Lafcadio Hearns: Japan's Great Interpreter- A New Anthology of His Writings, 1894-1904

Literature & Fiction

Japan Library

The continuing success of this series, highly regarded by scholars and the general reader alike, has prompted The Japan Society to commission this fourth volume, devoted as before to the lives of key people, both British and Japanese, who have made significant contributions to the development of Anglo-Japanese relations. The appearance of this volume brings the number of portraits published to over one hundred. The portraits cover diplomats (from Mori Arinori to Sir Francis Lindley), businessmen (from William Keswick to Lasenby Liberty), engineers and teachers (from W. E. Ayrton to Henry Spencer Palmer), scholars and writers (from Sir Edwin Arnold to Ivan Morris), as well as journalists, judo masters and the aviator Lord Semphill. In all, there are a total of 34 contributions.

Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. IV (Japan Library)

Reference

Architects play an essential role in contemporary society, helping to shape the environment in which we live and work. This book explores how architects in Japan have responded to the demands of their times and how they continue to engage with new economic realities and the shifting global order. The moving image of Japanese society is reflected in the work of the architects profiled in this book: from the generation rising from the ashes of postwar Japan, through the postwar economic boom, to the generation that quietly gathered strength during the recession of the1970s; from the generation that debuted in the bubble economy of the 1980s to the generation that began their work after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the collapse of the bubble economy; and finally, after decades of economic stagnation, to the generation that has come to the fore since the early twenty-first century. Contemporary Japanese architects have pioneered developments in sustainability and introduced engineering innovations that have changed not only the look of modern buildings but the ways in which they can be constructed. Japanese design concepts, realized in major public buildings around the world, communicate with a global audience and contribute toward shaping our shared future.

Contemporary Japanese architect

Igarashi, Taro

Some people view Tokugawa Japan through the “exotic Edo” lens. Others see the era as Japan’s dark ages. And those who reject both of these extremes tend to think of it as simply the run-up to Japan’s modernization.\nYet it would be more accurate to see it as a vast flowering of culture spearheaded by the Rinpa school of art led and developed by Tawaraya Sōtatsu and Ogata Kōrin; the exquisite poetry of Matsuo Bashō and Yosa Buson; the groundbreaking natural science treatises by Kaibara Ekiken and others; Arai Hakuseki’s "Seiyō kibun" [Tidings of the West] and Sugita Genpaku’s "Rangaku kotohajime" [The Dawn of Western Science in Japan]; and by such towering figures as Watanabe Kazan and Hiraga Gennai. All told, the Tokugawa period was arguably the high-water mark of Japan’s long cultural traditions.\nThis ambitious work provides a comprehensive review of the distinctive culture that emerged in the limited space of the Tokugawa period’s 250 years and the narrow confines of Japan. As such, it stands at the forefront of comparative cultural studies and points the way to new insights. This definitive volume is the culmination of a lifetime of work by a scholar whose research on the Tokugawa era has been recognized with awards from, inter alia, the Japan Art Academy and the Japan Academy.

Pax Tokugawana

Arts & Photography

Haga, Tōru

History & Criticism

Sugihara Chiune: The Duty and Humanity of an Intelligence Officer

Shiraishi Masaaki

Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy- from Serendipity to Cure

Honjo Tasuku

The Winding Road to Discovering iPS Cells- The Life of Yamanaka Shinya

Yamanaka Shinya

Noh As Living Art- Inside Japan's Oldest Theatrical Tradition

Yasuda Noboru

Japanese Art in Perspective: East-West Encounters

Takashina, Shuji

Japan’s five-thousand yen banknote will have a new face as of 2024, and that face is Tsuda Umeko (1864–1929), who devoted her life to the education of Japanese women. Umeko founded one of Japan’s first schools of higher education for women—a school that later became Tsuda College. Half a century after her death, an old trunk in the college attic was found to contain hundreds of personal letters written by Umeko to her foster mother in America, Adeline Lanman.\nUmeko had been sent to America as a young child to learn English and the ways of Western civilization. She returned to Japan at eighteen, completely Americanized and a stranger in her own country. The “attic letters” are a fascinating chronicle of her repatriation to late-19th century Japan, and of her encounters with iconic figures such as Japan’s first prime minister Itō Hirobumi.\nThis book shows how the passionate young girl metamorphosed into one of Japan’s foremost educators, by following the thoughts of Umeko herself as she recorded them in her letters. The story is told by Ōba Minako, a writer who graduated from Tsuda College and was herself a returnee to Japan after a decade in the United States.\n"Tsuda Umeko" was awarded the 42nd Yomiuri Prize for Literature (1990).

Reflections on Tsuda Umeko- Pioneer of Women's Education in Japan

Oba, Minako

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