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Takumi, grieving the tragic loss of his family, is drawn into a real-estate swindle masterminded by fabled land scammer Harrison Yamanaka. The target is an unprecedented $70-million property. During his pursuit, Detective Tatsu, upright as ever but nearing retirement, discovers Harrison's strange connection to Takumi's past. As the high-stakes fraud unfolds, the convergence of motives leads to a shocking outcome in this intense game of deception versus truth.

Essays on the nature, creation, and presentation of art, craft, and architecture in Japan, springing from the author’s experiences in Kyoto.

Originally published in Japan as "Ryugu."

For fans of Japanese literature (Haruki Murakami and more) and readers who want to be introduced to exciting new writers. MONKEY New Writing from Japan is an annual anthology that showcases the best of contemporary Japanese literature. Volume 4 celebrates MUSIC, as we welcome the post-pandemic flourishing of artistic expression. MONKEY offers short fiction and poetry by writers such as Hideo Furukawa, Mieko Kawakami, Haruki Murakami, Hiromi Kawakami, Aoko Matsuda, and Hiroko Oyamada; graphic stories by Satoshi Kitamura; new translations of modern classics; and contributions from American authors Stuart Dybek, Kevin Brockmeier, and more.

2023 FOREWORD INDIES BOOK OF THE YEAR GOLD WINNER FOR TRAVELObservations on the people, culture, and history of Japan from along-time resident riding the rails along the less-traveled westerncoastline.This journey the length of Japan takes the reader off the beaten tracks to explore some of the country's remoter regions along the Japan Sea-from Wakkanai in northern Hokkaido to Ibusuki in southern Kyushu?in a fascinating mix of travelogue, anecdote, and personal memoir. At each of the thirty stops along the journey the author, who has lived in Japan for thirty years, goes in quest of the spirit of place, determined to highlight what makes it special. Mixing comments on landscape and culture, the author was inspired by Alan Booth and Donald Richie and brings a contemporary perspective to his writing. The text provides some practical information on travel by rail and railway lines, but goes into far more depth and personal observation than a conventional guidebook for tourists.

2024 International Rubery Book Awards Winner | 2023 American Writing Awards Finalist | 2023 Foreword Indies Awards Finalist | 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards FinalistJoiner's second novel set in the fabled Kanazawa area is an intimate yet understated look at an American who seeks recovery after his marriage to a Japanese woman has failed.After Nozomi abandons Sedge and their marriage, taking all their money and leaving him with a ceramics shop he can't manage alone, her brother and his wife offer him a lifeline at their Japanese hot spring inn until he can get back on his feet. As he proceeds forward from this devastation in his life, he becomes involved with the wife of the man Nozomi ran off with as well as her stepson, a troubled 16-year-old whose jealousy and potential for violence contrasts with his interest in birds, origami, and the haiku of Matsuo Basho. What unfolds in the shadow of "the immortal mountain of cranes" will change their lives forever.Set in Kanazawa and Yamanaka Onsen near the Sea of Japan, The Heron Catchers explores the importance of recognizing suffering both in others and in oneself, of being compassionate, and of trusting those who offer love in the shattering wake of loss.The Heron Catchers is the second in a series of novels set in and around the Japanese city of Kanazawa.

This book is the first of its kind, a deep-dive into a single sake-producing region to highlight its delicious brews as well as the people, land, and culture behind them. Brewing in Yamaguchi — in southern Honshu, Japan — reflects the whole history of sake in Japan, from boom to bust to resurgence, and many of its brands, including the fabled Dassai, are now at izakaya and fine restaurants around the world. Expert Jim Rion takes us on a tour of all 23 Yamaguchi breweries to introduce the character of each and its brewmasters’ best picks. Along the way he provides background on such topics as rice farmers, drinkware, brewing methods, and the controversy over sake “terroir” (does it exist?). An added bonus for travelers is a mini sightseeing guide to the region and its many delights. Illustrated with photographs and quick-reference sake labels.

Prolific, award-winning translator of classical and modern Japanese poetry Hiroaki Sato recorded his thoughts on American society in mainly two columns across 30-plus years, collected here for the first time.This anthology of over 60 of Sato’s commentaries reflect the writer’s wide-ranging erudition and his unsentimental views of both his native Japan and his adopted American homeland. Broadly he looks at the Pacific War and its aftermath and at war (and our love of it) in general, at the quirks and curiosities of the natural world exhibited by birds and other creatures, at friends and mentors who surprised and inspired, and finally at other writers and their works, many of them familiar—the Beats and John Ashbery, for example, and Mishima—but many others whose introduction is welcome. Sato is neither cheerleader nor angry expatriate. Remarkably clear-eyed and engaged with American culture, he is in the business of critical appraisal and translation, of taking words seriously, and of observing how well others write and speak to convey their own truths and ambitions.

Japanese characters served up with histories and cultural clues to help you decorate your skin/body/life with just the right word!

The classic travel journal, a quest for personal discovery and the ancient beauties and dying values of modern Japan.

