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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 4, 2000

Canterbury meets Samarkand

LIFE ALONG THE SILK ROAD, by Susan Whitfield. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, 242 pp., 12 color plates, 12 b/w photos, 13 maps, $27.50 (cloth). In the ninth century, music from Kucha was popular all along the Silk Road, from Samarkand to Chang-an. One of its enthusiasts was the Chinese...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 28, 2000

The marvelous paradox of Ise

ISE -- JAPAN'S ISE SHRINES: Ancient but New, by Svend Hvass. Holte: Aristo Press, 146 pp., profusely illustrated, 6,000 yen. Ise holds one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan. Enshrining the ancestral gods of the Imperial family, it has a long and varied political career. Such was its power...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2000

Puppets seen through the bars

THE FUNERAL OF A GIRAFFE and Other Stories, by Tomioka Taeko. Translated by Kyoko Selden and Mizuta Noriko. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 182 pp., $21.95. Originally a poet, Taeko Tomioka turned to fiction later in her career, after the breakup of a long-term relationship and a return to her native Osaka....
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2000

Some very serious pillow talk

CARTOGRAPHIES OF DESIRE: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950, by Gregory M. Pflugfelder. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, 200 pp., unpriced. As the author of this detailed, closely reasoned and beautifully written study reminds us, "Rather than sexual practice, this book...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 4, 2000

The glorious mess of Bangkok

BANGKOK: Then and Now, by Steve van Beek. Bangkok: AB Publications, 1999, 132 pp, with numerous color and b/w photos, maps, drawings, etc. unpriced. Writing in 1900, the American consul residing in Bangkok marveled that only 35 years earlier there had been no streets in the capital, that all traffic...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 1, 1999

Kawabata and great truths

FIRST SNOW ON FUJI, by Yasunari Kawabata. Translated by Michael Emmerich. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 227 pp., $24. This collection of stories, plus an essay and a dance-drama, was originally published in 1958 as "Fuji no Hatsuyuki." It is late Kawabata -- most of the major works had already appeared,...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 17, 1999

Window on the fragile world of the Ainu

LAND OF ELMS: The History, Culture and Present-Day Situation of the Ainu People, by Toshimitsu Miyajima, translated by Robert Witmer. Ontario, Canada: United Church Publishing House, 1998; 184 pp., 2,000 yen (paper). Some books are published before the happy ending even happens, which can give readers...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 2, 1999

And a drum shall lead them

THE ROUSING DRUM: Ritual Practice in a Japanese Community, by Scott Schnell. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp.364 with b/w photos xxvi and maps. $59.00 (cloth); $33.95 (paper). Interpretations of that folk festival, the "matsuri," vary. Kunio Yanagida, the founder of folklore studies in Japan,...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 26, 1999

This 'East Wind' blows ill

RIDING THE EAST WIND, by Otohiko Kaga. Kodansha International, 1999, pp. 518, 3,500 yen (cloth). The history of Japanese-American soldiers who fought for the United States in World War II is well-documented, but the story of an American-Japanese pilot who served in the Japanese Imperial Army remains...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 6, 1999

From combat to sport and art

ARMED MARTIAL ARTS OF JAPAN: Swordsmanship and Archery, by G. Cameron Hurst III. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998, 244 pp., with b/w photos. Though people today are more inclined to study the martial arts of Japan than such culturally expected forms as tea ceremony and flower arrangement, books...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 24, 1999

Frustration and anger produce great Korean fiction

A READY-MADE LIFE: Early Masters of Modern Korean Fiction, selected and translated by Kim Chong-un and Bruce Fulton. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998, 191 pp., $38 (cloth), $15.95 (paper). "What's driving me to drink isn't anger and isn't the dandies. It's this society -- our Korean society...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 28, 2023

The curious case of Fuminori Nakamura's genre misalignment

Little do English-language readers know, the author of 'The Rope Artist' and other critically acclaimed books writes on much more than crime.
Japan Times
Special Supplements / Hiroshima G7 Summit Special
May 19, 2023

Split education system needs a shake-up, president warns

Waseda University, one of Japan’s leading private universities, began its history as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, which was established in 1882. The founder, Shigenobu Okuma, served as Japan’s prime minister twice, in 1898 and 1914. Waseda has produced eight of the country’s prime ministers, including Fumio...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 7, 2023

'Hit Parade of Tears': Izumi Suzuki attacks genre and gender with twisted precision

The cult literary figure's new collection of 11 stories unveil the chaos, conflict and pain of women rebelling against the desires of men and seeking messy self-actualization.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 5, 2023

With a gulp and burp, a bloated star swallows a Jupiter-sized planet

As the star grew, its surface reached the orbit of the doomed planet, with mayhem ensuing.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Apr 16, 2023

Democracy in half measures? Then let violence come.

Did the toiling masses give up on Japanese democracy ahead of the war because it was coming from the mouths of the upper classes who exploited them?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 13, 2023

Haruki Murakami’s first novel in six years hits shelves in Japan

The bestselling author spent three years working nonstop on his new novel, 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls,' which reworks the story of the same title from 1980.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 5, 2023

Study explains how primordial life survived on 'Snowball Earth'

The findings demonstrate that the world's oceans were not completely frozen and that habitable refuges existed where multicellular organisms including plants and animals could survive.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2023

There's no such thing as artificial intelligence

The term artificial intelligence breeds misunderstanding and helps its creators avoid culpability for mistakes.
PODCAST / deep dive
Mar 15, 2023

Haruki Murakami’s new novel. Plus, allegations resurface in J-pop.

Celebrated author Haruki Murakami reveals the title to a new novel, “The City and its Uncertain Walls.” Also, the BBC puts out a documentary on J-pop titan Johnny Kitagawa.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 14, 2023

Heartbeat may shape our perception of time, study shows

After an era of research focusing on the brain, the study provides further proof that no single organ registers the pace of time for humans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 13, 2023

Osamu Dazai gets silly while facing fears in 'The Flowers of Buffoonery'

Translator Sam Bett brings out the fragile personalities in the author's early novella, a predecessor to his modern classic novel “No Longer Human.'
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 10, 2023

Dwarf elephants? Giant rats? Strange island creatures at high risk

Extinction risk has been seen by researchers to be highest among island species that have undergone more extreme body size shifts compared to mainland relatives.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 9, 2023

Tree study shows how three years of drought may have doomed ancient empires

'The climate changes that are likely to occur for us in the next century will be much more severe than those the Hittites experienced,' one of the co-authors noted.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 7, 2023

Salman Rushdie says 'very difficult' to write after stabbing

An icon of free speech since he was subjected to a fatwa that forced him into hiding, the British author is still an outspoken defender of the power of words.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 27, 2023

The Amazon is deteriorating too fast for species and the climate to adapt

The region that is key to the world’s climate system 'is now perched to transition rapidly from a largely forested to a nonforested landscape,” write the authors of a new paper.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 12, 2023

Czech novelist Milan Kundera dies at 94

Through his characteristic satire and poetic prose, Kundera had sought to express all that is compelling and absurd about life.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 6, 2023

China took her husband. She was left to uncover his secret cause.

Whether her husband was Program Think is virtually impossible to confirm. He was, however, proudly nonconformist — refusing to use social media or buy new clothes — and intensely private.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 12, 2023

Scientists sound alarm as ocean temperatures hit new record

Climate change has increased surface temperatures across the planet, leading to atmospheric instability and amplifying extreme weather events such as storms.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami