Product Description
This history of Japanese mass culture during the decades preceding Pearl Harbor argues that the new gestures, relationship, and humor of ero-guro-nansensu (erotic grotesque nonsense) expressed a self-consciously modern ethos that challenged state ideology and expansionism. Miriam Silverberg uses sources such as movie magazines, ethnographies of the homeless, and the most famous photographs from this era to capture the spirit, textures, and language of a time when the media reached all classes, connecting the rural social order to urban mores. Employing the concept of montage as a metaphor that informed the organization of Japanese mass culture during the 1920s and 1930s, Silverberg challenges the erasure of Japanese colonialism and its legacies. She evokes vivid images from daily life during the 1920s and 1930s, including details about food, housing, fashion, modes of popular entertainment, and attitudes toward sexuality. Her innovative study demonstrates how new public spaces, new relationships within the family, and an ironic sensibility expressed the attitude ofJapanese consumers who identified with the modern as providing a cosmopolitan break from tradition at the same time that they mobilized for war. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Critical Mass
Study modern Japanese history in any detail and, if you don't blink and miss it, you'll probably come across the keyword "Ero-Guro-Nansensu"--usually it merits a rushed and almost politely dismissive reference as a sort of decadent hiccup between Taisho democracy and Showa militarism. If this ever piqued your curiosity, then this is the book for you: a fine, critically astute, scholarly historical study, it takes a focused look on everything you ever wanted to know about Erotic-Grotesque-Nonsense but were afraid to ask.

And then some. Extensive research went into this book, and that in the kind of ephemeral sources that are hard to track down and harder to evaluate, and as a result something of the vibrant popular culture of Japan from 1923 until the late 1930's is communicated to the reader--the cafes, the movie theaters, the dance revues, magazines and cartoons, modern girls and juvenile delinquents, Charlie Chaplin and Shirley Temple, Ginza and Asakusa, and all that jazz. Some of this intentionally stretches the usual parameters of the three terms just a bit, but this allows Silverberg to analyze the given cacophony of mass cultural phenomena in a wider historical sense and so explore larger issues such as cultural borrowing and code-switching, changing family and gender roles, and complex political tensions at work therein. And all of this in a very attentive, nuanced fashion that does justice to the subject, avoiding the fruitless but tempting binaries of modern/traditional, imitative/authentic, complicit/resistant and the like. As such, though, the prose is a bit stiff and academic for such a lively subject, especially at the beginning, but this seems to stem more from the author's attempt to take these supposedly frivolous matters seriously as history, which was especially innovative when she first apparently started working on this book and still is intriguingly fresh even yet--besides which, every so often flashes of a pleasantly dry wit glimmer through, and Silverberg's use of montage as an organizing principle for the study is as creative as it is appropriate.

If there's one thing that annoys me about the book, it's that three of the chapters have already been published as individual articles elsewhere*. I know this is standard practice nowadays so I won't hold it against this particular title, but it still makes me feel a bit like I've been suckered into buying the same book several times over by the disreputable Asakusa shills and hawkers described right herein. Still, in this book all of that prior work is revised and brought together with lots of new and intriguing material to form a fascinating overall consideration of the otherwise mostly overlooked and definitely underestimated phenomenon of erotic-grotesque-nonsense. This is sure to become a seminal work in the field and a standard reference for up-and-coming cultural historians of Japan. Highly recommended.

*In Japan in the World, Recreating Japanese Women, 1600-1945, and Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan (Twentieth-Century Japan, the Emergence of a World Power , No 9). ... Read more

Product Description
Tokyo Clash is an extraordinary encounter with Japanese design culture. Author and photographer Ralf Bähren presents Japan's megacity in a visually stunning collection of images, vividly colorful and rich in contrast. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The perfect giftbook for students of contemporary Japanese culture
Tokyo Clash: Japanese Pop Culture is a lavish compendium of full-page photographs offering a dazzling visual display of various aspects of popular culture in Japan - from pachinko parlors to plastic dolls to origami creations to ramen noodles. Each image is accompanied by a brief caption in three languages: English, Japanese, and German. A whirlwind tour of Japanese daily life, Tokyo Clash is a beautifully immersive experience, and the perfect giftbook for students of contemporary Japanese culture. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
Japanese Fairy Tales including: My Lord Bag Of Rice,The Tongue-Cut Sparrow,The Story Of Urashima Taro, The Fisher Lad,The Farmer And The Badger,The "Shinansha," Or The South Pointing Carriage,The Adventures Of Kintaro, The Golden Boy,The Story Of Princess Hase,The Story Of The Man Who Did Not Wish To Die,The Bamboo-Cutter And The Moon-Child,The Mirror Of Matsuyama,The Goblin Of Adachigahara,The Sagacious Monkey And The Boar,The Happy Hunter And The Skillful Fisher,The Story Of The Old Man Who Made Withered Trees To Flower,The Jelly Fish And The Monkey,The Quarrel Of The Monkey And The Crab,The White Hare And The Crocodiles,The Story Of Prince Yamato Take,Momotaro, Or The Story Of The Son Of A Peach. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Omoshiroi
The stories in this book were very interesting and I enjoyed them. However, I do think it would be nice if the free Kindle edition contained the original illustrations. The same is true for most, if not all of the free classics for Kindle. But of course it is free.

