Living Carelessly In Tokyo And Elsewhere

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Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere

Author : John Nathan
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416593780
Total Pages : 339 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere by : John Nathan

Download or read book Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere written by John Nathan and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-03-18 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Nathan arrived in Tokyo in 1961 fresh out of Harvard College, bringing with him no practical experience, no more than two connections, no prospects, and little else to recommend him but stoic, unflappable pluck. Japan at that time was still in the shadow of the Occupation, and only a handful of foreigners were studying the country seriously. Two years later, Nathan became the first American to pass the entrance exams to the best school in Japan, the University of Tokyo. He went on to translate two of Japan's greatest contemporary writers, Yukio Mishima and Nobel laureate Kenzaburõ Õe, and direct several series of films in and about Japan in collaboration with world-famous directors and businesses; earn an advanced degree at Harvard and a professorship at Princeton; and become a Hollywood screenwriter. Nathan was given unprecedented access to the inner sanctum of Sony for his book Sony: The Private Life, and he explored the damaged psyche of postbubble Japan in his acclaimed Japan Unbound. During his decades of passionate engagement with Japan, Nathan became close friends with many of the most gifted people in the land -- politicians and business leaders as well as painters, novelists, directors, rock stars, and movie stars -- and was privileged to travel, in their very special company, inside domains of Japanese life not normally open to foreigners then or now. In his unique chronicle of that journey, Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere, he details the adventures sublime, profane, and uproarious, many of a distinctly Japanese nature, that characterized his career, which was singular in its success as much as in its chaos. Along the way, he brings the most exciting era in recent Japanese history vividly into focus with wry humor, penetrating insight, and pathos. John Nathan is not the only foreigner to have developed a rich, full, deeply nuanced understanding of Japan. But his experiences are certainly extraordinary and in fact irreproducible, and his memoir is the most personally satisfying story yet told of Japan (and elsewhere). From Nathan's lifetime of wisdom, compassion, and brazen resolve, we learn the value of traveling within our own mental and emotional borders as well as without the many places we call home.

Japan Unbound

Author : John Nathan
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 9780618138944
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (389 download)

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Book Synopsis Japan Unbound by : John Nathan

Download or read book Japan Unbound written by John Nathan and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2004 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the cultural changes that have taken place in Japan throughout the last decade as demonstrated by various economic groups and institutions, predicting what Japan's changing world role will mean for the future.

A Tokyo Romance

Author : Ian Buruma
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101981423
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis A Tokyo Romance by : Ian Buruma

Download or read book A Tokyo Romance written by Ian Buruma and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic memoir of self-invention in a strange land: Ian Buruma's unflinching account of his amazing journey into the heart of Tokyo's underground culture as a young man in the 1970's When Ian Buruma arrived in Tokyo in 1975, Japan was little more than an idea in his mind, a fantasy of a distant land. A sensitive misfit in the world of his upper middleclass youth, what he longed for wasn’t so much the exotic as the raw, unfiltered humanity he had experienced in Japanese theater performances and films, witnessed in Amsterdam and Paris. One particular theater troupe, directed by a poet of runaways, outsiders, and eccentrics, was especially alluring, more than a little frightening, and completely unforgettable. If Tokyo was anything like his plays, Buruma knew that he had to join the circus as soon as possible. Tokyo was an astonishment. Buruma found a feverish and surreal metropolis where nothing was understated—neon lights, crimson lanterns, Japanese pop, advertising jingles, and cabarets. He encountered a city in the midst of an economic boom where everything seemed new, aside from the isolated temple or shrine that had survived the firestorms and earthquakes that had levelled the city during the past century. History remained in fragments: the shapes of wounded World War II veterans in white kimonos, murky old bars that Mishima had cruised in, and the narrow alleys where street girls had once flitted. Buruma’s Tokyo, though, was a city engaged in a radical transformation. And through his adventures in the world of avant garde theater, his encounters with carnival acts, fashion photographers, and moments on-set with Akira Kurosawa, Buruma underwent a radical transformation of his own. For an outsider, unattached to the cultural burdens placed on the Japanese, this was a place to be truly free. A Tokyo Romance is a portrait of a young artist and the fantastical city that shaped him. With his signature acuity, Ian Buruma brilliantly captures the historical tensions between east and west, the cultural excitement of 1970s Tokyo, and the dilemma of the gaijin in Japanese society, free, yet always on the outside. The result is a timeless story about the desire to transgress boundaries: cultural, artistic, and sexual.

