Book Description
Culture Smart! Is a new series of travel guides written for the traveler on the go. Each volume is a quick, accurate guide to customs and etiquette. Outstanding features of CULTURE SMART!

* all the essential cultural and etiquette points are covered, making you confident in a variety of situations.
* You will know what to expect in each particular culture
* You will learn how to behave in specific social and business situations
* Essential attitudes and values are clearly explained
* You will find each topic a quick, easy read due to the concise writing style
* Small and light, it tucks into your pocket or purse for on-the-go use.
* Your Culture Smart! Books are written by a staff of experts who consult on world travel as a profession. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Short and helpful, but maybe a little out of date
This was a great resource.It was easy to read, and I finished the whole book in a couple of hours on the plane to Japan.It had a lot of helpful tips about things that would be rude.Since it is easy to break social rules but the Japanese people will never tell you that you are being rude, it is pretty nice to have this info in your pocket.

I thought some of the info was a little out of date, especially considering it was published recently.I didn't think this would be a problem, since a common assumption about Japanese culture is that it doesn't change much over time.Many of the things that I found incorrect had to do with gender and how women are treated.However, we spent most of our trip in Tokyo, so it may be that the culture there is considerably more dynamic and Westernized.

All in all, I would definitely pick this book up if you are going to Japan for travel or business.It gives good advice, and shares enough Japanese history to explain many of the cultural values and etiquette. ... Read more

Book Description
This distinctive blend of traditional and modern traits in the daily livesof the Japanese are revealed as they are seen at home, work, school, and play. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Pretty good introduction to the cultural phenomenon of anime -- but not much else
I've been interested in popular Japanese culture for a long time, so I was pleased to see this new exploration of the interface between Japan and America, . . . though I was somewhat put off by the use of the pejorative word "invaded" in the title. That seems to have been a marketer's contribution, though, because the half-Japanese author, who has become something of a professional explainer of Japanese and Americans to each other, seems not to reach value judgments about the wide popularity of manga and anime in this country, nor about the much more longstanding popularity of everything American in Japan. It's largely a generational thing, though; most Americans over the age of thirty have no idea what Gundam is, nor what "otaku" and "cosplay" mean. And while anime has become increasingly popular in the U.S., it remains deeply Japanese. There's really no such thing as "American anime." Though he comes to no strikingly original conclusions, Kelts does a good job of explaining things to those who are new to the subject.

Pop culture rocks
Mr. Kelts' book about the popularity of Japanese culture in America is first rate.He discusses more than just anime and manga and provides the reader with an easy to understand analysis of Japanese popular culture both in Japan and as it appears in the US.It should be in the collection of any Japanophile.

Excellently Written!
For those who have been to Japan or have an interest in anything Japan, I highly recommend this book.The author does a wonderful job explainingJapanese pop culture and how it relates to Japanese society and culture.IT was a very easy, entertaining, and insightful read.

Excellent
I read this book after a Village Voice critic called it "a Wired Magazine article on steroids," and Ain't It Cool News said that it was "an imperative resource."Then Bookforum called it "an amazing ride," and The Boston Globe raved.
Then: Even Pete Townshend of The Who endorsed it!
I am skeptical of books trying to capitalize on trends, and very skeptical of books on Japan.But the chorus of praise from so many different voices was enough for me.
This book is written in lucid, carefully crafted prose--telling you everything you need to know about transcultural entertainment and the psychological and spiritual traumas embedded in pop culture, and also precisely what makes Japan so sexy to Westerners in the 21st Century.It is also hip and smart, and very accessible.I only wished it were longer.
The author is no geek, but a writer of considerable talent and range.Get Japanamericaa now.

Beyond Anime
Americans like to think that our culture sets the standard for the rest of the world; however, Kelts takes us beyond our narrow cultural lens to understand the pervasive influence of Japanese aesthetics on the US. Kelts has an engaging and provocative writing style that educates and entertains. This book will satisfy a wide group of readers, including students of popular culture, Japanophiles, and "otaku." As a member of the first group, I couldn't put it down. ... Read more

