Kojiki [Paperback]

Donald L. Philippi (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1977

binding is tight no creasing, pages clean and crisp no writing no highlighting or underlining no ear marking, mininmal shelf wear, cover has normal wear slight corner wear, great read, USPS DELIVERY CONFIRMATION FREE WITH ALL SHIPMENTS

Product Details

• Paperback: 655 pages
• Publisher: University of Tokyo Press (June 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0860083209
• ISBN-13: 978-0860083207
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,020,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anyone who can afford this book must buy a copy, November 8, 2011

By 

Avery Morrow "Namu Tokoyokuni Omuya Amematsur... (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Kojiki (Paperback)

W.G. Aston's Nihon Shoki is well known to be a great translation of that book. Unfortunately, Aston did not translate the Kojiki, the Nihon Shoki's much more difficult evil twin. Instead, a bumbling political commentator called Basil Hall Chamberlain did, combining the nationalist stylings of Motoori Norinaga's interpretation with his own uniquely twisted amateur Durkheimian psychology. The result is a witches' brew where the reader often hears the trumpets of nationalism or the African drumming of "primitive religion", but never the warm, simple Old Japanese melody of the original. Chamberlain's translation, publicly available on many websites, should be avoided at all costs.

This is the good English translation. There are no others, and judging by conditions in the world of liberal arts, there may never be any others. In this book alone you will hear the music of 1500-year-old poetry. Due to a nasty feud over the Philippi estate it only ever got one printing, and may never be reprinted. The price of this book will only go up over the decades. Get your copy while you still can.