The Japan Society Review

By Lian Hearn, Quercus Publishing, 2011, 400 pages, ISBN 978-0-85738-297-9; £12.99. Review by Susan Meehan. Blossoms and Shadows is an absolutely riveting piece of historical fiction which brings alive a fascinating period of late nineteenth century Japanese history. The book begins in 1857 and spans ten years, which are the twilight of the Bakufu (the […]

Directed by Koichi Omiya (大宮浩一), 2011, 75 minutes Review by Susan Meehan. This documentary is the first to have been made in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami which wrecked the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan on 11 March 2011. Tohoku is the land of Omiya’s birth and his parents’ home so the disaster […]

Directed by Yojiro Takita [滝田洋二郎], 2008, 131 minutes. Review by Michael Sullivan. Departures is based on an autobiographical book by Aoki Shinmon [新門青木] and features Masahiro Motoki [本木雅弘] as Daigo Kobayashi, a cellist who after losing his job moves back to his hometown and starts a new job helping ‘departures.’ In 2009 it won an […]

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 […]

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], […]

Directed by Hirotsugu Kawasaki (川﨑博嗣), 2011, 98 minutes Review by Susan Meehan This anime opens with scenes of verdant ancient Japan. Amidst scenes of temples, shrines, mountains, paddy fields and old towns samurai, representing humanity, are fighting huge monsters with blazing red eyes otherwise known as “oni.” One is enormous, rivalling Godzilla in terms of […]

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 […]

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), […]

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 […]

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 […]