A gift from her obachan, it holds special memories of her grandmother's visit last summer. And Suki is going to wear it on her first day back to school --- no matter what anyone says.When it's Suki's turn to share with her classmates what she did during the summer, she tells them about the street festival she attended with her obachan and the circle dance that they took part in. In fact, she gets so carried away reminiscing that she's soon humming the music and dancing away, much to the delight of her entire class!Filled with gentle enthusiasm and a touch of whimsy, Suki's Kimono is the joyful story of a little girl whose spirit leads her to march --- and dance --- to her own drumbeat.

    Drawing from influences as diverse as Art Nouveau and Art Deco traditions, American comics, Japanese ukiyo-e, and traditional fantasy illustration, Amano's prints capture a breathtaking world -- sometimes whimsical, sometimes luxurious, and sometimes terrifying.Amano: The Complete Prints showcases hundreds of these captivating works, comprising an impressive, comprehensive look at one of the art world's visionary talents. Art scholar and critic Unno Hiroshi contributes an insightful message on Amano, the genesis of this style, and his place in the panoply of art history. Also included is a brief timeline noting the high points of the artist's career.

    His family has problems they never told him about, a new student at school upsets everything he knows about the world, and a girl's voice rings in his mind all hours of the night. Desperately he searches for some way to change his life; a way to alter his fate.To achieve his goal, he must navigate the magical world of Vision, a land filled with creatures both fierce and friendly. And to complicate matters, he must outwit a merciless rival from the real world. Wataru's ultimate destination is the Tower of Destiny where a Goddess of fate awaits. Only when he has finished his journey and collected five elusive gemstones will he possess the Demon's Bane; the key that will unlock his future. Charity, bravery, faith, grace and the power of darkness and light: these are the provinces of each gemstone. Brought together, they have the immeasurable power to change Wataru's life.

    By arranging the poems chronologically, Makoto Ueda has created an overview of the way in which this enigmatic seventeen-syllable form has been used and experimented with during different eras. At the same time, the reader is admitted to the often marginalized world of female experience in Japan, revealing voices every bit as rich and colorful, and perhaps even more lyrical and erotic, than those found in male haiku.

    The only complete set of the series, in the collection of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, provides for the exquisite reproductions in this popular book on nineteenth-century Japan's most mainstream art amusement. Yoshitoshi was born in the city of Edo (Tokyo) shortly before Japan's violent transformations from a medieval to a modern society. He was keenly interested in preserving traditional Japanese culture against the inclusions of modernism, and his prints celebrate the glory of Japan in its mythology, literature, history, the warrior culture, and fine woodblock print tradition. This book will appeal to a broad audience of connoisseurs as well as the many who cultivate an interest in Japanese art.

    Ozu and cowriter Kogo Noda viewed the script as literature; once completed, it was little changed during filming. Here is a translation of the Japanese screenplay to Tokyo Story, with critical observations by Donald Richie on Ozu’s filmmaking, a filmography, and twenty stills. Students of screenwriting will learn much from Ozu’s lean approach, while film lovers will treasure this unique keepsake of a great cinematic achievement.Yasujiro Ozu (1903–1963) was one of Japan’s greatest film directors.Kogo Noda (1893–1968), an influential screenwriter, was a frequent Ozu -collaborator.Donald Richie is the preeminent Western authority on Japanese film.

    or coincidence?How are the conjectures inside you solidifying?I look forward to whether those conjectures will waver or become a cornerstone in this scenario.The difficulty is the worst. You will probably not even be able to make conjectures.

    Europol’s top detective Gesicht is assigned to investigate these mysterious robot serial murders—the only catch is that he himself is one of the seven targets.Atom, a boy robot whose sophisticated AI programming seamlessly blurs the distinction between man and machine, starts his own investigation into the serial murders of the great robots of the world. When he discovers that the killer’s motives may be connected with the geopolitical events of the recent past, he realizes that the case is far larger than anyone could have ever imagined.

    Haiku are short but powerful expressions – making them easy and fun to write and share with your friends.With clear explanations and many examples, Haiku introduces five styles of haiku to readers and includes projects on:* Your first haiku--how to get started with the classic form of poetry* Your favorite season--exploring nature, a traditional element in haiku* Your own personal haiku--writing in haibun, a form of haiku that uses personal narrative* Haiku with pictures--creating haiga, an illustrated haiku* Haiku with a friend--developing renga, linked-verse haiku

    Classical Weaponry of Japan is a continuation of that first book. It is an in-depth study of more than a hundred exotic special weapons and associated weapon techniques used by various koryu jujutsu schools. Each weapon will be shown in photographs accompanied by detailed explanations about history and usage. The book treats 100 weapons in depth and refers to 300. Where possible, photos will be included of present-day Japanese grandmasters demonstrating the way the weapons were used. In addition to the weapons, the author introduces and explains the characteristics of about twenty special weapon arts that were developed around these weapons. The relation of these special weapon arts to other fighting systems is also discussed. Many of the weapons included in this work once belonged to secret sections within the secret curriculum of ancient jujutsu schools or weapons schools. Certain weapons that remained hidden for centuries have recently been uncovered; Mol includes photos of them and offers ideas about how they may have been used and even shows grandmasters demonstrating their use. Others that became well known around the world, such as the famous shuriken or kusarigama, are discussed in new ways here. However, the majority of the weapons treated in Classical Weaponry of Japan are not widely known, and so will be of great interest to practitioners of martial arts and weaponcollectors or enthusiasts. The book is heavily illustrated, with rare photos of weapons, techniques, ancient text scrolls, illustrated scrolls, and woodblock prints. It will have a foreword by Tanaka Fumon and one by another grandmaster who is an expert in the field of secret weapons. Classical Weaponry of Japan will be the first book in any of the major Western languages to comprehensively treat the special or secret weapons that are still known today.

