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Coffee Life in Japan (Volume 36) Paperback – May 1, 2012

4.3 out of 5 stars 36

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This fascinating book―part ethnography, part memoir―traces Japan’s vibrant café society over one hundred and thirty years. Merry White traces Japan’s coffee craze from the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, to the present day, as uniquely Japanese ways with coffee surface in Europe and America. White’s book takes up themes as diverse as gender, privacy, perfectionism, and urbanism. She shows how coffee and coffee spaces have been central to the formation of Japanese notions about the uses of public space, social change, modernity, and pleasure. White describes how the café in Japan, from its start in 1888, has been a place to encounter new ideas and experiments in thought, behavior, sexuality , dress, and taste. It is where a person can be socially, artistically, or philosophically engaged or politically vocal. It is also, importantly, an urban oasis, where one can be private in public.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Required reading for coffee’s true believers and industry insiders.” -- Oliver Strand, ― T: The New York Times Style Magazine

“You'll find your eyes opened beyond the new and storied cafes you've heard of and into regional corners and paradoxical tastes.” ―
Serious Eats

“A fascinating 130-year illumination of Japan's deeply rooted sipping culture.” ―
LA Weekly

“This excellent book combines academic rigour with lively descriptions and compelling prose.” ―
Times Higher Education

“Provides an engaging and often personal account of Japanese coffeehouses. . . . Highly recommended.” ―
CHOICE

“Merry White has whiled away many hours in cafés in Japan in her professional role as an anthropologist, and wishes to communicate the diversity and intimacy one can experience in them.” ―
Times Literary Supplement

"The rich descriptions of these journeys are indeed one of the merits of the book." ―
Journal of Japanese Studies

Coffee Life in Japan provides a novel and significant study on contemporary Japanese life through its examination of coffee and café culture.” ― Journal of American-East Asian Relations

From the Inside Flap

Cafes are where change happens and people feel most themselves. In this surprising book we see how Japan came of age in the café where women became free, where people jazz and poetry could reign. And, of course, where coffee is at its perfectionist best. Always a congenial companion and teacher, Merry White shows us a whole society in a beautifully made cup. Corby Kummer, The Atlantic

Merry White's book is vital reading for anyone interested in culture and coffee, which has a surprising and surprisingly long history in Japan. Tracing the evolving role of the country's cafes, and taking us on armchair visits to some of the best, White makes us want to board a plane immediately to sample a cup brewed with kodawari, a passion bordering on obsession. Devra First, The Boston Globe

"
Coffee Life in Japan features highly engaging history and ethnographic detail on coffee culture in Japan. Many readers will delight in reading this work. White provides an affectionate, deeply felt, well reasoned book on coffee, cafes, and urban spaces in Japan." Christine Yano, author of Airborne Dreams: "Nisei" Stewardesses and Pan American World Airways

"Combining unmistakable relish for the subject with decades of academic expertise, Merry White skillfully demonstrates that the café, not the teahouse, is a core space in urban Japanese life. Her portrait of their endurance, proliferation, and diversity aptly illustrates how coffee drinking establishments accommodate social and personal needs, catering to a range of tastes and functions. It is a lovely and important book not only about the history and meanings of Japan s liquid mojo, but also about the creation of new urban spaces for privacy and sociality." Laura Miller, author of
Beauty Up: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First Edition (May 1, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520271157
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520271159
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 36

About the author

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Merry White
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Merry White (also known as Corky) was born in Washington D.C. and raised in Chicago and Minnesota. She received her degrees (A.B., A.M., and PhD) from Harvard University in Anthropology (East Asian), Comparative Literature (English, French and Italian), and Sociology (Japan). She was Director of the Project on Human Potential at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 1980 - 1986, a multinational study of learning with case studies in Japan, India, The People's Republic of China, Egypt, West Africa and Mexico. She was also Director of International Education at the School of Education during this period, and from 1976 - 1987 was administrator of the East Asian Studies undergraduate program at Harvard College. In 1987 she began teaching at Boston University and received tenure in 1989.

Her publications include: Coffee Life in Japan, (University of California Press, 2012); Perfectly Japanese: Making Family in an Era of Upheaval (University of California Press, 2002); The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America (Free Press, 1993; Dobunshoin, 1993; University of California Press, 1994); Comparing Cultures (with Sylvan Barnet, Bedford Books, 1995); The Japanese Educational Challenge, (Free Press, 1986, Princeton University Press 1992, and Shueisha, 1992); The Japanese Overseas, (Free Press, 1988); Human Conditions (with Robert LeVine, Routledge, 1987) and Challenging Tradition: Women in Japan, (Japan Society, 1992). In addition she has published two cookbooks, Cooking for Crowds (Basic Books, 1973) and Noodles Galore (Basic Books 1976) and has written many articles on food and culture.

