"What better way to invite a reader to explore the lavish surfaces and lonely depths of contemporary Japan than with a book so well-designed it whispers 'covet me' from across the room? ... Inconclusive in the best possible way, by turns pointed and generous, Kuhaku paints a shifting portrait of a shifting place." —Ellis Avery, Kyoto Journal "[Chin Music Press] is a company that is rewriting the rule book." — Bookslut Travel past the temples and tourist sites and into the mind of modern Japan with this anthology, the literary equivalent of a knockdown pitch. Sixteen stories and essays by different writers destroy the many stereotypes about Japan. Say farewell to Madame Butterfly and the samurai ethic, and say hello to a complex nation that makes both a frustrating and fascinating home. This collection includes stories on everything from taking out the garbage to cheating on your spouse. It also has an irreverent and informative glossary of real-world Japanese terms, four-color artwork and a Zen whiskey priest who would make Graham Greene proud. When we set out to find stories for Kuhaku &amp; Other Accounts from Japan, we knew what we wanted: candid tales of life in Japan that weren't trying to slice and dice the country and the culture into digestable nuggets. We weren't looking for Ph.D. dissertations, just smartly told tales from the street. Having lived in Japan for a long time, we realized these stories were everywhere. We tracked the writers down, asked permission to publish their tales, or more often, prodded them to put that story they had told us down on paper. Just about everybody responded favorably. Kuhaku's stories come from everywhere: tales told over beers in a pub, stories of corporate drudgery related during the lunch hour, doodlings on napkins at the local Starbucks and professional pieces produced on deadline.

Kuhaku & Other Accounts from Japan

History

Asia

Chin Music Press Inc.

Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

"Last of the Red Hot Poppas will make you laugh and it will make you think rather more deeply than will make you comfortable, and in these wildly disjointed times that means this novel is not only a richly enjoyable read but an essential one." Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain Right-wing flag enthusiasts, big oil power brokers, luckless inheritors of environmental degradation, professional gamblers, sexual profligates, ACLU lawyers, and political hit menLast of the Red Hot Poppas has all of these and more. Jason Berry, quintessential Louisiana insider and witty chronicler of what passes for morality in the halls of power, has concocted a tantalizing mix of comic misdemeanors and serious criminal activity.” Valerie Martin, author of Property "Both wildly entertaining and deadly serious, Last of the Red Hot Poppas is a fabulous read nobody understands Louisiana politics (and its larger-than-life characters) better than Jason Berry. I couldn't put this one down." Lee Smith, author of On Agate Hill and The Last Girls Last of the Red Hot Poppas is part ribald whodunit, part social satire, and part spiritual comedy,” as Berry calls it. It’s a chaotic romp through the many levels of Looziana,” but above all, it is a novel about the struggle to maintain one’s integrity in a mad world of politics and power.

Last of the Red Hot Poppas

Jason Berry

Literary

"In Curing Japan’s America Addiction, Morita says publicly what a lot of Japanese think and say privately, in sharp contrast to whatever pleasantries they offer at cocktail parties with foreign diplomats and policy wonks, or in speeches they give abroad. For that reason, Curing Japan’s America Addiction deserves to be read by anybody tired of the Orwellian doublespeak coming out of Washington and Tokyo." The Japan Times Curing Japan’s America Addiction is the first work in English from longtime political commentator Minoru Morita. It includes translations from several of his more than forty books. For decades, Morita has been chronicling in passionate, straightforward prose the corruption of the Japan-US relationship since the era of Reagan and Nakasone in the 1980s. Morita argues that Japan has become addicted to the Republican Party’s vision of America, with its widening wealth gap; huge, aggressive military; and dog-eat-dog economy. This book is the progressive Left’s answer to Shintaro Ishihara’s The Japan That Can Say No. For years, Minoru Morita, clad in a kimono, would greet Japanese TV viewers with insightful political commentary on national news shows. But then he went too far. Morita began criticizing the wildly popular Junichiro Koizumi (the most irresponsible and frivolous prime minister in Japan’s postwar history”) and connecting the dots between the premier and Japan’s largest advertising agency, Dentsu Inc., which Morita claimed was silencing critics by threatening to pull ads. Soon, the offers to appear on TV dried up. Undaunted, Morita took to the lecture circuit and began publishing books describing how the Koizumi administration has Anglicized Japan’s military and Americanized its economy.” He has urged voters to overthrow the ruling party, and they seem to be listening: In July 2007, the opposition took over the upper house for the first time in sixty years.

