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Winner of the 2017 - 2018 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Translation Prize

Japan's most beloved memoir, from the early 20th century, "an extraordinarily beautiful evocation of the world of childhood."

Perhaps the most admired childhood memoir ever written in Japan, The Silver Spoon is a sharp detailing of life at the end of the Meiji period (1912) through the eyes of a boy as he grows into adolescence. Innocence fades as he slowly becomes aware of himself and others, while scene after scene richly evokes the tastes, lifestyles, landscapes, objects, and manners of a lost Japan.

Winner of the 2017 - 2018 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Translation Prize

Japan's most beloved memoir from the early twentieth century, "an extraordinarily beautiful evocation of the world of childhood."

Perhaps the most admired childhood memoir ever written in Japan, The Silver Spoon is a sharp detailing of life at the end of the Meiji period (1912) through the eyes of a boy as he grows into adolescence. Innocence fades as he slowly becomes aware of himself and others, while scene after scene richly evokes the tastes, lifestyles, landscapes, objects, and manners of a lost Japan.

Winner of the Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize

Caught between two cultures, award-winning author Hiromi Ito tackles subjects like aging, death, and suffering with dark humor, illuminating the bittersweet joys of being alive.

The first novel to appear in English by award-winning author Hiromi Ito explores the absurdities, complexities, and challenges experienced by a woman caring for her two families: her husband and daughters in California and her aging parents in Japan. As the narrator shuttles back and forth between these two starkly different cultures, she creates a powerful and entertaining narrative about what it means to live and die in a globalized society.

Ito has been described as a “shaman of poetry” because of her skill in allowing the voices of others to flow through her. Here she enriches her semi-autobiographical novel by channeling myriad voices drawn from Japanese folklore, poetry, literature, and pop culture. The result is a generic chimera—part poetry, part prose, part epic—a unique, transnational, polyvocal mode of storytelling. One throughline is a series of memories associated with the Buddhist bodhisattva Jizo, who helps to remove the “thorns” of human suffering.

Winner of the Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize

Caught between two cultures, award-winning author Hiromi Ito tackles subjects like aging, death, and suffering with dark humor, illuminating the bittersweet joys of being alive.

The first novel to appear in English by award-winning author Hiromi Ito explores the absurdities, complexities, and challenges experienced by a woman caring for her two families: her husband and daughters in California and her aging parents in Japan. As the narrator shuttles back and forth between these two starkly different cultures, she creates a powerful and entertaining narrative about what it means to live and die in a globalized society.

Ito has been described as a “shaman of poetry” because of her skill in allowing the voices of others to flow through her. Here she enriches her semi-autobiographical novel by channeling myriad voices drawn from Japanese folklore, poetry, literature, and pop culture. The result is a generic chimera—part poetry, part prose, part epic—a unique, transnational, polyvocal mode of storytelling. One throughline is a series of memories associated with the Buddhist bodhisattva Jizo, who helps to remove the “thorns” of human suffering.

Winner of the Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize and the Murasaki Shikibu Prize

Caught between two cultures, award-winning author Hiromi Ito tackles subjects like aging, death, and suffering with dark humor, illuminating the bittersweet joys of being alive.

The first novel to appear in English by award-winning author Hiromi Ito explores the absurdities, complexities, and challenges experienced by a woman caring for her two families: her husband and daughters in California and her aging parents in Japan. As the narrator shuttles back and forth between these two starkly different cultures, she creates a powerful and entertaining narrative about what it means to live and die in a globalized society.

Ito has been described as a “shaman of poetry” because of her skill in allowing the voices of others to flow through her. Here she enriches her semi-autobiographical novel by channeling myriad voices drawn from Japanese folklore, poetry, literature, and pop culture. The result is a generic chimera—part poetry, part prose, part epic—a unique, transnational, polyvocal mode of storytelling. One throughline is a series of memories associated with the Buddhist bodhisattva Jizo, who helps to remove the “thorns” of human suffering.

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

China entered the 20th century as an agrarian society, weakened under internal and external pressures. Revolutionaries came together to bring down the last imperial dynasty but quickly split over the direction of reconstruction. Civil wars ensued, followed by WWI. 

