Customer Reviews

Japan: A Living Portrait (Origami Classroom)

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A wonderful book which captures the essence of both modern and ancient Japan with numerous photos and concise written text. This book gives the reader a very accurate, yet perfectly simple taste of Japan. I highly reccomend this book to those who have never been or those who frequently visit Japan.

This book was given to me by Japanese teachers as a parting gift while I was living and teaching there. It is filled with idyllic images of Japan, as perhaps all pictorial books are prone to doing. The Japan shown here looks to be Japan of the 80's, and in the minds of many people outside of Japan, it's the image that persists: a land of bullet trains, sumo, temples, robots, and geisha. It is also the image that Japan promotes to the world. The real, every day Japan that I experienced living just outside of Tokyo was not so glamorous or tidy.

For people who've never been to Japan, this book is good coffee table material with nice photographs of the Japanese natural landscape, temples, and some aspects of city life-- all stuff you'd see on postcards. For people who've lived there, this book is good for nostalgia and bringing back memories. Technically speaking, the photos look aged. Some of them exhibit a high amount of grain, particularly the larger blow-ups. The photo of a karate match, the Asahi Beer Hall building at Asakusa, and Noh opera, for example, are very grainy. The text is very anti-septic and no-nonsense. No mention is made about the fact that locals lovingly call the Asahi Flamme d'Or, which is supposed to represent the "burning heart of Asahi beer", the "Kin no Unchi", the "Golden Turd" because of its shape. No images of the famous goth fashion/cosplay scene at Harajuku, though nearby Yoyogi Park and Meiji temple are shown.

Overall, good to flip through as a picture book of an idealized Japan.

Here is a beautifully illustrated world, a door into Japanese painting, architecture, music and visual arts. An introduction to Japanese Shinto and Buddhism. Various articles by thoughtful artists and historians. A fine, illustrated cultural overview of Japan -- recommended for travelers and Japanophiles.