Japan Books

The book has been indispensible in creating a reading list for Japanese Literature. Where to start in such a foreign genre? Why not a list of classic authors, modern authors and current authors, with recommended translations? The book delivers on it's goal.

The only knock - there's a heavy emphasis on poetry, which is not my cup of ocha. But I could spend a dozen years reading the rest of Mr. Rimer's recommendations. No other book like it! Do get the current edition as the state of the art in translations has advanced remarkably since the 1988 original.

Afraid to make your first foray into the magical and majestical world of Japanese literature? Then here is a perfect introduction for you. Within this slim volume numerous wonderful recommendations abound, although there is one small oversight -- "Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa isn't mentioned. Ah well. Also look into, "The Pleasures of Japanese Literature," by Donald Keene. And for lovers of poetry, I cannot say enough wonderful things about, "The Ink Dark Moon," translated by Jane Hirshfield, and "Modern Japanese Tanka" by Makoto Ueda.

This is an excellent book worthy and rewarding of study by students at any level of Japanese, though the more you know the easier it is...surprise. The author has worked hard to achieve this result which eases and encourages comprehension for any student in an effective, thorough but light-hearted manner. Strongly recommended.

I just purchased this book and am already hooked on it. Not only does it give a translation of the text, but it goes beyond that by giving vocabulary, grammar and all the little details of how Japanese sentences work that you'd have to go through volumes of grammar books (as I have in the past) to understand. Not only are the stories interesting, but they are authentic articles taken from a Japanese "weekly" magazine (sometimes described as "tabloid" magazines). This volume presents nine of these stories, but I found that more of these were collected in Japan in several volumes called "Dekigotology." After reading through this book, I will go out and look for more.

Great book! I spent years wondering about the effectiveness of Reaganomics, and this book taught me everything I ever wanted to know!

Great book! I spent years wondering about the effectiveness of Reaganomics, and this book taught me everything I ever wanted to know!

I love this book! The author has researched and presented the subject well. It has put so much of the Tea Ceremony in perspective for me that I am grateful!

It is good to see an objective view, questioning histories coming from sources which rely on information from the Iemoto schools themselves. In the development of most Iemoto systems a loosely based and often fictious history is created, what the Chinese called "Leaning on the Ancients." However, these histories don't usually withstand the test of time and academic scrutiny. This is one of those wonderful books that sheds light on the subject, and allows us to see something of the real history.

This is a delightful and scholarly work that examines the history and cultural significance of tea in Japan. It is a book of stories about great tea-masters and focuses on the most famous and influential of them, Rikyu.

Here is a particularly striking story.

One of Rikyu's guest knew that Morning Glories grew on the hedge in tea-master's garden. Wishing to see these flowers opening in the morning sun, he came to the tea party early but was dismayed to find that all of the flowers had been cut down. However, on entering the tea hut he found that Rikyu had placed a single Morning Glory in a simple bamboo vase in the alcove. He was transfixed by the beauty of the solitary flower and by the realization that Rikyu had deliberately shifted the focus away from the massed flowers of the hedgerow to this isolated specimen. Such were the delicate considerations and expression of the tea-master, and such were the considerations of the society within which he lived.

"Rediscovering Rikyu" offers the reader an engaging insight into an unfamiliar world, a world redolent with Zen metaphysics, jealous and feuding warlords, anguish and ritualistic suicide, the aesthetics of preparing tea, and the transformational beauty of the Morning Glory. It is distanced world, and Herbert Plutschow is a knowledgeable and scholarly guide.

But the book is more than history. It examines tea as a way of approaching, attaining, and sustaining liminality within a Japan that was in a period of ongoing conflict. Plutschow carefully and skillfully examines the deep-core symbolism and tranformative possibilities within the delicate art form or tea.

This is a delightful, readable, and interesting book that provides an unexpected and welcome insight not simply into a different culture but into our own cultures and contemporary preoccupations.

We thoroughly enjoyed this book and we bought an extra copy to be able to share with our friends. Anyone who is interested in "doing the most enduring good" for people, needing encouragment in "hard times" or who enjoy travel would be inspired and helped by reading it.

This is a tale of adventure and belief, of indefatigable courage in the face of hardship, of the creation of unlikely community between people of vastly different cultures. Told beautifully through the voice of an unlikely early 20th century heroine who intrepidly sailed off to the South Seas (literally) as a missionary and who came to build a family and a world of great love and creativity despite wars and dislocation. This is a stunning book, full of surprises.