Curing Japan's America Addiction: How Bush & Koizumi Destroyed Japan's middle class and what we need to do to fix it

Business & Money

Morita, Minoru

Economics

Book Overview This beautiful guide to Tokyo’s most exciting art galleries is a must-read for art lovers planning trips to Tokyo or looking to understand the art scene in contemporary Japan from the comfort of their armchairs. In-depth interviews with curators and essays by leading art critics finally bring these exciting art spaces to life for an English-speaking audience. More information online at: http://artspacetokyo.com Book Specifications <ul>
<li>12 highly detailed, beautifully rendered maps of neighborhoods both on and off the beaten path in Tokyo</li> <li>insider information into the best cafes, restaurants and shops in these neighborhoods</li> <li>over 50 beautiful pen and ink illustrations of the art spaces and interviewees</li> <li>lavishly bound in cloth with a silk screened cover and thick, high-quality papers throughout</li> </ul>
Reviews and Press “Much of the charm of the guide is in the little observations, the sly asides and the high and wide originality of the artists, whom Mod and Rawlings capture and pin to the page like a collection of polychromatic butter?ies. This gorgeous book is a working guide, but it’s also a work of art. ” — GRAPHIC SPOTLIGHT, Kirkus Review “... an unexpectedly stunning bit of cultural travelogue from Chin Music Press.” — KHOI VINH, Subtraction “A new guide to the Tokyo art scene points the way.” — BENJI LANYADO, The Guardian “Art Space Tokyo ... is a gem of a publication satisfying a longstanding need for English-language material on the terrain it tackles.” — NEILTON CLARKE, Art Monthly Australia “Lovely design with care and an eye for detail make it a total must have piece in my opinion.” — ULESHKA ASHER, WorldChanging “[I]nsight into the city's world of contemporary art ... readers are treated to a variety of revealing interviews with gallery owners and art fair operators, among others, as well as essays by art critics and other specialists.” — CRISTOPH MARK, Daily Yomiuri Extended Description Art Space Tokyo is the first book of its kind to capture with both a critical and broad sweeping eye the current state of art in Tokyo. Art Space Tokyo introduces readers to twelve of the city's most distinctive and exciting galleries and museums through a compilation of interviews with the directors and curators of each of these spaces. Readers are given rare insight into why these spaces exist, how they became what they are and where they're heading. Furthermore, through other interviews with the directors of auction houses, art fairs, collectors and media figures, as well as six essays by art specialists, Art Space Tokyo delves into the complexity of Tokyo's resurgent contemporary art scene. Editorial and Design Editor and co-author Ashley Rawlings is a specialist in postwar Japanese art. After graduating with a BA in Japanese studies from the University of Cambridge, he moved to Tokyo in 2005, where he worked as a freelance editor, writer and translator. His writing on the Tokyo art scene has appeared in several Japanese and international printed and online publications, including The Japan Times, ART iT, ArtAsiaPacific and Artforum.com. He is now based in New York, where he works as features editor of ArtAsiaPacific. Designer and co-author Craig Mod (craigmod.com) is a Tokyo based print designer and online developer. He is a cofounder of Chin Music Press (chinmusicpress.com), an independent press putting out beautifully made books on Japan. He is also a cofounder of Hitotoki (hitotoki.org), a website creating literary experience maps imbuing otherwise anonymous cityspaces with individual experiences. He was awarded a Fabrica fellowship in 2005 and served as a judge for the 85th ADC awards. Photos, art maps, and detailed information at: http://artspacetokyo.com

Art Space Tokyo: An Intimate Guide to the Tokyo Art World

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Oh! was selected for National Public Radio's summer reading list of 2009. NPR reviewer Lucia Silva called it "a triumphant kick in the pants for anyone who doubts the future of paper-and-ink books." The mysterious tension between material things and emotional attachment to them oscillates throughout Japanese history and culture. With a keen and sympathetic eye, Todd Shimoda explores an individual's dangerous quest to waken his numb soul to this exquisite reverberation. As in Kawabata Yasunari's famous novella, The Master of Go, the lacrimae rerum of a dying tradition become a river, inexorably flowing toward the ocean of death. Fascinated, the reader cannot help but follow the flow.”Liza Dalby, author of The Tale of Murasaki: A Novel and Geisha Oh! is a hybrid novel, with nonfiction and artwork mixed in. The main storyline follows Zack Hara, a young Japanese American searching for an emotional life while traveling in Japan. Zack finds an ally in a professor and underground poet who introduces him to the concept of mono no aware, roughly translated as the emotive essence of things, or the sadness in beauty. The professor, grieving for a missing daughter, assigns Zack a set of mysterious tasks. Zack’s search for self-discovery turns into a search for the professor’s missing daughter, and draws him into the tragic phenomenon of suicide clubs.

