Japan Books

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.

Two of my colleagues picked up copies of Ero-Samurai and loved it. It had them rolling on the ground with sheer joy and admiration of how colorful and expressive some of the erotic prose is. After seeing the reaction it elicited personally, I of course wondered about the book as I also happen to be an American who has lived in Japan. Any man that has set foot on the soil of that magical country will be well aware of the intense charm that Japanese women innately possess.

As stated above, this book takes on the rather lofty task of attempting to share some insight into why many of us westerners find Japanese women so special.

This is a subject that I'm sure many authors have thought about before but for whatever reason, none have tackled. As to why, eludes me. However that is precisely the reason this book is so special. Search elsewhere and you will find no paucity of dry, cold, and didactic literature that will safely examine subjects related to Japan.

Not here my friend. This is an intensely personal journey into territory that is somewhat off limits by normal literary standards. Calling it exclusively personal would be misleading because the author does an excellent job quoting sources of classical Japanese literature supporting his ideas.

Upon reading it, it dawned on me. This is an instant classic.

Out of all the books I've ever read on Japan, not one has had the honesty to come forth and say what this man has said here. And for that, I congratulate him.

You are one wild and crazy warrior Mr. Duff!

Being an admirer of Japanese chicks, and a long-term resident of Japan myself, I was pleasantly surprised at this guy's paean to the goddesses. Smiles of recognition on every page. Since this was published by a cheap-o self publishing outfit called i-Universe, I thought the quality of writing would be [...], but it was actually pretty good.

[Note: This review appeared July 22, 1999, in the Seattle Weekly and is available online at http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/9929/books-lightfoot.shtml]

The Essential Basho, translated by Sam Hamill. Shambhala, $25 No wonder dreams of journeys are so often associated with death. We travel to leave our lives behind - the familiar workaday parts, anyway - hoping to arrive in a Paradise where our eyes, ears, tongues, maybe even our hearts, will be startled awake. What we really want is a new self, but what we often get is more stuff -samples of a regional cuisine, eyefuls of great art, tidbits about Kafka's life in Prague, opinions, trinkets. Traveling becomes grazing on a global scale.

A different pathway opens up in Sam Hamill's newest collection of translations, The Essential Basho. Here for the first time in a single volume is the essence of Basho's work: four travel narratives, including the best-known "Narrow Road to the Interior," and 250 haiku returning us home to a dailiness transformed by awareness and attention. Whether the poet is on the road or behind his own brushwood gate he seeks, instead of new acquisitions or excitements, an honest encounter between world and mind. These two entities were never separate to begin with. So although Basho's travelogues seem to record his treks on foot through 17th-century Japan, they're actually journeys into his own true nature, the heartland within, where self and circumstances are one.

"Very early on the twenty-seventh morning of the third moon, under a predawn haze, transparent moon barely visible, mount Fuji just a shadow, I set out under the cherry blossoms of Ueno and Yanaka. When would I see them again? A few old friends had gathered in the night and followed along far enough to see me off from the boatý I felt three thousand miles rushing through my heart, the whole world only a dream. I saw it through farewell tears.

"Spring passes / and the birds cry out - tears / in the eyes of fishes.

"With these first words from my brush, I started. Those who remain behind watch the shadow of a traveler's back disappear."

Carrying just a few necessities along with friends' farewell presents, which he can't bear to part with, Basho lets each event on the way speak the language of its particular life. At a farm he asks directions, but they're so complicated the farmer just lends Basho his horse ("'He knows the road. When he stops, get off, and he'll come back alone.'") The horse takes Basho to a village and then turns around, a gift from the poet tied to his saddle. Farther on, Basho observes peasants wearing black formal hats for ancient rites, speaks with prostitutes on a pilgrimage, sadly leaves to his fate a child abandoned by his parents, retreats from a three-day storm into a shack: Eaten alive by / lice and fleas - now the horse / beside my pillow pees.

