Asian Books

This is Hokusai at his best. His quality of line is exceptional and the images are a constant delight. The fertility of the artist's imagination is nothing short of astonishing. Hokusai gives us the mythological origins of Fuji, simple views of Fuji, pilgrims climbing and descending Fuji, Fuji's reflection, Fuji seen through rain and through mist, Fuji framed by trees, windows and bridges, Fuji from near and Fuji from afar. In one striking interior view, we see some surprised people looking at a miraculous vision of an inverted Fuji that floats on a screen before them. The explanation? A knothole in the house's wooden wall has transformed the building into a kind of giant camera obscura, and the morning sun is projecting an image of the mountain onto the screen. So... Fuji outdoors and Fuji indoors.

One has to make a firm distinction between the original project and this edition. Hokusai's "100 Views of Mt Fuji" first appeared in three separate volumes: this book reprints them in one handy paperback. There are several extremely nice touches about this version. For a start, all the prints are reproduced to scale, and organized in the Japanese manner (i.e. the first print appears at the back of the book, and the last at the front). Better still, the prefaces, colophons, and title pages are all included, too. In total, you actually get 102 views of the mountain, and many of these consist of two separate prints on facing pages. This book is certainly great value for money because it doesn't stop here. Placed at the back of the volume--so as not to interfere with the flow of the prints--are translations of the Japanese texts and a commentary for each view of the mountain. All of these are extremely illuminating, and manage to outline just enough about Japanese history and culture for the images to make perfect sense. There's also an excellent introduction, which goes into more detail about the rich cultural and religious significance of Fuji, and about the nature of Hokusai's project. Why, for example, were there 102 views, not 100? Here's Henry Smith's appealing theory:
"I think that that the two beyond one hundred were related to his underlying preoccupation with long life: they were like the 'one to grow on' candle that we stick in a birthday cake, a wish that he actually live on past his cherished goal of one hundred."

I have just two major gripes to make about this otherwise excellent version of Hokusai's "One Hundred Views..." The first is that the edges of each facsimiled page seem to have been cropped in such a way that some of the original material (generally Japanese writing) has been lost. More seriously, the original prints were made with black ink and a range of grays, but, here, many of these grays appear to be rather washed out. Sometimes this doesn't much matter, but sometimes it seriously effects the legibility of a print. An example: one of the most famous views of the mountain consists of a spider's web with a leaf caught in it. "Where's Fuji?" we wonder. (Hokusai is constantly making us mutter these words to ourselves.) In a good print, we eventually notice a couple of light gray zones at the top of the image, which represent the sky surrounding the top of Fuji. We're seeing the mountain through the web. But, in this book, these grays have almost entirely disappeared and, as a consequence, so has Fuji.

Nevertheless, you should absolutely buy this book. Rarely has so much inventiveness, wit and visual poetry been crammed into such a small space.

This book is the next best thing to having the original works. English notes are limited to the beginning and end of the book. I was concerned when I read the review mentioning the cut off Japanese text. Yes, they are cut off, but not lost. The originals would appear exactly the same way. That's because the originals were printed on only one side of double spreads which were folded down the middle, right through those columns of text. You only have to flip the page to see the other half of the text. As for the washed out grays, that is a shame, but I am peronally more interested in Hokusai's line work anyway, so it doesn't bother me. He used the best carvers, so we have a good representation of his original brush work. My one complaint is that the cover on my paperback copy was not well glued to the spine, and fell off in a few minutes. But now my pages spread out flat with no resistance, so maybe it's an improvement.

Hokusai is my second favorite Japanese print artist whose art reflects mostly nature. I have two pictures of his hanging on wall. 100 Views of Mt. Fuji is one of his most beautiful works. It depicts the seasonal changes and the things done on Mt. Fuji. If you are intrested in Japanese woodprint and love nature, I'd strongly advice you to get this book. Awesome!

I first noticed Christian Brechneff's work in a recent edition of Travel and Leisure magazine. His illustartions of the buildings and landscapes of India's far north were so wonderful that I bought a copy of his book Homage. I have to say that I wish that I had known about the book when it was first published. His watercolors, pin & ink drawings and pastels, which are beautifully reproduced in the book, evoke a sense of space, form and color better than any I've seen in a long time. Each is truly a joy to study. For anyone who has recently returned from a trip to India or the far east this book should bring back many memories of their trip. For anyone contemplating a trip to those regions, this book could serve as a guide to places to see and help to prepare the eye for the colors, shapes and vistas they will encouner on their trip. For everyone else, just enjoying the sense of place these illustrations conjur up should be reward enoungh.

