The Japan Society Review

By Motomi Oguchi and Joseph Cali In this book, renowned garden designer Motomi Oguchi offers the reader a step-by-step, practical approach to creating Japanese gardens, drawn from a wealth of experience that covers thirty years and encompasses the design of more than 400 gardens. The author uses real examples from gardens he has designed, constructed, and photographed to illustrate his key points, approaching each work from the perspective of the home or building owner. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Arata Isozaki, Tadao Ando and Terunobu Fujimori The tea house is one of Japans most original buildingsa very small, very simple space consisting of tatami mat, tokonoma (the alcove where wall scrolls are hung and flower arrangements placed), ro (the sunken stove where tea is heated) and nijiriguchi (the half door through which guests enter) . For generations, Japanese architects have embraced the challenge of the tea house despite severe formal constraints. Now, this beautiful and fascinating volume takes the traditional tea house and turns it on its head. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Peter Pagnamenta and Momoko Williams The central focus of this well written, moving and excellently researched book is the decades-long relationship between a British Army officer, Captain Arthur Hart Synnot, and a Japanese woman, Masa Suzuki, spanning the early 1900s up to the 1940s. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Andrew Cobbing and Masataro Itami Through a detailed reconstruction of Kawada's life and career, this book provides a remarkable case study of a single life impacting on developments in the Meiji period. The biography also takes us through different epochs. Not least, it contains the rare account of an East-West love story which unfolds through eighty-nine letters, all of which are transcribed and republished here. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Christopher Patten Hong Kong's last British governor recounts his experiences helping foster democracy there and forecasts the economic future of Asia. Review by Sean Curtin

Compiled, edited and in part translated by William McOmie The first in a three-volume series, Volume 1 begins with the earliest written reports from China in the first century AD and ends with a survey of Dutch reports from 1841, which marks the point when 'Japan had been amply described in all major respects', and at a time when it began to be perceived as a less remote and more important country in Western eyes 'yet still emphatically closed to all foreign trade except that of the Dutch and the Chinese'. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Robert Harrison Crowder Though better known for his Japanese folding screen paintings, California-based artist and author Robert Crowder is also a writer of prose and poetry, which detail accounts of his Japanese experiences. In The Blue Furoshiki, he ventures through time and place to recount bygone chapters of daily life in Japan. Review by Susan House Wade

Edited by Rotem Kowner Examining the wide impact of the war and exploring the effect on the political balance in northeast Asia, this book focuses on the reactions in Europe, the United States, East Asia and the wider colonial world, considering the impact on different sections of society, on political and cultural ideas and ideologies, and on various national independence movements. Review by Ian Nish

By Simon May Each chapter of this title focuses on some everyday human matter, such as love, death, bureaucracy, hygiene, food, toilets, commuting, education, marriage and memory. Japanese attitudes to such issues are explored through a mixture of light-hearted anecdote and trenchant analysis. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Simon May British readers will find Simon May's "Atomic Sushi" interesting and very amusing, any Japanese reader will find it insulting. It is stated on a preliminary page, "This is a work of fiction," so what is fiction and what is fact? Reader's Comments by Ann Dent