Japanese I - 3rd Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive)

Japanese I - 3rd Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive)
Average customer rating:

Great product

I too believe that the speakers are Native Japanese

A Good Place to Start

Amazing!

making learning fun!

Japanese I - 3rd Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive)
Pimsleur
Manufacturer: Pimsleur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

Japanese | Instruction | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
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Accessories:

Japanese III - 2nd Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Language Program)

Japanese II - 2nd Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive)

ASIN: 0743523539

Book Description

Comprehensive Japanese I includes 30 lessons of essential grammar and vocabulary -- 16 hours of real-life spoken practice sessions -- plus a Culture Booklet.

Upon completion of this Level I program, you will have functional spoken proficiency with the most-frequently-used vocabulary and grammatical structures. You will be able to:

* initiate and maintain face-to-face conversations,

* deal with every day situations -- ask for information, directions, and give basic information about yourself and family,

* communicate basic information on informal topics and participate in casual conversations,

* avoid basic cultural errors and handle minimum courtesy and travel requirements,

* satisfy personal needs and limited social demands,

* establish rapport with strangers in foreign countries,

Customer Reviews:

Great product.......2007-10-09

Actually I hate Pimsleur communication strategy: close to spamming sometimes, or announcements like "Learn like a spy" on their website, whereas what they sell is of course only a sheer introduction to Japanese. Do they think we are stupid? However, I must admit that their method is great and very efficient, compared to others that can be found on the market. Quite US-customer oriented: you will learn very early how to handle in car-driving and shopping situations, but anyway, these are things you will have to learn if you eventually want to become fluent in the language. I guess that after the 3 volumes you are still a beginner, but with solid basis to continue on your own or with more ordinary courses. As a matter of fact, there seems to be nothing intended for the advanced learner on the market. They are certainly too few to make the business profitable.

I too believe that the speakers are Native Japanese.......2007-05-30

I had to address the statements from other reviewers who claimed that the speakers were not native Japanese. This product is far too good to avoid buying it because of fear that the accents were "off" or "Chinese." On the Acknowledgement page iii of the companion booklet, the Female Japanese Speaker is listed as, "Kimiko Ise Abramoff", and the Male Japanese Speaker is "Tsunenori 'Lee' Abe." "Ise" is a Japanese surname, so I assume that "Kimiko Ise" married someone with the last name of "Abramoff." Although having a Japanese first name and last name is not conclusive evidence of being a native Japanese speaker, the chances of them not being native are very slim. I have heard spoken Japanese my whole life from both native and non-native speakers and the speakers on the CD sound fine to me.

Perhaps the criticism comes from reading a script and having to enunciate every word clearly so those who are new to Japanese can learn it. Anyone reading a script and pronouncing every syllable can begin to sound a little stilted.

This program is excellent when used in conjunction with a Japanese class. It will get you "up and running" quickly in everyday conversational situations.

A Good Place to Start.......2007-04-29

These audio CDs are a good place to start learning Japanese. The program is quite simple: For the most part, a Japanese speaker says a phrase, and you repeat. As the lessons progress, some of the instructions are in Japanese. This program is well thought-out and produced, and the speakers speak slowly and clearly. Of course, you can listen in the car. No one will think you're weird for talking to yourself, as they will just assume you are on the phone.

It should go without saying that listening to these CDs (even all three sets of CDs) will not enable you to speak Japanese fluently, or even nearly so. It takes a whole lot more work than that to learn Japanese. Still, it will get you started.

Also, these CDs come with very little written materials. That's just fine; as stated above, these CDs are just start.

Amazing!.......2007-04-23

I'm sharing the CD's with a co-worker and this is definitely an amazing series. I feel like I can actually get by with this little bit with a trip to Japan! I am only half way through the first set but see the benefits already.

I've tried several other language CD's with limited results. The Pimsleur series is definitely the best I've found!

A must have for anyone learning any language.

making learning fun!.......2007-04-11

well, what can i say? there are many reviews of this product already, but i just wanted to add my own thoughts about it. i have been looking for a way to learn japanese, the way children learn, in other words, by hearing japanese, then understanding, then speaking. i bought the japanese linguaphone course, but to my dismay, it was nothing like i had heard. it's all in japanese, that's great, but the language used is seriously outdated. my many japanese friends couldn't believe how old fashioned it was. not only that, but you get bogged down in the lessons, and i only finished the first 5 before i gave up. in contrast, the pimsleur method has made it fun to learn japanese, i wake up in the morning looking forward to pressing play on my ipod. the instructions advise you to know 80% of the lesson, before moving on, to encourage rapid progress, and to prevent boredom and over perfection. this has really helped me, and the further i advanced through the course, the more enjoyable it became. not only that, but the words used are very up to date, very useful. and just when you might have forgotten a new word, it is repeated, making it easy to remember. a word of note - there is nothing in the way of grammar, except for a small booklet included with the audio cds (another plus - linguaphone seem insistent in releasing their product in tape format only, with the exception of the main languages. i mean come on, who in this day and age still owns a tape machine? when was the last time you saw tapes in a music store?) but this to me is another bonus, as in my mind it's better to speak and understand, the same way kids do, then to get bogged down with too much grammar. i hope this review was helpful! whatever you do, DONT buy the linguaphone set!

Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945

Average customer rating:

No Bull...
Non-Fiction Thriller
Good Read, but.....
CORRECTION to Thomas' text
A good story

Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945
Evan Thomas
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0743252217

Book Description

Evan Thomas takes us inside the naval war of 1941-1945 in the South Pacific in a way that blends the best of military and cultural history and riveting narrative drama. He follows four men throughout: Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey, the macho, gallant, racist American fleet commander; Admiral Takeo Kurita, the Japanese battleship commander charged with making what was, in essence, a suicidal fleet attack against the American invasion of the Philippines; Admiral Matome Ugaki, a self-styled samurai who was the commander of all kamikazes and himself the last kamikaze of the war; and Commander Ernest Evans, a Cherokee Indian and Annapolis graduate who led his destroyer on the last great charge in the last great naval battle in history.

Sea of Thunder climaxes with the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the biggest naval battle ever fought, over four bloody and harrowing days in October 1944. We see Halsey make an epic blunder just as he reaches for true glory; we see the Japanese navy literally sailing in circles, torn between the desire to die heroically and the exhausted, unacceptable realization that death is futile; we sail with Commander Evans and the men of the USS Johnston into the jaws of the Japanese fleet and exult and suffer with them as they torpedo a cruiser, bluff and confuse the enemy -- and then, their ship sunk, endure fifty horrific hours in shark-infested water.

