Michael Watson

Jay Rubin’s _Making Sense of Japanese_. Recommended!

#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.

@chrisbrockett.bsky.social As a (former?) Kiwi you might be amused to learn that CiNii has given our 能楽 companion a new subtitle:”a comparative study of inclusive approaches within education systems in France and Aotearoa New Zealand”. Oh well, at least there are copies in some 15 libraries.

Final glossary entry defining “taxis” (1) meaning in ancient commentaries on Homer (2) “what narratologists used before Uber.” Liverly 2019: 256.

#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!

HLM, I meant. I also miss characters like Aroma, Musk, and many others. (Chen uses the names of the Penguin translation.) find it odd that Chen tries to show some key male characters in a more positive light, while treating key female figures in a more negative way. Xifeng is nicely complex, though.

Baoyu is 19 years old when version opens. Notable characters from HLR are omitted, as are episodes focussed on poetry and drama. Rushes from one crisis to next. Personality traits present in HLR are exaggerated. Complexity reduced in figures like Granny Jia. A pity…

A telling comparison is with HLM’s depiction of Daiyu’s death and Pauline Chen’s account of the same in _The Red Chamber_ where Daiyu dies in abject poverty, cared by a kindly blacksmith. I am struggling to summon the spirit to finish Chen’s very disappointing retelling of the HLM.

Fascinating dismissal!

“Books, museums and languages can ‘delay dementia by five years’” (article in The Times, Feb 12, 2026)

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!

Very helpful in thinking about what novels to assign for a course I will be teaching from April. So many works to choose from!

Love at the dawn

さむしろにつゆのはかなくおきていなば暁ごとにきえやわたらん

Atop my scanty coverlet
Fall fleeting dewdrops—
When you rise and go,
Every single dawn
I feel I fade away…

Kinkai wakashū 506
#wakapoem #wakapoetry #poem #love #Japan #lovepoem #和歌 #恋 #恋歌

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.

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.

Thanks! Eric Billington called me today - I went down to Winchester to see him, meeting up with Pete Stretton too (first time to see Pete since 1975). Eric texted me your WhatsApp details. All well with us here. Glad we moved to country (Machiko’s family home). Keep in touch.

In 2025 I made my Goodreads challenge target by reading (or listening to) 60 books. But though it’s handy in some ways, Goodread is also frustrating— ignoring choice of translator or edition . Much of what I do is rereading literary classics in different editions and languages.

Thomas Mann, A New Year’s Greeting to Japan (Ein Neujahrgruß an Japan). December, 1947.

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.

I can’t see myself ever rereading the volumes of Proust that feature Albertine. This year I reread the first volume and most of the last of Recherche —and as it happens I also reread the first and last volumes of the Penguin 紅楼夢. But only because I was pressed for time! #teamDaiyu

And from this place, no less:

Artificial Intelligence
Tencent Research Institute
Peking University
Computer Science and Mathematical Sciences
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I have received several—all linking to a paper of mine I uploaded to academia dot edu. “While recently reading your academic work, I've developed a keen interest in your "Hearing the bells of Gion Shoja: Transcultural and intralingual translations of Heike monogatari"…

A likely story! 無視　ignore!

Top left shows “first across Uji River” 宇治川先陣 (opening of Heike Monogatari, book 9). The other shows “Kogō” 小督 with Nakakuni (book 6), the subject of the first nō play I translated.

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!

I like your use of the passive!

“it’s official: Jimbocho is the world’s coolest neighbourhood in 2035” - judging by number of non-Japanese tourists, it is increasingly popular.

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.

Snow-capped Mt Fuji with camelia (tsubaki) in bloom. Photo taken from Meiji Gakuin University Yokohama campus, March 21, 2021.

Mt Fuji on a clear day. The view from the Yokohama campus of the university where I taught from 1986-2024. #MountainMonday #BlueSky #MeijiGakuinUniv

Concrete blocks to protect against tsunami. This stretch of the coast in southern Fukushima Prefecture suffered much damage in 2011 earthquake.

#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.

“…while omitting at least one entire class of foreigners.” I’d be interested to know more. The tripartite division already sounds very crude.

Kaki (persimmons)

Golden rod, an invasive species in Japan, but popular with insects. .Solidago altissima. 背高泡立草= セイタカアワダチソウ

More autumn colors

Egret in harvested rice field

Autumn sights enjoyed on my morning walk near home in SE corner of Fukushima Prefecture. #yellow

This is tremendous. Open source file (downloaded). Online version (bookmarked). I immediately looked up your entries to the two texts most relevant to my 軍記 studies. Much more of interest. Pleased to see how many of texts in your Hand-list are now available electronically

Abridged version of Taiheiki printed in Nagasaki, ca. 1610. Note Portuguese permission to publish by “Bishop of Japan”. (British Museum)

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?

And will survive after humans are extinct, I imagine. Enjoyed seeing dragonflies up in Aizu-Bandai this summer but didn’t spot any of the biggest kind we used to see: oniyanma オニヤンマ（鬼蜻蜓、馬大頭、学名：Anotogaster sieboldii Sélys, 1854）

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.

Mt Bandai, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Close-up view from the south.

Mt Bandai, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. View from south-west, showing second (lower) peak.

Mt Bandai, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.View from the south-east over Nagase river

Mt Bandai, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. View from the south, on shore of Lake Inawashiro

#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).

Mt Bandai

Cycle path on Lake Inawashiro

Our foldable bicycles by the fast EV charge point in Inawashiro “michi no eki.”

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