A Tokyo Anthology

Download A Tokyo Anthology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824855906
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Tokyo Anthology by : Sumie Jones

Download or read book A Tokyo Anthology written by Sumie Jones and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The city of Tokyo, renamed after the Meiji Restoration, developed an urban culture that was a dynamic integration of Edo’s highly developed traditions and Meiji renovations, some of which reflected the influence of Western culture. This wide-ranging anthology—including fictional and dramatic works, essays, newspaper articles, political manifestos, and cartoons—tells the story of how the city’s literature and arts grew out of an often chaotic and sometimes paradoxical political environment to move toward a consummate Japanese “modernity.” Tokyo’s downtown audience constituted a market that demanded visuality and spectacle, while the educated uptown favored written, realistic literature. The literary products resulting from these conflicting consumer bases were therefore hybrid entities of old and new technologies. A Tokyo Anthology guides the reader through Japanese literature’s journey from classical to spoken, pictocentric to logocentric, and fantastic to realistic—making the novel the dominant form of modern literature. The volume highlights not only familiar masterpieces but also lesser known examples chosen from the city’s downtown life and counterculture. Imitating the custom of creative artists of the Edo period, scholars from the United States, Canada, England, and Japan have collaborated in order to produce this intriguing sampling of Meiji works in the best possible translations. The editors have sought out the most reliable first editions of texts, also reproducing most of their original illustrations. With few exceptions the translations presented here are the first in the English language. This rich anthology will be welcomed by students and scholars of Japan studies and by a wide general audience interested in Japan’s popular culture, media culture, and literature in translation.

The Book of Tokyo

Download The Book of Tokyo PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Comma Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Book of Tokyo by : Hideo Furukawa

Download or read book The Book of Tokyo written by Hideo Furukawa and published by Comma Press. This book was released on 2015-06-12 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A shape-shifter arrives at Tokyo harbour in human form, set to embark on an unstoppable rampage through the city’s train network… A young woman is accompanied home one night by a reclusive student, and finds herself lured into a flat full of eerie Egyptian artefacts… A man suspects his young wife’s obsession with picnicking every weekend in the city’s parks hides a darker motive… At first, Tokyo appears in these stories as it does to many outsiders: a city of bewildering scale, awe-inspiring modernity, peculiar rules, unknowable secrets and, to some extent, danger. Characters observe their fellow citizens from afar, hesitant to stray from their daily routines to engage with them. But Tokyo being the city it is, random encounters inevitably take place – a naïve book collector, mistaken for a French speaker, is drawn into a world he never knew existed; a woman seeking psychiatric help finds herself in a taxi with an older man wanting to share his own peculiar revelations; a depressed divorcee accepts an unexpected lunch invitation to try Thai food for the very first time… The result in each story is a small but crucial change in perspective, a sampling of the unexpected yet simple pleasure of other people’s company. As one character puts it, ‘The world is full of delicious things, you know.’

An Edo Anthology

Download An Edo Anthology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824837762
Total Pages : 534 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis An Edo Anthology by : Sumie Jones

Download or read book An Edo Anthology written by Sumie Jones and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2013-02-28 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the eighteenth century, Edo (today’s Tokyo) became the world’s largest city, quickly surpassing London and Paris. Its rapidly expanding population and flourishing economy encouraged the development of a thriving popular culture. Innovative and ambitious young authors and artists soon began to look beyond the established categories of poetry, drama, and prose, banding together to invent completely new literary forms that focused on the fun and charm of Edo. Their writings were sometimes witty, wild, and bawdy, and other times sensitive, wise, and polished. Now some of these high spirited works, celebrating the rapid changes, extraordinary events, and scandalous news of the day, have been collected in an accessible volume highlighting the city life of Edo. Edo’s urban consumers demanded visual presentations and performances in all genres. Novelties such as books with text and art on the same page were highly sought after, as were kabuki plays and the polychrome prints that often shared the same themes, characters, and even jokes. Popular interest in sex and entertainment focused attention on the theatre district and “pleasure quarters,” which became the chief backdrops for the literature and arts of the period. Gesaku, or “playful writing,” invented in the mid-eighteenth century, satirized the government and samurai behavior while parodying the classics. These entertaining new styles bred genres that appealed to the masses. Among the bestsellers were lengthy serialized heroic epics, revenge dramas, ghost and monster stories, romantic melodramas, and comedies that featured common folk. An Edo Anthology offers distinctive and engaging examples of this broad range of genres and media. It includes both well-known masterpieces and unusual examples from the city’s counterculture, some popular with intellectuals, others with wider appeal. Some of the translations presented here are the first available in English and many are based on first editions. In bringing together these important and expertly translated Edo texts in a single volume, this collection will be warmly welcomed by students and interested readers of Japanese literature and popular culture.