Book Description
Music in Japan is one of several case-study volumes that can be used along with Thinking Musically, the core book in the Global Music Series. Thinking Musically incorporates music from many diverse cultures and establishes the framework for exploring the practice of music around the world. It sets the stage for an array of case-study volumes, each of which focuses on a single area of the world. Each case study uses the contemporary musical situation as a point of departure, covering historical information and traditions as they relate to the present. Visit www.oup.com/us/globalmusic for a list of case studies in the Global Music Series. The website also includes instructional materials to accompany each study.Music in Japan offers a vivid introduction to the music of contemporary Japan, a nation in which traditional, Western, and popular music thrive side by side. Drawing on more than forty years of experience, author Bonnie C. Wade focuses on three themes throughout the book and in the musical selections on the accompanying CD. She begins by exploring how music in Japan has been profoundly affected by interface with both the Western (Europe and the Americas) and Asian (continental and island) cultural spheres. Wade then shows how Japan's thriving popular music industry is also a modern form of a historically important facet of Japanese musical culture: the process of gradual popularization, in which a local or a group's music eventually becomes accessible to a broader range of people. She goes on to consider the intertextuality of Japanese music: how familiar themes, musical sounds, and structures have been maintained and transformed across the various traditions of Japanese performing arts over time.Music in Japan is enhanced by eyewitness accounts of performances, interviews with key performers, and vivid illustrations. Packaged with an 80-minute CD containing examples of the music discussed in the book, it features guided listening and hands-on activities that encourage readers to engage actively and critically with the music. ... Read more

Book Description

The first anthology of its kind,The Modern Murasaki brings the vibrancy and rich imagination of women's writing from the Meiji period to English-language readers. Along with traditional prose, the editors have chosen and carefully translated short stories, plays, poetry, speeches, essays, and personal journal entries. Selected readings include writings by the public speaker Kishida Toshiko, the dramatist Hasegawa Shigure, the short-fiction writer Shimizu Shikin, the political writer Tamura Toshiko, and the novelists Miyake Kaho, Higuchi Ichiyo, Tazawa Inabune, Kitada Usurai, Nogami Yaeko, and Mizuno Senko. The volume also includes a thorough introduction to each reading, an extensive index listing historical, social, and literary concepts, and a comprehensive guide to further research.

The fierce tenor and bold content of these texts refute the popular belief that women of this era were passive and silent. A vital addition to courses in women's studies and Japanese literature and history,The Modern Murasaki is a singular resource for students and scholars.

Customer Reviews (2)

Daughters Thinking Outside the Box
"The Modern Murasaki" is one of those rare definitive anthologies, the kind that constitutes a cornerstone contribution to the field while being just in and of itself profoundly interesting and enjoyable to read cover to cover. Within its pages are translations of literary works written during the Meiji era (1868-1911) by Japanese women of various temperaments and backgrounds, all of whom though sought more out of life than the role of "good wife, wise mother" dictated to them. And it's a good thing they did, too, because modern Japanese literature would be much the poorer without the excellent stories, poems, plays, and essays found herein--highly thought-provoking or deeply moving, terribly heart-wrenching or wonderfully entertaining, but all noteworthy and significant.

In many respects too this is an important anthology. Of course it vastly expands the horizons of what we think of as Meiji literature, but the works here are also key representative texts rather than the footnotes of literary history; I know for certain that I have come across countless references to Kishida Toshiko's speech/essay "Daughters in Boxes" in who knows how many historical studies and such, but now finally I got the chance to actually read the real thing for myself. The translations are of an exceptional quality, too, carefully accurate and scholarly and yet vibrant and accessibly literary. Furthermore, the selections seem carefully chosen so as to be equally relevant both in terms of literature and social history, making this book extremely useful to scholars and students in both areas of inquiry--not to mention Women's Studies in general. Finally, the handy format of this book makes it ideal for classroom use so it should hopefully find its way to many a syllabus, and yet it's the perfect book to just sit back with at a coffee shop and read for good old-fashioned enjoyment's sake.

Selections included in this book are:
1. Poems in various styles by Matsunoto Misako, Saisho Atsuko, Shimoda Utako, Nakajima Utako, Higuchi Ichiyo, Nakajima Shoen, Yosano Akiko, Yamakawa Tomiko, Chino Masako, Ishigami Tsuyuko, Okamoto Kanoko, Yazawa Koko, Otsuka Kusuoko, and Takeyama Hideko
2. "Daughters in Boxes" by Kishida Toshiko
3. "Warbler in the Grove" by Miyake Kaho
4. Journal Entries by Higuchi Ichiyo
5. "The Temple of Godai" by Tazawa Inabune
6. "Hiding the Gray" and "Wretched Sights" by Kitada Usurai
7. "How Determined Are Today's Women Students?", "The Broken Ring", and "School for Emigres" by Shimizu Shikin
8. "Wavering Traces" by Hasegawa Shigure
9. "Persimmon Sweets" by Nogami Yaeko
10. "For More than Forty Days" by Mizuno Senko
11. "Lifeblood" and "The Vow" by Tamura Toshiko

Great Service
The book was in perfect condition. It was mailed to me in what I think must be record time. ... Read more