Great book
This is a graet book on this set of Japanese Fairy Tales.When I first gt the book I was impressed with the cover it made me want toread it.The stories were great and the illustrations were good to.Its nice to see a book with illustrations.After being in contact the publisher I found out that there will be more books in this series.

Kakoi!
Since it was free I didn't really know what to expect but the stories are quite nice. Not all of them are light-hearted though and even with the ones with "happy endings" you still might not want to read them to kids.

Not well formatted for the Kindle
the stories are wonderful. a few of them match some of the stoies we heard while living in Okinawa with the military.

HOWEVER, I cannot give the Kindle version a 5 star like I would like to, because the formatting is absolutely horrendous.

A Child's Treasury of Japanese Fairy Tales
Originally published in 1903,Yei Theodora Ozaki's translation of Sadanami Sanjin's collection of Japanese fairy tales has been the introduction of many a young child into the legends and fables of old Japan across the years.Definitely not a scholarly reference or valuable research tool for folktale researchers, Ozaki unabashedly re-crafted some of the stories, translating loosely and adding in elements of unrelated tales, in order to make them more enjoyable and understandable for Western children.She even gave Urashimataro a happy ending!

There is something delightfully romantic about translations from this era, due to the unfamiliarity with Japanese culture at the time.Terms that would not be translated today, like "oni" and "samurai", are rendered as "ogre" and "knight" and other English equivalents.While unauthentic, this makes the stories more approachable by young children who have a mind for fantasy but haven't yet graduated to Japanese Studies.

While far from a picture book, artist Kakuzo Fujiyama contributed 66 beautiful drawings to illustrate the 22 tales. Unfortunately, all the illustrations are reproduced in black-and-white, instead of the original color plates included in the original pressings.

Many of the stories here are familiar with anyone even slightly interested in Japanese folklore."Momotaro, or the Story of the Son of a Peach, "The Story of Urashima Taro, the Fisher Lad", "Kintaro the Golden Boy" and "The Ogre of Rashomon".Along with these, there are rarer tales that I haven't seen in any other Japanese fairy tale collection."The Stones of Five Colors and the Empress Jokwa", "The Sagacious Monkey and the Boar" and "How and Old Man Lost his Wren" were all new to me. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good balanced perspective
Twenty-three selected articles on Japanese values and beliefs, patterns of interaction, socialization and psycho-social development, and cultural stress. The articles are
written by Japanese and Western social scientists and psychiatrists, achieving a balance of Perspectives for a complex and provocative subject. ... Read more

Product Description
This book probes into subjects still frowned upon in Tokyo; it explores a few "skeletons in the imperial closet." A half century ago this subject brought authors to prison or death. Using tools such as archeology, stylistic analysis, Japan's sacred scriptures themselves, its imperial line is here traced back to Korean origins, its legitimacy established by an iron sword from Paekche kept inaccessible at Iso-no-Kami) with a gold inscription, which dates Japan's founding ruler from 369 A.D., rather than orthodoxy's 660 B.C.
"Japanese culture," up to the eighth century, derived primarily from Korea--whether it was music, landscape gardening, textiles, ceramics, or major masterpieces of architecture, sculpture, and painting. Top "National Treasures" of Japan either came from Korea or were sponsored by Korean-descended aristocrats, such as the famed Shotoku Taishi, who imported artists and Buddhist priests to the islands.

107 color plates. 43 b/w plates. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Eye-opening
There is already well-supported genetic, linguistic, archeological evidence linking Japan to Korea, but I had not realized the relationship to be so close. We know that Paekche, the Korean Kingdom, and early Japan shared an uncommonly close relationship, and the writer takes great pains to retrace the origins of Japanese by drawing on its historical relationship to Paekche. He tries in particular to fill in the gaping holes and reconcile the inconsistencies in the historical record. Overall, an excellent read. I recommend it for anyone interested in Japanese and Korean history.

Exceptional work!
It's easy to think that Japan and Korea were mostly influenced by Chinese culture by ignorance but by the fact that their language is Altaic-Isolate not Chinese - means Korea and Japan maintained their own unique culture(s) that are different from Chinese despite heavy historical & culutral influence by former Chinese states.

This book explores the area that are different and in fact starting from Japanese Yayoi culture about 2300BP, there were political refugees from various states in Koreaestablised their own sister states in Japan. Around 400AD, Backje lost a big battle against Gokuryo, and started massive refugee migration to the region of Japan where their former Backje political refugees established strong foothold. This lasted for a while. Historical documents shows more than 1-million people escaped to Japan from Backje(South West region in Korea) and they were able to conqure various states in Japan then and able to start Unified Nihon state called Yamato State around 6-7 century.

full of perceptual cues
Isn't it usual to think that Chinese culture rather than Korean culture influenced the ancient Japanese culture?I found no good proofs to support the opinions of the history fiction writer.It is better to read this book unbelievingly.I also recommend to read "Korea and Her Neighbours" written by Isabella Bird, English traveler and writer, first woman member of the Royal Geographical Society.

Interesting Book on an Unknown Subject
Out of the three East Asian civilizations, it appears Japan has gotten the most attention from the West. Japan is neither the oldest or most cultured of the major East Asian civilizations. Little do most people know that the Japanese are probably the biggest cultural borrowers that mankind has ever seen whether it be aping everything Western during the Meiji Restoration or copying the Chinese structure of government during the Taiki Reforms. This book is about early Japanese history and how the Japanese copied the art and culture of Korea in the formative years of the Yamato dynasty. It's a real, but often unacknowledged history that has to be told so the world can put Japanese culture in its correct context when compared to the other ancient East Asian cultures. The book itself is good in most regards, but sometimes it is too dogmatic in its presentation and doesn't provide enough evidence for its early background conclusions. Many pictures to illustrate the author's points. Considering the scarcity of books on this subject, anyone interested in Japan's early past should take a look at this book.

