It assembles 20 years worth of paintings, sculptures, and drawings that map the evolution of one of the most influential and internationally renowned artists working today. The book and exhibition will draw connections between Nara’s work and the sensibilities of youth subcultures worldwide, focusing on themes of alienation and rebellion, particularly in relation to rock and punk music, the inspiration and subject of many of Nara’s works. Featuring artworks that have never before been exhibited, this is the book Nara’s legion of devoted followers have been waiting for. Praise for Yoshimoto Nara:"Nara's work has an irresistible appeal well represented here." --Publishers Weekly

    Born in Hiroshima in 1939, Nakazawa was six years old when on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb. His gritty and stunning account of the horrific aftermath is powerfully told through the eyes of a child who lost most of his family and neighbors. In eminently readable and beautifully translated prose, the narrative continues through the brutally difficult years immediately after the war, his art apprenticeship in Tokyo, his pioneering "atomic-bomb" manga, and the creation of Barefoot Gen, the classic graphic novel based on Nakazawa's experiences before, during, and after the bomb. This first English-language translation of Nakazawa's autobiography includes twenty pages of excerpts from Barefoot Gen to give readers who don't know the manga a taste of its power and scope. A recent interview with the author brings his life up to the present. His trenchant hostility to Japanese imperialism, the emperor and the emperor system, and U.S. policy adds important nuance to the debate over Hiroshima. Despite the grimness of his early life, Nakazawa never succumbs to pessimism or defeatism. His trademark optimism and activism shine through in this inspirational work.

    Moriyama's photography is provocative, both for the form it takes (Moriyama's photographs may be dirty, blurry, overexposed or scratched) and for its content. The viewer's experience of the photo--whether it captures a place, a person, a situation or an atmosphere--is the central thrust in his work, which vividly and directly conveys the artist's emotions. The approximately 200 black-and-white images sketch out an original perspective on Japanese society, especially during the period from the 1950s to the '70s. During this time, he produced a collection of photographs -- Nippon gekijo shashincho -- which showed darker sides of urban life and relatively unknown parts of cities. In them, he attempted to show what was being left behind during the technological advances and increased industrialization in much of Japanese society. His work was often stark and contrasting within itself--one image could convey an array of senses; all without using color. His work was jarring, yet symbiotic to his own fervent lifestyle. In addition, the artist has included a number of photos shot in the past decade to complete this volume.

    Told via a series of short text blocks and lighthearted illustrations based on cats, Japanese Traditions displays seasonal festivals and activities such as O-Bon, O-hanami (cherry blossom viewing) and preparing for the New Year.While enjoying the charming illustrations of a family of Japanese cats, the author shares her warm childhood memories of many Japanese customs, such as gathering around the kotatsu to stay warm, throwing soybeans to keep away ogres and hanging handmade teru-teru-bozu dolls out the window to stop the rain. There are also many traditional Japanese games, toys, foods and celebrations taught through the illustrations. All in all, Japanese Traditions provides a magical feast for children of all ages.

    Good morning.Scheduled for today is the funeral of the Golden Witch and her game.The days of the game are already over, and nothing remains but fond memories.Here, the cold, hard truth will be revealed, and death will come to the game...There is...a bit of difficulty to this one.

    Fate brings a number of people together in Hiroshima in a confrontation with dramatic consequences. Xavier Douterloigne, the son of a Belgian diplomat, returns to the city, where he spent his youth, to come to terms with the death of his sister. Inspector Takeda finds a deformed baby lying dead at the foot of the Peace Monument, a reminder of Hiroshima's war history. A Yakuza-lord, rumored to be the incarnation of the Japanese demon Rokurobei, mercilessly defends his criminal empire against his daughter Mitsuko, whom he considers insane. And the punk author Reizo, obsessed by the ultra-nationalistic ideals of his literary idol Mishima, recoils at nothing to write the novel that will "overturn Japan's foundations".... Hiroshima’s indelible war-past simmers in the background of this ultra-noir novel. Clandestine experiments conducted by Japanese Secret Service Unit 731 during WWII become unveiled and leave a sinister stain on the reputation of the imperial family and the Japanese society as a whole. PRAISE FOR RETURN TO HIROSHIMA: Van Laerhoven’s Return to Hiroshima might well be the most complex Flemish crime novel ever written. Fred Braekman, De Morgen, Belgium

 A complex and grisly literary crime story which among other things refers to the effects of the
 nuclear attack on Japan.
 Linda Asselbergs, Weekend, Belgium

 Van Laerhoven skillfully creates the right atmosphere for this drama. As a consequence the whole book is shrouded in a haze of doom. Is this due to Hiroshima itself, a place burdened with a terrible past? Or is the air of desperation typical for our modern society?
 Jan Haeverans, Focus Magazine, Belgium

 Van Laerhoven won the Hercule Poirot Prize with Baudelaire’s Revenge. You’ll understand why after reading Return to Hiroshima.
 Eva Krap, Banger Sisters Author Bob Van Laerhoven pulls together an outlandish ensemble cast of peculiar personalities; fierce, fragile individuals who claw their way under your skin. Their predicaments –and their potential to unleash chaos – drag you into the narrative’s darkening abyss. MurderMayhem&More

    Akira Kurosawa is arguably the greatest of all Japanese film directors and is respected around the world as one of the masters of the art form. This is the first illustrated book to pay tribute to his unmistakable style—with more than two hundred images, many never before published. The filmmaker is also famous for his attention to detail, and fans will delight in seeing annotated script pages, sketches, and storyboards that reveal the meticulous craft behind Kurosawa’s genius. Peter Cowie examines how Kurosawa took the samurai genre to its apogee in such films as Yojimbo and Seven Samurai; his literary influences in such films as Throne of Blood [Macbeth] and Ran [King Lear]; and in his take on our relationship to the modern world in such films as High and Low and Dreams. "Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest directors ever to work in the cinema. His films meant an enormous amount to me when I was starting my own career, and it’s fitting that in the year of his centennial this book by Peter Cowie should pay tribute to him."—Francis Ford Coppola

    These are Illustrated with beautiful images by Japan's most famous artists.The haiku form is a perfect way of capturing a moment of experience, and in this book, the experiences are extended by the illustrations.Special use is made of the artist Utamaro's exquisite Ehon mushi erabi (A Selection of Insects). The fact that this sophisticated artist chose insects for one of his most luxurious woodblock printed albums underlines the Japanese appreciation of even the most diminutive of animals in the haiku.This beautiful book inspires readers to regard the animal kingdom with new eyes.

    This book presents a selection of Saeki's previously unseen works.

    As a never-static status symbol, she has interpreted lifestyle trends for her vast audience of admirers in the form of irresistible clothing, accessories, stationery, candy, home furnishings—even jet airplanes. The Hello Kitty Sweet, Happy, Fun Book! features a collection of irresistible ephemera and art, allowing readers to learn the behind-the-scenes story of Hello Kitty and her vast, fanciful world. Alongside hundreds of images and seven interactive treasures, the lively text sees Hello Kitty from her early development to the worldwide phenomenon that she has become over the past 36 years.A steadfast symbol of fun, friendship, and happiness, Hello Kitty gives fans a reason to smile, and even to celebrate, especially on the 50th anniversary of the Sanrio brand.

    Book annotation not available for this title.Title Japanese Kanji FlashcardsAuthor Hodges, Max Okazaki, TomokoPublisher White Rabbit PrPublication Date 20100201Number of Pages Binding Type PAPERBACKLibrary of Congress

    In a place known as the Six Civilizations all is not as it seems, the six leaders though living in peace for the last decade soon find themselves struck by tragedy again! When the grandson of Chaos P. Karafuta, the world's infamous scientist and inventor, King and his best friend Shabu accidently unlock the secrets to a weapon known simply as ‘Project Aryoku'. In his greed for power King will sacrifice everyone he loves to obtain its power. However, it falls into the hands of his nephew, Shobu Samurai. At the sight of losing his parents, his unbound power obliterates his hometown with no recollection of doing so. Now ten years later, Shobu Samurai returns to seek revenge on his uncle but instead will face a choice to save his home from shadow creatures, blood beast and organization once thought dead.

    Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Woman in the Dunes, Kangaroo Notebook, the Ruined Map, the Face of Another, Inter Ice Age 4. Source: Wikipedia.

    The stories tell how people lived in Japan some two hundred years ago, during the late Edo Period, when traditional technology and culture were at the peak of development and realization, just before the country opened itself to the West and joined the ranks of the industrialized nations. They tell of people overcoming many of the identical problems that confront us today--issues of energy, water, materials, food and population--and forging a society that was conservation-minded, waste-free, well-housed, well-fed and economically robust.From these stories, readers will gain insight into what it is like to live in a sustainable society, not so much in terms of specific technical approaches, but rather, in terms of how larger concerns can guide daily decisions and how social and environmental contexts shape our courses of action. These stories are intended to illustrate the environmentally-related problems that the people in both rural and urban areas faced, the conceptual frameworks in which they viewed these problems, and how they went about finding solutions. Included at the end of each section are a number of lessons in which the author elaborates on what Edo Period life has to offer us in the global battle to reverse environmental degradation. Topics covered include everything from transportation, interconnected systems, and waste reduction to the need for spiritual centers in the home.Just Enough, more than anything else, is about a mentality that pervaded traditional Japanese society and which can serve as a beacon for our own efforts to achieve sustainability now.

    A prescient advocate of sustainable consumption and the matchless utility of good design, Muji’s founding principle was to develop new and simple products at reasonable prices by making the best use of materials while minimizing their impact on the environment. From a humble inaugural line of eight products nearly three decades ago, the brand now sells nearly seven thousand different products in hundreds of its own stores in Asia, Europe, and North America.

    The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz. Avatar is set in an Asian-influenced world of Chinese martial arts and elemental manipulation. The show drew on elements from East Asian, Japanese and Chinese culture, making it a mixture of an anime like and US domestic cartoons.

    Moshis love dressing up and Moshi Town is a wonderland full of every type of Moshi in every type of costume, from Rainbow Moshis to Angel Moshis. So when Strawberry Moshi tries to find her Super Moshi amongst the crowd, she'll need some help. Join Strawberry Moshi on her adventures through Moshi Land - if you can find her first! Endless fun inside - with so many of Moshi's friends around there's always someone to find! MoshiMoshiKawaii started life as a good luck charm gift property in Japan and has since developed into the freshest kawaii (cute and kitsch) publishing property around the world.

    All of the components of this package are designed to correlate with the concepts Garr Reynolds, the authority on presentation design and delivery, teaches in his popular video, books, and blog. In the DVD, Garr invites viewers to create provocative presentations with solid designs and Zen simplicity. In this personal, one-on-one video, Garr delivers his ideas from his popular book, " Presentation Zen, "and blog, presentationzen.com, and challenges viewers to go beyond the conventional slide presentation style and think more creatively to achieve simpler, more effective presentations. Within an hour viewers will learn to: plan and prepare their presentations, and craft their story with storyboarding techniquesutilize design principles that show viewers to communicate messages more effectivelydeliver more meaningful presentations by successfully connecting with audiences.This included sketchbook is like a journal for presenters of all types--it's an analog place to go and sketch out presentation ideas. Presenters will find blank pages for jotting down notes, creating mind maps, or using whatever brainstorming techniques they find helpful. A storyboarding technique presenters often use involves writing down notes onto sticky notes and then arranging them as they build the structure of their presentations. Some of the pages in this sketchbook contain blank boxes that are sized for the Post-it(R) Notes also included in this package so you can use this technique to storyboard your own presentations. Throughout the sketchbook, users will find quotes from Garr's book "Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery "to help inspire while preparing and clarifying a presentation's content, purpose, and goals. The iStockphoto coupon is good for 20 free images; plus 20% off 50 pay-as-you-go credits--a $300 value!

    The author, Torei Enji (1721–1792), was best known as one of two “genius assistants” to Hakuin Ekaku, who was himself a towering figure in Zen Buddhism who revitalized the Rinzai school. Torei was responsible for much of the advanced work of Hakuin’s later disciples and also helped systemize Hakuin’s teachings. The Undying Lamp of Zen includes a range of principles and practices, from the most elementary to the most advanced. It is an indispensable aid to the practice of Rinzai Zen, and provides an accessible entrée to the Zen experience in general. Torei is a compelling guide; his tone is energetic, no-nonsense, and full of personality. Premier translator Thomas Cleary provides a thorough introduction and illuminating footnotes throughout, and his masterful translation allows Torei’s distinctive voice to shine through.

    Includes timeless tales that resonates with readers of all ages.

    The complete works of the acclaimed illustrator best-known for his sexy robots   A reference catalog to Sorayama’s rich and highly detailed work, this thorough volume presents many new illustrations and is beautifully printed to showcase his extraordinary talent, wondrous imagination, and impeccable skill.

    The Old Man & The Monkey' is a stunningly beautiful story of a relationship which develops between an old man and a creature which is regarded as a dangerous pest in Japan, a snow monkey, in George Polley's moving allegory of dignity in the face of racism.

    The deceptively simple poems rendered in English with Japanese calligraphy and transliteration are paired with exquisite eighteenth- or nineteenth-century paintings and ukiyo-e prints and twentieth-century shin hanga woodcuts from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada. Haiku: Japanese Art and Poetry presents thirty-five pairs of poems and images, organized seasonally. The Introduction details the origin and development of haiku, the lives of the most famous poets, and the obstacles faced when translating the concise yet complex lines.

    Based on historical events, ANSHU is a tale of passion and human triumph in the face of extraordinary adversity, spanning the cane fields of Hawai'i and the devastation in Hiroshima. A pregnant and unmarried Hilo teenager, Himiko Aoki, finds her Hawai'i Japanese American identity clashing with Japan's cultural norms when she is sent to live with relatives in Tokyo in 1941 and becomes trapped there with the outbreak of war. When America drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Himiko finds herself adapting in unexpected ways just to survive.

    Although Tada's writing is an essential part of postwar Japanese poetry, her use of themes and motifs from European, Near Eastern, and Mediterranean history, mythology, and literature, as well as her sensitive explorations of women's inner lives make her very much a poet of the world. Forest of Eyes offers English-language readers their first opportunity to read a wide selection from Tada's extraordinary oeuvre, including nontraditional free verse, poems in the traditional forms of tanka and haiku, and prose poems. Translator Jeffrey Angles introduces this collection with an incisive essay that situates Tada as a poet, explores her unique style, and analyzes her contribution to the representation of women in postwar Japanese literature.

    This book presents a comprehensive modern study on Japanese erotic art, illustrating a large selection of the best works from public and private collections from around the world. Far from being a separate genre, Shunga constitutes at least half of the output of all ukiyo-e art, and often the largest part of any given artist's production. Once surprising, this is now only recently beginning to be taken for granted, and the qualities usually given to the greatest masterpieces of ukiyo-e art, acclaimed for their subtlety, elegance, refinement and novel composition, are now being attributed to the blatantly pornographic images produced by the same artists. The social and religious attitudes of pre-modern Europe both prevented the appreciation of Shunga prints. The cultural context of pre-modern Japan was markedly different to that of Europe, and allowed a vibrant, uninhibited and widely circulated genre of erotic imagery to develop. Edmond de Goncourt first started to collect Japanese art works including Shunga prints, and published the first monograph on a Japanese artist in 1891. De Goncourt's interest in Utamaro gave sexualized prints particular importance, making them integral to the history of Japanese art and its reception in the Western world. Artists such as Edgar Degas, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin among others were known for their love of Shunga prints and were influenced by the unusual framing and arbitrary colors of Japanese printing methods. Shunga notably came to the West during the Art Nouveau period when collecting Japanese prints became popular, and traces of Shunga styles and elements have visibly influenced this artistic period. The most famous and recognizable shunga work is Hokusai's depiction of a young woman being ravished by an octopus in his album "Pining for Love". Compared to Western perceptions of the nude and its associations with sex and the Christian concept of original sin, mere nakedness held little erotic interest to the Japanese viewer. This explains why Japanese erotica is so extreme in its sexual depictions and why many of the prints, paintings and scrolls illustrated in this book depict clothed or half clothed figures. Some Shunga images illustrate famous tales, while others present unrelated sequences of sexual tableaux, often depicting all ages from virginal teenagers to old married couples, as well as all types of sexual activities, be it masturbation, heterosexual, homosexual or group sex. Much if not most Shunga was published in book form, as opposed to the single sheets that dominate the 'normal' ukiyo-e market, which allowed pictures to be easily carried about and, importantly, stored unobtrusively. This is the case of Utamaro's famous album, "Poem of the Pillow", which is reproduced in this publication in its entirety, as are many albums notably by Hokusai, Harunobu, Kuniyoshi and many others. The book also illustrates some of the rarer Shunga works such as the beautiful handscrolls made by such artists as Kyonobu, Sukenobu and Shuncho. These demonstrate particularly the expressive vibrancy of color and interest in surface pattern that are aesthetically important in the Japanese print. Gian Carlo Calza's insightful text is accompanied by 350 color images, offering a great variety of examples from traditional Japanese erotica. The book comprises of a general introduction which sets the artists and their work in their social, historical and artistic context. The book is then organized by artist with a short text on each artist, introducing the illustrated works. The author references the latest in art historical scholarship, but this book is also aimed at readers who may not have specialist knowledge or extensive familiarity with Japanese culture.

