Book Description
Maido, maido and welcome to the Kansai region of western Japan. Whether visiting or living in this area, you will quickly notice the locals aren't speaking standard Japanese taught in textbooks and classrooms. The language on the streets is Kansai-ben: a dialect said to be earthier and more direct. With clear explanations of grammar, a Kansai-ben dictionary, and a helpful index, Colloquial Kansai Japanese is an indispensable guide to the rich speech of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe.
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Customer Reviews (3)

Good but much missing
Maybe I expected too much from a book that was only ~$10 but it wasn't very clear on several very important topics in the book and too often resorted straight to simple conversations. Although this was a downfall, overall the book was a very enjoyable read, and was fairly informative. I hate the fact that it uses romanization, but since it always had the hiragana/kanji right below it, I will not complain too much :) overall a good book for intermediate Japanese students that want a very basic guide to speaking (and understanding) one of the more colorful dialects of Japan.

Interesting Stuff...
This book does a great job of looking at the Kansai area forms of Japanese.As a dialectology fan, I found this book entertaining.Explanations and examples are extremely detailed, and a large amount of different subject material is highlighted.

In addition to people who intend to interact with Kansai area speakers, I suggest this book to those who are interested in the dialects of Japan in general.Language is an ever-changing organism, and much of the original flavor of local dialects is forever being lost in many areas.This book goes beyond being practical in that sense, because even if Kansai-ben has been greatly eroded by Tokyo Japanese in the future, this book will be a surviving record of what used to be.

A good find.

Oki ni, Parutaa-san, Kaori-san!
"Colloquial Kansai Japanese" is an updated and expanded edition of Palter and Slotsve's classic "Kinki Japanese*". This book was the key that unlocked the mysteries taking place in everyday conversations during a homestay in Kyoto. It enabled me to answer a very polite cabdriver in Osaka about what I had done while in Osaka. Just the other day, I became friends with a Kyoto native who was really happy to hear my "Kyoto accent", although I spoke not a word of Kansai-ben!

I highly recommend this book to:

* anyone who will spend more than two weeks in the Kansai area, especially homestay students and company workers that will need to converse with homestay family members, colleagues, local merchants, and others.
* anime otaku who watch subs rather than dubs.
* Japanese students interested in dialects.

Since I can't seem to locate my battered copy of "Kinki Japanese" after moving, I'm going to pick up a copy of "Colloquial Kansai Japanese". It's that good.

*Don't laugh, "Kinki" has nothing to do with love hotels or hostess bars. "Kinki" refers to the time when the Kansai area was the political center of Japan, and "kinki" means "the neighborhood of the capital". For many years, Kyoto was the capital of Japan. I suggest you read The Tale of Genji or Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book to capture the flavor of that era's history.

Why the title change? At one time, Tuttle published two books on this subject, the other being Peter Tse's "Kansai Japanese". Tse's book is no longer in print. ... Read more

Book Description
A recognized classic of cultural anthropology, this book explores the political, religious, and economic life of Japan from the seventh century through the mid-twentieth, as well as personal family life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Guide to occupying forces
While I lived four years in Japan, I read many cultural books.Most authors referenced the work done by Ruth Benedict.It's my understanding that the military needed her ideas about the enemy to help win the war, and to effectively occupy Japan following WWII.
Japanese survivors from WWII have universally told me that American soldiers, following the war, were very kind, respectful, honorable, and helpful to the poor, defeated Japanese in their home country.They seemed genuinely interested in getting Japan back on its feet, and today's elderly Japanese feel a great respect and indebtedness towards those occupying forces from America.
American occupying policy was put together fairly quickly.Decisions were made, including whether and in what form the Emperorship should continue.A cornerstone for guiding these decisions was Ruth Benedict's book, "The Crysanthemum and the Sword."
Steps taken and structures put in place by America in post-war Japan were consistent, well-thought, and extraordinarily successful.
As Americans, we really needed a Ruth Benedict to analyze Iraq and inspire our leaders to put together an occupying strategy there that would acknowledge the strengths of Iraqui culture and re-shape them for success.Instead, we seem not to have a clear plan of who Iraq is or what to do with them.
How could we have done so well in the 40's and so poorly now?
Anyway, read Ruth Benedict's remarkable book and marvel at the skill of her analysis.

Explains the riddle of Japan
This classic of anthropology commissioned as a study by US military during WWII and completed after the war was over, is a remarkable study of Japanese ethos. Benedict had no direct access to the culture of Japan because of the war situation, so she uses historical, literary, anecdotal data to construct the ethos of Japan and explain why Japanese fight so hard and surrender without hatred, why they dislike anyone showing them a favour, and why they went to war till the emperor chose peace.

