Japan Books

Adventures in Japan provides a modern woman's story of following Victorian adventurer Isabella Bird's 1878 through northern Japan, where Bird is still remembered. Kaye's three-week journey provides a fascinating account of both her experiences in northern Japan and Bird's lasting influence in the region.

Illustrated with color photos and black & white drawings enhance Evelyn Kaye's entertaining travelogue as she follows the 1878 route of Victorian traveler Isabella Bird through northern Japan. The adventure of a woman traveler in that part of the world in those days was so remarkable that Evelyn discovered that more than a hundred and twenty years later Isabella Bird was still remembered with her book still in print (in Japanese), community memorials erected in her memory, and the subject of a Tokyo television show! Adventures In Japan is a unique, totally engaging, wonderfully well written, enthusiastically recommended account of a personal journey through Japan as seen through the eyes of two women travelers, one from the 19th century and the other from the 20th.

The Ainu: A Story Of Japan's Original People by Kayano Shigeru is an absorbing account of Japan's indigineous people, whose legends and presence stretch back before the coming of the ethnic Japanese population before recorded history from what is now known as the Chinese mainland and the Korean penninsula. Presenting both the unique aspects of Ainu culture and the modern realities of how Ainu live today in a straightforward and friendly tone with soft yet realistic color illustrations, The Ainu: A Story Of Japan's Original People is very highly recommended.

This is an adorable children's book that portrays Ainu culture through the words of notable Ainu activist, Kayano Shigeru. The stories are fascinating and the pictures add a meaningful touch. This book is a prime example of the notion that beauty exists in simplicity. Overall- a wonderful introduction to the Ainu worldview and lifestyle.

The interviews collected by Bert Cardullo in "Akira Kurosawa Interviews" give us various lenses and filters through which the great director's works were seen, over a fairly decent period of time. We have Japanese filmmaker interviewers, American critics, A Latin American novelist interviewer, and Bert Cardullo himself. We have the very respectful, the respectful but inquisitive, the annoyingly self-absorbed (you'll know it when you read it...a tipoff is that, after the most pompously convoluted question Kurosawa laughs...)and the one mind that provokes a real emotional response from Kurosawa.

That's a nice survey! You will hear many stories repeated (I begin to think that Kurosawa relied heavily on some basic themes drawn from his experience, and reiterated in his work with Audie Bock:"Something Like an Autobiography" and nearly word-for-word in Cardullo's final interview in the book) but, despite the repetition, new stuff is intermixed, and quite fascinating for Kurosawa fans and scholars.

Goes on the Kurosawa bookshelf.

Akira Kurosawa: Interviews.

I recommend this book unreservedly to anybody interested in film. In conversation with knowledgeable and distinguished interviewers Kurosawa gives detailed insights into how he works: how every stage of a film is exhaustively discussed beforehand by all its participants and the Director himself; how unplanned factors such as the weather can contribute to episodes of unforgettable beauty and mystery in the finished film; his refusal to be regarded as a philosopher, let alone a preacher ('I look at life as an ordinary man. I simply put my feelings into the film'); his passionate interest in, and extraordinary knowledge of Japanese history, of the social and military life of the given period; of how his early training as a painter has informed his perceptions and his methods.
Apart from all that we learn about Kurosawa's work, the book is full of insights into recent Japanese history and contemporary society, including, of course, Japanese cinema.
Kurosawa's speech is engagingly fresh and energetic, and despite his great fame he seems to be utterly without self-importance.

Our Akita is now 8 years old and has developed, magnificently. This is in no small part due to reading Barbara's book in preparation. As wonderful as the Akita is, this breed best requires the owner some self-education before purchase. This book helps one getting it right from the start (which is imperative).

I wonder when Amazon will post the second edition? (tap, tap, tap...)

This is one of the most treasured books in my home (the other is "Akita - the Book of the Breed) by Gerald & Kath Mitchell. This book is an absolute must for Akita owners - I know it's out of print but I've heard a whisper that Barbara Bouyet might be persuaded to write an updated version - PLEASE do, Barbara, your love of Akitas is something that almost every Akita owner can relate to. The dedication of this Akita owner to the breed is total, and the information she has gathered and presented is comparable. Try to get a copy by any means you can - and if you can't, pester the publishers for a new version. It's worth it!

