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SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS
Art and Craft of Japan
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READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE
These
6
items are available for
$79
, including
U.S. shipping, a
15%
discount (Item no. EXJPN69)
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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)
Tokyo, A View of the City
Donald Richie
GUIDEBOOK 1999 PAPER 142 PAGES
A wonderfully impractical guide to Tokyo -- Richie's home for the last 50 years, and a city he describes with affection as "an illogical, subtle, brash, teeming and utterly human place." Richie structures his essays as a geographic tour of the city, starting from its core at the Imperial Palace and branching out to surrounding neighborhoods. He digresses boldly, stopping frequently to consider the culture, history and fabric of the city. With evocative black-and-white photographs by Joel Sackett.
(JPN90, $25.00)
Travelers' Tales Japan
Donald W. George Amy G. Carlson
ANTHOLOGY 2005 PAPER 411 PAGES
A collection of stories and essays by famous writers that capture experiences traveling through Japan. With a range of styles and topics, this book is a great travel companion.
(JPN48, $18.95)
In Praise of Shadows
Junichiro Tanizaki Thomas J. Harper Edward G. Seidensticker
ART & ARCHITECTURE 1980 PAPER 56 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, $9.95)
Tokyo Map
Borch Maps
2005 MAP
A folded, laminated map of Tokyo at a scale of 1:17,000. Two Sides. 26x20 inches.
(JPN102, $7.95)
Kyoto Map
Periplus Maps
2003 MAP
Designed for the traveler, this convenient map includes detailed information on Old Kyoto -- an invaluable guide for exploring the city on your own. It shows different sections of Kyoto and surrounding areas at a variety of scales, ranging from 1:12,000 to 1:500,000. Two Sides. 20x38 inches.
(JPN27, $8.95)
70 Japanese Gestures
Hamiru-aqui
LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
A clever guide to body language and slang in Japan as demonstrated in 70 witty black-and-white photographs and explanatory text.
(JPN193, $9.95)
Eyewitness Guide Japan
Eyewitness Guides
GUIDEBOOK
Dazzling illustrations, architectural cutaways and color photographs, along with useful local maps, give this guide to Japan's many attractions a distinct edge.
(JPN130, $25.00)
Fodor's Tokyo's 25 Best
Citypack
GUIDEBOOK
A shirt-pocket map and practical guide.
(JPN05, $11.95)
Japan Bilingual Map
Kodansha International
GUIDEBOOK
This full-color double-sided map includes the entirety of Japan at a scale of 1:500,000, as well as individual maps of Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya and Fuji-Hakone.
(JPN209, $14.95)
Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook
Yoshi Abe
LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
A palm-sized, handy guide to pronunciation, basic grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler.
(JPN136, $8.99)
Old Kyoto, A Guide to Traditional Shops and Inns
Diane Durston
GUIDEBOOK
Wonderful, elegant essays on carefully chosen shops, often in out-of-the-way neighborhoods.
(JPN24, $22.00)
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)
Inventing Japan, 1853-1964
Ian Buruma
HISTORY
Buruma offers admirably succinct, dramatic history of Japan's transformation from feudal state to host of the 1964 Olympics, with a focus on World War II.
(JPN139, $12.95)
Kyoto, A Cultural History
John Dougill
HISTORY
A rich portrait and guide to the gardens, monasteries, art, history and culture of Kyoto, once Japan's capital, founded 1,200-years ago.
(JPN178, $19.99)
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)
The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan
Christopher Benfey
HISTORY
The fascinating tale of a tightly-knit group of late Victorian travelers, scientists and adventurers dedicated to the idea of Japan.
(JPN138, $14.95)
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)
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, $18.95)
Japanese Garden Design
Marc P. Keane
Haruzo Ohashi
ART & ARCHITECTURE
An illustrated introduction to the aesthetics and meanings of Japanese gardens. It relates the social, religious and historical contexts to landscape and garden design.
(JPN52, $30.00)
Shibori, The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing Tradition Techniques Innovation
Yoshiko Wada
ART & ARCHITECTURE
This book introduces techniques perfected by the Japanese in relation to shibori.