Book Description
Japan was the only non-Western nation to industrialize before 1900 and its leap into the modern era has stimulated vigorous debates among historians and social scientists. In an innovative discussion that posits the importance of physical well-being as a key indicator of living standards, Susan B. Hanley considers daily life in the three centuries leading up to the modern era in Japan. She concludes that people lived much better than has been previously understood--at levels equal or superior to their Western contemporaries. She goes on to illustrate how this high level of physical well-being had important consequences for Japan's ability to industrialize rapidly and for the comparatively smooth transition to a modern, industrial society.
While others have used income levels to conclude that the Japanese household was relatively poor in those centuries, Hanley examines the material culture--food, sanitation, housing, and transportation. How did ordinary people conserve the limited resources available in this small island country? What foods made up the daily diet and how were they prepared? How were human wastes disposed of? How long did people live? Hanley answers all these questions and more in an accessible style and with frequent comparisons with Western lifestyles. Her methods allow for cross-cultural comparisons between Japan and the West as well as Japan and the rest of Asia. They will be useful to anyone interested in the effects of modernization on daily life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

More than its title implies
Despite its popular-sounding title, this is a serious scholarly examination of the life of the Japanese during the Edo or Tokugawa period (1863-67/68), focusing on the society's material culture in order to gauge the people's physical well-being relative to that of people in the West. We learn that the premodern Japanese were in numerous ways on a level comparable, and in many ways superior, to Westerners, as in their mortality rates, sanitation, water and sewage facilities, cleanliness, diet, living conditions, and clothing. Hanley's scholarship in Japanese and English sources is impeccable and uses many statistical studies to support her arguments. The closing chapters of the book demonstrate how life in Tokugawa Japan prepared the nation for the remarkably rapid industrialization of the Meiji period and later, yet also makes perceptive comments on how adherence to premodern practices eventually hurt Japan as it grew to superpower status in the postwar years. Hanley's writing is clear and accessible, and the information she provides is often eye-opening. The facts regarding premodern Japan are fascinating enough, but just as compelling are those provided for Europe and America at the same time. These demonstrate with striking clarity the many ways in which Western societies during the years covered by this book were far less healthsome than we would like to think. Charles J. Dunn's classic Everyday Life in Traditional Japan, written for a more general audience, touches on some of the same material as Hanley's book but is more wide-ranging and unburdened by scholarly apparatus; Hanley's study, however, sets out to test an historical hypothesis, resulting in a more polemical approach than Dunn's. Its major drawback is the lack of a bibliography, forcing the reader to consult her many footnotes for useful sources. But it is definitely essential reading for those interested in premodern Japan's material culture and its implications. ... Read more

Book Description
A fascinating look at fans of a variety of popular culture phenomena in Japan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Serious ethnography of Japanese popular culture
This is a great collection by some of the outstanding contemporary specialists on Japanese popular culture.It is a serious ethnographic collection about popular culture and the dynamics of "fandom" across sports, manga and anime, popular music, and sumo, among other things.It sets a high standard for studies of popular culture in Japan and elsewhere.Highly recommended both for fans and observers of Japanese trends. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent book for kids
I have one of the first copies of this book. It is excellent for kids and will keep them interested in Japan and its culture. It can be hard to find, which is very unfortunate, but there are a few copies out there. ... Read more

Book Description
This volume is a multifaceted study of the development of modernismin Japan, with authors from Japan, the United States, and Australia spanning thefields of art history, social history, and literature. Being Modern in Japanraises many issues about Japanese modernity and its contested meanings. Writersexplore what it means to be modern in Japan from the 1910s to the 1930s, butmany subjects discussed are relevant to modernity elsewhere in Asia, Europe, andNorth America. Certain aesthetic concerns in Japanese art occurred spontaneously, while othersreflected the adoption of a common formal modernist language. Being modern inthe Taisho and early Showa periods became integral to the society of the time.The practices and spaces of modernity changed in their meaning--or took onmultiple meanings--during the 1920s, and by the early 1930s Japan was widelyperceived by Japanese themselves as "modern." ... Read more

Book Description
In this first social and cultural history of Japan's construction of Manchuria, Louise Young offers an incisive examination of the nature of Japanese imperialism. Focusing on the domestic impact of Japan's activities in Northeast China between 1931 and 1945, Young considers "metropolitan effects" of empire building: how people at home imagined and experienced the empire they called Manchukuo.
Contrary to the conventional assumption that a few army officers and bureaucrats were responsible for Japan's overseas expansion, Young finds that a variety of organizations helped to mobilize popular support for Manchukuo--the mass media, the academy, chambers of commerce, women's organizations, youth groups, and agricultural cooperatives--leading to broad-based support among diverse groups of Japanese. As the empire was being built in China, Young shows, an imagined Manchukuo was emerging at home, constructed of visions of a defensive lifeline, a developing economy, and a settler's paradise. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Essential reading on pre-Pacific War Japan.
This book is essential reading for any serious student of the Japanese Empire, as well as anyone interested in the history of colonialism or Chinese-Japanese relations.Young shows that Japan's occupation ofManchuria and the subsequent transformation into Manchukuo may have beeninitially driven by the Imperial Army, but became an effort supported byvarious other political and economic agencies.She also describes how aperceived Japanese mission of improving fellow Asian nations may have beensincere, but was ultimately destructive. TOTAL EMPIRE is best read inconjunction with THE ABACUS AND THE SWORD, about Japan's colonialrelationship with Korea.Military historians will find Young's book weakon details of the military administration, but that doesn't seriouslydetract from the social and cultural historical value of the work. ... Read more

Book Description

Yoshimasa may have been the worst shogun ever to rule Japan. He was a failure as a soldier, incompetent at dealing with state business, and dominated by his wife. But his influence on the cultural life of Japan was unparalleled. According to Donald Keene, Yoshimasa was the only shogun to leave a lasting heritage for the entire Japanese people.

Today Yoshimasa is remembered primarily as the builder of the Temple of the Silver Pavilion and as the ruler at the time of the Onin War (1467--1477), after which the authority of the shogun all but disappeared. Unable to control the daimyos -- provincial military governors -- he abandoned politics and devoted himself to the quest for beauty. It was then, after Yoshimasa resigned as shogun and made his home in the mountain retreat now known as the Silver Pavilion, that his aesthetic taste came to define that of the Japanese: the no theater flourished, Japanese gardens were developed, and the tea ceremony had its origins in a small room at the Silver Pavilion. Flower arrangement, ink painting, andshoin-zukuri architecture began or became of major importance under Yoshimasa. Poets introduced their often barely literate warlord-hosts to the literary masterpieces of the past and taught them how to compose poetry. Even the most barbarous warlord came to want the trappings of culture that would enable him to feel like a civilized man.

Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion gives this long-neglected but critical period in Japanese history the thorough treatment it deserves.

Customer Reviews (5)

other opinion
The title of the book is "the soul of Japan" which means the Silver Pavilion built by Ashikaga Yoshimasa the 8th shogun of the Muromachi period.

Chapter 1 Ashikaga Yoshinori the 7th shogun, a tyrant killed by one of daimoys
Chapter 2 Childhood of Yoshimasa, his wife Shigeko and his "favorite mistress" Imamairi
Chapter 3 Weakness of the shogunate, preparation of Onin war
Chapter 4 Onin war, the relationship between Japan and Ming dynasty of China
Chapter 5 Japanese Renaissance, Eastern Mountain culture
Chapter 6 Yoshimasa as a patron of Cha-no-yu, his interest in Chinese painting
Chapter 7 Poetry at that time: renga and waka
Chapter 8 The Silver Pavilion, the garden and the architects Zenami and Soami
Chapter 9 Cha-no yu
Chapter 10 Religions of Yoshimasa, art of the no theater

The division of the chapters and the description of their content are very rough because the author usually puts many different topics in one chapter. This informal writing style seems like that the author has no clear plan and he just writes down something when he remembers something. Reading the book from cover to cover may not be the best way to appreciate it. The character I most like is the index of the book. It is complete and interesting. Just choose a word from the index, and read something about the word in the book. For example you can just read the paragraphs about the eccentric Zen monk Ikkyu and his poems. After you finish all the words in the index, you are able to construct a whole story in your mind. It is the post-modern style of V. Nabokov's novel "Pale Fire".

Judging from the book, the author is just a good story-teller not a good historian. Actually he is good at Japanese literature. This book just contains much facts and details which I don't think important. The author does not see the essence of Japanese culture and does not explain why Japanese culture is special. It is not easy to understand the essence of Japanese culture for most Western scholars. Usually they just emphasize bizarre events, strange imaginations or explain things from the Western piont of view. In my opinion, the soul of Japan is the Bushido and Zen. These two topics are not treated deeply in this book. If you are interted in Japanese culture I will recomment to you the other books:
Bushido: the soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe
Zen culture by Thomas Hoover
Kwaidanby Lafcadio Hearn

By the way, I like this little book. It is beautiful with its poetic language. It is a pleasant experience reading the book on the train passing through Appalachia Mountain in the summer.

Excellent Book on the Soul of Japan
This book was given to me by a friend. Frankly, I wouldn't have bought it based on the back flap. Yet, Donald Keene wrote a great book explaining the importance of possibly the worst Shogun in Japanese history, Ashikaga Yoshimasa. He was a terrible military strategist and his government (especially during the Onin war) was one of the weakest in Japan's history. On the other hand, Yoshimasa was of vital importance to the Arts; calligraphy, Waka and other poetry, the cha-no-yu ceremony and painting all were sponsored by Yoshimasa. He also left the beautiful Ginkakuji, the Temple of the Silver Pavilion, for posterity. Yoshimasa's impact on Japanese culture and the arts is undeniable, even in modern day Japan.

Design for living...
Donald Keene, who probably has done more to make Japanese literature understandable to Americans now turns his attention to the state of Japan during the days of Yoshimasa, one of the Ashikaga shoguns.Like other families to rule Japan in the name of the emperor, the founder of the family generally tended to be a fairly dynamic figure, followed by persons of varying competance before sinking into dynastic decadance.

This book presents a portrait of one of the least competant persons to ever become shogun, but managed to have a positive influence just the same. Keene argues rather convincingly that Yoshimasa, though a weak ruler, was an influental patron of the arts. It is Yoshimasa's aesthetic which eventually prevailed in the Japanese imagination and that is the lasting contribution of both him and the Silver Pavilion.

I thought the book was consistent with the overall general high level of scholarship that characterizes Keene's works in general. However, while I am willing to give this work my highest possible recommendation, I am not sure if I can totally support all of the claims made for Yoshimasa.My main concern is that even though I am ready to concede that he does have an aesthetic legacy, I am not sure (and for that matter no one ever really can be) that he can claim to have originated all of the artistic innovations (though patronage) that Keene claims. My reason for doubt is that many buildings that date back to Yoshimasa's period were themselves destroyed during the Onin war (a war brought about by Yoshimasa's politic ineptness). Lacking anything really to compare the Silver Pavilion to, makes it difficult to determine just exactly how great an influence this building actually had at the time. The fact that it survives at all probably ensures that it has had and continues to have an impact on other generations. I am just not sure on what influence it might have had at the time that it was built.

Out of War and Chaos The Birth of Japanese Design
Donald Keene's latest contribution to the field of Japan studies is a masterpiece on the development of Japanese aesthetics and kokoro (heart, soul, mind), much of which evolved during the Higashiyama Period at the Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji) under the leadership of Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Shogun at the time of Onin War (1467-1477), which destroyed nearly all of Kyoto, Yoshimasa was a hapless leader who devoted himself instead to the pursuit of beauty. In this Period, Noh and ink painting flourished, the tea ceremony "originated in a small room at Ginakaku-ji where Yoshimasa offered tea to his friends," and with it the Japanese art of flower arrangement was born. Keene acknowledges the judgment of most historians-that Yoshimasa was weak, extravagant, incompetent in affairs of state, and unable to end a meaningless war and its incumbent famine and suffering-yet posits that he has yet to be recognized for his contribution to Japanese arts and taste. In the midst of wholesale destruction, Yoshimasa precipitated a Japanese renaissance.
Though respecting his grandfather Yoshimitsu, the builder of the Golden Pavilion (kinkakuji), he had no interest in emulating either his life or works. Yoshimasa's Silver Pavilion stands in stark contrast to his grandfather's Golden Pavilion, the later coated in gold leaf, the former the epitome of Kyoto cool wabi sabi understatement. "The simplicity and reliance on suggestion of the buildings and gardens at Higashiyama may indicate that a man who had earlier exhausted the pleasures of extravagance had at last achieved a kind of enlightenment," writes Keene.
This concise work is a complex web of murder, chaos, and endless war that destroys everything in its wake. And, simultaneously-amazingly, ironically, unbelievably-the Period gave birth to some of Japan's best-known art forms. As an insight into medieval Kyoto, there is no better place to begin.

Keene brings a chapter of Kyoto's history to life.
This is a brilliant, concise gem of a book that brings certain sights of Kyoto to life unlike any travel guide. When I visited many of the places described here, I'd no idea that any of this remarkable history had occurred.

I think this book is an essential addition to any serious Japan library, and as it is a slim text - I think it'd be a welcome and portable companion on a reader's visit to Kyoto.

Keene's study of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who many historians call the worst shogun in Japanese history, is remarkable for its central theme: that this man was actually one of the greatest Japanese persons ever.

Keene does a decent job of recounting the historical context of Yoshimasa's life: it was an era of unending war and brutality when famine and sickness ravaged the peasantry and rich aristocrats vied for power in the most brutal fashion - beheadings, suicide and betrayal were commonplace. These same aristocrats also lead lives of dissipation - spending their lives drinking and "sporting" while the masses suffered and Kyoto was razed time after time.

But where Keene shows his brilliance is in his interpretation of the life of this failed shogun who embraced religion and the arts as an escape for the 'impure world' and in the process invented many Japanese cultural forms.