This is the most insightful book I have ever seen on the subject of Japanese business. The author clearly knows his subject

There has been the deluge of books and articles on Japanese keiretsu. But this book published a decade ago (1992) is still one of the best. There are so many good enough accounts on the vertical keiretsu appeared in the Toyota¡¯s value chain. But not so, when it comes to the horizontal keiretzu. There is no shortage of materials but most of them are no more than anecdotal case studies or, at best, cursory impressions. I can¡¯t capture why they form such a long-term ties based on what interest at all, for example. The advantage of vertical keiretsu is obvious and well described. But what is the economic foundation of horizontal keiretsu? Is it mere social club of economic elites? Nobody could think so. The network structure (or network form) of horizontal keiretsu is well documented, such as main bank, cross shareholding, sacho-kai, and the preferential trading. But those are merely links forming the network. The network is more than the sum of links. It¡¯s the linkage of links and it has contents. Links reproduce itself for something flows between nodes. This book plugs the gap systematic explanation of horizontal keiretsu with network analysis. In doing so, the author mobilizes not only qualitative data from interviews and business history but also extensive quantitative data to generalize his remarks to level of the population of the Japanese businesses. The author begins with describing the network structure of keiretsu from chapter 3 to 4. Then the remaining chapters deal with how the network formed and how it operates in real business environment. Namely, those chapters deal with the contents of network. Now you might retort ¡®what¡¯s the difference from other materials? This book would supply better and well-organized illustration of keiretsu. But aren¡¯t those features common in other works?¡¯
Maybe. But the most inspiring piece lies in the use of image. Keiretsu is the interfirm network and it¡¯s not unique on Japan but the ubiquitous phenomenon all over the world. Usually, they use the image of coalition, as it has developed in the game theory. The interfirm network, however more stable it is than arm¡¯s length trading, is usually depicted with the image of coalition. The coalition, particularly in the form of game theory, is relatively fluid relationship. The coalition comes and goes according to the logic of strategic self-interest. This is the reality of business such as strategic alliance. Yesterday¡¯s foe could be today¡¯s friend. For example, Apple shook hands with IBM to make PowerPC. But such an image doesn¡¯t fit into the long-term relationship of horizontal keiretsu over more than a generation. Affiliation in a keiretsu group is considered as permanent one. Instead, Gerlach uses the metaphor of alliance to illustrate the features of Japanese keiretsu. The image of alliance comes from anthropological fieldworks. It suggests long-term social relationship that links kinship groups over generations. The self-interest is also the driving-force in the kinship alliance. Kinship groups establish the long-term ties with other kinship groups through swapping women. Through this tie, they exchange resources like calling on in times of need or for protection of one¡¯s own group. Those are valuable resources in primitive societies, with no doubt, and this relationship is long-term by nature. But in such a relationship, self-interest is tempered by the central role played by group history.
Horizontal keiretsu emerged from the self-interest of member firms to stabilize the flow of resources. So at the center of group have lain the bank and sogo shosha. During the early postwar period, the capital and raw materials were scarce and most needed resources to be secured, and that, affiliation in the group opens doors to trade with other group members, and with the trading partners those firms have. But once the network is put into action, it takes the life of its own: It was instutionalized in the routine of business. Just as firms seek to position themselves advantageously in their industry and in the broader business community, so too do groups as a whole. Keiretsu network, for instance, expands itself with new memberships. Most of expansion has involved the firms that compete against firms in other keiretsu. Keiretsu compete against keiretsu for positioning in the business community. By expanding to include group-level representation in a broad variety of fields, the group simultaneously preempts market opportunities, enhances its prestige in the larger business community, and diversifies risk across a spectrum of industries. The power and prestige of the group make the individual member firm more appealing to prospective business partners and improves its status in the larger business community. The fortunes of group and companies are in this way intertwined. In other words, affiliation in group translates into marrying with the group. The individual firms act as if they are the members of the clan. This kind of interfirm network could be facilitated for the unique Japanese business history. 3 out of outstanding 6 (now 4) groups are ex-zaibatsu (industrial group). And some influences in early postwar period are crucial in forming the keiretsu.
But this is the problem of this book: no convincing explanation about why such alliance is found only in Japan? This book offers good enough description of the phenomenon. I can¡¯t help asking ¡®Is this enough explanation?¡¯ Unfortunately I don¡¯t think so. If you have this kind of question, I recommend, Ulrike Schaede¡¯s ¡®Cooperative Capitalism¡¯. This book has a very long-term standpoint from Tokugawa period to the present. This book is not about keiretsu. But you could understand the institutional background of Japanese business.

