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November 22, 2024
 

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Donald Richie
Donald Richie began writing regularly for The Japan Times in 1954, initially writing film and stage reviews. In the early '70s he began writing book reviews and continued contributing until 2009. He wrote more than 40 books on Japanese aesthetics, and he is widely considered the pre-eminent expert on Japanese cinema.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 14, 2000
Kyogen's hero is Everyman
KYOGEN COMPANION, by Don Kenny, with a brief history by Kazuo Toguchi. Tokyo: National Noh Theater, 1999. 308 pp. with b/w plates. 1,800 yen. Kyogen are short comic plays sometimes a part of, but more often sandwiched between, the longer and often tragic noh dramas. They are spoken in the vernacular...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 6, 2000
Diplomat to a bygone era
A DIPLOMAT IN JAPAN, by Ernest Satow. New York/Tokyo: ICG Muse, Inc., 2000, 424 pp., 1,300 yen. This is a welcome reissue of the long-out-of-print 1921 edition of Ernest Satow's memoirs. Its contents are indicated in his original subtitle: "The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 30, 2000
Kyoto, Basho, a mouse and you
KYOTO GARDENS: A Virtual Stroll through Zen Landscapes. CD-ROM (Apple Macintosh). Yorba Linda, Calif.: Lunaflora. Distributed by Mercury Software Japan. 4,000 yen. You stride your mouse and gallop off on a tour of two dozen of Kyoto's most famous gardens. If, that is, you have slipped this CD-ROM into...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 23, 2000
Basho, a man for all seasons
REDISCOVERING BASHO: A 300th Anniversary Celebration, edited by Stephen Henry Gill & C. Andrew Gerstle. Kent: Global Oriental/Global Books, 1999, 168 pp., 14.95 British pounds. During the 300 years since his death, Basho has turned into Japan's most famous poet, the personification of haiku culture...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 16, 2000
Enchi's made-up 'monogatari'
A TALE OF FALSE FORTUNES, By Fumiko Enchi. Translated by Roger K. Thomas. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. Unpriced. The late Fumiko Enchi was, besides being a well-known novelist, a major scholar of Japanese literature. Like her father, Kazutoshi Ueda, she was a classicist. Her 1972-3...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 9, 2000
Kafu's sure but fleeting touch
AMERICAN STORIES, by Nagai Kafu. Translated and with an introduction by Mitsuko Iriye. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 240 pp., unpriced. In 1903, the young man who was to become one of Japan's finest writers left for the United States. He did not particularly want to go -- he would have...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2000
Everything about Tanizaki
TANIZAKI IN WESTERN LANGUAGES: A Bibliography of Translations and Studies, by Adriana Boscaro, with a list of films based on Tanizaki's works compiled by Maria Roberta Novielli. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2000, 82 pp., $19.95. This fine bibliography is one...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 25, 2000
Marco Polo's fantastic truths
MARCO POLO AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD, by John Larner. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999, 250 pp., with plates (14) and maps, unpriced. In 1271, a mere 17 years old, Marco Polo left Venice in company with his uncle and several other merchants. Twenty-four years later, in 1295, he returned,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 4, 2000
Canterbury meets Samarkand
LIFE ALONG THE SILK ROAD, by Susan Whitfield. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, 242 pp., 12 color plates, 12 b/w photos, 13 maps, $27.50 (cloth). In the ninth century, music from Kucha was popular all along the Silk Road, from Samarkand to Chang-an. One of its enthusiasts was the Chinese...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 28, 2000
The marvelous paradox of Ise
ISE -- JAPAN'S ISE SHRINES: Ancient but New, by Svend Hvass. Holte: Aristo Press, 146 pp., profusely illustrated, 6,000 yen. Ise holds one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan. Enshrining the ancestral gods of the Imperial family, it has a long and varied political career. Such was its power...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2000
Built on a foundation of fear
THE SHOGUN'S PAINTED CULTURE: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States -- 1760-1829, by Timon Screech. London: Reaktion Books, 2000, 312 pp., with 33 color plates and 111 b/w photos, 19.95 British pounds. The argument of this prodigiously detailed study is that Japan as we now know it did not exist...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2000
Silent films cry out for attention
MASTERPIECES OF JAPANESE SILENT CINEMA. Bilingual (Japanese/English) DVD-ROM (Windows). Tokyo: Urban Connections, Inc. 18,900 yen. The Japanese silent cinema is almost unknown, so little has been available for viewing. Even in a medium where two-thirds of all silent cinema is lost (and perhaps a quarter...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2000
Puppets seen through the bars
THE FUNERAL OF A GIRAFFE and Other Stories, by Tomioka Taeko. Translated by Kyoko Selden and Mizuta Noriko. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 182 pp., $21.95. Originally a poet, Taeko Tomioka turned to fiction later in her career, after the breakup of a long-term relationship and a return to her native Osaka....
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000
Pilgrimage for the 21st century
EXPLORING KANTO: Weekend Pilgrimages from Tokyo, by Michael Plastow. New York: Weatherall, 1996, 262 pp., with color photos and maps, $19.95. A long journey of exalted purpose is one of the dictionary definitions of pilgrimage. One makes such a demanding endeavor for personal or, if you will, spiritual...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2000
Some very serious pillow talk
CARTOGRAPHIES OF DESIRE: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950, by Gregory M. Pflugfelder. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, 200 pp., unpriced. As the author of this detailed, closely reasoned and beautifully written study reminds us, "Rather than sexual practice, this book...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 16, 2000
The essence of Japanese film
FROM BOOK TO SCREEN: Modern Japanese Literature in Film. By Keiko I. McDonald. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 326 pp., with b/w photos. $62.95 (cloth); $25.95 (paper) Keiko McDonald's 1994 "Japanese Classical Theater in Films" (Associated University Presses) has become an indispensable text. Anyone...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 8, 2000
A great tradition resurrected
SEX AND THE FLOATING WORLD: Erotic Images in Japan 1700-1820, by Timon Screech. London: Reaktion Books, 1999, 320 pp., 156 illustrations, 36 color, 16.95 British pounds. Though there has been much scholarly research of the ukiyo-e, woodblock prints from premodern Japan, one sizable genre within this...
LIFE / Travel
Feb 2, 2000
The last paradise
Special to The Japan Times In the early years of the last century, the wife of a French colonial doctor in Laos wrote in her journal, "Oh! What a delightful paradise. The fierce barrier of the stream protects this country from the progress and ambition of which it has no need. Will Luang Prabang be,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 1, 2000
Japan's real conglomerate
RUINS OF IDENTITY: Ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands, by Mark J. Hudson. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999, 324 pp., with maps, graphs and line drawings, unpriced. Just as we attempt to create who we individually are by various assumptions and appropriations, so too do nations presume an...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 25, 2000
From 'either/or' to 'both/and'
FATHER INDIA: Westerners Under the Spell of an Ancient Culture, by Jeffrey Paine. New York, HarperCollins, 1999, 324 pp., with b/w photos, $14. Toward the middle of this detailed and thoughtful book, the author says his work is "about how different hopes for the West -- visions of another kind of West...
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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