Thomas, a journalist and historian, traveled to Japan, where he interviewed veterans of the Imperial Japanese Navy who survived the Battle of Leyte Gulf and friends and family of the two Japanese admirals. From new documents and interviews, he was able to piece together and answer mysteries about the Battle of Leyte Gulf that have puzzled historians for decades. He writes with a knowing feel for the clash of cultures.

Sea of Thunder is a taut, fast-paced, suspenseful narrative of the last great naval war, an important contribution to the history of the Second World War.

Customer Reviews:

No Bull..........2007-09-29

It's no wonder were in the mess we are, when myoptic vision clouds reason.
This was not a hit on Halsey..Duoh! This was a very good read. Maybe Ken burns took some info here?
I see a lot of whinners(on other forums) saying the Japanese never had a plan to sue for peace if they took Hawaii..(?)
Any way Good book.
Thanks, Mr Evans

Non-Fiction Thriller.......2007-09-12

A non-fiction historical work of serious scholarship that can compete with any thriller. An absolute page turner that's hard to put down. When Thomas finds the time to do this kind of research with his TV panelist and news magazine gigs is a mystery. He is an absolutely first rate writer and story teller, and Sea of Thunder is not to be missed.

Good Read, but............2007-08-06

I got this book on Friday and finished it Saturday night. A decent book over all but as other reviewers have stated I find the revisionist aspect a bit much. I think the 'slam' on Halsey tended to be over-kill. The author even goes as far as mentioning the two occasions where Halsey sailed into typhoons to further his knocks on Halsey. Interesting, but not in the scope of the book. The author does point out the reasons behind Halsey's choice to go after Ozawa but only in passing. I found the study of Japanese vs. American admirals a bit slanted in the Japanese admiral's favor. As far as the 'racist' aspect of Halsey's statements "Kill Japs, Kill Japs. Kill more Japs" & etc. We only need to look at quotes by other Admirals and Generals to understand the purpose behind these statements. I gave it three stars only because it was a page-turner, I think what kept me reading was to see if the author was going to go into a more in-depth study of the choices made by the admirals and why they made them. I was left with the impression that the Japanese admirals made the choices they made mostly because of the training received at Eta Jima and the choices made by American admirals were due to some personal flaw as in Halsey's 'need' to get the Japanese carriers at all costs. What I wasn't left with was the stunning victory by the Americans and how important it was in shortening the war. I am just starting to read 'The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors' by James D. Hornfischer so I can compare two different author's views on the Leyte Gulf naval battles.

CORRECTION to Thomas' text.......2007-07-27

Evan Thomas incorrectly states that Admrial Spruance's son married Admiral Halsey's daughter. In fact, Margaret Halsey married Preston Lea Spruance who was only distantly related to Admiral Spruance.
- Halsey Spruance, a decendant of Margaret Halsey and Preston Lea Spruance

A good story.......2007-07-11

I did not know as much about the battle before this book. Thomas gives an excellent perspective of all sides of the battle. I felt I was a bit oversold on the book and it did not live completely up to expectations which is why I only give it 4 out of 5.

Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1

Average customer rating:

Mediocre for adults
Genki 1
Well Thought-Out Beginners' Course for English Speakers
Read this is you are concerned with the JLPT Tests
I've purchased all the rest this one is the best.

Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1
Eri Banno , Yutaka Ohno , Yoko Sakane , and Chikako Shinagawa
Manufacturer: Varsitybooks.Com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Genki I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese I - Workbook
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Kodansha's Furigana Japanese Dictionary: Japanese-English English-Japanese

ASIN: 4789009637

Book Description

Genki outlines in 23 structured lessons all the fundamentals of the Japanese language. Abundantly illustrated and containing a wide variety of exercises, Genki is sure to bring vigor to your classroom! Though primarily meant for use in college-level classes, it is also a good guide for independent learners and is a nice resource book for teachers of Japanese. Genki's authors teach at Kansai Gaidai University, which hosts the largest number of North American students spending their junior year in Japan.

Customer Reviews:

Mediocre for adults.......2007-09-26

This book may be good for young students who anticipate homestays (and I'm skeptical even about that, for reasons below), but if you're an adult you may find this book excruciating. I recently moved to Japan, and finally determined to take some private lessons to get a more systematic grasp on the language than I have had hitherto. My school uses this text. I can't compare it with other college-style textbooks, which may mostly suffer from the same problems, but among the issues I have with it are:

@ The framing scenario is of foreign students living in homestays and interacting with their homestay families and with each other; there is also a lot of school-related vocabluary. This is largely irrelevant for an adult's experience. It is useless for business, BTW (though in my own case, I was looking more for daily life vocabulary and situations than business).

@ Even within this scenario, the book doesn't teach you how to really have conversation -- all classmates address each other with polite "-masu" form verbs. In real life, this would be distant or even rude with your pals. (Moreover, on the accompanying tapes female gaijin characters like "Mary" and "Sue" address their classmates and homestay parents in that saccharine, squeaky little-girl voice that is normally used by shop staff and female announcers on infomercials, not people talking to friends or family.)

@ In Japan, it is very rare for people to mirror back to you what you say, or for it to be appropriate for you to mirror back to them. This is especially true if your main interactions are with people in shops, where they will use a lot of "keigo" (honorific speech) or other specialized formulas. Simple example: A waitress will bring stuff to your table and ask "Yoroshii desu ka?" (Is that OK?), you don't answer back "Hai, yoroshii desu." Even saying goodbye is highly context dependent; e.g. when someone says "Sorry I'm being so rude as to leave before you," even if you can catch the Japanese phrase you will look like an idiot if you reply symmetrically (been there, done that). This book doesn't give you a clue about dealing with such situations, nor help you to unravel what Japanese people are saying to you when they respond to your questions or remarks. All dialogues and exercises are based on the mirroring principle (as well as indiscriminate use of "wa", the topic particle). So it's pretty useless for practical purposes -- unless you plan to use Japanese in class only.

@ While it's a plus that reading & writing practice are integrated into the text, the reading selections in early chapters are devoid of imagination. After several chapters of reading stuff like "Are you OK? I am fine. It's cold here in Japan. I took some pictures, studied Japanese and took a bath. My father is nice, but very busy," and so on, you just want to scream.

@ Although the publication date is 1999, at which time a dot-com boom was beginning even in Japan, this book is snail-mail all the way: you spend time learning about stamps and postcards, but there isn't anything about email, the Internet or texting. (Forget also about DVDs -- people watch videos.)

@ Japanese verb conjugation has a wonderful regularity, in that almost every verb has a set of stems that are based variously on -A-, -I-, -U-, -E- and -O- (e.g., negative, polite, dictionary, causative and "let's" forms, respectively). This tracks the order of Japanese vowels in the kana writing systems, so it's easy to remember. However, "Genki"'s presentation of verbs obliterates this useful pattern (see, e.g. conjugation chart @ 344 of Vol. I).

Like most students of Japanese, I've stocked up on a shelfload of other books of varying usefulness. (Two of the best, Rita Lampkin's "Japanese: Verbs and Essentials of Grammar" and Jay Rubin's "Making Sense of Japanese", unfortunately are exclusively in Roman characters, or nearly so.) You will definitely need to to the same (or at least half a shelfload) if you use this book. But not getting bored by the boook will be a bigger challenge if you're older than 22. One possible tip might be to look for a book that has at least one gaijin co-author. This one is written entirely by Japanese authors; it could have benefitted from the perspective of a formerly-puzzled foreigner.

Genki 1.......2007-08-21

I am teaching myself Japanese and I really like this text. This book has a good collection of vocabulary and is very easy to follow. I recommend this book to everyone. It is excellent! My Japanese friend is very impressed with what I was able to teach myself. I feel very confident in what I have learned. The student CD that accompanies is a little lacking, though. It only covers dialogue and vocab for the book (and workbook), when I really wish the CD included more from the textbook. I also recommend getting the workbook for more practice. You should know that you need the student CD to use the workbook. Genki 1 has to be the best text out there for learning Japanese!

Well Thought-Out Beginners' Course for English Speakers.......2007-05-23

Japanese is a very difficult language for English speakers to learn. If you've learned some French or Spanish (as I have), forget about it! Japanese is many times more difficult. That being said, Japanese is also more interesting, in that it has a completely different structure and forces you to think differently.

Genki does a good job of presenting Japanese is an orderly fashion. The authors are all native Japanese speakers, and there are a few places where they make mistakes in English, but those small errors do not take away from the text.

Genki could use a few more sample Japanese sentences, though. For example, when they present a new pattern, they often provide just a couple of examples when ten or twelve would be better. I suppose they assume (correctly) that this book will mostly be used in a classroom setting, and that the teacher will provide additional material.

In the end, Genki is a good textbook, but you will need more help if you are going to learn to speak Japanese. That is not the fault of the authors, it is just the way it is.

Read this is you are concerned with the JLPT Tests.......2007-04-30

I am writing this review as a person who is concerned with passing the JLPT tests and finding study materials. Of ocurse as everyone else wants, I also want to learn Japanese as well. After having passed all the exams and having an understanding of what each requires and being a State university (college) student I can say this book si great. Challenging but great.

THE Genki 1 IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO PASS JLPT TEST 4 or 3!!!

Let me repeat that again

THE Genki 1 IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO PASS JLPT TEST 4 or 3!!!

While it can be a help, it simply does not go over enough information to insure passing.

THE GENKI BOOK 1 and THE GENKI BOOK 2 DO NOT INSURE PASSING LEVEL 3 or 4!!!

let me repeat tht again

THE GENKI BOOK 1 and THE GENKI BOOK 2 DO NOT INSURE PASSING LEVEL 3 or 4!!!

The other reviewers who write that it does would have needed other knowledge NOT included in these books or with the cds. You simply need more information. about it. The best book for passing the JLPT levels 3 and 4 do not exist. you need a thorough understanding which school can provide or multiple resources for the home study fanatic.

I normally do not review. but would hate to see people just buying this and then getting to the examinations and not knowing a thing that was going on. Be careful what you read.

THe book is great but if one of your goals is passing JLPT 4 or 3 this is not sufficuent alone.

Thank you and good luck to you!

I've purchased all the rest this one is the best........2007-03-26

Ok, I've spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on Japanaese language learning materials. Books, software, CDs etc. Some of them good some of them bad. Genki is the only one that has really put it all together for me. It explains the concepts and explains them well. When you are done reading the grammar sections it just starts to make sense.

This is a great stepping stone for those that are wanting to learn Japanese as part of a fuller understanding of the language. If you are looking for a quick read for a weekend in Tokyo this book isn't for you.

Pick up the workbook and CD if you are going to be doing this solo. It'll help out like you wouldn't believe.

Average customer rating:

Changes in translation?
A very ugly read
not as good as the first book but
A must read!
Longwinded and boring

Grotesque
Natsuo Kirino
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Out: A Novel
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ASIN: 1400044944
Release Date: 2007-03-13

Book Description

Natsuo Kirino made a spectacular fiction debut on these shores with the publication of Edgar Award-nominated Out (“Daring and disturbing . . . Prepared to push the limits of this world . . . Remarkable”—Los Angeles Times). Unanimously lauded for her unique, psychologically complex, darkly compelling vision and voice, she garnered a multitude of enthusiastic fans eager for more.
In her riveting new novel Grotesque, Kirino once again depicts a barely known Japan. This is the story of three Japanese women and the interconnectedness of beauty and cruelty, sex and violence, ugliness and ambition in their lives.
Tokyo prostitutes Yuriko and Kazue have been brutally murdered, their deaths leaving a wake of unanswered questions about who they were, who their murderer is, and how their lives came to this end. As their stories unfurl in an ingeniously layered narrative, coolly mediated by Yuriko’s older sister, we are taken back to their time in a prestigious girls’ high school—where a strict social hierarchy decided their fates—and follow them through the years as they struggle against rigid societal conventions.
Shedding light on the most hidden precincts of Japanese society today, Grotesque is both a psychological investigation into the female psyche and a classic work of noir fiction. It is a stunning novel, a book that confirms Natsuo Kirino’s electrifying gifts.

Customer Reviews:

Changes in translation?.......2007-10-09

I really enjoyed this book, but it can't be compared to Out. It has Kirino's dark outlook, but it's not a crime novel per se. However, when I read that changes had been made to the english version, I interviewed the editor of the book, and she explained the changes made. The interview appears on my blog, http://literatiny.blogspot.com I hope it answers many of the questions posed here.

A very ugly read.......2007-08-29

I really enjoyed Out and was was looking forward to this next book. What a disappointment. The writing style read like an amateuristic attempt at an interview. I felt no connection or interest in any of the characters, just an increasing sense of distaste as I got deeper into the book. At the end I felt relieved that it was over and dismayed that the author of such a great book (Out) followed up with something so terrible.

not as good as the first book but.......2007-08-25

still worth reading. wraps around itself but doesn't become strangled. it delves deeply into the characters psyche's and how they became what they are, how they died to themselves, and how they died to each other.

A must read!.......2007-08-20

Could not put this one down. A dense psycological thriller, filled with thought provoking social commentary.
I wish more of her books were translated.

Longwinded and boring.......2007-08-17

It can't be compared with Out, Kirino's masterpiece. It reads like a first draft, with long drawn out explanations, much too much about Japanese girls' schools, and completely uninspired descriptions. The chapters are narrated by different characters, all about equally dull.

Average customer rating:

A Great Book!
A classic!
Easy to Read - Difficult to Apply
What many overlook
Hagakure

Hagakure: The Book of the Samauri
Tsunetomo Yamamoto
Manufacturer: Kodansha International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Bushido: The Way of the Samurai (Square One Classics)
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The Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke

ASIN: 4770011067

Book Description

|Hagakure ("In the Shadow of Leaves"') is a manual for the samurai classes consisting of a series of short anecdotes and reflections that give both insight and instruction-in the philosophy and code of behavior that foster the true spirit of Bushido-the Way of the Warrior. It is not a book of
philosophy as most would understand the word: it is a collection of thoughts and sayings recorded over a period of seven years, and as such covers a wide variety of subjects, often in no particular sequence.

The work represents an attitude far removed from our modern pragmatism and materialism, and posesses an intuitive rather than rational appeal in its assertion that Bushido is a Way of Dying, and that only a samurai retainer prepared and willing to die at any moment can be totally true to his lord.
While Hagakure was for many years a secret text known only to the warrior vassals of the Hizen fief to which the author belonged, it later came to be recognized as a classic exposition of samurai thought and came to influence many subsequent generations, including Yukio Mishima.

This translation offers 300 selections that constitute the core texts of the 1,300 present in the original.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Book!.......2007-09-30

I loved it. It's an enjoyable read, full of great stories and full of insights. When I first read this book back in 1998, it had a tremendous impact on my life. It allowed me to view things from a different perspective. I will continue to recommend it to everyone. I also highly recommend the modern day version Understanding: Train of Thought.

A classic!.......2007-09-26

This is one of the best historical texts available on the subject of Japanese warrior philosophy. While many of its practices seem alien to the 21st century reader, there is still much wisdom to be found here. I have read this book many times over the years. I will very likely continue to read it again and again.Bushido: A Modern Adaptation of the Ancient Code of the SamuraiMeditations (Penguin Classics)

Easy to Read - Difficult to Apply.......2007-07-19

Hagakure: The Book of the Samauri is a superb little book that makes some important points. However, it is all too easy to take what it has to say out of context. The time and place to which it was literally relevant has long since passed. What it has to say about the values one should live by and how one should carry out their mission in life are, on the other hand, timeless.

The same can be said of another important Japanese classic: The Book of Five Rings. Both of these books are important from a philosophical point of view, but difficult to really understand for those who are not immersed in Japanese culture. Both spring from the philosophy of Zen and both do a good job of showing its application is a time of constant warfare and personal danger.

A good choice to put the advice of the Zen warriors into perspective is the book Bushido, the Soul of Japan which gives a broader look at the philosophy and its roots. What Zen is all about and how it may be applied in everyday life - how compatible it is with other philosophies and religions - is well presented.

All three of these books have been bound together into one book: The Samurai Series: The Book of Five Rings, Hagakure -The Way of the Samurai & Bushido - The Soul of Japan, which I can recommend without reservation. Together, these three books add up to much more than the sum of the parts. They are truly synergistic.

What many overlook.......2007-06-07

Though I am here to review this book I must comment on previous editorials and reviews posted. As you may have just read, this book is about the mindset of the Samurai. And really, it isn't about the samurai as in a sense of all samurais lumped together as one group, or even a type of samurai, as it is more about just one samurai, the author. However, many of the reviewers here fail to make the connection with this book to today's trials and tribulations.

Much of what Hagakures writes is outdated - instructions and etiquette on murder, suicide, treatment of women, etc. However, there is much of this book that is applicable to today. Look through the absurd passages into the lesson behind the text. Portions of this book that discuss fighting enemies, too, are outdated. But one must make the connection of terms like `enemy' with struggle or test; etiquette on waking up from a nap doesn't necessarily refer to literally waking from slumber. There is so much in this book that many will never see if they read it without pondering its teachings. The references to specific situations may seem obsolete, but one must look deeper.

The Bible passage of not putting a stumbling block before a blind man does directly mean just that. However, a blind man does not necessarily refer to a man without his eyesight. And a stumbling block may not be a physical object. If one can truly read this book without paying so much attention to the writer, and more to translating the deeper meaning between each passage, then this book will change your life. Passages of awaking from sleep, the spirit of an age, tackling obstacles without complexity, form and emptiness, and (my absolute favorite) the lesson of a rainstorm, will undoubtedly bestow a new level of understanding life to any deep reader.

I recommend this book for all of the reasons others have previously listed; but I also recommend this book for so many more.

Hagakure.......2007-03-29

This book is a wonderful look into the hearts and minds of the Samauri. Anybody intrested in trying to comprehend the Samauri mindset should start here. The book gives you a clear point of view on basic life, from doing good versus bad, to manners, to raising children, and everything inbetween all from the ancient Samauri ways of life. The world today would be a much better place if more people were to live their lives in this manner.

Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power And Purpose

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Japan Must Rise!
Adapting to the Trends of the Time
Resurgence of a Chastened, Wiser Giant
The Sun Also Rises

Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power And Purpose
Kenneth B. Pyle
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1586484176

Book Description

Japan is on the verge of a sea change. After more than fifty years of national pacifism and isolation including the "lost decade" of the 1990s, Japan is quietly, stealthily awakening. As Japan prepares to become a major player in the strategic struggles of the 21st century, critical questions arise about its motivations. What are the driving forces that influence how Japan will act in the international system? Are there recurrent patterns that will help explain how Japan will respond to the emerging environment of world politics?

American understanding of Japanese character and purpose has been tenuous at best. We have repeatedly underestimated Japan in the realm of foreign policy. Now as Japan shows signs of vitality and international engagement, it is more important than ever that we understand the forces that drive Japan. In Japan Rising, renowned expert Kenneth Pyle identities the common threads that bind the divergent strategies of modern Japan, providing essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how Japan arrived at this moment-and what to expect in the future.

Customer Reviews:

Japan Must Rise!.......2007-10-10

After the occupation of Japan ended in 1952 by the United States, the Japanese nation would emerge as one of the strongest economical nations in the world. Without a doubt, Japan has been the economic empire of the Far East along with China but the Japanese do pay their employees much better than China. Japan has adopted a largely pacifist constitution since it was the military leaders who led Japan into World War II and almost complete destruction.