Home Life in Tokyo

Author : Jukichi Inouye
Publisher : [s.l. : s.n.], 1910 (Tokyo : Tokyo Print. Company)
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Home Life in Tokyo by : Jukichi Inouye

Download or read book Home Life in Tokyo written by Jukichi Inouye and published by [s.l. : s.n.], 1910 (Tokyo : Tokyo Print. Company). This book was released on 1910 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

Author : Yukio Mishima
Publisher : ببلومانيا للنشر والتوزيع
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 150 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by : Yukio Mishima

Download or read book The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea written by Yukio Mishima and published by ببلومانيا للنشر والتوزيع. This book was released on 2024-10-28 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It was the sea that made me begin thinking secretly about love more than anything else; you know, a love worth dying for, or a love that consumes you. To a man locked up in a steel ship all the time, the sea is too much like a woman... Things like her lulls and storms, or her caprice... are all obvious." The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea tells the tale of a band of savage thirteen-year-old boys who reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call "objectivity." When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealize the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic. They regard their disappointment in him as an act of betrayal on his part, and react violently.

A Tokyo Romance

Author : Ian Buruma
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101981431
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis A Tokyo Romance by : Ian Buruma

Download or read book A Tokyo Romance written by Ian Buruma and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic memoir of self-invention in a strange land: Ian Buruma's unflinching account of his amazing journey into the heart of Tokyo's underground culture as a young man in the 1970's When Ian Buruma arrived in Tokyo in 1975, Japan was little more than an idea in his mind, a fantasy of a distant land. A sensitive misfit in the world of his upper middleclass youth, what he longed for wasn’t so much the exotic as the raw, unfiltered humanity he had experienced in Japanese theater performances and films, witnessed in Amsterdam and Paris. One particular theater troupe, directed by a poet of runaways, outsiders, and eccentrics, was especially alluring, more than a little frightening, and completely unforgettable. If Tokyo was anything like his plays, Buruma knew that he had to join the circus as soon as possible. Tokyo was an astonishment. Buruma found a feverish and surreal metropolis where nothing was understated—neon lights, crimson lanterns, Japanese pop, advertising jingles, and cabarets. He encountered a city in the midst of an economic boom where everything seemed new, aside from the isolated temple or shrine that had survived the firestorms and earthquakes that had levelled the city during the past century. History remained in fragments: the shapes of wounded World War II veterans in white kimonos, murky old bars that Mishima had cruised in, and the narrow alleys where street girls had once flitted. Buruma’s Tokyo, though, was a city engaged in a radical transformation. And through his adventures in the world of avant garde theater, his encounters with carnival acts, fashion photographers, and moments on-set with Akira Kurosawa, Buruma underwent a radical transformation of his own. For an outsider, unattached to the cultural burdens placed on the Japanese, this was a place to be truly free. A Tokyo Romance is a portrait of a young artist and the fantastical city that shaped him. With his signature acuity, Ian Buruma brilliantly captures the historical tensions between east and west, the cultural excitement of 1970s Tokyo, and the dilemma of the gaijin in Japanese society, free, yet always on the outside. The result is a timeless story about the desire to transgress boundaries: cultural, artistic, and sexual.