The fate of the country appeared to be in the hands of industrial powers like Britain, Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States. All seemed lost when Japan seized all Chinese seaports, railways, industries, and fertile farmland. Yet Chinese resistance continued for eight years and the entire society was mobilized. After decades of struggling, China finally regained independence that laid the foundation for its own modernization.

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

China entered the 20th century as an agrarian society, weakened under internal and external pressures. Revolutionaries came together to bring down the last imperial dynasty but quickly split over the direction of reconstruction. Civil wars ensued, followed by WWI. 

The fate of the country appeared to be in the hands of industrial powers like Britain, Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States. All seemed lost when Japan seized all Chinese seaports, railways, industries, and fertile farmland. Yet Chinese resistance continued for eight years and the entire society was mobilized. After decades of struggling, China finally regained independence that laid the foundation for its own modernization.

An early account of Japan's culture and customs, already vanishing as Japan lept into modernity in the late 20th century.

Basil Hall Chamberlain left Britain after suffering a nervous breakdown. His destination: a Japan no less than 5 years into the Meiji period. There he studied the Japanese language and worked as a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. Things Japanese, written like a glossary detailing everything from the abacus to zoology, is his attempt to document the distinctive elements of Japanese culture under the impact of Western-style modernization.

Tokio Whip is a distinctly stylistic tour-de-force that asks you to navigate language and meaning as you would the backalleys and train lines of Tokyo.

This is the story of Roberta and Lang and their friends, and their experience of the great Japanese city Tokyo in all its many manifestations to their inquiring, observing, and wandering minds as they banter over the details of a party, a film, the Songs Common to Dreams, Tokyo’s history, the Names of Love.

Arturo Silva is an author and film scholar who lived in Tokyo for 18 years. Tokio Whip is the culmination of that experience. The author's notes, charts, and images—available on his website—add yet another layer to this intricate novel . . . even its title is a puzzle to be solved.

Tokio Whip is a distinctly stylistic tour-de-force that asks you to navigate language and meaning as you would the backalleys and train lines of Tokyo.

This is the story of Roberta and Lang and their friends, and their experience of the great Japanese city Tokyo in all its many manifestations to their inquiring, observing, and wandering minds as they banter over the details of a party, a film, the Songs Common to Dreams, Tokyo’s history, the Names of Love.

Arturo Silva is an author and film scholar who lived in Tokyo for 18 years. Tokio Whip is the culmination of that experience. The author's notes, charts, and images—available on his website—add yet another layer to this intricate novel . . . even its title is a puzzle to be solved.

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

Tokyo Junkie is a memoir that plays out over the dramatic 60-year growth of the megacity Tokyo, once a dark, fetid backwater and now the most populous, sophisticated, and safe urban capital in the world.

Follow author Robert Whiting (The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld) as he watches Tokyo transform during the 1964 Olympics, rubs shoulders with the Yakuza and comes face to face with the city’s dark underbelly, interviews Japan’s baseball elite after publishing his first best-selling book on the subject, and learns how politics and sports collide to produce a cultural landscape unlike any other, even as a new Olympics is postponed and the COVID virus ravages the nation.

A colorful social history of what Anthony Bourdain dubbed, “the greatest city in the world,” Tokyo Junkie is a revealing account by an accomplished journalist who witnessed it all firsthand and, in the process, had his own dramatic personal transformation.

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

Tokyo Junkie is a memoir that plays out over the dramatic 60-year growth of the megacity Tokyo, once a dark, fetid backwater and now the most populous, sophisticated, and safe urban capital in the world.

Follow author Robert Whiting (The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld) as he watches Tokyo transform during the 1964 Olympics, rubs shoulders with the Yakuza and comes face to face with the city’s dark underbelly, interviews Japan’s baseball elite after publishing his first best-selling book on the subject, and learns how politics and sports collide to produce a cultural landscape unlike any other, even as a new Olympics is postponed and the COVID virus ravages the nation.

A colorful social history of what Anthony Bourdain dubbed, “the greatest city in the world,” Tokyo Junkie is a revealing account by an accomplished journalist who witnessed it all firsthand and, in the process, had his own dramatic personal transformation.