I was a resident of HK for 3 and a half years before the handover. I remember speaking to some obnoxious Australian "journalist" at Christmas time 1996-97 who was absolutely convinced that the Chinese army was going to invade HK and that there would be a Tiananmen Square-style bloodbath. This guy had been sent from Australia to report on the build-up to the hand-over and was simply not interested in hearing any opinions that did not fit into his doomsday nonsense. At the time I was finishing off an MPhil in pol sci at HKU, but this was of no interest to our journo "expert"! I also remember watching the appaling coverage on CNN with some ridiculous American "journalist" making the most innane comments and getting it all wrong. He had obviously been flown in from the States a week before June 30 and was now "the expert" on the handover. I also remember him making continual petty digs at the British. Anyway, what I am saying is that if this book is about exposing the "instant experts" that popular journalism creates and about showing up the pathetic parachute journos (from whom most people get their info from - scary!) then it is an excellent venture and I'm going to buy it!

The book is very attractive for a reader who, like me, did follow the handover of Hong Kong to Communist China by being on the spot. I was one of the reporter mentioned in the book. This work, edited by Alan Knight and Yoshiko Nakano is also due to Barry Lowe, not mentioned on the book cover and who was actually the real motor behind its publication. This is a study on how journalists should not report a complex string of facts and events unfolding under their eyes without adeguate preparation. In few words it speaks against "parachute journalism". During the handover all the televisions and newspapers of the World sent people here to report on facts which they could hardly grasp, because they were too complex, too fast and all interconnected. Most of these parachute journalists ended up interviewing each other and consulting the few residents newsmen. Once a mistake was broadcasted or printed by one of them it was automatically taken up by all and it became the official truth, even if the truth was exactly the contrary. All the awful limitations of the TV are clearly exposed: moving images are good to discribe something spectacular and simple. But for something like the handover the real picture could have been given only by an "old china hand" with a philosophic mind and open eyes. The television created a lot of historical distorsions. It makes a good reading this book and can teach a lot on how not to report facts and news, more than how to report them. Angelo Paratico

This book was pretty good. I liked it

We have owned this book for three years, and it continues to be a favorite with my 5 and 7 year old daughters. The illustrations are colorful and cheery. The story is comforting and charming, with a theme of one's own place in a family. Also, it was very interesting for our children to read about a Japanese family, and learn about the similarities of starting a new day!

... incredibly rich information about the Pacific War! A very detailed and readable book. Outstanding!

This book should be in print. The story of the Pacific War as the Japanese experienced it. Toland did extensive research, including interviews with people on the Japanese side who were involved with the war at every level--from the battlefield to the conferences where the emperor "presided". He has a novelist's eye for detail. The result is a sweeping historical account peppered with fascinating vignettes that show how these events impacted the lives of hundreds of individuals. A long book, but never boring.

I bought this because I was curious about Agnes Chan's writing. I think if one bothers to investigate the costs to women of having children then many social ills can be more accurately studied and hopefully prevented. The big difference seems to be social opportunities and social acceptance between the two countries otherwise the situations tend to parallel. The gold is in the statistics such as the difference in resentment of shouldering more housework was amplified if the woman was not working and how the males were more likely to share in housework if the wife was making a financial contribution. This information is interesting. It would make a truthful mother's day gift and it may be welcomed since part of the pain is society's ignorance/deafness to the true costs. The title is from Christina Rosetti's poem but some mothers or anyone who has ever heard a mother choke up telling herr tale of self-abnegation may recognize a darker truth from the bible as well:
"The road winds uphill all the way. There are many difficulties, privations and hardships."

"Beloved of God" (Romans 1:7)

Beloved of God, Paul calls his Roman friends. There is music in the very sound and cadence of the words, like the bells of the Angelus ringing through the evening sky.

This is the penitent's song. My iniquities are forgiven. My diseases are healed. My life is redeemed from destruction. The God of my salvation has crowned me, through Jesus Christ, with His tenderest mercies. This is the soldier's security. Around me, within me, are enemies too strong for my feeble arm and fickle heart. But the Lord of Hosts is on my side and victory is sure. I am beloved of Him who has all power. This is the pilgrim's staff. The road winds uphill all the way. There are many difficulties, privations and hardships. Shall I be able to persevere to the end? Yes, I am beloved of Him, Jehovah-jireh, the Lord who sees and provides.
This is the saint's assurance. God is not the God of the dead but of the living. If he is mine and I am His, the grave will not end our fellowship. I am beloved of Him whose years are from everlasting, and to whom both my body and soul are unspeakably dear.

