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  • *** NOTE: Speakers are needed for June 15, August 17, September 21, and November 16, 2026. Please contact Patricia Yarrow at: yarrowp@gmail.com

    NEXT INFORMASIA LECTURE

    Informasia #3, March 16, 2026

    Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6338045613


    The Road to Spring Castle:

    Translation, Kotodama, the Literature of IshimureMichiko

    Vimeo video: Posted March 17, 2026

    Audio: Posted March 17, 2026

    Who

    Bruce Allen is a longtime translator of Japanese toEnglish, and also a regular, along with his nephew from time to time, of the Informasia Zoom sessions. I captured him at our 2025 Informasia Tokyo Holiday party into agreeing to share his pathway as a translator. With my own admittedly basic Nihongo, I am in awe of his ability. Let’s hear his story. In sharp contrast to last month’s presentation about nonverbal dance theater, this is completely oriented around text and reading.


    Abstract

    What do translators have to negotiate? Allen focuses on kotodama (the spirit of words), narrative styles, dialects, first impressions, deeper nuance, the solidary work imbedded in broader context, causes, implications, and more.

    Our Speaker

    https://apjjf.org/authors/view/14935

    Bruce Allen is a recently retired professor in the Department of English Language and Literature atSeisen University, Tokyo, where he taught courses in translation, environmental literature, and comparative literature.

    Publications

    He specializes in the writing of Ishimure Michiko and has translated her novel Lake of Heaven [天湖] (Lexington Books, 2008), her Noh play Shiranui [不知火] (Lexington Books, 2016), and a documentary film about her work, Toward the Paradise of Flowers [花の億土へ] (Fujiwara Shoten Publishing Co., 2014). He translated Ishimure’s historical novel about the Shimabara Rebellion, Hara Castle [春の城, Haru no Shiro].

    He has co-edited and contributed two chapters to a collection of ecocritical essays on Ishimure Michiko’s writing; IshimureMichiko’s Writing in Ecocritical Perspective: Between Sea and Sky (Lexington Books, 2016). He also co-translated a collection of ninety tales from the Konjakumonogatari shu; JapaneseTales from Times Past: Stories of Fantasy and Folklore from the KonjakuMonotatari Shu, (Tuttle, 2015).

    E-mail

    beallen@icloud.com

  • NEWS

    The news is that I am focusing this winter 2026 on mastering this Informasia website.

    Right now, I am combing through the current layout and updating it.

    Once everything is order in a few days, I have arranged to contact the fine Support team at Strikingly, Informasia's web host.

    We will discuss the correct template going forward. A reasonable fee is involved.

    The current template is a long page with sections.

    That must change to individual pages. No more endless scrolling!

    Actually, I am excited to have reached this stage after four years.

    Looks like Informasia has a community and continuity!

    January 26, 2026 /Patricia Yarrow

  • BOOKS

    Books by former Informasia lecturers. Updating goal: Display books in order of Informasia presentations, and information on the publication source. In progress as of August 2025/PY

    Charles De Wolf
    Andrew Fitzsimons - February
    Pierre-Emmanuel Bachelet
    Robert Morton

  • ARTICLES

    George Sioris, "The Silk and the Gold: Correcting the Course of Asian Studies", 2024

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GohZo59InVYEU3E5cPgSw4dg1WU5LxmU/view?usp=sharing

    George Sioris, "The Creation of the World, Martyrdom et.al." 2025

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uzoYGXRpzM5xYEUkhcyKzdrld3EvnCiv/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105775447281122203523&rtpof=true&sd=true

    *Both articles are temporarily stored on Patricia Yarrow's Shared Google Drive.

    There is a way to add the document, which I will attend to soon. August 2025/PY

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  • Contact Us

    Would you like to join Informasia's e-mail list? It is easy and there are just a few notices.

    Every month, there are three short Reminders of the approaching lecture of the month, and a longer follow-up Report shortly after the meeting.

    Any comments and questions are most welcome. This website is very much in progress as of August 2025. /Patricia Yarrow

  • Support Informasia by inviting friends to join our Zoom meetings, always on the third Monday of every month.

    Check us out on Facebook for announcements of the next meeting, as an "Event".

    Informasia Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/307236340460985

    Other Social Media (SMS) under developement. We do have a bluesky account, which is not active yet.

    More thoughts on this soon.

    Any suggestions, most welcome. Please send them to Patricia Yarrow at yarrowp@gmail.com

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  • ABOUT INFORMASIA

    Informasia launch

    May 2020

    Chaos ruled and all compass points were lost in the onslaught of the newly arrived worldwide COVID pandemic. In April, as all university classes moved to Zoom, Patricia Yarrow was gazing blankly from her Ryogoku (Tokyo) veranda. Bereft of meeting companions, academically informative monthly lectures, and friendly discussions, inspiration struck on that spring day. “We could do this on Zoom!”

    A flurry of messaging later, a core group of eight castaways met (safely on Zoom) on 25 May 2020 to toss ideas around. Alex Byrne dreamed up the name “Informasia”, and the vision began coming into focus. Our Informasia ship cast off with an stalwart crew for shores unknown. Since then, our mailing list has grown from 10 to nearly 400. Our Facebook page counts some 280 friends.

    Informasia community

    Thanks to all the friends and colleagues of Informasia in Japan, Asia, Singapore, Maylasia, Australia, New Zealand, throughout the UK and Europe, and the hardy east coast of the USA, our Zoom community, launched June 2020. It has grown steadily ever since. Presentations in 2022 ranged from deeply academic translations of Korea, Japan, China, to research in progress, alarming lockdowns in Shanghai, to tranquil musings on cherry blossoms and ethereal meditations on life between death, with a helping of the foreign politics between China and Japan. If lectures were flowers, our Informasia bouquet would create quite the splashy ikebana display.

    The Informasia logo comes to us from designer Ritsuko Lynch, upon the recommendation of Alex Byrne. She is based in Santa Monica, California, and can be reached at: https://en.99designs.jp/profiles/2313262

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