Stanley introduces the vibrant social and cultural life of early nineteenth-century Japan and one woman who lived it.
Tag: Japan
Blast to the Past: “Japan Inside Out,” by Jay, Sumi & Garet Gluck
Gluck’s guidebook, at over 1,000 pages, serves as an enduring source of reference material on Japan.
Review—Inaka: Portraits of Life in Rural 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…
Authors Unite to Support Each Other During COVID-19: Amy Katoh’s Blue & White store in Tokyo
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…
Exploring the Mackerel Trail
By Amy Chavez The Wakasa Road is a historical trail that helped advance Japan’s culture and cuisine. The Wakasa region of Fukui Prefecture, on the nation’s west coast, was one of the strategic miketsukuni regions of Japan that produced food for the emperor in ancient times. Wakasa-mono were delectables from the Japan Sea such as More…
Exploring the ‘My Year in Japan’ novel
By Amy Chavez So many books are published each year about someone’s year abroad in Japan that it has fostered its own genre called the “My Year in Japan” novel. Basically, a Westerner spends a year here (Japan), returns to their home country, and writes a book about this “weird country” that proceeds to get More…