Japan Books

I am currently a beginning/probational member of Shindo Muso ryu which is one of the warrior traditions of Japan discussed in two different essays in the book. I found the following articles in the book very helpful in my practice of Shindo Muso ryu: "Uchidachi and Shidachi" by Nishioka Tsuneo and "Field Guide to the Classical Japanese Martial Arts" by Meik & Diane Skoss. The first essay deals with a detail discussion of the two roles in all kata of Shindo Muso ryu the uchidachi (who is taking the role of teacher and receiving the technique) and shidachi (who is taking the role of student that is practicing the technique). The second essay has a detail field note about Shindo Muso ryu and lists many important facts about the tradition which is very helpful information to some just beginning to practice. I recommend this book greatly for anyone already training in any of the classical warrior traditions or is just doing research on the subject.

Anyone who is a student of koryu or is interested in the classical martial arts of Japan must read this book. The stories are interesting in their history, but even more fascinating is the human aspect to these stories. Diane Skoss has done an excellent job capturing both the essence of the art and the practitioners who keep these cultural treasures alive.

Diane Skoss has put together another find collection of short articles which give us a list and short history of the martial arts of Japan. Which focus on the schools which teach the sword and jo.

Excellent introduction to unusual arts are still practiced today. Many I was not aware of. So let this series help you build a foundation for those of you that study Japanese martial arts; or are like me just interested in the history of asian martial arts in general.

Well researched, well written and well edited. Skoss has done an outstanding job. Any student of traditional or classical bujutsu/budo will benefit from this excellent study of Koryu.

Thanks Taschen, this book is perfect, the size, the case, the cover!!! beautiful picures, plans and text. That is how a archtecture book is done, in years, people will talk about the sensibility in put Ando's work in a book.
The travel begins in the case, with a familiar pattern of Ando's work, the cover, beautifully taken, and the climax of book presentation is the hardcover, with Ando pattern, perect!
Inside, have everything oh Ando's work, the text, the picures and the plans are superb, but the top os te top is the sketches os his works.

Thanks again Taschen..

the book is amazing... arrived in great condition and amazingly quick... the book was much bigger than what i had in mind though... huge and heavy...

This is the latest monograph on Tadao Ando and despite its steep price, its sheer size alone can justify its value. Although the title states "complete works," the monograph focuses on select projects from the mid-70's to the present (there is however, a list of his complete works in the back with single b/w photos in an index format). Although many of the projects that are featured here can be found in other Ando monographs, the extra large photographs of his projects reveal a new sense of space to projects that we are already familiar with. In addition, this monograph also features preliminary sketches of projects and some photos that have not been published before. New projects that you won't be able to find in his other monographs include the 4x4 house, Ground Zero Project, etc. A great book to have in your collection and so far, the grandest of all of Ando's publications.

www.hjlbookreview.com

A wonderful, large format, book covering all of Ando's significant work into the early 2000's. It is so interesting to see his early work, how clear a path he set for himself in his career and how carefully he has kept on the path.

This book covers in great detail an important, if largely ignored, part of World War II. If you are interested in reading about real spies and how they worked and how they existed I would definitely recommend "Target Tokyo".

Richard Sorge was a spy--pure and simple. I'm not denying that. He worked for Stalin. In the 1930s, Stalin sent him to Tokyo where he became a mole in the German Embassy in Tokyo. The Japanese were onto him from the beginning. It wasn't until he got sloppy that the Tokko, the Japanese secret police arrested him. He was executed in 1944. Near the end, Sorge's spy ring warned Stalin about Hitler's plan to invade the Soviet Union but Stalin refused to listen.

Model research work (61 reference pages) on the ploys of Stalin's master spy Richard Sorge.
Sorge penetrated the highest power circle in Japan and had excellent connections with the Nazi-party through the German Embassy in Tokyo.
Prange proves that Sorge informed Stalin about the German attack against the Soviet-Union (operation Barbarossa) and that Stalin didn't believe him. That Sorge pinpointed the Pearl Harbor attack is for the author a myth.
Sorge got caught by the Japanese when his spy work became careless. He hoped that Moscow would save him through an exchange of prisoners, but his friends let him fall as a burnt spy. He was hanged. Only twenty years later Moscow admitted that he was an agent of the Comintern.
Excellent portrait of Sorge: a desperate soldier of WWI, who saw in communism the salvation of humanity, but also a hard drinker and a compulsive womanizer. The definitie book on Sorge. I agree with one of the rewiewers that this work is essential historical reading about WWII.