    His work is characterized by a fascination with light, climatic conditions and tranquility. His oeuvre consists of over 700 designs of which the largest proportion was produced for the initiator of the Shin hanga ( new print ) movement, Watanabe Shozaburo. This publication illustrates his oeuvre in color including all the designs he produced for other publishers. The illustrations are predominantly taken from the two largest collections of Hasui prints in the world: the collections of Robert O. Muller, now housed in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art, and the Watanabe family. This bilingual publication includes essays by Kendall Brown and Shoichiro Watanabe, facsimiles of seals and signatures and a bibliography. Originally published in 2003, this groundbreaking publication on the life and work of Kawase Hasui is now available with a DVD, which includes a 1950s film on the artist and the production of one of his designs, a process book displaying all stages in the creation of a Japanese woodblock print, and designs which have been discovered since 2003."

    As such it represents a major contribution to both Western Zen practice and English-language Zen scholarship. In Japan the traditional Rinzai Zen koan curriculum includes the use of jakugo, or capping phrases. Once a monk has successfully replied to a koan, the Zen master orders the search for a classical verse to express the monk's insight into the koan. Special collections of these jakugo were compiled as handbooks to aid in that search. Until now, Zen students in the West, lacking this important resource, have been severely limited in carrying out this practice. Zen Sand combines and translates two standard jakugo handbooks and opens the way for incorporating this important tradition fully into Western Zen practice. For the scholar, Zen Sand provides a detailed description of the jakugo practice and its place in the overall koan curriculum, as well as a brief history of the Zen phrase book. This volume also contributes to the understanding of East Asian culture in a broader sense.

    It also offers a fascinating look into the world of Japanese Buddhism prior to the wholesale influence of Zen.

    Despite the richness, significance, and variety of this work, however, it has largely been neglected in Western histories of photography. This gorgeous and groundbreaking book--the first comprehensive account of Japanese photography from its inception in the mid-nineteenth century to the present day--reveals to English-speaking audiences the importance and beauty of this art form. Written by a team of distinguished Japanese and Western scholars, this book establishes that photography began to play a vital role in Japanese culture soon after its introduction to Japan in the 1850s. Illustrated essays discuss the medium's evolution and aesthetic shifts in relation to the nation's historical and cultural developments; the interaction of Japanese photographers with Western photographers; the link between photography and other Japanese art forms; and photography as a record and catalyst of change. Handsomely designed and generously illustrated with beautiful duotone and color images, the book emphasizes not only the unique features of Japanese photography but also the ways it has influenced and been influenced by the country's culture and society.

    Breaking into Japanese Literature is specially designed to help you bypass all the frustration and actually enjoy classics of Japanese literature.Breaking into Japanese Literature features seven graded stories covering a variety of genres: whether it's the spellbinding surrealism of Natsume Soseki's Ten Nights of Dreams, the humor of Akutagawa Ryunosuke's fable of temple life (The Nose), or the excitement of his historic thrillers (In a Grove and Rashomon), you are sure to find a story that appeals to you in this collection.The unique layout-with the original Japanese story in large print, an easy-to-follow English translation and a custom dictionary-was created for maximum clarity and ease of use. There's no need to spend time consulting reference books when everything you need to know is right there in front of your nose.To make Japanese literature fun, Breaking into Japanese Literature also has some unique extra features: mini-biographies to tell you about the authors' lives and works, individual story prefaces to alert you to related works of literature or film, and original illustrations to fire your imagination. Best of all, MP3 sound files of all the stories have been made available for FREE on the Internet.Breaking into Japanese Literature provides all the backup you need to break through to a new and undiscovered world-the world of great Japanese fiction. All the hard work has been taken care of so you can enjoy the pleasures of the mind. Why not take advantage?Learn o 50% of all common-use kanji covered o Kanji entry numbers given for follow-up study o Japanese + English translation + custom dictionary on the same page o Every single kanji word explainedListen o Free download of sound files from the NetLook o 7 original atmospheric illustrationsLink o Original stories for Kurosawa's Rashomon and DreamsAll the stories in this book are available on the Internet as MP3 sound files read by professional Japanese actors.For students who want to consolidate their understanding of kanji, the entry numbers for any of the 2,230 characters in The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary have been provided when those characters feature in Breaking into Japanese Literature. This makes cross-referencing a matter of seconds.

    In 1868 the city was renamed Tokyo and made the official capital of the nation. Both literally and figuratively, present-day Tokyo rests upon the foundations of Edo, and much of what is now thought of as traditional Japanese culture (woodblock prints, kabuki, sumo, haiku poets) found its final form in Edo. In this book, through over 200 black and white drawings and insightful text, old Edo is brought vividly to life--its planning, its construction, and the cultural energy that made it one of the most exciting, and populous, cities on the face of the earth.Edo was nothing more than a village on the edge of Edo Bay when Ieyasu Tokugawa chose it as the site for a castle from which he, as shogun, could administer the country. The castle was of utmost importance because Japan had just emerged from a hundred years of civil war, and Ieyasu was determined that the power he had gained should not be wrested from him by antagonistic warlords. The castle, of course, had to be supplied with the necessities of everyday life, and thus a town had to be build where merchants and artisans could live. It is the planning and construction of Edo Castle and the town that would support it that lie at the core of this book. In fact, the construction of the city would be an ongoing process throughout its 260-year history, in the wake of repeated devastation by fire and earthquake and under the pressure of an ever-expanding population.Another aspect of the book concerns Edo's cultural life, which moved over time from classical modes dominated by the samurai to the more popular and lively forms favored by the merchants and artisans. Featured here are temples and shrines, festivals, bath houses, pleasure quarters, kabuki theaters, street gangs, the poet Basho, sumo wrestling, side shows, ukiyo-e prints, barbers, and much more.Each page of the main text of the book is illustrated, and it is this combination that makes the book both a reading and a visual delight.

    Through high quality illustrations it shows that the Japanese tattoo is highly reliant on and linked to the woodblock print and that it deserves a position among the other art forms. A range of typical ukiyo-e motifs in the Japanese tattoo are discussed and illustrated by the original Japanese prints, and sketches, drawings and tattoos by tattoo master Horiyoshi III. The book ends with a special essay by Don Ed Hardy.