    You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it into action. Why Pimsleur? • Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day. • Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life. • Proven Method – Works when other methods fail. • Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you. • Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning. • Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. • Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn. • Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above. What’s Included? • 5, 30-minute audio lessons, • In total, 2.5 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers What You’ll Learn This course includes Lessons 1-5 from the Japanese Level 1 program featuring 2.5 hours of language instruction. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Japanese. Whether you want to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of what’s going on in the world around you, Pimsleur will help you learn Japanese and expand your horizons and enrich your life.

    Her journey takes her into unfamiliar terrain, both past and present, as she not only confronts American attitudes, disconcertingly detached from the suffering of nuclear destruction, but discovers as well a profound kinship with desert plants and animals, the bomb's "first victims." Translator Eiko Otake, a renowned artist in dance (Eiko & Koma), offers further insight into Hayashi's life and work, illuminating how her identity as "outsider" helped shape her vision. Together author and translator present one woman's transformation from victim to witness, a portrait of endurance as a power of "being" against all odds.

    However, it does not scrimp on content and covers everything from Japanese kanji, kana and grammar to Japanese culture and customs. The book starts out with the main characters, Emily, Nico and Teo sitting on the grass after school, minding their own business, when—unbelievable!—a giant talking fox dressed in a kimono appears. Explaining that he knows magic, speaks 3,000 languages and is respected as a sensei (master), he wonders if the three kids are ready to learn Japanese from him. During the next 128 amusing pages, the three friends learn to speak Japanese, read Japanese and write Japanese…along with taking breaks to try Japanese hot-spring baths, sumo wrestling, Zen meditation and more. Focusing on exactly what the 9 to 13-year-old learner wants to know, this book is carefully set up to allow them to learn Japanese independently, at their own speed, without an adult's help. Every page of I'm Learning Japanese! is in full color and the illustrated comic book-approach, with its speech bubbles and funny side remarks, makes the learning seem to fly. It gives preteens a fun grounding in the language and one that's accurate and practical. Nothing they learn here is "watered down" or will ever need to be unlearned, should they continue on with their Japanese language studies in school or later in life.

    Here, Dave Lowry, who has pursued that path for over forty years, addresses the myriad issues, vagaries, and inconsistencies that arise for students of karate-do, judo, kendo, aikido, iaido and other Japanese martial arts—classical and modern—as their training develops, including:    •  What students and teachers should expect from each other    • The meaning of rank    • The importance of cardiovascular fitness in the martial arts    • How to correctly and sensitively practice with someone less experienced than yourself    • How to practice as you age    • The responsibilities that come with seniority and increasing skill    • The importance of etiquette and decorum in budo    • How to train with children Lowry also gives practical advice on improving structural integrity in posture and movement; focusing under stress; stances and preparatory actions before engaging with an opponent; and telling a good teacher from a bad one. Both beginning and advanced students of Japanese martial arts will appreciate Lowry’s take on the real issues and experiences that they encounter in practice.

    On the outskirts of Tokyo, near a station on a private train line, stands a modest European style house with a red, triangular shaped roof. There a woman named Taki has worked as a maidservant in the house and lived with its owners, the Hirai family. Now, near the end of her life, Taki is writing down in a notebook her nostalgic memories of the time spent living in the house. Her journal captures the refined middle-class life of the time from her gentle perspective. At the end of the novel, however, a startling final chapter is added. The chapter brings to light, after Taki’s death, a fact not described in her notebook. This suddenly transforms the world that had been viewed through the lens of a nostalgic memoir, so that a dramatic, flesh-and-blood story takes shape. Nakajima manages to combine skillful dialogue with a dazzling ending. The result is a polished, masterful work fully deserving of the Naoki Prize.

    Each of eleven hundred essential kanji receives a fully illustrated entry with a brief English summary explaining the evolution of its written form and meaning from ancient to modern times. Each kanji is also given on- and kun- pronunciations, a section header in a traditional kanji dictionary, a clear stroke order illustration, and sample words that are useful for learners. The unusual breadth and depth of information in The Key to Kanji meets the needs of students and teachers in university, high school, and heritage language school programs, as well as independently studying adult learners.

    Departing from this tradition, The Battle for China brings together Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholars to provide a comprehensive and multifaceted overview of the military operations that shaped much of what happened in political, economic, and cultural realms. The volume's diverse contributors have taken pains to sustain a scholarly, dispassionate tone throughout their analyses of the course and the nature of military operations, from the Marco Polo Bridge Incident to the final campaigns of 1945. They present Western involvement in Sino-Japanese contexts, and establish the war's place in World War II and world history in general.

    The story follows a group of students as they discover and develop technology that gives them the means to change the past.

    In English, we say, "take a bath" (or "have a bath" in British English), but in Japanese the equivalent is "get in a bath," o-furo ni hairu. The verb hairu is the one that collocates with o-furo.It has long been recognized that the study of collocations can lead to more natural language production, and yet until now there has been no book on the subject for learners of Japanese. Common Japanese Collocations will be the first resource to introduce the most frequently used noun-and-verb and noun-and-adjective combinations.The book is divided into six thematic chapters centering on daily life. Each chapter presents more than a hundred key entries, which consist of a noun and a selection of words that go with that noun. Some collocations come with example sentences that demonstrate how the word pair can be used in a sentence. In addition, throughout the book there are notes on common usage errors.

    Originally written in English by Yuri Yasuda, based on her interpretations of traditional Japanese tales, these charming stories of rich imagination are now accompanied by Japanese text by Yumi Matsunari and Yumi Yamaguchi. The Japanese text includes basic kanji accompanied by furigana to help beginning learners to recognize and learn the characters.Adventures carry us, on turtle-back, to the splendors of the underwater palace of the dragon princess, to the beautiful hills where Kintaro plays with his animal friends, and to a temple where we discover a "tea kettle" that is really a cunning badger in disguise.The 98 color illustrations bring to life the charming characters of these heart-warming tales of old Japan, which include:Shitakiri Suzume, the Tongue-Cut SparrowKintaro, the Strong BoyKaguya Hime, the Luminous PrincessMomotaro, the Peach BoyBunbuku Chagama, the Lucky Cauldron

    East Asia Studies. Translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu. TIME OF SKY & CASTLES IN THE AIR is the first full-length translation of Ayane Kawata's poetry to be published in English. This single volume contains Kawata's first book of poems, Time of Sky (first published in Japanese by Kumo Publishers, 1969), and her sixth, Castles in the Air: A Dream Journal (first published in Japanese by Shoshi Yamada, 1991). Translator Sawako Nakayasu writes in the Afterword: "In TIME OF SKY we find terse lines that are unresolved--the tension is neither built nor released, but exists as if in its natural state, a note of music forever in suspension. It never arrives--it is and never was home..." and of CASTLES IN THE AIR Nakayasu writes: "Its poems are derived from a notebook the author kept for 15 years, in which she recorded her dreams every morning upon waking.... The logic in these prose poems may feel familiar to us as dream logic, but we also find in them the complexity and anxiety attendant to of a lifetime spent living in a culture not one's own, an ongoing reckoning with one's dangers and desires, and the difficulty (and absurdity) of trying to communicate with others." Cover art by Mauro Zamora.

