KJ
Reviews
Every
issue of Kyoto Journal features a diverse selection of reviews..
If you'd like to recommend an Asia-related book, CD, DVD or other media,
please contact us at reviews[at]kyotojournal.org
At
present this is mostly just a list of the reviews we have published,
back to #46. As time allows, we hope to upload most of the reviews themselves,
as a freely available resource, and to go further back in time to earlier
issues. Patience, please...
74
Shadow of the Silk Road, by Colin Thubron— James Dalglish (plus a short interview with the author, July 2008)
Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present, by Christopher I. Beckwith— Stephen Dodson
Did Marco Polo Go to China?, by Frances Wood , Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World, by John Larner, Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino— Ken Rodgers
Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century, by Richard C. Foltz— Preston L. Houser
The Silk Road: Art and History, by Jonathon Tucker— Winnie Shiraishi
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, by Paul Theroux— Rasoul Sorkhabi
73
After the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan, by
Thomas Daniell – Susan Pavloska Machiya Revival in Kyoto, Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration,
Kyoto – John Einarsen
Art Space Tokyo: An Intimate Guide to the Tokyo Art World, Ashley
Rawlings – John Einarsen Buddha or Bust: In Search of Truth, Meaning, Happiness and the Man
Who Found Them All, Perry
Garfinkel – Rasoul Sorkhabi
Eat Sleep Sit: My Year at Japan's Most Rigorous Zen Temple,
Kaoru Nonomura – John Einarsen
Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By, Leza Lowitz – Ted Taylor
Francis Haar: A Lifetime of Images, Ed Tom Haar – Joseph Cronin
Householders: The Reizei Family in Japanese History, Steven
D. Carter – William J. Higginson Steles, Victor Segalen, trans Timothy Billings & Christopher
Bush – David Cozy
Facing the Bridge, Tawada Yoko, trans Margaret Mitsutani – Derick Mattern
Bayon Moon, Morimoto Kikuo – Wai Yee
The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian Culture, History and Identity,
Amartya Sen – Rasoul Sorkhabi
Passage Through India: An Illustrated Edition, Gary Snyder – John Brandi
72
Maps
of Reconciliation – Literature and the Ethical Imagination,
ed. Frank Stewart & Barry Lopez, Manoa – Vinita Ramani Mohan
Beyond National Egoism: the Road to a Nation for International Peace
and the Environment, Shohei Nomura – Kimberly Hughes
Field of Spears: the Last
Mission of the Jordan Crew, Gregory Hadley –
Ken Rodgers
An American in Korea: Two Decades of Photography, by Drayton S.
Hamilton – Robert J. Fouser
Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution, David
R. Loy – David Cozy
Japanese Iraq War Documentaries – Anastasia Fedorova
Tengu, written & directed by Roger Walch – Susan Pavlovska
Japanese Constitution Cinema – Akamoto Mariko
Making Forest of Bliss: Intention, Circumstance and Chance in Nonfiction
Film, Robert Gardner & Akos Oster – Christal Whelan
71
Online
Reviews
by Lauren W. Deutsch:
The Tea Ceremony and Women's
Empowerment in Modern Japan: Bodies Re-presenting the Past,
and
Japanese Tea Culture: Art History and Practice,
Etsuko Kato; Morgan Pitelka, ed.
The Korean Way of
Tea: An Introductory Guide, Brother Anthony of Taizé
and Hong Kyeong-Hee
The Book of Tea, Okakura Kakuzo and Liquid
Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, Beatrice
Hohenegger
Tea and Tourism:
Tourists, Traditions and Transformations
edited by Lee Joliffe
Delamu
directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang.