    Detailing the way Japanese directors, scriptwriters, company officials, and bureaucrats colluded to produce films that supported the war effort, The Imperial Screen is a highly-readable account of the realities of cultural life in wartime Japan. Widely hailed as "epoch-making" by the Japanese press, it presents the most comprehensive survey yet published of "national policy" films, relating their montage and dramatic structures to the cultural currents, government policies, and propaganda goals of the era. Peter B. High’s treatment of the Japanese film world as a microcosm of the entire sphere of Japanese wartime culture demonstrates what happens when conscientious artists and intellectuals become enmeshed in a totalitarian regime.

    Traces of the Brush provides the first illustrated history of this unique art. The authors explore its many styles and genres and investigate the calligrapher's tools - paper, ink, and brush. Interwoven with excerpts of literature and poetry, the text immerses the Western reader in the spirit of Japanese calligraphy. Abundant full-color illustrations make this book a feast for the eyes.

    It also reveals how Toson's works influenced the production of a fluid, shifting form of national imagination that has characterized twentieth-century Japan.Analyzing Toson's major works, Michael K. Bourdaghs demonstrates that the construction of national imagination requires a complex interweaving of varied--and sometimes contradictory--figures for imagining the national community. Many scholars have shown, for example, that modern hygiene has functioned in nationalist thought as a method of excluding foreign others as diseased. This study explores the multiple images of illness appearing in Toson's fiction to demonstrate that hygiene employs more than one model of pathology, and it reveals how this multiplicity functioned to produce the combinations of exclusion and assimilation required to sustain a sense of national community.Others have argued that nationalism is inherently ambivalent and self-contradictory; Bourdaghs shows more concretely both how this is so and why it is necessary and provides, in the process, a new way of thinking about national imagination. Individual chapters take up such issues as modern medicine and the discourses of national health; ideologies of the family and its representation in modern literary works; the gendering of the canon of national literature; and the multiple forms of space and time that narratives of national history require.

    Brain Thomas, the sensai of Asian cinema, pens the worthy successor to last year's VideoHound's Cult Flicks & Trash Pics. With 900 pages and more than 125 photos, VideoHound's Dragon exhaustively explores the hottest film genre that has had loyal fans drooling for years--and, lately, has Hollywood (John) Woo-Hooing! Asian film buffs and average American Joes (who like sock-y in their cinema) will, treasure VideoHound's latest tribute to a film genre lesser publishers ignore. From blockbusters like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, to cult faves like Mothra to classics like the Seven Samurai, readers will be treated to insights and highlights of the movies, casts, directors, and influences. VideoHound's Dragon reviews three types of films: Asian Films (duh!); Anime (cartoons to those of you going, "Huh?"); and American films with Asian stars (thank Buddha!). Sidebars entertain and inform on the stars and legends that give Asian films their kick. Magnificent indexes and resource lists, including fan Web sites, magazines, and clubs and lots and lots of photos (minus the lipsynching) round out this VideoHound tome. The foreword is by Cynthia Rothrock, the undisputed "Queen of Martial Arts Films," and one of the greatest martial arts/action film stars in the world.

    . . Japanese TV. This encyclopedic survey of the next cultural tsunami to hit America has over one thousand entries—including production data, synopses, and commentaries—on everything from rubber-monster shows to samurai drama, from crime to horror, unlocking an entire culture’s pop history as never before. Over one hundred fifty of these shows have been broadcast on American TV, and more will follow, perhaps even such oddball fare as a Japanese "The Practice" and "Geisha Detective." Indexed, with resources for fans, couch potatoes, and researchers.Jonathan Clements is contributing editor to Newtype USA Magazine and coauthor of The Anime Encyclopedia.Motoko Tamamuro is an art historian and contributor to Manga Max.

    

    This is the story of the reforms of the Occupation period.

    To avenge this, Mutsu bolstered his talent to become a man of “genius and learning in equal measure.” He joined the Kobe Naval Training Center founded by Katsu Kaishu and, later, Kaientai, a trading and shipping company and private navy founded and managed by Sakamoto Ryoma before the Meiji Restoration was accomplished. During the Meiji era, Mutsu fully exercised his extraordinary ability, including working to revise unequal treaties with Western powers as foreign minister. In his last days, he scrambled to end the First Sino-Japanese War; his efforts resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki with favorable terms for Japan. Mutsu also helped Japan ride out the subsequent wave of the Tripartite Intervention from Russia, France, and Germany. This book’s author, a career diplomat himself, traces the footsteps of modern Japan’s diplomacy by reviewing the philosophical and political journey of this extraordinary diplomat who protected the dignity of Japan as a modern nation throughout his professional life.

    This title guides readers through first-hand accounts of the history of JNR's break-up, the political and internal obstacles faced in the rerform process, and the major lessons drawn through his experiences.

    

    If, on the other hand, governments are motivated by an electoral and political logic, as is usually assumed in mainstream political economy approaches, then industrial choices would be skewed in favor of politically influential industries—even if they are uncompetitive or declining. At the core of this book is a methodology that pits these competing explanations against each other, draws out their testable propositions, and then uses three different approaches—econometrics, structured data analysis, and case studies—to ascertain whether one or the other explanation prevails in the celebrated case of postwar Japan. The evidence, which ranges from Japan's earliest efforts at technology catch-up to present-day policies of indigenizing space rockets, shows that economic logic did in fact prevail across industries and over time, despite ever-present political pressures. The most important point this study uncovers is that it is not just selection but deselection that has been the hallmark of Japan's trade and industrial policies over the postwar period.

    POSTCARDS TO DONALD EVANS chronicles Hiriade's travels through places as varied as Iowa, to Seattle, Tokyo, and Amsterdam. He currently lives in Tokyo.

    It provides a full and contextual analysis of the life (1886-1971) and work of this leading Japanese feminist, all in the light of the changes affecting women in Japan. At the same time the author compares her working with similar historical shifts and movements in western countries, notably Great Britain and the United States. International comparisons at the level of personal biography and associated ideas are made, to see the influence of Western feminists on Hiratsuka's feminism. Hiratsuka is compared with other Japanese feminists, whereby her pivotal role in the history of the Japanese women's movement becomes clear. With extensive footnotes for further reference - and research -, a number of appendices, a detailed bilingual glossary and bibliography; a true reference on an important subject."