    The collection brings together works by many of the most important Zainichi Korean writers of the twentieth century, from the colonial-era Into the Light (1939) by Kim Sa-ryang to Full House (1997) by Yu Miri, one of contemporary Japan's most acclaimed and popular authors.Although diverse in style and subject matter, all of the stories gathered in this volume ask a single consuming question: What does it mean to be Korean in Japan? Some stories record their contemporary milieu, while others focus on internal turmoil or document social and legal discrimination. More generally, they consider the relationship of Korean ethnicity to sexuality, family, culture, politics, and history. Thus the stories provide a fascinating window into the human experience of modernity in Japan and Korea, not only enabling us to track the ways in which grand concepts such as nation, language, empire, economy, and gender have shaped the human imagination, but also entreating us to ask how individual authors have sought to provide insight--or even guidance--on the path that grand history might follow.The volume includes stories by Chong Ch'u-wol, Kim Ch'ang-saeng, Kim Hak-yong, Kim Sa-ryang, Kim Tal-su, Noguchi Kakuchu, Yi Yang-ji, and Yu Miri.

    The contributors theorize the effects of militarization across former and current territories of Japan and the United States, such as Guam, Okinawa, the Marshall Islands, the Philippines, and Korea, demonstrating that the relationship between militarization and colonial subordination—and their gendered and racialized processes—shapes and produces bodies of memory, knowledge, and resistance. Contributors: Walden Bello, U of the Philippines; Michael Lujan Bevacqua, U of Guam; Patti Duncan, Oregon State U; Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, U of Hawai‘i, M noa; Insook Kwon, Myongji U; Laurel A. Monnig, U of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign; Katharine H. S. Moon, Wellesley College; Jon Kamakawiwo‘ole Osorio, U of Hawai‘i, M noa; Naoki Sakai, Cornell U; Fumika Sato, Hitotsubashi U; Theresa Cenidoza Suarez, California State U, San Marcos; Teresia K. Teaiwa, Victoria U, Wellington; Wesley Iwao Ueunten, San Francisco State U.

    From waterfalls to bamboo, learners paint their way to understanding sumi-e—a style of painting that is characteristically Asian and has been practiced for well over 1,000 years. Although it's sometimes confused with calligraphy, as the tools used are the same, sumi-e instead tries to capture the essence of an object or scene in the fewest possible strokes.This all-in-one resource also provides a timeline of brush painting history, a glossary of terms, a guide to sources and an index—making it a tool to use and treasure, for amateurs and professionals alike. This sumi-e introduction is ideal for anyone with a love of Japanese art or the desire to learn to paint in a classic Asian style.

    Characteristically threatening, monstrous creatures with ugly features and fearful habits, including cannibalism, they also can be harbingers of prosperity, beautiful and sexual, and especially in modern contexts, even cute and lovable. There has been much ambiguity in their character and identity over their long history. Usually male, their female manifestations convey distinctivly gendered social and cultural meanings.Oni appear frequently in various arts and media, from Noh theater and picture scrolls to modern fiction and political propaganda, They remain common figures in popular Japanese anime, manga, and film and are becoming embedded in American and international popular culture through such media. Noriko Reiderýs book is the first in English devoted to oni. Reider fully examines their cultural history, multifaceted roles, and complex significance as "others" to the Japanese.

    日本語能力試験N4・N5に出るQuick mastery of vocabularyIn preparation for the Japanese Language Proficiency TestBasic 1800

    Humor, Abuse, Anal, ChallengeFic, H/C, Language, MPreg, N/C, Oral, Rim, Spank, WAFF, Yaoi.

    Charles Pellegrino’s scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb’s survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written.** At the narrative’s core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand—the Japanese civilians on the ground and the American flyers in the air. Thirty people are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki—where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of the cataclysm at ground zero both times. The second time, the blast effects were diverted around the stairwell in which Yamaguchi had been standing, placing him and a few others in a shock coccoon that offered protection, while the entire building disappeared around them.Pellegrino weaves spellbinding stories together within an illustrated narrative that challenges the “official report,” showing exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and why. **As of Mar 2010, the publisher is discontinuing publication of the book due to issues with its veracity. "Publisher Henry Holt and Company, said that author Charles Pellegrino "was not able to answer" concerns about "The Last Train from Hiroshima," including whether two men mentioned in the book actually existed...Doubts were first raised about the book a week ago after Pellegrino acknowledged that one of his interview subjects had falsely claimed to be on one of the planes accompanying the Enola Gay, from which an atom bomb was dropped by the United States on Hiroshima in 1945. Holt had initially promised to send a corrected edition.But further doubts about the book emerged. The publisher was unable to determine the existence of a Father Mattias (the first name is not given) who supposedly lived in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, and John MacQuitty, identified as a Jesuit scholar presiding over Mattias' funeral.Pellegrino's own background was also questioned. He sometimes refers to himself as Dr. Pellegrino, and his Web site lists him as receiving a Ph.D. in 1982 from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. But in response to a query from the AP, the school said it had no proof that Pellegrino had such a degree."

    Drawing on a wealth of historical material, Tessa Morris-Suzuki shows how the Cold War played a decisive role in shaping Japan's migration controls. She explores the little-known world of the thousands of Korean 'boat people' who entered Japan in the immediate postwar period, focuses attention on the US military service people and their families and employees, and also takes readers behind the walls of Japan's notorious Omura migrant detention centre, and into the lives of Koreans who opted to leave Japan in search of a better future in communist North Korea. This book offers a fascinating contrast to traditional images of postwar Japan and sheds light on the origins and the dilemmas of migration policy in twenty-first century Japan.

    You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it into action. Why Pimsleur? • Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day. • Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life. • Proven Method – Works when other methods fail. • Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you. • Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning. • Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. • Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn. • Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above. What’s Included? • 5, 30-minute audio lessons, • In total, 2.5 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers What You’ll Learn This course includes Lessons 11-15 from the Japanese Level 1 program featuring 2.5 hours of language instruction. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Japanese. Whether you want to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of what’s going on in the world around you, Pimsleur will help you learn Japanese and expand your horizons and enrich your life.

    The essential guide to creating Japanese gardens in locations ranging from large gardens to small yards.

    Pages: 27. Chapters: Touch, Cross Game, Miyuki, Nine, Katsu!, Hiatari Ry k !, Rough, H2, Slow Step, Short Program, B ken Sh nen, Niji Iro T garashi, Itsumo Misora, Rainbowman, Jinb, Idol Ace. Excerpt: Touch Tatchi) is a Japanese high school baseball manga by Mitsuru Adachi. It was originally serialized in the weekly manga magazine Sh nen Sunday from 1981-1986. The manga was also adapted into a 101-episode TV anime series, which was one of the highest-rated television anime series ever, three theatrical anime movies which summarized the TV series, two TV anime specials which take place after the events in the TV series, a live-action TV drama special, and a live-action movie released in 2005. Touch was one of the winners of the 1983 Shogakukan Manga Award for sh nen or sh jo manga, along with Adachi's Miyuki. Tatsuya Uesugi Uesugi Tatsuya)The main character. The elder of the Uesugi twins. Seemingly selfish and lazy, Tatsuya's main quality is his altruistic nature. Naturally athletic, he lets his younger brother progress further than him in baseball so Meisei would win the Koushien fulfilling their childhood dream. Like Kazuya, he loves Minami Asakura, the girl next door and their childhood friend. However, in the field of love, he too cedes to his younger brother, telling everyone that they are meant to be despite his broken heart. Kazuya Uesugi Uesugi Kazuya)The younger of the Uesugi twins. Serious and hard working, he is the complete opposite of his older brother. His pitching skills and perfect grades makes him the favorite of his parents who despite his young age, conspire to get him and Minami to marry. His good looks makes him popular with the girls at school, which irks Tatsuya. Though not as naturally athletic as Tatsuya, Kazuya had work hard to hone his skills since an early age. Like his brother, Kazuya is in love with Minami....

