Illustrated with color photos and black & white drawings enhance Evelyn Kaye's entertaining travelogue as she follows the 1878 route of Victorian traveler Isabella Bird through northern Japan. The adventure of a woman traveler in that part of the world in those days was so remarkable that Evelyn discovered that more than a hundred and twenty years later Isabella Bird was still remembered with her book still in print (in Japanese), community memorials erected in her memory, and the subject of a Tokyo television show! Adventures In Japan is a unique, totally engaging, wonderfully well written, enthusiastically recommended account of a personal journey through Japan as seen through the eyes of two women travelers, one from the 19th century and the other from the 20th.

Adventures in Japan provides a modern woman's story of following Victorian adventurer Isabella Bird's 1878 through northern Japan, where Bird is still remembered. Kaye's three-week journey provides a fascinating account of both her experiences in northern Japan and Bird's lasting influence in the region.

Often scholarly volumes have excellent content but are poorly produced and edited while musem volumes are often well produced and edited but lack serious and contemporary scholarly material--they become catalogues of artifacts without real contextualizing material.

Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People manages to overcome both of these problems. As a scholarly volume it has excellent content (much of which has not been previously available to non-Japanese speakers) and is well-produced and beautifully laid out.

Aside from some small quibbles I have with some other articles seeming truncated for space concerns and others for not presenting enough information (notably the articles dealing with Ainu language/linguistics), I find little to find fault with. Even my concerns about some aspects of the volume are only a request for more, not a complaint with what is in the volume.

Overall this volume does a wonderful job of making contemporary Ainu research accessible to the lay reader while also presenting enough scholarly material to make it worth-while reading for those with a deeper interest in the Ainu. Even though the volume does not deal directly with the area of my research, the amount of knowledge it conveys has foced me to rethink aspects of my own work.

Despite the fact that I have lived in Japan for more than fifteen years, my visit to the Smithsonian's fabulous "Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People" exhibit last year provided my first meaningful look at this long overlooked or misunderstood part of East Asian cultural heritage. I ordered a softcover copy of the (at the time yet to be released) book right away and have since poured through it time and again. Written largely by anthropologists, as a layman I feared that it might well be too scientific to appreciate; happily such is not the case. The book is beautifully written, edited, and illustrated. Anyone with an interest in Japan's northern culture and/or the animist nature of the nation as a whole will find this book profoundly enlightening. I regret that a hardcover edition was not available sooner.