Homage: Encounters with the East
During many years on the faculty of a school of design I have seen numerous books of architectural drawings. HOMAGE: Encounters with The East, is in a class its own. It brings precision and verve to some of the world's most intricate (and difficult to depict) architecture and succeeds in creating an exceptional sense of presence. Mr. Brechneff has a broad talent, equally adept at bringing a delcate filigree to life on one page and the majesty of a surise on the Himalayas on the next. An evocative and altogether charming book, beautifully presented, with an enlightening preface, foreword and introductory notes by the artist. Highly recommended.

This book in unlike any other art book I have ever purchased. Brechneff's intricate drawings are breathtaking and full of life. I traveled through India/Kashmir in 1965, and I must say that Homage transported me back in time! My favorite painting is The Palace of The Winds at Jodphur, it is stunning!The paintings of Burma, Cambodia, and Laos are also incredible; I traveled through those regions in the late 70's. The book is just beautiful. I keep Homage on my coffee table and many of my friends have looked through it and said they loved the book as well. The book also comes with an orange ribbon marker with tiny golden bells, which is a great touch. I highly recommend this book to art-lovers and wanderlusts!

I had the privilege of reading chapters of this anthology before it went to print, and as my first introduction to the intricacies of Chinese poetry it was an excellent place to start.


The format in which the poems are printed, with Chinese and English side by side, helped me to understand translations better. There is also an excellent chapter on ping-ze patterns in Tang poetry, which is a difficult concept to convey in English.

I highly recommend this book to students of Chinese literature and anyone else interested in a solid explanation of Chinese poetic styles.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in classical Chinese poetry and language. It is very different from other anthologies of Chinese literature both in approach and in style, and touches upon many essential features of classical Chinese poetry.

Each chapter is written by a well-known scholar in the field. Together they provide a pretty clear picture of classical Chinese poetry. What is especially worth noting of this book is that, first, it well explains the features of Chinese poetry, such as rhymes and ping-ze patterns; it even gives pinyin romanization and tones for the Chinese texts, in addition to English translations which are side by side with the Chinese originals; and secondly, it not only looks at Chinese poetry from a literary perspective, but also tries to interpret the poetic texts according to the particular syntax of the Chinese language. This last feature well illustrates how different syntactic structures could influence the style and effect of a poem, and how the development of the syntax has impacted the development of Chinese poetry in general. Overall, the book is both resourceful and illuminating.

This book is perfectly designed for a variety of Chinese poetry readers, learners, and even researchers. The eighteen chapters starting from The Book of Poetry and ends with the Ming-Qing poetry cover Chinese poetry tradition of more than two thousand years and all types of Chinese poetry genres and sub-genres in this marvelous tradition. You will easily get to know how Chinese poetry developed for two thousand years even just after scanning the Primary Table of Contents!

In these chapters, authors deliberately choose great poems of each important period or Dynasty in Chinese history. They not only list these poems in Chinese characters, translate them into English (for regulated verses and songs, there is even word by word translation), and show each word in pinyin with tones, but also analyze these beautiful poems in historical background and poetic tradition. The templates of poems, including original Chinese texts, English translation and Chinese pinyin with tones to a great extent help Chinese language learners to learn how to understand Chinese poetry word by word and how to recite them in Chinese. The analysis of poems following will largely improve your knowledge of how to appreciate the beauty of Chinese poems, and more importantly, will help you get to see the great ideas underlying those poetic lines in terms of culture, history, religion, art, music, and etc.

And the well-done thematic table of contents, glossary-index, list of entering tones, and careful explanations of syntax, structure, and many other major issues of Chinese poetry will be very useful even for a scholar of Chinese poetry. You will save plenty of time looking up those important informations in all kinds of Chinese dictionaries!

I picked this up at Kinokuniya Books NYC last week and use it as a "bedtime" or "study on the go" filler. I already know around 400 kanji and this mini book does a good job of refreshing my memory and helping me learn new (albeit not always useful) vocabulary and kanji origins. The only negative --- the vocabulary words are either too easy or too hard.

Overall, I thought that this rather modest pamphlet was extremely useful and valuable. It is definitely worth your money. I was at first rather skeptical of this booklet: it cost a lot, but had barely 200 pages of 4 x 6 inch pages. Once I started reading it, I was impressed with the amount and quality of the information. It gave me a very valuable and informative introduction to the whole subject of formal, PRINTED Kanji. If you are interested in how Kanji works mechanically and a few basics for people who know nothing about Japanese language, this is your book. I was quite impressed in that it was specifically designed for the beginner: it assumes you know absolutely nothing about Japanese, which matched me perfectly, and I got a lot of good info from it; I suggest you buy it if you are even a little interested in Kanji.

