Michael Watson
@mgwatson.bsky.social
Premodernist. Retired from teaching but not from research (nō drama, medieval Japanese prose writings). Living in Iwaki, Fukushima-ken, after 44 years in Yokohama and Tokyo.
The death of Taira no Shigemori, I believe. There are two famous collection of fans of Heike monogatari. Have seen an exhibition of those in Nezu Museum in Tokyo but would love to see or have a catalogue of these in Berlin. (Hope to visit the museum in late August.) www.europeana.eu/item/2064108...
Erzählung vom Untergang der Taira-Sippe (Heike monogatari)
Europeana
europeana.eu
I've read 64 out of 100 on the list. Higher than I expected. Shameful neglect of East Asia. www.theguardian.com/p/x4f9v5
The 100 best novels of all time
The top 100 novels of all time published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. How many have you read?
theguardian.com
I always have nō chant book (謡本) in front of me when watching a play. I now do the same when attending a Buddhist ceremony to follow the text chanted by the priest. Today’s priest saw that I brought my copy and told me he would read the passages starting on page 6 and 12.
Hóng lóu mèng 紅楼夢 news! Fascinated to see that the handwritten manuscript of David Hawkes’s translation (The Story of the Stone) is available for viewing online. 2,210 pages. Chapeau! www.cuhk.edu.hk/rct/DavidHaw...
Research Centre for Translation @ CUHK
cuhk.edu.hk
Excited to be participating in this event on Sunday, May 1. I’ll be reading excerpts from a noh play I have translated. Looking forward to meeting many experienced Japanese-English translators whose work I admire. www.humanarts.jp/2026/02/21/j...
Japanese Literature in English - Book Readings
March 1st @ 1 PM. Japanese literature in English is booming! We will celebrate with an afternoon of readings hosted by Tsukuba local, translator Ginny Tapley Takemori. Come and meet some of the transl...
humanarts.jp
#5worksby5authors New tag. Must be getting close with authors like ENCHI Fumiko 円地文子(1905-1986); ŌE Kenzaburō 大江健三郎 (1935–2023); TSUSHIMA Yūko 津島優子 (1947–2016); MIZUMURA Minae 水村美苗 (b. 1951); MURATA Sayaka 村田沙耶香 (b. 1979). Esp if short stories, novellas, and non-fiction count.
#haveread5worksby5authors Of more recent Japanese works read in Jp or translation. ENDŌ Shūsaku 遠藤周作 (1923-1996) MISHIMA Yukio 三島由紀夫 (1925-1970) MURAKAMI Haruki 村上春樹 (b. 1949) TAWADA Yōko 多和田洋子 (b. 1960) OGAWA Yōko 小川洋子 (b. 1962) (1/3) and not quite up to 5 novels with many more including…
My take: #haveread5worksby5authors l have read 5 or more novels by these Japanese novelists in Jp or translation. NATSUME Sōseki 夏目漱石 (1867-1916); NAGAI Kafū 永井荷風 (1879-1959); TANIZAKI Jun’ichirō 谷崎潤一郎 (1886–1965); KAWABATA Yasunari 川端康成 (1899–1972); DAZAI Osamu 太宰治(1909-1948). (1/2)
#academichumor abounds in Jay Rubin’s _Making Sense of Japanese_. Very amusing joke in the Preface. Best one so far in the discussion of wa/ga. I should have read this decades ago. 45 years in Japan and still discovering things I get wrong.
#academicHumor Enjoyed an unexpected joke in the last glossary entry in _Narratology_ (2019) by classicist Genevieve Liveley, a very lucid account of tangled history of narrative theory. Need to work through more tomes in my #tsundoku collection of #narratology - moments of light relief appreciated!
Woke at 5, read in bed, caught 8:37 express and watched a German thriller I’d downloaded—with German subtitles. After seeing my doctor (long chat in Japanese), I decided to take a later train home, spending two hours in a museum. The article mentioned regular exercise so have that covered too!
My study, messy but a haven for reading and writing. Was running the screen on the left from a Mac Mini, but newly purchased MacBook Air 13” can be hooked to two external displays. Ideal for today’s online reading circle of Genji monogatari manuscript.
Here’s to another year of reading well.. I’ll be posting some highlights of my 2026 reading here. Seemed appropriate on January 1st to begin with this small but profound essay of 1947.
Moved last December from Yokohama to wife’s family home in NE Japan. Renovating, redecorating, recycling…, a busy year. Today finally decided where to hang watercolours by my father and a few old maps and prints. Here are ukiyoe in my “Tale of the Heike” collection. One bought in Paris flea market!
Paradise for #bibliophiles looking for second-hand books, but “the world’s coolest neighborhood”? Much diversity in the customers in Isseidō, Kitazawa, etc. Restrain self to one purchase to a study on the “world of the Taiheiki”—14th century Japan? A rather different 世界. Cool, hot, or lukewarm.
Mt Fuji on a clear day. The view from the Yokohama campus of the university where I taught from 1986-2024. #MountainMonday #BlueSky #MeijiGakuinUniv
#Stunday Mid-afternoon sun in November. The coast here in Fukushima is protected by a 6m wall that extends from south to north over 50 km. Additional tsunami blocks on the beach to protect the steps up to the wall. Well maintained walking/cycling path on the wall.
I spent a pleasant day looking through an early C17 text in Japanese printed on the Jesuit Mission Press in Nagasaki. Posted about this to Facebook which is now recommending Pope Leo “Xiv” (sic( among “People you may know.” Coincidence?
Great to read the piece on medieval Buddhist fiction by Keller Kimbrough—will be seeing him soon in Zürich for first time in years. Whole issue looks fascinating.
Dr. Kaitlyn Ugoretz@kaitlynugoretz.bsky.social · last yr.The Japanese Journal of Religious Studies @jjrs-nirc.bsky.social ✨50th anniv issue✨ abt past, present, & future of 🇯🇵 religious studies is out! 🙏Paul Swanson, Hayashi Makoto, Kawahashi Noriko, Keller Kimbrough, Emi Foulk Bushelle, @orionklautau.bsky.social @jolyonbt.bsky.social @aikerots.bsky.social
#MountainMonday Mt Bandai, a live volcano. Last erupted in 1888. Visible from different angles on all our local cycle rides. 1,816 m (5,959 ft).
Up early to recycle trash, then spent morning raking leaves. Lunch on porch, nap on same, into town to work in library, editing contributor’s piece for book. The off to “michi no eki” to charge EV. Convenient for cycle ride on the lake! #busyretirement
It’s #kabutumushiKayobi stag beetle Tuesday! Many more this year in our Tōhoku hideaway. @aizuyabanjin.bsky.social You’re my nearest known neighbour on Bluesky. How’s summer bug activity there? Kabuto mushi (“warrior helmet insect”) Trypoxylus dichotomus
@aizuyabanjin.bsky.social local question to you, neighbour. Spending 36th summer up in Aizu-Bandai, I am seeing many more #kabutomushi 🪲甲虫 than ever before. No fewer than five outside our cottage near Mt Bandai. Mortal combat!
Do any of keep old theatre tickets and use them as #bookmarks ? This edition of 源平盛衰記 came out in 1991 which is when we went to Paris and splashed out on good seats to see an opera I had always loved. Great memory.
Peaceful tea-time break tidying my study after four weeks of frenetic research work. What should I read next?
50 years since I finished my undergraduate studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge—and now 675 years since it was founded. Remembering my college contemporaries who died too young: Nick Meadows, Geoff Gardiner, Gerald Denver, Hugh Pooley.
