The Japanese Chronicles [Hardcover]

Nicolas Bouvier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1993

Swiss travel writer and photographer Nicolas Bouvier shares his intimate experience of Japan. Based on three decades of travel throughout the islands, his reports, recollections, and reflections take the reader beyond the commonplace into an unexpected Japan. Whether describing village festivals or the suburbs of Kyoto, retelling Japanese myth and history, composing poems, reflecting on Noh performances, or sketching memorable portraits in a few deft words, Bouvier brings his personal Japan alive in rich, evocative prose.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A grab bag of little trinkets, diamond bracelets, popcorn and flashy toys constitutes this collection of sketches about things, people and places Japanese, with dollops of history and mythology. Bouvier, an itinerant French journalist and photographer, roamed around the country on and off for some six years between the '50s and the '70s, sometimes going hungry and sleeping wherever he could find room for his portable mat, on occasion living elegantly with wife and son in a "Pavilion of the Auspicious Cloud" on the grounds of a monastery. Fluent, curious, entranced, Bouvier touches on nearly every aspect of Japanese culture and history. How to listen to the music, what Zen really is, what one Ainu said to another, why peasants rarely want to visit Tokyo, what the emperor of Japan said to the emperor of China, the graffiti on the walls, modern geishas, creation myths: such tidbits present a picture of the country rarely found in more scholarly studies or in guidebooks. The random organization can be irritating, but the information and insights are wonderful. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

The ``best travel books,'' Bouvier believes, ``...are often written by people involved in commerce....Merchants' strict observations avoid the silly infatuations that will quickly take over the literature once poets start to travel.'' Happily, in this sensitive, acutely observed record of his stays in Japan, the author, a journalist who lives in Switzerland, disproves that statement with some of the most resonant and perceptive travel writing in recent years. Bouvier has spent varying lengths of time in Japan on three occasions: 1955-56, 1964-66, and 1970. With each stay, his appreciation of Japanese character and culture grew. He does not, however, allow his affection to blind him to some of the less appealing aspects of the Japanese temperament--the widespread drunkenness, the traditional xenophobia. The author has lived among the prostitutes and pachinko parlors of Tokyo's Shinjuku district, and on the pine-scented grounds of a Buddhist temple in Kyoto. He has traveled about the country, visiting such areas as scenic Matsushima, overrun with fume-belching tour buses and their fidgeting passengers, and icy Hokkaido, where the native Ainu slip into their traditional costumes from nine to five to be photographed by camera-happy tourists, then head home to don Western clothes. Bouvier's writing is imagistic, frequently as evocative as a haiku, as when he describes turnips shining like mother-of-pearl. He also displays a winning sense of understated humor. In discussing the aesthetic complexities of Noh drama, for example, he writes ``...some `connoisseurs' and esoteric bores had spoiled my pleasure in advance by assuring me that, ignorant as I was, I would not get anything from the spectacle.'' Then he adds, ``Have you ever drunk a good bottle of wine with a connoisseur? It is a form of torture.'' A superb guide, smoothly translated from the French, to the Japanese landscape and mind, and a delight for lovers of travel and fine writing. (Twelve photographs--most seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Mercury House (September 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1562790080
• ISBN-13: 978-1562790080
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,762,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, June 3, 1999

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[e-mail] (san francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Japanese Chronicles (Hardcover)

I read this book one month into a year-stay in Japan. The country which was becoming increasingly unattractive to me became fascinating again. I love this book. Like Alan Booth, the author presents Japan and its people in a unsentimental, yet loving way. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Impressions of Japan by a Swiss-French writer, March 3, 2010

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Cybercuichi (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Japanese Chronicles (Hardcover)

Excellent writer, however sometimes specially at the end of the book he sort of loose focus and ramble a little bit. He explored Japan at a time when Japan was affordable, mid-fifties, and sixties and the Japanese people in general were less cosmopolitan, so there is great charm in that, as for today I am sure some of that charm is lost, of course this is not a travel guide, but reminiscences of his stays there, and his impressions as an educated Swiss-French writer.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Handle with Care, February 6, 2010

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R. Zimmermann (Barcelona, Spain) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Japanese Chronicles (Paperback)

This is definitely not a book for those who know little of Japan and/or are planning to visit that country soon for the first time. It covers the author's life and travels in the 1950s and 60s, a Japan that was still post-war and pre-economic miracle, a world light-years away from the Japan of the 21st century. Then the book is quite somber in tone; it doesn't make you want to go see Japan at all. There is a section on history but nothing on culture or the arts. Finally, much space is dedicated to the northern island of Hokkaido, a place with almost no culture or history, and so should not be in an introduction to Japan.

On the other hand, for those who know Japan well, there are some gold nuggets to found here. The book is a collection of notes that the author wrote here and there. So as an historical document, illuminating the country's recent past, it is valuable and interesting. I found, for example, the parts on Tokyo and Kyoto worth while.

Large parts I found to be of limited interest because these chronicles are more about the author than about Japan.

The writing is good, in general, and the translation well above average.