The Japan Society Review

A Life in Aikido: The Biography of Founder Morihei Ueshiba. By Kisshomaru Ueshiba (植芝 吉祥丸). Kodansha International, 2008, 320 pages, ISBN-13: 978-4770026170 Review by Hugh Purser

Translated by Mary E. Foster I-House Press, Tokyo, 2010 290 pages including index, references and tables. ISBN 978-4-903452-18-0 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi “Japan suffers today from a high inequality in income distribution and a lack of equal opportunity. Simply put, Japan is a class society.” These are the thought-provoking first words of this sociological […]

Translated by Carl Freire Routledge, 2010 214 pages, ISBN: 978-0-415-55688-0 (Hardback), £75.00. Review by Sean Curtin In this impressive study Yu Uchiyama meticulously dissects the highly successful and by Japanese standards long lived administration of Junichiro Koizumi (26 April 2001 – 26 September 2006). Since stepping down from office, no Japanese prime minister has lasted […]

By Shunji Yanai Born in 1937 in Tokyo into a diplomatic family, Yanai spent his childhood in pre-war Germany, Switzerland, and Colombia, where his family was held with other Japanese as prisoners of war after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor [...] Review by Fumiko Halloran

Edited by Harumi Kimura Global Oriental, 2009 pages 251 including index, ISBN 978-1-905246-86-1. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi. The seventy short essays in this book deal with aspects of the everyday life of ordinary Japanese people. Even those of us who have lived in Japan for a few years will find in this book some […]

University of East Anglia, Norwich, 22 June to 29 August 2010 Review by Susan Meehan. The ‘unearthed’ exhibition, held at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich during the summer of 2010, elicited far more questions than it answered, making for an extraordinarily thought-provoking and rewarding experience. At its heart was a collection of […]

Ken Tadashi Oshima 320 pp., 220 illustrations, notes, glossary, bibliography and index ISBN 978-0-298944-0, University of Washington Press, 2010 £46. Professor Oshima, the author of this book, is associate professor of architecture at the University of Washington and was a research fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in […]

By Yuki Sumner This survey of new architecture in Japan was introduced at a launching party at Daiwa House on 24 March 2011 with talks by Yuki and Edmund Sumner. The book features buildings by well known Japanese architects such as [...] Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

Ellis Tinios British Museum Press, 2010 143 pages including index numerous illustrations in colour ISBN 978-0-7141-2453-7, £14.99. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi The British Museum has an outstanding collection of Japanese prints (ukiyo-e). This book draws on the Museum’s extensive holdings and is an introduction to the Japanese prints in the Museum. In choosing the […]

Translated by Carl Freire Routledge, 2010 214 pages, ISBN: 978-0-415-55688-0 (Hardback), £75.00 Review by Sean Curtin In this impressive study Yu Uchiyama meticulously dissects the highly successful and by Japanese standards long lived administration of Junichiro Koizumi (26 April 2001 – 26 September 2006). Since stepping down from office, no Japanese prime minister has lasted […]