Secret
The author reveals what Japanese do not want to admit. Indeed, Japanese culture is influenced by the Korean culture. This scholary writing based on her extensive research reveals the secret of Japanese history. It is an excellent book. ... Read more

Product Description
How do music and dance reveal the ways in which a community interacts with the world?How are the senses used in communicating cultural knowledge? In Sensational Knowledge, ethnomusicologist and dancer Tomie Hahn uncovers the process and nuances of learning nihon buyo, a traditional Japanese dance form. She uses case studies of dancers at all levels, as well as her own firsthand experiences, to investigate the complex language of bodies, especially across cultural divides. Paying particular attention to the effect of body-to-body transmission, and how culturally constructed processes of transmission influence our sense of self, Hahn argues that the senses facilitate the construction of "boundaries of existence" that define our physical and social worlds. In this flowing and personal text, Hahn reveals the ways in which culture shapes our attendance to various sensoria, and how our interpretation of sensory information shapes our individual realities. An included DVD provides visual examples. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Written with Japanese mind-set?
A valuable and informative effort by Hahn; indisputably, I suggest.However, her manner of writing is (to me) not as succinct as it should be for an academic work, where information needs to be presented for ease of extraction.
Abovesaid, this book is worth the 'read'.
... Read more

Product 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 (6)

thanks
Thank you so much!!
the item that i ordered has come in a really nice condition
that i expected.
thanks again.

good choice
This book arrived by mistake but ended up being an useful book in my class. I have to be careful with "one click order" that is new in Amazon. When I clicked to order other book this book was ordered by accident.

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. ... Read more

Product Description
This revised text seeks to explain the peaceful coexistence of a variety of religions (old and new) in Japan, and analyze developments in terms of spiritual, legal, financial and political significance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A quality textbook on real-life Japanese religion
"Religion in Japanese Culture: Where Living Traditions Meet a Changing World" is an excellent book addressing real-life religion in Japan, and how the "average" Japanese person approaches religion, rather than just theory and practice of a particular religion.

The bulk of the book is made up of the government-sponsored survey into the religious life of Japan including cataloging observances, devoutness, beliefs and other aspects of religion. This survey is essential to understanding the Japanese religious character and is a core to anyone studying the topic.

The remainder of the book is the religious situation today, and deals with such subjects as religion and the state, religion and education, Urbanization, depopulation and religion, and the aspects or rebirth of religion.

The book is quite academic in nature, and indeed is intended to be a textbook.It is not recommended for those with a casual interest, but is essential for those pursuing a serious study of modern Japanese culture and the role religion plays in it. ... Read more

Product Description
First detailed analysis of the phenomenon in English. Describes and analyses the complex new attitudes to manga since the 1980s. Provocative and timely, the book shows how manga's status in Japanese society is intimately linked to changes in the balance of power between artists and editors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Way Over My Head
Lots of big words in this one... a bit too much for me to take. But I think it was a good book. I just probably wasn't good enough to read it.

A good read
I thought this book was a good read. I have been a fann of manga for a few years now, and read them in both english and japanese. This book was most interesting dealing with the day to day creation of manga. However, i do have to disagree with a few things. One: As it is stated above most artists are the main creative agents in their work, and two i really disagree with the categorization that Ms. Kinsella places Ah! Megami-sama and gunsmith cats into, lolicom. The female characters in both these series, except for Skuld, are young women not little girls. Maybe it is the cute style they are drawn in, but if that is the case wouldn't every series with cute characters be considered lolicom? i mean Akazukin Cha Cha and Kodomo no Omocha both have adorably cute charaters, but are definately not lolicom. . .

The view from a manga publisher
Kinsella's book presents her view of the Japanese manga industry, as colored by her experiences inside it for a few months on a research grant from Kodansha (Japan's largest publisher).While there is much of value here, she is simply misled, mistaken, or wrong in so many other areas it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.For example, contrary to her assertations, very few manga are group efforts written by committee.And while it's true some editors provide plotting assistance to the creators and some are even uncredited co-writers, many are reduced to banging on the door of the artist's apartment hoping some pages will be poked out of the mail slot when the deadline comes around.Her analysis of the international manga translation industry seems to have been written without the benefit of any real research into same.Bottom line--if you know the biz well enough to separate fecal matter from boot polish, some great tidbits here.If not...don't believe everything you read.

A Well-Written Documentary
I read this book for two reasons.First is due to my love for anime and manga and the desire to further my knowledge for this cultural phenomenon.The second is because I'm planning on minoring in East Asian Studies, and I thought this book would give me insight as to the comparative politics concerning manga in both hemispheres of the world.

This book has done so, and more."Adult Manga..." explains, in a well organized and detailed manner, the history of manga, from it's downfall in the 60's to its revival in the 80's.Other aspects about this book that I found very interesting were the attitudes expressed in both the western and eastern cultures.Ms. Kinsella goes on to discuss how manga has made it's place in the status-quo of the Asian region in the world, while at the same time, is struggling to makes itself known in mainstream pop-culture in America.

After I finished this book, I was enthralled by how much I was able to learn, while at the same time, I was also upset about how ignorant I was to ignore some of the most important aspects about manga concerning Japanese society.To paraphrase, manga is, more or less, a direct correllation to the social and cultural trends in Japan.How much of that statement can encompass is left to the reader.

If you think manga was just about big-breasted women, sophisticated mecha-warriors and cute furry animals, think again.

Not the first and not the best...
Disingenuously claiming to be "the first detailed analysis of the post-war pop-cultural phenomenon of Japanese adult manga in English",(presumably Anne Allison and Frederik Schodt weren't detailed enough, andGroensteen's L'Univers des Mangas was too French) Sharon Kinsella's AdultManga throws nuggets of interesting information across sweeping fields ofmissed opportunities. For a study of the relationship between author andeditor, it is an ironically incoherent subbing job, with repeated text,entertainingly random italics and idiotic use of English titles (Tezuka'swell-known "Atom Boy", as well as an anime called"Megalopolis" and another one called "Doomed"...).Kinsella also seems to only translate titles on a haphazard basis; some arein Japanese with English translations, and some are not. The Japanese bits,especially about life inside the giant publisher Kodansha, are informative,but she makes so many mistakes talking about the English industry that onecan only hope she's not cocking up elsewhere. The best bits are the fewsections that consist of "What I did during my paid holiday atKodansha's offices", although she does not seem to have marshalled theinformation she amasses. She notes that artists have many assistants, forexample, and notes the educational value of photo-real draughtsmanship, butdoesn't seem to have realised that one is related to the other, and thatusing the real world as a baseline is a good way of matching disparate artstyles in a busy studio. Bottom line is her book will give you the chanceto get gossip and quotes from several interesting Japanese sources, whichyou otherwise wouldn't have seen. But considering the two-year delay fromits original intended publication, I would have hoped for something alittle more up to date; some of Kinsella's conclusions were already datedin 1995, and are showing their age now. ... Read more

Product Description
From its origins as a distinct set of ritualised practices in the sixteenth century to its international expansion in the twentieth, tea culture has had a major impact on artistic production, connoisseurship, etiquette, food, design and more recently, on notions of Japaneseness. The authors dispel the myths around the development of tea practice, dispute the fiction of the dominance of aesthetics over politics in tea, and demonstrate that writing history has always been an integral part of tea culture. ... Read more

Product Description
Tropics of Savagery is an incisive and provocative study of the figures and tropes of "savagery" in Japanese colonial culture. Through a rigorous analysis of literary works, ethnographic studies, and a variety of other discourses, Robert Thomas Tierney demonstrates how imperial Japan constructed its own identity in relation both to the West and to the people it colonized. By examining the representations of Taiwanese aborigines and indigenous Micronesians in the works of prominent writers, he shows that the trope of the savage underwent several metamorphoses over the course of Japan's colonial period--violent headhunter to be subjugated, ethnographic other to be studied, happy primitive to be exoticized, and hybrid colonial subject to be assimilated. ... Read more

Product Description
Japanese animation, or anime, which has attained cult status among young people globally during the past several decades, is increasingly breaking into the mainstream. "My Reality: Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation",investigates the influence of this form of pop culture on today's art in Japan, other Asian countries, and the West.

Featured artists include: Inka Essenhigh, Mariko Mori, Paul McCarthy, Tom Sachs, Richard Patterson, Takashi Murakami among others.

Essays by Jeff Fleming, Takashi Murakami and Susan Lubowsky Talbott. Foreword by Judith Richards,

35 color and 10 b&w.
9 x 12 in. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

3/5
The synergy between Japanese anime and American pop culture is explored in this book, a companion piece to the traveling exhibition currently in installation at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. My Reality examines the role of anime on modern art; in particular, there's a technology-friendly bent to anime, which the book asserts has been assimilated in the technique of "serious" artists in both hemispheres. The book, much like the exhibition, touches upon the common anime themes of high technology, aliens, cyborgs and so on, but through a series of essays, draws a link between these and real-life themes such as gender roles and popular and consumer culture. Showcasing artwork from emerging artists like Takashi Murakami, Mariko Mori, and Paul McCarthy, this book is an interesting, although way too brief, commentary on art and culture in the face of technology and the future, as well as providing additional depth to the context of this intriguing exhibition.

ADisappointment
This is a this book of three essays with some just sort of interesting photos and illustrations. I was expecting lots of great Anime and collectable art that is inspired by Manga and Anime, but this is a companion to a traveling exhibit of art inspired by Anime and Manga. The art is just ok, nothing really interesting, and the essays are dull as if written for a thesis. There are way too many footnotes, and phrases like "ontological insecurity".I just don't see this type of art as high-brow art. Skip this book. ... Read more

Product Description
After a year's sabbatical in Kyoto, a college professor presents a collection of essays on traditional Japanese culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beautiful, rich, and insightful
In this collection of essays, John Elder, a professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, explores his observations from a sabbatical in Kyoto, Japan.He discusses everything from Japanese calligraphy to haiku to Zen to whalemeat, and even for the uninitiated, he makes these aspects of Japanese culture accessible.His observations carry some real depth, too: he looks well beyond a tourist's superficial awe, well beyond an academic's obsession with paradigm.In these essays Elder discovers what it is about bonsai trees, for example, that makes them uniquely Japanese, and he is able to articulate what their prevalence says about Japan's relationship to nature.Without idealizing Japan, he leaves the reader with a greatly deepened understanding of a distinctly eastern view toward the natural world, and perhaps provides us--both Japanese and American--with new ways of seeing our human relationship to the environment.This is an ambitious book, and a highly successful one.I recommend it enthusiastically! ... Read more