At a mountain temple "I crawled among boulders to make my bows at shrines. The silence was profound. I sat, feeling my heart begin to open." Elsewhere, hearing distant villagers clap wooden noisemakers to scare deer from their fields, he feels "the utter aloneness of autumn." A stranger asks for a poem ("'Something beautiful, please'") and Basho writes a verse about the cuckoo's cry that arrives, just then, from across a field.

Basho's words flow spontaneously out of each moment lived. Instead of giving us tours or mementos of the world, he helps us open to its presences and discover who we are. Through his haiku we sense the wholeness and sufficiency of an early frost, an eggplant seed, a hangover, "Mr. Seagull," a nest of mice, a bean-floured rice ball, tears in the eyes of fishes, and ourselves, awake and alive again. Hamill frames "The Essential Basho" with essays on Basho's life and work that are scholarly enough to educate a student of haiku or Japanese culture and lively enough to engage any reader. Their depth and ease testify to the virtuosity Hamill has achieved as Editor of Copper Canyon Press, Director of the Port Townsend Writers' Conference, author of over thirty books, and translator of poetry in several languages. Travelers like me have carried around the world his pocket-size Basho ("Narrow Road to the Interior," now out of print) until it's tattered. We'll treasure the fine new volume silkily sleeved in Hokusai's portrait of the poet on the road again.

As a casual and thorough student of Basho and the Japanese poetic forms of haiku, haibun and renga I've come to believe that Sam Hamill's translations are the best ever. Hamill, as a respected poet in the English language himself, translates the Japanese of Basho into an American English that literally sings.His translation of the opening lines of "Narrow Road to the Interior," included in this volume, is a classic Basho, and classic Hamill: "The moon and the sun are eternal travelers. Even the years wander on. A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home." I have carried Hamill's translation of "Narrow Road" with me for years. To have "The Essential Basho" now on my shelf is an event to celebrate.

This children's book covers a wide range of topics from the Jomon period of ancient Japan to modern Japan. Best digested in small chunks (particularly for younger children), this extremely informative book is filled -- but not cluttered with photographs, drawings, and tidbits which make reading nonfiction work more palatable for young children. The book is a chronological journey through Japan, but also has a few sprinklings of culture...touching briefly on the tea ceremony, poetry, and the arts. We are stationed in Japan and we have all learned a tremendous amount of history about our host country's history with this book as the main "text". The target age is likely middle school, but younger readers with an interest will enjoy it as well (mine are 6 and 8 so we just cover one of the 6 sections a week). I recommend the following nonfiction books to accompany this one, especially if you want to add more culture: Ancient Japan unit (e-book by Teacher Created Resources) Teacher Created THEMATIC UNIT ANCIENT JAPAN CHALLENGING - 1 book which uses Tames' book; The Japanese (Ancient World); Step Into... Ancient Japan (The Step Into Series) (and other books) by Fiona MacDonald; Shipwrecked!: The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy;and Japan (Make it Work! History).

Past and present gave a westerner view of culture and their characteristic vertues. Having Japanese friends and co-workers I wanted to understand their unfathomable virtue and how civil the makeup. I find that Mr. Tames not only covered the world they came from but how they are contributing to our culture in America 2000. Past and Present :-)

You are lucky if you can get your hands on a copy of this book. I've been to Japan many times with my daughter who lived there for three years and speaks fluent Japanese. For us, it is a breeze to travel there. For most people who are not Japanese or don't speak or read it it is very difficult to see anything off the beaten track. It's even difficult on the beaten track. With this book I could travel by myself throughout the Tohoku region with minimum difficulty. My copy is the first edition, 3rd printing from the early 80's. It's old, but it's still accurate for most things. In easy to read detail it gives driving directions and train and bus routes. I would not recommend driving in Japan under any circumstances until you've been there awhile. You have to contend with driving on the other side of the road (if you are American) and signs that are usually not in English once you get away from the large cities. Trains and buses are the much easier way to go. You will see much more.