This is an excellent account of the Sorge spy ring that operated in Tokyo prior to and during WW II. Richard Sorge was an NKVD agent (predecessor to the KGB) who was sent to find out if Japan was going to attack the USSR.

His mission was a first rate success. He was able to tell Stalin that the Japanese militarists were going to attack to the south, against the East Indies, Philippines, and Australia. They would not attack Russia unless three things happened: the Germans captured Moscow, civil order broke down inside the USSR, and the Japanese Army had a significant force superiority along the Mongolian boder.

As a result of that information, Stalin pulled army divisions out of Siberia, and was able to use them for the counterattack outside Moscow in the Winter of 1941-2. That one piece of information could well have been the key to Hitler's defeat because if Moscow had fallen, the Germans probably would also have taken Stalingrad, and then captured the oil of the Middle East. Remember, the Luftwaffe didn't run out of airplanes; they ran out of fuel.

This book is an essential item for any historian of WW II.

I was introduced to this book during a course that was an overview of Japanese food. I find it to be quite readable, and the photography to be incredibly helpful with the explantions. Some of the information is slightly dated at this point, especially in the sections on sushi and sashimi. This book was so helpful to me, that I gave it to my parents as reading material as they were convinced I would eat nothing but sushi while studying in Japan.

Donald Richie first went to Japan in 1947 as part of the American Occupation Forces. He soon fell in love with Japanese culture and decided to make Japan his home. Richie has lived in Japan for more than fifty years and is best known as the foremost Western critic of Japanese Cinema.

Donald Richie has carved out a niche as the great "explainer" of Japanese culture. "A Taste of Japan" is Richie's attempt to explain Japanese food to a Western Audience. He dedicates chapters to such topics as Sushi, Tonkatsu, Fugu and Tempura. Each chapter tries to explain what each of these foods means to the Japanese. If you are looking for a cook book or an etiquette guide, this book is not for you. The value of this slim and entertaining volume is as guide to food and its relationship to the the Japanese people.

This book is a great introduction to the culture
of eating and drinking in Japan. The colour
photographs are sensational and the text is clear
and well laid out. By reading this book I have
been able to get much greater pleasure from
eating and preparing Japanese food.

A long-time resident of Japan, Donald Richie fondly explores the relationship of Japanese foods to Japanese history and culture in a series of graceful, eminently readable essays. If you want to know how tempura came to Japan, why the Japanese play Russian roulette with fugu (blowfish), or why riceballs are standard picnic fare, this is the book for you. (Note: This book does not contain any recipes.)

As a Japanese language teacher in a Primary school, I have always shared the story of Momotaro with my students who are really fascinated with the oni (demons) and Momotaro's bravery and kindness. I was thrilled to find this new reworking of the traditional story with a female "hero" who was born from a large melon rather than a peach, and sets off to Onigashima to rescue the babies from the oni, accompanied by the dog, pheasant and the monkey, all sustained of course by the famous kibidango. A really enjoyable and fun read-aloud and a good teaching tool for comparing traditional stories with reworkings.

The story of the cute, spunky heroine Uriko-hime who was born from a melon will surely delight children of all ages. It is actually a retelling of the Japanese folktale Momotaro. Judy Sierra's narration is lovely. Tontoko-tontoko--I could hear Uriko-hime's wooden sandals. And Meilo So's illustrations are a real eye-candy.

As a fourth grade teacher, I plan to use this book as an introduction to folklore. It is especially appealing to find a book with an Asian heroine.

My 3-year old loved this book after the first reading. If your child likes belly buttons, he or she will love this book and will soon be running around the house chanting: "Belly Button, Belly Buttons, Tasty Baby Belly Buttons."

Thrump-O-Moto is a wonderful book! I have been reading it since I was old enough to read, yearly at least. An epic storyline, delightful art, and heart warming message. It proves that miracles can happen, but they are never very easy. As a child, it was a children's book about adult things like life, death, and heroism, which is why I love it. Its a pity there aren't more books like this jewel.

