Levy explores the ways that unintended and unexpected derailments can produce humor and hope in Meiji era literature.

In 1968 Tatsumi Hijikata, the instigator of the Japanese avant-garde movement form known as butoh, engaged in a collaboration with photographer Eikoh Hosoe. This project, titled Kamaitachi, consisted of a striking set of images created as what Hosoe called a “subjective documentary” of their youth...

How could a man born on a Greek island in 1869 be a household name in Japan today?

A year ago I was flying around India. It's fair to say it turned my head inside out the most it'd been since a trip to Japan about ten years earlier. It's hard to explain the culture shock such trips summon, which is why I found this video of Derek Sivers' 3-minute talk from TED India so welcome.