16 August 2014: I can't calculate how long it's been since I started on a book of short stories by Miura Shumon. I've just added the longest of the lot, "Disciple." There is one more to go.
24 March 2011: I have started adding some of the earliest short stories of Shiga Naoya. So far his three "maiden stories are up.
3 February 2009: One more story (The Cat)from Miura Shumon, the latest of the Showa authors represented here.
23 November 2008: This summer I returned to the Kojiki Tales (the first of which I uploaded just 10 years ago, according to an earlier entry in this file) and now that job is complete. Translated and proofed, anyway--I have started a .pdf version and will complete that if anyone indicates interest in reading it.
27 October 2008: A few new entries to the 2008 Annual Mormon-L Sonnet Contest have been added. The Kojiki Tales are moving along.
18 September 2008: The first 11 Kojiki Tales have been posted now. The 11th is the story of Yamato Takeru, his violent but productive life and his death from a surfeit of hubris.
9 August 2008: All the Hoshi stories were removed--at the request of his estate--some time ago. On the other hand, I have added a number of "Kojiki Tales" not dealing with Okuninushi. And a year or so ago I showed my grandsons the Studio Ghibli DVD of "Gauche, the Cellist." This summer I got around to translating the story. The animation sticks pretty close to Miyazawa, aside from addition of a love interest and a party scene at the end.
13 June 2004: Three more stories by Shinichi Hoshi. (I met a woman once who was working on biometrics for the intelligence community. The task, she said, was to base access to secrets "not on what you had or what you knew, but who you were." That goal is discussed in "The Big-Headed Robot.")
21 May 2004: Added maybe six more J. Golden Kimball stories, occasioned partly by the passing of his nephew and preserver, James N. Kimball, on 16 May.
28 April 2004: Added a few spring pieces to the poetry page.
13 January 2004: Having retired from the vain pursuit of worldly wealth and glory but not actually being ready for really serious spiritual things, I have added the quilt block designs to the index for the Quilt Stories that are the real focus of this homepage. I acknowlege the stains, but it has been two decades now. Kevin Hobbs should have graduated from college by now. With luck, by the time you see this I will have added the blocks to the stories themselves.
19 October 2003: Divided the Mormon-L Poetry Contest page into separate pages for each contest division. Details on the page.
7 January 2003: After a long hiatus, I have received some new Mormon-L recipes and posted them immediately. Earlier in the fall I added some Hoshi-style Aesop's Fables.
7 October 2002: For some time I have hoped to be able to host the Annual Mormon-L Limerick and Sonnet contest. Unfortunately there have never been any entries. But I put up a page anyway.
21 January 2001: Maryland Online, for all its good points, doesn't provide a CGI counter. So I am using a hit counter from BeSeen.com. The old site is about 20,000 hits now, which may not exceed my wildest dreams, but is still ahead of my expectations. Thanks for visiting.
27 October 2000: The valid version of the site is now located at http://www.mdo.net/users/wabei which differs, at the moment, only by the inclusion of another Golden Kimball story.
15 October 2000: After three happy years in Up Hatherley, the site is moving back to Glen Burnie. Apparently Clara.co.uk will pull the plug at the end of November, so I hope to have the new location going before then. Apologies to any who have bookmarked or linked.
20 September 2000: Another Nezu story, undated but obviously post-Showa.
1 September 2000: A new Showa author, Yoshi Nezu, with a story based on English folklore.
9 December 1999: Added "The Bamboo Boy," another story of kindness rewarded. One could question the value of the reward, but Sankichi didn't.
18 November 1999: Finally edited out a few of the dead links, but I hadn't gotten to the bagpipes section before Netscape crashed on me. It's nearly Thanksgiving-- I wonder if I can get to 9,000 hits by then?
29 October 1999: After several disk crashes, a new computer, and a lot of goofing off, I added a couple of enchilada recipes.
27 November 1998: A little more on J. Golden Kimball, thanks to Jolly Jenn (whose real identity is safe with-- well, from-- me).
17 November 1998: I have begun work on Suzuki Miekichi's Kojiki Monogatari, and posted two stories and Tsubota's explanatory remarks. Incidentally, 51 weeks have gone by since I opened up at this URL, and there have been 3,000 visitors so far. That's hardly a record, but I appreciate visitors and hope they find something of interest. In fact, there are many who come looking for Japanese folk tales, but the most popular items seem to the J. Golden Kimball stories, Gordon's posole recipe and (surprisingly) the Akutagawa essay about women in the modern world.