    The delay handed the Japanese a golden opportunity to set their house in order before Allied war crimes investigators arrived. After 14 August groups of Allied POWs were brutally murdered. Vast amounts of documentation concerning crimes were burned ahead of the arrival of Allied forces. POW facilities and medical experimentation installations were either abandoned or destroyed. Perhaps the greatest crimes were continuing deaths of Allied POWs from starvation, disease and ill-treatment after the Japanese surrender. The blame rests with the American authorities, and particularly General MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific. MacArthur expressly forbade any Allied forces from liberating Japanese occupied territories before he had personally taken the formal Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. Vice Admiral Lord Mountbatten, Commanding Allied forces in Southeast Asia, protested against this policy, believing that pandering to MacArthur s vanity and ego would mean condemning many starving and sick prisoners to death. Deaths among British and Commonwealth POWs were significant as opposed to American POWs who were already largely liberated in the Philippines and elsewhere."

    You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it into action. Why Pimsleur? • Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day. • Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life. • Proven Method – Works when other methods fail. • Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you. • Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning. • Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. • Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn. • Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above. What’s Included? • 5, 30-minute audio lessons, • In total, 2.5 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers What You’ll Learn This course includes Lessons 6-10 from the Japanese Level 1 program featuring 2.5 hours of language instruction. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Japanese. Whether you want to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of what’s going on in the world around you, Pimsleur will help you learn Japanese and expand your horizons and enrich your life.

    He remains one of the most creative and stimulating thinkers of twentieth-century Japan. Ango was catapulted into the public consciousness in the months immediately following Japan's surrender to the Allied Forces in 1945. The energy and iconoclasm of his writings were matched by the outrageous and outsized antics of his life. Behind that life, and in the midst of those tumultuous times, Ango spoke with a cutting clarity. The essays and translations included in Literary Mischief probe some of the most volatile issues of culture, ideology, and philosophy of postwar Japan. Represented among the essayists are some of Japan's most important contemporary critics (e.g., Karatani K?jin and Ogino Anna). Many of Ango's works were produced during Japan's wars in China and the Pacific, a context in which words and ideas carried dire consequences for both writers and readers. All of the contributions to this volume consider this dimension of Ango's legacy, and it forms one of the thematic threads tying the volume together. The essays use Ango's writings to situate his accomplishment and contribute to our understanding of the potentials and limitations of radical thought in times of cultural nationalism, war, violence, and repression. This collection of essays and translations takes advantage of current interest in Sakaguchi Ango's work and makes available to the English-reading audience translations and critical work heretofore unavailable. As a result, the reader will come away with a coherent sense of Ango the individual and the writer, a critical apparatus for evaluating Ango, and access to new translations of key texts.

    I arrived at a mysterious cafe called Time of Eve, where robots and humans are treated the same. Everyone knows that homebots are nothing but appliances: useful for helping humans, but incapable of feeling genuine emotions. Why would Sammy come to a place like this?This novel tells the story from the anime series and movie from the perspective of Rikuo Sakisaka, a high-school kid who confronts the emotional and moral implications of life with androids who look exactly like humans. This story reveals new insights into the characters, and introduces a new character and alternative ending. Features original full-color and black-and-white illustrations by Time of EVE's character designer Ryusuke Chayama.

    Possessing an encyclopaedic knowledge of Japanese ANIME culture, a world-wide entertainment phenomenon, he delves into rich plots and enduring characters using the skill of an artist to draw contrasts and comparisons between the genre's well known authors such as Hayao Miyazaki, Leiji Matsumoto, Go Nagai, and Hideaki Anno. With the sharp insight of a katana sword, Dr. Ebihara explores their spiritual background and philosophical assumptions.

    For most of East Asia, Buddhist sutras were written in classical Chinese and inaccessible to many devotees. How, then, did such devotees access these texts? Charlotte D. Eubanks argues that the medieval genre of “explanatory tales” illuminates the link between human body (devotee) and sacred text (sutra). Her highly original approach to understanding Buddhist textuality focuses on the sensual aspects of religious experience and also looks beyond Japan to explore pre-modern book history, practices of preaching, miracles of reading, and the Mahayana Buddhist “cult of the book.”

    In his judge's statement, American poet, writer, and Academy of American Poets Chancellor Carl Phillips writes: "I admire here how simplicity doesn't have to compromise authority. How, in fact, the spare directness of attention can often be more persuasive. Reminiscent of the Tang poets...I think of Wang Wei...these poems allow us to 'shake off the dust of the world, ' meanwhile quietly illuminating the tea ceremony's role as a possible way toward the Tao, toward 'letting whatever unfolds be enough.'" Commenting on this collection of 32 tea-infused poems, award-winning poet and author Margaret Chula says: "Reading these poems, I feel like I'm in a Sung dynasty landscape painting, sitting in a mountain hut with a sage who pours me tea and recites poetry. The poems in 'The Hut Beneath the Pine' embody the spirit of the Tao, the rhythmic flow of nature.

    The book commences with a chronological survey of the Japanese print, including works from early masters such as Harunobu and Utamaro, classic prints by the renowned artists Hokusai and Hiroshige, and nineteenth century examples by Kunisada and Kuniyoshi. The second half of the book focuses on Western artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri Riviere, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who drew on the Japanese aesthetic in their own diverse ways. The result is a beautiful book that offers a fascinating glimpse of how the great Japanese prints affected modern art - Impressionism and beyond.

    Their content was inspired by the vibrant popular culture that flourished in Edo (Tokyo). At any given time scores of publishers competed for the services of the leading artists of the day. Publishers and artists displayed tremendous ingenuity in finding ways to sustain demand for prints and to to circumvent the restrictions placed upon them by government censorship. Japanese woodblock prints have long been appreciated in the West for their graphic qualities but their content has not always been fully understood. In recent years, publications by scholars in Japan, Europe and the United States have made possible a more subtle appreciation of the imagery encountered in them. This book draws upon this recent scholarship to explain how those who first purchased these prints would have read them. Through stunning new photography of both well-known and rarely published works in the collection of the British Museum, including many recent acquisitions, the author explores how and why such prints were made, providing a fascinating introduction to a much-loved but little-understood art form.

    Bright, colorful designs and hands on activities will keep children engaged as they learn about Japan and its people.

    This collection of photos, vignettes, and life stories from pre- and postwar rural Japan is the first English translation of his modern Japanese classic. From blowfish to landslides, Miyamoto's stories come to life in Jeffrey Irish's fluid translation.

    You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it into action. Why Pimsleur? • Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day. • Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life. • Proven Method – Works when other methods fail. • Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you. • Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning. • Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. • Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn. • Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above. What’s Included? • 5, 30-minute audio lessons, • In total, 2.5 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers What You’ll Learn This course includes Lessons 16-20 from the Japanese Level 1 program featuring 2.5 hours of language instruction. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Japanese. Whether you want to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of what’s going on in the world around you, Pimsleur will help you learn Japanese and expand your horizons and enrich your life.

    54 pages of summaries and analysis on A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe.This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.

