“…there will never be a war with Japan.” –Connie Mack “…hope every Jap that mentions my name gets shot – and to hell with all Japs anyway.” — Babe Ruth In 1853, Admiral Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to open to the United States. Just 20 years later, baseball crossed the Pacific. Japan has not…
Author: Chris
47 Ronin
John Allyn’s version of Japan’s classic story shows some of its age. Originally published in 1970, Allyn’s writing has some jarring elements common to books published at that time. Modern readers are used to seeing through the eyes of a single character with chapters or scene breaks marking a change of viewpoint. 47 Ronin jumps…
Objectification of Women in Anime
Where does enjoying beauty become objectifying? What does it mean to objectify a woman? A man? Does anime do it? What does it mean to objectify someone? Objectification is defined as when a person is regarded as an object. There are 10 aspects to objectification (Papadaki, 2014). I will use Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion…
Japanese Design: Art, Aesthetics & Culture
Japanese Design: Art, Aesthetics & Culture is an introduction to Japanese design concepts and the people who brought Japanese design to the West. Obviously, it would take at least several books the size of cinder blocks to thoroughly cover the ocean of Japanese design. Patricia Graham does a good job in summarizing the high points…
Japan Journeys: Famous Woodblock Prints of Cultural Sights in Japan
Japanese woodblock prints combine tourism with imagination. Woodblock prints ( called that from the use of carved wooden blocks used to press ink into paper) showed tourist spots popular in nineteenth century Japan and landscapes imagined by the artist. Andreas Marks’ book, Japan Journeys, takes you to various locales from this time period. Woodblock prints,…
The Old Man Who Made Withered Trees Blossom
In the old, old days, there lived an honest man with his wife, who had a favourite dog, which they used to feed with fish and titbits from their own kitchen. One day, as the old folks went out to work in their garden, the dog went with them, and began playing about. All of…