    The contributors trace the renascence of the debate in the burst of cultural and political expression that has flowered in the past decade, with the rapid growth of local museums and memorials and the huge increase in popularity of distinctive Okinawan music and literature, as well as in political movements targeting both U.S. military bases and Japanese national policy on ecological, developmental, and equity grounds. A key strategy for claiming and shaping Okinawan identity is the mobilization of historical memory of the recent past, particularly of the violent subordination of Okinawan interests to those of the Japanese and American governments in war and occupation. Its intertwining themes of historical memory, nationality, ethnicity, and cultural conflict in contemporary society address central issues in anthropology, sociology, contemporary history, Asian Studies, international relations, cultural studies, and post-colonial studies. Contributions by: Matt Allen, Linda Isako Angst, Asato Eiko, Gerald Figal, Aaron Gerow, Laura Hein, Michael Molasky, Steve Rabson, James E. Roberson, Mark Selden, and Julia Yonetani.

    But the much beloved Lady Kesa is found murdered in her husband's bed and the "lucky" Wataru is the only suspect. Akitada uncovers a tragic web of court intrigue, broken promises, greed, and obsessive love.

    Often a sci-fi military theme is evoked, with special emphasis on detailed weaponry, but there is also a healthy batch of fantasy themes and outer space action.

    Each chapter covers a particular country looking at such core issues as:- the ethnic minorities or groups in the country of concern, how many ethnic groups, population, language and culture group they belong to, traditional religions and arts- government policy towards the ethnic minorities or groups - the economies of the ethnic minorities or groups and the relation with the national economy;- problems of national integration caused by the ethnic minorities or groups;- the impact of ethnic issues on the country's overall foreign relations.

    Discover the wonders of Japanese art in this title that uncovers the unique culture and people that have created these beautiful art forms.

    Over 40,000 copies of Sushi for Kids have been sold in Japan, and this popular children's book is now available in English. Celebrated writer and illustrator Kaoru Ono dazzles children with her illustrations as she opens their eyes to the wonderful world of sushi. Children will learn about the fish used for sushi, its history, and how to prepare it. The demand for children's books from around the world has never been greater.

    Where once the viewer' s gaze met the eyes of a reclining female nude, a European master painter, or a Western religious icon, that gaze is now returned by the hauntingly photo-realistic eyes of a Japanese man. Since the early eighties, Yasumasa Morimura has been invading the established canon of Western art-- offering both wry commentary and loving tribute-- by replacing the figures and faces of its well-known masterpieces with his own. After painstakingly recreating the surroundings of some of art-history' s most iconic paintings, like a chameleon, Morimura assumes their subjects' identities through elaborate makeup and costume, and inserts himself into the scene. To view the resulting photographs is an uncanny experience. "Daughter of Art History" begins with a foreword by renowned art historian Donald Kuspit who describes Morimura's art as "a kind of Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk, in which painting, sculpture, and photography form a seamless conceptual whole. His photographs may be mock masterpieces, but they are nonetheless masterpieces, for they show mastery of three mediums usually regarded as irreconcilable." Morimura has shown extensively in international solo exhibitions, and his work is in the collections of the Yokohama Museum of Art; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; The Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth; The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia; TheMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston; and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

    Buddhist sculptures in gilt bronze, wood and stone are the main focus of this work, which contains essays by Korean, Japanese and American scholars.

    We are talking about Japan. The novel, Project Kaisei, deals with complex issues surrounding the country of Japan, now facing not only the worst economic crisis since the end of WWII, but also growing military threats from North Korea and China. The story offers a glimpse of modern-day Japan, as seen from the eyes of a private investigator, and puts forth the real possibility of the resurgence of fascism in the island nation, resulting in nuclear armament. The readers will be treated to an accurate description of Japan and its people, rarely seen in the novels written by Western writers. The story contains no mighty super-hero or wisecracking anti-hero, just a lone private investigator trying to unearth the grand secret of Japan's nuclear weapons development project. His discovery puts his life in danger, as he becomes the target of a! ssassination.

    She works hard and skillfully and soon becomes an unwanted role model for the less-talented apprentices. Then an important commission comes in, and Michi is assigned the task of sewing a kimono of pure white silk. That night, the other apprentices steal all of Michi's thread except for the red.Appalled and fearful, Michi sets to work, sewing each stitch so carefully that the red thread cannot be seen from the outside. When the noblewoman calls for her kimono, she is delighted. Mistress Shinyo, shaken by the near-disaster, is only dissuaded from punishing the other apprentices by Michi's plea for leniency. Based on a true incident from the life of the author's great-grandmother-in-law and with sensuously delicate watercolor illustrations, this tale of obedience and rectitude will appeal to the multicultural/education market as well as to parents, especially those who appreciate high-quality didactic works of children's literature. About the Author:Andy William Frew has a wide range of experience in the field of childhood education. He has taught in the Detroit and East Providence (RI) public school systems, in Swan's Island (ME), and on the tiny MA island of Cuttyhunk. He has also been a mental health worker and research assistant at a psychiatric hospital, and currently teaches at the private Community Preparatory School in Providence. His wife of many years is of Japanese descent, and he maintains a close relationship with his Japanese mother-in-law, giving him considerable insight and sensitivity into Japanese culture. He is the compiler of a delightfully eccentric book of days, Frew's Daily Archive. The Invisible Seam is his first children's book. About the Illustrator:Jun Matsuoka was born in Yokahama and received much of her early education in the United Arab emirates, where she began painting under the tutelage of a Scottish art teacher. After receiving her degree in Fine Arts at York University, Toronto (where she also painted signs and murals), she returned to Japan, where she has worked in advertising and photo retouching while pursuing her profession as a painter of exquisite watercolors. Her work has been the subject of small exhibitions and has appeared in European magazines. The Invisible Seam is her first book.