Product Description
This proficiency-oriented introductory Japanese program emphasizes practical communication, the development of all four language skills, student interaction, and cultural awareness. Nakama 1 consists of 12 chapters, and Nakama 2 consists of a review chapter, plus 10 additional chapters. Both volumes feature thematically organized chapters that focus on high-frequency communicative situations and introduce students to the Japanese language and its three writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Very good Textbook to Use in Classroom
I have used this book from Japanese 1 to Japanese 4 in college. I loved it. It worked really well with its workbook, and we were very active with it. I do not think that this would be a good book to try and learn Japanese by yourself. This, however would be a great book to get if you are planning on taking Tutoring Courses with a native speaker. You could use this book in order to animate your Tutoring Meetings.
I personally think that it is very well done: I like the vocabulary presented, the presentation of Kanji, the grammatical explanations, etc...
I really enjoyed learning Japanese with this book. On top of that, you can use smart.fm in order to review your vocabulary on your computer, but also on your iPhone. It helped me a lot during my classes, for we had a lot of vocabulary to learn, and this was the only way I could learn them. Great site that supports this book!

It's *okay*
It's an alright book. I am halfway through my second semester of Japanese, and it is *okay*. I don't to actually expect to learn Japanese from this book, thankfully my teacher is really good.

Anyway, to make up for this book I've started the AJATT method, so I'm learning kanji from RTK.

If you search around online, you can find excel files with the vocab and example sentences from this book, which is really useful for studying from SRS, I wish I had found it sooner...

Just finished two semesters with this one, and I'm glad to be done with it
I literally just finished two college semesters of Japanese, both of which used this text, and it didn't make what was a bumpy ride for me any easier. I was a complete beginner when I started with this, and this certainly isn't the ideal beginner-level Japanese textbook to be using.
As said in other reviews, the book is rather light on explanations. Even the simple distinction between where and when to use "wa" or "ga" is not adequately explained and is a source of confusion. The conjugated versions of verbs are introduced before the infinitives, which is rather strange when you consider that all other forms are derived from the infinitives. Katakana and Kanji are rather kicked to the curb as they only make brief appearances in the text.

What I was really disappointed with was that they were no sections comparing the formal and informal forms of the language. And anyone who knows Japanese, knows that it has a very honorary/hierarchal structure. With different nouns and verbs that are used depending on who is being spoken to. You'll find no information on the informal aspects of the language whatsoever in this book. So if you want to learn how to watch anime in Japanese, read manga in Japanese, or play video games in Japanese, you're out of luck, as those mediums almost always use the informal style.
One last complaint, the audio tapes/CDs really leave something to be desired. The voice actors speak way too fast and I had to rewind over and over again to catch what was being said. For a beginner student, you need things to be a little slower because you need to be able to decode what's being said as its being said.

All in all, if your college is using this book for its Japanese course, go and visit their foreign language department and let them know what a poor book this is, or just boycott. I'm telling you, it's just not worth it, and I just LITERALLY wrapped up two semesters with it. So take my word for it and save yourself the frustration. In fact much of the time, I was reading Japanese Step by Step : An Innovative Approach to Speaking and Reading Japanese by Gene Nishi as a supplement, and it was so much better organized and thorough. I'd highly recommend it over this for beginners.

Nakama 1 Audio CD (Teachers version) Set
This is a Seven Audio CD set. (Teacher's version) The study guide for Makino Hatasa Japanese 1 comes with a single audio CD. The student's version audio is available on-line at several University websites. (You have to look for them.) Make sure you have a purpose for taking Japanese, not just curiosity. It is a hard class. You will learn to read and write Japanese, (along with vocalizations). My son is doing well in this class. The learning curve is way up there.

So-so
This was a textbook that was required for my japn course in college. Overall, a little disorganized and I wish they had some better form of teaching it. I don't understand why we do not learn counting until chapter 3. Shouldn't that be taught in chapter 1? I also believe that romaji is discourages, since you won't be able to find a shred of that in the book. It's a pretty good book, but not the type of book that you'd want to get for self-learning. ... Read more

Product Description
This book gives an in-depth analysis of the use of the english language in modern Japan. It explores the many ramifications the Japanese-English language and culture contact situation has for not only Japanese themselves, but also others in the international community.

Data for this book has been gathered using anthropological ethnographic fieldwork, augmented by archival sources, written materials, and items from popular culture and the mass media. An interdisciplinary approach, including those of anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, cognitive science and symbolic anthropology, is taken in the exploration of the topics here. This book's arguments focus on four major theoretical linguistic and social issues, namely the place of the Japanese-English case in the larger context of "World Englishes"; the place of the Japanese-English case in a general theory of language and culture contact; how Japanese English informs problems of categorization, meaning construction and cognition; and what it says about the social construction of identity and sense of self, nationalism and race.

