Best of
Japan

1988

The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan


Ono no Komachi - 1988
    The poems speak intimately of their authors' sexual longing, fulfillment and disillusionment.

My Neighbor Totoro


Hayao Miyazaki - 1988
    Satsuki makes plenty of friends at her new school, but Mei, who is too young, has to stay behind. One afternoon, she follows a funny-looking creature to the trunk of an ancient camphor tree and enters the whimsical world of Totoro, a magical forest creature. Will Dad and Satsuki believe her story?

Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema


David Bordwell - 1988
    Combining biographical information with discussions of the films' aesthetic strategies and cultural significance, David Bordwell questions the popular image of Ozu as the traditional Japanese artisan and examines the aesthetic nature and functions of his cinema.

Hokusai: Prints and Drawings


Matthi Forrer - 1988
    His exquisite compositions and dynamic use of color set him apart from other printmakers, and his unequalled genius influenced both Japanese and a whole generation of Western artists. Now available for the first time in paperback, this book reproduces the artist's finest works in plates that convey the full variety of his invention, each of which is provided with an informative commentary.In his introduction, Hokusai expert Matthi Forrer traces the artist's career and defines his place in relation to his contemporaries and to the history of Japanese art. Examining all genres of the artist's prolific output -- including images of city life, maritime scenes, landscapes, views of Mount Fuji, bird and flower illustrations, literary scenes, waterfalls and bridges -- Hokusai, Prints and Drawings provides a detailed account of the artist's genius.

A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters: All the Kanji Characters Needed to Learn Japanese and Ace the Japanese Language Proficiency Test


Kenneth G. Henshall - 1988
    As useful as it is fascinating, it's a book any new or aspiring Japanese language scholar will visit over and over. In clear, large-sized entries, A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters details each of the General Use Characters In clear, large-sized entires, A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters details each of the General Use Characters—the 1,945 characters prescribed by the Japanese Ministry of Education for everyday use. Both Japanese readings and English meanings are given, along with stroke-count and stroke-order, examples of usage, and suggestions for memorizing. The components of each character are detailed. The Japanese kanji are graded according to Ministry of Education guidelines, allowing the student to prioritize them and track progress. It will appeal to students seeking to learn kanji as well as Japanese language enthusiasts who want to know the history and etymology of Japanese kanji. This book includes:Origins and meanings of over 2,000 characters.Beautifly hand–drawn kanji.Additional compound characters for each featured character.valuable suggestions and mnemonic devices for memorizing characters.All the standard characters official designed for common use.Comprehensive and clear, A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters makes Japanese writing accessible to everyone wishing to learn Japanese.

Laputa: The Castle In The Sky


Hayao Miyazaki - 1988
    This subject has intrigued readers ever since. Here is the spellbinding story of two young heroes who battle against air pirates, evil government agents, and other dark forces to keep the castle and its potent treasures from becoming the tools of evil. Children from the ages of 6 to 14 will especially enjoy this captivating story.

Hiroshige: Birds and Flowers


Israel Goldman - 1988
    Endlessly experimenting with design, composition, and color, Hiroshige captured in these paintings, as no where else in his work, his poetic and idyllic sense of nature.

Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism


Taiko Yamasaki - 1988
    This book traces the history of the school from its mysterious origins in India and describes the remarkable men who brought the teachings to China and Japan in the eighth and ninth centuries, who translated the texts, and who carried the initiatic chain of teaching. It discusses the Metaphysical doctrines of Shingon, its founding scriptures, and its views on levels of consciousness and stages of samadhi. And it covers the whole range of Shingon meditations and exercises—such as mudras, incantations, and visualizations of deities and symbolic forms—hitherto virtually unknown in the west.

Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan


Hayao Kawai - 1988
    written well with a mystical swirl that makes for enchanted reading". -- The Book Reader"...clearly written, informative, and enjoyable". -- Psychological Perspectives

Floating the River in Melancholy


Shuntarō Tanikawa - 1988
    

Inside the Japanese System: Readings on Contemporary Society and Political Economy


Daniel Okimoto - 1988
    Whether viewed as a model, a partner, or a threat, no country is more important or less understood. What are the central features of Japan's industrial system? What are the core institutions and practices that have to be understood in order to know how it functions? What sets it apart from other industrial systems, notably that of the United States? Is the Japanese system changing, and if so, how? These are the basic questions addressed in this volume, which presents in compact form the best thinking, the most stimulating arguments, and the classic interpretations of contemporary Japan. The book comprises 55 selections by economists, political scientists, anthropologists, business consultants, and others, which together give an unparalleled insight into the inner workings of the Japanese industrial system.

Sho Japanese Calligraphy: An In-Depth Introduction to the Art of Writing Characters


Christopher J. Earnshaw - 1988
    Calligraphy, along with poetry and painting, has been for centuries a discipline that all students of culture had to master. Brush writing reflected inner character, and many great masters of calligraphy were respected Zen priests, warriors and emperors. From practical lessons on brushwork to hints about exhibiting finished work, this beautiful volume is the fledgling calligrapher's best reference source. Its meditations on the philosophy of calligraphy will also offer new insights to students of Japanese culture and character.

Saipan: The War Diary of John Ciardi


John Ciardi - 1988
    Ciardi records his days and nights as a gunner on a B-29 in the South Pacific during four of the last terrible months of World War II.

The Park Bench


Fumiko Takeshita - 1988
    A beautifully illustrated tale following a day in the life of a Japanese park bench.

Japanese Quilts


Jill Liddell - 1988
    Japanese needleworkers were, of course, impressed by the wonderful graphic designs in the Holstein collection, but they were especially attracted to the lovely old fabrics and the use of scraps. The Japanese have traditionally cherished old fabrics, and the idea of creating something artistic and useful from scraps appealed to the love and use of color and design that is paramount in their culture.The wonderful creations resulting from this enthusiastic quilting activity can be savored in the 135 beautiful illustrations in this book, which are divided into five broad categories: American Patterns-Hybrid Quilts; Japanese Designs; Blue and White Quilts; Country Textiles; and Kamon Quilts.

Trading Places: How America Allowed Japan To Take The Lead


Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr. - 1988
    

Daughters of the Moon: Wish, Will, and Social Constraint in Fiction by Modern Japanese Women


Victoria V. Vernon - 1988
    

The Rhetoric of Confession: Shishosetsu in Early Twentieth Century Japanese Fiction


Edward Fowler - 1988
    Focusing on the works of Chikamatsu Shuko, Shiga Naoya, and Kasai Zenzo, Edward Fowler explores the complex and paradoxical nature of shishosetsu, and discusses its linguistic, literary and cultural contexts.

Battle Stations: A Grizzly from the Coral Sea, Peleliu Landing


Tom Lea - 1988
    

Japanese Drama and Culture in the 1960s: The Return of the Gods


David G. Goodman - 1988
    He describes the turning point in Japanese thinking about the nature and limitations of a Western-oriented modern culture, and the creation of "underground" theatres which in which evolved a new mythology of history. Professor Goodman sees these developments as an interplay between personal and political (ie revolutionary) salvation.

Cultural Atlas of Japan


Martin Collcutt - 1988
    Weaving together geography, history, archaeology, anthropology, architecture, the arts, and more, these handsomely designed, interdisciplinary volumes encompass the entire physical and cultural world of each civilization, evoking its unique spirit and vitality.Designed to appeal to both the serious student and the more casual reader, the Cultural Atlas series is written with authority and clarity. Panoramic in scope, these volumes provide an overview of places and peoples through the centuries and are illustrated throughout with hundreds of striking and informative photographs and drawings.From the Ice Age to the Atomic Age, this volume provides a concise account of centuries of complexity and conflict, thought and tradition.