This book traces the development of the Japanese military since the close of the Cold War and the beginnings of the new war on terrorism. The United States and most democratic allies are looking for Japan to rebuild its military might for several reasons. First, Japan is now an allied nation. Secondly, Japan is now a democratic nation allowing the people to help its leaders control the military. Thirdly, Japan could help offset North Korea and China as rogue nations in southeast Asia. Fourth, its simply a matter of time before Islamic terrorist target Japan. Japan has every right to protect herself.

I found this book to be enlightning. If you would have told the Marines at Guam or Iwo Jima that Japan would be an allied nation along with the United States, almost none would have accepted that premise. Today the United States (and Europe) needs Japan to rebuild its military to help fight terrorism. The spending by the Japanese on their military has been steadly going up as Japan seeks to defend itself in the coming battle. Japanese forces are already helping the United States in its battles in the middle east.

Overall this a good read. I would encourage you to study Japan as it rebuilds its military might.

Adapting to the Trends of the Time.......2007-08-14

Kenneth Pyle's history of Japan's shifting foreign policies over the last hundred and fifty years is built on three premisses. The first, in accordance with the realist paradigm in international relations theory, is that Japan conducts its foreign relations in a way that maximizes the nation's interest, and that its national advantage can be determined in a straightforward and unambiguous manner. This distinguishes the author from other scholars who insist on socially-constructed goals or collective disciplines that can sometimes be at variance with a country's most advantageous course of action.

The second principle is that Japanese political leaders are a pragmatic lot who tend to "move with the tide" and adapt to changing circumstances. Whenever fundamental changes have taken place in the international environment, the Japanese leaders have proven skillful at adapting their policies to these changes and using them opportunistically to further the nation's interests and ambition. A corollary is that Japan takes its external environment as a given: it doesn't try to shape or transform it through the application of universalistic principles or home-bred ideologies. To use a metaphor from economics, Japan is a price-taker, not a market-maker.

The third precept is the "Primat der Aussenpolitik": Japanese institutions were shaped more by external factors than by internal political struggles or social conflicts. Repeatedly through the course of the 150 years of its modern history, each time the structure of the international system underwent fundamental change, Japan adapted its foreign policies to that changed order and restructured its internal organization to take advantage of it. In the process of adapting its domestic institutions to the external environment, concern with preserving the ideals of Japan's cultural heritage generally took second place. As a consequence, the book covers much more than foreign policy, and its scope encompass all aspects of japan's adaptation to the modern world.

Japan Rising provides a good introduction to the country's modern history and brings different periods that are often treated separately into a common narrative. Particularly valuable are the many quotations of Japanese statesmen or intellectuals that the author tracks back to their original source given in the footnotes (it is not clear whether the author offers his own translation of these sources or borrows them from translated versions). Kenneth Pyle also makes good use of the existing literature, including some Japanese scholarship, although he cannot do justice to all that has been written on so broad a subject. Nevertheless, references to historical debates and conflicts of interpretation that divide the historical profession would have been worthwhile.

I have some reservations however with the author's attempt to identify the "profound forces" or recurrent patterns that characterize Japan's engagement with the outside world. These persistent features (Japan's opportunism, pragmatism, outward orientation, etc.) tend to placate psychological traits over a nation, obfuscating the political processes, social struggles, and individual agency that are at the origin of historical outcomes. They establish a false continuity in Japan's modern history, minimizing the profound ruptures and new departures that have charted the country's course since the Meiji Restoration. The author's intention is to offer to American policy-makers interpretative lenses and guidelines for action in a bilateral relationship that has often been fraught with misunderstandings and prejudices. But I am not sure whether generalizations about Japan's national "style" or pattern of behavior are really helping toward that end.

Another reservation I have with the book is its interpretation of Japan's economic success. The author seems to have a problem with free trade and self-regulating markets, echoing in some sense Japanese leaders' preference for ordered capitalism and state intervention. He reproduces uncritically Friedrich List's indictment of free trade as a self-serving ideology sustaining British imperial rule: "It is a very common clever device that when anyone has attained the summit of greatness, he kicks away the ladder by which he has climbed up, in order to deprive others of the means of climbing up after him." Put in this context, Japan's imperial expansion was a rational response to a situation where the chances to climb the ladder were flawed. This was simply the way the game was played, and if someone is to blame, it is the imperial powers who set the rules of the game, not Japan who simply was a fast learner.

Moving on to the postwar era, the author sees Japan's recovery and economic success as the result of mercantilist policies taking advantage of a system ruled by classic liberal principles. There is certainly an element of free riding in Japan's postwar economic miracle, which was made possible by America's security umbrella and its maintaining of a liberal economic order. But claiming that there would have been no Japanese success story had Japan contributed a bigger part of burden sharing seems to me an unsubstantiated conclusion. More than mercantilism and state interventionism, Japanese economic success seems to me the result of sound economic policies and the collective effort of a people determined to catch up.

Resurgence of a Chastened, Wiser Giant .......2007-06-05

Kenneth Pyle does a remarkable job in helping his readers better assess the future behavior of a resurgent Japan in fast-changing Asia. U.S. policymakers have been repeatedly wrong-footed in gauging Japan's foreign policy since the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry and his ships on Japan's shores in 1853 (pp. 10, 67). Think for instance about the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor as an act of economic desperation over the American oil embargo, despite the odds against military victory (pp. 10 - 11, 64 - 65, 135 - 36, 204, 354). Another example is the Yoshida doctrine, Japan's unique Cold War policy that relied on U.S. security guarantees while pursuing mercantile realism, to which American policymakers remained oblivious for a long time (pp. 13, 45 - 46, 212, 225 - 77, 291).

Part of the challenge in understanding Japan is that the country is simultaneously a state and a unique civilization (pp. 13, 49 - 50). Furthermore, Japan has vacillated between infuriating ethnocentrism and remarkable receptivity to foreign influences during its history without ultimately sacrificing its unique culture (pp. 18 - 19, 22 - 23, 58 - 62, 76, 100 - 05, 116 - 36, 176, 239, 245). Finally, Japan has often not done enough to factor in the legitimate concerns of other countries in its "opaque" decision-making process, resulting in some needless frictions (pp. 15 - 16, 229, 250 - 52, 306 - 09, 354).

