THE CONVICT’S SWORD by I.J. Parker. New York: Penguin, 2009, 421 pp., $15 (paper) In Shamus Award-winning mystery author’s I.J. Parker’s previous work, “Island of Exiles,” Heian Period (794-1185) official Sugawara Akitada embarked on a harrowing undercover investigation of a suspicious death on Sado ...

As exotic as kanji (Sino-Japanese logographs) may appear to the uninitiated, most of those we encounter in everyday situations are intended to convey notices and other mundane or essential information, such as 禁煙 kin’en (no smoking) or 駅長室 (ekichō-shitsu, stationmaster’s office). But as one’s ...

THE MAO CASE by Qiu Xiaolong. St. Martin’s Minotaur, New York: 303 pages, 2009, $24.95 (cloth) A famous Chinese aphorism goes, “Yingxiong nan guo meiren guan (It is difficult for a hero to pass by [i.e. disregard] the gate of a beauty).” That was ...

Back in December 1972, having just taken a job with a Japan Airlines subsidiary, I moved into the company’s bachelors dormitory at Miyauchi 2-chome in Kawasaki’s Nakahara Ward. Situated in an industrial area near Musashi Kosugi on the JR Nambu Line, my lodgings were ...

BAMBOO AND BLOOD by James Church. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2008, 294 pp., $23.95 (cloth) NORTH KOREA KIDNAPPED MY DAUGHTER by Sakie Yokota. New York: Vertical, 2009, 208 pp., $16.95 (paper) During the shooting of the 1946 Humphrey Bogart film “The Big Sleep” — ...

“Ohayoooo gozaimasu!” I greeted my 22-year-old nephew, Chris, using my foot to nudge him awake on the first morning of his 10-day visit to Japan. “What do you say we walk around Ginza?” “What’s Ginza?” came the sleepy reply. “Um, didn’t you bother to ...

Last week, I suggested that if you’re really serious about mastering kanji, you should add brush calligraphy to your study regimen. Assuming I’ve won you over at this point, the next step would be to procure a complete set of implements, including a medium-size ...

PAYING BACK JACK by Christopher G. Moore. Bangkok: Heaven Lake Press, 2009, 332 pp., $13.95 (paper) Since his literary debut in 1992, Vincent “Vinnie” Calvino, an expat Italian-Jewish attorney from New York, has been pursuing investigations on behalf of mostly foreign clients in Bangkok. ...

I recently encountered a new term that’s a real mouthful: IT依存性漢字健忘症 (IT izonsei kanji kenbōshō, kanji amnesia due to dependence on information technology). The word acknowledges that the proliferation of word processors has weakened people’s ability to recall both individual kanji characters and compound ...

THE RED STAR OF CADIZ by Osaka Go, translated by Usha Jayaraman. Fukuoka: Kurodahan Press, 2008, 421 pp., $20 (paper) In the summer of 1975, Spain’s 82-year-old leader Francisco Franco is fading fast. Spain’s underground radical groups are determined to tarnish El Caudillo’s legacy ...

Last October, publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha released the 61st edition of its “Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words)” — a massive 1,614-page tome that retails for just ¥2,980. I have a facsimile copy of the book’s first edition, launched on Oct. 10, ...

Last October, publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha released the 61st edition of its “Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words)” — a massive 1,614-page tome that retails for just ¥2,980. I have a facsimile copy of the book’s first edition, launched on Oct. 10, ...