A Kamigata Anthology

Download A Kamigata Anthology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824882636
Total Pages : 545 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Kamigata Anthology by : Sumie Jones

Download or read book A Kamigata Anthology written by Sumie Jones and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2020-02-29 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first of a three-volume anthology of Edo- and Meiji-era urban literature that includes An Edo Anthology: Literature from Japan’s Mega-City, 1750–1850 and A Tokyo Anthology: Literature from Japan’s Modern Metropolis, 1850–1920. The present work focuses on the years in which bourgeois culture first emerged in Japan, telling the story of the rising commoner arts of Kamigata, or the “Upper Regions” of Kyoto and Osaka, which harkened back to Japan’s middle ages even as they rebelled against and competed with that earlier era. Both cities prided themselves on being models and trendsetters in all cultural matters, whether arts, crafts, books, or food. The volume also shows how elements of popular arts that germinated during this period ripened into the full-blown consumer culture of the late-Edo period. The tendency to imagine Japan’s modernity as a creation of Western influence since the mid-nineteenth century is still strong, particularly outside Japan studies. A Kamigata Anthology challenges such assumptions by illustrating the flourishing phenomenon of Japan’s movement into its own modernity through a selection of the best examples from the period, including popular genres such as haikai poetry, handmade picture scrolls, travel guidebooks, kabuki and joruri plays, prose narratives of contemporary life, and jokes told by professional entertainers. Well illustrated with prints from popular books of the time and hand scrolls and standing screens containing poems and commentaries, the entertaining and vibrant translations put a spotlight on texts currently unavailable in English.

Rainbow in the Desert

Download Rainbow in the Desert PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : M.E. Sharpe
ISBN 13 : 9780765618269
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (182 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rainbow in the Desert by :

Download or read book Rainbow in the Desert written by and published by M.E. Sharpe. This book was released on with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Tokyo Stories

Download Tokyo Stories PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520217861
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (22 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tokyo Stories by : Lawrence Rogers

Download or read book Tokyo Stories written by Lawrence Rogers and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2002-06-27 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of translated stories about life in Tokyo throughout most of the twentieth century.

Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology

Download Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317466977
Total Pages : 592 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology by : Hiroaki Sato

Download or read book Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology written by Hiroaki Sato and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, Japanese women have excelled in poetry - from the folk songs of the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) compiled in 712 and the court poetry of the 9th to the 14th centuries, on through the age of haikai and kanshi to the 19th century, into the contemporary period when books of women's poems have created a sensation.This anthology presents examples of the work of more than 100 Japanese women poets, arranged chronologically, and of all the major verse forms: choka, tanka, haikai (haiku), kanshi (verse written in Chinese), and free verse. The poems describe not just seasonal changes and the vagaries of love - which form the thematic core of traditional Japanese poetry - but also the devastations of war, childbirth, conflicts between child-rearing and work, experiences as refugees, experiences as non-Japanese residents in Japan, and more.Sections of poetry open with headnotes, and the editor has provided explanations of terms and references for those unfamiliar with the Japanese language. Other useful tools include a glossary of poetic terms, a chronology, and a bibliography that points the reader toward other works by and about these poets. There is no comparable collection available in English.Students and anyone who appreciates poetry and Japanese culture will treasure this magnificent anthology. Editor and translator Hiroaki Sato is a past winner of the PEN America translator prize and the Japan-United States Friendship Commission's 1999 literary translation award.

Ikkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology

Download Ikkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781922169402
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (694 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ikkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology by : Sonja Arntzen

Download or read book Ikkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology written by Sonja Arntzen and published by . This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arntzen's classic study and select translation of the Japanese medieval Zen poetry Crazy Cloud Anthology (Kyōunshū 狂雲集) by the Buddhist monk Ikkyū 一休 (1394-1481) is a carefully revised edition of the 1986 University of Tokyo Press edition which was issued as part of the Japanese series of the UNESCO collection of representative works. This Quirin Press Edition offers the following features: - Fully revised, updated, and expanded by the author. - Contains additional selected poems from Ikkyū's 一休 Kyōunshū 狂雲集 with text in Chinese script, and Japanese kundoku reading in Romanization. - Carefully typeset and proofed for typographical errors and inconsistencies. - Includes a new Preface and Afterword. Keywords: Zen poetry, Japanese -- Translations into English. Ikkyū 一休, 1394-1481. Buddhist monks -- Japan. Ikkyū Sōjun 一休宗純 (1394-1481), Zen monk and poet, is an unconventional figure in Japanese literary history. An eccentric personality, he raged at the corruption and hypocrisy of the wealthy Zen monastic system of his day. Defiantly living outside that institution for much of his life, his community included artists, actors, and women entertainers/ brothel girls. Many of his poems have sexual desire at their core, engaging with it as a kōan. Authentic Zen master as well as sensual lyricist, Ikkyū created some of the most original poetry in the entire Zen tradition. Translations from the Crazy Cloud Anthology, or Kyōunshū 狂雲集, Ikkyū's major collection of poetry in literary Chinese, form the core of this work. Ikkyū's biography and historical context of medieval Japan are outlined in the first part of the introduction. The analysis sections provide a portal for the reader to enter the world of the poems by demonstrating how Ikkyū's poetry produces experiences of Zen most often through the dialectical use of allusion. Ikkyū's non-conformism in response to a troubled, uncertain time will strike a sympathetic chord in the modern reader. Students of Japanese literature and religion, culture and history will find Ikkyū an engaging figure. And lovers of poetry will be inspired by his candour and free spirit. Originally published by University of Tokyo Press in 1986 as part of the Japanese series of the UNESCO collection of representative works, the present Quirin Press edition both augments and revises this seminal exploration of Ikkyū's key poetic output.

Lafcadio Hearn's Japan

Download Lafcadio Hearn's Japan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1462900100
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (629 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Lafcadio Hearn's Japan by : Lafcadio Hearn

Download or read book Lafcadio Hearn's Japan written by Lafcadio Hearn and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-04-11 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of writings from Lafcaido Hern paints a rare and fascinating picture of pre-modern Japan Over a century after his death, author, translator, and educator Lafcaido Hearn remains one of the best-known Westerners ever to make Japan his home. Almost more Japanese than the Japanese--"to think with their thoughts" was his aim--his prolific writings on things Japanese were instrumental in introducing Japanese culture to the West. In this masterful anthology, Donald Richie shows that Hearn was first and foremost a reliable and enthusiastic observer, who faithfully recorded a detailed account of the people, customs, and culture of late nineteen-century Japan. Opening and closing with excerpts from Hearn's final books, Richie's astute selection from among "over 4,000 printed pages" not including correspondence and other writing, also reveals Hearn's later, more sober and reflective attitudes to the things that he observed and wrote about. Part One, "The Land," chronicles Hearn's early years when he wrote primarily about the appearance of his adopted home. Part Two, "The People," records the author's later years when he came to terms with the Japanese themselves. In this anthology, Richie, more gifted in capturing the essence of a person on the page than any other foreign writer living in Japan, has picked out the best of Hearn's evocations. Select writings include: The Chief City of the Province of the Gods Three Popular Ballads In the Cave of the Children's Ghosts Bits of Life and Death A Street Singer Kimiko On A Bridge

Traditional Japanese Literature

Download Traditional Japanese Literature PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231157304
Total Pages : 601 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Traditional Japanese Literature by : Haruo Shirane

Download or read book Traditional Japanese Literature written by Haruo Shirane and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditional Japanese Literature features a rich array of works dating from the very beginnings of the Japanese written language through the evolution of Japan's noted aristocratic court and warrior cultures. It contains stunning new translations of such canonical texts as The Tales of the Heike as well as works and genres previously ignored by scholars and unknown to general readers.

