Michael Watson
@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).
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?
September 5, 2025 at 4:13 PM
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?
#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, a live volcano. Last erupted in 1888. Visible from different angles on all our local cycle rides. 1,816 m (5,959 ft).
July 28, 2025 at 3:18 AM
#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, 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
July 25, 2025 at 9:49 AM
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
Kabuto mushi (“warrior helmet insect”)
Trypoxylus dichotomus
July 22, 2025 at 1:17 AM
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
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!
July 22, 2025 at 12:50 AM
@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.
July 10, 2025 at 9:16 AM
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.
Japanese script cultures
July 10, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Japanese script cultures
Peaceful tea-time break tidying my study after four weeks of frenetic research work. What should I read next?
July 8, 2025 at 7:59 AM
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.
July 7, 2025 at 4:08 AM
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.
Three fruitful hours in the National Diet Library! The electronic printing service worked well for purposes today.
June 5, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Three fruitful hours in the National Diet Library! The electronic printing service worked well for purposes today.
90 minutes browsing second-hand bookshops in Jinbōchō and somehow managed to restrain myself to one book, a bargain at ¥500. Enjoyed myself thoroughly, though.
May 27, 2025 at 6:37 AM
90 minutes browsing second-hand bookshops in Jinbōchō and somehow managed to restrain myself to one book, a bargain at ¥500. Enjoyed myself thoroughly, though.
#TidesOutTuesday
Photo taken on Japan’s Pacific coast a short drive away. Hope to resume our walks there soon. It’s been a tough few months.
Photo taken on Japan’s Pacific coast a short drive away. Hope to resume our walks there soon. It’s been a tough few months.
May 19, 2025 at 8:32 AM
#TidesOutTuesday
Photo taken on Japan’s Pacific coast a short drive away. Hope to resume our walks there soon. It’s been a tough few months.
Photo taken on Japan’s Pacific coast a short drive away. Hope to resume our walks there soon. It’s been a tough few months.
KM (1926-2025) ご冥福をお祈りしま. At her wake today, I shall sing a passage from Zeami’s nō play Taema 当麻 beginning toki nokosu / minori wa kore zo / hito koe zo” 説き遺す、御法はこれぞ一声の、御法はこれぞ一声の、弥陀の教へを頼まずは、末の法、万年々経るまでに、余経の法はよもあらじ。たまたまこの生に浮かまずは、又いつの世を松の戸の、明くれば出でて、暮るるまで、法の場に交じるなり、御法の場に交じるなり。
May 15, 2025 at 5:33 AM
KM (1926-2025) ご冥福をお祈りしま. At her wake today, I shall sing a passage from Zeami’s nō play Taema 当麻 beginning toki nokosu / minori wa kore zo / hito koe zo” 説き遺す、御法はこれぞ一声の、御法はこれぞ一声の、弥陀の教へを頼まずは、末の法、万年々経るまでに、余経の法はよもあらじ。たまたまこの生に浮かまずは、又いつの世を松の戸の、明くれば出でて、暮るるまで、法の場に交じるなり、御法の場に交じるなり。
First word (in red) is ししゃも shishamo, a fish (“smelt”)
May 10, 2025 at 10:00 AM
First word (in red) is ししゃも shishamo, a fish (“smelt”)
Sign warning of poisonous snakes (mamushi) on a blissfully deserted trail above Samegawa (Shark River) in SE Fukushima. We saw two harmless grass snakes on our walk. According to the stone inscription—and a medieval legend—the C12 poet-monk Saigyō came here on pilgrimage.「西行法師巡錫乃地」
May 5, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Sign warning of poisonous snakes (mamushi) on a blissfully deserted trail above Samegawa (Shark River) in SE Fukushima. We saw two harmless grass snakes on our walk. According to the stone inscription—and a medieval legend—the C12 poet-monk Saigyō came here on pilgrimage.「西行法師巡錫乃地」
Here’s a page from Egerton’s translation of the boatmen episode, chapter 47. Vol 2, p. 266
May 4, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Here’s a page from Egerton’s translation of the boatmen episode, chapter 47. Vol 2, p. 266
Here’s vol. 1 of my copy of the Egerton translation. £50 for four vol. set bought from Arthur Probsthain opposite the British Museum if memory serves me right. Have a old one-vol. German translation too somewhere on my shelves. Translation history of prewar German editions is interesting, I see.
May 4, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Here’s vol. 1 of my copy of the Egerton translation. £50 for four vol. set bought from Arthur Probsthain opposite the British Museum if memory serves me right. Have a old one-vol. German translation too somewhere on my shelves. Translation history of prewar German editions is interesting, I see.
Thought I could get a copy for my Chinese literature shelf only to find it listed at over ¥17,000. Lucky you!
May 4, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Thought I could get a copy for my Chinese literature shelf only to find it listed at over ¥17,000. Lucky you!
Seen on today’s walk on coast
March 20, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Seen on today’s walk on coast
Lucky you to have a research assistant who is not judgmental.
March 19, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Lucky you to have a research assistant who is not judgmental.
Some seascapes from the Pacific coast of north-east Japan. I walk on the beaches near my home here several times a week.
March 18, 2025 at 4:10 AM
Some seascapes from the Pacific coast of north-east Japan. I walk on the beaches near my home here several times a week.