This definitive new collection of essays by the writer Time calls «the dean of arts critics in Japan» ranges from Kyogen drama to the sex shows of Shinjuku, from film and Buddhism to Butoh and retro rock 'n' roll, from wasei eigo (Japanese/English) to mizushobai, the fine art of pleasing. Spanning some fifty years, these thirty-seven essays—most never anthologized before—offer cross-sections of Japan's enormous cultural power. They reflect the unique perspective...
This photographic Tokyo travel guide explores the dynamic Japanese culture, art and architecture that make Tokyo a world-class city. It has been said that «every city has its high points, but Tokyo is all exclamation points!» The largest and most populous city in the world, Tokyo must be experienced in person to be understood truly. The next best thing? Tokyo Megacity —a visual and descriptive exploration of a city that combines old with new and traditional with trendy, like no other...
This historical novel is set in post-WWII Japan.The Allied Occupation of Japan was more than an amazing military operation: it also created one of the most singular civilizations of modern history. It was made up of some of America's best minds and some of its worst, of some genuine idealists and some who simply «never had it so good,» of women hungry for men, men hungry for power, and a fortunate leavening of ordinary, decent people. It was an astonishing and often terrifying little...
The Temples of Kyoto takes you on a journey through these environs and presents twenty-one of these marvelous structures that are unique creations which, while quintessentially Japanese, somehow speak a universal language readily appreciated by people the world over.Donald Richie, called by Time magazine, «the dean of art critics in Japan,» turns his attention to these twenty-one temples with scholarship and an eye for the dramatic. Drawing off such classic sources as The Tale of Genji and...
“A tour de force combining a commanding mastery of historical fact and detail, a comprehensive understanding of the human spirit, and a poetic quality of expression that transforms the hearts of all those it touches.” —The Japan Foundation NewsletterKumagai Naozane was a Japanese warrior famous for having taken the head of the young and handsome samurai Atsumori. This episode has become one of the best-known and best-loved stories in the Japanese historical classic,...
These private recollections of longtime Japan resident and Japanese culture expert Donald Richie capture the personalities of the Japanese people with insight and humor. From the private musings of author Donald Richie, comes this extensive collection of brief written «portraits» which capture the personalities of 54 different Japanese people—some famous, some notorious, and some unknown. First written in 1987, Japanese Portraits presents one author's vision of Japanese culture...
This provocative book is a tractate—a treatise—on beauty in Japanese art, written in the manner of a zuihitsu, a free-ranging assortment of ideas that “follow the brush” wherever it leads. Donald Richie looks at how perceptual values in Japan were drawn from raw nature and then modified by elegant expressions of class and taste. He explains aesthetic concepts like wabi, sabi, aware, and yugen, and ponders their relevance in art and cinema today.
A masterfully written collection of short essays by the recognized Western expert on Japanese culture and film and the man Time magazine calls «the dean of art critics in Japan.» Spanning more than thirty years, Richie interprets his adopted home's creative accomplishments during its rise to economic and cultural power.