The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays

Download The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231537557
Total Pages : 557 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays by : Steven D. Carter

Download or read book The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays written by Steven D. Carter and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-21 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A court lady of the Heian era, an early modern philologist, a novelist of the Meiji period, and a physicist at Tokyo University. What do they have in common, besides being Japanese? They all wrote zuihitsu—a uniquely Japanese literary genre encompassing features of the nonfiction or personal essay and miscellaneous musings. For sheer range of subject matter and breadth of perspective, the zuihitsu is unrivaled in the Japanese literary tradition, which may explain why few examples have been translated into English. The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays presents a representative selection of more than one hundred zuihitsu from a range of historical periods written by close to fifty authors—from well-known figures, such as Matsuo Basho, Natsume Soseki, and Koda Aya, to such writers as Tachibana Nankei and Dekune Tatsuro, whose works appear here for the first time in English. Writers speak on the experience of coming down with a cold, the aesthetics of tea, the physiology and psychology of laughter, the demands of old age, standards of morality, the way to raise children, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the thoughts that accompany sleeplessness, the anxiety of undergoing surgery, and the unexpected benefits of training a myna bird to say "Thank you." These essays also provide moving descriptions of snowy landscapes, foggy London, the famous cherry blossoms of Ueno Park, and the appeal of rainy vistas, and relate the joys and troubles of everyone from desperate samurai to filial children to ailing cats.

Modern Japanese Stories

Download Modern Japanese Stories PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780804812269
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Modern Japanese Stories by : Ivan I. Morris

Download or read book Modern Japanese Stories written by Ivan I. Morris and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

A Tokyo Anthology

Download A Tokyo Anthology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824855892
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Tokyo Anthology by : Sumie Jones

Download or read book A Tokyo Anthology written by Sumie Jones and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The city of Tokyo, renamed after the Meiji Restoration, developed an urban culture that was a dynamic integration of Edo’s highly developed traditions and Meiji renovations, some of which reflected the influence of Western culture. This wide-ranging anthology—including fictional and dramatic works, essays, newspaper articles, political manifestos, and cartoons—tells the story of how the city’s literature and arts grew out of an often chaotic and sometimes paradoxical political environment to move toward a consummate Japanese “modernity.” Tokyo’s downtown audience constituted a market that demanded visuality and spectacle, while the educated uptown favored written, realistic literature. The literary products resulting from these conflicting consumer bases were therefore hybrid entities of old and new technologies. A Tokyo Anthology guides the reader through Japanese literature’s journey from classical to spoken, pictocentric to logocentric, and fantastic to realistic—making the novel the dominant form of modern literature. The volume highlights not only familiar masterpieces but also lesser known examples chosen from the city’s downtown life and counterculture. Imitating the custom of creative artists of the Edo period, scholars from the United States, Canada, England, and Japan have collaborated in order to produce this intriguing sampling of Meiji works in the best possible translations. The editors have sought out the most reliable first editions of texts, also reproducing most of their original illustrations. With few exceptions the translations presented here are the first in the English language. This rich anthology will be welcomed by students and scholars of Japan studies and by a wide general audience interested in Japan’s popular culture, media culture, and literature in translation.

The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Drama

Download The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Drama PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231128304
Total Pages : 738 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Drama by : J. Thomas Rimer