70
Hail
the Hailstone Poets: Seasons of the Gods, ed. Stephen Henry
Gill, Duro Jaiye, Hisahi Miyazaki, Jane Wieman – Robert MacLean
Geisha Tradition: Hannari – Geisha Modern Dir. Sohara
Miyuki, Sakura Productions – Sally McLaren
Love's Binding Force: Simmering Away, Songs from the Kanginshu,
trans. Yasuhiko Moriguchi & David Jenkins, White Pine Press –
Gregory Dunne
Rocking to the Flow: Ueji, the Genius of Water & Stone,
Kyoto Tsuinsha – Yamashita Masahiro (trans. Eric Luong)
69
A
History of Japanese Body-Suit Tattooing, Mark Posden & Marco
Bratt, reviewed by Dustin Leavitt
Haiku Humor, Wit and Folly in Japanese Poems and Prints, Stephen
Addisswith Fumuko Y. Yamamoto and Akira Y. Yamamoto, reviewed by William
J. Higginson
For Gods, Ghosts & Ancestors, Janet Lee Scott, reviewed
by Lauren W. Deutsch
Plastic Culture: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World, reviewed
by Eric Luong
JAPANAMERICA: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the U.S.,
Roland Kelts, reviewed by Ken Rodgers
The Politics of Nanjing: An Impartial Investigation, Kitamura
Minoru (trans. By Hal Gold), reviewed by Russel Moses
Amongst White Clouds; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, ...and
Spring; Why Has Bodhidarma Left For the East?, reviewed by Lauren
W. Deutsch (See also online feature interview
with Edward A. Burger, director of Amongst White Clouds)
Women of the Way: Discovering 2,000 Years of Buddhist Wisdom,
Sallie Tisdale, reviewed by Lauren E. Bean
Losing Kei, Suzanne Kamata, reviewed by Colleen Shiels
The Magical Butterfly and Other Stories, Sherry Nakanishi,
reviewed by Justin Ellis
Shadow of the Silk Road, Colin Thubron, reviewed by James Dalglish
68
Designing Design, Kenya Hara, reviewed by JoAnn Greco
Breaking Open Japan, George Feifer reviewed by James Dalglish
Princess Masako, Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, Ben
Hills, reviewed by Justine Bornstein
All About China (DVD), Andy Ferguson / Red Pine, reviewed by
Stewart Wachs
Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political
Space, Wu Hung, reviewed by Russell Leigh Moses
While There is Light, Tariq Mehmood, reviewed
by Deidre May
The Ocean in the Closet, Yuko Taniguchi, reviewed by Colleen
Sheils
One Chrysanthemum, Joan Itoh Burk, reviewed by Lynda Grace
Philippsen
Jia, a novel of North Korea, Hyejin Kim, reviewed by Nina Melendez
Ibarra
67
A Changing Shanghai: Through the Lens of an Ordinary Citizen,
by Xu Xixian & Xu Jianrong – John Einarsen
Leaving Mother Lake, by Namu and Christine Mathieu –
John Einarsen
Reiki’s Birthplace: A Guide to Kurama Mountain by Jessica
A. Miller – Deidre May
Maninbo (Ten Thousand Lives) by Ko Un, translated by Brother
Anthony of Taize, Young Moo-Im and Gary Gach.
Cherry Blossom Epiphany: The Poetry and Philosophy of a Flowering
Tree, by robin d. gill – Harold Wright
Enso: Zen Circles of Enlightenment, by Audrey Yoshiko Seo –
Eric Luong
A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki, by Michael Goldberg – Preston Houser
Korea Witness: 135 Years
of War, Crisis and News in the Land of the Morning Calm,
ed. Donald Kirk & Choe Sang Hun, Eric Johnston
Japan’s Contested War Memories: The “Memory Rifts”
in Historical Consciousness of World War Two, by Philip A. Seaton
– Charlie Canning
Koryo Saram, The Unreliable People, directed by Y.David Chung
– Michael Rank
66
Radio Pyongyang: Commie Funk
and Agit Pop from the Hermit Kingdom,
and
Guitars of the Golden Triangle: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar
(music CDs) – Lauren Deutsch
Welcome to Dongmakgol (DVD) – Jonas Hult
The Teahouse Fire,
by Ellis Avery – Susan Pavlovska
Kyoto: A Cultural & Literary
History, by John Dougill – Preston Houser
Zen Gardens, by Wall Matthews (music CD) – Ted Taylor
Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop,
by Emma Larkin – Roy Hamric
Rumi's Daughter, by Muriel Maufroy – Rasoul Sorkhabi