It starts with 20 pages of written Japanese basics. Next is a dozen or so basic words. Then 2 dozen everyday words. If finishes with a dozen pages of culture about Kanji. Lastly is 3 pages of extremely valuable Kanji and proper pronunciation (colors, numbers, family members, months, time, etc.).

Each Kanji character is given a rather extensive explanation: it's origin, how it evolved, and how it is currently used. This gives the typical westerner a warm, fuzzy feeling as to the origin of the Kanji character. Sadly, each basic character is used in a widely divergent number of Kanji meanings, to the point that knowing the Kanji character's origin is of no use to its current meaning. This definitely a fault, but that of the Japanese language, and not the book's.

Written Japanese uses 3 different alphabets: Katakana (for foreign words that have been imported to the Japanese language), Hirigana (a phoentic alphabet more or less equivalent to a western alphabet), and Kanji (a pictogram based language that has a distinctive picture for virtually every word; yes, I do mean to imply that even a superficial knowledge requires the rote memorization of thousands of unique pictograms). Most written Japanese is a melange of all 3 alphabets. Many Kanji characters are a combination of 2 simpler characters, and most words are a combination of 2 Kanji characters.

Please note what it is not: there is no information on Hirigana, Katakana, hand written Kanji, abbreviated script, pronunciation, grammar, culture, etc.

Let us be realistic: even a superficial knowledge of Kanji requires years of concentrated education. After concentrated effort and memorization of this booklet, perhaps you can get to know a few of dozen Kanji words, hardly enough to read even a newspaper. Kanji has at least 3 different levels of difficulty I know of; the so-called 'Imperial' Kanji requires a regimented learning course of 20 years. This book will give a simplistic but useful introduction as to what Kanji is and how it works. Highly recommended. The most surprising advantage of this book is how much knowledge this book imparts, and how little time it requires (unlike a few other Japanese books I could name that gave me virtually no useful information despite weeks of concentrated effort).

I'm a Japanese native speaker and have been teaching Japanese in the US. I've never seen anybook which has a short, but accurate, summary about Japanese written system. The brief historical background will help you know why infamous Japanese written system is unique. The graphic is very friendly for non-native speakers. Good for both teachers and learners.

The book illustrates and studies many new, as well as older well known theories behind the Lutyens Delhi Plan. Volwahsen demonstrates a tremendous amount of research as well as insight that has gone into the subject, which in turn, make you think for yourself.
A must for anyone remotely interested in the subject.

As someone who lives and works in New Delhi, I've often thought that Raj Path (the Central Vista) reminded me of Washington DC and Paris, and now my suspicions have been confirmed thanks to Volwahsen. I've been to most of the prominent buildings built by the British in New Delhi and the author does them justice. The book is beautifully illustrated and supported by numerous maps and photos. The text is well-written and knowledgable.

My only criticism (a minor one) is that Volwahsen at times assumes that the reader has more than a general knowledge of architecture. For example, he frequently refers to the "stupa" without ever really defining it (a sort of Buddhist roof style). I would have added an appendix with a listing of architectual terms used along with definitions and context.

This should not detract from anyone's decision to read Volwahsen's work, however, as he has done a masterful job. I heartily recommend this book.

Wow, this book is incredible, it is quite frankly a perfect book on this subjuct. This book does not leave one leaf unturned, it has amazing B&W photos and the research is impecable, I just kept thinking, this took a great deal of time and effort to put together, that it had to have been a labor of love or they would have never gotten through it. The effort by the British Raj to build Imperial New Delhi from scratch in two decades is a tribute to British imperial power at its zenith. Whether you think it was wrong or right of the Raj to brand its imperial power on India forever, in the form of Western classical meets Indian mogul, you can't help but be blown away by the scope and beauty of Imperial Delhi. Anyone who has any, I mean any, interest in this subject should buy this book, they will not be disappointed, it is a facinating story of the ultimate colonial power and its effect on this amazing country called India. I will have this book in my collection forever and if you knew me you would know that this is high praise indeed.

