Geoffrey Bownas

Professor Emeritus of Sheffield University, Writer, Lecturer, Translator

Kept a watchful eye on Japan’s development over the second half of the 20th century

Watching	her people and their mood changes
Talking to and	the local tofu seller & joining his Union
Meeting with	the Kyoto Red Cross Hostel Warden Honda Soichiro, founder of Honda Motors
Working with	Mishima Yukio and creating New Writing in Japan during the last summer of his life Professor Kaizuka Shigeki – master interpreter of ancient China

Among memories of his Japanese Journeys, the author gives a detailed account of his association with Mishima Yukio during the last summer of Mishima’s life, while preparing the Penguin anthology New Writing in Japan, his early years in Kyoto and his experience of living in Tenri city.

He also offers a critical appraisal of the Japanese Aesthetic, documents an extraordinary meeting with Honda Soichiro, and takes a nostalgic journey back to the writing of his many books on Japan, including the Penguin Book of Japanese Verse (with Anthony Thwaite), Japanese Rainmaking and Other Folk Practices and Japan and the New Europe.

Equally, his involvement and input at some of Japan’s key turning points over the last fifty years make fascinating reading, such as the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 when he was the BBC’s interpreter and the New Kansai International Airport in the early 1990s.