There has been the deluge of books and articles on Japanese keiretsu. But this book published a decade ago (1992) is still one of the best. There are so many good enough accounts on the vertical keiretsu appeared in the Toyota¡¯s value chain. But not so, when it comes to the horizontal keiretzu. There is no shortage of materials but most of them are no more than anecdotal case studies or, at best, cursory impressions. I can¡¯t capture why they form such a long-term ties based on what interest at all, for example. The advantage of vertical keiretsu is obvious and well described. But what is the economic foundation of horizontal keiretsu? Is it mere social club of economic elites? Nobody could think so. The network structure (or network form) of horizontal keiretsu is well documented, such as main bank, cross shareholding, sacho-kai, and the preferential trading. But those are merely links forming the network. The network is more than the sum of links. It¡¯s the linkage of links and it has contents. Links reproduce itself for something flows between nodes. This book plugs the gap systematic explanation of horizontal keiretsu with network analysis. In doing so, the author mobilizes not only qualitative data from interviews and business history but also extensive quantitative data to generalize his remarks to level of the population of the Japanese businesses. The author begins with describing the network structure of keiretsu from chapter 3 to 4. Then the remaining chapters deal with how the network formed and how it operates in real business environment. Namely, those chapters deal with the contents of network. Now you might retort ¡®what¡¯s the difference from other materials? This book would supply better and well-organized illustration of keiretsu. But aren¡¯t those features common in other works?¡¯
Maybe. But the most inspiring piece lies in the use of image. Keiretsu is the interfirm network and it¡¯s not unique on Japan but the ubiquitous phenomenon all over the world. Usually, they use the image of coalition, as it has developed in the game theory. The interfirm network, however more stable it is than arm¡¯s length trading, is usually depicted with the image of coalition. The coalition, particularly in the form of game theory, is relatively fluid relationship. The coalition comes and goes according to the logic of strategic self-interest. This is the reality of business such as strategic alliance. Yesterday¡¯s foe could be today¡¯s friend. For example, Apple shook hands with IBM to make PowerPC. But such an image doesn¡¯t fit into the long-term relationship of horizontal keiretsu over more than a generation. Affiliation in a keiretsu group is considered as permanent one. Instead, Gerlach uses the metaphor of alliance to illustrate the features of Japanese keiretsu. The image of alliance comes from anthropological fieldworks. It suggests long-term social relationship that links kinship groups over generations. The self-interest is also the driving-force in the kinship alliance. Kinship groups establish the long-term ties with other kinship groups through swapping women. Through this tie, they exchange resources like calling on in times of need or for protection of one¡¯s own group. Those are valuable resources in primitive societies, with no doubt, and this relationship is long-term by nature. But in such a relationship, self-interest is tempered by the central role played by group history.
Horizontal keiretsu emerged from the self-interest of member firms to stabilize the flow of resources. So at the center of group have lain the bank and sogo shosha. During the early postwar period, the capital and raw materials were scarce and most needed resources to be secured, and that, affiliation in the group opens doors to trade with other group members, and with the trading partners those firms have. But once the network is put into action, it takes the life of its own: It was instutionalized in the routine of business. Just as firms seek to position themselves advantageously in their industry and in the broader business community, so too do groups as a whole. Keiretsu network, for instance, expands itself with new memberships. Most of expansion has involved the firms that compete against firms in other keiretsu. Keiretsu compete against keiretsu for positioning in the business community. By expanding to include group-level representation in a broad variety of fields, the group simultaneously preempts market opportunities, enhances its prestige in the larger business community, and diversifies risk across a spectrum of industries. The power and prestige of the group make the individual member firm more appealing to prospective business partners and improves its status in the larger business community. The fortunes of group and companies are in this way intertwined. In other words, affiliation in group translates into marrying with the group. The individual firms act as if they are the members of the clan. This kind of interfirm network could be facilitated for the unique Japanese business history. 3 out of outstanding 6 (now 4) groups are ex-zaibatsu (industrial group). And some influences in early postwar period are crucial in forming the keiretsu.
But this is the problem of this book: no convincing explanation about why such alliance is found only in Japan? This book offers good enough description of the phenomenon. I can¡¯t help asking ¡®Is this enough explanation?¡¯ Unfortunately I don¡¯t think so. If you have this kind of question, I recommend, Ulrike Schaede¡¯s ¡®Cooperative Capitalism¡¯. This book has a very long-term standpoint from Tokugawa period to the present. This book is not about keiretsu. But you could understand the institutional background of Japanese business.

This is the most insightful book I have ever seen on the subject of Japanese business. The author clearly knows his subject

I really love this book because I'm writing my research thesis on ACER, the Taiwanese PC multinational. This book gives a great overview of the global computer industry as well as in-depth analyses of the individual corporations...it's an interesting read on the newest and most exciting industry in the world - even if you are not formally studying the subject.

I really loved this book because I'm writing my research thesis on ACER, the Taiwanese PC multinational. This book give a great overview of the global computer industry as well as in-depth analysis of the individual corporations...it's an interesting read on the newest and most exciting industry in the world even if you are not formally studying the subject.

Certain essays from this book were requirements for an international relations class I took. After reading two of the stories I had to read the entire book. It is a truely excellent window into the effects of the atomic bomb on humans. It took me below the mushroom cloud, it was graphic, gripping, and effective. It does not focus on justifications for the bomb, it focuses purely on the effects. I plan on buying it in the near future because it is such an excellent testimonial.

I reviewed that te book was a great review of how terrible the devigstation was. Had great detail

This is the story of Tim an Irish labourer, his slow friend Dandy and their wifes and families living in a gaslit cobbled alley at the beggining of 1900. Read about Maud, Dandies loud American wife her beloved son, who goes off to fight in the first world war and tearaway daughter Colleen. Discover the dark secret the Brown twins accross the alley share, and their strange sister Ellen. This is an excellent book if you like to get the feel of old London and life before the Great War.