An American's unique behind-the-scenes look at Japanese business and how the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki were introduced to the world.

60 years of observation: an American journalist's memoir about Tokyo's modern urban transformation, its criminal underworld and, oh yes, baseball.

Introducing Hiromi Ito, an award-winning Japanese author who has been compared to Haruki Murakami and Yoko Tawada.

Tabemasho! Let's Eat! is a tasty look at how Japanese food has evolved in America from an exotic and mysterious--even "e;gross"e;--cuisine to the peak of culinary popularity, with sushi sold in supermarkets across the country and ramen available in hipster restaurants everywhere. The author was born in Japan and raised in the U.S. and has eaten his way through this amazing food revolution.

How is China organized politically? What are the issues that young people face in today's China? What is China doing about its problem with pollution? Is the Chinese internet like our internet? What's China's role in the world today? And how much do you know about China's great woman emperor or the Chinese explorer whose voyages may have inspired the legend of Sinbad the Sailor? What are the major Chinese holidays, their superstitions regarding numbers, and the true nature of the Chinese written language?In nearly 60 brief essays, long-time China expert Larry Herzberg tackles important facts and myths about China, its history, people, and culture, as well as its contemporary society. Anyone dipping into this book will emerge that much smarter about China, whether visiting, conducting business, studying the language, or simply being fascinated by one of the world's greatest and most influential civilizations.

The second volume in this fun, comic-style series that explores China's transition from the Three Kingdoms to the Tang Dynasty.

The first volume in this easy to read, comic-style series on Chinese history

An American student in 1970s Kyoto rambles among the city's beauties and traditions, learning as he goes.Don Ascher is a young American living in Kyoto in the 1970s.He is a studentof Japanese. He also teaches English, works at ashabu-shaburestaurant, andhangs outin the company of gangsters,hostesses, housewives, tea teachers,and fellow foreigners. Set amidst the timeless beauty of the ancient capitaland its garishmodern entertainments, this collection of fanciful episodesfromDons life is a window into Japanese culture and a chronicle of romanceand human connections.

Tsuneichi Miyamoto (19071981), a leading Japanese folklore scholar and rural advocate, walked 160,000 kilometers to conduct interviews and capture a dying way of life. This collection of photos, vignettes, and life stories from pre- and postwar rural Japan is the first English translation of his modern Japanese classic. From blowfish to landslides, Miyamotos stories come to life in Jeffrey Irishs fluid translation.

How China became the China we know today, through war and societal transformation.

From his vantage point as a garden designer and writer based in Kyoto, Marc Peter Keane examines the world around him and delivers astonishing insights through an array of narratives. How the names of gardens reveal their essential meaning. A new definition of what art is. What trees are really made of. The true meaning of the enigmatic torii gate found at Shinto shrines. Why we give flowers as gifts. The essential, underlying unity of the world.

Tokyo Stroll is for travelers who want to wander the streets and discover the city as it unfolds before their eyes. Select neighborhoods are profiled with detailed maps identifying locations and landmarks of interest. There is no "e;start at point A and go to point B"e; prescribed route. Instead readers are encouraged to wander as whimsy takes them. Food, shopping, and sights at every turn are provided with descriptions and over 150 maps to aid discovery. Includes detailed notes on etiquette, money, and travel. Indexed.

: A cultural and personal journey into the famous sutra that teaches "form is emptiness; and emptiness is form."

The basics of Jewish life and customs described for Christians in a spirit of understanding and shared appreciation of common roots. "Masterful overview."--Publishers Weekly

Yukio Mishima (b. 1925) was a brilliant writer and intellectual whose relentless obsession with beauty, purity, and patriotism ended in his astonishing self-disembowelment and decapitation in downtown Tokyo in 1970. Nominated for the Nobel Prize, Mishima was the best-known novelist of his time (works like Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion are still in print in English), and his legacyhis personais still honored and puzzled over. Who was Yukio Mishima really? This, the first full biography to appear in English in almost forty years, traces Mishima's trajectory from a sickly boy named Kimitake Hiraoka to a hard-bodied student of martial arts. In detail it examines his family life, the wartime years, and his emergence, then fame, as a writer and advocate for traditional values. Revealed here are all the personalities and conflicts and sometimes petty backbiting that shaped the culture of postwar literary Japan. Working entirely from primary sources and material unavailable to other biographers, author Naoki Inose and translator Hiroaki Sato together have produced a monumental work that covers much new ground in unprecedented depth. Using interviews, social and psychological analysis, and close reading of novels and essays, Persona removes the mask that Mishima so artfully created to disguise his true self. Naoki Inose, currently vice governor of Tokyo, has also written biographies of writers Kikuchi Kan and Osamu Dazai. New Yorkbased Hiroaki Sato is an award-winning translator of classical and modern Japanese poetry, and also translated Mishima's novel Silk and Insight.

The true story of how one Japanese village suffered and survived the mercury poisoning of its waters.