Where does the time fly when you're not recuperating at home? 19 October 1998: Muroran Shimizugaoka High School put on their play of "Across the Snow." Mr. Mitsui sent me three photos which I have added to the translation of Miyazawa's story. Thanks!
22 July 1998: Added a Miura short story called "The Western Wardrobe."
10 July 1998: Masahiro Mitsui has replaced my copy of Shumon Miura's "Shinwa" (see 5 Sep 1997). What a blessing! I am very grateful. And I'm adding two more folk tales. One has the ugly title "The Snotty-Nosed Kid" and turns out to be a twist on stories like "The Flower Seller and the Dragon Palace." The other is a story of good luck from a gourd.
7 July 1998: Akutagawa's treatment of Wei Sheng's firm resolve, and a story for both the acolyte and yamauba sections of the related stories.
28 Jun3 1998: Another Akutagawa story (The God Agni), but not really the sort of thing I expected from him.
24 June 1998: Since most of my effort this year has been adding translations of stories related to the quilt stories, the menu for them has been getting quite cluttered. Accordingly, I have separated the quilt stories from the related stories. I have also put up three stories regarding ascents to heaven (two are Hagoromo stories; one is completely different).
10 December 1997: Expanded the Quilt Stories by adding half a dozen of stories related to Bunbuku Chagama. The others will get the same treatment-- except as noted, the source of the related stories is Tsubota Joji's Nippon Mukashibanashi. Merry Christmas.
30 November 1997: All the stories are back, plus another Golden Kimball tale I'd been looking for.
27 November 1997: Happily (for me), I have found a new ISP here in England. A largely incorrect welcome page appeared on thanksgiving Day, and by the weekend I hope to have most of the old stuff back up.
15 September 1997: The Quilt Stories are complete. I believe that I'll add a few Tsubota Joji folk tales as related study material though. Incidentally, I think this site will go down in about a week, so read fast.
5 September 1997: Found Gordon's posole recipe and added it to the recipes. Also put Hanasaka Jiji in with the Quilt Stories, and a little story about Golden Kimball stories. On the other hand, I lost the book with my Miura Shumon stories in it. I was studying three over vacation but hadn't written out translations. (Donations are welcome.)
3 August 1997: Included "The Crane Wife" among the Quilt Stories. That's 10 down and 2 to go.
14 July 1997: Added "Myths," the title story from Miura Shumon's short story collection Shinwa. I enjoyed this one. My own father was a research chemist rather than a soldier, but that's not why Yamada seems so familiar to me.
Friday the 13th of June: Another exciting chapter of N's life of crime added to the Hoshi page.
10 June 1997: Added the full version of the Monkey-Crab feud, plus a comment in the quilt stories, plus an Akutagawa sendup of the story in the Akutagawa section.
30 May 1997: Added a footnote to Peter Pan. Realized that no one has been reading the bedtime version of Kaguyahime all this time because I didn't link it to the table of contents. Sorry. Added a temporary version of the Monkey and the Crab to the Quilt Stories.
27 May 1997: Added "Peter Pan", from Miura Shumon's short story collection Shinwa. Any connection between this story and Barry's play is mentioned only in the last paragraph.
17 May 1997: Six more donburi recipes and a few other recipes from Mormon-L
15 May 1997: Added a recipe page and posted the first three donburi recipes.
9 May 1997: Added another Akutagawa translation called "A Strange Story" which, considering the general run of his stuff, is a strange title. It is a frame story, stacked four deep at one point.
2 May 1997: Since the first Kimball story is about marriage, I put up some mormon documents on the subject. I also tried to open up the appearance of the welcome screen-- lots of white space and a few graphics that probably won't slow loading to much. I added a number of links, although with search engines all over the place, I don't know that there's much point to that. (Also started this page, dates of which are sort of approximate, more or less)
February 1997: The number of stories reached 26. Some rude comments about my home town were tacked on. But generally I got tired of translating or distracted by other things (e-mail) or something.
January 1997: The Quilt Stories were found and added, as were some juvenile stories of Akutagawa's. New translations were done of another Miyazawa, some shorter Akutagawa and a number of Hoshi stories. I received some Golden Kimball stories and added them.
Late 1996: The page took shape as an exercise in HTML coding of two lengthy Japanese works-- Taketori Monogatari and Miyazawa's Polano Square. The former was translated for my daughters when they were very young, the latter as they were leaving their teens.
Return to Welcome Page