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48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful and beautiful, but overwhelmingly elitist, July 29, 2003
When Alex Kerr talks about "Lost Japan," it is clearly his own personal Japan that is being lost. He speaks fondly of the "literati" of old Japan, a group of well-off leisure class who whistled their days away creating art and appreciating beauty, free of toil or earthly constraints. Oxford and Yale educated, coming from money, Kerr firmly sees himself as the last vanguard of the literati, and his lifestyle is leaving him. The lifestyle of the educated elite. Composed of a series of unrelated articles, the book tells the tale of Kerr's life, of things that happen to capture his fancy, and of the intersecting lives of wealthy art dealers, artists and artisans. Everyone in the book is a genius. Everyone, the last embodiment of their vanishing breed. The world has become too cold to appreciate them. This is the Japan that is lost. The book is incredibly well-written, and Kerr sees with the eyes of an artist. He has insights into parts of Japanese culture that would normally be closed, such as the back stage scene of Kabuki theater. His writing is strong enough to make you long for that vanishing Japan. Secret places and unappreciated nooks will appear as interesting as the most famous temple in Kyoto. Worth reading and enjoyable, but ultimately a grain of salt is needed. Kerr's elitism leaves him blind to anything modern, any new artistic innovation or art form. He sees only the past, and wants to capture Japan like a photograph, and preserve it forever.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Arrigato Gozaimasu Alex Kerr, January 19, 2000
Alex Kerr has authored the best book I've read on contemporary Japan. I lived in Osaka from 1992-1994. Mr. Kerr's observations on everything from the arts and environment to business and education struck familiar chords. This book is excellent for foreign nationals currently living in Japan, and for anyone who's ever lived there. The book was originally written for a Japanese audience so some points may be lost on readers who've never made the trip. However, if you're planning to go to Japan and want to learn about more than cultural stereotypes, Lost Japan is your ticket.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Modern Day "In Praise of Shadows", May 5, 2003
I was hooked by "Lost Japan" immediately and could not put it down until I finished the last page. This book should be required reading for anyone who's lived in Japan, anyone who's interested in Japan, or even anyone who thinks all there is to Japan is samurai and geisha (or alternatively, anime and Pokemon). Lost Japan is very reminiscent of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's "In Praise of Shadows": they are both works lamenting a disappearing Japan, and both are told in a series of seemingly unrelated essays and anecdotes. Unfortunately, as several reviewers have mentioned already, sometimes Kerr goes to the point that his stories are so self-focused that they detract from the big picture. The entire chapter on literati, for example, did not add much to the story for me at least. However, overall Kerr's style is a success. What impressed me the most with this book is how well Kerr was able to avoid falling into the easy traps of Japan Bashing or Japan Worship. It is obvious that he loves Japan, but at the same time his vision is clear enough so that he can view Japan objectively and speak hard truths. Most likely, any reader of this book who has been to Japan for any period of time found themselves nodding along to many parts of this book that were both critical of and in praise of modern Japan. Kerr says so many things that seem so obvious, and yet they feel so novel because the Japanese themselves have not publicly admitted that there are serious, fundamental problems in contemporary society. The sad thing is that it has been about a decade since Kerr's essays were published in Japan and it is questionable whether Japan has made any real progress in that time. To that end, I look forward to reading Dogs and Demons to see how Kerr's thoughts have changed in the interim after writing Lost Japan. I did not agree with everything Kerr had to say, but I found his arguments and ideas stimulating and fresh. I hope Japan pulls itself out of its cultural and economic recession soon, but as Kerr hints at, a mere decade is no cause for panic in a country where events are measured in centuries and millennia. Japan has suffered worse destruction in its past; here's hoping that the difficulties of the past decade will be made worth it with the rebirth of a new Japan that is able to combine features of its past with the realities of the present.
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