When Yoshimasa fumbles the choosing of his successor and a civil war is unleashed, he decides then and there to leave his shogun's life behind and build a mountain retreat - the so called 'silver pavilion' - where he spent his days contemplating the arts.

It is clear that an aesthete such as Yoshimasa was incapable of leading the Japanese nation in war. But Keene shows in this book that Yoshimasa's peculiar taste in art - simple unadorned wood, sliding screen doors, rustic tea utensils, and gardens filled with rare trees and stones, poetry, Chinese calligraphy, flower arrangements, No theatre and so on - served as the template for future Japanese cultural expression.

Yoshimasa's silver pavilion was thus an incubator for 'the soul of Japan,' and a location where visitors can still see the building almost exactly as it looked a half millennium ago. Now I want to visit Kyoto again with newly aware eyes.

This book's only shortcoming is its lack of explanation as to how the culture born at the silver pavilion spread throughout Japan. Yet that might require a lengthy tome, and one of the nice aspects of this history is that it can be read leisurely in a couple of days. It also features some nice color photos. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
Wrapping Culture is concerned with problems of intercultural communication and the possibilities for misinterpretation of the familiar in an unfamiliar context.Starting with an examination of gift-wrapping, Joy Hendry demonstrates how our expectations are often influenced by cultural factors which may blind us to an appreciation of underlying intent.She then extends this approach to the study of polite language as the wrapping of thoughts and intentions, garments as body wrappings, constructions and gardens as wrapping of space, and even to the ways in which people may be wrapped in seating arrangements, or meetings and drinking customs may be constrained by temporal versions of wrapping.Throughout the book, Dr Hendry considers ways in which groups of people use such symbolic forms to impress and manipulate one another, and points out a Western tendency to underestimate such non-verbal communication, or reject it as mere decoration.The ideas she presents should be valid in any intercultural encounter and demonstrate that Japanese culture, so often thought of as a special case, can supply a model through which we can formulate general theories about human behaviour. ... Read more

Book Description
The rise of Japan as an economic superpower is a remarkable episode in the history of the modern world. This book seeks to explain this phenomenal success by looking at the issues of culture and technology, and making comparison with the experience of the US, the UK and Europe as a whole. The relationship between culture and technology lies at the heart of the undoubted market success of Japan, and the development of high technology and the much-lauded "cultural" attributes of Japan have contributed powerfully to national success. These vital issues are examined in detail and include, for example, the relationship between company "culture" and "structure," and the overriding impact of Japanese "national" culture. National cultures and the West are compared with the consequent effect on entrepreneurial and technological progress. ... Read more

Book Description
The growing globalization of world business, culture and communication — and Japan's increasingly important role as a leader in that world — makes understanding Japanese culture critical for business people, diplomats, students,educators and anyone else with an interest in Japan.
In Japan Unmasked veteran Japanologist/author Boyé Lafayette De Mente explores the social, cultural and
psychological characteristics responsible for the unique nature of modern-day Japanese culture—the real "face" behind the "mask"—and demonstrates how they have brought the Japanese to their central role on the world stage. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Interesting unsupported opinions
This book is a quick read and does provide a quick outline about stereotypical Japanese beliefs and behaviours, as well as some interesting insights into Japanese culture. Unfortunately it does little to support them. Time and time again the author says something interesting about Japan, but fails to give an example or statistic to back it up. The result is that this appears to be a collection of one man's opinions, but gives no basis for believing them.

Let me give you an example "It has long been symptomatic for the Japanese to blame others for their problems..." Really? So what? Give us an example! Prove it to us! Unfortunately he fails to do so.

Very frustrating because he does have some interesting things to say.

A great number of topics, but superficial
The book covers quite a number of topics about Japan, but unfortunately, all of them are treated quite superficially. ... Read more

Book Description
This is a lively discussion of Japanese popular culture from an anthropological perpective. An international team of authors considers a broad range of topics, including sumo, karaoke, manga, women's magazines, soccer and morning television. Through these topics--many of which have never previously been addressed by scholars--the contributors also explore several deeper themes: the construction of gender in Japan; the impact of globalization and modern consumerism; and the rapidly shifting boundaries of Japanese culture and identity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

for study only
I bought this for my university course in Cultural Expressions in Modern ASia and it was very helpful and insightful but should only be used in an academic way. Not really that fun to read but useful.

As an introduction...
As an introduction into what "Japanese popular culture" can entail, this is a good book; the articles written may not be as in-depth as wanted or needed, but this is not a book by one scholar alone. It is simply a collection of useful articles, that explore different aspects in Japanese popular culture and act as a sort of "grounding point" for further study.

There are themes of comparative study (American superheroes v. Japanese superheroes) and also themes of changing roles and changing identities (or the converse; that in some popular images, like in manga/comics, the perception that some roles DON'T or SHOULDN'T change).

