a major poetic voice of his generation. Tanaka has published seven volumes of poetry in Japanese, including an ongoing experimental series of poems called “The Wasteless Land” which draws inspiration and quotes from a wide array of sources ranging from pop music to classical Western and Japanese literature.

for 2013 events, please contact Jane Joritz-Nakagawa: janenakagawa at yahoo dot com

November 5, 2012

The Sixth Annual Hiyoshi Poetry Festival, held at Keio University’s

Hiyoshi campus, is upcoming on November 8. Featured poet-readers

include’s this year’s Poetry Kanto contributor Takako Arai, a

wonderful poet, along with acclaimed poets Nomura Kiwao and

Tanaka Yosuke, and award-winning American translator and 

Poetry Kanto contributor Jeffrey Angles.

For schedule details and further information, click here.

November 4, 2012

[This year's Japan Writers Conference is scheduled for November

10 and 11, 2012 at Doshisha Women's University in Kyoto, Japan.

Information below, from the JWC website.]

The 6th Annual Japan Writers Conference, 2012

The Sixth Annual Japan Writers Conference will be in Kyoto this year at the Iwadegawa campus of Doshisha Women’s University.

See the Doshisha Women’s University homepage here.

This is the second time we’ve been there and it is a beautiful place. The dates are November 10 and 11, 2012.

As always, there will be a lot to learn, a lot to talk about, and a lot to take home. Do you wonder what can Facebook and other social media can do for your writing career? Two presentations will look at this issue, along with another on getting a film option for your novel. There will be  presentations on writing for children and young adults, along with a SCBWI gathering. Writing about the military, about Japan, sessions on traditional Japanese form and genre, editing, translation, and two publishing markets actively seeking your work are all part of the program, too. Presenters and participants will come from all over Japan, as well as from Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong. As in the past, this will be this will be a full and lively weekend.

For full details, click here.

2011 Feb.24

2011 Feb.13

Translator, poet, and visiting professor at Tokyo University is giving a talk/poetry reading with the poet Yosuke Tanaka and Emiko Miyashita about translation and contemporary poetry on 2/13 (Sun)

朗読とトーク「言葉の演奏～詩の翻訳と朗読をめぐって～」

■ 田中庸介（詩人）、ジェフリー・アングルス（ 翻訳家）、宮下惠美子（翻訳家）による朗読とトークショーを開催いたします。ぜひご参加ください。
たくさんの方の参加が予想されますので、早めのご予約をおすすめいたします。
お問い合わせ・ご予約は、電話またはEメールにてお願いいたします。
2/13（日） 13：30 開場 14：00 開演
会費　2000円
後援　思潮社

数寄和（すきわ）
TEL　03-3390-1155
Eメール　contact@sukiwa.net

作家略歴
田中庸介

1969年東京に生れ、杉並に育つ。西荻在住。
1989年「ユリイカの新人」としてデビュー。
趣味はピアノと山歩き。
『山が見える日に、』（思潮社）
『スウィートな群青の夢』（未知谷）

ジェフリー・アングルス

米国オハイオ州生まれ。
西ミシガン大学准教授。
2009－10年は京都の国際日本文化研究センターで研究。
2011年1-3月、東京大学比較文学比較文化研究室の客員准教授として来日。
高校生の時、日本に留学して以来、日本文学に魅せられ研究者の道を邁進。
大衆文学から純文学まで、特に現代詩を精力的に英訳。
英訳詩集に、
新井高子訳詩集『Soul Dance』(ミて・プレス、2008)
伊藤比呂美訳詩集『Killing Kanoko』（アクション・ブックス、2009）など
多田智満子訳詩集『Forest of Eyes』(カリフォルニア大学出版部、2010)で2009年度ドナルド・キーン翻訳賞受賞。

宮下惠美子

4歳から6歳までアメリカ、イリノイ州にて過ごし、15歳から17歳までをアフリカ、ガーナ共和国アクラにて過ごす。
同志社大学文学部英文学卒。
1993年に「天為俳句会」主宰・有馬朗人（当時、東大総長）に師事。
「天為俳句会」同人、「晨」(大峯あきら代表)同人、俳人協会幹事、国際俳句交流協会評議員。
1997年より海外の俳句と関わり、アメリカ、イギリス、カナダの俳句大会に参加。
同時に俳句の英訳・和訳を始める。
以後、日本語と英語による朗読・講演などを国内外で行う。

POETRY KANTO is a venue for introducing to readers in Japan and elsewhere exciting contemporary poetry in English, as well as introducing to readers overseas contemporary and 20th century Japanese poetry in English translation.