japan

Hardcover. Pinceton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 315 pages. The Western ideal of individualism had a pervasive influence on the culture of the Meiji period in Japan (1868-1912). Janet Walker argues that this ideal also had an important influence on the development of the modern Japanese novel. Focusing on the work of four late Meiji writers, she analyzes their contribution to the development of a type of novel whose aim was the depiction of the modern Japanese individual. Professor Walker suggests that Meiji novels of the individual provided their readers with mirrors in which to confront their new-found sense of individuality. Her treatment of these novels as confessions allows her to discuss the development of modern Japanese literature and "the modern literary self" both in themselves and as they compare their prototypes and analogues in European literature. The author begins by examining the evolution of a literary concept of the inner self in Futabatei Shimei's novel Ukigumo (The Floating Clouds), Kitamura Tokoku's essays on the inner life, and Tayama Katai's I-novel Futon (The Quilt). She devotes the second half of her book to Shimazaki Toson, the Meiji novelist who was most influenced by the ideal of individualism. Here she traces Toson's development of a personal ideal of selfhood and analyzes in detail two examples of the lengthy confessional novel form that he created as a vehicle for its expression.

Hardcover. NY, James Pott & Co., 1st, 1905, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with bright gilt design to cover, gilt lettering on spine, 127 pages. Introduction by George Meredith. Bookplate/name on inside front cover. Otherwise a clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Hoboken NJ, Wiley Publishing, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The Last Samurai traces Saigo's life from his early days as a tax clerk in far southwestern Japan, through his rise to national prominence as a fierce imperial loyalist. Saigo was twice exiled for his political activities - sent to Japan's remote southwestern islands where he fully expected to die. But exile only increased his reputation for loyalty, and in 1864 he was brought back to the capital to help his lord fight for the restoration of the emperor.

Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st US, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in decorated cloth, 32 pages illustrated in color by Mahood. Enjoying the last few days of summer,The Emperor of Japan was about to eat his morning egg when suddenly out jumped a little smiling dragon. He seemed very friendly, so the Emperor decided to call him Hojo and keep him as the Imperial Pet. Hojo soon became a great favorite with everyone by making himself useful around the palace. He made delicious soups, had a very light hand with pastry, and the Emperor loved his pancakes. In addition he was always gay and cheerful, could sing, play chess, enjoy a joke, and his hot breath kept the palace warm, which was a great comfort to the Emperor who suffered from cold feet. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean and bright copy.

Hardcover. London, Allen & Unwin, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket with fading to spine. INSCRIBED BY THE TRANSLATOR INGALLS on the front fly leaf. The desperate struggle between the aging Manchu Empress T z'u-hsi and her young nephew the Emperor, at the close of the nineteenth century. A story told as a parable against both Japanese occupation and the Communist rule. Small ownersjp stamp on first page, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, 271 pages. Journey into the mind and creative process of one of the most celebrated anime directors working today with The Man Who Leapt Through Film: The Art of Mamoru Hosoda. Written by renowned animation critic and historian Charles Solomon (The Art of WolfWalkers) and featuring exclusive interviews alongside hundreds of never-before-seen sketches, storyboards, background paintings, character designs, and concept art, this is the ultimate companion piece to Hosoda's work. Writer/director/animator Mamoru Hosoda's work includes Belle (2021), the Academy Award-nominated Mirai (2018); The Boy and the Beast (2015); Wolf Children (2012); Summer Wars (2009); and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006). He is the cofounder of Studio Chizu, one of Japan's premier animation studios. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Washington DC, National Geographic Society, 1924, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth covers with black spine labels with gilt lettering. Six issues from the first half of 1924, 696 pages devoid of ads or inserts. Clean, bright pages, some color, mostly b&w. Include:s 1, Lost Tribes of Islam, Eastern Darfur; 2, Carthage Acheology; 3, Sahara by Automobile; 4, Hawaiian Islands; 5, Sakurajima, Japan volcanic eruption; 6, Norway; and 7, Tunisia. Clean, no markings. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. Boston, David R. Godine, 3rd pr., 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Tojiro, a nine-year-old orphan, sells rice cakes on the streets of 19th-century Edo, the bustling city we now call Tokyo. One of his customers is the grumpy, eccentric octogenarian Hokusai. The old man takes a liking to Tojiro, and soon employs him as his assistant. The boy's ignorance provides a convenient vehicle for introducing the artist's life and work. Much of the dialogue and action is written for the purpose of conveying information about Hokusai, as well as the technique of woodblock printing and the social customs of Edo. The book's greatest strength is not the text, but the art that enlivens every page. A combination of the author's watercolors and reproductions of Hokusai's drawings and woodblock prints, the illustrations are arranged in enticing and varied page designs.

