Mutsuo Takahashi

THIS BOOK.

Listen, I needed something a little less the world is ending yesterday, and when I saw this in the stack I knew this was the one and IT WAS.

Okay, so the book starts out with some poems from his first two collections, written in Takahashi's teens and early twenties. Some of them I found intensely charming in a strange way, a few of them I found baffling, and a handful reminded me strongly of Yukio Mishima's Confessions of a Mask in their mixture of homoerotic longing, violence, and Ancient Greek and other Western Classic imagery.

AND THEN WE GET TO THE ODE.

Ode is a thousand-line epic psalm to the male body. Starting with man as a whole, then wandering into some of the modes and forms of the gay community -- the movie house, the bathhouse, before returning to the male form in loving detail, with long sections for the balls, the foreskin, the sperm (just as examples.)

But! We have a thousand lines to do this in! This is no more anatomical description, but metaphor after metaphor, image packed on image packed on scent, idea, sound... It reminded me of Leaves of Grass in in the lists that go on for pages. Embracing an entire spectrum of masculinity from earthy to grisly to stately to tender.

I could go on and on, but it must be experienced to be believed, and I hope this is enough for you to have some idea of whether this book would be for you.

I have never read anything like it.

I loved it.… (meer)

Japanese confections are often a mystery to the western palate. Generally made with bean paste and/or various forms of rice, they are an acquired taste. But it takes very little to acquire an appreciation for their design. Often shaped in the form of a flower or an animal, they reflect the Japanese sensibility to nature and the changing seasons. It is the latter that informs this book. Each two month period has its own section, with gorgeous photographs of the confections that reflect that part of the year. And each season has its "Mount Fuji in Four Seasons", of course. There are confections intended for specific festivals, such as a spool-shaped confection for a festival for women who seek progress in their sewing. There are confections shaped like plums and eggplants and sunflowers.

It's a lovely volume, in Japanese and English, and there is, naturally, a bit of poetry.… (meer)