|
Eyewitness Guide Japan
Eyewitness Guides
GUIDEBOOK
2009
PAPER
408 PAGES
This superb guide to all of Japan features color photography, dozens of excellent local maps and a region-by-region synopsis of the country's attractions. Handsome, convenient and up-to-date, the volume is an excllent overview of the country. For more detailed practical information, especially for an independent traveler, consider Gateway to Japan.
(JPN130, $28.00) |
|
|
|
Japan, A Traveler's Literary Companion
Jeffrey Angles
Thomas Rimer
Donald Richie
ANTHOLOGY
2006
PAPER
256 PAGES
This marvelous anthology, organized geographically, is both an introduction to Japan and to its contemporary writers. Donald Richie underscores Japan as a small place of great diversity in his appreciative foreword.
(JPN187, $14.95) |
|
|
|
In Praise of Shadows
Junichiro Tanizaki
Thomas J. Harper
Edward G. Seidensticker
ART & ARCHITECTURE
2010
PAPER
73 PAGES
This essay by the great Japanese novelist, first published in 1933, offers tremendous insight into Japanese aesthetics. It's an earthy meditation on traditional Japanese art, architecture and design. Most illuminating.
(JPN19, $14.95) |
|
|
|
The Art and Culture of Japan
Nelly Delay
ART & ARCHITECTURE
1999
PAPER
160 PAGES
An illustrated historical survey of the art, architecture and culture of Japan in a compact 5" x 7" format. It's a portable encyclopedia featuring 165 archival and modern illustrations and a section of original documents, surprisingly thorough in its coverage of all Japanese arts considering the size.
(JPN51, $12.95) |
|
|
|
Japan Map
Periplus Maps
MAP
Handsome, accurate and regularly updated, this convenient map covers the island nation with insets of the major cities. It has a variety of scales, with the majority at 1:2,000,000. Two Sides. 20x38 inches.
(JPN06, $8.95) |
|
|
|
Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook
Yoshi Abe
LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
A handy, palm-sized guide to pronunciation, basic grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler.
(JPN136, $8.99) |
|
|
|
A Traveller's History of Japan
Richard Tames
HISTORY
A lively and concise narrative history of Japan and its transformation from Shinto, Shogun and Samurai traditions to 20th-century powerhouse.
(JPN09, $14.95) |
|
|
|
Embracing Defeat, Japan in the Wake of WWII
John W. Dower
HISTORY
A social and political history of the postwar years in Japan. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, it's an eye-opening account by a leading scholar of Japanese-American relations at MIT.
(JPN54, $19.95) |
|
|
|
Everyday Life in Traditional Japan
Charles J. Dunn
CULTURAL PORTRAIT
This detailed evocation of traditional Edo Japan portrays all walks of life -- samurai, farmers, courtiers, priests, outcasts and merchants -- with hundreds of marvelous black and white illustrations.
(JPN331, $16.95) |
|
|
|
Geisha
Liza Crihfield Dalby
CULTURAL PORTRAIT
The observations of an American graduate student who apprenticed as a geisha, interpreting this intriguing role in traditional Japanese society.
(JPN49, $24.95) |
|
|
|
Inventing Japan, 1853-1964
Ian Buruma
HISTORY
A favorite writer with keen insight about Japan, Buruma offers an admirably succinct, dramatic history of Japan's transformation from feudal state to host of the 1964 Olympics, with a focus on World War II in this lively entry in the Modern Library Chronicle series.
(JPN139, $12.95) |
|
|
|
Japanese Culture
Paul Varley
HISTORY
Valery traces cultural trends from the emergence of Japanese civilization through the present age, touching on religion, gardens, tea ceremony, the visual arts, theatre, literature and cinema.
