Rearranging the Landscape of the Gods : The Politics of a Pilgrimage Site in Japan, 1573-1912
By Sarah Thal
University of Chicago Press, 2005, 344 pages
Thal’s book is a study of the Kotohira Shrine in Shikoku, which was also known as the Konpira Temple before the Meiji Restoration. She seeks to explain how it and the […]
On Bullshit
By Harry G. Frankfurt
Princeton University Press, 2005, 80 pages
The buzz surrounding this book is just a little over the top. It seems like everyone is talking about the book, and it has even been featured on 60 Minutes and The Daily Show. I also saw it discussed in a Financial Times column. […]
Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan
By Alex Kerr
Hill and Wang, 2001, 432 pages.
Dogs and Demons more accurately describes the Japan I know and lived in better than any book I’ve read. The Japan I know is a very ugly place, with concrete rivers and beaches, ugly dilapidated buildings, and […]
The Modern Epidemic: A History of Tuberculosis in Japan
By William Johnston
Harvard University Press, 1995, 432 pages.
Tuberculosis is a very serious disease. In human history it has killed millions and will continue to kill many more. In the industrialized world it is considered a very serious disease of the past. That is, if […]
Kafka on the Shore
By Haruki Murakami
Translated by Philip Gabriel
Knopf, 2005, 436 pages.
海辺のカフカ
村上春樹著者
新潮社、2002年、2冊
“Kafka on the Shore” is the story of 15 year old Kafka Tamura, who runs away from his father and his home in Tokyo, and finds his way to a small private library in Takamatsu, in Shikoku. But “Kafka on the Shore” is […]