The Japan Society Review

Ken Tadashi Oshima 320 pp., 220 illustrations, notes, glossary, bibliography and index ISBN 978-0-298944-0, University of Washington Press, 2010 £46. Professor Oshima, the author of this book, is associate professor of architecture at the University of Washington and was a research fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in […]

By Yuki Sumner This survey of new architecture in Japan was introduced at a launching party at Daiwa House on 24 March 2011 with talks by Yuki and Edmund Sumner. The book features buildings by well known Japanese architects such as [...] Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

Ellis Tinios British Museum Press, 2010 143 pages including index numerous illustrations in colour ISBN 978-0-7141-2453-7, £14.99. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi The British Museum has an outstanding collection of Japanese prints (ukiyo-e). This book draws on the Museum’s extensive holdings and is an introduction to the Japanese prints in the Museum. In choosing the […]

Translated by Carl Freire Routledge, 2010 214 pages, ISBN: 978-0-415-55688-0 (Hardback), £75.00 Review by Sean Curtin In this impressive study Yu Uchiyama meticulously dissects the highly successful and by Japanese standards long lived administration of Junichiro Koizumi (26 April 2001 – 26 September 2006). Since stepping down from office, no Japanese prime minister has lasted […]

By Yu Uchiyama In this impressive study Yu Uchiyama meticulously dissects the highly successful and by Japanese standards long lived administration of Junichiro Koizumi (26 April 2001 – 26 September 2006). Since stepping down [...]

So Lovely A Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers, by Donald Keene. Columbia University Press, 2010, 216 pages including index, ISBN 978-0-231-15146-7. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi.

Dr A.M. Kanter’s Collection Laura Bordignon Antique Collectors’ Club pages 302 coplously illustrated with colour plates ISBN 978-1-85149-609-9 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi Laura Bordignon is an antique dealer who has developed a close interest in the arts and crafts of the Meiji era. Dr Kanter has collected many fine pieces of ivory carvings made […]

Watching the river flowing under Ochanomizu Bridge, we read as Akaki (our narrator) muses on bridges mentioned in the stories of Kafu, and also that of Gogol, another of his favourite authors. He’s on the bridge waiting to meet a man called Yamakawa, we follow his thoughts on Gogol and that in his student days he had a khaki overcoat, where is it now?

The Year of No Money in Tokyo, by Wayne Lionel Aponte, Watkins and McKay, 2009, 168 pages, ISBN 0982055005. Review by William Farr.

My Song Story in My Life – The Youth of the Showa Era [わが人生の歌がたり 昭和の青春], by Hiroyuki Itsuki [五木寛之], Kadokawa Shoten, 2008, 206 pages, ISBN: 978-4-04-883994-5. Reviewed by Mikihiro Maeda.