The Smell of Rust, haiku by Margaret Chula – Penny Harter
In the Time of Madness, by Richard Lloyd Parry – Justin
Ellis
Starfish Hotel, by John Williams – Benjamin Freedland
Buffalo Boy and Geronimo, by James Janko – Ellis Avery
Power Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life,
by Chris Kohler – Ken Rodgers
65
The Hidden Gardens of Kyoto – Photographs by Mizuno Katsuhiko,
text by Ono Masaaki – John Einarsen
Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution & Hope, by Shirin
Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni – Rasoul Sorkhabi
The Buddha and the Terrorist:
The Story of Angulimala, by Satish Kumar – Ted
Taylor
Rethinking Development Economics, by Ha-Joon Chang –
Rashida Sultana
Folding Paper Cranes, by Leonard Bird – Mike Dillon
Chasing the Monk’s Shadow:
A Journey in the Footsteps of Xuanzang, by Mishi Saran
– Rasoul Sorkhabi
Backroads to Far Towns: Basho’s Travel Journal, trans
Cid Corman – Sherry Nakanishi
Timescapes Japan: A Pinhole Journey, by Edward Levinson
Falling Blossom, by Peter Pagnamenta and Momoko Williams –
Lynda Philippsen
64 UNBOUND: GENDER IN ASIA
Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field, ed. Joshua S,
Mostow, Norman Bryson & Maribeth Graybill – Eric Luong
Embroideries,
Marjane Satrapi – Rebecca Dosch-Brown
What's Queer About Queer Studies Now? ed. David L. Eng, Judith
Halberstam, Jose Esteban Munoz – Deidre May
Toms
and Dees, Megan J. Sinnott – Kim Munro
The Third Sex: Kathoey – Thailand's Ladyboys, Richard
Totman – Catherine, Queen of the Night & John Ashburne
(Un)tying the Knot: Ideal and Reality in Asian Marriage, Gavan
W. Jones & Kamalini Ramdas – Jenny Hall
Under Confucian Eyes: Writings on Gender in Chinese History,
ed. Susan Mann & Yu-yin Chang – Susan Pavlovska
Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon: Himalayan Foothill Folktales,
Kirin Narayan & Urmila Devi Sood – Ken Rodgers
Selwa, Choying Drolma & Steve Tibbets (CD) – Albie
Sharpe
Constructing the Filipina: A History of Women's Magazines (1891-2002)
Georgina Reyes Encanto – Anna Kim
Genders, Transgenders and Sexualities in Japan. ed. Mark McLelland
& Romit Dasgupta – Justin Ellis
Bad Girls of Japan, ed. Laura Miller & Jan Bardsley –
Rebecca Jennison
Angelwings: Contemporary Queer Fiction from Taiwan, trans Fran
Martin – Pia Arboleta
1000 Peace Women Across the Globe, The Association of 1000
Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 – Helen Polychronakos
63
The Peace Constitution of Japan, DVD, dir. John Junkerman –
Benjamin Freeland
Kuhaku & Other Accounts from Japan, ed. Bruce Rutledge
– Ellis Avery
From the Playground of the Gods: the Life & Art of Bikky Sunazawa,
Chisato O. Dubreuil – Rebecca Dosch-Brown
Race, Resistence, and the Ainu of Japan, Richard Siddle –
Rebecca Dosch-Brown
Native American in the Land
of the Shogun:
Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan, Frederick
L. Schodt – Trevor Carolan
Mudang: Reconciliation Between the Living and the Dead, movie
dir. Park Ki-bok – Adam Hartznell
Kamishibai Man, Allen Say – Holly Thompson
Inspired Shapes, Koyama Ori – John Einarsen
The Dalai Lamas: A Visual History, ed Martin Brauen –
Rasoul Sorkhabi
Wrong About Japan: A Father's Journey with his Son, Peter Carey
– Ken Rodgers
62
Tokyo Nights, Donald Richie– David Cozy
Danger on Peaks, Gary Snyder – Roy Hamric
Mountains & Rivers Without End (CD) – Preston Houser
Istambul, Memories and the City; Snow; My Name Is Red, Orhan
Pamuk – James Dalglish
Istambul, Memories and the City, Orhan Pamuk – Mark Mordue
Opening The Hand Of Thought, Uchiyama Koshu – Sherry
Nakanishi
Stone Bow Prayer, Amy Uyematsu – Ellis Avery
Pathways Edith Shiffert, Water Shed Rene Gregorio
– Stephen Gill
Enhaiklopedia, Ed. Stephen Henry Gill – Martin Lucas
Old Kyoto: A Guide to Traditional Shops, Restaurants and Inns,
Diane Durston – Deidre May
