Category: Reviews

Review—Japan’s Quest for Stability in Southeast Asia: Navigating the Turning Points in Postwar Asia

January 25, 2021
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How Japan navigated independence movements and revolutions in Southeast Asia during a fractious postwar period.

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Review by Chad Kohalyk A rising China and receding America has Japan once again focused on the confluence of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Yet the recent Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) vision — to promote a new regional security environment anchored by India, Australia, Japan, and the United States — is in stark contrast More…

Review—Hōjōki: A Hermit’s Hut as Metaphor

January 8, 2021
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Japanese Buddhist literature is filled with the struggle to overcome the pain of transience.

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The Hōjōki, written in 1212 by the Buddhist monk Kamo no Chōmei, is one of the most beloved works of medieval literature in Japan.

Review—From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia

January 3, 2021
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Asian intellectuals fighting western colonialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries offer points that we can learn from today

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Pankaj Mishra delivers a sweeping account of the intellectual history of anti-colonial thought in the early years of Western colonialism. He builds this narrative through mini-biographies of two lesser-known intellectuals: Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī and Liang Qichao. These early thinkers diagnosed the challenge of Western imperialism…

Review—The Forgotten Japanese

December 17, 2020
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A well-known ethnographer in Japan reveals voluminous details about countryside living before WWII.

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Miyamoto Tsuneichi, is author of many ethnographical books on Japanese society, but this is the only one I know of that has been translated into English (transl. Jeffrey Irish). Miyamoto is a well-known scholar and author in Japan. The Forgotten Japanese is a necessary read for anyone interested in Japanese lifestyles in the countryside from More…

Review—Japanese Death Poems

December 16, 2020
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An invaluable book for anyone interested in Japanese culture as well as poetry. — Amy Chavez

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Japanese Death Poems is one of those invaluable books for anyone interested in Japanese culture as well as poetry. The lengthy introduction alone is important for the plethora of information on the history of Japanese poetry and in particular, the death poem. From tanka to haiku, written by princes, court nobles, samurai, Buddhist monks and More…

Review—Japan in Asia: Post-Cold-War Diplomacy

December 8, 2020
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Is Asia becoming one common, shared culture?

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Tanaka Akihiko suggests it may be possible to say that a common culture—what might be called an ‘East Asian way of life’—is emerging, especially among the East Asian urban middle class.

Review—Finding the Heart Sutra by Alex Kerr

December 1, 2020

Powerful, mystical and concise, the Heart Sutra is believed to contain the condensed essence of all Buddhist wisdom.

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Kerr has proven an excellent student of friendship and fellowship and has himself become a vessel of wisdom which he now passes on to us readers.

Review—The Territory of Japan: Its History and Legal Basis

November 7, 2020
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Serita Kentaro retraces and analyzes the history of negotiations over the Northern Territories, Takeshima and Senkaku Islands.

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Japan’s three territorial disputes with neighbouring countries — the Northern Territories (Russia), Takeshima (Korea), and the Senkaku Islands (China) — all arose in the post-war period. The battle over them is being waged not by guns and butter, but through peaceful means in the courts of law. Less dangerous though this might be, it is no less complicated.

Review—My Heart Sutra: A World in 260 Characters

November 2, 2020
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The Heart Sutra is the most widely read, chanted, and copied text in East Asian Buddhism. Schodt’s journey takes him to China, America and Japan.

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Review By Amy Chavez All over Asia the Heart Sutra soothes minds and eases the burdens people encounter in their every day lives. In Japan, one might catch its rising timbre across a graveyard as a Buddhist Priest chants to the departed in a ceremony honoring the family’s ancestors. A tourist might stumble upon followers More…