To his credit, Pyle clearly shows that the Japanese tend to shun radical change in their interaction with the outside world unless the circumstances deprive them of any other option. The difficulty of making change and the rapidity with which irresistible changes occur have often confused foreigners because of the apparent, inherent contradiction in this policy (pp. 52, 76).

Resource poor and a late arriver in the modern world, Japan is among the few countries in modern history which have been especially sensitive and responsive to the forces of the international environment (pp. 21 - 22, 27, 49). As a matter of self-interest, Japan has repeatedly allied itself with the dominant ascendant power (pp. 12, 44 - 46). Modern Japan's behavior is especially remarkable when one remembers that the country benefited from a unique isolation and security for almost all its history prior to the 19th century. (pp. 32, 34). The origin of that astonishing capability to adapt to external forces lies in the legacy of Japanese feudalism (pp. 39 - 41, 59, 62, 84). The same conservative ruling elite has displayed an extraordinary resilience in carrying on the strategic principles of the Meiji leaders, despite the ups and downs in their fortunes (pp. 23 - 24, 43 - 44, 49-51, 194, 220, 225 - 26, 260 - 77, 293, 357).

Pyle spends most of his time covering how Japan reorganized its domestic institutions to support its foreign policy while accommodating five fundamental changes in the international order in East Asia in the last century and half (p. 28):

1) The collapse of the Sinocentric system under the pressure of Western powers taking advantage of a weakened Imperial China in the middle of the 19th century (pp. 34 - 39, 72 - 136);

2) The substitution of the imperialist system for the decade-old Washington Treaty System based on the ideals of international liberalism under the influence of Woodrow Wilson after WWI. The new system was designed to check Japanese expansionism in East Asia (pp. 139 - 54, 159 - 67, 201);

3) The disintegration of the Washington System following the worldwide economic depression and the remodeling of Japanese domestic institutions after those of Nazi Germany in its conquest of much of East and Southeast Asia between 1932 and 1942 (pp. 167 - 69, 172, 183 - 91, 198 - 205);

4) The annihilation of Japan's fascist order and the imposition of a new U.S.-inspired liberal order after 1945 and its evolution during the Cold War. Postwar Japan retooled its domestic institutions to get the most out of the free-trade U.S.-sponsored regime while leveraging the military alliance between the two countries (pp. 205 - 77);

5) The post Cold War transition in Japan following the implosion of the Soviet Union-dominated communist order in 1989. Surprisingly, Japan, at the zenith of its economic power, sank in economic and political torpor, partly due to the absence of a clear-cut new order in East Asia and partly due to the emergence of other economic powers, especially China, in the region (pp. 5, 280, 284, 286, 300). Japan started rebounding from its torpor under the premiership of Koizumi Junichirô by undermining the Yoshida doctrine and by engaging in economic and military multilateralism (pp. 291 - 309, 355 - 74).

Pyle consecrates the end of his book to the triangular relations among China, Japan, and the U.S. The U.S. has pursued the same policy in East Asia since WWI: No domination of any power in the region, free trade, and the spread of democracy to preserve peace and stability in the region (pp. 145, 311). The U.S. has developed a mixed policy of containment and engagement with China while strengthening its military alliance with Japan (pp. 314, 333, 348 - 54, 368 - 69). The continued engagement of the U.S. in the region is vital to keep Japan from putting itself in the orbit of China (p. 353). Japan, mindful of its past, location, and culture, has been conditionally engaging China in a way that is somewhat different from the U.S. (pp. 314 - 16, 324 - 36).

The legitimacy of the Communist Party leadership in China is built on strong economic growth (p. 337). If economic growth falters, the Communist Party leadership could be tempted to internationalize its problems by playing once more the nationalistic card that could backfire. Think for instance about fascist Japan in the 1930s and 1940s. More optimistically, the Communist Party could give up power peacefully as its counterparts in Central and Eastern Europe did in 1989.

To summarize, Japan's international behavior cannot be correctly understood without a proper grasp of the tectonic forces that have molded the country's history, geography, and culture.

The Sun Also Rises.......2007-05-03

Japan is a country that has faded into the background for many Americans. It is there, but not front and center like China or even Korea (North/South.) But the terms of our two countries' basically comfortable bilateral relationship may soon shift.

Professor Pyle, a well-informed academic, reminds his readers that Japan is important not only as a current major world economic force but as an emerging political and military power in the future of Asia. Change is afoot in Japan -- with a younger population not grounded in the searing aftermath of World War II -- as it adjusts its foreign policy to post-Cold War realities.

A book for those serious about understanding both historical and modern Japan, and its possible future in relation to China, Taiwan, Russia, Korea, and the United States.

The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation

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Not even worth one star
BEWARE! Digital version is only a 10 page summary!
From information-processing machine to knowledge-creating co
A look at knowledge creation
An essential book on knowledge management

The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation
Ikujiro Nonaka , and Hirotaka Takeuchi
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195092694

Book Description

How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself with the master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

Download Description

Manufacturers around the world have learned much from Japanese manufacturing techniques. However, any company that wants to compete on knowledge must also learn from Japanese techniques of knowledge-creation. Managers at Japan's most successful companies recognize that creating knowledge is not simply a matter of processing objective information. Rather, it depends on tapping the tacit and often highly subjective insights, intuitions, and ideals of employees.

Customer Reviews:

Not even worth one star.......2005-11-21

I was very disappointed by this book. Not only was it painful to read, because it dragged on and was full of academic nonsense, the authors views were also unconvincing and based on old research.

This book is outdated and not relevant to the way Japan is today. The authors use a lot of research and examples from the 80s and even the 70s. They make the claim that Japanese firms experienced a lot of success in the late 70s and 80s because of their superior ability to "create knowledge." They seem to be in complete denial that Japan's economic bubble had anything to do with this "success" that they are talking about. Also, the book was written over 10 years ago, before the financial crisis and before people realized that a lot of this so-called success was just cooked in the books by accountants.

They do give some reasonable examples of knowledge creating firms that are successful, but that's all they are, just a few examples and not an accurate representation of the whole picture of Japanese Management. Also, most of the examples are of Japanese manufacturing firms. What about the service sector? Suspiciously they did not use examples of companies from Japan's service sector, which are extremely inefficient and not the text book perfect examples of successful "knowledge creating" firms.

The theories and models in this book are a bunch of overly abstract vague pretentious academic nonsense. The real life examples are so nebulously related to the theories and models that most successful (or unsuccessful) companies can be used as examples.

If you want to read a bunch of nonsense based on old research with the names of Harvard professors and some philosophy thrown in to make the nonsense seem legit and intelligent, then by all means, read this book. But if you are like me and want to learn about Japanese management, don't waste your time or money on this book.