The Life of Saul Bellow

Author : Zachary Leader
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 1101875178
Total Pages : 809 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis The Life of Saul Bellow by : Zachary Leader

Download or read book The Life of Saul Bellow written by Zachary Leader and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 809 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When this second volume of The Life of Saul Bellow opens, Bellow, at forty-nine, is at the pinnacle of American letters - rich, famous, critically acclaimed. The expected trajectory is one of decline: volume 1, rise; volume 2, fall. Bellow never fell, producing some of his greatest fiction (Mr Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift, all his best stories), winning two more National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and the Nobel Prize. At eighty, he wrote his last story; at eighty-five, he wrote Ravelstein. In this volume, his life away from the desk, including his love life, is if anything more dramatic than in volume 1. In the public sphere, he is embroiled in controversy over foreign affairs, race, religion, education, social policy, the state of culture, the fate of the novel. Bellow's relations with women were often fraught. In the 1960s he was compulsively promiscuous (even as he inveighed against sexual liberation). The women he pursued, the ones he married and those with whom he had affairs, were intelligent, attractive and strong-willed. At eighty-five he fathered his fourth child, a daughter, with his fifth wife. His three sons, whom he loved, could be as volatile as he was, and their relations with their father were often troubled. Although an early and engaged supporter of civil rights, in the second half of his life Bellow was angered by the excesses of Black Power. An opponent of cultural relativism, he exercised great influence in literary and intellectual circles, advising a host of institutes and foundations, helping those he approved of, hindering those of whom he disapproved. In making his case, he could be cutting and rude; he could also be charming, loyal, and funny. Bellow's heroic energy and will are clear to the very end of his life. His immense achievement and its cost, to himself and others, are also clear.

The Life of Saul Bellow, Volume 2

Author : Zachary Leader
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 1101910186
Total Pages : 818 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis The Life of Saul Bellow, Volume 2 by : Zachary Leader

Download or read book The Life of Saul Bellow, Volume 2 written by Zachary Leader and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 818 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume in the life of literary giant Saul Bellow, vividly capturing a personal life that was always tumultuous and career that never ceased being triumphant. Bellow, at forty-nine, is at the pinnacle of American letters--rich, famous, critically acclaimed. The expected trajectory is one of decline: volume 1, rise; volume 2, fall. Bellow never fell, producing in the latter half of his life some of his greatest fiction (Mr. Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift), winning two more National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and the Nobel Prize. At eighty, he wrote his last story; at eighty-five, he wrote Ravelstein. In this volume, his life away from the desk, including his love life, is if anything more dramatic than in the first. In the public sphere, he is embroiled in controversy over foreign affairs, race, religion, education, social policy, the state of culture, the fate of the novel. In this stunning second volume, Zachary Leader shows that Bellow's heroic energy and will were present to the very end of his life. His immense achievement and its cost, to himself and others, continue to be worth the examination of this vivid work of literary scholarship.

Yukio Mishima

Author : Damian Flanagan
Publisher : Reaktion Books
ISBN 13 : 1780234198
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (82 download)

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Book Synopsis Yukio Mishima by : Damian Flanagan

Download or read book Yukio Mishima written by Damian Flanagan and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most internationally acclaimed Japanese author of the twentieth century, Yukio Mishima (1925–70) was a prime candidate for the Nobel Prize. But the prolific author shocked the world in 1970 when he attempted a coup d’état that ended in his suicide by ritual disembowelment. In this radically new analysis of Mishima’s extraordinary life, Damian Flanagan deviates from the stereotypical depiction of a right-wing nationalist and aesthete, presenting the author instead as a man in thrall to the modern world while also plagued by hidden neuroses and childhood trauma that pushed him toward his explosive final act. Flanagan argues that Mishima was a man obsessed with the concepts of time and “emperor,” and reveals how these were at the heart of his literature and life. Untangling the distortions in the writer’s memoirs, Flanagan traces the evolution of Mishima’s attempts to master and transform his sexuality and artistic persona. While often perceived as a solitary protest figure, Mishima, Flanagan shows, was very much in tune with postwar culture—he took up bodybuilding and became a model and actor in the 1950s, adopted the themes of contemporary political scandals in his work, courted English translators, and became influenced by the student protests and hippie subculture of the late 1960s. A groundbreaking reevaluation of the author, this succinct biography paints a revealing portrait of Mishima’s life and work.

Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan

Author : William D. Hoover
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 153811156X
Total Pages : 653 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (381 download)

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Book Synopsis Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan by : William D. Hoover

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan written by William D. Hoover and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-12-15 with total page 653 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan is a mix of the old and the new, traditional and modern, and old fashion and innovative. It has traveled the road to a modern destination without totally losing sight of its traditions and values. Although some in Japan lament the passing of old ways, Japan has held on to a reasonable amount of its traditions and values. This is easier to find in its arts and crafts and its literature and films as well as in its social habits. This book will introduce the broad sweep of people, events, and trends, including the successes and failures, of postwar Japan. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Japan.

Chronicles of My Life

Author : Donald Keene
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231144415
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Chronicles of My Life by : Donald Keene

Download or read book Chronicles of My Life written by Donald Keene and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I sometimes think that if, as the result of an accident, I were to lose my knowledge of Japanese, there would not be much left for me. Japanese, which at first had no connection with my ancestors, my literary tastes, or my awareness of myself as a person, has become the central element of my life." In this eloquent and wholly absorbing memoir, the renowned scholar Donald Keene shares more than half a century of his extraordinary adventures as a student of Japan. Keene begins with an account of his bittersweet childhood in New York; then he describes his initial encounters with Asia and Europe and the way in which World War II complicated that experience. He captures the sights, scents, and sounds of Japan as they first enveloped him, and talks of the unique travels and well-known intellectuals who later shaped the contours of his academic career. Keene traces the movement of his passions with delicacy and subtlety, deftly weaving his love for Japan into a larger narrative about identity and home and the circumstances that led a Westerner to find solace in a country on the opposite side of the world. Chronicles of My Life is not only a fascinating tale of two cultures colliding, but also a thrilling account of the emotions and experiences that connect us all, regardless of our individual origins.

The Paths of Zatoichi

Author : Jonathan Wroot
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1793601224
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (936 download)

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Book Synopsis The Paths of Zatoichi by : Jonathan Wroot

Download or read book The Paths of Zatoichi written by Jonathan Wroot and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Paths of Zatoichi charts the history and influence of the Japanese film and television franchise about Zatoichi the blind swordsman. The franchise is comprised of 29 films and 100 TV episodes (starring the famous Shintaro Katsu, who starred in 26 of the 29 feature films). They all follow the adventures of a blind masseur in medieval Japan, who wanders from village to village and often has to defend himself with his deadly sword skills. The first film was released in 1962 and the most recent in 2010. These dates demonstrate how the franchise can be used as a means of charting Japanese cinema history, via the shifts in production practices and audience preferences which affected the Zatoichi series and numerous other film and TV texts. Zatoichi signifies a huge area of Japanese film history which has largely been ignored in much existing scholarly research, and yet it can reveal much about the appeal of long-running characters, franchises, and their constant adaptation and influence within global popular culture.

Ivan Ramen

Author : Ivan Orkin
Publisher : Ten Speed Press
ISBN 13 : 1607744473
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (77 download)

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Book Synopsis Ivan Ramen by : Ivan Orkin

Download or read book Ivan Ramen written by Ivan Orkin and published by Ten Speed Press. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The end-all-be-all guide to ramen as told by the iconoclastic New Yorker whose unlikely life story led him to open Tokyo’s top ramen shop—featuring 44 recipes! “What Ivan Orkin does not know about noodles is not worth knowing.”—Anthony Bourdain While scores of people line up outside American ramen powerhouses like Momofuku Noodle Bar, chefs and food writers in the know revere Ivan Orkin's traditional Japanese take on ramen. Ivan Ramen chronicles Orkin's journey from dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker to the chef and owner of one of Japan's most-loved ramen restaurants, Ivan Ramen. His passion for ramen is contagious, his story fascinating, and his recipes to-die-for, including the complete, detailed recipe for his signature Shio Ramen, master recipes for the fundamental types of ramen, and some of his most popular ramen variations. Likely the only chef in the world with the knowledge and access to convey such a candid look at Japanese cuisine to a Western audience, Orkin is perfectly positioned to author what will be the ultimate English-language overview on ramen and all of its components. Ivan Ramen will inspire you to forge your own path, give you insight into Japanese culture, and leave you with a deep appreciation for what goes into a seemingly simple bowl of noodles.