There have been several prominent books and journal articles on Japan's postwar economic success (my personal favorite is The Misunderstood Miracle: Industrial Development and Political Change in Japan (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)). However, understanding the true nature of this flourishing is a somewhat different matter. While Friedman addresses the ECONOMIC aspects, Fosberg ably addresses the political and diplomatic aspects.

Prior to the War, Japan had been a major industrial power, and while a stupendous amount of plant and materiel had been physically destroyed by Allied bombing, it was clear that Japan possessed the trained personnel and deepened industrial institutions to recover. What was not clear, however, was if the US political establishment had the will or vision to help out.

Political establishments are heterogenous things, with complicated networks of competing and colluding interests; and while this is something so obvious it ought to be vapid, it's a point usually overlooked by ideologically zealous historians. For those interested in a serious, well-documented treatment of how the network of myriad US interests coalesced towards a strategy of helping Japan develop, and then integrate into the US economic sphere, this is a good beginning.

Students of economics will possibly be perturbed because Forsberg does not strictly adhere to neoliberal economic orthodoxy. This book tends towards neutrality on controversial issues in development economics, and rather, deals with what actors expected to happen as a result of the policies they pursued. So, for example, for much of the period covered the US Congress wavered between accommodating Japanese home markets protection (for the purpose of defeating Communism in the region) and demanding that the Japanese authorities open their market to US goods. An orthodox economist might object that protecting domestic markets was a stupid "payout" for either Japanese or US constituencies generally, but the point is that in 1950 very few political actors anywhere thought such things.

In general, the account tends to be fairly favorable to the US polity in terms of "generosity" (in this case, willingness to sacrifice short-term regional preferences for long-term success in the project of Japanese development), and emphasizes the success of Japanese industry interests in protecting specific markets. At the same time, the difficulty of getting the US polity to support Japanese economic recovery is not ignored. The terms of the bilateral agreements with Japan were sometimes one-sided, allowing the USA bases without commitments to actually defend Japan. Partly this was an ugly byproduct of the fact that Japan had become a US client by virtue of defeat in a war; but it also reflected internal divsions in the Japanese polity over the relationship with the USA.

In any respects, the book is an outstanding companion to the above-mentioned Friedman book on the economics of Japan's development. While Friedman emphasizes the overlooked entreprenuerial aspect, Forsberg explains the institutional and diplomatic aspect that actually prevailed. Readers of varing ideological or economic dogmas may draw their own conclusions based on what actually followed.

in my world history class i was doing a project on the japanese economic miracle after world war ii. this was the main source of information i used. i thought that this book was full of information involving the japanese and their sturggle to gain economic success. this book also taught me a lot about how the americans felt about the japanese. although in war they were enemies, after the war, since the US occupied Japan, due to their help, the japanese were able to get the success they wanted. if you are working on a project or just want to know about the japanese economic miracle, then i strongly suggest this book.

