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POESIE IN YAPONESIA
A note on the title: “Yaponesia” is a term coined by writer Shimao Toshio to designate a subculture previous to and unique from the dominant Yamato culture in Japan.
When I see Tribal poet Nanao Sakaki featured at poetry readings, he is introduced as being from Yaponesia; analogous to Gary Snyder's point of origin, Turtle Island. Poesie Yaponesia also happens to be the name of a bilingual anthology edited by Hillel Wright and myself (Printed Matter Press, 2000). Yaponesian names in my Museletter reports will appear family name first, except for those residing overseas. In this, my first column, I plan to focus on one lead and its relevant movers & makers, and afterwards, under the subtitle “Mignettes,” highlight brief news. It's a pleasure to show what's going on in Japan for readers of Museletter and if you have news to share, bring it on, please.
At night on a white expanse of desert or beach, the body of a woman with the middle and top of an alabaster flower vase as head and bottom as foot-base is floating, pinned by threads across. “Her” elbow is cut by a plate, nicely set. The sky on the horizon is pitch black and at 10 o'clock at the back, a guy who looks like a jock is standing legs apart, creepy. Just in front of her right breast (barely above the sand), a few wrinkled bills and change lay on the deserted beach.
From August 22 to September 24, Tokyoites are lucky to be able to catch “Yamamoto Kansuke: Conveyor of the Impossible,” an exhibit of the the work of the most experimental photographer that I know in Yaponesia, at Tokyo Station Gallery. (Above is my attempt at describing a richly imaginative photo by Yamamoto. Co-curator John Solt said of Yamamoto in a letter to me that he was a “fully formed photographer the way Philip Lamantia was the best surrealist poet in the US (according to Breton) when Lamantia was 15 years old.” The Tokyo Station Gallery will publish a 350-page bilingual catalogue of the exhibit with John's article on Yamamoto (1913-1987) and Surrealism in France and Yaponesia translated into Japanese by Taguchi Tetsuya. Professor Taguchi is a poetry scholar and translator who also edits the bilingual journal which may appease the spirit of Kenneth Rexroth: Electric Rexroth.
Mr. Kaneko, the curator for Ebisu's Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, is co-curating the exhibit with Yamamoto's son, Toshio, as well as Solt-san. John tried to hijack the opening reception for a 20-30 minute happening/performance but he was told that they must follow an official ceremony. (Ugh, bureaucracy and its 'crats!) Though the opening will be straight, several former Vou members such as Shiraishi Kazuko, Takahashi Shohachiro, and Fujitomi Yasuo will be attending. (Remember: Fujitomi appeared in Emmett Williams' Anthology of Concrete Poetry in 1967.)
Referring to Solt's article “Perception/Misperception/Nonperception” for background, Yamamoto was a member, from 1937 to 1978, of the group of experimental poets and artists Vou, run by Kitasono Katue (referred to as Kit Kat by Ezra Pound). Vou was sent to the avant-garde shakers like Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, Henry Miller and James Laughlin. Kansuke himself edited the journal Yoru no funsui (“Night's fountain”) and corresponded with Western surrealists while publishing their artwork and translations of poems.
After only a year, he had to disband the journal because of arrest and persecution by the prewar “Thought Police,” the Special Higher Police (“Tokubetsu koto keisatsu”). Indeed, the photos are highly imaginative, juxtaposing unexpected items to fuse in unexpected ways. Rene Magritte, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamp are evocative of Yamamoto's work at certain times, yet he continually experimented and developed his own unique style. Let this exhibit inform critics, artists and art lovers that Yaponesian Surrealism is not derivative.
John Solt is a veteran at promoting the Yaponesian avant-garde. He was a principal translator of New Directions' English publication Seasons of Sacred Lust with Kenneth Rexroth as editor. He has promoted Vou poets and photographers and Butoh dance practitioners in journals worldwide, just to mention a few of his contributions. Of course John is a well-known scholar of international avant-garde movements and an impressive archivist. Personally his most important works are his translations of Kitasono Katue, Glass Beret (Morgan Press), his study Shredding the Tapestry of Meaning: The Poetry and Poetics of Kitasono Katue (Harvard University Asia Center, 1999), and his current highmoonoon publications produced with style.
