Buy this book on-line

Richie, Donald : A Lateral View: Essays On Contemporary Japan

The Japan Times Limited, Tokyo, Japan, 1991

ISBN 4789005801

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 245 pages. Revised And Expanded Edition. Landmark collection of essays. One of the best introductions to the work of the Lafcadio Hearn of our time. The first appearance of the title in this edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited print run as a softcover original only. There is no American Edition. The Revised And Expanded Edition is now scarce. Presents Donald Richie's "A Lateral View". Some of his finest and most representative essays on his adoptive land. When Richie first arrived in Japan at the end of the Second World War, what he found was depressing and not what he expected as a boy dreaming of living in Japan in his native Ohio: A defeated people in abject, "Third World" poverty, living and surviving not so much with stoicism as fatalistic resignation and even indifference. Miraculously (and with more than a little help from guilt-ridden America), Japan rose from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki within one generation as the second most powerful economic powerhouse of the 20th century. "A Lateral View" shows that re-emergence in the cultural realm, that is, the realm of luxury and prosperity, of wants because needs can be taken for granted: "This masterfully written collection of essays by the acknowledged Western expert on Japanese culture and film spans thirty years and ranges broadly over subjects as diverse as the Noh theater, fashion, television, Tokyo Disneyland, language, the kiss, and, of course, film. Richie's twenty-eight essays present cross-sections of Japan's enormous creative accomplishments during the nation's rise to economic and cultural power" (Publisher's blurb). Today, Japan's "aesthete" culture is second to none, the most advanced and most refined in every field: Literature, music, film, photography, theatre, art, fashion, entertainment, computer graphics and animation technique, and digital technology. "Masterful writing" (Asahi Evening News). An absolute "must-have" title for Donald Richie collectors. This title is a late-modern classic. As far as we know, this is the only copy of the Revised And Expanded Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies of Donald Richie's books available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER DONALD RICHIE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 4789005801.

1
0

Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints.