Japanese Culture Message Board

Welcome to the group! I'm looking forward to seeing what interests we have in common, and especially to finding out what books we especially love. There's so much out there!

So here I am, thanks to chamekke's invite. My specific interests are textiles, ukiyo-e, bookbinding and papermaking, and Japanese arts and crafts in general. I'm looking forward with great anticipation to an exhibit of Japanese bamboo art opening Saturday at the Chicago Cultural Center!

Thank you for the invitation. As for interests . . . er, not among the culturally elevated type? I'm honestly not trying to win the More Scurrilous Manga competition; they just seem to accumulate. Magically. Like dust bunnies. I wasn't aware of the full extent of this problem until I began to list them on LT.

Thank you for the invitation. Interests... I like nearly all types of art - except contemporary art. I'm particularly fond of ukiyo-e, folding screens, kimono and folding fans. I read/collect manga, but don't watch much anime. One of the books I'm reading right now is The World Turned Upside Down: Medieval Japanese Society - a fascinating look at Japan from about the mid-1100s to the 1600s.

I'm so pleased to find a Japanese culture group here at Library Thing!

I'm interested in virtually all aspects of Japanese culture, with particularly strong interests in Japanese literature, folklore, cinema (especially the films of Ozu and Mizoguchi), dance, traditional music, theater, art, textiles, crafts and cuisine. I also enjoy Japanese pop culture, especially shoujo anime and manga and other pop culture artifacts aimed specifically at girls.

I collect netsuke, inryo and fans (as well as the shoujo items mentioned above). I'm just beginning to think about investing in woodblock prints (my favorite artist is Yoshitoshi Taiso). I hope someday to collect textiles when I have more room!

I hope you don't mind me inviting myself, but I saw that I shared many of your shared books! I love a broad cross-section of books about Japan and Japanese literature, and I am currently angling for a return trip to Japan in the next few years. I once spoke a bit of Japanese, but now I am reduced to a few phrases - a definate case of 'use it or lose it'.
I look forward to discovering more interesting books.

Hi Chamekke,

I was hoping there would be a Japan group!!
I also like just about anything Japanese. I have a collection of old Tuttle books. I also do martial arts. My books are both about Japan and in Japanese. I don't have all the Japanese ones in yet. LibraryThing still doesn't quite know what to do with them. I have a lot of cookbooks from when I lived in Japan many years ago. Okay, basically I am just a sucker for anything Japanese.

Hi Chamekke,

I was hoping there would be a Japan group!!
I also like just about anything Japanese. I have a collection of old Tuttle books. I also do martial arts. My books are both about Japan and in Japanese. I don't have all the Japanese ones in yet. LibraryThing still doesn't quite know what to do with them. I have a lot of cookbooks from when I lived in Japan many years ago. Okay, basically I am just a sucker for anything Japanese.

Megami, welcome! I'm delighted that you joined! When I created the group, I looked up a handful of people who happened to have lots of books tagged Japan or Japanese Culture, and was hoping to get to some of the more specialized tags (e.g. manga), but then... well, it was time to get back to work :-) I am thrilled that you took the initiative.

Hi hrabbit,

Welcome! I'm a sucker for anything Japanese, too. Isn't it wonderful?

I'm curious about your old Tuttle books. Which ones do you like the most, and why? I know they have some amazing titles, but since I seldom have a chance to see them in real life, I'm never sure whether to take the plunge and order them unread. So, a personal testimony or two would be most welcome.

As for the UTF-8 problem with Japanese characters, I'm hoping and praying that Chris (or was it Christopher?) finds a solution soon. I've corrected some of my Kanji/kana titles as many as three times, and they're still hooped. It's frustrating, especially as I have Japanese-speaking friends that I'd like to point in LT's direction, mainly for booksharing purposes. But if they can't read the titles...!

Lilithcat, I share with you a love of Japanese textiles (and arts and crafts in general). And if you'd like to let us know what you think of the Japanese bamboo art exhibit in Chicago, I for one would love to read about it.

Welcome, mikeneko. As far as I'm concerned, manga are just as much part of Japanese culture as tea ceremony (in contemporary society, arguably much more so!). I don't own much beyond the bilingual Tale of Genji and the issue of Ranma 1/2 with the "Martial Arts Tea Ceremony" story :-) ... but I'd be happy to hear more about which manga you especially enjoy, if you'd like to share that. After all, for those of us who are new to the manga world - where to start? It's overwhelming!

