WEATHERHEAD BOOKS ON ASIA Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. In Black and White: A Novel Translated by Phyllis I. Lyons.(2017) "In Black and White showcases Tanizaki's customary verve, humor, and brilliance. This wonderful translation brings to life a novel that has been unduly neglected. What a treat!" - Phillip Lopate, author of Against Joie de Vivre "In Black and White provides … [Read more...]
The Merchant’s Tale: Yokohama and the Transformation of Japan
ASIA PERSPECTIVES: NEW HORIZONS IN ASIAN HISTORY, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE Simon Partner The Merchant's Tale: Yokohama and the Transformation of Japan (2017) "To an already lively cast of Restoration characters—rascals and rebels, poets and fighters—The Merchant’s Tale adds a new voice: that of the rural entrepreneur. Long on dreams but short on capital, Chūemon decamped … [Read more...]
Making Time: Astronomical Time Measurement in Tokugawa Japan
STUDIES OF THE WEAI BOOK SERIES Yulia Frumer (University of Chicago Press, 2018) For information from the publisher, please click here. What is time made of? We might balk at such a question, and reply that time is not made of anything—it is an abstract and universal phenomenon. In Making Time, Yulia Frumer upends this assumption, using changes in the … [Read more...]
Promiscuous Media: Film and Visual Culture in Imperial Japan, 1926-1945
STUDIES OF THE WEAI BOOK SERIES Hikari Hori (Cornell University Press, 2018) For information from the publisher, please click here. In Promiscuous Media, Hikari Hori makes a compelling case that the visual culture of Showa-era Japan articulated urgent issues of modernity rather than serving as a simple expression of nationalism. Hori makes clear that the Japanese … [Read more...]
Post-Fascist Japan: Political Culture in Kamakura after the Second World War
STUDIES OF THE WEAI BOOK SERIES Laura Hein (Bloomsbury Press/SOAS Studies in Modern and Contemporary Japan, 2018) For information from the publisher, please click here. In late 1945 local Japanese turned their energies toward creating new behaviors and institutions that would give young people better skills to combat repression at home and coercion abroad. They … [Read more...]
