Japan Books

The XTreme Art series is awesome and this book is no exception. I like when good triumphs over evil but drawing villians is fun. Now I am excellent. Really.

This book will bring out the malicious side of your child in the most creative way. The tips and techniques complement the mean with in us, to create the imaginative villains which live in a child's mind. Various figures + many poses & expressions to imitate when creating these amazing creatures. Using the 4 easy steps to guide the young artist and making it easy to follow and simple to create.

If you teach music, drumming, or multi-cultural lessons at an elementary level, you will adore this book. I borrowed it from the library because it was a story from Japan and found that I could use it as a music lesson. And the story is a good one with lots of teaching moments. Then of course I had to buy it because I'll use it every year. Loved it!

This book BEGS to be read aloud. If you love to make loud, interesting noises while you read to your child, you will love this book - if not, you won't like it. It's the story of an ancient village that was to be attacked by an army of samurai warriors, and how they worked together to ward off the threat. The loud noises come about because the villagers have quite a love of drums - drums of many kinds, and the noises of each drum are woven throughout the book. "Don kada-ka, Don kada-ka, don-da, Don-Da, Don-Da, DON!" Very exciting! The book is also illustrated with cut paper designs - the incredible detail is inspiring to those of us who use die-cuts in our scrapbooks.

Like NilesO, I too have seen the show at the National Gallery. Some of the items on display, I have also seen at the Tokyo Museum of Art back in '96 as part of an exhibition called "Flowers in Japanese Art, Craft and Literature". I've gone through half my annual book budget for '99 (and here it's only February!)! I think I'll pass for now, borrow the library's copy and wait for the paperback edition.

The show is spectacular (check the review in the 12/1/98 Wall Street Journal), and the book (actually an expanded catalogue of the show that approaches being an art history text) is hefty and scholarly. It would seem a "must have" for serious students/afficionados of Japanese arts and culture of the Edo period. I have not read the tome, which is quite hefty and not yet available via Amazon.com, but did flip through it during my tour of the show at the National Gallery yesterday (11/30/98). My 5-star rating is, thus, based on the show, and not truly on the book. But the show is so brilliantly conceived by the author of the book (who curated the show) that I can't imagine the book would disappoint. It's pricey, but I think it's important enough that I have it on order. NilesO@AOL.com

Covers all the movies she has contributed to and her stage work. A gorgeous presentation, oversized, quality glossy paper, with numerous color photographs and design sketches. If you love Eiko, this is the book for you !

Let me say at once: this is the most incredible, most beautiful book I own. And I've collected quality illustrated books for years. It stands between Avedon's "Observations" and Damien Hirst's "I want to be with everybody blah blah..." on my (reinforced) bookshelf--and right now it tops either of them in its artistry, design, and sheer beauty.

I'm getting carried away. So... this is a breathtaking journey through 10 of the projects that this artist/ costume designer/ set designer has undertaken in the last fifteen years--in sketches, photographs, and her own narrative--from creating the look of Paul Schrader's Mishima, to dressing Jennifer Lopez in The Cell. Between times, she has lent her incredible vision to theatre, film, opera, and installation art.

I think she's been so successful because she's never compromised her vision. It inspires me (as an artist) to not give in. Eiko Ishioka won an Oscar for her costumes for Dracula. No doubt she'll be nominated again for her work on The Cell. According to the flap text, she has also won a Grammy, and a Cannes Film Festival Award. I expect to see her win an award also for this book--It's as good as any of her big-name, big-budget projects. Good for her!

It is rare to find a work that is both good history and well written; Piggot's examination of the emergence of kingship in a country where 'the gods have not yet died' is an important expansion of our understanding of archaic Japan in particular and sacral kingship in general.

Joan Piggots' scholarship is excellent. Pulling from a wide array of sources, covering everything from shipping tags attached to merchandise delivered in payment of tribute to the quasi-legendary early chronicles, to written works of law, literature, and religion, archaelogical artefacts and tomb burials, as well as previous works of historical scholarship, she presents an exhaustive and authoritative analysis of a frequently overlooked period in Japanese history, the 3rd through 8th centuries.

Piggott's work focuses on the emergence of the nascent Japanese nation-state, from its indigenous roots with a tennou ('sovereign' ) who was a chief among clans to its period of heavy Chinese borrowing and transformation into a 'modern' (for the era) nation headed up by a Chinese-style Emperor. Adopting a metaphor of archaeological trenches, she describes and analyzes seven major periods of development, discusses the various problems associated with research in that particular period, the known information, and conflicting points of view, while cogently and persuasively arguing her own viewpoint.

