3 February 2012
by Yukinobu Hoshino, translated by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Hiromi Uchida and Timothy Clark, British Museum Press, 2011, 264 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0714124650, £14.99 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi This is the English version of an original Japanese Manga book. It was translated into English by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere with Uchida Hiromi and Timothy Clark. It has [...]
2 February 2012
by Lian Hearn, Quercus Publishing, 2011, 400 pages, ISBN 978-0-85738-297-9, £12.99 Review by Ali Muskett Blossoms and Shadows by Lian Hearn (real name Gillian Rubinstein), is set in 19th century Japan, and is narrated by fictional character Tsuru. The daughter of a doctor, Tsuru is raised in a world of medicine where, due to cultural [...]
1 February 2012
by Taichi Yamada [山田 太一], translated by Michael Emmerich, Faber and Faber Limited, 2006 (originally published in 1989, Tokyo), 183 pages, £8.99, ISBN 0571229719. Review by Michael Sullivan Taichi Yamada [山田 太一] was born in 1934 in Tokyo, he has worked as a screenwriter for television and film. In 1987 his novel Strangers [異人たちとの夏] was [...]
1 February 2012
by Giles Milton, Hodder and Stoughton, 2003, 399 pages, £7.99, ISBN 0340794682 Review by Michael Sullivan Using extensive research of letters and other documents of the seventeenth century, this book tells the fascinating story of the first Englishman and the first English factory in Japan. In 1620 William Adams, otherwise known as Miura Anjin [三浦按針], [...]
29 November 2011
Review by Ali Muskett A Gaijin’s Guide to Japan is a fine place to start if you have a mild interest in Japan which needs nurturing. However, if you’re already a bit of a Japanophile, it might not be the best book for you to read. It is written in an A-Z format, and doesn’t [...]
28 November 2011
Review by: Sean Curtin This beautifully illustrated work by the renowned Japanese artist Yukinobu Hoshino (星野 之宣) manages to perfectly capture the unique atmosphere of the British Museum. Hoshino’s meticulous artwork successfully transports the world famous institute, plus several of its curators, into the alternate reality of the manga world. Hoshino places Professor Munakata (宗像教授), [...]
28 November 2011
Review by: Susan Meehan Talking about The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn at the Oriental Club in London on 24 October 2011, its author, Roger Pulvers, gave a measured account of Lafcadio Hearn, crediting him for his incredibly well-written yet fairly unknown journalistic work carried out mainly in the USA, his extraordinary insights into Japan and [...]
28 November 2011
Review by : Sir Hugh Cortazzi This copiously illustrated book has been produced to mark 150 years of friendship between Germany and Japan. Dr. Volker Stanzel, the German ambassador in Tokyo, in his message at the beginning notes that many of the materials collected in this book were long presumed to have been lost. His [...]
24 October 2011
Review by Fumiko Halloran Strong Arm Restoration (Gowan Ishin) is a collection of newspaper columns written by Ichiro Ozawa that first appeared in the Evening Fuji [夕刊フジ] newspaper between 2003 and 2006. His weekly column touches on politics, the economy, foreign policy, education, and crime. As for the book’s title, “Strong Arm” [剛腕] is an [...]
23 August 2011
by Takashi Oka, Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies, 2011, 210 pages, £85.00, ISBN-10: 0415587522 and ISBN-13: 978-0415587525 Review by Sean Curtin Love him or loathe him, but you certainly cannot ignore Ichiro Ozawa, one of Japan’s most enduring and influential politicians of the last few decades. Takashi Ota, veteran journalist and former Ozawa aid, has produced [...]
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