The Time in Between, David Bergen – Lynda Philippsen
A Diary of Darkness, Kiyosawa Kiyoshi – David W. Stowe
61
Kanji for Designers, Shogo Oketani & Leza Lowitz; by Gregory
Dunne
The Koto: A Traditional Instrument in Contemporary Japan, Henry
Johnson; by Catherine Pawasarat
Walk the Talk, David Wong & Stephan White; by Ken Rodgers
The Single Tone: A Personal Journey into Shakuhachi Music,
Christopher Yohmei Bladel; by Preston Houser
Poems from Ish River Country: Collected Poems & Translations,
Robert Sund; by John Brandi
The Fourth Treasure, Todd Shimoda; by Deidre May
The Way to Paradise, Mario Vargas Llosa; by James Dalglish
60
Three Generations, Yom Sang-seop, trans. Yu Young-nan –
Charse Yun
Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear
Catastrophe, Gavan McCormack – Jeffrey Miller
Save the Green Planet, movie dir. Jang Jun-hwan – Jonas
Hult
Repatriation (Songhwan), movie dir. Kim Dong-won – Deidre
May
Spirit of the Mountains: Korea's San-Shin and Traditions of Mountain
Worship, David Mason – Michael Anderson
59
Mercury Rising: Contemporary Poetry from Taiwan, Manoa 15:1,
by Ken Chen
Two Rivers: New Vietnamese Writing from America and Viet Nam,
Manoa 14:1, by Roy Hamric
Poems of the Masters: China's Classic Anthology, translated
by Red Pine, by Preston Houser
Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa, David G. Lanoue, by
Ken Rodgers
Peacock Hotel, Philip J. Cunningham, by Ken Rodgers
The Year of My Life: A Translation of Issa's Oraga, by John
Brandi
Lost Heian, Hailstone Haiku Circle, by Brian Tasker
Green Tea to Go, Leza Lowitz, by Suzanne Kamata
Matchibako: Japanese Matchbox Art of the 20s and 30s, Maggie
Kinser Hohle, by John Einarsen
58
Afghanistan by Chris Steele-Perkins, Heart of Kashmir
by Kash Gabrielle Torsello – Matt Larking
Neutral War: A Novel of Soul-Chilling Barter, Bioterror, and High-Stakes
International Poker by Hal Gold – Justin Ellis
The New Shiatsu Method: Helping the Body to Heal Itself by
Ryokyu Endo, Michael Christini, Tzvika Calisar – Deidre May
Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan by
Miyeko Murase, Mavo: Japanese Artists and The Avant-Garde 1905-1931
by Gennifer Weisenfeld, Mirror of Modernity, Invented Traditions
of Modern Japan Stephen Vlastos, Ed. – Lauren Deutsch
The Man Who Saved Kabuki: Faubion Bowers and Theatre Censorship
in Occupied Japan, by Shiro Okamoto, translated and adapted by
Samuel L. Leiter – Ken Rodgers
Tales from Japan, and Ichi, Ni, San, Shi... Go! 500 Rivers
and Other Tales from Japan, CDs by Jonatha and Harold Wright –
Chris Caldwell
Sherry, CD by Sherry Nakanishi – Tomita Tamita
57
War Torn - Stories of war from
the women reporters who covered Vietnam –
Don Kirk
The Cat from Hue - A Vietnam war story by John Laurence –
Roy Hamric
The Art of Rice - Spirit and Sustenance in Asia by Roy W. Hamilton
– Lauren Deutsch Bokunen woodcut
In What Disappears, by John Brandi – Preston L. Houser
Haiku - Asian arts & crafts for creative kids, by Patricia
Donegan – John Brandi
Classic Bonsai of Japan, trans by John Bestor – Marc
Peter Keane
NOW NOW, by Cid Corman – Preston L. Houser
mamaist: learning a new language, by Alan Botsford Saitoh –
James Gurley
The Seed of Joy, by William Amos – William Corr
Big Motorcycle - A Tokyo Story, by F.J. Logan – Ken Rodgers
56
Embracing the Firebird: Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female
Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry by Janine Beichman – Maggie
Chula
The Breakaway Kitchen by Eric Gower – Sherry and Hiro
Nakanishi
Screenplay of Ozu’s Tokyo Story – Christopher Tate
Edo, the city that became Tokyo – Jim Hathaway
Life of the Buddha by Tezuka Osamu – Thierry Le
Arranging Things: A Rhetoric of Object Placement by Leonard
Koren – Markuz Wernli
55 STREET (Special Issue)
54
Visions of Buddhist Life, Dan Farber – Catherine Pawasarat
Landscapes for Small Spaces, Mizuno Katsuhiko – Douglas
Bullis