This is a beautifully illiustrated and written book for both children and adults. It is touching and inspiring. It brings home the important lesson of never giving up and helping to fight the good fight against an illiness or other evil.
Takes place in Australia and Japan and a fantasy land.
Charming and lovable characters.
Enchanting and inspiring.

I bought this book for my children for Christmas in 1988. It was so beautiful in word and pictures that I bought a second book so that each of the children could have their own book. It's story of the wizard "Thrump O Moto and how he saves Patricia from the evil "Nurk-u the Bad is so delightful. I always wanted to find the address of Steven Spielberg as I felt it would have been a wonderful movie only Spielberg could have writted for the screen.

Clavell's Thrump-O-Moto is nothing short of a literary masterpiece. This fantasy begins with a lazy rural afternoon and leaps across continents and through time warps with a most informal and personal accessibility. The possibilities of friendship, the comparison of cultures, and the thrill of adventure all contribute to create a most fantastic story. The illustrations supplement the flowing text like frosting on an already luscious cake. Clavell's marriage of detail and whimsy make for characters and places with an endearing, enduring reality all their own. Ideal for preschool and young elementary children, Thrump-O-Moto may require a few laptimes for tots with short attention spans; but don't be surprised if when you finally reach the end, you are asked to begin the adventure all over again!

Very nicely designed book and ideal to bring on a trip to Tokyo (I would have preferred it in soft cover though, like a lonely planet pocket).

If you love Tokyo and love toy culture this is a great resource. Old favourites like Tokyu Hands, Parco and Kiddy Land are in here, along with a whole bunch of lesser known beauties. Nice pics of shoppers and merchandise, as well as additional info explaining some of the strange mascots you encounter. Upfront basic information and clean maps means I'll definately be taking this with me next time I go exploring in Tokyo.

amazing book. as someone who lives in tokyo and guides dozens of visitors, both personally and professionally, through this city every year, i promise you that this is one of the best guides i've ever come across. for anyone interested in the design, toy and misc subcultures in and around tokyo, this is a must-have.

This is a MUST have if you are a toy nut and/or visiting Tokyo. I can not begin to relate how difficult this city is to navigate. T-Under cuts throught the language and concrete barriers. Bravo!

Ed

I first checked out this book from our public library, among other books with a Christmas theme. My five-year old daughter loved the story and the pictures, that she asked me to renew it twice. I decided to purchase it for her. We still read it although Christmas has passed. This is the story of a little boy who learns about Christmas (when trees are decorated with lights and ornaments) from his mother who grew up in the Unitied States before coming to Japan where they now live. The illustrations are beautiful, you learn about a number of customs. For example, the connection between oragami and wishes, the food that he little boy eats, that his parents planted a tree to symbolise and as a wish that he lives a long life. They make a snowman, in Japan their snowman has two balls, not three like here in the United States. The book has a timeless quality.

There is a distance in Allen Say books, a calm and separate peace.

Using his beautiful artful pieces with children is always an interesting moment. I read this today with my 1st graders. We are studying Asian works, cultural experience. We are folding paper cranes, making kites. We are trying to articulate the experience of cultures. We are living the experience of growing up figuring out who we are in "this" moment. And so this book suggested its way into my afternoon between a bluegrass band from Alaska with my returning from an AM test rather loopy and the need to have a lovely Friday.

I went looking for a book to speak through which I could convey feeling and thoughts not entirely within my grasp verbally or in written form.

That led me of course to Say. His work unique for children.

This story is beautifully/distantly told (and I'll try hard to capture that here) through his artwork and speaks to a child's ability to take an experience from childhood that shapes him through perhaps a mistake, or a discomfort, a broken request, an intrusion into things unknown and maybe a bit frightening. It reads as an auto-biographic work. It does touch a child's guilt through the commission of a wrong that is translated then into their life as an avoidance, an impression, it symbolizes I think in a concrete way a door being shut.


The child does what the mom has requested he not do, she fears, has always feared, he will drown in a carp pond. He then is drawn to the pond, falls in and lives of course. But immediately he is sick needing her comfort feels her withdrawal. He has physical care but senses an emotional distance. It is a symbol-laden piece. My children sat riveted, utterly riveted. Able to talk to me a great deal about this disappointing a mother with his exploration.
When Say relates the child's impression of his mother's response to his falling in the carp pond, the feeling of disapproval breaks all over you.