This book will be of interest to linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, cognitive scientists, and all readers who are interested in language contact, sociolinguistics, English as an international language, and World Englishes. It will also appeal to those who are interested in Japan and popular culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great title for research papers in this field
I recently wrote a research paper analyzing the usage of English in Japanese manga, and found this books approach to the subject quite useful. Originally it was only something I borrowed on Inter Library Loan, but after reading a few chapters, I knew I had to have the book. The writing style is easy to read and the topics he touches upon in each chapter are focused and interesting. Since there are not listed, here are the chapter titles in the book:

1) Prologue 2) The dynamics of English words in contemporary Japanese: Japanese English and a 'beautiful human life' 3) The history of Japanese English language contact 4) The Japanese writing system and English 5) The poetics of English in Japanese pop songs and contemporary verse 6) A new voice: The use of English as a new rhetoric in modern Japanese women's language 7) Using the graphic and pictorial image to explore Japan's 'Empire of Signs' 8) Is it naisu rice or good gohan?: In Japan, it's not what you eat, but how you say it 9) Language and culture contact in the Japanese colour of nomenclature system: From neon oranges to shocking pinks 10) Sense, sensation, and symbols: English in the realm of the senses 11) Images of race and identity in Japanese and American language and culture contact 12) Japan, English, and World Englishes

As you can see, there is a wide spread of topics that the book covers in regards to English in the Japanese language, and most are quite interesting!

An Interesting Insight
Stanlaw presents us with the Japanese way of using English.In particular, he goes into detail about the use of English loanwords in Japanese for advertising, packaging, pop songs, and so forth.According to Stanlaw, these are not really loanwords, but English inspired creations.In other words, Japanese are using English for their own purposes in ways which they can appreciate rather than copying the usage of native speakers.It's a very interesting theory.The only reason for giving this four stars instead of five is that Stanlaw fails to make a distinction between English terms that are standard in Japanese and faddish terms, so quite a few of the examples that he provides are out of date and not used anymore.It would have been nice to make this distinction, and to elaborate on the processes behind both forms of usage.Other than that complaint, the ideas he presents in this book are very fascinating.I would recommend this to those who are thinking of teaching in Japan, or those who are studying Japanese overseas.You'll gain some insight into the Japanese use of language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great overview of manga, anime, and the impact of Japanese media
Just in terms of the expansive area with which MacWilliams covers the topic of Japanese Visual Culture is enough to warrant kudos. This book collects writers from across the globe to comment on Japanese visuals, aesthetics, and media from before the world knew of Hokusai's views of Mount Fuji all the way up to computer-generated animation in films like Ghost in the Shell 2.

However, this book does not merely cover the historicity of Japanese visual culture but how it has impacted gender relations, politics, international relations, and cultural identity.

While this book does tend to get bogged down in certain areas through repetition in multiple articles (how much do we really need to hear about the changes Shojo manga brought to the industry or how Osamu Tezuka is the founder of modern manga and anime?) the book is a great foundational piece for anyone looking to further their own studies on the subject of Japanese visual culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Poor
I decided to write this review in response to the overwhelmingly positive reviews that were posted on this website. No conscionable person could possibly stay silent on this issue.

The truth is that Nakama is not what these people present it as. Nakama is, in fact, a horrible textbook for a college course.

It's childish.

The grammar explanations are jejune at best, a little splurge of example in the form of some uninteresting dialogue is all that is given for each grammatical example. And when I say "at best," it's because grammar in this book is really rather scant. Grammar is definitely not at the forefront of Nakama. It definitely takes a back seat to too much useless
tidbits of "cultural" aspects of Japanese and example sentences and dialogues that border on rote methods of language learning. The coverage of vocabulary that would fuel strong grammatical examples is also weak.

This textbook's main failure lies in the fact that it follows a popular methodology for language learning in the 90s that put the spotlight on the classroom environment to fill in the many gaps that textbooks left in learning. Most of the exercises in the book are classroom activities to be done with a partner or in front of the class. Grammar examples were apparently left to be presented by the teacher and any missing vocabulary again to be divulged by teacher or dictionary.

The cultural exposure also falls flat and it turns out that in a classroom setting this overly complicated feature of the book (Salutations in written letters? Reading medical charts?!) is usually skipped in favor of more teacher examples. This book would leave a self-studier almost as completely blind as some similar European language books do. So what's the point of that? Why doesn't the teacher just teach without a textbook or hand out his own worksheets? It'd probably be equally or more effective.

And as I said, the book is puerile. It focuses on basic conversation, as if the plan of the author was to never allow the student a fighting chance at fluency.

This book also has virtually no real textbook/workbook examples within the text itself. You have to buy the overpriced workbook to get any practice out of it - practice which is really necessary to one's ability in the language. It also doesn't come with a single audio CD. Those can be purchased separately for an inflated price. But the most important audio portion of all is the "Student Tape/CD" which is not included in such a package. This whole thing is just a huge rip-off.

Unfortunately, you don't have much of a choice when learning Japanese. Of the four mainstream Japanese texts, Nakama is right in the middle and not prominently so - it's only marginally better than the laughable Yookoso and in return the more serious Genki series is only marginally better than Nakama. All of the popular Japanese textbooks recently published have been of such mediocre flavor.

Good points? To be honest, the coverage of Kanji is sufficient. This book is very neatly laid out, and the paper seems to be of good quality. Also, the glossaries and appendixes are easy to navigate. And it's not completely useless - the intermediate course might get you through what should be basic first year Japanese with a good book. However, if you're planning to really learn the language and get out of kindergarten Japanese without wasting the price of a private tutor to explain how much you were ripped off by this book, you should consider another method.

