Japan Books

The first time I glanced trough this book I was dissapointed.
Having read it a few times, I now cannot understand why -probably because the photos that could have been better (white clad practicioners on white background. Not much contrast which makes it hard on the eyes).

Shigeru Oyama was one of the finest and most respected teachers in kyokushin karate (known for its full contact, bareknuckle competitions), until he left and founded his own style known as world Oyama karate.

This book is one of very few to focus on the fighting aspect of full contact styles. Tactics, theory and fighting combinations is the core of this book, and it is all very good.
While many combinations shown would be fouls in any knockdown bout (the full contact, bareknuckle rule system used in kyokushin, world oyama, ashihara and several other full contact styles), it is the tactics and foot work that gives a glimpse of how Jissen kumite (all out full contact karate fighting) should look like.

I highly recommend this book to any practicioner of any style that use knockdown rules in competition (you know who you are). Practicioners of other styles might find it interesting to see aswell, even if they might not use most of the information due to rules restrictions and the difference in tactics that it leads to.

Excellent photo-packed guide with explanations that will guide the student from the basics to full-contact sparring. This book is excellent in reinforcing what you learn in class.

If you are looking for real Japanese Karate Instruction, this is it. Look no further. Great book! Highly Recommended for real Karate Students.

The movie Princess Mononoke has impressed me a lot, I have had the opportunity to see the version original subtitled to the Spanish one and from then on, as animator, I have a concept very different from the animation. The characters capture to the audience for their personalities, only and completely believable, far from hero's / villainous typical stereotypes, in this film, it lines her that they separates it is narrowed until disappearing, giving place to an unique and personal experience. The animation of the film is simply delicious, and Hayao Miyazaki's master like storyteller are clearly patent. I have the Japanese Artbook of this movie and it is simply wonderful, and I wait my copy of this fantastic edition of Hyperion impatiently.

I have viewed the subtitled edition of the animated film Mononoke Hime and I must say it is absolutly magnificent!! ^_^ I was totaly absobed by it's great storyline. The storyline of this film is indeed very deep and carries with it many messages and thoughts on society and the nature of man as well as his relationship with Mother nature . Mononoke Hime, though it does contain violent scenes and much of it's plot involves battle, too portrays a beautiful love story. With this film scheduled to be released in the U S in October, I encourage all able to go see it. I belive that those who view Mononoke Hime in the theaters this fall will be just as impressed and touched as I was after viewing it. Those who view Mononoke Hime in theaters this October will also be able to view animation in a whole new prespective. Hopefully it will make some realize that though they are only "cartoons", animated pieces are very capable of portraying human ideas, thoughts and emotions in a very mature, adult fashion. So well are these emotions portrayed that they are made tangible. It is for this very reason that I have become a fan of japanese aniamted works (anime), for in the US, many people including animators, are under the impression that animation is truthfully only a field built for the amusement of children. I must thank Hayao Miyazaki, the creator of Mononoke Hime, for producing such a wonderful animated film which I am lucky to have been able to see. This film will always have a place in my heart.

I saw the movie "Princess Mononoke" subtitled and I must say it is fantastic! Not the best of Miyazaki's works (Nausicaa is my favorite) but still a good movie! Cant wait for it to come out!

An excellent book. Mr. Rain gives great insights into what it takes to work on the staff of a General Officer- In this case Marine Corps General Ray Robinson. Some great anecdotes about Robinson, a Marine who served throughout WW2 in quite a few of the major Marine Campaigns of that war.

Great book! This book gives wonderful insight into what it was like going to war in the Pacific and fighting on Iwo Jima. The author gives a candid account of the events he went through preparing and fighting in WWII.

Enjoyed the book!! Great reading for the veteran. A must read for
students who want an insight as to what really happened in WWII and the bravery of our American soldiers. An honest account of one soldier's story of Iwo Jima.

I bought this book in Toyko for 4800 yen, so I'm not sure exactly why Amazon is charging {} (!) for it. In any event, this long book of photos is the ultimate conversation piece: Tsuzuki writes a weekly column for a Japanese newspaper about odd things one can see driving around Japan and this book is a collection of his finds. It shows that small town Japan is just like small town US--full of odd folk monuments, primitive art, fiberglass dinosaurs, homespun museums, and other folksy treasures. If you know someone who is going to Japan, have them buy you a copy.

This is book that contains many shocking photo that reflects many interesting aspects of the Japanese Culture. It is definitely one of the most interesting photo journey I have read. It is a collection of temples, museums, and site in Japan. From Hokkaido to Kyushu, it included over 150 extremely intriguing places. Great photograph, and great layout of the book. It sure suits its name "Roadside Japan". Some of the picture might be disturbing for some people, but that is just part of the Japanese Culture.