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

Tokyo Junkie is a memoir that plays out over the dramatic 60-year growth of the megacity Tokyo, once a dark, fetid backwater and now the most populous, sophisticated, and safe urban capital in the world.

Follow author Robert Whiting (The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld) as he watches Tokyo transform during the 1964 Olympics, rubs shoulders with the Yakuza and comes face to face with the city’s dark underbelly, interviews Japan’s baseball elite after publishing his first best-selling book on the subject, and learns how politics and sports collide to produce a cultural landscape unlike any other, even as a new Olympics is postponed and the COVID virus ravages the nation.

A colorful social history of what Anthony Bourdain dubbed, “the greatest city in the world,” Tokyo Junkie is a revealing account by an accomplished journalist who witnessed it all firsthand and, in the process, had his own dramatic personal transformation.

Tokyo Stroll is the best guidebook for travelers who want to wander the streets and discover the city as it unfolds before their eyes. There is no "start at point A and go to point B" prescribed route. Instead you are invited to wander as whimsy takes you. This guide includes:

• Over 600 locations to satisfy any interest including historical sites, art museums, upscale ryotei dining, traditional craft shops, shrines and temples, and remarkable architecture both traditional and stunningly modern
• 22 neighborhoods of Tokyo to experience, from the bright, bustling Shibuya to the serene shrines and temples of lesser-known Yanesen

• 150 maps to help you navigate, download the map markers for locations in Tokyo Stroll to your phone or tablet for easy access
• 75 full-page photos
• Practical advice on preparing your trip, with information on the best times of year to go, as well as how to use public transport and change money when you get there
• A primer on useful phrases and etiquette so you’re never left wondering
• Day trips to get you out of the city with advice on transportation
• A focus on history and businesses that have stood the test of time, often over 100 years
• A glossary of Japanese terms and an index

Tokyo Stroll is the best guidebook for travelers who want to wander the streets and discover the city as it unfolds before their eyes. There is no "start at point A and go to point B" prescribed route. Instead you are invited to wander as whimsy takes you. This guide includes:

• Over 600 locations to satisfy any interest including historical sites, art museums, upscale ryotei dining, traditional craft shops, shrines and temples, and remarkable architecture both traditional and stunningly modern
• 22 neighborhoods of Tokyo to experience, from the bright, bustling Shibuya to the serene shrines and temples of lesser-known Yanesen

• 150 maps to help you navigate, download the map markers for locations in Tokyo Stroll to your phone or tablet for easy access
• 75 full-page photos
• Practical advice on preparing your trip, with information on the best times of year to go, as well as how to use public transport and change money when you get there
• A primer on useful phrases and etiquette so you’re never left wondering
• Day trips to get you out of the city with advice on transportation
• A focus on history and businesses that have stood the test of time, often over 100 years
• A glossary of Japanese terms and an index

One year after the tsunami, this benefit fiction anthology helps teens learn about Japan and contribute to long-term relief efforts.

This aptly named fiction anthology—tomo means “friend” in Japanese—is a true labor of friendship to benefit teens in Japan whose lives were upended by the violent earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. Authors from Japan and around the world have contributed works of fiction set in or related to Japan. Young adult English-language readers will be able to connect with their Japanese counterparts through stories of contemporary Japanese teens, ninja and yokai teens, folklore teens, mixed-heritage teens, and non-Japanese teens who call Japan home. Tales of friendship, mystery, love, ghosts, magic, science fiction, and history will propel readers to Japan past and present and to Japanese universes abroad.

Edited and with a foreword by Holly Thompson, Tomo contributing authors include Naoko Awa, Deni Bechard, Jennifer Fumiko Cahill, Liza Dalby, Megumi Fujino, Andrew Fukuda, Alan Gratz, Katrina Toshiko Grigg-Saito, Suzanne Kamata, Sachiko Kashiwaba, Kelly Luce, Shogo Oketani and Leza Lowitz, Ryusuke Saito, Graham Salisbury, Fumio Takano, and Wendy Tokunaga, among others.

Through understanding comes compassion and the desire to help; portions of the proceeds of Tomo will be donated to ongoing relief efforts for teens in Japan.