I have been following Gopinath's work for many years now -- from her lucid essay in Russell Leong's "Asian American Sexualities," to her review of Deepa Mehta's "Fire" and her brilliant and lucid analysis of Shyam Selvadurai's "Funny Boy." Not only is Gopinath a brilliant scholar with urgently insightful readings, but she writes with an exemplary prose that is worthy of worldwide applause. Her studies of music, film, literature, and social events coagulate to form a powerful and cogent argument for thinking about race and sexuality in what she calls a "South Asian diasporic" sensibility. What is the use of such an interpretational tool? It immediately highlights weaknesses in both feminist and postcolonial scholarship while simultaneously bringing these fields' insights to assist in her readings. "Impossible Desires" sparkles with sagacious scholarship, and makes clear the cultural stakes for all who see the identity politics of gender and sexuality as inextricable from South Asian cultural production. I am thankful that this book exists, although I am not yet finished with it. I have waited many, many years for something like this, and can say with much gratitude that it will continue to inform my own studies for many years to come. Anyone who wishes to think outside of the box of what they consider their most radical thinking should not only seriously consider purchasing this book, but should also gift a few copies to others they know who are passionate about the cultural politics of women, queers, and South Asian diasporic culture around the globe.

University of California Davis's Women's Studies Professor Gayatri Gopinath, has written an impressive academic text entitled, Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures. Gopinath combines her knowledge of women's studies with her interests in a variety of academic fields on popular culture, race-sexuality, migration and South Asian cultural literature. She introduces several ways of identity formation and mediation of the "racialized" and Queer South Asian body by incorporating both feminist and queer theory within her analysis. In critical theory, the term "Queer" is a signifier of a complex defiant attitude that destabilizes any and all traditional notions of identity. It works to disrupt anything that appears too heteronormative, too "commonsensical," and too constructed. Gopinath explains that it "works to name the alternative reading of the diaspora and to dislodge it from its adherence and loyalty to nationalist ideologies that are fully aligned with the interests of transnational capitalism" (11). As a South Asian Queer feminist, Gopinath not only possess valuable critical insight, her identity gives Impossible Desires its authenticity.

The first chapter is an introduction in which Gopinath immediately brings the reader into a specific moment during the film entitled, "My Beautiful Launderette" (1985) a controversial and "groundbreaking" movie about two gay men in an interracial relationship; one male is white, Johnny and the other, Omar, is Pakistani. The movie's representation of Omar's body reverses the spectators gaze by re-situating Omar into a position of the subject and Johnny becomes the object of the spectators gaze. She describes the "queer diasporic body," as a text-- where the histories of rampant discrimination and colonialism are clearly "written" on the body. According to Gopinath, "Queer and diasporic cultural forms and practices point to submerged histories of racist and colonialist violence that continue to resonate in the present that make themselves felt though bodily desire"(4). This is an interesting statement because she describes the unstable relationship between the external and the internal parts of the "material" body, which she addresses again in the next two chapters. For Gopinath, the body they experience and conceptualize is continuously mediated by heterosexual and nationalistic constructions and popular images of culture.

Chapter 2 entitled Queer Communities of Sound examines the ways in which popular Bhangra Music and Post Bhangra Asian music allow her to situate "gender and sexuality at the very center of our understandings of diaspora, nation and globalization"(31). During the 1970s through the 1990s, Bhangra music, resonated across the world's national borders. Their songs revealed a sense growing resentment against the growing cultural conservatism in the United States and Britain and they also revealed a desire to find a homeland. Despite their radical message, Gopinath argued that their "nostalgic evocation of the homeland was mobilized through the fixed, static figure of the female, the emblem of tradition and (sexual and moral) purity." Their problematic message of an idealized woman reinforces "patrilinity and organic heterosexuality." She works in opposition to this tendency by applying Queer theory to the dialogue in order to draw attention to the "feminist diasporic cultural practices" that offer an alternative perspective.

In Chapter 3 Surviving Naipaul, Gopinath dissects three different texts:
Surviving Sabu (1996), a film by Ian Rashid, a gay Indonesian/Canadian from the UK; A novel entitled Mr. Biswas (1961), by V.S. Naipaul and East is East (2000) a film created by Damian O'Donnell. She explains how such films rely on the invisibility of a female subject in order to distinguish the gay male diasporic identity (64-65). Gopinath transfers the attention to the women by employing both feminist and queer theory in her analysis. Much of this chapter focuses on the different "modes" of producing an identity of subjectivity. Perhaps the most important concept in this chapter is that of "disidentification" which is defined as the "third mode of dealing with dominant ideology, one that neither opts to assimilate within such a structure nor strictly opposes it; [...] a strategy that works on and against dominant ideology" (68). According to
Gopinath, this strategy is not repression, but rather an awareness of self-- that people can define who they are, by who they are not and their social and individual identities overlap resulting in multiple identity formations.

