Japan and Nature

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2018

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Photographer Mika Ninagawa talks to Christopher Harding about the artificiality of her images of cherry blossoms. A plane crash in the mountains is explored in the new novel Seventeen from Hideo Yokoyama, translated by Louise Heal Kawai. And presenter Anne McElvoy is also joined by Eiko Honda from the University of Oxford and Professor Stephen Dodd from SOAS, the University of London for an exploration of the way nature has been depicted across the decades in Japanese writing and political thought.

Seventeen by Hideo Yokoyama translated by Louise Heal Kawai is out in English now.

Producer: Robyn Read

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:32.1	Hello, I'm Anne McHawoy.
0:34.1	Welcome to BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion programme,
0:39.0	bringing together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate.
0:43.8	If you enjoy what you hear, do subscribe, search for the Arts and Ideas podcast,
0:49.4	wherever you get your podcasts, and while you're there, please do rate and review us.
0:53.8	It'll help other people to find us.
0:56.5	This is the BBC.
0:59.2	Hello, flower power is in the spring air, and here to market an attractive Japanese woman,
1:05.8	peaking sometimes coyly, sometimes with a challenging stare, through boldly blossoming flowers in highly saturated,
1:13.7	almost unreal colour. What's the significance of a series of photographs focusing specifically
1:20.0	on cherry blossoms? We hear later from the renowned Japanese artist, Mi Kna Nagawa, with translator Bethan Jones.
1:32.9	Thinking how we will ultimately leave this world and won't be able to see it anymore.
1:40.4	We won't be able to see nature. We won't be able to see the beauty of the world.
1:44.9	Made me look at everyday life and see something even more beautiful.
1:50.0	With me in studio to discuss Nina Gawa's dazzling images and explore a Japanese way of looking at nature,
1:56.8	are Aiko Honda from the University of Oxford, new generation thinker Christopher Harding from
2:02.0	Edinburgh University, who's recorded a series of the essay broadcasting on Radio 3 this
2:07.3	week as part of the night blossom season and Professor Stephen Dodd from Soas, the Department
2:13.3	of the University of London, which specialises in the study of Asian Africa and Middle East.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.