japan Archives - Andrew Blackman

Reading

Borges Marathon, Part 6: The Uncivil Teacher of Court Etiquette, Kôtsukéno Suké

The theme of honour runs through many of the fictions of Jorge Luis Borges. But why bother retelling such a well-known story if all you’re going to do is reinforce the standard narrative?

Reading

“An Artist of the Floating World” by Kazuo Ishiguro

An elderly, celebrated artist, Masuji Ono, is living in retirement in Japan just after the end of World War Two. His daughter is having trouble in her marriage negotiations for reasons he can’t understand: gradually he realises it’s because he…

Thinking

Hakamada Iwao

In Japan, a prisoner on death row wakes up every morning not knowing if he will be executed that day. The prisoner doesn’t know his execution date until the morning it is to be carried out. His family only finds…