    It highlights the work of three well-known female fiction writers of this generation (Kono Taeko, Takahashi Takako, and Kurahashi Yumiko) for their avant-garde literary challenges to dominant models of femininity. Focusing on four tropes persistently employed by these writers to protest oppressive gender stereotypes--the disciplinary masculine gaze, feminist misogyny, odd bodies, and female homoeroticism--Julia Bullock brings to the fore their previously unrecognized theoretical contributions to second-wave radical feminist discourse.In all of these narrative strategies, the female body is viewed as both the object and instrument of engendering. Severing the discursive connection between bodily sex and gender is thus a primary objective of the narratives and a necessary first step toward a less restrictive vision of female subjectivity in modern Japan. The Other Women's Lib further demonstrates that this gender trouble was historically embedded in the socioeconomic circumstances of the high-growth economy of the 1960s, when prosperity was underwritten by an increasingly conservative gendered division of labor that sought to confine women within feminine roles. Raised during the war to be good wives and wise mothers yet young enough to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them by Occupation-era reforms, the authors who fueled the 1960s boom in women's literary publication staunchly resisted normative constructions of gender, crafting narratives that exposed or subverted hegemonic discourses of femininity that relegated women to the negative pole of a binary opposition to men. Their fictional heroines are unapologetically bad wives and even worse mothers; they are often wanton, excessive, or selfish and brazenly cynical with regard to traditional love, marriage, and motherhood.The Other Women's Lib affords a cogent and incisive analysis of these texts as feminist philosophy in fictional form, arguing persuasively for the inclusion of such literary feminist discourse in the broader history of Japanese feminist theoretical development. It will be accessible to undergraduate audiences and deeply stimulating to scholars and others interested in gender and culture in postwar Japan, Japanese women writers, or Japanese feminism.

    Through an investigation of the very popular Gegegeno Kitaro series, broadcast from the 1960s to the present time, the author is able to pinpoint the visual roots of the animation characters in the context of yokai folklore and Edo- and Meiji- period monster painting traditions. Through analysing the changing images related to the representation of monsters in the series, the book documents the changes in the perception of monsters over the last half-century, while at the same time reflecting on the importance of Mizuki s work in keeping Japan s visual traditions alive and educating new audiences about folklore by recasting yokai imagery in modern-day settings in an innovative way. In addition, by analysing and comparing character, set, costume and mask design, plot and storyline of yokai-themed films, the book is also the first study to shed light on the roles the representations of yokai have been assigned in post-war Japanese cinema. This book will be of particular interest to those studying Japanese visual media, including manga and animation, as well as students and academics in the fields of Japanese Studies, Animation Studies, Art History and Graphic Design."

    In The Specter of Munich: Reconsidering the Lessons of Appeasing Hitler (Potomac Books, Inc., 2006), he contended that Hitler could not have been deterred from going to war by any action the Allies could plausibly have taken. In Beating Goliath: Why Insurgencies Win (Potomac Books, Inc., 2007), Record reviewed eleven insurgencies and evaluated the reasons for their success or failure, including the insurgents’ stronger will to prevail. Wanting War: Why the Bush Administration Invaded Iraq (Potomac Books, Inc., 2009) includes one of Record’s most cogent explanations of why an often uncritical belief in one’s own victory is frequently (but not always) a critical component of the decision to make war. Record incorporates the lessons of these earlier books in his latest, A War It Was Always Going to Lose: Why Japan Attacked America in 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor is one of the most perplexing cases in living memory of a weaker power seeming to believe that it could vanquish a clearly superior force. On closer inspection, however, Record finds that Japan did not believe it could win; yet, the Japanese imperial command decided to attack the United States anyway. Conventional explanations that Japan’s leaders were criminally stupid, wildly deluded, or just plumb crazy don’t fully answer all our questions, Record finds. Instead, he argues, the Japanese were driven by an insatiable appetite for national glory and economic security via the conquest of East Asia. The scope of their ambitions and their fear of economic destruction overwhelmed their knowledge that the likelihood of winning was slim and propelled them into a war they were always going to lose.

    Self-referring, auto-cannibalistic texts that hover and shimmer around the borders of the asemic, yet still retain a vivid relevance to the current post-human cultural landscape. A cyberpunk katabasis beyond Burroughs or Guyotat. Appendix by Reza Negarestani.

    Many people think of this occurrence as one terrible event in the past, which is studied from history books.Shimako Murai and other 'Women of Hiroshima' believe otherwise: for them, the bomb had after-effects which affected countless people for decades, effects that were all the more menacing for their unpredictability - and often, invisibility.This play, based on a true story, tells the tale of two such people: on the surface successful modern women, yet each bearing underneath hidden scars as horrific as the keloids that disfigured Hibakusha on the days following the bomb.

    Over 150 photographs illustrate the styles, the regional differences, the unusual workmanship and the materials used in their production. The text covers a wide range of topics, from the origins and evolution of the chests and the effects of local culture on their design to the importance of sea chests and the channels that led to their distribution to locations around the country. The book also features detailed explanations of the materials and finishes, with an emphasis on traditional Japanese lacquer and the metal fittings reminiscent of armor.Author Kazuko Koizumi brings her expertise and passion for her subject to Traditional Japanese Chests, making it both an essential reference for the serious collector, furniture maker or interior designer, as well as a source of enjoyment for the reader who just wants to learn more about these magnificent pieces.

    Amidst the fever of war, one man will be forced to decide between family and country. Tsutomu Yamaguchi is a navy engineer for a war that is all but lost. When a mission arises that separates him from his family, Yamaguchi makes a fateful, haunting decision. The mission: to help design a Japanese battleship. The destination: Hiroshima.Fearful that the Americans will invade Nagasaki while he is away, Yamaguchi gives his wife hopeless instructions. But he is unaware that it is the dawn of the atomic age. When an act of unspeakable destruction teaches Yamaguchi the value of life, he must risk everything to return to his wife and child and prevent the death he had imagined for them.Assisted by his friends Iwanaga and Sato, Yamaguchi returns from Hiroshima having witnessed horrors that no person had seen before. Yamaguchi's journey from the heart of mankind's most destructive weapon is a story about a man who experiences senseless destruction and reevaluates his concept of life, love, country and duty.

    This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

    The essays in this cross-cultural volume put Kyoto School thinkers in conversation with German Idealism, Nietzsche, phenomenology, and other figures and schools of the continental tradition such as Levinas and Irigaray. Set in the context of global philosophy, this volume offers critical, innovative, and productive dialogue between some of the most influential philosophical figures from East and West.

    This book seeks to expand upon the idea of 'soft power' in international relations and to investigate how it actually functions by looking at three case studies in Japan-China relations during the post-war period. These cases involve the action of Japan's soft power in China due to the activities of agents at three levels in society: the state level (an agency of the central government), the sub-state level (a local government), and at the non-state level (a non-governmental organisation).In addition, a major theme of the book is to examine the role of important international actors whose roles are not covered sufficiently in international relations discourse. Utpal Vyas demonstrates ways in which soft power is a useful analytical tool to understand relations between China and Japan in the early 2000s. The case studies help to reveal the complexities of interaction between China and Japan beyond the usual state-level analyses and offer a valuable resource for the study of Sino-Japanese relations and IR in general.This book will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students in Japanese studies, Chinese studies and International Relations.

    The peak cherry-viewing season, however, is extremely short -- from late March through early April -- and the exquisite blossoms scatter without trace in little over a week. Despite, or perhaps because of, the fleeting nature of the spectacle, cherry blossoms have occupied a special place in the hearts of the Japanese since earliest times.Cherry blossoms are seen as an ideal model for life and death, emblematic of both the glorious and ephemeral natures of human existence, dazzling during a short life before falling gracefully to the ground. For this reason, they have provided inspiration for poets, painters, artisans and many others over the centuries. Identifying in nature a sublime spirituality transcending external beauty, and elevating that spirituality to an art form lies at the core of Japanese culture. For over a millennium, the city of Kyoto has made this aesthetic sensibility its own.This book, a companion to the recent Autumn Colors of Kyoto, features 48 outstanding cherry blossom-viewing locations photographed by three lifelong Kyotoites who have made it their mission to convey the beauty of their remarkable city.A bilingual map section provides address information and contact details for each location.

    Tyrants ride high, old notions of justice vanish, and people may feel they have nowhere to turn for relief. In some ways, this is the story of human civilization.Indeed, this is what happened to the Chinese world in the thirteenth century when the Mongol conquerors mangled China and left the Chinese social order in tatters.This book, from one the pioneering and preeminent translators of Zen for the West, presents a selection of Zen lessons from four teachers in four successive generations whose public lives spanned a turbulent period in Chinese history. These four Zen masters were all eminent teachers, and their teaching words reflect the state of the art of Zen teaching in their time. And they are, even now, all vividly relevant.

