Nara Encounters [Illustrated] [Paperback]

I. McDonald (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This title could have been reviewed in our art or travel column, but deserves broader mention as an important educational insight into Japanese culture. This focus on the Japanese capital of Nara, founded in the year 710, blends excellent, clear color photos of capital scenes with excellent, appealing literary quotes. The result is a fine pictorial which reveals the city's importance. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Weatherhill; 1st edition (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0834803879
• ISBN-13: 978-0834803879
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,436,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A pretty picture book, June 4, 2002

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Nara Encounters (Paperback)

"Nara Encounters" is a collection of pretty photographs, combined with short quotes or poems from various writers and wits. The focus of the book is on Nara City, rather than Nara Prefecture.

The photographs are nice, although nothing particularly unique. Close-up shots of flowers, long shots of sweeping terrain, the burning fields, the lanterns, the deer, and of course, the enormous Great Buddha. This is not a photo-journalist's guide to Nara, but instead a photo-romanticist's guide.

The writing ranges from pithy and interesting, to as frothy and decorative as the photos. Nara City is an important piece of Japanese history, and this is represented through eyewitness accounts from across the centuries, and delicate Haikus. Rudyard Kipling is one of the featured writers.

All in all, "Nara Encounters" is a nice book, short on depth and thin in length. It takes the view that Nara is a fairy-tale land of Castles, deer and flowers, with no actual people living in the City.