> There are many beautiful things in Japan,” he told his wife. “Why do they imitate Western things?” The answer, as he well knew, was in order not to be invaded, exploited or treated as “backward.”
> ... the last section, entitled Industrial Danger, contains a clear-eyed warning of the risks of Japan’s headlong rush to modernize.

- http://www.petertasker.asia/books/lafcadio-the-greek-the-man-who-dreamed-japan/
#LafcadioHearn #Japan #industrialization #Westernization #modernization #PeterTasker

> America the illusion, even though it’s there on the map
The orphan child of the faraway Wild West of the past
America the eagle that eats the darkness of death
That stands up with all kinds of utopia on its broad shoulders
It’s time to wake up and sing
Right now
Hey, America
- http://www.petertasker.asia/terayama/hey-america-poem-by-shuji-terayama-abridged/
#poetry #詩 #TerayamaShuji #寺山修司 #AmericaYo #PeterTasker

> Terayama could have simply meant that a backdrop of cherry blossoms would have intensified the drama of Mishima’s act. As theatre men, they would have both appreciated that.
- http://www.petertasker.asia/reflections/the-gambler-vs-the-bodybuilder-shuji-terayama-meets-yukio-mishima/
#PeterTasker on #MishimaYukio , #TerayamaShuji and #seppuku #Timing
in #ErikTheViking the irritating Tunnels(?) actor berated the rowing guys for nevery having committed #harakiri in their lives. Not funny after reading of #OeKenzauboro 's childhood #trauma .

> Adrian Searle of The Guardian explains it like this – “Many people are hungry, I suppose, for some kind of transformative, mystical or even transcendental experience, and one that requires neither fasting nor drugs, let alone months or years of mental and physical preparation.”
- http://www.petertasker.asia/reflections/why-has-the-world-gone-dotty-over-yayoi-kusama-ask-mark-zuckerberg-and-jay-powell/
#PeterTasker #AdrianSearle #YayoiKusama #MichaelPollan #mystical #visionquest #newreligion

> In an open letter to President Richard Nixon, she promised to “lovingly, soothingly adorn your hard masculine body” if he would only agree to “make this world a new Garden of Eden”.
- http://www.petertasker.asia/reflections/why-has-the-world-gone-dotty-over-yayoi-kusama-ask-mark-zuckerberg-and-jay-powell/
#antiwar #YayoiKusama to #Quaker ?? #Nixon #PeterTasker