    Beginning with a description of the oldest attested stage of the language, Old Japanese (approximately the eighth century AD), and then tracing the changes which occurred through the Early Middle Japanese (800-1200), Late Middle Japanese (1200-1600) and the Modern Japanese (1600-onwards) periods, a complete internal history of the language is examined and discussed. This account provides a comprehensive study of how the Japanese language has developed and adapted, providing a much needed resource for scholars. A History of the Japanese Language is invaluable to all those interested in the Japanese language and also students of language change generally.

    You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it into action. Why Pimsleur? • Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day. • Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life. • Proven Method – Works when other methods fail. • Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you. • Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning. • Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. • Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn. • Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above. What’s Included? • 5, 30-minute audio lessons, • In total, 2.5 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers What You’ll Learn This course includes Lessons 21-25 from the Japanese Level 1 program featuring 2.5 hours of language instruction. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Japanese. Whether you want to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of what’s going on in the world around you, Pimsleur will help you learn Japanese and expand your horizons and enrich your life.

    You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it into action. Why Pimsleur? • Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day. • Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life. • Proven Method – Works when other methods fail. • Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you. • Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning. • Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. • Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn. • Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above. What’s Included? • 5, 30-minute audio lessons • 60 minutes of reading instruction to provide you with an introduction to reading hiragana and designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent • In total, 3.5 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers • a digital Reading BookletWhat You’ll Learn This course includes Lessons 26-30 from the Japanese Level 1 program featuring 2.5 hours of language instruction. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Japanese. Whether you want to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of what’s going on in the world around you, Pimsleur will help you learn Japanese and expand your horizons and enrich your life.

    Years of watching some of the most abject examples of man's inhumanity to man left him deeply scarred and, although he was not to realise it at the time, the remaining years of his life would be devoted to his own personal mission of atonement and reconciliation. He has already written a series of testaments of the soul-searching in which he subsequently found himself engaged – and we are indebted to Gill Goddard for making some of this material available in English in this newly revised edition of two of his essays.

    Conlan's interpretation of the invasions is supplemented with translations of the picture scrolls commissioned by Takezaki Suenaga, a warrior who fought against the Mongols. In addition, translations of nearly seventy administrative documents are provided, thereby enabling students of Japanese history reconstruct the invasions using contemporary sources. A rare copy of Takezaki Suenaga's Scrolls, reproduced in full, reveals hitherto unknown missing scenes. Furthermore, the scrolls' images can be now read in tandem with its narrative passages, translated in English for the first time.Please note that the entire book was intentionally printed from back to front, so that the reproduced scrolls unfold in Japanese order, from right to left. Thus the book's spine is on the right. This monograph will prove to be of great interest for students and scholars of medieval Japanese history, warrior culture, and the nature of Japan in an East Asian context.

    Presents the latest psychological research from a variety of global cultures Sheds new light on historical continuities in psychological anthropology Explores the cultural relativity of emotional experience and moral concepts among diverse peoples, the Freudian influence and recent psychoanalytic trends in anthropology Addresses childhood and the acquisition of culture, an ethnographic focus on the self as portrayed in ritual and healing, and how psychological anthropology illuminates social change

    Trees are trained and sculpted until they epitomize the very best of the trees' tree-like qualities; the finest natural landscapes are reproduced in miniature; and the seasons are celebrated with spring blossom and the fiery leaves of autumn. This book showcases 28 of the finest examples. Gardens such as Katsura Rikyu exemplify stroll gardens: large, beautifully landscaped parks where a narrow, winding path leads visitors along the water's edge, over bridges and stepping stones, through groves of beautifully pruned trees, between artificial rolling hills and past tea houses and elaborate arrangements of rocks. While Alex Ramsay's photographs capture the gardens' beauty, Helena Attlee elegantly and informatively explains their composition, and the people and influences who made them. Words and pictures marry to make a most pleasing introduction to the gardens of Japan.

    Area maps for all the key districts of Tokyo show the locations of hotels, shopping centers, office buildings, temples, shrines, embassies and restaurants as well as their proximity to the nearest subway and JR stations. Information on bus routes and private railways is also given, with detailed diagrams for each route, thus enabling the user to have several options for getting around. Places of interest outside Tokyo are also covered: Hakone, Yokohama, Kamakura, Yokosuka, Mt Fuji and Tokyo Disneyland. Numerous area maps (including maps for Yokota, Atsugi and Zama) and diagrams for bus routes and private railways facilitate journeys to all of these destinations.This Tokyo travel guide contains:Arriving in TokyoMaps of TokyoNavigating the Tokyo's Railway & Subway & MazeBuses RoutesGetting Around Yokohama, Kawasaki, Hakone & KamakuraUseful Vocabulary and Expressions

    1 brand in language learning. Read and write Japanese scripts is a clear step-by-step guide to the written languages, with plenty of examples from real-life texts to show how they work in context and lots of exercises to reinforce your learning. This new edition has an easy-to-read page design.Now fully updated to make your language learning experience fun and interactive. You can still rely on the benefits of a top language teacher and our years of teaching experience, but now with added learning features within the course. Learn effortlessly with new, easy-to-read page design: AUTHOR INSIGHTSLots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience.USEFUL VOCABULARYEasy to find and learn, to build a solid foundation for speaking.TEST YOURSELFTests in the book to keep track of your progress.EXTEND YOUR KNOWLEDGEExtra online articles at: www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the culture and history of Japan.TRY THISInnovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.

    Vol. 1 in Japanese, and features romaji (Romanized Japanese) for people who can't yet read the hiragana, katakana and kanji. Parts of the books also explain in Korean and Chinese, but not all. The book is organized into logical chapters, like around town, parts of the body, relationships, and the pictures make everything fun and easy to learn. The book includes a plastic shitajiki (pencil board) with Japanese language references. 96 pages.

    Based on nearly ten years of fieldwork in Tokyo, Hideko Abe examines a wide range of linguistic practices, including magazine advice columns, bars, television, seminars, text messaging on cell phones, the theater, and private homes.  Ultimately, Abe reveals how gender and sexual identities are fluid, unstable, and negotiated.

    Naff, the distinguished scholar of Japanese literature widely known and highly regarded for his eloquent translations of the writings of Shimazaki Toson (1872-1943), spent the last years of his life writing a full-length biography of Toson. Virtually completed at the time of his death, The Kiso Road provides a rich and colorful account of this canonic novelist who, along with Natsume Soseki and Mori Ogai, formed the triumvirate of writers regarded as giants in Meiji Japan, all three of whom helped establish the parameters of modern Japanese literature. Professor Naff's biography skillfully places Toson in the context of his times and discusses every aspect of his career and personal life, as well as introducing in detail a number of his important but as yet untranslated works.Toson's long life, his many connections with other important Japanese artists and intellectuals, his sojourn in France during World War I, and his later visit to South America, permit a biography of depth and detail that serves as a kind of cultural history of Japan during an often turbulent period. The Kiso Road, as approachable and exciting as any novel, with Toson himself as its complex protagonist, is arguably the most thorough account of any modern Japanese writer presently available in English.

    East Asia Studies. Literary History & Criticism. After the end of World War II, Japanese poet Tamura Ryuichi began publishing Arechi (The Wasteland), a literary magazine charting a new course for Japanese poetry. Over the next fifty years, Tamura produced innovative and haunting poems inspired by an extraordinary range of poets from all over the world, including T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden. Though Tamura is little known in the U. S., he is considered to be among the very most important Japanese poets of the 20th century. In this second volume of the Unsung Masters Series, editors Takako Lento and Wayne Miller present more than forty pages of Tamura's poetry, as well as essays on Tamura's work by both Japanese and American writers.

    His story is both tender and descriptive, complemented by full- and double-paged illustrations. From making wishes with daruma dolls and flying kites shaped like caterpillars to discovering the two-toed shoes of construction workers and nibbling on roasted chestnuts, Tokyo springs to life in a way guaranteed to enchant young readers—and their parents. Bilingual text enhances this cultural immersion for language learners of all ages.

    Now, two men rediscover the near-forgotten Yokai and return these ancient beasts to their former glory in The Bento Bestiary. This beautiful book is manufactured using Nobrow's renowned spot color print process.Scott James Donaldson is a writer living in Bristol, United Kingdom.Ben Newman is an illustrator and artist living in Bristol, United Kingdom.