"And Then a Rainbow" is an intimate journey with a Japanese family as they made new trails from Japan through California, and then back to Japan and back to California.
The recollections of Ms. Shimonishi-Lamb are like the kitchen conversations that many third and fourth generation Japanese Americans yearn for with their own grandparents or parents. Personal family stories about internment and other wartime events are few and far between, which makes this book a treasure in Japanese American history.
The Kubota family came from Yamanashi Prefecture to San Francisco. They first settled in the Sacramento area building a successful rice company. Later, they traveled south to the hills of Palos Verdes and farmed near the Pacific Ocean. The children attended school in San Pedro, the Los Angeles Harbor District.
Mili married Toshio Shimonishi, from Hiroshima, and they lived in the Los Angeles area for a short time until the war broke out. They were interned in Cody, Wyoming, at Heart Mountain Relocation Camp. There, they grappled with issues of citizenship, loyalty, and family values. They were repatriated to Japan after the war and the author gives a unique account of an American rebuilding her family life in post-war Hiroshima.
Many years passed and her desire to return to America became a reality. And once again, she was rebuilding her life but this time, it was in Long Beach, California. Mili finally got her rainbow.
Of all the books I've read on Japanese American history, this is one of the most interesting and is one of my favorites.

It is a true story of my life during that time. It is a history that cannot be repeated. I wanted my children and friends to hear about it from me. Readers have commented that they laughed and cried while reading my book.

As a former internee in Los Banos Camp when we were rescued by the "Angels," I highly recommend this book. It told me a lot that I never knew at the time - the background of the raid. It is well-written and comprehensive, told from the point of view of the paratroopers. We were only with them a few hours after the raid, so didn't have much chance to hear their stories. My family and I are alive because of the paratroops, the guerrillas and the Army Recon platoon.

This well-written book is a "must-read" for anyone who is interested in U.S. military actions in the Pacific during WWII. Angels at Dawn tells the little-known story of the February 1945 rescue by 11th Airborne Division paratroopers and Filipino guerillas of American civilians and other nationalities who were being held by the Japanese in a prison camp at Los Banos on the Philippine Island of Luzon. This book does a better job than many dealing with the Pacific war in explainining why prisoners of the Japanese were at much risk. In part this was due to the threat of starvation and disease, but also because during the latter stages of the war in 1945, Japanese murders of prisoners increased as Allied troops advanced. Against this backdrop the author, who was a member of the 11th Airborne Division during the 1945 fighting in the Philippines, recounts how General MacArthur called on the "Angels" as the division was nicknamed, to mount a hazardous parachute and ground assault behind enemy lines to rescue the prisoners at Los Banos before starvation or Japanese violence could take their lives. As a former soldier who served in Korea, this book reminded me once again of how important the actions of U.S. military forces were during the 20th Century. We live in a better world because of what they did. Angels at Dawn tells the story of one of those actions, which resulted not so much in the destruction of the enemy, but in the preservation of the lives of American civilians, and other foreign nationals.

This is a collection of one-page stories without text and unrelated to each other. The drawings are deceptively cute and more or less traditional. But the scripts are completely refreshing and read like something written in another planet. I don't know how to compare it to anything else, it is THAT original. The closest parallel I can find is to very old stuff like the Rarebit Fiend series by Winsor McKay or his Little Nemo, surreal and dream-like. But here there are no words, ever.

Some of the stories are laugh out loud funny. Some are surreal. Some are just very cute. A few I just don't get and read to me more like a zen mantra. This is no Garfield, it is unlike any other type of humor you've ever encountered.

Entertainment Weekly chose it #1 on their "Must List" in their April 8, 2005 issue and had this to say:
"Sublime and silly: Nothing's lost in translation in these wordless Japanese strips and their bone-dry Zen humor."

Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review in their May 9th issue:
"The strips always begin with a simple premise: the man walking, fishing, talking or looking, and then, around panel six or seven, a surreal twist takes shape, revealing itself in the very last panel for maximum effect. Each development is wonderfully hallucinatory and inventive--­never monotonous or predictable."

Volume 2 is already in production and readers can expect more of the same twisted humor. Give it a try!

Book was in the condition it stated. Prompt delivery. I will use this seller again.

I purchased this book in my never ending pursuit of sholarly discourse on Japanese Buddhist sculpture. It is one thing to study sculpture and painting. It is quite another to understand it in the context of history and the architecture that housed it. Enlightening, to say the least, and meaningful reading. Its coverage of Buddhism and Buddhist art in Japan is noteworthy.