Over 50 years of essays on Japan from premier film critic, essayist, and novelist, Donald Richie.

This definitive new collection of essays by the writer Time calls "the dean of arts critics in Japan" ranges from Kyogen drama to the sex shows of Shinjuku, from film and Buddhism to Butoh and retro rock 'n' roll, from wasei eigo (Japanese/English) to mizushobai, the fine art of pleasing.

Spanning some fifty years, these thirty-seven essays—most never anthologized before—offer cross-sections of Japan's enormous cultural power. They reflect the unique perspective of a man attempting to understand his adopted home.

The writings of Donald Richie—film critic, reviewer, novelist, and essayist—have influenced generations of Japan observers around the world.

Over 50 years of essays on Japan from premier film critic, essayist, and novelist, Donald Richie.

This definitive new collection of essays by the writer Time calls "the dean of arts critics in Japan" ranges from Kyogen drama to the sex shows of Shinjuku, from film and Buddhism to Butoh and retro rock 'n' roll, from wasei eigo (Japanese/English) to mizushobai, the fine art of pleasing.

Spanning some fifty years, these thirty-seven essays—most never anthologized before—offer cross-sections of Japan's enormous cultural power. They reflect the unique perspective of a man attempting to understand his adopted home.

The writings of Donald Richie—film critic, reviewer, novelist, and essayist—have influenced generations of Japan observers around the world.

From 47 Ronin to Zatoichi, samurai define Japanese cinema and the modern action film.

Movie treasure hunter Patrick Galloway is back with fifty must-see martial-arts films that might have slipped into the shadows of your Netflix queue. Warring Clans, Flashing Blades picks up where Galloway’s fan-favorite Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves left off, delving deeper into the samurai film and its spin-off genres—yakuza, ninja, and matatabi. Anyone who enjoys high-action historical dramas will delight in these epic films. Warring Clans, Flashing Blades is an essential reference for fans, and even the most jaded film buff will discover new films to fall in love with.

Includes:

• Canon classics, such as Ran by Akira Kurosawa
• Cult favorites like Samurai Spy and G.I. Samurai
• Film stills and poster art
• Cool extras, such as historical tidbits, mini-biographies, and trivia
• Detailed production specs
• Full index

The first book-length collection by the most respected writer on anime and manga today.

Anime’s influence can be found in every corner of American media, from film and television to games and graphic arts. And Fred Patten is largely responsible. He was reading manga and watching anime before most of the current generation of fans was born. In fact, it was his active participation in fan clubs and his prolific magazine writing that helped create a market and build American anime fandom into the vibrant community it is today.

Watching Anime, Reading Manga gathers together a quarter-century of Patten’s lucid observations on the business of anime, fandom, artists, Japanese society and the most influential titles.

Illustrated with original fanzine covers and archival photos. Foreword by Carl Macek (Robotech).

"From the Sabbath to circumcision, from Hanukkah to the Holocaust, from bar mitzvah to bagel, how do Jewish religion, history, holidays, lifestyles, and culture make Jews different, and why is that difference so distinctive that we carry it from birth to the grave?" This accessible introduction to Judaism and Jewish life is especially for Christian readers interested in the deep connections and distinct differences between their faith and Judaism, but it is also for Jews looking for ways to understand their religion--and explain it to others. First released in 2002 and now in an updated edition.

"From the Sabbath to circumcision, from Hanukkah to the Holocaust, from bar mitzvah to bagel, how do Jewish religion, history, holidays, lifestyles, and culture make Jews different, and why is that difference so distinctive that we carry it from birth to the grave?" This accessible introduction to Judaism and Jewish life is especially for Christian readers interested in the deep connections and distinct differences between their faith and Judaism, but it is also for Jews looking for ways to understand their religion--and explain it to others. First released in 2002 and now in an updated edition.

In detailing the affair between a garden designer and his client's wife, this stylistic Japanese novel explores the roots of passion.

Mizue is a Japanese housewife. Kase is a garden designer hired by her husband to landscape their home. As the garden takes shape, Mizue awakens to a new sensuality and desire. A disturbing tale of seduction, based on Japanese aesthetics and the artistic pursuit of destructive beauty.

