The Japan Society Review

Every year the Daiwa Foundation hosts a number of events on Japan, and recently this included a talk on Wazuka tea and Ogatsu inkstones with contributors Timothy d’Offay, Teruo Kurosaki and Timothy Toomey. Review by Mike Sullivan

By Takashi Hiraide The prose in The Guest Cat bare and clinical. The pace of the book is lethargic, leaving the narrative to meander a little too often.The book is part of The New York Times and The Sunday Times best seller lists. Review by Chris Corker

Mike Sullivan interviews violinist Lisa Ueda, who in addition as being part of the Ueda/Rinaldo Duo, she has an upcoming concert at Wigmore Hall which will be followed soon after with a tour in Japan. Interview by Mike Sullivan

The play’s setting is a decrepit family-run cinema in a small northern town on the Sea of Japan coast, soon to be turned into a supermarket. It is here that we encounter Sei, a middle-aged actor, who, like the [...] Review by Susan Meehan

By John T. Carpenter This catalogue was published with the exhibition ‘Designing Nature: The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art’. It introduces some of the most colourful paintings and artefacts of Edo Japan. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

Directed by Annabelle Sami Sei is a middle-aged actor, once brilliant, but now fading. His wife orchestrates a love affair between him and a younger co-star to reinvigorate his career and help him find the brilliance of his youth [...] Review by David Knox

Directed by Amy Draper Usagi Yojimbo, presents an adventurous rabbit samurai and teaches us of war, responsibility and honour in Edo period Japan – austere subjects made delightfully light with the addition of rabbit ears. Review by Annabelle Sami

Directed by Lee Sang-Il The most surprising thing about this remake, directed by Korean Lee Sang-Il, is how closely it sticks to the source material, and how successfully it does so considering the wildly different settings. Review by Chris Corker

By Junji Banno The book assumes that the reader has a fair grasp of the history of modern Japan. It is thus intended primarily for historians as it is not an introduction to Japanese political history for the newcomer to [...] Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Yoshihiko Futamasu The sufferings of allied prisoners of war forced by the Japanese military to work on the have been recounted in many books. This book is the first publication in English of an account by a Japanese railway engineer. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi