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mgwatson.bsky.social
Premodernist. Retired from teaching but not from research (nō drama, medieval Japanese prose writings). Moved to Iwaki, Fukushima-ken, after 44 years living in Yokohama and Tokyo. Photos of sea, mountains etc. posted to Pinksky and Instagram (wldnsmkt).
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Pacific coast of south-east Fukushima, Ibaraki prefecture in the distance. Turning around point on one of my regular beach walks.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

自業自得 hell awaits

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

How often do waka poets cover all four seasons in 31 syllables? Hurrah for @wakapoet.bsky.social

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Among my poems on the beginning of winter. 木の葉ちり秋もくれにしかた岡のさびしきもりに冬はきにけり All the leaves have scattered, and Upon autumn night has fallen— To the hillside’s Lonely forest Winter has come. Kinkai wakashū 313 #waka #tanka #poem #wakapoem #winter #winterpoem #和歌 #冬 #冬歌

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Finally published! *A Companion to Nō and Kyōgen Theatre* Editors: Yamanaka Reiko, Monica Bethe, Eike Grossmann, Tom Hare, Diego Pellecchia, and Michael Watson. Leiden: Brill. 2024. 2 vols. Hardback or e-book. For details see link→ groups.google.com/g/pmjs/c/RwP...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

After a day of fiddly proof corrections, there is nothing like a walk on the beach at dusk. #seascape

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

#academics on BlueSky. What results do you get when asking ChatGTP, Gemini, DeepSeek etc. questions like this: “What contributions has [NAME] made to the field of [XYZ] studies?” I also asked in Japanese: [NAME]の研究について教えてください. Very odd reply from DeepSeek about three female Japanese academics. /n

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments

Dawn not yet broken. BBC “Night Tracks” to accompany latest discovery: “Bien. C’est noté. Caractères, romanisation et traduction. Et puis ?” From novel René Leys (1922) by Victor Segalen, “poète, médecin de marine, ethnographe et archéologue.” fr.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Ren%C3%...

submitted 20 days ago • 2 comments

Haiku 2/8 in series “Eight Views of Nakoso” 勿来八景 Title: 湯嶽晴雪 Yunodake no seisetsu「窓晴れてさは間近し雪の尺」mado harete / Sawako majikashi / yuki no shaku. “A foot of snow / window cleared / Mt Sawako is near”: The snow has melted so the hill (aka Yunodake) can be seen. Reference to a Chinese legend …

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

Fascinating. Would like to learn about the problems faced in processing Japanese.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Haiku by Rosen 露沾 (1655-1733) 平潟帰帆 Boats returning to Hirakata harbour 「昆布とりの真帆はいぬめり雲の嶺」konbu tori no / maho wa inumeri / kumo no mine (the boats collecting kelp have returned, it seems— the clouds tower above) #pinkskyPost

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

Looking out to sea at low tide. Nakoso Beach, south-east corner of Fukushima Prefecture. #pinkskyPost

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Mizumura Minae has been well translated by Juliet Winter Carpenter, both her fiction and non-fiction. I respect her as a writer, but can imagine that with her fluent command of English and French and her fierce opposition to English “hegemony” she must be very demanding of potential translators.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Heartening to read a story like this after learning of craven actions at Michigan State University to cancel Lunar Year event.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments