Japan Books

I've long been interested in the Japanese approach to design of all sorts, but especially architecture. Coming from a much different tradition, the solutions to problems and needs for shelter are often very different than those arrived at by architects with Euro-American tastes and training. Some of the examples depicted so beautifully and discussed so shrewdly in this volume are rooted strongly in Japan's history, such as an old farmhouse relocated to Tokyo and fitted into an urban neighborhood. Others are playful, like the house with a lawn on the peaked roof, watered by a sprinkler system on the ridgepole, and with the courtyard floored in clay roof tiles. There's a two-story "miniature" house with a footprint not much larger than two parking spaces, but which still manages to be a very comfortable environment for actually living in. And, naturally, there are structures *so* experimental, you might not realize they were houses if you weren't told. There are homes in this collection I would love to live in, and others that would probably give me nightmares, but all of them are fascinating.

This book is filled with page after page of stunning rooms and living spaces in Japan. A must for anyone who believes all Japanese live in cramped, dark, unattractive homes. An excellent conversation starter and coffee table book.

This book provides total eye candy for design enthusiasts. Not your typical formulaic shoji screen stuff. Very original solutions to design problems from a Japanese perspective. I find it very inspiring and look at it all the time.

A specialist in Japanese politics and military affairs, Peter Woolley understands the current and growing importance of Japan's Navy, the most powerful navy, besides that of the US, operating in the Pacific. Woolley has in turn written a valuable study of Japan's Navy and the political processes that continue to refine its role. Woolley comments that while many in the US brush aside Japan as being economic competitors and little else, the Japanese Self Defense Forces "...are the greatest complement to the US force structure in the pacific," and he sees their role growing as Japan becomes more willing to participate in UN operations and humanitarian interventions throughout Asia. The US demonstrated during the crisis in E. Timor that it is not always willing to use its arms and treasure to resolve Asian troubles. Here Woolley sees Japan becoming the US' regional surrogate. Japan's Navy : Politics and Paradox is a valuable asset that belongs in the library of any student of Asian or international politics.

Peter Woolley's new book is brief,, accessible, packed with information, and provocative. It effectively corrects many of the all-too-common misconceptions about Japan's contribution to Western defenses during the Cold War, and after. It will be a valuable resource not only for those concerned with Japanese security questions, but also for the very large audience interested in the emerging power configuration in the increasingly vital Pacific Basin.

In the 1980's when Japan's economy was hot, it was fashionable for Americans to worry about Japan becoming the next superpower and, at the same time, critisize Japan for not spending enough on defense. What was the bizarre logic? Perhaps it was that Japan should spend generously on defense and thereby undermine its prosperity. More likely the idea was that Japan was getting a free ride in defense matters and should pony up. But who really WANTED Japan to spend more on its armed forces?

Woolley's book examines Japan's defense policies from the early 1970's through the present and puts Japan's defense policies in some reasonable perspective: that Japan contributed greatly to Western defense, to the Cold War, and to peace in the Pacific while laboring under extremely delicate political conditions at home. These constraints--legal, popular, and even international--forced defense to be a low-profile issue with low-profile policies. But that low-profile did not make Japan's defense any less important.

Japan's best defense investments went into the lowest profile of service: the navy. The warships went off to the vast expanse of the Pacific blue for ops and, what's more, could practice their trade in the shadow of the US Navy.

Today, the Soviet Navy has rusted and China's navy is at least 20 years behind in technology. But Japan's navy is still the highly useful, dependable and low-profile partner of the United States. (Ask anyone who is worried about the mysterious North Korean government or the unending spat between the PRC and Taiwan.)

And now, with the Cold War over and Japan's economy apparently much less threatening to the rest of the world (except if it goes in the tank), Japan has been able to raise its defense profile, beginning to contribute now to UN operations. While these contributions have not attracted much attention--or much praise, Japan has nonetheless been able to send troops abroad, using the navy, army, and airforce.

Of course, still no one refers to these organizations as army, airforce or navy. They are "self defense forces." So be it.

For the average reader, the first chapter, a "primer" on Japanese politics will be most useful. Japan is too often compared to the United States rather than to the whole range of modern democracies.

For the more attentive reader, chapters on sealane defense and UN operations will be informative and sometimes amusing. Woolley has a way of subtly mocking pop-critisism of Japan.

For the nitty-gritty naval buff, however, there might be little here. Woolley is much more focused on the political than on the nuts an bolts of naval ops.

It is certainly recommended for any library on Japan, recent international relations, or US military relations.

For those who are familiar with his "Max Danger" series of books, this is somewhat of a departure, but still with all the humor and light-heartedness of those books. In a way that is never heavy or overly serious, Bob Collins clearly and correctly highlights the differences in Japanese and American culture and society. The book is a quick read, that will often have your laughing out loud, but at the end, you will have learned a lot, especially if you are unfamiliar with the Japanese.

This book was great. It was one of the funniest books I've ever read and it gave a lot of important information. It really helps you *understand* the Japanese, as opposed to just hearing some information. It gives you examples of contrast between Americans and the Japanese. Anyone interested in Japan should read this book. Absoloutely beautiful.

The depth makes it more of a primer than a heavy duty text, but it is so very good at that job that I would recommend it as a basic read for ANYONE involved in dealing with Japanese corporations or relationships. It tells you frankly and easily just what background gives the Japanese view on life. And understanding where someone "comes from" makes so many things easier to understand.

I have passed this book to countless people I know it's readable quickly and yet you'll use it as a reference for years to come.

Extremely recommended!

Very-well written and reliable book about Japanese business etiquette

Diana Rowland has written the classic guide to Japanese business etiquette and to the impact of Japanese culture on business and social interaction. Extremely thorough and fascinating, this guide covers all the traditions you need to understand to do business with the Japanese, in Japan or around the world. A good read even if you are just culturally curious, the book includes Japanese office layouts, diagrams showing where business guests should sit around the dinner table, and information on interpreting gestures at business meetings. Rowland covers the business and social roles of women and the difference between the real truth and the public truth. The book's final 50 pages provide a wide range of helpful, general resources, including important phone numbers and a glossary. We from getAbstract recommend this book to anyone doing business with the Japanese, anyone who plans to visit Japan for business or pleasure, and anyone who's just curious.

I often deal with the Japanese in the satellite business, and this is my primary refresher reference that I use and provide to my associates prior to each project in Japan

Stephen Turnbull's JAPANESE CASTLES IN KOREA 1592-98 is a pick not just for military libraries but for any specializing in early Asian history. The focus on Japanese-built castles and Korean fortifications follows the design and use of key fortresses and joins the publishers' 'Fortress' history series.

I travel for a living and love these books. Easy packing, entertaining airport reads and educational. I have purchased many and will continue to do so.

Stephen Turnbull's Japanese Castles in Korea is definitely one of these weird unknown subject matter that is worthy of Osprey's Fortress Series. In this short book, Turnbull managed to give a pretty good summary account of history of Japanese castles that were built during Hideyoshi's Korean invasion between the years 1592 to 1598. The book explained how these castles were built initially to support the invasion, support the supply lines, to control and policed the area around it and finally to support the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Korea after Hideyoshi's death.

Stephen Turnbull managed to do all this in this short book with clarity and understanding that don't bogged the reader down. Turnbull also stated that Japanese castle designs at that time proves to be quite capable of withstanding the might of the Ming armies from China. From what I understand, lack of artillery consideration appears to be the major weakness of the Japanese military when defending their castles. Still, three major sieges of Japanese castles in Korea all ended with Japanese victories. And according to the author, the Japanese forces also adapted Korean cannons to their defensive lines as well.

Interestingly, the author also spent few paragraphs describing how these castles were built and the hardships of the impressed Japanese peasants and Korean workers forced to worked on these fortresses. Brief outline of the war in Korea was given but the readers would have to wait for the Turnbull's Campaign series (Samurai Invasion of Korea 1592-1598) book coming out in July 2008 on the subject to get greater details or read a book already published by him on the subject (Samurai Invasion) that came out in 2004.

Like all Osprey books, this book come well illustrated with very useful drawings and illustrations of these Japanese castles and their designs. Turnbull also inserted many black and white photos of the remains of these Japanese castles, mostly only their stone base remains while using castle parts from Japan to illustrated what they could have look like in Korea as well.

Overall, this book covers a subject that is beyond the common knowledge of most people in the English speaking world and despite of the shortness of the book, I found this book to be utterly interesting in terms of information given.

Beasley is really trying to say something to the academic world about imperialism but one would hardly notice it in a book which gives a careful overview of the history of Japanese imperialism in Asia. He covers most of the main issues objectively and interestingly, especially when it comes to setting up the background in which Japanese imperialsim developed.