Just as discribed.
This book is in very good condition. I was very happy and the price was much better than that at the school for a book in not as good condition. The school does give 50% back at the end of the year. But we still saved about $30.

Great Seller & Fast Service
I got this book the third day that I placed it. The book arrived in better condition than that I was expecting from a used book. It even comes with the original cassette tape, although I don't use it. Great Seller. Would definitely comeback again.

Proofreading problems galore!
I used this textbook during an intensive course.I think it was chosen for political reasons (the author's reputation or connection).But I found it to be lacking in many ways. First of all it is FULL of typos.In fact, one whole chart was mislabeled.An unsuspecting student might think they were learning the past plain form of the adjective when in fact, they were looking at the polite form.I was very frustrated by the typos.Secondly, I could never find clear grammar explanations. A grammar point would be introduced but there would only be one or two examples of it.Then another grammar point would be thrown in, all mixed together in the examples. I ended up buying a dictionary of grammar, which the teacher recommended when she realized how frustrated some of us were with this book.

It's...okay.
Probably the main reason we use this textbook in my class is that one of the co-authors is a high-up in the Japanese language department at my university.It's not a bad text, but it's really not that great either.On the upside, the book gets into things like Hiragana right away (and Katakana a little later on), so you can quickly ditch romaji, but the Kanji lessons don't start until somewhat later.The recorded materials for Nakama are somewhat lacking in quality, but they're managable.Mostly I guess it's just a textbook, not particularly interesting.It covers new grammar patterns and such pretty quickly, and the explanations aren't always completely clear.There are a number of very useful tables of counters and verb endings and such in the back, though.Overall, it's an okay textbook, but from the things I hear, something like Genki would probably be a better choice. ... Read more

Product Description
"Words in Context" is an exploration of the intimate relationship between language and lifestyle, psychology, and culture. Observing the nuances of language, Mr. Suzuki contends, is more complicated than simply cataloging speech patterns. Language includes a set of unconscious expectations that communicate much more.

Suzuki convincingly illustrates the dangers of isolating words from their cultural context, and then focuses on the types of misconceptions that result from such widely held practices. Citing examples from Japanese and other languages, he demonstrates how words carry nuanced cultural baggage and must be considered in the broader context of culture, history, and social mores to fully appreciate their potency.

"Words in Context" received a warm reception with its initial publication in 1973 and remains a staple for cultural studies and linguistic programs to this day. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Get This Book (Whether or not you study Japan or Japanese)
Wors In Context will give you an angle by which you may evaluate your deeply held cultural concepts, especially those that you may not consciously consider as cultural (and therefore, fluid) concepts.

For example, the author considers the concept of mercy killing of animals.The average American mind would consider it a cruelty not to "alleviate misery" and through this lens, any alternate behavior becomes a violation of Natural Law.The Japanese concept as put forth in this book considers "mercy killing" a human-centered concept that, as such, is the antithesis of holding the animal's corporeality in high regard.Nature should decide the fate of an animal, instead.

So, we have here two differing ideas of right-to-life concepts that people hold with the highest integrity.what to do??

Another example extends the differing concepts on animals by examining our relationships with pets. Whereas the American must have complete obedience of the animal to his every whim, the Japanese concept of a pet recognizes this treatment as a larger distortion of nature and gives more leeway for a dog to be a dog.

(New York city in this light is an eye-opening case indeed as the New Yorker's near pet-worship is held in its highest dysfunctional relief when a man kneels to pick up after his dog, while the dog stares on and seemingly recongnizes and enjoys this debasing servitude. "Kind master, you missed a bit.")

Despite that last poke, don't take the book as a polemic.It's not.It's just a solid exposition with ample reflection that, at a minimum, gets you far away from any of the common and misguided blanket statements on Japanese culture.However, in a wider view, the book gives many opportunities for you to evaluate your own culture.

It is difficult to understand your own culture by holding it up to its own standards.

Use this book to take a look inside yourself and learn something about Japan along the way.

Illuminating Book on the Power of Language
This is a wonderful book.Suzuki teaches us how to see our own language and culture "from the outside" (from the perspective of a non-Indo-European mentality); because of this I have assigned Suzuki's bookas a required text in several college courses on language and culture.Iparticularly recommend the sections on "translatability"(especially chapters 1 and 2) and the chapter on "Words for Self andOthers" (chapter 6). The latter reports a splendid bit of linguisticresearch and analysis that any reader can understand and appreciate:in itSuzuki undertakes to explain how and why "I" and "You"relate to one another differently in Japanese- and English-speakingcultures.

Insightful exploration of the social context of language
Although I am very much an casual student of Japanese, I was attracted by the contents of this publication as I flicked through it at the bookshop.It is a translation of an old (1973) work by Takao Suzuki, a Japaneselinguistics academic.Surprisingly the book is written in a quite lightstyle, with some humor even if a little dated.On the surface I found thebook quite exciting because it helps explain how words which appear to havesimilar meanings from a 'dictionary' viewpoint, can have very differentsocial meanings and cultural usage.Examples are the verbs "cut"and "wear", which appear relatively simple to English speakers,yet have a range of different verbs and very different contexts in theirJapanese usage.The section on the cultural context of the words"lips", "nose" and "chin", for example, startto bring a feeling for the complexity of meaning, and perhaps theinadequacy of many dictionary definitions which up to now I had taken atface value.