BEWARE! Digital version is only a 10 page summary!.......2004-03-16

Don't get caught like I did.

From information-processing machine to knowledge-creating co.......2002-08-28

This book is the classic in the organizational learning approach. But it¡¯s more than that. This book is not about lean production or Japanese kaizen system, but about how to enhance a firm¡¯s adaptability to turbulent environment through knowledge creation. with suggesting new concept of knowledge-creation as the tangible base of organizational capabilities or innovation, this book serves as the bridge between organizational learning school and resource-capabilities view.
As the being to survive in environment, the firm processes signals or information from environment. Knowledge is the framework to process info to interpret the state of environment. Up to 1980s, the company was viewed as information-processing machine. Indeed, firm is the flow of information. That kind of view has been justified against the business reality. Actually, it¡¯s the very picture of bureaucratic organization which culminated in GM¡¯s M-form model. Here, CEO like Jack Welch is the hero. Such an organization is effective when the environment is stable and predictable. But since 1970s, things have changed. Uncertainties have been amplified with the hypercompetition on global scale. Now the framework to interpret the signal from environment, itself should incessantly and systemically be adapted to turbulent reality. Knowledge and innovation have come the words of the day. Not surprisingly, there has been growing dissatisfaction with traditional organizational structure. Kao¡¯s CEO, Maruta put it in this way: ¡®The intelligence of a firm does not come from the president nor top management. That must come from the gathering of all knowledge of all members.¡¯ This book is about to how to build organization as the effective innovation site. To do so, all the available knowledge in and out of company should be able to be mobilized and freely flow throughout the firm. For instance, front line employees are constantly in direct touch with the outside world. They can obtain access to the up-to-date info on the market, technology, or competitors. But their knowledge is, in most cases, not able to be expressed in explicit way. Generally, it¡¯s the tacit knowledge. But to survive more and more intensified competition, the firm should be apt to mobilizing their tacit knowledge. To achieve such a goal, task force or bottom-up organizational model emerged. In those model, the creative knowledge worker, in Peter Drucker¡¯s term, is the hero. But in those models, knowledge tends to be confined to narrow front line, and comes and goes with creative employees. And worse, the firm can¡¯t react as an efficient unit to threats from environment. As a result, innovation is the haphazard event. So there should be some integrating mechanism like hierarchy. To be efficient unit, knowledge should flow all over the company. Here, authors rediscover the significance of middle managers. They play the role of midwife and amplifier of knowledge from front line employees and between various divisions in the firm. They coordinate the flow of knowledge and maintain the firm as a coherent knowledge-creating unit. In short, the firm should be organized as the melting pot of member¡¯s knowledge. Authors take examples from Japanese firms to illustrate what¡¯s like such a site.

A look at knowledge creation.......2001-11-26

I came to this book through a reference in Novak & Gowin. What caught my eye was that someone was willing to talk about an epistemological stance other than the analytic, reductionist view held in science. For the most part, I found this book's understanding of Western epistemology to be reasonable; I can't speak for the Japanese epsitemology cited. What interested me, and for which I recommend the book, is their view of knowledge creation. The case studies lend weight to their view, but they do explicate a possible model for turning subjective knowledge into explicit knowledge. They suggest a management model for making it happen. The book is very well written and edited.

I believe the book needs a very careful read *outside* the business community. I would put this book down as the business version of Feynman's *The Character of Natural Law*.

An essential book on knowledge management.......2001-09-28

This is perhaps one of the most important books presently available on knowledge management. The authors demonstrate how 'knowledge' is vital to innovation within Japanese firms, with clear distinction made between 'tacit' and explicit' knowledge. An effort is made to distinguish the differences between Japanese and Western firms through an emphasis on the importance of 'tacit' knowledge and a 'middle-up-down' management process. Other than Chapter 2 (a review of philosophical background relating to epistemology which might put some readers off), this book has minimal jargons and complexities and would be an easy and enjoyable read even for non-academics. The arguments presented by the authors are well-illustrated with relevant industrial examples. Overall, this is a book that not only brings a new perspective to knowledge management but also raises questions for the ardent researchers who might ponder over its relevance to non-Japanese firms.

Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production

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Everything I expected!
Tell it like it is
Delighting
Toyota Magic
Toyota Production Systerm: Beyond Large-Scale Production

Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production
Taiichi Ohno
Manufacturer: Productivity Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0915299143

Book Description

Here's the first information ever published in Japan on the Toyota production system (known as Just-In-Time manufacturing). Here Ohno, who created JIT for Toyota, reveals the origins, daring innovations, and ceaseless evolution of the Toyota system into a full management system. You'll learn how to manage JIT from the man who invented it, and to create a winning JIT environment in your own manufacturing operation.

Customer Reviews:

Everything I expected!.......2007-09-29

I got this as a present for my father for his birthday last weekend. He has already started reading it and making notes. It is everything we hoped it would be and met his expectations. I would recommend it for marketing students, teachers, and anyone interested in that type of thing.

Tell it like it is.......2007-04-10

There are many myths around the Toyota Production System (TPS). Ohno Taiichi merits my deepest respects, considering he was able almost a half century ago to observe and learn from others. Considering the simple target given to him, to "catch up with America" he studied in-depth the work of Ford and recognised the idea of copying the US supermarket system for his operational purpose.

The book describes very well what constraints he was given from the owners when Toyota started to get into the automotive business and what path they followed until the first fully operated TPS plant went operational at the 60s.

Many thinkings of Ohno Taiichi are still actual. He is capable of bringing key problems to the point: efficiency gains are worthless until they really lead to cost reduction. Unfortunatelly we all now the opposite from this wisdom - and many "growth-strategies" of companies today are nothing else than to try to increase business with the same workforce. Furthermore the author gives good examples how Toyota handled different issues, as e.g. the syncronization of production with final assembly.

The reader will not find any operational theory or formulas in this book and if you are looking for books teaching you about designing and sizing Pull-systems you should look for books as "Kanban made simple" or similar. TPS is not about installing software than about eliminating everything which is waste and does mainly not contribute to the succes of your business.

Anyway this book is a must read for any readers interested in first hand information about the basis that made TMC what they are today - a business model developed by smart people many years ago and dearing to ask simple questions, to find sound and robust solutions and to steadily develop the system and its people working in it.

My deepest respect to Ohno Taiichi,
Domo arrigato,

Oliver

Delighting.......2007-03-09

For all the people searching a new way to lead & achieve new innovations, is a good example of attitud & ideas for that purpose. After a war between ownselfes & paradigms a Japanese discovered the importance of loose fear, achieving several succesfuly goals in his Company & in his Country.