She bases the bulk of her analysis on the concepts of Japanese 'indebtedness' - giri and gimu. She states that Japanese do not follow a fixed catalog of common values nor do they have a fixed idea of character but have clear cut ideas about the hierarchy of duties based on the Japanese social structure.

These duties make life very hard for an average Japanese person, but they bear it, because clearing the debt is very important for a Japanese. And debt includes debt to one's name, which is cleared through revenge in the Samurai tradition.

Benedict's analysis correctly explains why the Japanese sought to conquer and rule other countries, why they fought so hard and bitterly, and yet accepted peace so easily.

It also explains much that happened after the book was written - the rise of Japanese industry, management and technology. Japan cleared the debt to its name (due to its loss in war) through commerce.

Her other insights are generally in harmony with other writers on Japan from management theorists explaining Japanese personnel culture to cultural theorists like Geert Hofstede, who rate Japan as the most masculine of all cultures.

Over-Idealized, spawning what later became myths
While this book covers many aspects of Japanese culture and behavior, making some of the seminal distinctions (e.g. shame v. guilt culture), it also adds up to a misleading picture in my opinion.Beautifully written, Benedict throws around abstractions and generalizations that I found added up to mythmaking, and ultimately popularised misleading notions about the honor, dignity, etc.

Perhaps I have a skewed view, having lived in Japan when many thought it permanently at the pinnacle of the capitalist world (how quaint does that seem today?), but I saw virtually none of the stuff that Benedict claims is the underlieing reality of life there.I would guess that, since she did not live in Japan and do her work on-site, it was inevitable that she constructed an ideal world and hence ignored the banalities and ugliness that I witnessed every day there.All the stuff about Samarai codes and delicate intimacies, in my opinion, are peripheral - to be sure, they can be found, but the everyday reality there is far darker, far bleaker, than this study implies.

As such, this book reflects about as much reality in Japan as Disney or the cartoon Rex Morgan would for the US.It obscures as much as it illuminates and a lot of people have wasted time trying to base their understanding on it rather than what their eyes told them.There is far less underneath than we would care to admit - perhaps, just perhaps, Japan is as ugly as it appears.

Seminal anthropological study on Japan and its people
Those reviewers saying that this book is outdated have obviously never "set foot in Japan" (as one reviewer criticizes the author).Even though I have dozens of friends who live and work in Japan while loving, laughing, crying and living with Japanese, there are still some things about Japanese behavior and society that utterly confuse us as a group.Many Japanese of today who participate in our discussions are also unable to satisfactorily explain their way of thinking to us.

To my surprise, several of these mysteries were explained in great detail here, in a book several decades old!As many students of sociology know, societal change takes time.While Japan's advancement has been remarkably fast, the motivations and analyses laid out in this book still apply to most Japanese today.At the very least, they form the bedrock of the convictions for the middle-aged Japanese of today who dictate political and social policy in the power circles of Japan.

This book is value not only because of how it showcases differences (this is done only for illustrative purposes) but for how it defines and contrasts the Japanese way with what we know, and in doing so allows us to understand them to a higher degree.Very highly recommended.

Briefing to American leadership during World War II
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword describes clearly and succinctly how the Japanese lived and thought in the 1930s and 1940s. The book developed from research into Japanese society conducted for the American leadership, civilian and military, during the Second World War.

Benedict describes social customs and traditions found in Japan at the outbreak of WWII. For instance, Japanese love bathing and the eldest male gets to go first and women having their period go last; everyone uses the same water but this is no worse than everyone sharing a pool because bathers wash >>before<< getting into the tub. Another tradition is that women usually control the family purse with the husbands handing over their wages to their wives and getting an allowance. This is still largely true today.

For over ten years I avoided this book because it was written by someone who had never been to Japan and also because I avoid books that "explain" the Japanese. So when I picked up a copy lying around at a coffee shop and began skimming, I was very surprised at how insightful it was. Benedict was unable to do her research in Japan because of the war, so she obtained all her material from interviews with Japanese POWs and also with second generations Japanese-Americans interned in American concentration camps.