Beasley does a superb job of explaining the multi-faceted nature of Japanese modernization and empire-buliding from the Meji Restoration to the Pacific War. He discusses the creation of an intellectual justification for expansion as the liberation of asian peoples from european colonialism, while exploring the changes in the Japanese elite's perceptions of its political goals, economic exploitation, and national security requirements. Neither an apology for not a treatise against this phenomenon, the author focuses on some much neglected issues while not being distracted by dwelling on Japanese "culture" as an explanation for everything.

There's more to this book than its title might suggest. In little more than 250 pages, Beasley has managed a remarkably clear overview of the development of Japan's entire external policy from the beginning of the 19th century to the end of the Second World War. In the process, he pays careful attention to the internal political and economic dynamics that propelled policy, and thus lays out a great deal of the story of the development of modern Japan up through 1945. While always making his own views (and the bases for them) quite clear, he gives alternative interpretations their due. Although more recent work has extended the story in certain respects (e.g., Frederick R. Dickinson's fine War and National Reinvention), Beasley's work still stands the test of time. Remarkably, for a so brief a book treating so broad a topic, Beasley manages to organize and present his story in a way that should be easy to follow even for those who do not have much background in Japanese history. An especially good book, strongly recommended.

Oliver Statler's Japanese Pilgrimage is a delight. Retracing the steps of generations of past pilgrims, he brings their stories to life and evokes a gentle reflective mood for the reader. As well, modern Japan is brought into focus through his appreciation of the links between tradition, Buddhism and Shinto and contemporary culture. A really delightful read, and a good "travellers tale" that will be enjoyed by those who have or are planning to visit Japan.

This book tells the story of an American man who makes a famous pilgrimage around the island of Shikoku with his Japanese friend.
Having lived/studied in Zentsuji Shikoku for a year, (the home of Kobo Daishi the monk who created the pilgrims trail) I can vouch for the books authenticity.

It is a tale about the 88 temples along the way, the political intrigues, secret love affairs between villgers and pilgrims and the stories of despair and pain. Oliver weaves a beautiful web between the past history which he quotes and the present conditions of the modern pilgrims and village people he meets along the way. It is not only a book about Japanese culture accurately and sensitively crafted but the spiritual journey of the author also and his struggle with his inner darkness. Its a great read.

Each temple along the way has a personality and a shadow and the pilgrim connects the stories of the past with his present journey as he interviews the local people and describes their various characteristics. The journey traverses various provinces from Kagawa to Kochi where the various people display unique attitudes towards the pilgrims varying between open hostility to hospitality.

It is a good book to realize the complexity of Japanese culture and to appreciate the beauty of this amazing island of sea, temples and mountains. Oliver is truly an amazing oriental observer with the spirit of zen in each page. He writes honestly, openly and without pretention.

They just don't make books like this anymore! This is a wonderfully rambling, lyrical, impressionistic portrait of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, anecdotal and episodic and yet gradually unfolding according to an underlying narrative plan. It's accessible and simply written and yet well-researched, informative, and highly evocative of Japanese religiosity as it functions in real life. At times it's intensely personal, based as it is on the author's own pilgrimage experiences (mainly a complete walking circuit of the eighty-eight temples accomplished with a friend in 1971), and yet at other times it's intriguingly biographical concerning monks and pilgrims prominent in the pilgrimage's long history. The author's fervent enthusiasm and deep esteem for this religious phenomenon and its underlying spirituality overflows on every page, and yet he's quite realistic and straightforward about some of the shadier and unsavory aspects of the pilgrimage. Finally, the icing on the cake, the book is profusely illustrated with fine woodcuts and paintings both premodern and modern, once again proving the principle that a picture's worth a thousand words.

The book is divided into three sections, and with each section the reader gets closer and closer to lived religion in Japan. In the first part Statler concentrates on outlining the historical personage of Kukai (later known honorifically as Kobo Daishi), the 8th/9th-century monk and founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism in Japan upon whom the pilgrimage is focused. In the second part Statler attempts to portray how layers and layers of legend and belief enlarged and eventually apotheosized Kobo Daishi and of how faith in him as a divine savior was spread among the populace by wandering, itinerant holy men (many pious if unlearned, some inevitably charlatans). Finally, in the third section the pilgrimage itself comes into sharper focus, including discussions with current pilgrims and priests along with accounts of many past pilgrims such as the Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danzo VIII, the feminist writer Takamure Itsue, the Chicago anthropologist Frederick Starr, and the haiku poet Masaoka Shiki, to name only a few. And of course all three sections are permeated with legends, folk stories, anecdotes, and miracle tales that are fantastic or even bizarre--and that capture the mood and feel of the pilgrimage perfectly in all its ambiguity.

Just a word of warning, though, this is not a guidebook. Statler does not describe every single one of the eighty-eight temples*, and for those temples he does describe he skips around a lot and backtracks now and then with no attempt at going along in their order on the pilgrimage route. And there is absolutely no concrete information on travel and accommodations or the like, so don't count on this book for such purposes. Instead, allow this book to get you into the spirit of the pilgrimage, whether you really intend on actually performing it or not, in fact. Indeed, you don't need to know a thing about Japan to follow and enjoy this fine account, and yet those who've studied Japan for years will doubtlessly find much to learn and enjoy as well. And if you happen to have fond memories of life in rural Japan, then believe me, this book will definitely take you back there in spirit.

*(In the back there is an appendix with each temple listed by name and number along with the principal deity and sect affiliation of each, though this is more in the nature of an FYI than a guide per se).

This book expains how emotions -in the Western sense - reflect energetic balance/imbalance -in terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Five Element Theory and meridians. Innovative graphics illustrate the complex dynamics. Numerous clinical examples are provided, couched in the beautiful and mystical poetry of Chinese Medicine and Philosophy, against a background of clinical western psychology. An absolutely essential volume for anyone, not weaned on these metaphors, but interested in holistic treatment, at any level. Beatifully written, deserves to be read and re-read.

This book is an excellent compendium of information that relates bodymind experience to acupressure theory, five-element theory, and traditional chinese medicine. Fantastic companion to Iona Marsaa Teeguarden's Complete Guide to Acupressure.

Human understanding of the connection between emotion and physical health remains elusive in Western Medicine. This provocative Eastern view gives us hope that reintegration of our selves after traumatic moments and the transformation of "negative" feelings is literally at our finger tips.
This book is one of the deepest explorations into the energy of healing and remains a much worn friend in my healing library.
A must have book for healing touch practitioners from all traditions. A must read for all of us who hope to heal ourselves.

Sensei Kudo has created The best asset to making you a better judo player. Taking some of the on glass take away the guess in the move. Also and Judo in Action: Grappling Techniques to your workout too.

Sensei Kudo not only creates the best step-by-step manual of the basic important throws in judo, but he also covers important counters to those throws. Kudo's book on ne-waza (grappling techniques) is equally good and set up in a similar style. These are both important books for the teacher and student alike.

This is without a doubt the manual for Judoka everywhere. I use my copies on a regular basis. I coach at a Community College and have produced many national Level players, and Collegiate Champions. I list this book as well as Sensei Kudo's Grappling techniques( Newaza) book in my course bibliography of recommended reading. The photos are magnificent, as well as the sequential segments that focus on the key points of each techniqe. No mumbo-jumbo, no mystery, but good solid body mechanics and biomechanical application. At the time he wrote this book, Kudo was one of the few 9th dans in the world. He ranks right up there with Kotani Sensei and Mifune Sensei for sheer Judo knowledge and contribution. Both the volumes in this series are works of art and a must for any Judo library.

This is a wonderful book that takes the reader into the depths of Japanese culture and relationships at the turn of the century. Japan is leaving behind the world of the samurai and the shogun, and cautiously opening up to the influence of the politics and values of the west.

Kenichi Yamamoto is a samurai who ignores his wife, Lady Masa, as he pursues his mistress, Osen. But Kenichi and Masa have a son, Renzo, around whom the story revolves. Renzo is confronted by the changes in Japan, which previously had sealed itself off to all outside influence. Though he must perform his traditional duties to family, he experiences life in London and Paris, becomes an art dealer, and befriends westerners in his country. The interactions in the relationships among the characters are poignant and strange, as they should be to readers of a foreign place and time. The author creates a wonderful picture with these characters-their customs, thoughts, feelings, and dress. You can easily visualize the houses they live in, and the various locations from a coastal seaport to the stinky streets of Tokyo. This book added to my knowledge and understanding of Japan.

This is a wonderful book which I really enjoyed reading.
The narrative painted a vivid picture of what life might have been like in Japan before the country was opened to the Western world and the modern day.
It fills the reader in to the customs, expected roles of women
and the entitlements of men in the early days of Japan.

It even touches on a bit of history. This really is a wonderful book.

This is a wonderful book which I really enjoyed reading.
The narrative painted a vivid picture of what life might have been like in Japan before the country was opened to the Western world and the modern day.
It fills the reader in to the customs, expected roles of women
and the entitlements of men in the early days of Japan.

It even touches on a bit of history. This really is a wonderful book.