I got this book after I read Tokyo Style, also by Kyoichi Tsuzuki. As with that book, this one has huge, glossy pics and if you can afford it, it's an entertaining book. I lived near/visited several of the places discussed in the book when I lived in Japan from 1993-1998. I got the feeling at some of the locations that they weren't much used to seeing foreigners. I got my copy in Japan, and it has both Japanese and English text; so maybe you can justify it to yourself as an expensive study aid, if nothing else!

The last (for the moment) title of Fukagawa&Rothman is really excellent. Not only the printing is superb, but the mathematical content is also outstanding. Strongly recomended to every lover of geometry...

I am always interested in what Tony Rothman has to say. He is the real deal, teaches physics at Princeton, Harvard, etc., who comes up with revolutionary insights you just can't find anywhere else. SACRED MATHEMATICS is a revelation and a tremendous challenge, another brilliant one in this writer's repertoire.

I began my Rothman studies after reading INSTANT PHYSICS, which pretty much brought me up to speed in what had always intrigued yet baffled me. Then I was amazed with his majestic DOUBT AND CERTAINTY followed by the jaw-dropping, myth-busting EVERYTHING'S RELATIVE. I couldn't get enough so I started backtracking and discovered the Pulitzer Prize nominated A PHYSICIST ON MADISON AVENUE and SCIENCE A LA MODE, where he maybe first established his continual theme of treating science with the skeptical irreverence it often deserves. In between, I discovered articles in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, DISCOVER, ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE and THE NEW REPUBLIC, not to mention some weighty scientific papers and reports. Finally, I found his science fiction novel, THE WORLD IS ROUND, with which the movie industry might finally have the tools to do justice.

Tony Rothman is a great and gifted writer and SACRED MATHEMATICS is a beautifully illustrated book of art, religion, history and geometry. I see from his web site that a novel about The Great Seige of Malta is next. I anxiously anticipate that and hope that both APOCHRYPHA and the plays there mentioned will soon be published.

I strongly recommend SACRED MATHEMATICS and, in fact, everything written by Tony Rothman to anyone, who in a world too often full of nonsense and lies, cherishes instead reality and truth. Rothman's voice is beautiful and unique.

For anyone who truly loves mathematics, this book is a must have.
Simply put, the book tells the story of sangaku, geometry problems which were painted in color on wooden tablets and displayed at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines throughout Japan. Most of the sangaku were composed by people from all walks of life-priests, farmers, children women, samurai, etc.-between 1600 and 1900. Approximately 900 of the old tablets have survived and even today one is occasionally found at an abandoned temple/shrine. Tony Rothman has assisted Mr. Fukagawa Hidetoshi, a retired Japanese high school teacher, who is one of the world's foremost experts in sangaku, in producing a beautiful book. Various chapters discuss Japan and temple geometry, the Chinese foundation of mathematics, Japanese mathematics and mathematicians of the Edo period. In addition, the book contains over 200 sangaku problems ranging from very elementary to extremely difficult. The book also contains extensive excerpts from the diary of Yamaguchi Kanzan, a Japanese mathematician, who treked through Japan during the 1800s collecting sangaku problems. Finally, there are chapters on East and West, Japanese attempts to handle differentiation and integration, and inversion. The book contains numerous diagrams which accompany the problems and there are 16 color plates. In summary, this book captures a beautiful form of vanished mathematics which was artistic/religious in nature. Mr. Fukagawa Hidetoshi and Mr. Rothman are to be congratulated for producing a superb book which tells the story of this vanished mathematical/religious art form. Buy your copy today. This book contains enough history, mathematics, art, and religion to keep one's intellect perplexed for years.

Sometimes when reading or thinking or, simply, being direct witness to the casual cruelty that God is so evidently fond of, we feel a small bubble become loosened in the vicinity of our inner soul and, rising and expanding, it reaches surface and our faces spontaneously contract and our eyes fill with tears and we must sit quietly for a moment and, in my case, wish that we could smash that God squarely in it's hellish face. But it passes and we are again back in the normal universe where we understand that things just are. The reader of this book has more than one opportunity for such experience. The slightly elitest tone of the author does not detract but, somehow, offers some hope that we may grow up. The translation, as well as I can judge having lived only four years in Hiroshima, is superb.

This book is the heartrending story of a Japanese child prostitute. She was sold by her family at the age of 8 to a sex slave trafficker, shipped to North Borneo (port of Sandakan) and forced to work in the sex business at the age of 12, even before she had her first menstruation.

The roots of the trafficking system were religious, economic and political.
On the religious front, the Confucian system of patriarchy determined the social duties of women. They were told to obey first their fathers, than their husbands and ultimately their sons. The social superiority of the male permitted the exploitation of women financially, physically, sexually and emotionally.