(JPN84, $24.00) |
|
|
|
The Book of Tea
Kakuzo Okakura
CULTURAL PORTRAIT
A graceful, witty meditation on Japanese aesthetics and culture as reflected through the tea ceremony. A celebrity and cultural ambassador, Okakura was a curator at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
(JPN21, $9.95) |
|
|
|
Unsui, A Diary of Zen Monastic Life
Giei Sato
CULTURAL PORTRAIT
The daily life of the monastery as depicted in 97 watercolor sketches. Giei Sato looks back at his time as an apprentice with warmth and grace.
(JPN145, $22.00) |
|
|
|
Zen and Japanese Culture
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
CULTURAL PORTRAIT
Suzuki describes Zen, its ideas, origins and practice in simple, poetic language, conveying how the Zen emphasis on simplicity has shaped a Japanese aesthetic. A classic by the hugely influential Zen master, first published in 1959.
(JPN338, $29.95) |
|
|
|
Japanese Art
Joan Stanley-Baker
ART & ARCHITECTURE
Concise, thoroughly illustrated and comprehensive, this handsome book in the "World of Art" series is a fine survey of Japanese art from the prehistoric period to modern Japan. With 167 illustrations.
(JPN08, $19.95) |
|
|
|
Japanese Gardens
Gunter Nitschke
ART & ARCHITECTURE
OUT OF PRINT
In keeping with the aesthetics of a Japanese garden, Gunter Nitschke has produced a simple but elegant tribute with this collection of photographs.
(JPN270, $14.99) |
|
|
|
The Art of the Japanese Garden
Michiko Kimura Young
David Young
ART & ARCHITECTURE
An illustrated profile of aristocratic gardens, graveled courtyards, Zen and other Japanese gardens, featuring 250 color photos.
(JPN181, $55.00) |
|
|
|
Dave Barry Does Japan
Dave Barry
TRAVEL NARRATIVE
Good will ambassador and columnist Barry takes no prisoners in this outrageous commentary on Japan and its culture.
(JPN234, $13.95) |
|
|
|
Learning to Bow, Inside the Heart of Japan
Bruce Feiler
TRAVEL NARRATIVE
As surprising, helpful and informative as it is funny, this is an insightful account of travels and teaching in Japan. Feiler presents anecdotes on the rituals, personality traits and cultural peccadilloes of the Japanese.
(JPN111, $13.99) |
|
|
|
The Inland Sea
Donald Richie
TRAVEL NARRATIVE
FAVORITE
Richie's masterpiece, more than a travel account, is a beautiful reflection on all things Japanese by one of its most acute observers.
(JPN13, $16.95) |
|
|
|
Japan, Through Writer's Eyes
Elizabeth Ingrams
ANTHOLOGY
These tales by both Japanese writers and visitors, including Pico Iyer, Junichiro Tanizaki and Jan Morris, illuminates the history and culture of Japan.
(JPN351, $33.95) |
|
|
|
Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
Ryunosuke Akutagawa
LITERATURE
Modern and pre-modern clash in this crisp new edition of Akutagawa's celebrated stories.
(JPN317, $16.00) |
|
|
|
The Samurai
Shusaku Endo
LITERATURE
This historical novel by one of Japan's best-known modern writers is set in the world of the 17th-century Samurai. A Roman Catholic, Endo explored Christianity and morals in his many novels and stories.
(JPN157, $14.95) |
|
|
|
Thousand Cranes
Yasunari Kawabata
Edward G. Seidensticker
LITERATURE
This novella by the great Kawabata may be Japan's best-known literary work, a story of love, grief and redemption. Kawabata's prose is as economical as the tea ceremony itself, and very beautiful.
(JPN34, $13.95) |
|
|
|
A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-East Asia
Shimba Tadao
FIELD GUIDE
Featuring 800 color photographs, up-to-date range maps and notes on identification.
(JPN264, $40.00) |
|
|
|
Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia
Mark Brazil
FIELD GUIDE
Brazil's comprehensive guide, featuring 234 color plates, includes Japan, Taiwan and the islands along with the adjacent areas of Asia from Kamchatka to Korea.
(JPN332, $39.95) |
|
|
|