Japan: The Cycle of Life

Rachel Stewart, The Japan Society
"... an inspiring collection of thoughts and images portraying some of what is best about Japan."


The Japan Times
"All [essays in the book] serve as excellent introductions to their subjects; all are stunningly illustrated."


Patrick J. Mahany, The Daily Yomiur
"... the book overflows with scenes that inspire, surprise and fascinate."


Francis J. Bosha, Asahi Evening New
"This lush collection of photographs of landscapes, festivals and scenes of daily life is a treasure."


Victor France
"... stunning photography ... an insight into Japan's relationship with nature, rituals and daily life, and culture and tradition."


Book Description
An ancient cherry tree trails its blossoms in a stream running through Kyoto's historic pleasure quarters. The glow of a charcoal fire in a sunken hearth enhances the simple serenity of the tea ceremony. The blaze of autumn's maple leaves hangs above the velvet green of a moss garden. These classic images only hint at the story of the seasons in Japan. Nature is not just admired; it is incorporated into every aspect of life, from festivals and the fine arts to the design of homes and the arrangement of seasonal delicacies at the table. The splendors of the landscape have shaped the ancient culture and ongoing traditions of modern Japan Here, gathered in one opulent volume, are more than 250 full-color photographs carefully culled from thousands of choices. An eloquent foreword by His Imperial Highness Prince Takamado, a connoisseur of the arts. opens this volume and is followed by a series of insightful essays by some of the most respected British and American experts on Japan, including C. W. Nicol, Diane Durston. and John Bester In Japan, the appreciation of beauty is often a matter of the careful observation of those things that "simply lie before one's eyes." Sojourners to Japan and armchair travelers alike will find new aspects of this beauty to appreciate in the lush photographs and thoughtful commentary that fill these pages. Genuinely informative and visually stunning, Japan: The Cycle of Life is not only a feast for the eyes but a well-placed window on a different way of life.


From the Publisher
List of Full-color Photos for Part 1: Part 1: Nature and Japan
Wind surfing near Mt. Fuji
*Spring
Plum and peach blossoms. / Mt. Daisen and rape blossoms / Manchurian violets (sumire) / Purple-leaf violets (tachitsubo-sumire) / Dog's-tooth lilies / Dandelions / Gathering the Chinese milk vetch (renge) / A traditional house (minka) and spring blossoms / Skylark / Daurian redstart (jobitaki) and red plum blossoms / Bush warbler / Deer at Tobihino, Nara / Cherry blossoms at Mt. Yoshino in Nara Prefecture / Mt. Hakuba in cherry blossom time / Cherry blossom: somei-yoshino / Cherry blossom: beni-shidare-zakura / Weeping cherry at Gion Shinbashi in Kyoto / Quayside at Kyoto's Arashiyama / Kerria (yamabuki) blooming by the river. Tea fields in Shizuoka / Port town on Sanagi Island in the Inland Sea / Late spring along the coastal waters of the Japan Sea
*Summer
Yacht race in Sagami Bay, near Tokyo / Cedar forest in Yoshino, Nara Pref / Murooji temple in Nara, with flowering dogwood and rhododendron / Oirase Gorge swollen with spring runoff / Hydrangea and snail / Water lily / The moss garden of Saihoji temple / Bamboo grove, Sagano / New maple foliage / Nachi waterfall / Hokkaido farmlands and the Tokachi Mountains / Ichinokura Gorge in summer / Lilies in the valley / Bumblebee / Hibiscus and swallowtail butterfly / Skimmer dragonfly (o-shiokara-tonbo) / Sunflower field in Hokkaido / The Northern Alps in summer / Low tide on Ishigakijima, Okinawa / Yellow coral, Okinawa / Coral reef, Okinawa / Coral reef / The primeval forest on Yakushima
*Autumn
Cosmos and stone Buddhist figures / Mountains and the Norikura Highlands / Autumn in Akino, Nara Prefecture / Paddies ready for the harvest and red spider lilies / Terraced paddies in autumn / Autumn foliage on Mt / Shirane / Dahurian patrinia (ominaeshi) / Pink (nadeshiko) / Balloon flower (kikyo) / Silver grass (susuki) on the hillside of Wakakusayama / Autumn foliage at Lake Towada / Autumn colors in Nakatsugawa Gorge / Autumn on a Hokkaido dairy farm / Pagoda with autumn foliage / Shrine precincts in fall / Autumn leaves at Saihoji temple / Persimmons in fall / Cosmos and mounded rice straw / Traditional houses in autumn (Koran Valley) / White birch in late autumn (Daisetsu Mountains) / Islands of the Kujukushima group, Kyushu / The Uradome coast with pine-tree islet
*Winter
White frost (muhyo; Sugadaira) / Nandina (nanten; Nandina domestica Thunb) / Amur adonis (fukujuso; Adonis amurenis Reget et Radd) / Camellia (kan-tsubaki) / Hasedera temple in the snow / Traditional homes in the snow (Kawanami, Shiga Pref.) / Midwinter on Mt / Hakuba / Winter waterfall (Nanatsu Falls, Bandai Asahi National Park) / Iced trees (juhyo; Towada-Hachimantai National Park) / Iced trees under snow (juhyo; Mt. Zao) / Stormy seas, Otaru, Hokkaido / The cedar forest of Kitayama / Winter mountainsides, Kirigamine / Red fox (Vulpes vulpes schrencki) / Japanese macaque (snow monkey) / Japanese weasel (hondo-itachi) / Japanese crane (tancho) / Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) / Sika deer (Ezo-shika) / Winter in the Kushiro Wetlands / Nikko shrine in the snow / Raked sand garden in Nanzenji temple, Kyoto / Kinkakuji temple in the snow / Entrance to the Imperial Palace, Tokyo / Drifting ice floes off the coast of Hokkaido in the Okhotsk Sea