In 1998, he produced the video Glass Wind: Kansuke, Kit-Kat and Kazuo which contains the only surviving 8mm films by Yamamoto. The soundless video includes the dance of Ohno Kazuo, co-creator of Butoh. (Occasionally, you can see seer Ira Cohen popping his head up to take a pic!) Also check out Fujitomi Yasuo-san's CD whatnever, with bilingual CD booklet. Fujitomi's prosey works are hilarious, read in crystal clear voice, unassuming yet high up in the cheek. Crescent Moon Blues is a CD by Nishimatsu Fuei, a ji-uta performer. (Ji-uta is music representative of the Edo period combining shamisen and song.) The CD booklet is introduced with lyrics, all translated by Solt with graceful, ahem, generous shunga art throughout. For an unexpurgated shunga surprise, check the underside of the inside cover, turn on the tunes and tune in!
Lastly, there are Solt's Edo-period translations and his festschrift for Japanologist Howard Hibbet, translated by his former students. The chapbooks are lusciously designed by Yamaguchi Kenjiro and Yomogida Yasuhiro. These are limited to 1,000 copies and are printed in Thailand. The sixth volume, Laughs to Banish Sleep, by Anrakuan sakuden, is translated by H. Mack Horton. This volume, according to the translator, is the “progenitor of the genre of humorous stories.” Unexpected snorts here. For example, a man obsessed with linked verse and its lexical categories screams out when someone was pissing next to his house “Who are you coming to a Dwelling Thing in the Nighttime Thing and make a Water-Thing -- are you a Human Thing or an Animal Thing? You should be beaten with a Wood Thing.” Other publications are in Japanese, like a new volume of poetry by Okunari Tatsu, editor of one of the most experimental journals in Yaponesia, gui. Contact the publisher at highmoonoon@hotmail.com.
MIGNETTES: CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS
Editor Dan Veach of Atlanta Review is seeking poetry set in Asia, translations from Asian languages, as well as some fiction and artwork for a special Asian issue and area-specific special issues including Japan. Deadline: December 1, 2001. For more details, query to Mr. Veach at dveach@auctr.edu.
Prolific translator Hiroaki Sato is seeking erotic haiku for an anthology tentatively called In Your Pants. Published haiku are acceptable, but please include their publication history. You may submit up to 10 haiku. If you have a longer haiku sequence, please contact Mr. Sato at hironan@ix.netcom.com before including it in your submission. Deadline: February 28, 2002.
Printed Matter Press is planning an English language anthology of poetry and fiction featuring Tokyo-area (Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba & Kanagawa) English-language literary writers from any and all parts of the world. Tokyorama, Tokyo's International Literary Anthology is to be edited by Hillel Wright & Michael Bishop. The planned publication date is March, 2002. The main source for the anthology will be the reading series, held monthly at What the Dickens Pub in Ebisu, Tokyo. The book will be a perfect-bound paperback, and will include a CD-rom showing performance readings. Other sources for the Printed Matter anthology include the Tokyo Writers Workshop. For more information you can email Hillel Wright at hillelwright@hotmail.com.
MIGNETTES: READINGS
The Ueno Poetrican Jam 2001 will be on August 18, noon to 8:30 pm, at Ueno Park next to the pond. A rich variety of new, younger poets and musicians is expected, including the hugely popular Sandaime Uotake from Osaka and former editor of Wasteland and poet Tani Ikuo. This event is free.
For a comprehensive calendar of readings throughout Japan, mostly at bars and cafes, see the Poetry Calendar Tokyo home page. (It's in Japanese, so you'll need Acrobat.)
Nishimatsu Fuei will help to bring together and perform a variety of art forms at her “Nuances” event in mid-September. Yaponesia's best-known poet Tanikawa Shuntaro will do his poetry thing with the live jazz stylings of Diva. See the next installment of Japan Museletter for details.
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