    You’ll learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation together through conversation. And our scientifically proven program will help you remember what you’ve learned, so you can put it into action. Why Pimsleur? • Quick + Easy – Only 30 minutes a day. • Portable + Flexible – Core lessons can be done anytime, anywhere, and easily fit into your busy life. • Proven Method – Works when other methods fail. • Self-Paced – Go fast or go slow – it’s up to you. • Based in Science – Developed using proven research on memory and learning. • Cost-effective – Less expensive than classes or immersion, and features all native speakers. • Genius – Triggers your brain’s natural aptitude to learn. • Works for everyone – Recommended for ages 13 and above. What’s Included? • 5, 30-minute audio lessons, • In total, 2.5 hours of audio, all featuring native speakers What You’ll Learn This course includes Lessons 1-5 from the Japanese Level 2 program featuring 2.5 hours of language instruction. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension, and on learning to speak Japanese. Whether you want to travel, communicate with friends or colleagues, reconnect with family, or just understand more of what’s going on in the world around you, Pimsleur will help you learn Japanese and expand your horizons and enrich your life.

    Long after death, these ascetics continue to be revered as Living Buddhas. This first English-language work on the subject recounts the process by which these monks starve themselves for a decade, bury themselves alive with only a small breathing tube, and meditate until death. After three years, the mummified body is exhumed and displayed. The biographies of various monks are presented within, as is an examination of the religious beliefs involved, an amalgamation of three distinct religious traditions. Also explored is the role of asceticism in religion, and beliefs about life and death shared by the Buddhist sects involved in self-mummification.

    Eleven veterans contribute their memories and experiences, starting with their youth in the Depression, their enlistment, the battle itself, and their experience of returning to a nation that continued to treat them as second-class citizens.

    The dual-use nature of space technologies, meaning that they cut across both market and military applications, has had two important consequences for Japan. First, Japan has developed space technologies for the market in its civilian space program that have yet to be commercially competitive. Second, faced with rising geopolitical uncertainties and in the interest of their own economics, the makers of such technologies have been critical players in the shift from the market to the military in Japan's space capabilities and policy. This book shows how the sum total of market-to-military moves across space launch vehicles, satellites and spacecraft, and emerging related technologies, already mark Japan as an advanced military space power.

    The result is a complex and beautiful palimpsest, wherein we are privileged, simultaneously and sequentially, to look upon worlds within worlds within worlds. Mark Young opens the book on the processes of the composition of the sequence itself so that, along with his reading of Genji, we are also given the progress of the writing of that reading. His technique, foregrounded here, demonstrates a fidelity to stochastics allied with a profound knowledge of, and respect for, tradition: "replaying / our cached millennium." All the characteristics of Young’s recent work—ferocious intellect, coruscating satire, black humour, exquisite emotion—are fully present, along with something difficult to name: as if, in the drawing back of screen after screen after screen, what is revealed is the nakedness of all enclosure, the silence inside both world and word. —Martin Edmond

    Chapters: Suehiro Maruo, Ero Guro, Toshio Maeda, Garo, Cali gari, Shintaro Kago, Henmaru Machino, Jig-Ai, Waita Uziga, Horihone Saiz . Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Maruo Suehiro (; Maruo Suehiro), born January 28, 1956 in Nagasaki, Japan, is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, and painter. Maruo graduated from junior high school in March 1972 but dropped out of senior high school. At the age of 15 he moved to Tokyo and began working for a bookbinder. At 17, he made his first manga submission to Shonen Jump (), but it was considered by the editors to be too graphic for the weekly magazine's format and was subsequently rejected. Maruo temporarily removed himself from manga until November 1980 when he made his official debut as a manga artist in Ribon no Kishi () at the age of 24. It was at this stage that the young artist was finally able to pursue his artistic vision without such stringent restrictions over the visual content of his work. Two years later, his first stand-alone anthology, Barairo no Kaibutsu (; Rose Colored Monster) was published. Maruo was a frequent contributor to the legendary underground manga magazine Garo (). Like many manga artists, Maruo sometimes makes cameo appearances in his own stories. When photographed, he seldom appears without his trademark sunglasses. Though most prominently known for his work as a manga artist, Maruo has also produced illustrations for concert posters, CD Jackets, magazines, novels, and various other media. Some of his characters have been made into figures as well. Though relatively few of Maruo's manga have been published outside of Japan, his work enjoys a cult following abroad. His book Shjo Tsubaki (aka Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show) has been adapted into an animated film (Midori) by Hiroshi Ha...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=257507

    Roach collaborated with top-level artisans, historians, and martial arts experts to create a unique, in-depth study of these magnificent weapons from a historical, iconographical, and technological perspective. In addition to a foreword by seventh degree iaido black belt Nicklaus Suino and a sidebar by Mukansa-level polisher Abe Kazunori, Japanese Swords includes rare looks into the world of Mukansa-level swordsmiths Kawachi Kunihira and Gassan Sadatoshi. Complemented by hundreds of stunning high-resolution photos and a DVD, Japanese Swords is a must-have addition to any Japanophile's library.

    Born in Venice, Italy, Beato came of age in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople. As a young apprentice in 1856, he photographed the sites of the Crimean War, thereby launching a long and remarkably adventurous career. Over the next half century he would follow in the wake of the British Empire: Egypt, Palestine, and Syria; India, where he photographed the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny; and China, where he chronicled the Second Opium War. He spent some thirty years in Japan and Burma, where he was among the first commercial photographers at the time that these countries were starting to open to the West.The text includes an engaging narrative of his life and entrepreneurial career and a thought-provoking essay on Beato and the photography of war. There is a generous selection of his photographs, including panoramas and hand-colored Japanese studies, along with captivating period ephemera, lithographs based on his work, and humorous caricatures of the artist.

    These illustrations were selected from woodblock-printed covers and frontispiece illustrations from 64 popular books published in Osaka from 1898 through 1903. They include samurai and strong men, demons and detectives, courtesans, sumo wrestlers, and other vivid characters in scenarios ranging from romantic to grotesquely violent. Printed in the color woodblock method in use since the late eighteenth century, they provide a link between an ancient storytelling tradition and the beginning of mass-published popular literature. Created during the Meiji era (1868–1912), when Japanese society was changing dramatically with the influx of Western technology and values, these images appealed to a wide audience of newly literate readers. Their scenes of retribution and sacrifice reflect a modern consciousness of Japanese history and a longing for an idealized vision of the past, marked by traditional values of loyalty, filial piety, self-sacrifice, and chivalry. Long considered a disposable form of popular culture, these books were not carefully preserved or collected. This collection, assembled by an expert on Japanese art, offers a rare glimpse of a newly rediscovered art form.

    Kōtoku was a bitter opponent of aggressive Japanese nationalism and militarism, foreseeing as early as 1906 that its ultimate consequence would be conflict with the United States. He was executed in 1911 on charges of 'high treason' in a plot to take the life of the Meiji Emperor. Professor Notehelfer presents a personal as well as political biography. Drawing on Kōtoku's extensive diaries and correspondence, he examines the psychological conflict Kōtoku suffered between traditional and Western ideas. The book therefore has the wider theme of illustrating the pressures and difficulties faced by a traditional society in a period of rapid social change.

    This new series of pattern books presents the range of the V&A’s superb collections. Beautifully designed, accessible, and informative– perhaps a little quirky – they are a repository of ideas for designers of all kinds, but also a collection of desirable gift books. Included in each volume is a CD of all the images shown within--to be redrawn, reworked, or even licensed for further use.  The books are available individually or in a beautiful decorative slipcase. V&A Pattern Kimono shows some of the best Japanese textile patterns at the V&A spanning over 200 years from the early nineteenth century to the present. The brief text is followed by 60 stunning color illustrations that showcase the delicate and beautiful patterns of kimonos. .

    Over 100 million people live in this small nation of islands. Many live in the countryside, but millions live in crowded cities like Tokyo. Students will learn about the physical features of the landscape and surrounding waters as well as the cultural aspects of the Japanese from old traditions to modern everyday life.