Tachihara Masaaki (1926-1980) was an award-winning Japanese novelist, essayist, poet and literary critic of Korean descent, active during the Shōwa period. Wind and Stone is his only full-length novel in English.

In detailing the affair between a garden designer and his client's wife, this stylistic Japanese novel explores the roots of passion.

Mizue is a Japanese housewife. Kase is a garden designer hired by her husband to landscape their home. As the garden takes shape, Mizue awakens to a new sensuality and desire. A disturbing tale of seduction, based on Japanese aesthetics and the artistic pursuit of destructive beauty.

Tachihara Masaaki (1926-1980) was an award-winning Japanese novelist, essayist, poet and literary critic of Korean descent, active during the Shōwa period. Wind and Stone is his only full-length novel in English.

Thirty years after its first publication, Womansword remains a timely, provocative work on how words reflect female stereotypes in modern Japan.

Short, lively essays offer linguistic, sociological, and historical insight into issues central to the lives of women everywhere: identity, girlhood, marriage, motherhood, work, sexuality, and aging. Cherry uses Japanese society, from folklore to pop culture, to illuminate female identity, simultaneously teaching us about both.

A new introduction shows how things have—and haven't—changed.

Thirty years after its first publication, Womansword remains a timely, provocative work on how words reflect female stereotypes in modern Japan.

Short, lively essays offer linguistic, sociological, and historical insight into issues central to the lives of women everywhere: identity, girlhood, marriage, motherhood, work, sexuality, and aging. Cherry uses Japanese society, from folklore to pop culture, to illuminate female identity, simultaneously teaching us about both.

A new introduction shows how things have—and haven't—changed.

Women, Magic, Wisdom: Explore a Japanese myth through the words and images of key scholars and artists.

Alluring, nurturing, dangerous, and vulnerable the yamamba, or Japanese mountain witch, has intrigued audiences for centuries. What is it about the fusion of mountains with the solitary old woman that produces such an enigmatic figure? And why does she still call to us in this modern, scientific era? 

Co-editors Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich first met the yamamba in the powerful short story “The Smile of the Mountain Witch” by acclaimed woman writer Ōba Minako. The story revealed the compelling way creative women can take charge of misogynistic tropes, invert them, and use them to tell new stories of female empowerment.

This unique collection represents the creative and surprising ways artists and scholars from North America and Japan have encountered the yamamba.

Women, Magic, Wisdom: Explore a Japanese myth through the words and images of key scholars and artists.

Alluring, nurturing, dangerous, and vulnerable the yamamba, or Japanese mountain witch, has intrigued audiences for centuries. What is it about the fusion of mountains with the solitary old woman that produces such an enigmatic figure? And why does she still call to us in this modern, scientific era? 

Co-editors Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich first met the yamamba in the powerful short story “The Smile of the Mountain Witch” by acclaimed woman writer Ōba Minako. The story revealed the compelling way creative women can take charge of misogynistic tropes, invert them, and use them to tell new stories of female empowerment.

This unique collection represents the creative and surprising ways artists and scholars from North America and Japan have encountered the yamamba.

Poems designed to inspire the journey toward awareness, interconnectedness, and bliss.

These sixty poems on the Buddha's six "perfections," or qualities for a meaningful life—generosity, kindness, patience, joy, stillness, wisdom—were written over years of yoga and meditation practice, inspired by Tibetan Heart Yoga, nature, Buddhism, Osho, Tantra, ancient Japanese and Chinese poetry, Rumi, Kabir, haiku, love, and life.

They seek to capture a journey from the physical body to the subtle body to the light body, until the heart bursts open into the beautiful radiance of divine energy in the world.

Poems designed to inspire the journey toward awareness, interconnectedness, and bliss.

These sixty poems on the Buddha's six "perfections," or qualities for a meaningful life—generosity, kindness, patience, joy, stillness, wisdom—were written over years of yoga and meditation practice, inspired by Tibetan Heart Yoga, nature, Buddhism, Osho, Tantra, ancient Japanese and Chinese poetry, Rumi, Kabir, haiku, love, and life.

They seek to capture a journey from the physical body to the subtle body to the light body, until the heart bursts open into the beautiful radiance of divine energy in the world.