About the Author
His Imperial Highness Prince Takamado was born in 1954. He is the third son of Their Imperial Highnesses Prince and Princess Mikasa and is a first cousin to His Majesty the Emperor. He graduated from Gakushuin University in Tokyo in 1978 and studied at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, from 1978 until 1981.He devotes much of his time and energy to the patronage of the arts, sports, and numerous cultural and charitable activities on an international scale. C. W. Nicol is the author of Harpoon, Moving Zen, and some seventy books in Japanese, and has translated the Kojiki and works by Kenji Miyazawa. Born in Wales, he has made fifteen expeditions to the Arctic and served as a game warden in Ethiopia. Nicol now has Japanese citizenship and is vice principal of a college that trains environmental field workers. With the exception of ten years lecturing at the University of Tokyo, John Bester, a graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University, has devoted most of his time in Japan to translation. He received the Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature in acknowledgment of his achievements in the field. Juliet Carpenter studied Japanese literature at the University of Michigan and has lived in Japan since 1975. Her award-winning work as a translator includes fiction, essays, and poetry by modern writers Kobo Abe, Fumiko Enchi, Machi Tawara, and Ryotaro Shiba. She is a licensed teacher of the koto and shamisen. Now a professor at Doshisha Women's College in Kyoto, she lives in Nara with her husband Bruce and their three sons. Diane Durston lived in Kyoto for eighteen years, during which time she wrote Old Kyoto: A Guide to Traditional Shops, Restaurants, and Inns; The Living Traditions of Old Kyoto; and Kyoto: Seven Paths to the Heart of the City. She now resides in Portland, Oregon, where she continues to write and lecture on crafts and Japanese culture and is the Director of Asian Cultural Affairs for the International Forum. Having arrived in Japan in 1965 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Patricia Massy pursued her interest in the arts of Japan. which led to a column on traditional crafts in the Japan Times that ran for sixteen years. Her research took her throughout the country, and gave her the opportunity to develop an extensive knowledge of Japanese cuisine. Margaret Price worked as a writer and translator for a number of years before becoming a features editor at the Mainichi Daily News, focusing on culture. crafts, and food. Involved in the world of tea for over twenty years, Price co-founded the Little Tea Society in Tokyo and built a tea house for personal use in her native Australia. Mark 0shima was born in 1960 in Fort Collins, Colorado. A specialist in the history and Iiterature of the Edo period, he has written extensively on Kabuki and other forms of Japanese theater and is the translator of Kabuki Backstage, Onstage: An Actor's Life by Matazo Nakamura. Patricia Fister received a doctorate in Japanese art history from the University of Kansas. She is currently a Visiting Associate Professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, where she has been employed since 1991.


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These classic images only hint at the story of the seasons in Japan. Nature is not just admired; it is incorporated into every aspect of life, from festivals and the fine arts to the design of homes and the arrangement of seasonal delicacies at the table. The splendors of the landscape have shaped the ancient culture and ongoing traditions of modern Japan. Here, gathered in one opulent volume, are more than two hundred and fifty full-color photographs carefully culled from thousands of choices. An eloquent foreword by His Imperial Highness Prince Takamado, a connoisseur of the arts, opens this volume and is followed by a series of insightful essays by some of the most respected British and American experts on Japan, including C. W. Nicol, Diane Durston, and John Bester. In Japan, the appreciation of beauty is often a matter of the careful observation of those things that "simply lie before one's eyes." Sojourners to Japan and armchair travelers alike will find new aspects of this beauty to appreciate in the lush photographs and thoughtful commentary that fill these pages.


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