By now, even the most casual observer of goings on in Asia will have noted the aggressive geopolitical maneuvering of China, a country news outlets have taken to calling “resurgent.” Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push For Global Power, by Howard W. French. 352 pages ...
Twenty years to the day after the first book in the Harry Potter series was published, fans gathered online and ...
Based on the true story of a stock trader, the 1965 novel “The Informer” is remarkably prescient in describing the ...
The rituals, theatrical constructs and sartorial styles connected to this ancient martial art may seem visually arresting to the uninitiated, but as “Discover Sumo” tells us, there is much more to Japan’s national sport than meets the eye. Discover Sumo: Stories from Yobidashi Hideo, ...
It is almost impossible to find a serious novel that does not touch on the subject of death. “In the Woods of Memory,” taking for its theme the death of the soul, is no exception. In the Woods of Memory, by Shun Medoruma, Translated ...
The acronym GUBU (grotesque, unusual, bizarre and unprecedented) fits the mass murder at the Teihoku Bank in Tokyo on Jan. 26, 1948. Sixteen people were deliberately poisoned, including an 8-year-old boy. More money was left behind than stolen. Flowering of the Bamboo, by William ...
“Harmless Like You” centers on the lives of a mother, who is an artist, and her son, an art dealer. Neither are particularly likable characters and both freely admit to their weirdness. Harmless Like You, by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan.308 pages SCEPTRE, Fiction. The story ...
The civic story of Japan from the dawn of the 20th century to the present is one of migration from the countryside to the city. Spring Garden, by Tomoka Shibasaki, Translated by Polly Barton.160 pages PUSHKIN PRESS, Fiction. Urban centers have spread up and ...
This beloved classic of Japanese children’s literature is testimony to the difficulties of translation. The title, variously called “Night on the Galactic Railway” or “Fantasy Railroad in the Stars,” is a good example. Milky Way Railroad, by Kenji Miyazawa, Translated by Joseph Sigrist and ...
Comparing a Japanese writer with Haruki Murakami is the laziest move a reviewer can make, but with “Slow Boat,” Hideo Furukawa leaves critics no choice. Slow Boat, by Hideo Furukawa, Translated by David Boyd.128 pages PUSHKIN PRESS, Fiction. In a postscript, the author explains ...
Japan is an extremely successful brand. It’s also a tightly controlled one. The government wants lots of foreigners to visit its 2020 Tokyo Olympics, buy its Abenomics, experience the unmatched beauty of its four unique seasons and overlook its urban blight while searching for ...
Nagasaki is something of an outlier in Japanese history. While the country closed itself off from external influence between the 1630s and 1853, this western port remained partially exempt, a crack through which people, ideas and products could pass. Today, the city retains its ...
While at the opening of a kabuki performance at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House theater in D.C., two close friends of San Francisco art dealer and martial arts practitioner Jim Brodie are gunned down by a professional assassin. One of them, Sayuri Tanaka, was ...
When I met the popular author Hiromi Kawakami in London recently, I asked her thoughts about the great authors of Japan’s literary past. Did she, for example, enjoy the novels of Meiji Era (1868-1912) great Natsume Soseki? Record of a Night Too Brief, by ...
Despite regular, if sometimes half-hearted apologies, China and South Korea have repeatedly accused Japan of being unrepentant and insincere in its attitude to World War II. The nation’s acceptance of defeat and acknowledgment or denial of guilt is most often compared with that of ...