Sometimes I think coming out of my work with children, and my own past, sometimes I'm not looking for books about perfect harmony and comfort, compliments and the falseness of the etiquette systems that separate us from truth. Sometimes I am grateful and want to shout my thanks as a roar, or adoring and want the weeks of wagging my tongue on the ground in lapping love, sometimes I'm feeling a dissonance and want the strangeness wearing my hats, sometimes I am wanting to look at artwork by Dali, or the images of Close. Sometimes a Philip Pearlstein with the blue veins of a headless nude draped in a kimono in a rocker looking heavy and liquid is the type of concretization of this internal place I'm in and I want to look for a long while at an ugly thing. Say manages I think to catch a feeling that children do know. They would like I think to examine it a bit.
We know the relationship to other, be it in a mother or in the partner we ultimately are drawn to know better. A space, distance, curtain is drawn to our finding perfect understanding. My girl friend and I were speaking of the receiving of the female the holding and as I felt I understood for a second what becomes a oneness in the two partners male/female in the relationship it rose right out of my mind and fled. Seeking wholeness and unification I am lost in the way. Cannot intellectualize to knowing.
But not necessary to our acceptance. And that I think is important.

In this story the child feels the mother has withdrawn from him in someway from his actions and then time moves this into learning something more of her unexpectedly.
She later that evening folds paper cranes to decorate a Christmas tree. A kind of combining who she was, her-ness with the very different place they are in now. He senses from this there are currents underground in his mother. She is an "otherness."
And she is sharing this with him within this particular context so that it can be known. He has a second of awareness.


Two times in particular in my childhood I recall in the relationship to my mother and several more with my father incidents where the situation almost of my innocence lead me unexpectedly into a territory beyond my ability to process or speak about. Just found out something. And the resultant feeling of being left alone there with that, of being fully alone, a being separate was uncomfortable. But I recall it viscerally. In one particular incident when I learned of my mothers first marriage and her life before me just mildly asking her about a ring in her jewelry, it brought me a sense of disassociation. It is to this Say allows into his work here.

They suggest this is falling out of finding way to address his two-culture gap that certainly would fit here, a Mom of California with Christmas traditions and a life in a traditional Japanese home. This would fit my feelings I think a bit marrying into a very different kind of family, moving across a country, working in very different cultures than my Appalachian one in a South Central or a Salinas Valley Migrant town and then having my children while struggling to interpret "me" to them in these different contexts. My sense of them unable to "know" me and my own struggles with the roles, responsibilities, the carrying of my background, my talents, my feeling of the challenges has been so much like the experience of art. I understand it through art but that was my background.

The audience of an artwork receives within an other, an audience, a "themness." It is not the place that made the work but there may be echoes or ripples in the lake. Sometimes the work made cannot speak through all of these veils. I recently read a long involved review of a painting. Long explanations of the artist's circumstances, life, loves, techniques, developments of style, their historical context, actually the writing was a showpiece of encyclopedic and interpretive writing of a critic. As I read I felt less and less confident, more and more unworthy of looking at this piece, further and further removed from the meanings. With so little knowing to this level I thought perhaps I have no right to look and be with this work at all. I almost lost my stance in front of the work as if falling through the floor. Tilting.
And looking up I thought of myself as I paint and make. Thinking of my own meager work. But still considering the process and the pieces. Would I want all of that life and that evaluative interpretive critical layer really to be known by someone looking at the work? Could that be the way it should be seen? The evolution of my style, my statements or what I am deeply saying? Could anyone know, do I know? Was my making just there because I had no way to speak to things I do not know how to say?

Art is a separation in the talk. It is frozen time, it walks into the evoking of responses in the viewer. But what happens then often surprises me. When I looked again at this piece , about which I read, regaining myself I preferred my set of connections, though I was not hurt or disturbed by the interpreter/critic piece. I just heard something from an artist and it was special to me too. It is that dissonance I always find in Says' stories. It speaks to me very privately and my private feelings we hold alone.