    The scope of his practice - he has houses, museums, pavilions, and other public projects in progress in France, London, Beijing, Portugal, Brussels, and the United States - belies a relatively quiet early career in Tokyo. Following studies at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) and graduation from The Cooper Union in New York, he established his own firm in Toyko in 1985. During next decade, Ban built a following in Japan by designing dozens of unique small houses, exhibitions, and other projects using alternative, environmentally friendly materials: paper, wood, bamboo and prefabricated paper products. emergency temporary housing he calls Paper Log Houses, made out of paper logs, waterproof sponge tape, and beer crates that could be assembled in a matter of hours by volunteers and provided shelter for hundreds of displaced residents. Following on the success of this project, from 1995 to 2000 Ban was a consultant to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, advising on temporary housing for displaced populations in Rwanda, Turkey, and India. He established the Voluntary Architects' Network (VAN) in 1995, an organization that continues to promote such humanitarian assistance by architects. Ban has won several awards, including the Kansai Architect Grand Prize in 1996, and Best Young Architect of the Year from the Japan Institute of Architecture in 1997. Museum of Modern Art's Un-Private House exhibition in 1999 with his Curtain Wall House in Tokyo, a glass-and-steel house where privacy is controlled by means of monumental, two-story-high curtains along two glass facades that can be opened or closed. The following year Ban designed his first museum project in the United States, also at MoMA: Paper Arch, an installation of cardboard tubes in a canopy over the museum's sculpture garden. Also in 2000, he collaborated with German architect Frei Otto to design the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, a recyclable, organic-shaped structure of paper stretched over a paper tube armature. The modest names Ban gives to his projects - Paper Church, Library of a Poet, Bamboo Furniture House, Naked House - express his lack of pretense and his focus on materials and structure rather than form for form's sake. divided into 5 sections based on the primary materials or construction principle used: paper, wood, bamboo, prefabrication, and skin. Each project is documented with colour photographs, plans, drawings, and a brief, straightforward project description. In addition, the book contains four sections of experimental data, or technical information, printed in red and black on grey tinted paper. These sections gather diagrams, tables, sketches, and explanatory text to document the numerous tests that Ban's office has made over the years to study the strength, performance, and structural potential of his materials. A foreword by the distinguished German architect Frei Otto, with whom Ban has collaborated for several years, introduces the book. Also included is an essay by Shigeru Ban about his work with Otto on the Japan Pavilion.

    

    

    From the end of the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago to the appearance of rice agriculture around 400 BC, Jomon people subsisted by hunting, fishing and gathering; but abundant and predictable sources of wild food enabled Jomon people to live in large, relatively permanent settlements, and to develop an elaborate material culture. In this book Kobayashi and Kaner explore thematic issues in Jomon archaeology: the appearance of sedentism in the Japanese archipelago and the nature of Jomon settlements; the invention of pottery and the development and meaning of regional pottery styles; social and spiritual life; as well as the astronomical significance of causeway monuments and the conceptualization of landscape in the Jomon period.

    First, it is a book of translated haiku and contains over 900 of these short Japanese poems in the original (smoothly inserted in the main body),with phonetic and literal renditions, as well as the authors English translations and explanations. All but a dozen or two of the haiku are translated for the first time. There is an index of poets, poems and a bibliography. Second, it is a book of sea slug haiku, for all of the poems are about holothurians, which scientists prefer to call sea cucumbers. (The word cucumber is long for haiku and metaphorically unsuitable for many poems, so poetic license was taken.) With this book, the namako, as the sea cucumber is called in Japanese, becomes the most translated single subject in haiku, surpassing the harvest moon, the snow, the cuckoo, butterflies and even cherry blossoms. Third, it is a book of original haiku. While the authors original intent was to include only genuine old haiku (dating back to the 17th century), modern haiku were added and, eventually, Keigu (Gills haiku name) composed about a hundred of his own to help fill out gaps in the metaphorical museum. For many if not most modern haiku taken from the web, it is also their first time in print! Fourth, it is a book of metaphor. How may we arrange hundreds of poems on a single theme? Gill divides them into 21 main metaphors, including the Cold Sea Slug, the Mystic Sea Slug, the Helpless Sea Slug, the Slippery Sea Slug, the Silent Sea Slug, and the Melancholy Sea Slug, giving each a chapter, within which the metaphors may be further subdivided, and adds a 100 pages of Sundry Sea Slugs (scores of varieties including Monster, Spam, Flying, Urban Myth, and Exploding). Fifth, it is a book on haiku. E ditors usually select only the best haiku, but, Gill includes good and bad haiku by everyone from the 17th century haiku master to the anonymous haiku rejected in some internet contest. This is not to say all poems found were included, but that the standard was along more taxonomic or encyclopedic lines: poems that filled in a metaphorical or sub-metaphorical gap were always welcome. Also, Gill shows there is more than one type of good haiku. These are new ways to approach haiku. Sixth, it is a book on translation. There are approximately 2 translations per haiku, and some boast a dozen. These arearranged in mixed single, double and triple-column clusters which make each reading seem a different aspect of a singular, almost crystalline whole. The authors aim is to demonstrate that multiple reading (such as found in Hofstadters Le Ton Beau de Marot) is not only a fun game but a bona fide method of translating, especially useful for translating poetry between exotic tongues. Seventh, it is a book of nature writing, natural history or metaphysics (in the Emersonian sense). Gill tried to compile relevant or interesting (not necessarily both) historical -- this includes the sea slug in literature, English or Japanese, and in folklore -- and scientific facts to read haiku in their light or, conversely, bringor wring out science from haiku. Unlike most nature writers, Gill admits to doing no fieldwork, but sluggishly staying put and relying upon reportsfrom more mobile souls. Eighth, it is a book about food symbolism. The sea cucumber is noticed by Japanese because they eat it; the eating itselfinvolves physical difficulties (slipperiness and hardness) and pleasures from overcoming them. It is also identified with a state of mind, where you are what you eat takes on psychological dimensions not found in the food literature of the West. Ninth, it is a book about Japanese culture. Gill does not set out to explain Japan, and the sea slug itself is silent;but the collection of poems and their explanations, which include analysis by poets who responded to the author's questions as well has historical sources, take us all around the culture, from ancient myths to contemporary dreams. Tenth, it is a book about sea cucumbers. While most species of sea cucumbers are not mentioned and the coverage of the Japanese sea cucumber is sketchy from the scientific point of view, Gill does introduce this animal graced to live with no brain thanks to the smart materials comprising it and blessed for sucking in dirty sediment and pooping it out clean. Eleventh, it is a book about ambiguity. Gill admits there is much that cannot be translated, much he cannot know and much to be improved in future editions, for which purpose he advises readers to see the on-line Glosses and Errata in English and Japanese. His policy is to confide in, rather than slip by the reader unnoticed, in the manner of the invisible modern translator and allow the reader to makechoices or choose to allow multiple possibilities to exist by not chosing.Twelfth, the book is the first of dozens of spin-offs from a twenty-book haiku saijiki (poetic almanac) called In Praise of Olde Haiku (IPOOH, for short) Gill hopes to finish within the decade. Thirteenth. The book is a novelty item. It has a different (often witty) header (caption) on top of each page and copious notes that are rarely academic and oftehumorous.