Chado, the Way of Tea, Sasaki Sanmi – Lauren Deutsch
The Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth; ed Sam Hammill &
Bradford Morrow – Morgan Gibson
Fusion Kitsch - poems from the Chinese of Hsia Yu, translated
by Steve Bradbury – Ken Chen
53
Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century,
Neva Welton and Linda Wolf – Deidre May
Japanese Crafts, Japan Craft Forum – Douglas Bullis
The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices, Xinran – Lauren
Deutsch
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam,
Neil Sheehan – Ken Rodgers
52
BUG magazine, ed. Scott Burgeson – Sally McLaren
World Food Japan, John Ashburne – Eric Gower
All Worldly Pursuits, Hillel Wright – David Cozy
Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics, Alan Hunt Badiner and
Alex Grey – Lauren Deutsch
51
The Yin-Yang Journal: a Critique of the Social Ego, RC Allen
– Ken Rodgers
The Blue Cliff Record: Zen Echoes, David Rothenberg –
Roy Hamric
Naikan – Gratitude, Grace, and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection,
Gregg Krech – Stewart Wachs
One Hundred Years of Japanese Film, Donald Richie – Christopher
Tate
China: Empire of Living Symbols, Cecilia Lindqvist –
Ken Rodgers
50 TRANSIENCE
Ash, Holly Thompson – Leza Lowitz
The Wind in the Pines: Classic Writings of the Way of Tea as a Buddhist
Path ed. Dennis Hirota – Ken Rodgers
Kodo: The Way of Incense, David Pybus – Sally McLaren
49
Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) dir. Miyazaki
Hayao – Donald Richie
A House in Bali, Colin McPhee – Lauren Deutsch
Only What We Could Carry, The Japanese American Internment Experience,
ed. Lawson Fusao Inada – Shiho Ito (plus interview
with Patricia Wakida, research & production manager for this book)
Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata's Art of the Internment, Kimi Kodani Hill
– Paul Mori
48
The Donald Richie Reader, ed. Arturo Silva – David Cozy
Always Filling, Always Full tanka by Margaret Chula –
Patricia Donegan
Geisha: the Secret History of a Vanishing World, Lesley Downer
Geisha: a Living Tradition, Kyoko Aihara; The Life of a
Geisha, Eleanor Underwood – Sally McLaren
Unjust Enrichment: How Japan's Companies Built Postwar Fortunes
Using American POWs – Eric Johnton
Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange
from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century, Richard C. Foltz –
Preston Houser
Kimono - Vanishing Tradition: Japanese Textiles of the 20th Century,
Cheryl Imperatore and Paul Maclardy– Sally McLaren
Thunder in the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia, Nicholas D.
Kristof & Sheryl Wudunn – Stephen Cooley
Min'You, Folk Songs from Japan, CD – Jerry McGoldrick
47
The Zen Works of Stonehouse: Poems and Talks of a Fourteenth-Century
Chinese Hermit, trans. Red Pine – Preston Houser
Soul Mountain, Gao Xingjian, trans. Mabel Lee – Stephen
Cooley
Bodies of Memory: Narratives of War in Post-war Japanese Culture 1945-1970
– William Corr
Shakespeare at the Globe Tokyo – Annie Bilton
China in the Tokugawa World, Marius B. Jansen – Edward Zuk
The Other Japan: Voices Beyond the Mainstream, David Suzuki
and Keibo Oiwa – Preston Houser
The Japanese Way of the Flower: Ikebana as Moving Meditation,
H.E. Daveyand Ann Kameoka – Preston Houser
The Zuni Enigma: A Native American People's Possible Japanese Connection,
Nancy Yaw Davis – Lauren Deutsch
Song of the Snow Lion: Recent Fiction, Poetry & Essays from
Tibet, ed. Frank Stewart (MANOA) – Lauren Deutsch
46 (MEDIA IN ASIA)
Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture, ed.
Timothy J. Craig – Philip D. Zitowitz
Losing Control: Freedom of the Press in Asia, ed. Louise Williams,
Roland Rich – Gary Tegler
Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-la from the Himalayas to Hollywood,
Orville Schell – Preston Houser
45
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