Her historical scholarship is impeccable and her writing style is clear and readable -- a great boon to anyone who has wrestled with some of the more obscure writings on the same topic. In short, she makes a significant addition to body of knowledge in the English language regarding a little known era of Japanese history.

The range of emotion you feel as a reader has its highs and lows to such an extent that one can not put it down until it is finished. The real things in war are not always felt by those who never went to war, but in this book you feel what war is all about, including all of its flaws.

The Emperors Angry Guest was an excellent book and I would recommend it. Mr.Knox narrated his story well. The book was carefully documented. A very good example of the US government's propensity in not paying close attention what is really, truly going on with their own sons lives. These kids were 18-20 years old. The Battan Death March was real and so were the men who were forced at gunpoint to participate in it. A very good historical account...

This book is now available from the same publisher in England, Matthew Stevens, at Inkt Booksellers, Inkt@btconnect.com.

This book is still in print and is available from Flicks Books in England, Flicks.books@blueyonder.co.uk.

Matthew Stevens, Publisher
Flicks Books
29 Bradford Road
Trowbridge
Wiltshire BA14 9AN
England
Fax: 44 (1225) 760418

This book must be in the library of anyone interested in foreign policy of Japan. The author brilliantly combines history with International Relations and offer many clues to understand current foreign relations of Japan. His approach takes the reader to a journey of Japanese intellectual history as early as Meiji era in addition to domestic politics, and convincingly establish their relevance in the study of Japanese foreign policy.
The author utilizes original Japanese material as well as interviews as his sources. A look at his list of sources would reveal the amount of work he put in this work. Although the subject matter he tackles is very dense, his language is easy to follow. This is neither a superficial journalist account nor a dry work that discard history and domestic politics.

Professor Welfiel study of Japan's strategic relationship with US during the cold war is very impressive. He draws a mandala of Japanese political leaders from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and their rules in one of the most important alliances during the cold war. What is more impressive, is to know that the author has met nealy all those important figures and got their views first hand. Having studied East Asian cold war history under Prof. Welfield brilliant presence, the book is the cream of many years of observation from a very knowledgable man.

This book is the most comprehensive reference I have seen on Japanese business related topics. Entries cover business history, leaders, management, technology, and company profiles. The authors appear to be well informed and up-to-date on what is happening in Japan, the writing is concise and the citations are helpful for research. I highly recommed this as a must-have reference for anyone interested in Japan and/or global business.

For the dictionary on Japanese economy, ¡®MIT Encyclopedia of the Japanese Economy¡¯ has been widely used. Such a dictionary is needed for you can¡¯t read all the material on the Japanese economy. Literatures on Japanese economy are still flooding on the market. Moreover, there are so many sub-disciplines that you can never read through them all, and even making a reading list is prohibitively time-consuming.
MIT Encyclopedia was updated in 1999 to the 2nd edition. It deals with mainly big topics such as unemployment with some length. But this book, published in 2002, tackles not only general economic subjects, but business affairs like Sony, Japanese business in US, and Chalmers Johnson, as title implies. And that I think the quality of articles is not behind MIT¡¯s. This book¡¯s contributors are well-known figures in Japanese studies. And like MIT¡¯s at the end of each article is the reading list on that subject.

This is about the fifth book related to Wake Island that I've read recently; for its size, this book has a wealth of general information and pictures unparalleled in the subject to-date.
Stan Cohen's willingness to not only compile, but to actually share the images he's acquired is valuable for both scholars and WWII enthusiasts alike.
Do not be fooled by the cover, which is soft, thin and, at first, looks like a mere scale modeler's reference guide, this book has all the bases and basics covered!
Cohen even tactfully dodges Wake contreversies with brief unbiased bios of key figures of the battle.
If you have a building interest in the early WWII years and the events at Wake Atoll, this is one book you should consider reading first. Let the many other remarkable books fill in with personal accounts, the Wake Island saga. Perhaps "Pacific Alamo" would be an appropriate counterpart.
This is THE photo archive for any and every Wake Island book, article, chronicle, etc. You can build a more accurate mental image with many of Cohen's pictures.
REVIEW EVERY BOOK YOU READ, AUTHORS DESERVE YOUR OPINIONS!

This book covers a critical period in American history. It shows the bravery of American marines, sailors and civilians in fighting superior Japanese forces in defense of Wake Island. Through photographs, art and text, it shows that bravery can be demonstrated in a prisoner of war camp as well as at a battlefield. Warfare makes ordinary men into heroes and villains and this is shown here. This book is a must for the World War Two reader.