Features
The Don Magazine Features is an archive of writing drawn from across the magazine’s issues — a place to dip in and spend some time. Take a look at the fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews that have defined Don so far. You might revisit a favorite piece or come across something you missed the first time.
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Instructions
When I die, steal my bones
and give some to Ophelia
so she can weave them
through her hands
like ashy-fragile pansies.
HAIKU WORD
What is the WORD on haiku? What should it be outside Japan? Season words? 5-7-5 syllables? Free verse? How about punctuation? There isn’t any in Japanese haiku – but there are kireji (‘cutting words’), which only really translate as punctuation marks – that means there’s more than 17 syllables if you insist on 5-7-5 and use punctuation.
The Law 法
In the beginning was the Thought
The Thought did not become flesh
but became the Word
and in violence made its dwelling among us
初めに念があった
念は肉ではなく
言（こと）となった
暴力に因って（よって）わたしたちの間に宿られた
On Getting The Good Word Out There (And Other Stories)
Back in the day, if you wanted a story to be distributed, you kinda had to tell it, with your mouth or your hands. Then however came the clay tablet; the scroll; the codex; the printing press; the paperback; the publishing house; the PDF. When it comes to the creation and dissemination of written material, what was under the purview of a literate few is now something the individual can achieve on their own with the right knowledge, software, and printer. Or the right notebook even. Whether bestseller or humble zine, the word that has emerged to handle this process, ‘publishing’, is an umbrella term of activities ranging from editing and design to printing and marketing. And it is also so much more.
Footnotes
Introduction to Creative Writing: Fiction
This week, try to write a confrontation story. As always, the story is due three days before the next class, so that your classmate can comment on them. Don’t comment using the documents’ Comments function, but use the footnotes section instead, so that they can be seen directly on the document. The stories are assigned randomly, so leave feedback on a story that you receive. Enjoy writing!
The Writing on The Wall
I pound my fists against the wall and a guttural scream rips from my core. My fingers splay out and scratch down the wall. A choked sob escapes me as I drag myself down—tears and flecks of drywall fall under my nails.
À l’unisson
Mes mots sont sous tes yeux,
Ces mots sont sous tes mains.
Je peins les mots qui s’absentent,
Tu écris ce que je pense.
There’s word
there is word
and meaning
some words
more meanings
Bird/Gate or 鳥(居)
I am living here
perched above you.
Please love me,
though I am only a small sparrow
who dreamed of being a raven
who would quarrel with temple cats
but never win.
In Other Words
advantages of not
knowing too many words
in an order that never
Masked On A Feeling
“I met someone,” she says, picking up the menu. My heart sinks. I watch as her eyes roam through the appetizers, silently trying to catch a feel of her. I wonder, for a moment, if she is waiting for me to ask the next obvious question. If she thinks I’m going to give her that luxury, she’s wrong. I pick up the menu as well. From the corner of my eye, I catch her stealing a glance at me for a brief second.
The Tibetan Mirror
If light, or desire
Can truly be trapped
In mere layers of glass
I saw it in that reflection.
Drawn from a fire in Lhasa
Salvaged in the Bangkok rain
Catching a silent Kyoto winter moon.
A borrowed story louder than my own
I stared far beyond the person it reflected
And declared “This is not who I am
But who I shall be”.
Am I Pretty?
The tale of kuchisake-onna goes something like this: a beautiful woman wearing a surgical mask asks you: “Am I pretty?” If you say no, she kills you with scissors, sometimes with a large knife, or a katana; if you say yes, she takes off the mask, revealing her grossly disfigured mouth and asks again: “Even now?” If you say no, you die…shocking. If you say yes, however, that’s where things get interesting. Some say she kills you anyway because she knows you’re lying. Others say she slashes your mouth so you look just like her. There are ways to escape, however feasible they may be: throw candy at her, say “pomade” three times, confuse her by telling her she’s average then run, or simply say you don’t have time and in true Japanese spirit, she will apologize and let you go on your way.
This morning
I was bit by a lion.
The Water I Wear: Kyoto Summer Skin
Morning has a weight before it has a colour.
I open the glass sliding door and Kyoto summer climbs onto my skin. I drink a glass of ice-cold water and it dresses my hands. The rim leaves a circle on the table and I press my palm into it. I already wear my summer mask.
On the street I carry the small sentences I can hold: ohayō, sumimasen, arigatō gozaimasu. Sometimes the grammar fogs and I bow a little too long. My cheeks bloom a little hotter.
My First Day
It was a hot day, nearly too hot, because my god, it was humid, and I was sick. That awful kind of sick where you aren’t so bad that you can’t get up and do things but so sick that every nerve is alight with fever-like sensitivity. I wanted to grind my fist into my head to stop the pounding, or just give up completely and turn tail.
Speed Dating 合コン
A packed bar
Gorgeous young men
I grab my drink and take my seat
For a dating event,
noone’s talking
Let me just adjust my mask
Interview With An Artist
The art.
You can’t take a picture of this, it’s already gone.
KN: I remember how it all started. In college, you did this project called Deadly Addiction, right? Most of your friends modeled for you, and you asked them to ‘look dead’ wearing glamorous outfits. It was quite a sight! How did you come up with that idea? Or how does one come up with ideas for projects like that?
Future Visionaries in Osaka
Kimono & Chibby wear Mexican wrestler masks. What's that about?
A lot of people ask me that actually. I could just say "it's a look isn't it?" But the look of the characters developed from live masked performances by the Amsterdam band The Doppelgangers. The live costume design started in quite a haphazard way with what was to hand, and was then honed over time. The original masks came from Harajuku, the wig was given to us by a drag queen, Kimono’s dress was from Waterlooplein market in Amsterdam.
A Society You Don’t Need To Mask For
You cannot engage with Japanese culture without encountering some kind of mask. This goes beyond discussions of battling COVID and allergies; be it the 14th or the 21st century, masks are everywhere. Whether for theatre like Noh masks, rituals like fox masks, protective gear (防具) in Kendo, or for fighting the villain of the week as Ultraman does; the variations of masks are numerous, and the roles they hold diverse. Now, this East Asian archipelago has one more to add its collection: the Danbol Mask, styled from the Japanese word for cardboard (段ボール). And the man behind this? Yoshikazu Inoue (井上嘉和).