Origami cranes brought me to this book too, expressions of flight, of folding them for the celebrations of the fleeting nature and beauty of a life. I like to make them. I like to touch paper. It is a kind of religion for me.

I just received beautiful gifts donated for my class. The gesture of this very moving to the whole school, or those that know of it, with many aware. It was the loveliest of things to do I'm actually shocked. And I did disassociate really. I connected to the kind of feeling that my children in my class know a teacher that speaks a language they are just learning, experience daily the discomforts of interpreting me, a very different person, the school, the differences from home. They know there is a world, but not yet if it is a town or a country, not really where a friend might be thinking of giving them a gift.
But I watched. They know the concrete joy of playing with the blocks, or setting up the reptile habitat, or the joy of hearing a book. But they grasp fleetingly something more than this. They are able to grasp that I hold something "else" that comes into play as I share these special gifts with them. We sense the things speak other languages to me. I am honored. And in my way these things honor for me the importance of my children.

Like the paper cranes that are folded within this story to decorate the Christmas tree of this child's mother with her distances, the cranes are folded as symbols beautifully dimensional, momentarily alluding to the ideal of the gesture. The flight, the crane as it lifts up and into the sky. A paper to say my heart lifts to you dearly; your kindness is folded into the totality of where I am now, lifting you into the mind's eye.

Or so it is for me.

Say's child senses that his parent is him, yet not him. They have been united; he was inside of her womb and shares their past but that their flights are their own. As soon as we hold the painting to go to something I can use to explain, in the time of our looking, in our flash of insights it escapes us into a kind of flight. Our next meeting, our next experience to be both familiar but also the possibility of a different, refreshed, unknown newness for us.

This child carries sadness from this day and a joy, something felt as his mistake, he could not know playing in the carp pond again without feeling that he would evoke disappointment from his mom. I relate this a bit to my gifting, I would like to be able to share with these friends something that might be worth their kindness, my class being so dear to me I share them as the beautiful and special persons that I hope will live in their world touching the lives of others as positively.
I wish almost with wistfulness that these children could really be known as expressions of the miracle of life, the possibility in life. I had a child last year so dear to me. I look at her photo knowing that I shared her with a friend, writing of her adventures, to try to give something of myself and this place we live within lacking anything else really of worth to ever give.

Ah. Maybe I am not up to the expression in words of Say. He made a book that I find unique in children's literature It asks of us a willingness to be uncomfortable, to be changes, to speak to deep rivers running through us. As we reach the sea a part of the humanity of the life we have experienced a book such as this allows us to say that there is so much we will not know, never explain, that affected us profoundly and moved through us. A part of the water, the river the sea and yet held within the self, our concrete self. A drop. Look at his cover as a child tries to understand who he is.

I loved this book enough to, in pre-Amazon days, put in two special orders (both failed) through Crown Books and finally, after two years, find a children's specialty book store that could get it for me. It is the story of a small boy learning to obey his mother as well as the story of his first Christmas. The book's strength is its astonishing illustrations. The luminous pictures of the family's Japanese home, the small pine tree with the silver origami cranes and candles, and the emotion on the face of the little boy captivate my son, who is not yet two and a half. Even at his age, which is much younger than this book is intended for, he really responds to the poetic text, the relationship between the boy and his mother, his struggle to obey his mother and deal with her disapproval of his misbehavior, and the beauty of the tree of cranes. This is a peaceful and gentle text, and I am grateful that I can finally read my son this story that both helps to build his character and exposes him to the beauty and grace of Japanese form.

This autobiographical story of author Allen Say's discovery of Christmas is gentle and beautiful. As a little boy in Japan, he wasn't supposed to play near the neighbor's carp pond, but he did, and fell in! Mother was a little mad at him, but she was preoccupied with making origami cranes. She put them on a tree that she brought in from the garden, and explained to her puzzled son that this was called a Christmas tree. (She had lived in California as a girl.) The boy asked for and received a Samurai kite as a Christmas gift. He never forgot that day, because it was the first time he learned about Christmas, and he never played in the carp pond again.

This lovely story introduces us to a traditional Japanese family and to a child who experiences two cultures. The illustrations are quite unique and are almost shiny. The simple text is easy to read and children aged 6-8 love this book.