But for anyone seeking a good introduction, it is a good book and worth having on your bookshelf.

Totally Circular
I'm probably not being fair to this book, since I have only skimmed (some of) it, but it seemed rather poor to me.To take a concrete example the essay on superheroes and monsters (by Tom Gill) was especially problematic.It uses the example of Superman vs Ultraman and states that (1) Superman is a total loner with no family or attachments (His family in Kansas? Supergirl?Lois Lane?don't count I guess) whereas Ultraman has a large number of companions (somewhat more true).(2) Superman's colors are like the colors of the American flag, whereas Ultraman's are like the "lucky colors" red and white (Q: has Tom Gill looked at the Japanese flag?).He then uses these and some better thought out characteristics of the characters to show that Superman is an American hero (individualistic) and Ultraman a Japanese hero (more like a kami).The problem is that (1) shows a lack of research, and (2) a lack of thought.This totally undercuts any later conclusions in the article.

The other articles I looked at seems a bit better, but this is not a very select selection.

For pleasure and easy reference
This is an exellent book for the beginner in studies of japanese culture. It deals with different matters such as: sumo, manga/anime, karaoke, horse-racing and womens magazines - all in a scientific but relaxed tone. Maybe you want what bosozoku-driving is??? In short - comprehensive and informative. A must for your bookshelf!! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Handy, concise, entertaining & educational.
Still one of the best handbooks on "Words, Customs and Concepts" in Japan, originally published under the title A Hundred Things Japanese, Discover Japan Vol. 1 delivers well-written explanations by over 61 reknowned Japan scholars on topics ranging across the spectrum of Japanese life.B/W photographs or ink drawings (by Clifton Karhu) illustrate each item.The publisher, Kodansha, should not only reprint Discover Japan Vols. 1 & 2 again, but should continue the series with contributors from new leading scholars (and some of the same older ones who are thankfully still with us) and on new topics, including cell phones, convenience stores, game centers, and the ways technology has changed things in Japan in the last 20 years.My copy is from 1987. ... Read more

Book Description
The all-female Takarazuka Revue is world-famous today for its rococo musical productions, including gender-bending love stories, torridly romantic liaisons in foreign settings, and fanatically devoted fans. But that is only a small part of its complicated and complicit performance history. In this sophisticated and historically grounded analysis, anthropologist Jennifer Robertson draws from over a decade of fieldwork and archival research to explore how the Revue illuminates discourses of sexual politics, nationalism, imperialism, and popular culture in twentieth-century Japan.
The Revue was founded in 1913 as a novel counterpart to the all-male Kabuki theater. Tracing the contradictory meanings of Takarazuka productions over time, with special attention to the World War II period, Robertson illuminates the intricate web of relationships among managers, directors, actors, fans, and social critics, whose clashes and compromises textured the theater and the wider society in colorful and complex ways.
Using Takarazuka as a key to understanding the "logic" of everyday life in Japan and placing the Revue squarely in its own social, historical, and cultural context, she challenges both the stereotypes of "the Japanese" and the Eurocentric notions of gender performance and sexuality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

This book is not about Takarazuka or "Sexual Politics."
The Takarazuka Review all-women's theater company is very popular in Japan and would make a fascinating subject for a book, but it is not the subject of this book.This book is about gender theory and is full of academic jargon.It's the sort of thing you might have to read in an undergraduate sociology course. It's not news that gender roles are more rigid in Japan then in the US.Dr. Robertson was generally unsuccessful in making contacts with the actresses, choreographers, directors and other staff people who create the over-the-top, fun, sparkly musicals that are Takarazuka.Any number of young Americans and other foreigners have been welcomed into the Takarazuka world, so Dr. Robertson must have used the wrong approach.Her book is dull.

An Academic Look at Girls Playing at Being Boys
The Takarazuka Kagekidan (usually referred to in English as the Takarazuka Revue) has almost as many official publications as the Chinese Communist Party. Most of the information available about the famous all-female theatre troupe has been thoroughly blue-pencilled by the revue administration before being disseminated to its leagues of fans. Kobayashi Ichiyo, founder of the Hankyu Railway and the man behind Takarazuka, promoted the revue as wholesome family entertainment. He would do back-flips in his grave if he were to discover that his beloved Takarasiennes were the subject of a book on gender and sexuality. The Hankyu-Toho fortress is hard to penetrate. A recent publication on Godzilla was subtitled "The book that Toho doesn't want you to read." One Takarazuka fan warned Jennifer Robertson during her research, "[The Takarazuka administration] is mean. They have their ways. They could twist your arm the way developers do when they want you to sell land." Undeterred, Prof. Robertson has succeeded not only in demystifying the revue but also in framing it against the background of Japan's turbulent sexual politics.