Merry White teaches courses on urban Japanese society, on food and culture, on women in Asia and on the anthropology of travel and tourism. In addition to teaching and writing, Dr. White is also consultant to educational and media projects related to Japan and to culinary anthropology. She has studied cooking in Japan and Italy, and was a professional caterer. She has also recently worked with the Discovery Channel to create a television series on Asian foodways, appearing in a one hour segment on Japanese cuisine which won two Asian Television awards. Her next project is a book on the world history of food, written with her son Ben Wurgaft, to be followed by a research project on the natures of food work. She also works with a project to sell Cambodian coffee in Japan, in order to support local development and elementary schools in north-eastern Cambodia. She has two children: Jennifer (White) Callaghan who is a lawyer in London, and Benjamin Wurgaft, an intellectual historian in Berkeley, California, and one grandchild, Meghan Callaghan. Merry White lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, about half-way between them.

A recent interview:http://www.heartnstomach.com/post/19730573134/corky-white-on-second-winds-japan-and-the-beards#.T2t2GC0GN-k.email

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
36 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2013
Excellent reading material for those who are interested in the history of coffee and/or Japan. The focus is on the story of coffee and its impact in Japan and the evolution of the cafe, coffee shop. The first few chapters give a good overview of the 1930s cafes as well as the introduction of the beverage to Japan in the late seventeen hundreds. The Japanese took coffee and made it a national drink that is unique to the country. The post war period saw the proliferation of the coffee shop and different varieties such as jazz or theme cafes. The modern coffee shop ( from the seventies to today) offer even more variations even though the the small traditional cafe seems to be the first choice for most. Corporate coffee chains like Starbucks find out what matters to the Japanese consumer is good quality coffee and the blends of different varieties of bean as well as the individual atmosphere of a Japanese cafe. The most interesting chapter is the one concerning Japan and its influence on the international coffee market. The best coffee from Brazil is purchased by the Japanese coffee companies and the price paid influences the second tier price for other beans that are bought by other countries. The book is interesting for history readers also as the author manages to convey a distinct tone for the chronicle of the role of coffee and the coffee shop in twentieth century Japan. The future is bright for the coffee consumer and the cafe proprietor. Note: the Japanese style coffee shop now has come to America in NYC and San Francisco.
6 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2013
Coffee life in Japan was so interesting and informative, that I had a hard time putting it down. It is extremely well researched, covering the history of coffee in Japan. Included in the book are profiles of several coffee masters and the techniques they use to made the supreme cup of coffee. It is the coffee masters life work to make the best cup of coffee possible. Although it didn't surprise me, I didn't realize that coffee making, had reached such a high level. I'm anxious to go back to Japan and visit a few of the shops mentioned in this book.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2016
Bought this for my father who is a coffee drinker and recently traveled to Japan. He wasn't blown away by the information in the book but he enjoyed reading it. He didn't recommend reading it myself.
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2015
I read this from start to finish in a day. I couldn't put it down. Not only was it a fascinating exploration of the history and role of coffee culture in Japan, it offered up some places we could visit. (Which we did!). I love this book! I was even able to talk about coffee to my Japanese coffee maniac friends about stuff even they didn't know!
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2012
Thick with clear understanding of both Japan and Coffee. Very good but long read. Read this while traveling in Japan to a Coffee Show and visiting Coffee Roasters and Cafes. I was surprised how accurate and insightful this book was on both topics.
10 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2016
A very interesting book about coffee culture in Japan, focusing on the development of coffee shop, or cafe in Japan.
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2016
First of all, poorly edited, if at all. And it is supposed to be a "Memorial Publication". Maybe the author was one of Lilienthal's "friends".
Cooked for him, I mean. She resorts to contorted sentences every couple of pages. This is an Anthro book, not 19th Century German Philosophy!!
I guess it was written for a couple of hundred American academics who would buy it because they knew of her, and a few Japanese
intellectuals with whom she had contact. But the latter would not be able to get through her verbal psycho-camouflage to understand
anything.
I was so happy to see the title, being a lover of Japanese Kissas, particularly the smell in the old ones in Kyoto, Osaka or especially Kobe,
(a town she missed all together). But I was disappointed with the book.