Economically, high taxation rates for the farmers (60 % of the yield went to the landlord) provoked poverty and famine: 'There were days when I would have nothing to swallow but water from morning 'til night.'
Starving peasants felt compelled to sell their daughtes in order to save the rest of the family.
The main character in this book, Osaki, agreed (?) at the age of 8 to be sold in order to permit her brother to buy farmland.

This poverty was aggravated by the settlement policies of the government provoking a burgeoning population in the region.
More, the Japanese government did nothing against the traffickers. On the contrary, it needed the foreign currency sent back by the sex slaves in order to become, as it said, a strong nation.
The selling of children in Japan has only been abolished in 1959.

After the exploitation by the government and the landlords, the children were milked by the traffickers, who took 50 % of their earnings and compelled them to redeem with the rest their original inflated 'investment'.

Having heavily supported the Japanese nation with their bodies, the sex workers were looked upon as 'Boule de Suif's' by the rest of the population when they could come back home. They tried to avoid to be recognized in order to escape their social 'stigma'.
Osaki survived prychologically nearly unscathed and without guilt her harsh experience.

This book is a profound human document about the struggle for survival. It is excellently introduced by Karen Colligan-Taylor.
Highly recommended, not only for Japanese scholards.

I also recommend the autobiography of the geisha Sayo Masuda, as well as the work of Robert Van Gulik 'Sexual Life in Ancient China'.

Sometimes when reading or thinking or, simply, being direct witness to the casual cruelty that God is so evidently fond of, we feel a small bubble become loosened in the vicinity of our inner soul and, rising and expanding, it reaches surface and our faces spontaneously contract and our eyes fill with tears and we must sit quietly for a moment and, in my case, wish that we could smash that God squarely in it's hellish face. But it passes and we are again back in the normal universe where we understand that things just are. The reader of this book has more than one opportunity for such experience. The slightly elitest tone of the author does not detract, but offers some hope, that we may grow up. The translation, as well as I can judge having lived only four years in Hiroshima, is superb.

This could've been featured in our collector's section or even our sports section, but is presented here for its powerful artistic survey of Japanese sports through its lovely baseball card art. SAYONARA HOME RUN! THE ART OF THE JAPANESE BASEBALL CARD features player history, card art, and loved and hated baseball teams alike. It will attract any with an interest in world baseball or in collectible ballgame cards - and many a browser with an interest in neither!

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

This could've been featured in our collector's section or even our sports section, but is presented here for its powerful artistic survey of Japanese sports through its lovely baseball card art. SAYONARA HOME RUN! THE ART OF THE JAPANESE BASEBALL CARD features player history, card art, and loved and hated baseball teams alike. It will attract any with an interest in world baseball or in collectible ballgame cards - and many a browser with an interest in neither!

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

Vinatge Japanese baseball cards are among the most beautiful baseball collectibles in the world. I discovered these treasures over ten years ago during a trip to Japan and became an avid collector. My passion for the cards eventually led to a on-line card business and a career as a baseball writer. John Gall and Gary Engel's new book Sayanara Homerun! depicts hundreds, if not thousands, of theese beautiful cards. The book's presentation is wonderful. Cards are gracefully portrayed as art but the accompanying text will statisfy both baseball card collectors and fans of Japanese baseball.

If you are an American baseball cards collector, come see what you are missing. If you a fan of Japanese baseball, come see great pictures of your favorite stars.

I spend hours paging through this book and expect that you will enjoy it as much as I have.

Although the project was supposed to last only a few months, Asahi shimbun were absolutely deluged with responses and they eventually printed 1,000 out of 4,000 letters received. Not only does the book give the reader a personal glimpse of what it was like to be a foot soldier, housewife, high school teacher, etc.,it is also organized in a way that details the events of the war from the first settlements in Manchuria to the occupation and even how people feel about their role today. It's a great way to get the full chronology of events as well as all the personal depictions.

I was shocked at how the footsoldiers were treated by the officers and was surprised to read tales of killing superiors in battle, much like "fragging" occurrences in the Vietnam war. Throughout the book there are gut-wrenching stories of combat, but there is also an underlying thread of humanity; officers finding ways to keep their soldiers alive, a vacationing zero pilot who convinces a group of admiring boys not to join the military, a young soldier who secretly puts some of the bones and ashes of other soldiers into the empty boxes so the families have something to pray to.

I sat down to read the first chapter at 6 pm but I couldn't put it down. I finished it at 2 am. My best friend teaches high school history and I'm going to copy off a few of the best stories for him to use in class. This is a must read... for anyone.

