The Art of Aikido: Principles & Essential Techniques by Kisshomaru Ueshiba [in AsianWeek]
03 Dec, by in Adult Readers, Japanese, Nonfiction, Repost
Written by the son of Aikido’s founder, Morihei Ueshiba, this volume is part history, part philosophy, part how-to … not to mention a catalog of some great action shots of flying, flipping-over...
The collected private writings of film and cultural historian Donald Richie, who is perhaps best known as Japan’s pre-eminent 20th-century American expat. Included in the multiple pages devoted to his almost-six-decade love affair with...
First and foremost: This is one of the best books I’ve read this year in spite of the historical improbability laid out at the novel’s end. Ayoshi, a woman artist in 1869 Japan, paints in order...
With Hollywood’s latest creative raids into the East (Ringu/The Ring, Ju-on/The Grudge, My Sassy Girl being remade with Rachel Leigh Cook and directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s...
This has got to be the easiest-looking cookbook I’ve seen ever … with favorites like sukiyaki and shabu-shabu, even teppanyaki.
Review: 
I tell you ...
Just looking at the cover of this book will make you a little happier. … It’s a delightful visual romp that captures Japan’s love affair with the entertaining goldfish: most of these overbred guys are anything...
I couldn't stop salivating over these whimsical creations – think butterflies and chicks and sailboats and even soccer balls – done in sushi!! And the full-color, step-by-step illustrations even had me believing that I...
An informative overview that includes history, memoir, and technique by a world-famous Ninja grandmaster. These ain’t no stunts: They’re the real thing!
Review: 
The looming question at the end of this fantastical novel is: “Is she or isn’t she?”
Naoko and her young daughter Monami are one of the few to survive a horrific bus crash. But Naoko is fatally...
An oddly compelling novella about a lonely man who never quite gets the girl – any girl – but is unwilling to give up trying. Indeed, few writers can do isolation quite like Kawabata, the Nobel-Prize-winning...
The updated, expanded second edition to the 1993 title includes post-1945 achievements in the field, as well as expanding coverage of other artistic mediums, including calligraphy, ceramics, lacquerware, metalware, and...
This is a World War II story told from the other side – without that other side being demonized and made to seem inhuman. The book’s narrator meets an engineer who recalls...
This is definitely not one of those “Dummy” guides. It’s a serious how-to manual/history/philosophy book about the Japanese art of healing using hand pressure, by an internationally renowned master, referred to as...
In today’s fast-paced world, the promise of a quiet space is not only tempting but necessary to recharge our scattered souls. Just looking at the gorgeous photos alone will help calm the...
Say you’re allergic to dairy products (like me, boo hoo), but you still crave sweets like crème brulee or mocha cappuccino or ice cream or even tiramisu … crave no more in vain because...
These days, the many health benefits of green tea are well-known … now here’s a book to tell you why it’s so good for you, as well as...
A Yellow 'Country of Origin'
Technically, writer Don Lee is a third-generation Korean American. But he was born in Tokyo where his father was working for the U.S. State Department. Then after moving...
In mid-15th-century Japan, Koji, half of a set of identical twins, has the chance to rise above his social status as a farmer’s son and become the apprentice to a revered dye maker. But...
Based on the true story of Alice Sumida, a Japanese American woman who, with her husband Mark, established the country's largest gladiola flower bulb farm. Forced from their home post-9066 that sanctioned...