Gayatri Gopinath addresses the various ways in which a queer diasporic female subjectivity can surface within a heteronormative, nationalistic environment, through her critique of South Asian popular cultural representations of the female body. South Asian films, novels and music, as revolutionary as they are, depend on the "erasure" or "invisibility" of the female subject. In Impossible Desires, Gayatri Gopinath offers a systematic critique that aims to deconstruct the knowledge and values of a dominant heterosexual nation.

This is one of those books that has wonderful "multi-tasking" powers! I taught it in two courses, one an undergraduate portal course for women's studies majors and an interdisciplinary graduate course on queers and theory. It worked very well in both courses, and as the teacher I learned so much myself using this book in both venues.

I also myself love this book!

For my own experience and pleasure I downloaded and watched as much of the music and as many of the films as I could get a hold of. I did play and show elements of these to my classes, and urged them with some success to connect with these materials themselves.

I was excited when both classes used these contacts to then enlarge their own interests along new lines having once seen or played songs, music, films, literatures. References to more of this stuff were especially common in the undergraduate course for the rest of the semester. Interestingly enough it was students from former republics of the former soviet union who were especially interested in some of this South Asian diasporic cultural work.

I was quite envious of the straightforward and yet elaborated structure of argument of this book: it centers around, although extends beyond the film Fire and all the ramifications and contextualizations one needs to grasp in order to engage queer diasporic female subjectivities. I was able to outline this structure carefully in the undergraduate course, and the students were able to follow it pretty well; I was pleased with the sophistication it helped them develop.

But when I took for granted the graduate students would themselves see and analyze this structure - it seemed obvious in the nicest way - I found I had misunderstood what they would focus upon. They loved all the details and were less willing or maybe less interested in managing the threads of interconnection. I am still not sure if they were onto something I was not, or whether I just didn't prepare them properly to see how it was put together.

You could say this is a great "text" for a class (not textbook of course), but it is also a lot of fun to read if you are interested in knowing more about or analyzing yourself South Asian diasporic art and literature, film, and music, and want to ponder the travels of these materials.

It is also quite profound in its analysis of many layers of the what the term "queer" could mean, does mean, has meant, should have meant, might mean in the future, means to many disparate folks in a range of places, disciplines, politics, art worlds, analytic frameworks, cultural studies and so on. It's not that it analyzes such positions exhaustively - although there are some pretty thorough examinations of the play of such meanings across a set of works - but rather that it models a kind of analysis that is, as I say, profound, and also, dare I say, fun.

Another reviewer referred to the author as "Edward Dimock, the consummate scholar of Bengali studies". Nothing could be more true. I bought this book 35 years ago when I was a student at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It was stolen from me, but I never forgot it. I am glad that I was able to get it again from Amazon. This book gives the essence of Jayadeva, Vidyapati, Chandidas, Mirabai, et al. Do not think a small paperback lacks intellectual depth.

The reviews say it all. This is a very fortuitous partnership of scholar and poet! The songs come alive in their hands. Makes me want to sing them.

That Edward Dimock, the consummate scholar of Bengali studies, and Denise Levertov, the consummate modern poet, would collaborate together is a match made in heaven. The book is a gem. Give it to someone you love, yet better still, read it to him or her.

Or savor it alone in quiet still moments so delicious that only spiritual erotic love poems, perfectly and sensually rendered, could dare express their rare flavor. That flavor, rasa, is the taste of love, served up authentically and exquisitely, but alas, in far too small a portion.

Nonetheless don't hesitate. Bite

If this book didn't have words, and made absolutely no sense, I
would still buy it just for the beautiful illustrations. The pictures
really do belong on a wall. I purchased it for my almost 3 year old
son, and he had me read it to him three times yesterday. I can't wait to
read it to him during a thunder storm, I think it will make it more fun,
at put him at ease.

My daughter and I adore this Bhutanese fairy tale.

The illustrations are breathtaking, exquisite! The story is good, too, very satisfying. It makes both of us yearn for a trip to Bhutan, and deeper into our own spirits. Coming to the end of the last page, we simply turned back to page one and began again, unwilling to end our magical journey!

I know we'll be revisiting this beautiful book often, and I am already calculating how many copies I'll be buying for nephews and nieces in the coming months. What a blessing, this book!