On Familiar Terms

Author : Donald Keene
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780788164156
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (641 download)

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Book Synopsis On Familiar Terms by : Donald Keene

Download or read book On Familiar Terms written by Donald Keene and published by . This book was released on 1999-07-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the intimate and inspiring story of the man who has brought the works of Japan's greatest writers to worldwide attention through his highly acclaimed writings, translations, and anthologies. It is the deeply personal story of his remarkable life -- from a Depression-era childhood through his wartime experiences as a naval intelligence officer in the Pacific, his early enchantment with the now-vanished world of old Kyoto, and the diverse and lasting friendships he made in New York, Japan, and England. Includes illuminating anecdotes about such writers as Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe.

Under Foreign Eyes

Author : James King
Publisher : John Hunt Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1780990480
Total Pages : 350 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis Under Foreign Eyes by : James King

Download or read book Under Foreign Eyes written by James King and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the perception of Japan in the sixty films set there by gaijin (foreigners) —outsiders who almost always do not speak or read Japanese. My area of attention is directed to films depicting post World War II Japan and the Japanese, and, in many cases, films showing how foreigners in the same time frame respond to Japan. Why have a substantial number of films been set there by strangers? As a body of work, what do they tell us about contemporary Japan and about cinema? These films certainly provide a new cultural history of the West’s reaction to Japan, but, even more, they are constructions that demonstrate how the West gazes at Japan. As such, more information can often be derived about the onlookers as on those looked-upon.

Sōseki

Author : John Nathan
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231546971
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Sōseki by : John Nathan

Download or read book Sōseki written by John Nathan and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916) was the father of the modern novel in Japan, chronicling the plight of bourgeois characters caught between familiar modes of living and the onslaught of Western values and conventions. Yet even though generations of Japanese high school students have been expected to memorize passages from his novels and he is routinely voted the most important Japanese writer in national polls, he remains less familiar to Western readers than authors such as Kawabata, Tanizaki, and Mishima. In this biography, John Nathan provides a lucid and vivid account of a great writer laboring to create a remarkably original oeuvre in spite of the physical and mental illness that plagued him all his life. He traces Sōseki’s complex and contradictory character, offering rigorous close readings of Sōseki’s groundbreaking experiments with narrative strategies, irony, and multiple points of view as well as recounting excruciating hospital stays and recurrent attacks of paranoid delusion. Drawing on previously untranslated letters and diaries, published reminiscences, and passages from Sōseki’s fiction, Nathan renders intimate scenes of the writer’s life and distills a portrait of a tormented yet unflaggingly original author. The first full-length study of Sōseki in fifty years, Nathan’s biography elevates Sōseki to his rightful place as a great synthesizer of literary traditions and a brilliant chronicler of universal experience who, no less than his Western contemporaries, anticipated the modernism of the twentieth century.

Barney

Author : Michael Rosenthal
Publisher : Skyhorse
ISBN 13 : 1628726520
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (287 download)

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Book Synopsis Barney by : Michael Rosenthal

Download or read book Barney written by Michael Rosenthal and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An impetuous outsider who delighted in confronting American hypocrisy and prudery, Barney Rosset liberated American culture from the constraints of Puritanism. As the head of Grove Press, he single-handedly broke down the laws against obscenity, changing forever the nature of writing and publishing in this country. He brought to the reading public the European avant-garde, among them Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, radical political and literary voices such as Malcolm X, Che Guevara, and Jack Kerouac, steamy Victorian erotica, and banned writers such as D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and William Burroughs. His almost mystical belief in the sacrosanct nature of the First Amendment essentially demarcates the before and after of American publishing. Barney explores how Grove's landmark legal victories freed publishers to print what they wanted, and it traces Grove's central role in the countercultural ferment of the sixties and early seventies. Drawing on the Rosset papers at Columbia University and personal interviews with former Grove Press staff members, friends, and wives, it tells the fascinating story of this feisty, abrasive, visionary, and principled cultural revolutionary—a modern "Huckleberry Finn" according to Nobel Prize–winning novelist Kenzaburo Oe—who altered the reading habits of a nation.