    Incredibly popular in Japan, these illustrated books for younger children are known for their emphasis on friendship and sharing. Now translated into English for the first time, and fully illustrated with watercolor drawings, these books are sure to capture kids' imaginations. Through a magical spell, an ordinary day becomes increasingly more wondrous for Guri and Gura and their friend, Bunny Buna the magical rabbit.

    Building on the most recent scholarship from Japan, Taiwan, and the West, it takes a cross-cultural, multidisciplinary, comparative approach that considers the views of both colonizer and colonized as expressed in travel accounts and popular writing as well as scholarly treatments of the area's cultures and customs. Readers are introduced to the work of Japanese writers Hayashi Fumiko and Nakajima Atsushi, who spent time in the colonial South, and expatriate Nishikawa Mitsuru, who was raised and educated in Taiwan and tried to capture the essence of Taiwanese culture in his fictional and ethnographic writing. The effects of colonial language policy on the multilingual environment of Taiwan are discussed, as well as the role of language as a tool of imperialism and as a vehicle through which Japan's southern subjects expressed their identity--one that bridged Taiwanese and Japanese views of self.

    Find your centre and you will be healed." The centre it refers to is located deep in the sensed interiority of our belly, that abode of the soul known in Japanese as hara. 'Depression' (a word with no equivalent in Japanese) is, in essence, a lack of hara. With hara awareness we not only recontact our own innermost soul depths and soul centre. We learn to make contact with others from that centre - to experience true intimacy of soul. Hara awareness is both an alternative to medical and psychiatric 'cures' and the basis for a genuinely psychological medicine - an anatomy of the soul-body. Head, Heart and Hara contrasts the head- and heart-centred culture of the West with the hara culture of Japan. It also shows how hara awareness can unite the primordial wisdom of both East and West. Peter Wilberg brings together the dao of Lao Tse and the logos of Heraclitus in a new spiritual anatomy of the soul and its body.

    This art form peaked during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when carvers produced masterpieces in a vast range of materials and subjects. Raymond Bushell was considered one of the foremost experts on netsuke in the world, and the works he and his wife, Frances, gave to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art are a distillation of the finest netsuke collection ever formed. It includes superb examples by all of the netsuke masters as well as artists who produced comparatively few netsuke, and examples of rare subjects and unusual materials. In The Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of Netsuke: A Legacy at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, exquisite color photography and scholarly insights bring alive this amazing tradition. It features more than 820 netsuke, with accompanying text that gives a complete overview of changing tastes in netsuke collecting and carving throughout its history and into the present day. Each netsuke has a detailed description that places the subject in the context of Japanese life and history, and gives important information about the carver or technique. The enormous variety of netsuke subjects are thoroughly examined, including famous battles and samurai, kabuki and noh actors and plays, scandalous stories, animals and imaginary creatures, Buddhist sages, and Shinto rituals. Essays by Hollis Goodall and Sebastian Izzard examine the sources of subject matter, development of regional styles, and trends in Japanese art as reflected in netsuke. Odile Madden discusses techniques used by carvers to create ivory netsuke. Virginia Atchley, Neil Davey,and Robert T. Singer describe the art of netsuke, Raymond Bushell as a collector, and his relationship with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Also included are maps of ancient and modern Japan, an illustrated reference of 535 artists' signatures, a glossary, and a detailed index. With 827 netsuke and 20 inro shown in more than 1,000 color illustrations, this catalogue will delight and inform netsuke collectors and initiate other art lovers into this expressive and beautiful art form.

    It was an era of dynamic cultural development as well, for the daimyos commissioned innovative artworks to proclaim their newly acquired power. One such art was a ceramic ware known as Oribe, which, appearing mysteriously and suddenly, rose to prominence for use in the tea ceremony. Boldly painted and displaying playful new shapes, these dashing wares matched the extroverted world of the warlords. Similar stylistic and technical inventiveness characterized painting, lacquerware and textiles of the period. present outstanding examples of all these extraordinary works and examine the social and cultural contexts in which they were created.

    It considers the changes that took place in the early nineties when disillusionment set in and unemployment and economic insecurity became facts of life. The authors challenge the preeminence of Japanese management practices which have dominated the literature over the last three decades.

    He was commander of the 343 Kokutai-an elite unit of handpicked pilots chosen to fly Japan's newest and most advanced fighter, the Shiden-Kai (George), in the bitter defensive air battles over the Japanese homeland during the first half of 1945. The authors have spent years tracing and interviewing former pilots of both the 343 Kokutai and the American carrier and bomber groups that they encountered, to piece together this dramatic story and tell it largely from the personal perspective. The narrative is spiced with 300 remarkable photographs, most of which are published for the first time in an English language book. Accompanied by color artwork and written by acknowledged experts on Japanese military aviation, this book will be an essential requirement for any student of the Pacific air war.