(JPN78, $48.00)
Structure and Surface: Contemporary Japanese Textiles
Matilda McQuaid
Cara McCarty
ART & ARCHITECTURE
A celebration of recent trends in Japanese textile art.
(JPN79, $29.95)
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)
The Gardens of Japan
Teiji Itoh
ART & ARCHITECTURE
This beautifully illustrated overview of the history and tradition of gardens features 75 color photographs and astute essays. With a guide to 50 popular and representative gardens.
(JPN38, $60.00)
The Unknown Craftsman, A Japanese Insight into Beauty
Soetsu Yanagi
Shoji Hamada
Bernard Leach
ART & ARCHITECTURE
Soetsu Yanagi (1889-1961) presents Japanese crafts, their integral place in Japanese society, and the role of the craftsman in this an excellent overview of the foundations of the Mingei (folk-craft) movement. With 76 illustrations.
(JPN116, $35.00)
Geisha, A Life
Mineko Iwasaki
BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
The memoir of a celebrated Geisha, rich in details of life in Kyoto's Gion Kobu district. Iwasaki was the chief source of information for Arthur Golden's best-selling "Memoirs of a Geisha."
(JPN131, $15.00)
Japan, A Traveler's Literary Companion
Jeffrey Angles
Thomas Rimer
Donald Richie
ANTHOLOGY
A marvelous, geographically organized anthology, introducing both Japan and its best contemporary writers.
(JPN187, $14.95)
Confessions of a Mask
Meredith Weatherby
Yukio Mishima
LITERATURE
This powerful book is the story of the monk who burned the Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. It's an unsettling portrait of society in Post-War Japan, and the coming of age of a complex, tragic figure who struggles with his homosexuality.
(JPN18, $12.95)
Memoirs of a Geisha, A Novel
Arthur Golden
LITERATURE
The runaway best-selling novel about a geisha in the celebrated Gion district of Kyoto. A major feat of literary impersonation, the novel is rich in period detail and ceremony.
(JPN45, $14.95)
Out
Natsuo Kirino
MYSTERY
In this well-received mystery, Masako Katori, a middle-aged wife and mother working the night shift at a Tokyo factory, strangles her abusive husband.
(JPN196, $13.95)
South of the Border, West of the Sun
Haruki Murakami
LITERATURE
Murakami stirs jazz, neon-lit streets, out of the way shrines, hustle and bustle and wonder into this lyrical tale of love in contemporary Tokyo.
(JPN213, $13.95)
Tale of the Heike
Helen Craig McCullough
LITERATURE
Japan's most famous war tale about the fall of the Taira (Heike) clan and the victory of the Minamoto (Genji) during the end of the 12th century.
(JPN75, $29.95)
The Lady and the Monk, Four Seasons in Kyoto
Pico Iyer
LITERATURE
Deeply romanticized, this short novel is nonetheless redolent in the places, sights and sounds of modern day Kyoto. Iyer writes with infectious charm the story of a young American man and his affair with a bored Japanese married woman.
(JPN32, $14.95)
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
Shonagon Sei
Ivan Morris
LITERATURE
Exquisite short essays and vignettes of Japanese court life in the Heian period.
(JPN76, $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. Endo, a Roman Catholic, explored Christianity and morals in his many novels and stories.
(JPN157, $14.95)
The Tale of Genji
Murasaki Shikibu
Edward G. Seidensticker
LITERATURE
The unabridged version of one of the most famous works of Japanese prose. This is the story of Genji, a romantic man in the Heian court, as written in the 11th-century by Lady Murasaki.
(JPN73, $29.95)
Thousand Cranes
Yasunari Kawabata
Edward G. Seidensticker
LITERATURE
This novella by the great Kawabata may be Japan's best-known literary work. It's a story of love, grief, and redemption. Kawabata's prose is as economical as the tea ceremony itself, and very beautiful.
(JPN34, $12.95)
The Art of Setting Stones & Other Writings from the Japanese Garden
Marc P. Keane
NATURAL HISTORY
In these lyrical essays Kyoto-resident and landscape architect Marc Peter Keane takes eight gardens of his adopted home as a point of departure for reflections on nature, religion and aesthetics.
(JPN124, $16.95)
Here are some other groups of books that might interest you. Click to view a listing:
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