Most Japan travel books cover only the most well known travel sites. There are so many interesting places to see in Japan that aren't in those books. This book covers Tohoku only, but there are many, many places that you won't find in any book written in English. Most travel books don't cover much in Tohoku at all, but concentrate on the bigger cities and the most famous cities like Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima. Those are wonderful places to visit, but if you want to see more of the real Japan you should try something different after you have been to the places the other books cover.

My wife and I were stationed at Misawa Air Base, Japan in the early 80s and this book made our travels fantastic! It not only pointed out "must see" places, shrines, castles, etc., it gave you directions such as "turn right just before the railroad tracks at the school...." to help you get there. In addition, the back of the book has a section which translates road signs to help you get where you are going. The book not only gets you there but gives great details as to what you are looking at, its significance, etc. We once stopped at a (very hard to find) shrine which the book said had a museum focusing on 18th/19th century Japanese sailors inside. We didn't see a museum but found the priest and in our "best" sign language asked him where the museum was. He was shocked (and delighted) we even knew about it. He then opened the "private collection" and gave us a two hour private tour. "What an experience!" We have dozens of photo albums and experiences like this from our 3 years in Tohoku, and even people who lived at Misawa AB used to ask how in the world we found such neat "off the beaten path" places to see. We'd show them the book. Our copy, which is "extremely" well worn and has earned a special place in our library and I recommend it to anyone who travels throughout Northern Japan. If you get stationed there, congratulations, now BUY THE BOOK!

If you thought why spend a significant price for a book concentrating on a private collection of Japanese painting, take into account the following: 1) the collection is superb, covering a number of styles and cultural backgrounds, from Zen to nanga, from tea to Rimpa. 2) The scholarship, research, reading and traslation that went into the text is exemplary, I'd say even touching. Every piece of art is complemented with an interesting analysis of its form and content, the cultural influence that it sprang from, the poetic or religious sources that it connects to, or the social and political significance of the work and its authors. The book is a treasure trove of knowledge about Japanese art and culture in the Early Modern Era, and I find the price exceptionally well justified by hours of pleasure and learning that this book provides. If you are a dealer, collector or just seriously interested in Japanese painting, make sure you own this book before it becomes a collector's item.

This three-volume set is a must for anyone seriously interested in Japanese painting. There are entries on 235 works in the Powers Collection by Japanese artists of many different schools, including Zen Masters, haiku poets, literati, ukiyo-e masters, and eccentrics. These mini-essays are well written, thorough, and fascinating. Professor Rosenfield consistently includes valuable information on the artist and subject, plus analysis of the style, for each painting. In addition, the third volume contains longer biographies of the artists and other helpful infomation such as seal photographs, a useful index, and a full bibliogfraphy. Most of all, however, this set of books makes the art come alive within the context of an early modern Japan that welcomed individualism, leading to some of the most poetic, dramatic and evocative painting in East Asian history. This set of books can be read for pleasure, as well as serving as a vital resource in the field of East Asian art.

Revealing, personal account of a woman's life in prewar Japan

Must reading for anyone interested in feminism in Japan. I can't believe this is out of print.

This is a great book for anyone interested in organic farming, history, and different cultural perspectives.

A wonderful book, despite its having been originally written more than 100 years ago. Fresh and sobering look at what it takes to make a civilized society run on a daily basis without modern technology, from food production to how to make cotton mattresses by hand, to manufacturing coal based blocks for home heating and cooking - in a backyard; and how to build a k'ang, a raised heated platform used for sitting and sleeping.
'Farmers' also gives an idea of the human cost and effort needed to keep land fertile and productive, conserve scarce resources, and the ingenuity required daily to have a reasonably comfortable, sustainable lifestyle over many hundreds of generations - a workable world one can confidently pass on to one's descendents, something we DON'T have, for all our vaunted "quality of life" in the US.