    Dividing the Eurasian continent into three major ecological zones consisting of Western Europe, Japan, and the region between them, he shows how the first two are basically similar and demonstrates fundamental differences between Japan and China. In 1964 a jury of ten intellectuals chose this treatise as one of the 18 most influential treatises since 1945 from among more than a hundred which were considered. In 1998, when an influential monthly, Bungei Shunju, solicited "the ten most impactful books" in the twentieth century from more than 170 intellectuals in Japan, this book won the third highest vote among 67 books that were nominated.

    Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

    An important focus in the book is the author s research into why Rikyu s tragic suicide, enforced by Hideyoshi, was a necessary outcome of the emerging conflict between ritual, art and politics. In addition, the study highlights the tensions and struggles between individual artists who were led by a sense of artistic identity and inspiration, together with the political leaders who imposed their artistic taste on the nation. Plutschow also provides new insights into the sixteenth-century Japanese perception of beauty commonly called wabi a simple, often austere beauty displayed in tea in order to unite host and guests as equals. This book will be of considerable interest in research connected with politics, Zen Buddhism and art history as well as the central issues regarding the history and development of tea in Japan."

    This period of history, which witnessed the rise, defeat, and rebirth of contemporary Japan, gave rise to a distinctive and important architectural style. David Stewart explores the modern Japnese ideals by interrogating the early and, then, the mature works of Kazuo Shinohara and Arata Isozaki-linking the buildings of these years with a surge of interest in phenomenology, a fascination with the techniques of Russian formalism, and even a Japnese rereading of Proust. Finally, Stewart gives an explication of "Japnese Space."

    for the first time--examines both Nara's work and the subjects it addresses. Readers are invited into a world where emotions are not expected to be filtered, make-believe is not equated with lunacy and the world is both fantastic and terrifying.One of the most important and best-loved Japanese contemporary artists, Nara distinctively transcends a national style to offer a universal psychological narrative of childhood. In this beautifully designed book with cool paper changes and pitch-perfect image selection, Nara's work is paired with writings by Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, writer Dave Eggers, Deborah Harry (Blondie), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) and others of equally interesting stature.

    Here is the story of John Manjiro, a 14-year-old boy from isolationist Japan, who was shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean with three other companions. Readers will be engrossed by the story of their rescue and the events that followed. Manjiro was raised as an American in Fairhaven, Massachusetts by Captain William Whitfield, and was not able to return to his homeland until he earned enough money to do so by joining the California gold rush. The first known visitor to the Western World, Manjiro was interrogated at length upon his return to Japan. His testimony was recorded in a manuscript called the Hyoson Kiryaku. DRIFTING TOWARD THE SOUTHWEST is the first English translation of that manuscript for a popular audience, complete with illustrations and maps from original copies of the manuscript housed in Fairhaven, Massachusett's Millicent Library and Philadelphia's Rosenbach Museum.

    Rather, it is a tribute to a woman who achieved an accidental place in history by being the first Western woman to travel to Japan in the 19th century. In violation of the self-imposed policy of isolation decreed during the Edo period (1603-1868), she accompanied her husband, Jan Cock Blomhoff, who was to assume the post as Director of the Dutch trading post on Deshima in the Bay of Nagasaki. The Japanese government ordered her deportation. Fortunately, Nagasaki 's painters, including Kawahara Keiga, immortalized her before she left three and a half months after her arrival and these depictions were to prove most influential in representations of Western women in Japanese art. Separated from her husband, she died in 1821 of physical and mental exhaustion resulting from her experiences. Set against a backdrop of Post-Napoleonic European politics, this is the first time Titia Cock Blomhoff 's tragic story has been told. ( See also the title "The Court Journey to the Sh gun of Japan")

    The author, Hendrik Doeff, chief of the United Dutch East India Company in Deshima, mastered the Japanese language, giving him a unique grasp of the Japanese culture which he describes with dispassionate, journalistic objectivity and respect. With Europe engulfed in the Napoleonic wars, Holland occupied by the French and the Dutch colonies usurped by the English, Hendrik Doeff successfully thwarted attempts by the Russians, English and Americans to break the Dutch monopoly on trade with Japan. Twice English ships forced themselves into the bay of Nagasaki and only Doeff's skill and diplomacy prevented a massacre of the English which in turn might have provoked a was between England and Japan and changed history. Doeff also describes in detail one of his three treks to the Court in Edo and the eagerness of Japanese scholars to obtain Western knowledge. There is a link with America's early history as the Dutch used American ships, to circumvent the capture of their own ships by the English. An embargo imposed by the United States Congress had idled many American ships who sailed to the Pacific instead. This book is a micro history and gives a delicious insight into international intrigues, national pride, hatreds and prejudices in a time of competitive monopoly seeking. Most of all, it reveals how supposedly "closed" Japan kept a window open to the world, especially the West, which explains its rapid transformation from a feudal to an industrialized nation after Perry opened Japan to the wider world.

    Although they are of Japanese descent, most were born in Brazil and are culturally Brazilian. As a result, they have become Japan's newest ethnic minority. Drawing upon close to two years of multisite fieldwork in Brazil and Japan, Takeyuki Tsuda has written a comprehensive ethnography that examines the ethnic experiences and reactions of both Japanese Brazilian immigrants and their native Japanese hosts.

    The authors dispel the myths around the development of tea practice, dispute the fiction of the dominance of aesthetics over politics in tea, and demonstrate that writing history has always been an integral part of tea culture.

