The late Donald Richie lived at apartment number 804 in a block directly facing Shinobazu Pond in Tokyo's Ueno Park. The writer would lead visitors through his home's dimly lit entrance area — crammed with bookshelves — and his minuscule living room to the ...
In the new age of experience that defines the travel accounts on Japan from the immediate pre- and postwar periods, writers began resisting the easy enamor of the Orient. Instead of viewing Japan as an exotic wonderland, they took a more considered, critical view ...
The writer Donald Richie wore many hats: film curator and director, critic, essayist, writer of fiction, composer, cultural commentator extraordinaire and inveterate traveler. Travels in the East, by Donald Richie160 pagesStone Bridge Press, Nonfiction. An ...
In his lifetime, Donald Richie was best known as a pioneering expert on Japanese cinema; he famously first brought the films of Yasujiro Ozu to the attention of the West, as well as writing the trailblazing "The Japanese Film: Art and Industry" with fellow ...
The sense of antiquity on the Kunisaki Peninsula is immediate. There are those that believe the region — whose name is said to mean "land's end" — was created by demons in the service of powerful gods. You have to take these accounts with ...
A mix of scandals, achievements, political missteps and commemorations highlighted 2013. Here's a rundown of the quotations that shaped the Year of the Snake.
Yasujiro Ozu once had a reputation for making films only other Japanese could understand. His studio bosses believed overseas audiences wanted the exoticism of samurai and geisha, not Ozu's quietly realistic dramas about contemporary middle-class families. This explains the reluctance of Ozu's studio, Shochiku, to export ...
Donald Richie, prolific author of more than 40 books and longtime contributor to The Japan Times, died in February at age 88. April 17 was his birthday, so this review pays tribute by sharing some of the insights he passed on during an interview, ...
Donald Richie was a scrupulous writer who paid finite attention to language and content. The following are 10 outstanding choices — titles that should be on any discerning readers' bookshelf. "Tokyo: A View of the City" (1999) Here Richie manages to give the impression of someone ...
Nowadays, the name of the Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963) is known throughout the world. But it wasn't always like this — and it might never have been, without the efforts of Donald Richie. After Ozu's masterpiece "Tokyo Story" was released in 1953, Japanese ...
It was with a heavy heart that I heard from Donald Richie's longtime friend and editor Leza Lowitz that he had passed away on the morning of Tuesday, this week. He was 88.
Donald Richie was my friend and mentor for more than 20 years and my inspiration before that. When I was preparing to come to Japan for the first time in 1975, I read many books about the place, but Donald's masterpiece "The Inland Sea" ...
