Viewed Sideways: Writings on Culture and Style in Contemporary Japan

by Donald Richie

Overview

"An indispensable guide to Japanese cinema and culture." —Library Journal

"Viewed any which way, Japan through the eyes of Donald Richie is an interesting and rewarding place to read about. This is...yet another reminder that he is a master of the short essay and a thought-provoking guide to his subject." —Jeff Kingston, The Japan Times

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933330983
Publisher:	Stone Bridge Press
Publication date:	09/27/2011
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Over the past sixty years, no one has written more, or more artfully, about Japan than Donald Richie. Arriving as a young merchant seaman in Okinawa in 1946, Richie set out to observe Japan and to set down his witness in clear, expressive language. The result is over 40 volumes of fiction and nonfiction, scores of essays and speeches, and hundreds of book and film and arts reviews. He is acknowledged as one of the world's authorities on Japanese cinema, especially the work of Yasujiro Ozu. His Inland Sea is one of a few classic expatriate treatments of Japan and is considered one of the finest travel memoirs of the 20th century. Richie is formerly curator of film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Of him Susan Sontag wrote that he “writes about Japan with an unrivaled range, acuity and wit.”

Table of Contents

Introduction

I
Intimacy and Distance: On Being a Foreigner in Japan
Japan: A Description
Japanese Shapes
Japanese Rhythms
Japan: Half a Century of Change
The Nourishing Void
The Coming Collapse of Cultural Internationalization
Interpretations of Japan
Crossing the Border

II
The Japanese Way of Seeing
Japan and the Image Industry
Traditional Japanese Design
Signs and Symbols
The Tongue of Fashion
Japan the Incongruous
Pink Box: Inside Japanese Sex Clubs

III
The Presentational Urge as Theatre
Some Loose Pages on Japanese Narration
Notes on the Noh
The Kyogen
TV: The Presentational Image
Outcast Samurai Dancer
Retro Dancing

IV
A Definition of the Japanese Film
Some Notes on Life and Death in the Japanese Film
Buddhism and the Film
Women in Japanese Film
The Japanese Eroduction
Trains in Japanese Film
Subtitling Japanese Films

V
Wasei Eigo: A Beginner’s Guide
Mizushobai: The Art of Pleasing
Car Culture
The Window and the Mirror: Some Thoughts on International Culture
An Alternate Way of Thought
Foreign Thoughts on Watching the Passing of a Matsuri Procession
My View


Acknowledgments

Editorial Reviews

"Viewed any which way, Japan through the eyes of Donald Richie is an interesting and rewarding place to read about. This is the third collection of Richie's essays…and yet another reminder that he is a master of the short essay and a thought-provoking guide to his subject. The spare style and distinctive phrasing grow on the reader and are apt for unveiling and imparting…These elegantly brief essays are packed with insights that one needs to unravel and contemplate at one's leisure."—The Japan Times


"Viewed any which way, Japan through the eyes of Donald Richie is an interesting and rewarding place to read about. This is the third collection of Richie's essays…and yet another reminder that he is a master of the short essay and a thought-provoking guide to his subject. The spare style and distinctive phrasing grow on the reader and are apt for unveiling and imparting…These elegantly brief essays are packed with insights that one needs to unravel and contemplate at one's leisure."—The Japan Times

From the Publisher