The Road Winds Uphill All The Way: Gender, Work and Family in the United States and Japan. By Myra H. Strober and Agnes M. K. Chan. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1999, 276 pp.

Stober and Chan maintain that the economic position of women in the United States bears a number of uncanny similarities to that of Japanese women. This is one of a number of disconcerting conclusions they draw from a study of the Stanford and Tokyo (Todai) University graduating classes of 1981, surveyed roughly a decade after graduation. Readers interested in the details of campus life in these two schools will come away disappointed, but those seeking to learn what happened to the graduates later in life will be richly rewarded.

The book focuses on the difficulty of combining work and family for those entering, or seeking to enter, the highest echelons of the professions and management. Strober and Chan recognize the distinctiveness of their elite sample, but this is clearly an important group. They typically set the trends for their respective societies, and will likely formulate the work-family policies that govern the daily work routines of their country-men and women.

Strober and Chan recall their personal child-care dilemmas after returning to work in Washington, D. C. and Tokyo, respectively. Their stories immediately draw the reader into the question of which country poses a greater array of obstacles for working mothers to overcome. Yet it is the statistical similarities between Japan and the U. S. that Strober and Chan return to throughout the book.

The female-male ratio of earnings for full time earners ten years after graduation was .80 for the Stanford graduates, nearly identical to the .79 ratio found in the Todai sample. Moreover, men and women in both countries expected the gender gap to widen as their careers unfolded. When respondents were asked what they expected to earn at the peak of their careers, the female/ male ratio is a dramatic .459 in the Stanford sample and .548 in the Todai sample. In other words, women graduating from these top-ranked schools expected to make about half as much as their male counterparts at the peak of their careers.

A number of countervailing differences account for these similarities. Todai women were a small and very elite group, which contributed to a smaller gap in the Todai sample. At the same time, earnings inequality is narrower in Japan than in the United States, which tends to mute the gender gap in earnings. On the other hand, child care options are broader in the United States, but still far from adequate. Stanford women reported more numerous child care options, and were less likely to experience career interruptions after childbirth. Some Todai mothers reported being forced to quit their jobs after the birth of a child, an experience not mentioned by the Stanford women.

Who took care of the children? It depends on who you ask. Just over half of the Stanford fathers reported sharing child care equally with their wives when they were not at work, but only thirty percent of their female counterparts reported being in such marriages. This gap grows to 56 percent versus 21 percent among Stanford parents working full time. Responses to the slightly different child care question posed to the Todai sample suggests an even lower level of participation by men in parenting. Most of the Todai fathers (60 percent) said they spend less than half of their free time on their children, while nearly all (97 percent) of the working Todai mothers said they spend half or more of their free time with their children. There are many other interesting analyses, including an examination of the effect of relative earnings on the share of housework in the two samples, and the determinants of earnings. The bargaining model of housework appears to fit the U. S. data but receives little support in the Japanese analysis. Working in a large firm shaped earnings in Japan: women were less likely to be employed in these firms, and received a lower premium when they did. Male Stanford graduates from upper-class backgrounds earned significantly more than their classmates. Analysts of gender, earnings, and family relations will find many such interesting results to ponder.

The Japanese birth rate (1.57 children per woman ) is well below the replacement level. Strober and Chan suggest that policy changes should be made to help make it more feasible for women to combine work with motherhood. They recommend efforts to reduce gender discrimination and occupational segregation, and call for more flexible employment and high quality child care. They recommend similar reforms in the United States, which are aimed at promoting gender equity rather than fertility levels.

This thoughtful and timely book deserves a wide audience. Clearly written, it is accessible to the general public, upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. The presentation of the survey results and statistical findings are supplemented with informative quotations from the respondents. Its policy recommendations flow directly from the meticulously documented findings. This work should provide further impetus to comparative research on gender inequality.

Reviewed by Jerry A. Jacobs, Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

I'm a japanese and a lover of photograph . I amazed the reality and beauty of the images in this book. Now many of these images are hard to find in Japan. But I think you can comprehend one of the best aspects of japanese culture and tradition.

This book is written in a style that takes you to Japan from your own living room. Each page teaches history and/or contemporary living. The text and photography of Japan teaches a deeper understanding of their lifestyle. Linda's "eye" brings depth, meaning and a unique visual experience of Japan. You will want to read and/or study her book over and over.