古今和 — old and new, in harmony. Language taught within its culture, by a scholar who has lived it.
Kokinwa is a one-of-a-kind Japanese language-and-culture clinic — a warm place where you can study the language within its living cultural world, or simply come for the culture itself: the tea bowl, the brush, the monsters, the poems, the drawn worlds. Take a single lecture, a four-session module, or a whole sixteen-session course. Virtual, from anywhere — or in person, at authentic Japanese settings nearby: a tearoom, a studio, a dōjō. It is, in the end, a cultural experience almost no one else on earth is positioned to give.
Each course is sixteen sessions in four modules — take a module à la carte, the full course, or a custom path. Every one is richly illustrated with public-domain masterworks and taught from primary sources.
The world's first novel — Murasaki Shikibu's Heian masterpiece, chapter by chapter.
Waka, renga, and haiku — and a club that writes poems in your language, season by season.
Mono no aware, ma, yūgen, kintsugi — the beauty of impermanence and the imperfect.
From a leaf in the hills of China to the drink that shaped the world.
The tea ceremony as a whole philosophy of presence — taught by a lineage-holder.
Shodō and ink painting — the art of the living line, from a practitioner of 35 years.
Bushidō, the sword, and the samurai soul — carried by a published, lifelong martial artist.
A field guide to the things at the edge of the light — foxes, oni, and the ensouled tool.
The woodblock print — beauties, actors, the Great Wave, and Japonisme.
From the frog scrolls to Tezuka to Ghibli — the art form that drew in the world.
Nō, Bunraku, Kabuki, and Takarazuka — six hundred years of the Japanese stage.
Fifteen hundred years of the Dharma in Japan — Buddhist culture, taught by an expert.
The way of the kami — myth, shrine, and the sacredness of the living world.
The sages and the ethics that quietly shaped the Japanese moral world.
Twelve lessons of original, clean-IP Japanese — language taught within its culture from line one. Practice with native speakers if you wish.
For those with a foundation: read together, watch and translate, and finally use what you know.
Real discussion of current events, in Japanese — for the returning expat, the JET alum, the heritage learner.
The deepest offerings can't be downloaded or faked: a brush moving on paper, a bowl of tea poured with a lifetime's care, a body on the mat, a poem written under the trees. This is the un-copyable heart of the clinic — and it's open to individuals, families, wellness programs, and educational institutions alike.
Put a brush in your own hand — shodō and ink painting, guided by a practitioner of thirty-five years. In person at a proper table, or live online. Tools provided for in-person classes — or bring your own (inexpensive starter sets are easy to find).
Sit for a bowl of tea poured by a lineage-holder, and a living talk on the spirit of the Way — presence, hospitality, a whole philosophy in a single bowl. An intimate tea gathering, offered for individuals, groups, campuses, and wellness programs.
A monthly club that writes haiku in English and Japanese — on composing walks through a park, a forest preserve, or right among people. A returning community, not a one-time class.
Jiu-jitsu-based exercises from a black-belt author (Flow Force), with breath and body work drawn from other traditions — framed for health and calm. A different door into the same culture.
Contemplative, seasonal days in the spirit of the Japanese garden — a walk, a practice, a conversation, then a café session to keep it going. The experience no app can copy.
A hands-on family craft — paint your own monster, umbrella-ghost and all, straight from the thousand-year tradition. Bridges the Yokai lectures to the brush and the table.
The rare thing isn't any one of these — it's all of them in one teacher, each authentic and lived. James Baskind, PhD.
Public-domain masterworks — emaki scrolls, ukiyo-e prints, the night-parade handscrolls — screened softly behind every lecture slide. A sample of the presentations:
Live cohorts and clubs online — the Haiku Club that writes in Japanese or whatever language you prefer, a Genji reading circle, recorded courses to access. Families welcome: learn together, help each other along.
In-person days no app can copy — calligraphy at a proper table, the sensibility of tea, walking tours, seasonal events, in the spirit of the Japanese garden. Virtual reach and in-person roots, each feeding the other.
A custom four-lecture mini-course on whatever you love — a single daimyō, Kwaidan, Japanese gardens, kintsugi, a favorite film. Built to order, yours to keep.
Taught in English worldwide — and available in Japanese, for those who wish to return to their own tradition through a scholar's eyes.
Tell us what you'd love to learn — a course, a module, a single lecture, or something made just for you — and we'll find the right way in.
Inquire about a course →