    With more than one hundred articles that show how a host of authors and literary movements have contributed to the general literary development of their respective countries, this companion is an essential starting point for the study of East Asian literatures. Comprehensive thematic essays introduce each geographical section with historical overviews and surveys of persistent themes in the literature examined, including nationalism, gender, family relations, and sexuality.Following the thematic essays are the individual entries: over forty for China, over fifty for Japan, and almost thirty for Korea, featuring everything from detailed analyses of the works of Tanizaki Jun'ichiro and Murakami Haruki, to far-ranging explorations of avant-garde fiction in China and postwar novels in Korea. Arrayed chronologically, each entry is self-contained, though extensive cross-referencing affords readers the opportunity to gain a more synoptic view of the work, author, or movement. The unrivaled opportunities for comparative analysis alone make this unique companion an indispensable reference for anyone interested in the burgeoning field of Asian literature.Although the literatures of China, Japan, and Korea are each allotted separate sections, the editors constantly kept an eye open to those writers, works, and movements that transcend national boundaries. This includes, for example, Chinese authors who lived and wrote in Japan; Japanese authors who wrote in classical Chinese; and Korean authors who write in Japanese, whether under the colonial occupation or because they are resident in Japan. The waves of modernization can be seen as reaching each of these countries in a staggered fashion, with eddies and back-flows between them then complicating the picture further. This volume provides a vivid sense of this dynamic interplay.

    What we do during the day and night is the result of much political struggle. Trade unions, political parties, entrepreneurs, leaders and schools boards, all have an interest in questions of timing for the opening and closing of shops, the starting hours of schools and factories, and the number of hours people have to work and sleep.; By drawing together comparative case studies from countries in both Asia and Europe, Night-time and Sleep in Asia and the West allows the reader to track the differences in the cultural importance given to the night, and to compare the ways in which the challenges and opportunities of modernity have been played out in the East and the West.

    Rural Japan during the twentieth century has been portrayed as a vast reservoir of conservatism in much of the literature on Japan's modern development, and Japanese agriculture since the 1960s has been treated as an artificial creation sustained only by protectionism of the worst sort.This book presents a range of original, in-depth work, including work by Japanese scholars, that seeks to move beyond such stereotypes to reveal the diversity and complexities of rural life in Japan from 1900 to the present.

    In postwar Foreign Service, he served in Afghanistan, and his twenty-year involvement in the quest for Middle East peace included postings in Baghdad, Beirut, and in Washington, D.C. in the State Department's Near East Bureau, where he dealt with Nasserism, Hawk missiles, and Arab refugees. Meyer served as President Kennedy's ambassador to Beirut, assisting in Lebanon's first peaceful presidential transition; as President Johnson's ambassador to the Shah's Iran, dealing with arms, oil, and the Gulf median line challenges; and as President Nixon's ambassador to Japan where he presided over negotiations for Okinawa's reversion to Japanese administration, which ensured the extension of the U.S.-Japan mutual security treaty, and mellowed the Nixon "China shock." He also served as State's first coordinator for combating terrorism. In Quiet Diplomacy, Ambassador Meyer analyzes experiences and lessons learned, and offers valuable guidance for today's diplomacy.

    The essays show some of the breadth and depth that is available for the study of Japanese literature and drama both in Japan and abroad. Japanese scholars Amano Fumio, Nishino Haruo, Takemoto Mikio, and Wakita Haruko join with actor Uzawa Hisa and American scholars Monica Bethe, Steven Brown, Susan Klein, William LaFleur, Susan Matisoff, Carolyn Morley, Mae Smethurst, and Arthur Thornhill, to interpret the noh Ominameshi, all from the vantage point of their own analytical approaches. The intent is to provide the reader with more than just an introduction to the variety of ways of studying noh in general by focusing on one particular play and analyzing it closely and from many directions.The volume includes a preface and introduction plus 19 color and 4 black-and-white illustrations; one less literal and one more literal translation of the noh accompanied by the Japanese texts; and contributions interpreting Ominameshi in the light of medieval commentaries, the ai-kyogen, new historicism, gender studies, legends surrounding the history of the play's setting, the etiology of the graves of the two principal characters, poetic usage, other plays on the subject of ominameshi, the religious background and meaning, authorship, structure, performance, costumes and masks. The volume concludes with reflections on the performance of the play by Uzawa Hisa in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the conference out of which the book developed.

    In their timely book, Richard A. Colignon and Chikako Usui offer the first systematic exploration of this influential yet poorly understood Japanese institution.Colignon and Usui analyze amakudari as a ministry-level phenomenon that is consciously constructed and reproduced with intricate networks in many political and corporate spheres. Drawing on five decades of qualitative and quantitative data delineating the post-retirement careers of leading bureaucrats, they examine changes in traditional job patterns. Although not as strong a force as in the 1960s and 1970s, amakudari, in their view, remains a critical feature of Japanese society and heavily shapes the relationship between government and business.The authors warn that despite the Japanese media criticism of amakudari, it comprises a power structure resistant to radical change. Most important, their book demonstrates that a gradual weakening of this practice may not lead to a more democratic, meritocratic society.

    

    Paradoxically, just as western artists were beginning to find inspiration in Japan and Japanese art, Japan was opening to the western world and beginning a process of thorough modernisation, some have said westernisation. The mastery of western art was included in the programme.This book examines the nineteenth century art world against this background and explores Japanese influences on four artists working in Britain in particular: the American James McNeill Whistler, the Australian Mortimer Menpes, and the 'Glasgow boys' George Henry and Edward Atkinson Hornel. Japonisme in Britain is richly illustrated throughout.

    Concentrating on Kyoto, Edo and Tokyo, the contributors to this volume weave together the links between past and future, memory and vision, symbol and structure, between marginality and power, and between Japan's two great capital cities.

    Bellah began his career as a Japan specialist, and has continued to contribute to the field over the past thirty years. Imagining Japan is a collection of some of his most important writings, including essays that consider the entire sweep of Japanese history and the character of Japanese society and religion. Combining intellectual rigor, broad scholarship, and ethical commitment, this book also features a new and extensive introduction that brings together intellectual and institutional dimensions of Japanese history.

    The gender roles performed by Chinese and Japanese men are examined not just as they are lived in Asia, but also in the West. The essays collected here enhance current understandings of East Asian identities and cultures as well as Western conceptions of gender and sexuality. While basic issues such as masculine ideals in China and Japan are examined, the book also addresses issues including homosexuality, women's perceptions of men, the role of sport and food and Asian men in the Chinese diaspora.