Softcover. NY, Quill/ William Morrow, reprint, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 432 pages, b&w illustrations. Dotted with stunning disclosures of crimes and cover-ups, this is a startling narrative of the way Japan conducted World War II: from Nanking to Pearl Harbor to the attempted assassination of Stalin to their final surrender. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st thus, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Two volumes in a pictorial cardboard slipcase, quarter bound in purple cloth and decorated boards without jackets, as issued. The Tale of Genji was written in the eleventh century by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady of the Heian court. It is universally recognized as the greatest masterpiece of Japanese prose narrative, perhaps the earliest true novel in the history of the world. Until now there has been no translation that is both complete and scrupulously faithful to the original text. Edward G. Seidensticker's masterly rendering was hailed as a classic of the translator's art. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, George Braziller, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket, 191 pages, 74 pages illustrated in color by Chobunsai Eishi. Exquisite illustrations in color throughout connecting beautifully with the text which includes one poem in English and Japanese by each poet. Historical background for each poet. Mild sunning to bottom edge of dust jacket. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 395 pages, b&w illustrations. From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The War Beat, Pacific provides the first comprehensive account of how a group of highly courageous correspondents covered America's war against Japan, what they witnessed, what they were allowed to publish, and how their reports shaped the home front's perception of some of the most pivotal battles in American military history. In a dramatic and fast-paced narrative based on a wealth of previously untapped primary sources, Casey takes us from MacArthur's doomed defense on the Philippines and the navy's overly strict censorship policy at the time of Midway, through the bloody battles on Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Tarawa, Saipan, Leyte and Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, detailing the cooperation, as well as conflict, between the media and the military, as they grappled with the enduring problem of limiting a free press during a period of extreme crisis. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A harrowing odyssey of love and betrayal on the high seas-and in the shadowy corners of the human heart. At fifty-nine, Harold Snow has seen his share of death. His baptism of fire came on his twenty-first birthday, on a navy ship in the Coral Sea, when a Japanese kamikaze pilot slammed into the deck. Years later, in the aftermath of a typhoon in the Bay of Bengal, he lay awake on a ship surrounded by thousands of drowned corpses and listened to the sharks feed. Now, serving as boatswain aboard the Tarshish, a decrepit tanker whose papers are as suspect as its seaworthiness, a weary Snow feels death creeping closer than ever. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Broadway Books, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 394 pages. In this authoritative biography, Sterling Seagrave, bestselling author of The Soong Dynasty, and Peggy Seagrave bring to light the uneasy history of the Yamato Dynasty, from Emperor Meiji in 1852 to the present day. Revealed here for the first time is the full scale of the Japanese looting operation, code-named Kin No Yuri ("Golden Lily") --which systematically removed billions of dollars' worth of gold, platinum, diamonds, art, religious artifacts, and other treasures from a dozen occupied countries during World War II--and the fate of these hidden assets after 1945. Drawing on decades of research, the Seagraves reveal Golden Lily and other secrets of the family's long reign, such as the police state resulting from the Meiji restoration; the folly that led to Japan's 1920s economic crash; the greed that forced hundreds of thousands of working-class girls into prostitution; the devastating effects of the Meiji dogma, which asserts that the imperial family is of divine descent and infallible; and how money--not Shinto--became the state religion of Japan. Clean copy.

Softcover. Cambridge MA, The M.I.T. Press, reprint, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 268 pages, b&w illustrations. Marco Polo was the first Westerner to describe the old capital of China in its grand design, and the early Jesuits were the first to appraise its architectural values. George Kates is one of the last Westerners to take its measure. After his seven leisurely, abundant years in Peking, by the end of which the Japanese had come to occupy it, the old China had finally disintegrated under the blows of warfare and social revolution.What Kates reveals cannot be found today. Kates describes the city with a special competence because he made it a particular object of scholarly research. He wormed out of the Imperial City itself every secret of its hidden courts and deserted harems; and in this book he brings to life again the people and the system that created it.

Hardcover. London, John Murray, 1st, 1905, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 552 pages. Green cloth boards with gilt title on spine and cover. Moisture stain in upper right corner of front endpaper. Fold-out map of Japan shows light foxing. Endpapers age faded. Light soiling to front and back covers.