Oh!: A mystery of 'mono no aware'

Shimoda, Todd

United States

This beautifully designed hardcover book starts with a line of cars leaving the city ahead of Hurricane Katrina and ends in a mad Mardi Gras romp. The book winds through the streets of New Orleans toward a deeper understanding of just what this great, wounded city means to the United States. Many of the essays in this collection were composed by writers trying to piece their lives together in the aftermath of the hurricane. Written in places like Baton Rouge, Houston, and Lafayette, these stories create a bridge back to the old New Orleans. And as the battle for this city rages on, this book becomes a razor-sharp weapon in the fight against corporate and governmental attempts to neuter a unique American city.
The structure of the book parallels a New Orleans jazz funeral, mournful on the approach and celebratory on the return. Woven throughout the book is a series of interviews with New Orleans residents from all walks of life—jazz pianists, grain traders, tour guides, and others who make up this city. Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? takes intimate looks at old New Orleans staples such as Cajun food and Zydeco music as well as some unexpected views on race, economics and living in exile.
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? is the second book from Chin Music Press. Chin Music released Kuhaku &amp; Other Accounts from Japan in the spring of 2005 and immediately established itself as a publisher focused on meticulous design and collaboration among artists and writers. As Bookslut.com notes: “From the looks of their first title, it is clear they are positioning themselves to be a presence the publishing world has never seen before . . . [Chin Music Press] is a company that is rewriting the rulebook and making a beautiful and interesting product in the process.”
Reviews:
"What's your favorite Katrina book?" a friend asked me last week. And I really couldn't say. They're all different, each fulfilling a personal vision, each adding something to our common narrative. Sometimes my favorite book is a little anthology, "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?," a gorgeous little small-press title edited by University of New Orleans English professor David Rutledge." - Susan Larson, Times-Picayune
“So lovely to look at, so pleasant to hold, with a bit of intrique or insight on every page.” — The Times-Picayune
"[The book] is a literary tempest that assaults the reader with detailed, unpredictable, and unique happenings that a superficial spring-breaker might otherwise miss." — The Internationalist Magazine

“From Susie Wong to Madame Butterfly to Miss Saigon: you might think that we've had enough of American men adventuring, scoring, and coming undone in the Far East. But you'd be wrong. Gammarino's Big in Japan is a shrewd and lively book, sharp-eyed and unsparing in its account of a young American's good and very bad moments overseas. The writing is wired and the ultimate judgement is merciless. It's seductive and it's devastating.” —PF Kluge, author of Eddie and the Cruisers and Gone Tomorrow While playing to lackluster crowds in their hometown of Philadelphia, progressive rock band Agenbite clings to the comforting half-truth that they're doing better in Japan. When their manager agrees to send them over on a shoestring tour, though, they're swiftly forced to give up their illusions and return stateside. All but one of them, that is. Brain Tedesco, the band's obsessive-compulsive nerve center, has fallen in love with a part-time sex worker - the first woman ever to have touched him - and his illusions have only just begun. What ensues is a gritty coming-of-age tale in which Brain, intent on achieving some kind of transcendence, paradoxically (or not so paradoxically) descends into the Hungry Ghost realm of Tokyo’s underworld. He becomes, in effect, a gaki - the insatiable creature of Buddhist cosmology - and must learn how to live even as his outsize desires threaten to engulf him. By turns compassionate and ruthless, erotic and grotesque, riotously serious and deadly funny, Big in Japan is a sparking, gut-wrenching, face-melting debut novel.

Big in Japan: A (Hungry) Ghost Story (Kami Books)