I found My Japanese War Bride to be very enlightening. It shows how the right combination of two people can overcome any adversity and come out stronger. It takes us through Mike and Tsuchino's struggle to go from nothing to being able to have anything they want, and I found myself rooting for them against the military and both their families. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to sit down and just be entertained by two peoples faith and hope.

I found the book to be entertaining and humerous. It brought to mind memories of post-world war II attitudes and bureaucratic obfuscation that will be familiar to anyone who served in the military or worked for the government. Both Mike and Tsuchino come across as likeable, intelligent and determined people.

I enjoyed the book. Very easy read . I learned a few things about bureaucracy in the military that were disturbing.... dare to question and you pay for it, even if you are right.
The author by his life shows how to succeed by hard work , by giving 110% and by being well prepared so when an opportunity arose he was able to jump at it. Tsuchino is his perfect mate; expecting him to so his best always and willing to back him and follow him wherever his path led. A very inspiring love story .

There is little literature available about Japanese War Brides and this book gives an excellent first-person accounting of a husband and wife's strengths and devotion. I read the book in efforts to gain information for research, but found that I could not put it down, not because of my interests, but because it is a true story of overcoming the odds and finding success/happiness in love and marriage!

Michael Forrester has a provided his life story in an easy to follow, chronological manner that gives one a sense of understanding of the time and events. It is real, interesting, humorous and most of all heartwarming! I would suggest this book to all readers.

When I think about a master of quality in Japanese printmaking a few artists immediately come to mind: Hiroshi Yoshida, Paul Jacoulet, and Kawase Hasui. This little paperback book is jam packed full of color woodblock prints,...page after page of an artists masterful works. If you are not fond of landscapes this is not for you, but if you enjoy Japanese printmaking, this book is an absolute must. The simple compositions, the colorful gradations, and the mastery in image, carving and printmaking comes through on every page. GET IT NOW!!!

As art books go, this one gets it just about perfect. 100 of Kawase Hasui's prints, arranged in chronological order and finely reproduced with great care in full color and as large as the book's format will allow (the format being large enough to show off the prints to advantage without being unwieldy to hold and peruse). The text at the beginning by Kendall Brown is informative and helpful in better appreciating the prints, placing them within the context of the larger Shin-Hanga ("New Print") movement of the 20th century and tentatively explicating an aesthetics for this underappreciated art form--derided as it was (and is) by modernist artists and art critics for whom lyrical beauty and sentiment in art are passe and collaboration with engravers and publishers a damning compromise of principle. Brown goes on to focus more specifically on the life of the artist himself, his methods and practices, and his overall artistic development over the years. I especially liked how he was able to address issues of nostalgia, invented tradition, and cultural nationalism in Kawase's works without being reductive, politically trenchant, or dismissive of intrinsic artistic value.

And these prints definitely have the latter. Kawase is a master of evoking the quiet, tranquil moods of dusky twilight and drifting snow, of rainy days and moonlit nights. Both his rural and urban landscapes are imbued with these qualities, and places both famous and anonymous seem to shimmer with moods and resonances of an archetypal Japan you always wanted to visit but found only fleetingly when you actually went there--and in this too there is a subdued hint of something more universal and eternal still. And yet on a more down-to-earth level these are very accessible, nice scenic pictures that look great on calendars, postcards, and computer desktops. Esoteric and humble at the same time. But is it art? Close enough for me, anyway.

One hundred woodblock prints of the 20th-century Japanese artist Hasui are cataloged in bright colors on large pages roughly 9" x 11". Captions for the hundred are grouped following the prints. With annotations which are comments by Hasui on the particular print or informative remarks by Narazaki Munishige, editor of a book on the artist's prints, the captions are instructive. Instructive too are two introductory essays by Kendall H. Brown. The first is on the Japanese cultural sources of Hasui's prints; the second focuses on Hasui's life and art. The succinct text with the appealing pictures of numerous prints offers an ideal introduction to and sampling of the woodblock prints by this outstanding Japanese artist who is regarded as one of the primary artists of the 20th-century Japanese art movement known as "New prints" (Shin-hanga).

My wife and I were very pleased with this book. The commentary was interesting and the numerous photos were of decent quality. A lot better than paying the $400 for the complete book by Brown. A nice book if you like Hasui and are on a normal budget.