Download or read book The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Drama written by J. Thomas Rimer and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-29 with total page 738 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology is the first to survey the full range of modern Japanese drama and make available JapanÕs best and most representative twentieth- and early-twenty-first-century works in one volume. Divided into six chronological sections: ÒThe Age of Taisho DramaÓ; The Tsukiji Tsukiji Little Theater and Its AftermathÓ; ÒWartime and Postwar DramaÓ; ÒThe 1960s and Underground TheaterÓ; ÒThe 1980s and BeyondÓ; and ÒPopular Theater,Ó the collection opens with a comprehensive introduction to Meiji period drama and provides an informal yet complete history of twentieth-century Japanese theater for students, scholars, instructors, and dramatists. The collection features a mix of original and previously published translations of works, among them plays by such writers as Masamune Hakucho (The Couple Next Door), Enchi Fumiko (Restless Night in Late Spring), Abe Kobo (The Man Who Turned into a Stick), Morimoto Kaoru (A WomanÕs Life), Kara Juro (Two Women), Terayama Shuji (Poison Boy), Noda Hideki (Poems for Sale), and Mishima Yukio (The Sardine SellerÕs Net of Love). Leading translators include Donald Keene, J. Thomas Rimer, Mitsuyra Mori, M. Cody Poulton, John Gillespie, Mari Boyd, and Brian Powell. Each section features an introduction to the developments and character of the period, notes on the playsÕ productions, and photographs of their stage performances. The volume complements any course on modern Japanese literature and any study of modern drama in China, Korea, or other Asian or contemporary Western nation.

Fragments of a City

Download Fragments of a City PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9784789006637
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (66 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Fragments of a City by : Paul Waley

Download or read book Fragments of a City written by Paul Waley and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

For Dignity, Justice, and Revolution

Download For Dignity, Justice, and Revolution PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022603478X
Total Pages : 441 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis For Dignity, Justice, and Revolution by : Heather Bowen-Struyk

Download or read book For Dignity, Justice, and Revolution written by Heather Bowen-Struyk and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-01-14 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A significant contribution to the body of English language scholarship and translation of Japanese proletarian literature. Highly recommended.” —Choice Fiction created by and for the working class emerged worldwide in the early twentieth century as a response to rapid modernization, dramatic inequality, and imperial expansion. In Japan, literary youth, men and women, sought to turn their imaginations and craft to tackling the ensuing injustices, with results that captured both middle-class and worker-farmer readers. This anthology is a landmark introduction to Japanese proletarian literature from that period. Contextualized by introductory essays, forty expertly translated stories touch on topics like perilous factories, predatory bosses, ethnic discrimination, and the myriad indignities of poverty. Together, they show how even intensely personal issues form a pattern of oppression. Fostering labor consciousness as part of an international leftist arts movement, these writers were also challenging the institution of modern literature itself. This anthology demonstrates the vitality of the “red decade” long buried in modern Japanese literary history. “The thread of thought underlying the stories . . . is, as Edmund Wilson eloquently established in To the Finland Station, one of the fundamental components of our contemporary consciousness.” —Kyoto Journal “An essential guidebook for navigating twentieth-century Japan’s literary and political terrain.” —Edward Fowler, University of California, Irvine, author of San’ya Blues: Laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo “Excellent translations of excellent writers.” —John Whitter Treat, Yale University, author of The Rise and Fall of Modern Japanese Literature “Lucidly structured. . . . The editors have also made the welcome decision to retain self-censored and suppressed passages.” —Japan Times “Engaging and in-depth.” —Japan Studies

Tokyo

Download Tokyo PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520354907
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (23 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tokyo by : Hidenobu Jinnai

Download or read book Tokyo written by Hidenobu Jinnai and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-12-22 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tokyo: destroyed by the earthquake of 1923 and again by the firebombing of World War II. Does anything remain of the old city? The internationally known Japanese architectural historian Jinnai Hidenobu set out on foot to rediscover the city of Tokyo. Armed with old maps, he wandered through back alleys and lanes, trying to experience the city's space as it had been lived by earlier residents. He found that, despite an almost completely new cityscape, present-day inhabitants divide Tokyo's space in much the same way that their ancestors did two hundred years before. Jinnai's holistic perspective is enhanced by his detailing of how natural, topographical features were incorporated into the layout of the city. A variety of visual documents (maps from the Tokugawa and Meiji periods, building floorplans, woodblock prints, photographs) supplement his observations. While an important work for architects and historians, this unusual book will also attract armchair travelers and anyone interested in the symbolic uses of space. (A translation of Tokyo no kûkan jinruigaku.)