In Windows on Japan, a New Zealander walks across rural Japan and ponders centuries-old perceptions about the country that is still prisoner to an isolationist past. In a deeply insightful commentary, the author surveys cultural, social and political mores, explores the wellspring of racial perception and the problem of the memory of war. Windows on Japan alternates chapters of physical travel with travel through perception about Japan, and challenges the logic of much Western thought about the country that perplexes as much as it pleases. The author walked a route that connects the ports of Niigata and Yokohama and from these windows on the world considers perceptions of people and place. He also assesses the effect of Japan on writers from Jonathan Swift to Oscar Wilde, Shirley MacLaine and Paul Theroux with surprising results. The trading entity that wraps its tentacles around the globe, converses in most languages and understands most customs, is perceptive and urbane and none appears more capable or cosmopolitan. Yet the individuals who inhabit these islands take refuge in their language as a private habitat, resent intrusions, and are captured by a cultural particularism that distances them from others. The author discusses this paradox, as well as environmental and linguistic issues and topics of history and literature. Along the way, he lifts a veil on the life of a snow country geisha, discusses current events with a priest and a reporter, and takes advice on becoming a Japanese. Though he is understood, it is only on return visits to places he has come to love that he wins acceptance. Notes on music delightfully enrich the narrative.

Windows on Japan is a deeply insightful commentary that alternates chapters of physical travel with ‘travel’ through perception about Japan, and challenges the logic of much Western thought about the country that perplexes as much as it pleases. The author walked a route that connects the ports of Niigata and Yokohama and from these windows on the world considers perceptions of people and place. He also assesses the effect of Japan on writers from Jonathan Swift to Oscar Wilde, Shirley MacLaine and Paul Theroux with surprising results. The trading entity that wraps its tentacles around the globe, converses in most languages and understands most customs, is perceptive and urbane and none appears more capable or cosmopolitan. Yet the individuals who inhabit these islands take refuge in their language as a private habitat, resent intrusions, and are captured by a cultural particularism that distances them from others. The author discusses this paradox, as well as environmental and linguistic issues and topics of history and literature. Along the way, he lifts a veil on the life of a snow country geisha, discusses current events with a priest and a reporter, and takes advice on becoming a Japanese. Though he is understood, it is only on return visits to places he has come to love that he wins acceptance. Notes on music delightfully enrich the narrative.

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This is a richly-illustrated study of 'The Oracles of the Three Shrines', the name given to a hanging scroll depicting three important Japanese shrine-deities and their respective oracle texts. The scroll has evolved continuously in Japan for 600 years, so different examples of it offer a series of 'windows' on developments in Japanese religious belief and practice.

They are astonishing, wonderful, and always, invariably modern: the windows at Tiffany’s Fifth Avenue flagship are the stuff dreams are made of. Their appeal is universal, inviting passersby, old and young, to vanish through the looking glass and into a spellbinding world of robin’s egg blue where even the most elusive of fantasies may come true. This hand-bound oversize Ultimate Collection edition presents a well-curated tour of the intricately crafted displays that continue to serve as references of the zeitgeist, from the legendary designer Gene Moore’s Christmas and Valentine’s displays to the neon creations of the current Tiffany & Co. creative team. Along with never-before-seen concept sketches, historical manuscripts, behind the scenes imagery and insights by cultural influencers and devotees of the world’s global arbiter of design and style, Windows at Tiffany’s revisits the whimsy and spirit of one of the world’s most recognized brands, and elicits nostalgia for each reader’s first blue box moment.

The Japanese tea ceremony blends art with nature and has for centuries brought harmony to the daily life of its practitioners. Stories From a Tearoom Window is a timeless collection of tales of the ancient tea sages, compiled in the eighteenth century. Both longtime adherents and newcomers to the tea ceremony will be fascinated by these legends, anecdotes, bits of lore and history that so aptly express the essence of tea. Many of these stories center around the lives of the great tea masters. First among them is Sen no Rikyu, who perfected the tea ceremony and embodies its poise, modesty and refinement. Among the famous tales recounted here are those of Rikyu's morning glory tea ceremony and of his tragic death. Darker presences of the great warlords Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, who sponsored and also abused Rikyu, are manifest as well. Holding to the tea ceremony's core ideal of natural simplicity, author Shigenori Chikamatsu brings to the page stories which touch on the related arts of ceramics, poetry, Zen, calligraphy, and the origins of everyday items of Japanese life such as the cotton tabi split-toed socks and the bento lunchbox. Chapters include: Tearooms in the Old Days Flowers in the Tea Garden The Origins of Tea Iori's Tea Scoop Famous Lacquerers The Legacy of Rikyu's House The Tea Ceremony for Warriors