Interest in the revue in the West has been limited until recently and even then it was Takarazuka's curious sexuality was the focus of attention. When Takarazuka performed in London in 1994, members of the city's gay community filled the houses. A documentary film on the revue from the same year, Dream Girls, directed by Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams, is a homosexual interpretation of the revue that has been shown widely at lesbian and gay film festivals. Robertson's interpretation is not so simplistic, nor is there any of the underlying sarcasm of Dream Girls. Indeed it is obvious that she is a fan. "I was hooked," she writes, "not by the retrograde, if steamy, sexual politics of the story, but by the mostly female audience whose intense absorption in the wrenching action made the auditorium sizzle with eroticized energy."

The key chapters of the book, "Staging Androgyny" and "Performing Empire" are re-workings of Robertson's articles previously published in American Ethnologist. In "Staging Androgyny," Robertson examines the imprecise nature of gender in Japanese theatre and a history of cross-dressing. She also looks at how this is reflected in Japanese society as a whole. More importantly, she draws the distinction between sex (i.e. the sexual act) and gender, somewhat strengthening the argument of Takarazuka as wholesome entertainment. (Guardian critic Michael Billington, for example, dubbed their London performance "curiously sexless").

"Performing Empire" offers a fascinating insight into wartime Japan when Takarasiennes dressed in khaki and theatregoers could enjoy such spectacles as Made in Nippon and The Children of East Asia. That a bastion of chintz and glitter could work as a propaganda machine would seem unrealistic until you discover that the revue's founder served as a member of the cabinet in the 1940s.

Roberston's book is the first major work in English on the Takarazuka Revue, but as she herself states, it is not a history of the revue, but a discussion of sexuality and popular culture in Japan that leaves the reader asking what is "normal." Never has the blurring of gender been more engaging than in this study of transvestism, sexual ambiguity and subversion that stretches far beyond Takarazuka Grand Theatre.

Robertson's Revue of Japanese Sex Politics Deserves a Standing Ovation
Jennifer Robertson attempts to use the all-female Takarazuka theater revue as a model for the sexual politics and gender relations present in modern Japanese society.Robertson does this by looking at overlapping discussions of sexuality, gender roles, popular culture, Japanese fan culture, and Japanese national identity as these aspects are portrayed by the Takarazuka Revue.Robertson discusses taboo subjects like cross-dressing and lesbianism, and forms of public gender performance in theater and popular culture in order to dismantle cultural stereotypes of Japanese women and men.The important idea that I believe Robertson is trying to express in this ethnography is that gender and sexuality are not monolithic nor are male and female distinct categories.In fact, sexuality and gender are constantly being redefined through history and are therefore more fluid in nature.If you are at all interested in gender relations, alternative gender roles, Japanese culture, or female theater this book will surely entertain and enlighten you.

An interesting... something.
Someone should really recommend a dictionary in addition to this book.

Words like 'dearth', 'didactically', 'enantiomorph', 'cancan', 'croon', 'corporeal koan', 'cachet', and 'largess', just to name a few, are completely unnecessary. Rewrite this book in ENGLISH and I may just take another look at it.

From the small bit I was able to understand through this screen of nonsense, there is only a minimal amount of real content to be gained. Takarazuka is a fascinating aspect of Japanese culture, and I was greatly disappointed by this book.

The author's first mistake seems to have been to take on too big of a task. The chapters do not connect with each other. And there is a general failure to trace various aspects of the theatre either from or two underlying Japanese cultural ideas.

A simple way to start such an investigation would be to write about which roles the (female) audience identifies with, is it the otokoyaku (men played by women) who caresses the happy blonde haired female? Or do they imagine themselves as the women who are seduced on stage by the otokoyaku? Does it matter which they identify with? Answers to questions even as simple as this one are never addressed in the text.

The whole time I read this book I felt as though the author was just trying to disguise the fact that she really doesn't have anything at all important to say, even after a decade of research.

If you're linguistically inclined, you may want to give it a try.But it doesn't seem likely that there's much of importance here.

amazing
The mere fact that the author puts so much effort into examining sexuality and androgeny in Japan is commendable.The book gives a lot of insight to Sexuality in Japan (mostly 2oth C.) through her analysis of the all-female Takarazuka Revue founded in 1919.

Chapters include (1) Ambivalence and Popular Culture; (2) Staging Androgeny; (3) Performing Empire; (4) Fan Pathology; (5) Writing Fans.

Chapters 1,2 and 3 I thought were particularly well-written and informative.Robertson does a great job examining gender roles and performances that are often very permeable (despite the fact that many people are in delian of this).great book. ... Read more