It is still worth reading today. Things have changed in Japan, as they have everywhere else in the world, but her people are still basically the same. ... Read more

Book Description
This book offers a new approach to dealing with Murakami's radical narrative project by demonstrating how his first and later trilogies utilize the structure of the simulacrum, a second-order representation, to develop a complex critique of contemporary Japanese culture. This critique is mirrored in the practices of current media-entertainment technologies which allow Murakami's works, and their critical/promotional meta-texts, to cohere under the rubric of the so-called 'Murakami Phenomenon.' ... Read more

Book Description
Whether you are conducting business, traveling for pleasure, or even relocating abroad, one mistake with customs or etiquette can leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth. International travelers, now more than ever, are not just individuals from the United States, but ambassadors and impression makers for the country as a whole. Newly updated, redesigned, and resized for maximum shelf appeal for travelers of all ages, Culture Shock! country and city guides make up the most complete reference series for customs and etiquette you can find. These are not just travel guides, these are guides for a way of life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pretty good installment in an excellent series
Outside the U.S., my two favorite cities in the world are London and Tokyo, and it's far more difficult to find reliable, up-to-date information on the latter, especially with the economic ups and downs Japan has experienced in the past decade. (London mostly just keeps on keeping on.) This series is aimed not at the tourist but at the person who expects to be living, and probably working, in a new cultural environment for an extended period. Sure, you want to know about restaurants and what sights to see, but of more immediate importance is discovering how you go about getting the electricity turned on, and figuring out the subway system, and -- especially in a non-European country like Japan -- knowing how not to look like an idiot and avoid offending your host. The author covers all those things and many more, with sections on introducing children to Tokyo (they'll learn the language much more quickly than you), transportation (forget buying a car), the health care system (keep plenty of cash on hand for emergency medical treatment, because most hospitals and clinics don't take plastic and hardly anyone in Tokyo accepts checks), and many other subjects of interest to the new arrival. My only complaint is that the book received insufficient editing; there are far too many typos, missing words, and awkward sentences. And the index, frankly, is pathetic. But what the author actually has to say is very much worth hearing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Aweful, pathetic, very short and waste of money
When you order this paperback and it arrives you see that it is only 53 pages.Now that may sound like a lot, but some pages have as little as 4 sentences.(Page 18 may have the record with 3 whole sentences on it.) The book is small and the print is very large.The first seven pages aregeneric introduction about business today without reference to Japan.Thehas about a dozen phrases in Japanese (goodbye is sayonara).No mention ismade of things like gift-giving, how to exchange cards, tact, norms insocializing, when/if to bow, much about proper ettiquete, etc.Other bookstout authors that have lived in Japan and worked with the Japanese for manyyears.Curiously, the bios of these authors make no mention of eitherhaving any experience in Japan what-so-ever or even having visited there. I could write this book based on one two-week visit or a quick read of anyother book out there.

Seven bucks for something anyone visiting Japancould write in a few hours.

The other book I got for my visit to Japan(by Rowland) was a dense 300 or so pages with glossary, and dozens anddozens of contacts in Japan and the U.S. and advice on every conceivablesubject.

I would advice you to get another book.There must be others.

I feel incredibly and utterly robbed.

a true gem
I am a consultant helping US companies enter the Japanese market.Often, I am asked to recommend a book.This tiny book (paperback - 55 pages!) is one of the best presentations of the crucial cultural differences betweenJapanese and American business cultures. Its size is perfect for twopurposes: slipping into your hip-pocket for quick referencewhile on theroad (I can imagine its user excusing himself from a business meeting for aquick reference to the booklet in the bathroom stall: "he closed hiseyes and smiled while listening to me! what does it mean?") and forrote memorization. In fact, memorizing its central chapters (UnderstandingJapanese Culture, Japanese Business Etiquette, and Japanese Gestures) isprobably its best single use. The weakness of the book lies in its brevity:its ratio of meaning to words is very high and there are no illustrationsor examples at all, making it very likely that the reader will misssomething very important. The best way to deal with this risk, I think, isto read it over and over and to think very intensely about every sentencein those three chapters. Its second shortcoming from the point of view ofour visitors is that the book contains no advice on how to enter the marketand how to solve practical problems. Why that should be is easy tounderstand: the books aim is to help dispel misunderstandings and preventcultural gaffes. And this aim it achieves superbly. At its price the book'swell worth every penny. ... Read more

Book Description
At the European Head Office of a well-known Japanese multinational in the Netherlands, western pop music mingles softly with the sound of a waterfall as it cascades between bonsai trees in the glass-walled entrance hall. Does this idyllic scenery, emanating a well-balanced harmony between East and West, reflect the rest of the organization and the feelings of its staff members? How do the Japanese expatriates and the Dutch natives experience their encounters? How do they perceive and deal with the cultural differences in their working relationships?