This book does a great service in helping us see the Japanese in WW2 as more than mindless fanatics.It is an compilation of letters written to the editors of one of Japans largest newspapers, the Asahi ("Morning Sun")Shimbun during the 50th anniversary commemorations of the end of World War 2.The stories are primarily from military participants or family members of military personnel and most are very frank and gut wrenching. I got the sense that many of the ex military men were trying to come to grips as to why they were fighting- and the answers are not what this American reader has come to expect. I have always thought that the Japanese were brain washed sub-human fanatics when it came to fighting, but many of the stories reveal compassion,caring and a full awareness of the situation they were in. They speak of heartless, cruel and inhuman superior officers who thought nothing of leading entire battalions to death in their quest for glory, but they also realize that these officers were just the products of a military system where cruel treatment of recruits was a tool to instill blind obedience to superior officers. I still don't think that this is a good excuse for the many atrocities that were committed by Japanese forces during the war, but it goes alot farther in helping me to understand how such atrocities,e.g., Rape of Nanking, Bataan death march, arose. The letters from family members are particularly poignant as they recall fathers, brothers, uncles and sons who were never seen again.I was very moved by several letters from family members who had childhood memories of the deceased soldiers that really drove the point home that war is such a terrible waste(hate to sound like a cliche). The Japanese lost more than 2 million people during the war, and it would be hard not to find a family that didn't face tragedy. I gave this book to several friends who said it completely opened up their minds about what they thought about the Japanese during World War 2.While we all agree that Japan was not right for its war of aggression and the pain and suffering it caused to millions of Asians, Americans, British,Dutch and Australians, we can now hear for the first time the voices of the Japanese participants and learn that they too cried and suffered and felt deep guilt for what they did.

The first shocking chapters of this book give us a picture of a military culture whose sadistic norms were so out of control that it's almost incomprehensible. Sometimes I wonder if the allies did Japanese soldiers a favor by killing them so they could escape an army with an absolutely sick sense of discipline. One soldier wonders how many trainees committed suicide to escape punishment: just for breaking a firepin on a rifle! On Japan's surrender, an army nurse recalls soldiers turning on and beating officers who were screaming, "Forgive me, forgive me". Another soldier remembers suffering trainees whispering, "Bullets come from behind in a battlefield". I grew up hearing Korean stories about Japanese abuse that I never thought to be true until now.

It's certainly not surprising that such an army of the walking dead would commit atrocities as a norm rather than as an exception. One story recalls using prisoners as targets for new recruits who were so scared that their bayonets were shaking. He recounts how they drew a red circle around the prisoners' heart, not as a target, but as the one place you were NOT allowed to stab so the prisoners would suffer as long as possible. Many of the tales of wartime heroism are simply acts of decency in defiance of unspeakably cruel punishment.

Was such ferocious sadism unique to Japan, or does this teach us about other great cultures as well? Many admire the samurai, the Zulu, the Spartans and other great warriors reknown for superhuman conduct. Perhaps this sadism is the cost of such greatness - the natural reaction of humans being held to an inhuman standard?

Nevertheless, as the war drags on and unrealistic notions of superiority fade, the stories inevitably become more human and share much more in common with the horrible sufferings of all people from war. It was a war where both the innocent and guilty suffered from the fanaticism of the strong.

The editors reveal that they did not publish articles that were simply long nationalistic rants. Interestingly enough, this coincides with the fact that almost no articles were written by or defended those who perpertrated this plague of barbarism. It may very well be that the anti-war bias of the editors has robbed us of a look into the psychology that gives birth to atrocity.

There's a delicious color photo of each recipe, and even the typically Japanese ingredients needed are photographed and described at the end of the book. The method of preparation is clear and simple, and the book really makes you feel confident of spectacular results.

I LOVE Keiko Hayashi and have enjoyed her cookbooks for almost 20 years! In fact, I'd have to admit, she taught me how to cook Japanese (wa-shoku).

Simple & Delicious certainly lives up to its title and is a delight for the eyes and the palate. My only request, Ms. Hayashi, is to provide some sympathetic substitutes for those hard-to-find Japanese ingredients, so Westerners can still complete your wonderful recipes.

Thanks for spreading the joy of great Japanese cuisine.

This is a fabulous cookbook. It's the best I've found on Japanese cusine. Beautiful photos generously illustrate recipes as well as preparation techniques. An added delight is the illustrated index of ingredients and utensils. But the recipies are the best part of all. They are superb in taste yet not difficult to prepare. This wonderful book lives up to its title!

This book was puchased as a gift and I know my daughter in law will enjoy reading it since she is very interested in Papercrafts.

First, I browsed this book and was really amazed how simple these projects are and decided to buy it because I was interested in origami as a hobby and it may help me practice, and do some for gift giving during the holidays and special occassions.

After a few days, I read the book and really enjoyed doing the projects. It takes practice to perfect the illustrated projects shown in this book. I really recommend this book if you want to make something for friends, family for any occassion. This is very practical and fun.

This is a very nice book which gives the basics of paper folding in easy-to-follow instructions and photographs. The illustrations are vivid, and the projects are creative and inspiring. It has been a very enjoyable "crafts-weekend" for me and my son following the projects in the book!