A couple of fundamental mistakes: the Starbucks type places are not being pushed back at all. They are in steady state. Full of young ladies
for whom it is perfectly normal to hang out in. White is very wrong in the book when she states many times how the coffee shop had a liberating
function in the early 1900's, and young women could freely go to a cafe. In the 1960's even, a "proper" young lady could not be seen in one of the
usual cafes, and only in a handful of prestigious ones in the bigger cosmopolitan cities, perhaps two or three in the Ginza or one in Sannomiya.
Until Starbucks came. I don't go to Starbucks and such, but it is worth chasing it around the world with an Anthropologist's camera...
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2017
Haven't read such bad writing in a long time. An interesting topic killed by sloppy writing. If your library has it and you're going to Japan, take a look. But reading the same ideas slightly rephrased (along with quite a few unsupported claims, end notes notwithstanding) was painful. It could have been nicely condensed to a long article.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Jay Harper-Levitt
5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2021
Great book. Interesting read used for an academic investigation into coffee culture in Japan.
SMartinez
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice
Reviewed in France on December 12, 2020
Acheté pour un compte rendu de lecture à rendre, il m'a finalement agréable surprise. Il dépicte l'influence du café ( lieu et espace) sur les relations, les habitudes,ainsi que l'urbain. Il montrz bien que ces cafés sont une vitrine des changements sociétaux, c'est très bien expliqué et facile à lire ! L'auteure fait partie du mouvement comparatiste, vous aurez-donc droit à une vue sur les autres pays d'Europe, ce n'est pas exclusivement sur le Japon, même si elle ne s'en écarte pas si longtemps.
Lawrence B
2.0 out of 5 stars Very academic
Reviewed in Germany on March 27, 2017
I have been to Japan a number of time and while I appreciate the effort of the author writing this book, there is really nothing interesting for the common person. There is thick cloud of academic jargon covering everything she writes about. Japanese coffee life is lively and has been actually doing very well since almost 100 years. Most of the innovation and filter coffee trends have been perfectioned in Japan. When Italy developed their espresso culture Japan specialised in pour overs. If you love coffee and you are not a poor university student in need of passing an exam about this theme I recommend you to read the "The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee" by James Freeman as an introduction and perhaps the Drift magazine Japan edition (now difficult to find)
y_tambe
4.0 out of 5 stars Good start with some misunderstandings
Reviewed in Japan on November 11, 2013
Coffee and cafe were introduced in Japan from Europe and the United States. Since the linguistic and cultural barriers had prevented the inflow of the foreign coffee culture, it had developed in Japan independently from the Euro-American style. This is the first book that introduced the coffee culture in Japan to the world. The historic-cultural analysis like this book is rarely published even in Japan. I appreciate the author's "discovery of coffee life in Japan" and this publication.
In this book, however, the golden era of the Japanese coffee is not, nearly not at all elucidated. It was the largest boom in Japan occured during 1970's-early 80's. The number of "kissa-ten (cafe in Japan)" was increased more than 120,000 in 1985, and diminished gradually until the bubble burst in 1991 (independently-operated cafes are generally increased associated with hiring slump during economic slowdown and are decreased in good time in Japan). The competition among cafes increased the importance of the discrimination strategy, and it was the driving power for the development of "Jika-baisen-ten (roastery cafe in Japan)", the cafes specialized to coffee with unique roasting and brewing systems. The lack of the author's viewpoint on this period is critical, and rather strange. A strangeness is, e.g., that the author introduces Maruyama coffee as the "traditional" cafe in Japan. Maruyama coffee, however, was founded in 1991, the early period of the cafe'-boom after bubble burst, and is usually considered in Japan as the standard-bearer of the new-wave which import the SCAA-related coffee culture. Another strangeness is, e.g., that the author does not mention about Bach Kaffee, which is one of the top-leading of the roastery cafe in Japan founded 1968. Mamoru Taguchi, the founder of Bach Kaffee, is just an owner of a cafe in the downtown in Tokyo, but his theory and instruction for the coffee preparation and cafe management are so spread with his books that he is now (2012-13) the president of SCAJ, the specialty coffee association of Japan. The complete neglect about him is strange as much as if someone would rule out Alfred Peet from the history of coffee in US. I'm afraid the advisers in Japan, not the author herself, may be biased or may have conflict of interests. --Or maybe, simply, the author had captivated by the appearance of the cafes.
Despite the problems, this book is a very good start to understand the unique coffee culture and technology in Japan. This may also give some hints for business to the coffee persons in US, Europe, and so on. I want to see the sequel(s), if the author will publish.
6 people found this helpful
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