This informative case study of cross-cultural encounters within a medium-sized enterprise directed from Japan offers clear insights into Japanese and Dutch working styles by focusing on communication style, work attitude, relationship between superior and subordinate, and the decision-making process. ... Read more

Book Description
This study analyzes American, Vietnamese, and Japanese personal values, attempting to understand how it can be ethnographers find large differences in values between cultures, yet empirical surveys find relatively small, almost trivial differences in personal values between cultures. ... Read more

Book Description
Following World War II, Japan's postwar constitution forbade the country to wage war or create an army. However, with the emergence of the cold war in the 1950s, Japan was urged to establish the Self-Defense Forces as a way to bolster Western defenses against the tide of Asian communism. Although the SDF's role is supposedly limited to self-defense, Japan's armed forces are equipped with advanced weapons technology and the world's third-largest military budget. Sabine Frühstück draws on interviews, historical research, and analysis to describe the unusual case of a non-war-making military. As the first scholar permitted to participate in basic SDF training, she offers a firsthand look at an army trained for combat that nevertheless serves nontraditional military needs. ... Read more

Book Description
This book analyses the fictional and critical work of four contemporary Japanese writers: Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana, Yoshimoto Takaaki and Karatani Kojin. Murakami Fuminobu uses the Euro-American theoretical framework of postmodernism, feminism and postcolonialism to examine the work of these writers and also reconsiders the theory itself from the perspective of Japanese literary work. ... Read more

Book Description
Plastic Culture explores the world of toys: why we love them, what they represent, and why there is a growing market for "designer" and "art" toys aimed at adults.In this book, British author Woodrow Phoenix takes a look at our relationship to toys in the twenty-first century, with particular reference to Japan--an exporter of both merchandise and ideas. Plastic toys based on Japanese comics, movies, and TV shows, from Astro Boy, Godzilla, and Gatchaman, to Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, and Pokémon have had a powerful effect on the imaginations and markets of the West, and have kick-started trends in design and pop culture that have crossed from Japan to the West and back East again.Brimming with lavish, full-color illustrations of cult and limited-edition toys, and with an in-depth look at the work of Japanese artists Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara, Hong Kong trendsetters Eric So and Michael Lau, and many other leading players in the world of designer toys, this is a book that will appeal to a wide range of readers: from those interested in the latest trends in contemporary art, to toy collectors, and to anyone with an interest in Japan's influence on contemporary pop culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

now i feel much smarter This book is great
All the cool pictures of toys I can't have are nice. But it's really better than all the other toy books becuase it explains all about toys and how come they are so cool. I know it was for adult level reader but I learned a lot that my friends don't know! It wasn't hard to read and I wish it was twice the size. My only problem is There was not enough Blythe information even though she's on the cover.

Urban Vinyl
Ah, what a wonderful invention plastic is!Nearly limitless possibilities, able to be shaped into almost any form, take on any color, and endure across the centuries. As functional as it is fantastic.Of course, it was only a matter of time before artists took this malleable material into their capable hands, and created something that the inventors of the plastic would have never imagined.In this case, it is toys.

"Plastic Culture: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World" supposes to tell the story of plastic, and its journey from function to fantastic, from commerce to art.Supposes to, because unfortunately the book seems to have fallen victim to a loss of focus, or possibly a conflict between writer and editor.Instead of this history of plastic, and their connection to Japanese culture, what the writer wanted to write about was an artistic movement called Urban Vinyl, originating in Hong Kong and then spreading to Japan and the US.That's his passion, and it shows.

The first half of "Plastic Culture" is rough.It begins with a very brief history of plastic's invention, and its use in toys across the years.There is some brief connection with Japan, introducing the Kaiyodo model makers who perfected the garage kit.There is a half-hearted section on using toys for marketing purposes as mascots, mainly mentioning McDonalds Happy Meal toys and the Olympics. Trying to swing the story back to Japan, Sanrio is covered with their successful line of Hello Kitty figures and other characters.These articles are all short on text, and heavy on pictures, jumping rapidly from section to section without much logic or interest.Its pretty boring, and not very well researched.Then, on page 43, author Woodrow Pheonix begins the section on Urban Vinyl.And it all changes.

The Urban Vinyl movement began in Hong Kong, with a couple of young talents started taking apart GI Joe figures and putting them back together street-style, dressed in the latest Hong Kong fashions and with an attitude that GI Joe never imagined.These two, Michael Lau and Eric So, exhibited their work at galleries, and inspired other artists to see toys as a medium of expression, rather than just playthings.The movement jumped across the water, to Japan with its ingrained toy culture, and then to the US underground comics scene, where artists like Dan Clowes ("Ghost World") and Archer Prewitt ("Sof' Boy") began teaming up with Asian designers to produce unique figures combining all of their talents and visions.Into this comes Takashi Murakami, famed for his Superflat exhibition and one of Japan's greatest modern artists, who sees the concept of creating original works of art in toys, rather than just reproducing existing works in plastic.Yoshitomo Nara, another prominent Japanese modern artist, follows suit.Its fascinating.