This book is set in an alley in a poor sections of London and allows you to become part of the lives of it's inhabitants. All of the residents come from different races, colors and creeds and how they share their lives through joy, pain, politics, society and WWII.

Barefoot Gen: Out Of The Ashes is the final volume of a four part series. The atom bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima, destroying most of the city, killing many people, and causing others to become sick with radiation sickness. Gen's hair has fallen out from radiation exposure. He, his mother, and his newborn sister, no longer able to live in Hiroshima, are refugees in the town of Eba.

As this volume opens, the Emperor has just announced the surrender of Japan. Gen's two brothers return to live with them in Eba, one from the Navy and one from an evacuation camp. US soldiers are landing to study the results of the bomb. The distrust and hatred of the local community eventually becomes too much and the family moves back to what is left of Hiroshima. We see the U.S. occupation and the rebuilding of the city through the eyes of seven year old Gen.

Gen's compassion, humanity, and determination make this an inspiring book about the strength of the human spirit. The close loving values of his family are in sharp contrast to the amoral self interest of the black marketeers and the criminals who thrive in the disorder and poverty.

The work has been wonderfully translated from the Japanese original: Hadashi no Gen. It was originally published in serial form in 1972 and 1973 in Shukan Shonen Jampu, the largest weekly comic magazine in Japan, with a circulation of over two million. The drawings are all in black and white. This US edition was published as part of a movement to translate the book into other languages and spread its message. It is a powerful testimony to the strength of the human spirit and the horrors of nuclear war. There are a few introductory essays at the front of the book that help to put this book into perspective. It is a tragic but uplifting story that I highly recommend for anyone interested in the topic. This and the other volumes in the series are important books for their message on the dangers of nuclear war.

Barefoot Gen is the name of a series of novel-length cartoon books telling the story of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima through the eyes of a young Japanese boy who lived through the experience. (The story is autobiographical; the author is a Hiroshima survivor.) These books are splendidly touching and believable, and readers will walk away with a fuller understanding of the horrors of World War II, and all wars in general. There is no pro-Japanese bias nor is there a pro-U.S. bias: these works give a real rendering of how nightmarish that particular nuclear blast was. Keiji Nakazawa, the author, has given us a priceless treasure in creating these books which can be enjoyed by everyone aged ten and over; they will further your understanding of history and of the indomitability of the human spirit, and they will cement your opposition to the use of nuclear weapons

This was the first time that I have read Basho's Narrow Road to Oku, snd I enjoyed it a great deal. Actually I read it twice this week. The first time I read through it I tried to read it without using the notes. I was lazy, so it came out that I really didn't enjoy what I was reading because I really didn't know what was going on throughout most of the book, so I read it again using the notes, and I got much more out of it. The annotations are on the left page while the actual text is on the right page, so there is no flipping to the back of the book every time that you need to look up something. There are endnotes that give more information about the haiku Basho writes. This is a very cool book, that gives the reader a glimpse at the literary world of japan back during the 17th century.

This is a very well translated and annotated edition of this great work.

It is a must for kindergarden and first grade teachers. Kids love it

this is a wonderful children's book for all ages written by a wonderful professor

The purely essential guide to Japan - Dennis Kessler does the fantastic job of illustrating the best way to be a tourist in Japan. Both the writing and the photography is superb, and hard to believe that it's just one man that performed both.

I found it easy to read, with very understandable descriptions, and I was truly impressed by the beauty and quality of the photographs. This book is easily equal to the Rough Guide, if not more concise, being a pocket guide.

This is probably the best guide around for the short-term (less than 2 weeks) traveller to Japan. The photos are excellent and the text is concise, informative and easy to read. It's full of helpful hints and is obviously written by a well-travelled writer who really knows his subject.

Anyone going to Japan would be advised to take this little book. - amazing how much information is at your fingertips!