Moving through to the last chapter "Words for Self andOthers" I found myself totally captivated by Suzuki's clear expositionof the misclassification of these parts of Japanese speech according to amisunderstanding of their relationship to English personal pronouns.Itsounds heavy, but it is not, on the contrary it is a clear insight into thesocial context of words and language.I will never see those words in thesame light again, and my Japanese will be certainly better for it.

At amuch more profound level Suzuki expounds his core belief that words createthings, in contrast to our "natural" acceptance of the idea thatobjects exist independently of language.If this is too deep thenfortunately it does not impose on the value of the book at the morepedestrian level at which I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you are a curiousstudent of Japanese, then you will enjoy this book. I intend to read itagain, and expect to enjoy it at least as much as the first time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Slightly dated, but still interesting look at Japan's cultural myths and stereotypes
Buruma, a Dutch Englishman, a seasoned Asia hand as journalist, essayist and lecturer, writing mainly about Japan and China, with a Japanese wife as motivator, explores the common cliches about Japan's uniqueness in a series of essays on popular culture from the decades prior to the early 80s, when the book came out. Still interesting after all those years, but not up to date.
It seems Buruma couldn't quite make up his mind: are they unique, these odd people from the separate islands East of Asia, or is that only their own wishful thinking about themselves? (Is there any merit in a comparison to the odd people living on the islands West of Europe?)
While Buruma says early on that deep down the Japanese are really not that much different, he spends most of the rest of the book showing us that they are quite odd indeed. He writes always with sympathy, never mocking, but at times headshaking about all these little quirks that one finds in the daily life of the very Far East.
So we meet the mother (who rules by appeasement and keeps dominating the male for life), the female demon (the woman who irritatingly discovers sexuality), the prostitute (who serves as surrogate mother to the poor man who suffers withdrawal syndrome), the cross-dresser in show business, the hard man (how do you stand out when society wants you to conform?), the gangster (in the movie version a hero like the bull in the Spanish corrida) and some more.
The basis for all the things that we find contradictory seems to lie in the co-existence of a popular and sometimes vulgar culture based on Shinto with the more sophisticated cultural rules derived from the imported and adapted doctrines of Buddhism and Confucianism.
I can't pretend that I am an expert in Japanese civilisation, nor even in Japanese movies, so I will not attempt to evaluate the contents of Buruma's diagnosis beyond confirming that this is an interesting collection of essays.

Interesting, but dated
In this book, Buruma tries to get down to the basic character of the Japanese people by examining their attitude toward sex and violence.He takes a look at their heros--ancient gods, samurais, kamikaze pilots, and yakuza.He presents the idea that Japanese are free from a sense of morality and are governed by a sense of social obligations.This, he explains, is the reason that we find sex and violence so openly in Japanese entertainment.He also states that these act as a sort of release for people who are burdened with overwhelming social obligations.

I found this book interesting, but this book was published in 1984 orginally, so when Buruma refers to popular culture, it is quite outdated.When talking about movies, he refers primarily to movies from the 60's.For other forms of entertainment, the references come from the late 70's and early 80's.His references don't reflect the current impact that Japanese pop culture is having on the world today.Also the strong cultural institutions, such as lifetime employment, that he talks about have been breaking down since the Japanese economy collapsed in the late 80's and early 90's.Presently, Japanese society is in a state of flux.Despite this, you'll still find lots of interesting observations in this book.

Heroes and Villains in Japanese Culture
"A Japanese Mirror" is an excellent book.Ian Buruma has gathered together a host of Japanese storytelling, from theater, film, comics and books, and sifted through them all to divine the core elements of the Japanese hero.What traits do the Japanese respect?What do their heroes embody?What are their stereotypes, their Dirty Harrys and Al Capones?

The book is split into two sections, the first section dealing with women and the second section with men, as well as a bridging chapter on cross-dressers.The section on women show the long suffering, devoted mother, the innocent schoolgirls, the vile demon-women seducers and the art of prostitution.The section on men show the loyal retainer, the hard school and nihilism of the yakuza, and the idiocy of fathers.Each stereotype is supported with a host of evidence from many different media types.

The most repeating storyline, and the most important lesson for the Japanese, is that he who acts outside society is doomed.Like all culture's storytelling, Japanese books, films and theater seem to reinforce a comfortable lesson, allowing people to vicariously watch rebels get their just due.

Also of interest in this book is the lack of core good/evil myths in Japanese religion, and how this affects their storytelling and how this disturbs and confuses Western viewers.Violence for violence's sake, without a moral lesson, is often found in Japanese storytelling.After reading this book, you will have a better idea of why.

The weakness of this book is that, regardless of the title, the focus is on heroes.There are not really any villains mentioned.Also, as the book was written in the 1980's, many of the current "hot" stars and stories mentioned by the author have faded into obscurity, which dates the book somewhat.

"The Japanese Mirror" is a great book for anyone interested in Japanese culture and/or film.It is scholarly without being dry,and intelligent. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

IT WAS AMAZING!!!
Read it within a few hours, and is full of glorious details and interesting facts. A well structured arugement over all, and very interesting. However glad I am to have the book in my hands, I was disappointed to see it on google books. ... money is as money does? ... Read more