The Japanese Trajectory: Modernization and Beyond


Gavan McCormack - 1988
    The rise to economic supremacy of post-war Japan constitutes an enormous challenge to that western orthodoxy which posits an essentially unilinear process of modernisation from the seventeenth century to the present day in which national and regional diversity has been eroded by the gradual social convergence of the major industrial powers. How does a society of contrasting social and cultural traditions fit within this pattern? Can one sensibly speak of Japanese society as 'modern' when such usage is effectively defined by other, western, presuppositions? In this volume an international team of contributors assesses these questions and investigates the real impact of modernisation upon the Japanese themselves.

Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji Japan


Robert A. Rosenstone - 1988
    Morse, and the writer Lafcadio Hearn. They were to become part of the first generation of American experts on Japan, regularly quoted and widely read. More significantly, their own lives were vastly changed, broadened and enriched in unexpected ways, so that their thoughts dwelt as much on what Americans could learn from the pagan Japanese as on what Americans could teach them.In telling these stories, Robert Rosenstone evokes the immediacy of daily experience in Meiji Japan, a nation still feudal in many of its habits yet captivating to Westerners for the gentleness of the people, the beauty of the landscape, the human scale of the unspoiled old towns, and the charm of arts and manners. He describes the odyssey of the ambitious and strong-minded Christian minister Griffis, who won few converts but, as a teacher, assisted at the birth of modern Japan. He portrays the natural scientist Morse, a born collector who turned from amassing mollusks to assembling comprehensive collections of Japanese folk art and pottery. He recounts Lafcadio Hearn's fourteen years in Japan. Hearn, who married a Japanese, became a citizen, and found in his new homeland ideal subject matter for exotic tales of ghosts, demons, spectral lovers, local gods and heroes, spells, enchantments.Rosenstone recreates the sights and textures of Meiji Japan, but Mirror in the Shrine brings to the reader much more than a traditional rendering. Rather, through the use of some of the techniques of modernist writing, the book provides a multi-voiced narrative in which the words of the present and the past interact to present a fresh view of historical reality. While charting the common stages of these three Americans' acculturation--growing to like the food, the architecture, the spareness, the mysterious etiquette--the work also highlights the challenges that Japan issues to American culture, in this century as well as in the last: Is it possible to find human fulfillment within the confines of a hierarchical, even repressive, social order? Is it possible for our culture to find a place of importance for such qualities as harmony, aesthetics, morals, manners?This is a book for anyone who is at all interested in Japan or in the meeting of East and West. The "old Japan hand" will reexperience the freshness of an early love; the newcomer will find it equally evocative and fascinating.

Kyoto: Seven Paths to the Heart of the City


Diane Durston - 1988
    Knock-kneed white egrets stalk the stream beds for breakfast, and the giant bronze temple bells awaken the former capital of Japan every morning as they have done for centuries.Through wars, fires, famines, tyrants, and now rapid modernization, the old neighborhoods of Kyoto are the places where the customs and traditions of this fascinating city, with its confusing blend of old and new, have managed to survive.American writer and former Kyoto resident Diane Durston introduces seven must-see precincts of this ancient capital city, including four Historic Preservation Districts. Among them are the world-famous geisha quarter, the kimono textile neighborhoods, the sake-brewing area of Fushimi, and the tea-growing region of Uji. Durston weaves together local lore and historical sites to create a panoply of provocative walking tours that take the reader back in time to the elegance of earlier days.Accompanying each section is a full-color map and the fine photography of Katsuhiko Mizuno, a Kyoto native and one of the city's most famous photographers. Sections highlighting Kyoto crafts, cuisine, festivals, and tourist essentials round out this attractive volume, making it the perfect introduction -and guide- to one of the world's most evocative cities.FEATURES * Photographs by one of Kyoto's most renowned photographers* Locations of the most important Historic Preservations Districts* Detailed maps and suggested routes* Scenic and little-known walking paths* Completely revised and updated information