Gammarino, M. Thomas

Humor & Satire

"Shiro Kashiba stands atop any list defining Japanese food in Seattle. He's been called many things--culinary master, fisherman, mushroom forager and nature lover--but first and foremost he's the "Sushi King." His eponymous debut cookbook is no chef-vanity affair, though, but a riveting and imaginative blending of East and West in the quest for high gastronomic art." —Shelf Awareness "A fabulous read for sushi lovers or anyone who enjoys a simple memoir filled with both inspiration and perseverance." -Library Journal Shiro Kashiba used to walk to the fishing piers of Seattle in the 1960s to retrieve buckets of unwanted salmon roe and pesky Puget Sound octopus from the fishermen. He'd hike the beaches of the Pacific Northwest to gather geoduck before there was a market for the shellfish. Chef Shiro saw treasure where others saw trash. And through this sushi chef's eyes, readers discover the amazing bounty of the Pacific Northwest. In this revealing cookbook/memoir, Chef Shiro recounts his early days in Tokyo washing dishes and sleeping in the backroom of a prestigious Ginza sushi shop, his decision to come to the United States with little more than an introductory letter, and his ultimate success in Seattle. But the story doesn't stop there. While Shiro settles into his role as Seattle's premier sushi chef, he develops a deep appreciation for the local delicacies of his new home. Soon he begins to replace expensive Japanese imports with cheaper and more delicious local delicacies. Goodbye bluefin, hello albacore. Shiro tells fascinating and often humorous stories about the region's offerings: his first encounters with geoduck (some say he was the first to serve it raw), the world's tastiest sea urchin, hunting for matsutake mushrooms in the Cascades, a twelve-course meal of silvery ocean smelt, and much more. Ann Norton provides mouthwatering photographs of Shiro's seasonal recipes.

Shiro: Wit, Wisdom and Recipes from a Sushi Pioneer

Biographies & Memoirs

Kashiba, Shiro

Community & Culture

"Otaku Spaces sets out to explain the complicated subculture of otaku through the stories of otaku themselves...Galbraith and photographer Androniki Christodoulou allow the otaku subjects they feature to take control of their own narrative." - Wired.com Raw File "This is a terrain of contested meanings. And 'you' (the original meaning of the word otaku in Japanese) are entering it. Invite otaku into your home and heart, as they have invited you into theirs." - The Huffington Post "A peek into an otaku's bedroom or living space can be a bit of a surprise for the average person...Patrick W. Galbraith digs even deeper into the way otaku choose to decorate their surroundings, and the reasons why they choose to do so in the way that they do." - CNN "Geek Out!" "The book is certainly a beautiful object...There's such an intimate air to Christodoulou's photographs that you have to imagine what the subjects are hiding...But the interviews appeal, in the end, to our commonality: A few of the subjects gently point out that if people are honest with themselves, everyone is a little bit otaku about something." - The Stranger (Starred Review) "(Galbraith) clearly knows his stuff, and also has a genuine regard and respect for people that it would be easy to make fun of. Christodoulou has a real eye for capturing the essence of the otaku world, and the large-scale format (9” by 9”) and high-quality color printing in this book show her work off to its best advantage. Even if you’re not an otaku yourself, Galbraith and Christodoulou do such a good job of capturing the flavor of these subcultures that reading Otaku Spaces is the next best thing to a trip to Japan." - PopMatters 
Otakunerd, über-fan, obsessive collector. Since the 1980s, the term has been used to refer to fans of Japanese anime, manga, and video games. The word appeared with no translation on the cover of the premier issue of Wired magazine in 1993.
Patrick W. Galbraith has produced a groundbreaking work of reportage that takes us beyond the stereotypes of "weird Japan" and into the private rooms of self-described otaku. Interviews and more than fifty color photos reveal a seldom seen side of these reclusive Japanese collectors. They talk frankly about their collections of blow-up dolls, comic books, military paraphernalia, anime videos, and more.
Galbraith follows the collectors to their favorite shops and shows how public space in Japan is starting to mimic the look and feel of the otaku's private room. He also interviews Japan's top cultural critics, helping to place otaku culture in wider sociological and economic contexts. Galbraith broadens his interview focus even further to include otaku from the United States and the United Kingdom, forcing those of us who live in any hyper-consumerist culture to admit that we can and do have otaku tendencies.
Patrick W. Galbraitha self-described otaku with the anime tattoos to prove itis a PhD student at the University of Tokyo and the author of The Otaku Encyclopedia (Kodansha Limited). He also blogs at the popular Otaku2 and is widely considered one of the foremost American experts on Japan's pop culture.
Androniki Christodoulou is a freelance photographer based in Tokyo, Japan.

Otaku Spaces

Galbraith, Patrick W.

Photography & Video

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Chin Music Press Inc. publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Chin Music Press Inc.

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Chin Music Press Inc. publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Kuhaku & Other Accounts from Japan

Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?

Last of the Red Hot Poppas

Curing Japan's America Addiction: How Bush & Koizumi Destroyed Japan's middle class and what we need to do to fix it

Art Space Tokyo: An Intimate Guide to the Tokyo Art World

Oh!: A mystery of 'mono no aware'

Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?

Big in Japan: A (Hungry) Ghost Story (Kami Books)

Shiro: Wit, Wisdom and Recipes from a Sushi Pioneer

Otaku Spaces