Hi marietherese,

It sounds as though you and I have a lot of overlapping interests! In fact I have the opposite problem - more textiles than there is room (or display area) for them. Must begin to emphasize quality over quantity... although given the beauty of Japanese textiles in general, that's easier said than done!

Thanks for the invitation to join the group. I read Japanese literature in translation, and have a number of books on culture, food, and architecture. My parents lived in Japan for many years and it was a huge part of my upbringing.

Thanks for the invitation to join the group. I read Japanese literature in translation, and have a number of books on culture, food, and architecture. My parents lived in Japan for many years and it was a huge part of my upbringing.

Hello rm6532,

A little earlier, when I was reading the Google group for LibraryThing, I saw the following message from Andrew: "Yup Abby and Tim have both mentioned they've got plans for threaded messages." So that's in the works - and given how enthusiastically people are posting at the moment, I'm sure it's probably got some priority.

Re: the Japanese books group idea, I assumed from the beginning some people WILL eventually want to create some finer-grained groups, such as Japanese literature. Let's face it - Japanese Culture is a pretty vast umbrella, incorporating as it does both Heian literature and Gothic Lolita. Yesterday a Manga group appeared, not long after I created this one, so the manga enthusiasts in this group may well have most of their manga-related discussions over there. (Although I hope they remain members here!) I may create a Chanoyu (tea ceremony) group at some point, if I can be sure that other people might actually participate. And I know there are plenty of people specifically interested in kimono and textiles.

So, this may become a good jumping-off point for many. But I hope it will also remain a place where we can share our interests in Japanese culture in a general way at least.

About Japanese titles: I had originally entered my works in both Kanji and (where I could be sure of it) the equivalent in Romaji. The Romaji is uncorrupted, whereas the Kanji... well, you know. But I'm greedy; I want to have BOTH. I have gaijin friends who, like me, can't read Kanji and who need the Romaji to identify the title; and I have Japanese friends who find it far, far easier to read the Kanji. (I like to share my books with my Chanoyu friends, and some of them speak/read English only with great difficulty.) This is one reason I've been so frustrated by the UTF-8 corruption.

Lastly - I haven't read much Japanese fiction, even in translation, but am eager to start. Can you recommend one or two titles that you think are particularly outstanding? Available in English translation, that is?

chamekke: "I'd be happy to hear more about which manga you especially enjoy, if you'd like to share that."

Hazukashii desukedo . . . Manga are (broadly) divided into gender, age, and interest categories, hence shounen, seinen, shoujo, etc. So, though I do have a variety of weird stuff on the premises (including a complete set of Ranma 1/2), my most-used manga tag is "BL" (i.e., boizu rabu).

So, um, unless you are a tea ceremony completist, who won't mind that the proceedings get interrupted for boy-on-boy action . . . Well, actually, that's not a hypothetical; I do happen to have one like that. *cough*

At any rate, I'm not inputing anything else in Japanese until the UTF-8 issues are resolved in some permanent fashion. Using only romaji would be of zero use to me. (I've been using the romaji version of the author's name as the tag and placing the romaji title in the comments field.) I'm also not going to point anyone else to LT. The angst potential here is simply too high.

rm6532, I am passionately interested in Japanese literature and would welcome discussing it, either here or in a more focused group.

I currently have 57 books in my catalog tagged "Japanese literature" but I own more (haven't yet entered my entire library as much of it is in boxes or otherwise inaccessible) and have read far more than I own. It was first stumbling across Kawabata as a young teen idly browsing the shelves of a local bookstore that brought the beauties of Japanese culture to my attention and I've never lost my interest in all forms of Japanese literature.

I took a couple of years of Japanese in college but, as far as reading goes, that's not enough to do more than make my way haltingly through manga. So it's translations for me, though I like consulting the original text when I can, especially for poetry. If Japanese isn't your native language, I really admire your ability to read Murakami in the original language. Wow!

Oh shoot! I'm supposed to use those touchstone things when I reference an author (or title), aren't I? So, just pretend I posted Kawabata and Murakami please.

Has anyone here read The Teahouse of the August Moon by Vern Sneider? I came across it in the library the other day, and I'm going to read it soon. Just wondering if anyone had read it, and what thoughts you had. :)

Hey there all. Anyone read the american translation of Out? That's the first japanse novel i have read and am waiting for other works of hers to be translated but it looks like i will have to wait unbtil next year. Out is a hard novel to stomach and I have a friend who just couldn't take reading it due to how graphic it is but i really enjoyed it. Any recommendations on on translated authors similar to Kirino that i might enjoy?

I became interested in Japan after joining a haiku writing society in the late 1970s. Later my interests expanded to tanka, woodblock printing, brush painting, aesthetic terms (e.g. wabi, sabi, shibui, bokeh, etc.) textiles, ceramics, metalwork, woodwork, all sorts of mingei, plus literature and history. Thanks to a very kind invitation I joined this group. I am so new I didn't know that Librarything HAD groups! I have only begun to enter my books and have lots more, particularly on woodblock printing artists and Japanese design. I am looking forward to some useful discussions and learning from each other. June

Welcome, jhhymas. I am looking forward to learning more about your interests. I am passionate about Japanese ceramics and that is beginning to spill across into metalwork as well! So far I have only a small number of books about ceramics, and nothing specific to metalwork (except for the Tetsubin book, that is). Do you know a good place to start on that?

As for LT Groups, this feature is very new... perhaps 48 hours old at the most! But it's proven to be incredibly popular, hence the plethora of groups. I think it's very exciting.

Hullo. :)) Am interested about Japan in general and like to read lots of manga and watch anime. :) I sorta have a thing for kimonos and like to experiment with Japanese dishes I've never tried before. :) Haven't got that much Japanese literature or literature about Japan yet, except for mangas. :) Hope that'll change in the future, would be pleased to hear some recommendations on what Japanese literature to read? :)

Hi deiann! It sounds like you have a lot in common with many of the people here. Myself, I'm relatively new to manga, and almost all the anime I've seen are Studio Ghibli ones - but kimonos are a passion!

marietherese, several people have mentioned that they'd be interested in recommendations and discussions of Japanese literature. Of course you're free to create a separate group if you wish, but you are also very welcome to discuss the topic in more depth here. Would you maybe like to mention 2 or 3 of your favourite works of Japanese literature, and tell why you love them so much?

Japanese literature question, please!

Are there any English translations available of Yasushi Inoue's novel Hongakubo ibun?

This is the novel that was adapted into a film in 1989, namely Sen no Rikyu (a.k.a. Death of a Tea Master, a.k.a. Sen no Rikyu: Honkakubo's Student Writings).

I have quite a few novels, etc. from Japanese authors. It's always hard to pick out a favorite, but The Woman in the Dunes would certainly be on my list of favorites.
I was also impressed by the Sea of Fertility tetrology by Mishima (that is: Spring Snow; Runaway Horses; The Temple of Dawn; and The Decay of the Angel. After plowing through four rather lengthy novels, the twist at the end left me questioning my own sense of reality.
Anything by Tanizaki or Kawabata is worth reading at least two or three times.
I just love the New Directions edition of The Classic Noh Theater of Japan translated by none other than Ezra Pound.
And finally (though not a novel), I treasure the Tuttle edition of The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo.

Douglas

"In the end, only kindness matters."

chamekke wrote: "marietherese, several people have mentioned that they'd be interested in recommendations and discussions of Japanese literature. Of course you're free to create a separate group if you wish, but you are also very welcome to discuss the topic in more depth here."

Sorry not to respond to this sooner-busy weekend! It seems that we have a very good group here, so I see no need to create a separate literature group at this point.

doogiewray has mentioned some of the most important Japanese writers of the last century, and one really can't go wrong with most anything by Kawabata, Tanizaki, or Mishima translated into English. To my mind, Kawabata (my personal favorite) is the most "Japanese" of these three authors, certainly the one who, as a mature writer, drew the most deeply on Japanese literary tradition. His work is subtle, lyrical, often episodic (some say formless) and always suffused with a gentle melancholy. His books Snow Country and The Sound of the Mountain are probably his best and best-known completed works.

Tanizaki was a far more flamboyant and overall more versatile writer. In Japan, his long novel Sasameyuki, (generally translated as the The Makioka Sisters) is deservedly well-loved. Western readers have embraced his more witty, outrageous and erotic work, like The Key and Diary of a Mad Old Man. After Sasemeyuki, I'd probably recommend Some Prefer Nettles myself.

Soseki was the great novelist of the Meiji era. Kokoro, originally serialized in Asahi Shimbun, is a true classic. His comic novel Botchan remains hugely popular in Japan.

Mori Ogai is another major novelist of the Meiji era.

Akutagawa Ryunosuke is considered the "father of the Japanese short story". His story 'In a Grove' is the basis for the film 'Rashomon' (which is really confusing because he also wrote a quite different story called Rashomon). His horror and supernatural fiction is superb-Hell Screen remains one of the most disturbing things I have ever read.

