Serita Kentaro retraces and analyzes the history of negotiations over the Northern Territories, Takeshima and Senkaku Islands.
Japan’s three territorial disputes with neighbouring countries — the Northern Territories (Russia), Takeshima (Korea), and the Senkaku Islands (China) — all arose in the post-war period. The battle over them is being waged not by guns and butter, but through peaceful means in the courts of law. Less dangerous though this might be, it is no less complicated.
The Heart Sutra is the most widely read, chanted, and copied text in East Asian Buddhism. Schodt’s journey takes him to China, America and Japan.
Review By Amy Chavez All over Asia the Heart Sutra soothes minds and eases the burdens people encounter in their every day lives. In Japan, one might catch its rising timbre across a graveyard as a Buddhist Priest chants to the departed in a ceremony honoring the family’s ancestors. A tourist might stumble upon followers More…
Gluck’s guidebook, at over 1,000 pages, serves as an enduring source of reference material on Japan.
In eighteen chapters, this anthology takes an epic journey the length of Japan, from subtropical Okinawa, through the Japanese heartland, all the way to the wilds of Hokkaido.
Review by Renae Lucas-Hall “It’s easy to fall under the spell of rural Japan” is the first sentence in the introduction to this anthology that sets the reader upon a path to enchantment. Each essay acts as a beguiling incantation that will amplify one’s desire to explore the Japanese countryside. If you’re an avid reader More…
By Amy Chavez I’ve read 84 books so far this year. According to my Goodreads “Reading Challenge,” I’m 15 books ahead of schedule, so I’m well on my way to hitting the 100 mark. In fact, I’ll probably surpass it. How did I go from reading 5 to 10 books a year to reading over More…
Interested in Japanese poetry? Author and translator Roger Pulvers offers a few minutes of poetry on his YouTube channel each update. His recitation of Masaoka Shiki above is typical of his offerings where he reads haiku and tanka. He introduces the poet, recites some of their well-known verses (that he translated into English himself) and More…
By Sean Michael Wilson What happened to the Japanese love of nature? There is a common assumption that Japanese people love nature. In some ways that is clearly true, thankfully. However, in various important respects what happens in practice seems to go very much against that. In a world increasingly focused on sustainability and protection More…
Sorry, you missed this deal! This is an e-book only deal on iBooks and Amazon and will last only 24hrs, so grab it now by clicking the green “More info” button on the left. Norwegian Wood ノルウェイの森 (Noruwei no Mori) First published in Japanese in 1987. Translated into English by Alfred Brinbaum in 1989, then More…
By Amy Chavez Tokyo-based author and collector Amy Katoh has had her Blue & White store in Azabu Jūban, Minato-ku for 44 years. Her shop celebrates the Japanese love for blue and white, especially as represented in traditional textiles (kasuri, tenugui, zabuton cushions, etc.) and porcelain (Imari plates, vases, soba cups, etc). Many of our More…
Recent Release! A fascinating look at three of Japan’s most devastating earthquakes.
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The Era of Great Disasters: Japan and Its Three Major Earth Quakes, by Iokibe Makoto (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, July 2020) Review by Amy Chavez Included in the University of Michigan Press ‘Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies,’ The Era of Great Disasters is a scholarly but highly readable text that investigates Japan’s More…
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