--Robert McDowell, The Poetry Mentor (www.robertmcdowell.net), author of POETRY AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE, available July 15th, 2008 from Free Press.

Set in the mountainous and isolated kingdom of Bhutan, In Search of the Thunder Dragon is a children's picturebook following the adventures of two children in their quest to find the legendary thunder dragon. Their search leads them to befriend a majestic winged tiger, and fly on its back into the roiling clouds of a thunderstorm! The Eastern traditional-style artwork makes In Search of the Thunder Dragon worthy of framing in an art gallery, and the gentle story about coming face-to-scaly-face with a legend is sure to appeal to young readers who love fantasy. Highly recommended as an introduction to Bhutan's culture for young people as well as a charming fairy tale in its own right.

Into The Fire: A Post - 9/11 American In Tel Aviv is the memoir of Charles T. Salmon, an American who immersed himself in Israeli culture. He arrived on a Fullbright fellowship, speaking no Hebrew, and largely unfamiliar with Judaism and Israeli customs. As time passed, Salmon closely observed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations; Palestinian terrorist events and Israeli responses; the differences between university studies in Tel Aviv and America, and a great deal more replete with insight, wit, and candid openness. Into The Fire offers contemporary readers a revealing, informative, and highly recommended presentation.

This book was well-written, funny and easy-to-read. I read the entire book in two sittings because it was so interesting -- I was just engrossed in it. This book is good for someone interested in politics, foreign countries, and academia. Salmon's interest in wanting to make a difference and learn about many different cultures makes me want to take a class from him. I also liked how he used humor and candor in admitting his own shortcomings and what he missed about America. I would highly recommend this book to anyone over the age of 15. Wonderful! Keep writing and I will keep reading, Charles T. Salmon!

Reading the book, you feel like you are alongside Salmon as he experiences the sites and people of Israel. Salmon's writing blends descriptions of his experiences with insightful perspectives on how life in Israel differs from the US in a way that entrances the reader. As an American living in our post-9/11 society, I found Salmon's descriptions of those who live world that constantly deals with terrorism, and how they deal with their environment, fascinating. It has made me think of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a new enlightened perspective. This book is a must read!

An Introduction to Japanese Society is a book no serious student of Japan (or East Asia generally) can afford to pass up. It affords an unflinching and incisive look at the nature of Japanese democracy by a Japanese scholar who pulls no punches. While quite a few Western scholars have characterized the Japanese elementary school classroom, for example, as less authoritarian than its American counterpart, Sugimoto contends that authoritarianism is pronounced but subtly pervasive throughout Japanese society. Instead of accentuating top-down coercion by authorities, as Korean and Chinese societies do, Japanese authoritarianism is more subtle, relying heavily on indirect controls such as small group pressures, extensive surveillance, moralistic ideologies, positive reinforcements, mythologies of benevolent leadership, and pleasant rituals to mask underlying and potentially coercive power. As Sugimoto persuasively demonstrates, "Japanese friendly authoritarianism does not normally exhibit its coercive face." But when all else fails, it can and does exercise the full measure of its power. Sugimoto's book should inspire more Western scholars to take a closer look at the informal mechanisms of control in Japanese society. If Sugimoto is right, Japan has far to go before it becomes a full-fledged democracy.

This book should be required reading for any introductory course for Japanese Studies. Sugimoto presents a very unbiased view of Japanese society, and covers many different aspects, such as gender, hierarchy (the vertical society), and education that play daily roles in the maintaining of the structure and implement of Japanese ways. Excellent reading for anyone with an interest in Japan, necessary reading for any student of Japanese Studies.

While no book is able to entirely encapsulate a culture, Yoshio Sugimoto's "An Introduction to Japanese Society" manages to showcase the ethnic and economical diversity alongside pop culture and "Friendly Authoritarianism," something that one can see every day in Japan. Scholarly in tone, this is a competent book for serious students of Japan, who want more than can be offered by "culture" books and such.

An impressively wide examination, each of the ten chapters examines a particular face of Japan. Economic class and stratification, varieties in work and labor, diversity and unity in education, minority groups and gender stratification, almost every possible angle is seen. Popular and folk culture are examined in detail, with the "Four Japanese Phenomena" described as manga, pachinko, karaoke and the sex industry. As someone who has spent considerable time in Japan, I can assure that these four areas have more impact on modern Japan than the tea ceremony and the Japanese garden!

Although it is packed with information, "An Introduction to Japanese Society" is also small enough as to not be intimidating. It is only an introduction, but it should be a gateway to those seeking insight into a fascinating culture.