Donald Keene
Author
Publisher
Columbia University Press
Pub. Date
[2002]
Language
English
Description
When Emperor Meiji began his rule in 1867, Japan was a splintered empire, dominated by the shogun and the daimyos, who ruled over the country's more than 250 decentralized domains and who were, in the main, cut off from the outside world, staunchly anti-foreign, and committed to the traditions of the past. Before long, the shogun surrendered to the emperor, a new constitution was adopted, and Japan emerged as a modern, industrialized state. Despite...
Author
Series
Everyman's library ; 169
Language
English
Description
The son of a poor rural priest becomes an acolyte at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Mizoguchi had built up an image of ideal beauty in his mind based on this Golden Pavilion; this ideal image causes him to feel disappointed in any supposed form of beauty, even the actual physical Golden Pavilion. He comes under the influence of Kashiwagi, a fellow student with a very bitter view of life.
Author
Series
Publisher
Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd
Pub. Date
[2013]
Language
English
Description
"As long ago as 1916 William Butler Yeats and Ezra Pound were excitedly discovering Noh plays. In 1922 Arthur Waley's fine translations appeared in a collection titled The Noh Plays of Japan. Since then, interest has grown steadily in this unique art form. At the heart of Noh lies the accidental encounter through which the workings of Fate are revealed. Often one of the persons is not what he or she seems to be: perhaps a ghost or a person fallen...
Author
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Pub. Date
1963.
Language
English
Description
Redoubtable middle-aged Kazu falls hopelessly in love with Yuken Noguchi, idealist politician of the Radical Party. The problem is, Noguchi cannot see practical politics for what it is: a form of ideological prostitution. Kazu, who has come up in the world the hard way, bears no illusions - Noguchi, for all his bookish wisdom, has a lot of them. Kazu is the proprietor of a Setsugoan, an After-Snow-Retreat, where she is in the habit of entertaining...
Author
Publisher
Columbia University Press
Pub. Date
[1998]
Language
English
Description
"Written sometime between 1330 and 1332, the Essays in Idleness hardly mirror the turbulent times in which they were born. Despite the struggle between the Emperor Go-Daigo and the usurping Hojo family which rocked Japan during these years, the Buddhist priest Kenko found himself with nothing better to do, jotting down at random whatever nonsensical thoughts have entered my head. The resulting essays, none of them more than a few pages in length and...
