Ariake: Poems of Love and Longing by the Women Courtiers of Ancient Japan [Hardcover]

Rae Grant (Illustrator), Liza Dalby (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2000

Books like Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha have signaled the current fascination with the discreetly private side of Japan during the evocative age of dynasties and imperial rule. Ariake, a stunning gift book, offers up the passionate words of the elegant and cultured female courtesans of ancient Japan. It was customary in the late 1st and early 2nd century Japanese courts for women to express their hearts' greatest desires and sorrows through poetry. Translated and compiled in Ariake, these lyrical and poignant verses of seduction, love, and lament are both simple and extraordinary. Illustrated throughout with gorgeous collages that evoke the color, fabric, and textures of the East, Ariake brings to life the subtle eloquence of ancient Japan and the universal passions and torments of love. Ariake is an exquisite and timeless volume of the heart's longing.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rae Grant is a New York based book designer and artist with degrees in Anthropology and Asian Studies.

Liza Dalby is the only westerner ever to have joined the ranks of the geisha. She is the author of many books, including the classic Geisha and a new novel, The Tale of Murasaki .

Product Details

• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (July 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811828131
• ISBN-13: 978-0811828130
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,194,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Companion to Song of the Kisaeng, September 15, 2000

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ariake: Poems of Love and Longing by the Women Courtiers of Ancient Japan (Hardcover)

Ariake is (inadvertantly) a companion volume to Song of the Kisaeng - a wonderful book of Korean courtesan poetry. I highly recommend reading both as the interplay of the differing sensibilities enhances the value of each.

Ariake in its own right is a beautiful book ... once I got past the inside covers of pink - the collage illustrations by Grant have a wonderful interplay with the text, repeating themes with a Japanese feel. The poetry is excellent and well translated. They retain a simple language with proscribed conceits while working as poetry in English.

An example: "In the blackberry / Night I saw you one last time, / But I let you go / Without meeting you at dawn, / And now I have learned regret."

For the technically inclined, the poems are wakas (31 syllable poems 5-7-5-7-7).

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully crafted compilation, July 30, 2000

By 

"kindoku" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ariake: Poems of Love and Longing by the Women Courtiers of Ancient Japan (Hardcover)

Ariake is a most wonderful book to read over and over again. Rae Grant's sensitive collages, which combine symbolic images and unusual textures, perfectly complement the brief but emotionally charged poems of court ladies, some named and some anonymous, in Heian Japan. This book is a goldmine of poignant imagery from a thousand years ago; but it can still elicit of the modern reader, perhaps, the same urgent emotions. I am repeatedly amazed by the freshness of the words. What marvelous translators must have worked on these poems! For the historically minded, Liza Dalby beautifully and concisely introduces the era and the circumstances of women during the Heian period.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a beautiful book!, May 9, 2000

By 

Petithall (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ariake: Poems of Love and Longing by the Women Courtiers of Ancient Japan (Hardcover)

I bought this from Amazon as a present for Mother's Day, and it just arrived -- what an absolutely stunning book! It looks handmade, the collages are beautiful, the poems strong and elemental and touching -- extremely cool, the kind of book you keep by the bedside. Somebody obviously took a great deal of care.

The heart of the thing, though, are the poems themselves, which are wistful, sensual, melancholy, ecstatic -- amazing what can be said so thoughtfully in five short lines, and amazing, too, the universality of emotion expressed by these women centuries ago.