The greatest poet of the modern period was probably Masaoka Shiki. He revitalized the old form, waka, rechristening it as tanka and he helped modernize haiku, insisting it reflect reality.

Of the premodern period, the following are essential (I'm assuming you're already familiar with Sei Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu)

The Manyoshu is a great anthology of some of the earliest Japanese poetry, most of it dating from the 8th century.

The Heike Monogatari is a classic medieval Japanese war saga, detailing the tragic decline and downfall of the Heike.

Saikaku's Life of an Amorous Woman and Five Women who Loved Love are typical of his entertaining, slightly erotic fiction. The Great Mirror of Male Love is another of his best known works. He was also a prolific poet.

Matsuo Basho is probably the best-known poet of the premodern period. Two other great poets of the Edo era are Buson and Issa.

Chikamatsu is probably Japan's greatest dramatist. His play 'The Love Suicides at Amijima' is as famous as 'Romeo and Juliet' in the West.

And by now (whew! Finally!) we've circled back round again to the modern period and I'll give the floor to someone else and their recommendations for classic Japanese literature

Hi rm6532,

I read books Japanese books in Japanese. I had to start doing this because back in the late seventies when I was living in Kyoto, books in English were too expensive to buy and I was going nuts not being able to read! There are a few authors who are good starting points for practicing reading. The best by far is Hiraiwa Yumie. She writes two kinds of books--historical novels and chick lit (or rather stories that would make a good Japanese drama). The chick lit-ish stuff is very easy reading as it has plenty of dialogue and her sentence structure is simple. I'd look for some of her older works. If you're interested, I will post some specific suggestions. I basically learned to read Japanese novels by reading her books. They almost always involve a very sweet main character that suffers from devious people around her. Simple, but you get some taste of Japanese everyday culture of those times. If you've ever watched a Japanese drama on tv, well, it is similar.
Enough said.. time for breakfast! Wish it was miso soup and grilled fish!!

I picked up a couple of nice books at the Newberry Library book sale today, Floral Art of Japan and Textiles and Lacquer (from the Pageant of Japanese Art series). Being older books, the illustrations are all black-and-white, and those not the best, so I've passed them up in used book stores. But at "everything half of the last day of the sale" prices, they weren't to be missed today!

chamekke asked: "Are there any English translations available of Yasushi Inoue's novel Hongakubo ibun?"

You know, I don't think there are. I searched Bookfinder, Biblio, etc and came up with a blank. If you can read French, there is a translation into that language: http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/2253933244/

marietherese, thank you so much for checking on an English translation of Hongakubo ibun. Too bad there doesn't seem to be one, but I'm glad to learn that there's one in French, Le maître de thé. Thank you for the publication details! With those in hand, it may be possible to order it via interlibrary loan through my public library. As francophone (French-Canadian) libraries are on the system too, who knows - perhaps they'll find it for me!

Hello - I'm a collector of many types of fiction and am just starting to get to know Oe and Abe. I'm posting to say that the antiquarian bookshop I work for has just released its new online catalogue of Japanese and Asian art, literature, history and scholarly texts, with many older ehon and painting albums. Don't know if this would interest any collectors here but if you leave me a message on my page I'll send you the URL. Hope this is okay to mention here. We have some wonderful new books of Japanese postwar photography as well.

Minasama,
Kore kara, yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

mikeneko-sama, i left my manga of the type you mention in japan -- once i got through to tsukikage ken (with the kimoned beauty whose nexus make x's when she walks) and he confessed his model was a Western woman! Anyway, for Japanese culture, i recommend Genten Papa (減点パパsee my booklist)over anything i have seen translated.

rm6532(老後Sunny?)sama. Re. Threads. Japanese have bbs pages that are perfect in that respect and also egalitarion, while here in the West, all the software-programmer/web-designer's energy goes into making blogs which are authoritarian by nature. to omoimasenka?

lesliej-sama. Culture, Food and architecture. You will like my books. For the food, how about sea cucumber? Having problems with hagotae ( 歯答え）i found the professional term mouthfeel while writing Rise, Ye Sea Slugs! There is a chapter of about 50 pages on architecture in Topsy-turvy 1585. I think the latter book has only a few dozen readers to date, so if you buy and read it, you will have the author's attention! (i like feedback)

marietherese-sama You write of wanting to see the Japanese poetry you read in the original. There are 7000 ku and not a few waka, tanka, kyouka and senryuu, almost all with the original japanese (much of that as found in anthologies and not standardized as blyth did) and pronunc. in the four haiku-related books i have published since 2003. Only one person in LibraryThing has one book of mine so far, so you may not have heard of them. Please check out my booklist, for i included my books as i did not yet have the author's page i just got but have yet to work on, or visit paraverse.org.. As far as Shiki goes, what he said and what he did with his ku are not always the same. I find he wrote many ku expressing likes and dislikes and remarkable for the use of his powerful imagination -- there are hundreds of his ku in my books. About ten on sea cucumber alone, most of which show him as something i would call an ideaman.

lilith-cat-sama Is your newberry the watermelon capital of the world? If so, i am there. but i doubt such books would be in that library . . .

seishonagon-sama, i like seishonagon so much i even have an english actress's attempt at a monowatsukushi and the japanese translation of jacqueline pigeot's book about it. Perhaps i will start a monowatsukushi as a topic and as a list for the purpose of making a book... or are you already doing such things?

h-rabbit-sama one of my favorite light enka is miyako harumi's "Ara Echi!" That "h?!"

chamekke-sama why do people over here all know inoue yasushi but rarely inoue hisashi? (i think i know, but can't help asking). Love your name.

敬愚

Any of those haiku about 白海鼠 / Albino Sea Slugs for White Day?

Edited to add English language version of story.

393939, MMcM様!
There is a page or so somewhere among the Sundry Sea Slugs comprising the last quarter of the book that treats albino sea slugs as omen both in japan and korea, but if you mean for giri-choko, i can't say i ever saw or heard of it -- i do think namako tastes better than that damn white chocolate -- please tell me more and it will find its way into the next edition, probably within this year!
よろしく！

Really all I know is the linked story that showed up on Google News yesterday. I guess the enterprising museum director timed the exhibit for then. Maybe next year an enterprising chocolatier will have okaeshi. (I'll trust you on the taste; I'm a vegetarian.)

As i was working on a paraverse of ikkyu's 女陰, i suddenly thought of what i wrote above and having the giri-choco wrong for that is what girls give out to all the guys in the company and was going to edit my letter, and also wonder if you were pulling my third leg with the story . . . but, hey, i'll go googling.
just yesterday, william scott wilson (do you know his translations?) told me all the weathermen in japan are bowing out apologies for missing the cherry blossom date by weeks and screwing up spring tourism -- i mention the sakurazensen in cherry blossom epiphany, but this was new news to me = but that book is already the pod limit (740 pp) so i must divide and multiply it to add anything without subtracting something else.

I just went to a tea ceremony in San Francisco last week, and it was beautiful, and very calming, especially since I had just finished my last final. I would highly reccomend it.

> 44

I love tea ceremony too! Was that your first experience of it? If so, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much.

(By the way, you might enjoy taking a peek at the LT group Chadou, the Way of Tea.)

It was my first experience of it, I went with some people from my Japanese class, and it was different from what I thought it was going to be. I thought that everyone was going to be strict, but they were really nice and took the time to explain everything to the people there and answer questions.

Yes, there's a common misconception that tea ceremony is terribly serious and uncomfortably formal. However, the basic motivation of the host is always to put the guests at ease and to make their time in the tearoom an enjoyable one. Sure, there are some tea events that are a little more solemn and where a particular protocol is followed by the practitioners; but even at such times, the point is always for host and guests to have a good time together.

I remember when my husband first visited the tearoom at the invitation of my tea sensei (teacher). He was terribly nervous about doing something wrong, and was unable to feel at ease ... until my tea sensei started chatting about soccer and the World Cup! At that point he finally relaxed and was able to have some fun, swapping opinions about teams and players with unselfconscious abandon. Now, while I'm pretty sure you won't find anything about soccer in any of the tea manuals, I know that my teacher's heart was 100% in harmony with her guest, which is basically the state that all tea practitioners are aiming for. It was lovely to see.

One of my PhD students needs a book (in English, of course!) that explains the Japanese conception of honor and shame in terms a Westerner can understand. The particular contexts in which she is interested are those of crime and punishment. All suggestions will be gratefully received.

Hi
I've just joined the group. I've always had a fascination with Asian culture and I did a degree in Japanese. I'm reviving my interest now and relearning the forgotten kanji. Yep, I like the tea ceremony too :) Can't find kuki-cha anywhere though!

Tina

One of my PhD students needs a book (in English, of course!) that explains the Japanese conception of honor and shame in terms a Westerner can understand.

appaloosaman, I don't know of any such book myself. However, if I were in your situation, I would look up any LT members that had significant collections on Japanese sociology and ask them to point you to something good. Most Japan enthusiasts are not yet members of this group (snif!) and won't see your appeal here... so a more focused approach is likelier to be successful.

I'm interested in Japanese culture and world cultures generally. I didn't realise how many books I had to do with Japan until I put them on library thing!
Things that I'm particularly interest me are manga/anime, heian literature especially the diaries of court ladies and poetic diaries, things that are kawaii like hello kitty, geisha, japanese clothing and like I said just general japanese stuff!

Hello. Seems I entered late into the thread! Please indulge me as I answer the original question...

My family history is sort of wrapped up in Japan. My mother was a Russian whose family got stuck in Yokohama and Karizawa for the duration of the war before she could make it to the States in '46.

I was an exchange student in Japan the summer of '87, in Fukui.

My interests are Japanese popular culture, Japanese-American popular culture (a la Giant Robot Magazine), Japanese history (especially the 20th century), 20th century Japanese literature, Japanese rock/heavy metal, organized crime, The Floating World, and the more idiosyncratic corners of Japanese politics.

Hi - I just joined the group so I wanted to introduce myself here.

I'm currently getting a PhD in modern Japanese literature and intend to become a university librarian specializing in Asian-language materials.

I did my undergrad in history, specializing in Japan, and computer science - yes, I'm a nerd. :) I started off with Heian literature and history but it looks like I am going to end up doing my research in the Meiji period, which I find particularly interesting and crazy. I love the moustaches of the Meiji writers. :D

I think my original interest in Japan was in anime/manga art (rather than actually following the series closely) and video games, but I've moved on from there to literature, history, and cultural studies (by which I mean thinking critically about the construction of "culture" and "tradition"). In a less serious vein, I also love fashion, old buildings, Kyushu, street food, curry, and things eaten at a counter, and contemporary commentators like Sakai Junko.

I lived in Fukuoka as a JET Programme participant from 2003-2004 and am going back to Japan to study at the Inter-University Center in Yokohama in September.

Minasan, yoroshiku ne :D

Hallo members;
I am a novice Japanese-English technical translator, hoping to have conversations with you and improve my English skills. I have come here because probably I may give you some information as for Japanese culture in return. But I have not studied anything relates to Japan, so my knowledge is just as non-professional, ordinaly ones.

pommefritz-san, yoroshiku ne. Although I have never been to Yokohama, the city is nice to live, I have heard.

appaloosaman-san, have you already introduced The Chrysanthemum and the Sword to him/her by Ruth Benedict in 1946? It is said that the book well analysed Japanese mentality, and I remember that one of the keywards in this book should be shame. But I myself felt the book a little outdated, probably because of the difficult writing style of the translatated version.

Welcom, Harukichi-San!

You mention your intent to improve English skills. Good luck with that. Good luck with finding a comfortable place to use them here on LibThing. I too am new here and have found that there are many places on LibThing, like this thread, where there is only occasional activity.

I have a copy of Chyrsanthemum and the Sword, but have never read it. I noticed just a few days ago while looking for a book in my garage, or in this case my 倉.

It's surprising that this book, after over 50 years still maintains so much respect in considering "contemporary" Japan. It's amazing how much changes have taken place in Japan in the past 50 years.

Do you currently live in Japan? In which city?

-- Gerry

A Dormant Message Board?! Oh, my!

The problem with Benedict's mostly good bk is that guilt and sin are conflated and that problem grows in the japanese translation. Do give it a read gscottmoore if you haven;t yet. Benedict also wrote re Bali during the war and that is worth a read. & i hate seeing bks on imperialism this and that read by students who have not yet read her patterns of culture. She also was honest in interviews re liking some cultures more than others and why that was so -- so she was not just a biggun of relativism but if finding objective ways to try to appreciate why we find some cultures nicer than others

anyway -- my next bk out soon englishes 2000 hyperlogical comic 31-mora (short syllable) japanese poems called kyoka. If you hate ideas in poetry, avoid MAD IN TRANSLATION. If you love them and would like to see a positive take on rikkutsu (usually put down) in japan you will love it. So far, the only real intro to kyoka in english has been via art books (the surimono) but that covers only early 19c mad poems. In Japan the emphasis is on Tenmei (late 18c) poems only. My favorite are the Skelton and Heywood-like 16 and 17c mad poets who no one to my knowledge has championed yet.