If this book had been called "Urban Vinyl," and started with Lau and So in Hong Kong, then been given enough depth to explore the artistic movement completely, it would have been incredible.Woodrow Pheonix has a real passion for this movement, and a deep insightinto what makes it tick and how the pieces fit together. His interviews with Murakami and Nara really made me reconsider the way I see toys, and it was great to here these two giants of modern art put forward such opposing yet complementary viewpoints on Urban Vinyl.

But it wasn't, and so "Plastic Culture" is really only half a great book.That second half is really something, and worth picking up the book for.It makes me want to learn more about Urban Vinyl and hopefully someday Pheonix will get to write the book that he should have.I will be first in line to pick it up. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Often thought of as a rigid ceremony, Japanese tea practice can in fact be creative, critical, performative, or playful depending on social and historical context. This volume illuminates the diverse appeal of Japanese tea culture.

The authors examine tea in its many guises, ranging from a strategy for forging political alliances and gaining cultural capital in the sixteenth century, to a means of constructing private and public narratives in recent decades. They consider the role of the tea practitioner as art connoisseur and arbiter of value, and the function of the tea gathering as an idealized social gathering. They explore how tea practitioners drove cultural innovation by demanding new styles of ceramics in one period, and utensils modeled on imported Chinese pieces in another The book also demonstrates that writing history became an essential aspect of tea culture through the consideration of forms such as diaries, memoranda, manuals, guidebooks, and twentieth-century film.

One of the main goals of the volume is to apply a broad, critical gaze to Japanese tea culture while avoiding the ponderous discourse common in many English-language studies of tea. It aims to de-center the highly mythologized figure of the tea master Sen no Rikyu, while also disputing the fiction of the dominance of aesthetics over politics in tea. As a whole, this book will appeal to students and teachers of Japanese culture and history, tea practitioners, and collectors of ceramics and other arts influenced by traditional Japanese design. Individual essays will appeal to specialists in more narrowly defined fields, such as the art and history of the Edo period, the material culture of sixteenth-century Kyoto, or modern film studies. ... Read more

Book Description
Under pressure of cultural colonization from the West and expanding an imperialist force and cultural colonizer within Asia, Japan occupied a unique space on the international landscape in the years from the beginning of the Meiji Period to the Pacific War. This special issue of positions examines the integral role that visual culture played both in representing and constituting this imperial reality.
The articles, contributed by scholars in the fields of art history, cultural history, and Japanese literature, address the interactions between Japan, the West, and the rest of Asia. Costumes, architecture, tourism propaganda, pottery, and a host of other sources provide the raw materials for Visual Cultures of Japanese Imperialism, and the incisive essays built from these sources will change readers&rsquo; understanding of the visual culture(s) of imperialism.

Contributors. Kim Brandt, Leo Ching, Carol Ann Christ, Christine Guth, Jordan Sand, Gennifer Weisenfeld, Cherie Wendelken ... Read more

Book Description
Globalization is usually thought of as the worldwide spread of Western—particularly American—popular culture. Yet if one nation stands out in the dissemination of pop culture in East and Southeast Asia, it is Japan. Pokémon, anime, pop music, television dramas such as Tokyo Love Story and Long Vacation—the export of Japanese media and culture is big business. In Recentering Globalization, Koichi Iwabuchi explores how Japanese popular culture circulates in Asia. He situates the rise of Japan&rsquo;s cultural power in light of decentering globalization processes and demonstrates how Japan&rsquo;s extensive cultural interactions with the other parts of Asia complicate its sense of being "in but above" or "similar but superior to" the region.

Iwabuchi has conducted extensive interviews with producers, promoters, and consumers of popular culture in Japan and East Asia. Drawing upon this research, he analyzes Japan&rsquo;s "localizing" strategy of repackaging Western pop culture for Asian consumption and the ways Japanese popular culture arouses regional cultural resonances. He considers how transnational cultural flows are experienced differently in various geographic areas by looking at bilateral cultural flows in East Asia. He shows how Japanese popular music and television dramas are promoted and understood in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and how "Asian" popular culture (especially Hong Kong&rsquo;s) is received in Japan.

Rich in empirical detail and theoretical insight, Recentering Globalization is a significant contribution to thinking about cultural globalization and transnationalism, particularly in the context of East Asian cultural studies.
... Read more