Toyota Magic.......2006-05-24

"Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production" is a very enlightening work by the inventor of lean manufacturing, Taiichi Ohno. This small book is packed with insights and ideas on how to efficiently and effectively run a production system. The Toyota Production is also known as lean manufacturing, entails, among other things, minimising waste through continuous improvement and producing only what is sold, as requested by the customer. This unique and innovative system explains why Toyota makes profits even in tough times when other competitor firms are losing money.

The book explains this fascinating subject in a simple and easy to read and understand way that makes it accessible to a wide range of readers. Among the things that I found very interesting was the concept of zero defects, production load-levelling, standardised work and just-in-time delivery.

The book is very enlightening reading for those involved in any production process.

Toyota Production Systerm: Beyond Large-Scale Production.......2006-03-24

Great! Enlightening AND an interesting read. So good I bought an extra copy to give as a gift.

Bushido : Legacies of the Japanese Tattoo

Average customer rating:

Best Book on Japanese Tattoo I've Read!!!
Tradition with ink
Quite impressive
Amazing Japanese Tattoo Art
fabulous photos, unique access, lost opportunities

Bushido : Legacies of the Japanese Tattoo
Takahiro Kitamura , and Katie M. Kitamura
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764312014

Book Description

This gorgeous book delves into the elusive world of traditional Japanese tattooing. The Samurai spirit, Bushido, is an integral component of Japanese tattooing that is traced through the imagery and interpersonal dynamics of this veiled subculture. The eloquent text is based largely on Takahiro Kitamuras experiences as client and student of the famed Japanese tattoo master, Horiyoshi III. Over 200 beautiful photos by Jai Tanju capture the breathtaking tattoo artistry of Horiyoshi III. Five original, unpublished prints by Horiyoshi III, like those in his acclaimed book, 100 Demons of Horiyoshi III, are included here. Bushido: Legacies of the Japanese Tattoo is certain to fascinate everyone with an interest in tattoo culture.

Customer Reviews:

Best Book on Japanese Tattoo I've Read!!!.......2007-10-17

I was in the process of researching Japanese tattoos for my own tattoo design and purchased four books. Bushido was the best for telling the story and history of Japanese tattooing and the pictures were equally amazing. Bushido was informative and pictures were beautifully shot. By far the best book on the subject I have seen.

Tradition with ink.......2007-05-13

It's a cool book that shows us many curious aspects of the japan tattoo history and tradition.
But, in another way, there's a lack of variety of photos, like koi fish and masks for example.

Quite impressive.......2007-01-10

Horioshi work speaks for itself and this book is an impressive tribute to it. The pictures are fantastic and it's very nice to see that the family business has its heritage assured.

Amazing Japanese Tattoo Art.......2006-10-10

This book is a great reference for tattoo artists and other artists that enjoy the art of Japanese tattooing. It displays full page photographs (including close ups) so you can see the detail and subject matter quite well.

fabulous photos, unique access, lost opportunities.......2003-07-14

It appears to be the sad fate of English-language books on the Japanese tattoo that they so rarely combine all the desired publishing strengths--first-rate photography, unique insights, disciplined writing, and careful documentation--in a single volume. And this is disappointingly the case with Takahiro Kitamura's "Bushido: Legacies of the Japanese Tattoo." The book includes, as previous reviewers have noted, stunningly beautiful photographs, and it benefits mightily from the personal access of Kitamura (who tattoos as the artist Horitaka) to modern practitioners of the Japanese tattoo. However, it is also the case that only a minute percentage of the book's illustrations are captioned and explained, the text keeps shifting perspective and voice, and the glossaries and index are inadequate.

As Kitamura has proved in both "Bushido" and his "Tattoos of the Floating World," the Japanese tattoo deserves to be regarded as a serious art form. It also deserves to be presented to the public by mainline art publishers who employ the best designers and the best color separation technology. To achieve this, the time has come for talented and passionate specialists like Kitamura to consider teaming with professional art writers who flourish outside the confines of the tightly-knit tattoo community.

Average customer rating:

Useful for Art History Students

good comprehensive book.helped in class

History of Japanese Art (Trade) (2nd Edition)

"The authority" on Japanese art in English

History of Japanese Art
Penelope Mason
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Asian | Regional | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0131176013

Customer Reviews:

Useful for Art History Students.......2007-01-26

Depending on what your intended usage for this book will be, this book may be somewhat helpful. I needed this for an art history class my senior year of college as an art history major. Thing is, the class was pretty ridiculous. It was supposed to be an introductory class into the art of japanese art & tradition, but the professor spoke more of Chinese art & traditions.

This book will give you a pretty thorough knowledge in Japanese Art, as well as some of its culture, more through the introductions of the eras and periods and through its pictures. But that's it, do not buy this if you're looking for a complete knowledge, because that's not what it is. Also, if you are looking for early (i.e. ancient!) japanese history, there really isn't any, in this book or just in general.

Definitely buy it here on Amazon, because I found it to be a lot cheaper in comparison to my friends who had spent a fortune on it through eBay and the university bookstores. You may also want to get a soft cover if you want to sell it back later on or use it solely for class, because it's such a heavy book (I have the hard cover). My intent was to keep the book, because it's such a nice book to have in anyone's collection.

If you do purchase it, you will not be let down. It's a great buy.

good comprehensive book.helped in class.......2006-02-24

very good book decent photos, covered a good amount of information . Got for my history of japanese painting class helped out

History of Japanese Art (Trade) (2nd Edition).......2005-09-18

Excellent - Just what I thought it would be.

"The authority" on Japanese art in English.......2000-09-05

There are a number of books on Japanese art in English, but many spend a great deal of time on one particular period (usually the period the author prefers) and writes about the rest as though they were "add-ons". Mason's work is concise as well as informative about a broad range of topics, and will serve as a good stepping stone or introduction for those looking to get in to the world of Japanese art. The general volume dedicated to each time period shows a fair balance, and it is easy to see how earlier movements in art and design influenced later developments, from prehistoric times to the modern era.

If there are any problems to be sited with the text, it is that it is getting a little old. Since 1993 (the most recent edition) there have been many advances in art history in Japan (particularly regarding prehistoric art and society), and many of the newer focuses in the art history comunity (such as Edo period printed matter, particularly picture inserts) will not be reflected in the text.

Even so, this will serve as a good starting point for most, particularly those studying in a college setting. Those planning to specialize in East Asian or Japanese art should have a copy by their side, both for reference and for the many illustrations and photographs collected inside.

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