Hardcover. London, Souvenir Press, 1st UK, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 192 pages. First-person accounts of life in a Japanese POW camp are not common, and illustrated memoirs are rare indeed. Searle, a young British art student, was captured at the fall of Singapore and spent the next four years covertly sketching his captors and fellow prisoners. His work matured as the war progressed, growing from merely facile to totally captivating. He grew skilled at suggesting personality, and many of his drawings are unforgettable. A brief personal narrative accompanies the portfolio, placing the works into historic perspective. Artistically as as well as historically, this book is a treat.

Hardcover. Stockbridge MA, Prospecta Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 144 pages. INSCRIBED BY PHOTOGRAPHER on title page. Essay by Anna Gyorgy. This collection of vivid photographs tells the story of citizens who spoke up against the nuclear power industry, who refused to be nuclear neighbors, and who fought for years to stop construction or to close reactors in their backyards. The photographs also introduce us to the victims of nuclear power, among them the children who developed cancer and other grave health problems, even generations after the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl. Through Lionel Delevingne's record, we can see for ourselves the tragedies of the worst accident sites: Three Mile Island in the United States, Chernobyl in Russia, and Fukushima in Japan.

Hardcover. Scarsdale NY, Bradbury Press, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, beige cloth stamped in black. Folklore about a Japanese farmer who digs up a huge imo (yam). Ed Young style pencil drawings by Japanese artist Mitsu Yashima. No dust jacket. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Angus and Robertson, 1st UK, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. General, minister of war, prime minister, and unrepentant ultranationalist, Hideki Tojo was the most powerful leader in the Japanese government during World War II. This clear and compelling portrait of Tojo illuminates the spartan, single-minded, incorruptible personality of the man who chose war rather than succumb to U.S.-induced economic strangulation. 20 photos. 288 pages. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1979, Hardcover in a nice dust jacket with mild fading to spine, 347 pages. This work is the autobiography of Arai Hakuseki, the celebrated Confucian scholar who holds a prominent position in Japanese history as the influential adviser to Shogun Tokugawa Ienobu and his successor Ietsugu. Hakuseki's administrative reforms, his voluminous writings, and his advice on a multitude of topics--coinage, foreign trade, taxation, diplomatic protocol, justice, the samurai code and benevolent government, for example. governed most of the policies implemented during Ienobu's rule and influenced many of those of his successors. The book contains notes, biographical notes, appendices, a chronology, maps, and an index. Name on front flyleaf, otherwise a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Westport CT, Greenwood Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, maroon cloth covers stamped in silver, 242 pages. Previous owner's inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean. Over the course of the American Occupation of Japan, the U.S. attitude toward the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) gradually shifted from one of friendly cooperation to one of mutual opposition. This new study examines the initial approach toward communism in Japan; internal and external factors that affected American attitudes; the various phases of the relationship; and how Japan ultimately became a democratic nation. Oinas-Kukkonen investigates American information gathering techniques used at the time to determine possible links with the Soviet Union. He also discusses the possibility that Nosaka Sanzo, one of the main leaders of the JCP, was an American spy. Using previously secret records of General MacArthur's intelligence staff and plentiful archival materials on the Occupation, this study explores how the United States originally sought to utilize the JCP to assist in the democratization process. It identifies the perceived threat of a revolution in March 1947 as a key turning point in U.S. attitudes. Involved in a delicate balancing act with multiple Japanese interests, some American officials feared that elements of the extreme left might even evolve into extreme right-wing terrorists. In this comprehensive account, Oinas-Kukkonen includes information on the indirect role of the Europeans in this affair, as well as the roles of outsider groups such as the outcaste burakumin and the Koreans residing in Japan.

Hardcover. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn dust jacket. Summary of the effects of German, Japanese and Australian occupation and the subsequent cultural adjustments to change. Based on years of field and background research. Very detailed records of religion, work, trade, councils and courts, community dynamics. Illustrated by 2 maps, 16 pages of plates, 326 pages including index. Owner's signature on inside front cover, otherwise clean.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 2nd pr., 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 421 pages, b&w illustrations. Located only blocks from Tokyo's glittering Ginza, Tsukiji-the world's largest marketplace for seafood-is a prominent landmark, well known but little understood by most Tokyoites: a supplier for countless fishmongers and sushi chefs, and a popular and fascinating destination for foreign tourists. Early every morning, the worlds of hi-tech and pre-tech trade noisily converge as tens of thousands of tons of seafood from every ocean of the world quickly change hands. Clean, bright copy.