Walking The Kiso Road

Author : William Scott Wilson
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
ISBN 13 : 1611801257
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Walking the Kiso Road written by William Scott Wilson and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2015-10-13 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Step back into old Japan with this fascinating travelogue of the famous Kiso Road, an ancient route used by samurai and warlords The Kisoji, which runs through the Kiso Valley in the Japanese Alps, has been in use since at least 701 C.E. In the seventeenth century, it was the route that the daimyo (warlords) used for their biennial trips—along with their samurai and porters—to the new capital of Edo (now Tokyo). The natural beauty of the route is renowned—and famously inspired the landscapes of Hiroshige, as well as the work of many other artists and writers. William Scott Wilson, esteemed translator of samurai philosophy, has walked the road several times and is a delightful and expert guide to this popular tourist destination; he shares its rich history and lore, literary and artistic significance, cuisine and architecture, as well as his own experiences.

Author : Alan Booth
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141992859
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Roads to Sata written by Alan Booth and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A memorable, oddly beautiful book' Wall Street Journal 'A marvellous glimpse of the Japan that rarely peeks through the country's public image' Washington Post One sunny spring morning in the 1970s, an unlikely Englishman set out on a pilgrimage that would take him across the entire length of Japan. Travelling only along small back roads, Alan Booth travelled on foot from Soya, the country's northernmost tip, to Sata in the extreme south, traversing three islands and some 2,000 miles of rural Japan. His mission: 'to come to grips with the business of living here,' after having spent most of his adult life in Tokyo. The Roads to Sata is a wry, witty, inimitable account of that prodigious trek, vividly revealing the reality of life in off-the-tourist-track Japan. Journeying alongside Booth, we encounter the wide variety of people who inhabit the Japanese countryside - from fishermen and soldiers, to bar hostesses and school teachers, to hermits, drunks and the homeless. We glimpse vast stretches of coastline and rambling townscapes, mountains and motorways; watch baseball games and sunrises; sample trout and Kilamanjaro beer, hear folklore, poems and smutty jokes. Throughout, we enjoy the wit and insight of a uniquely perceptive guide, and more importantly, discover a new face of an often-misunderstood nation.

Author : Tom Fay
Publisher : Cicerone Press Limited
ISBN 13 : 178362714X
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Hiking and Trekking in the Japan Alps and Mount Fuji written by Tom Fay and published by Cicerone Press Limited. This book was released on 2019-03-27 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guidebook to the magnificent Japan Alps, which stretch across the middle of the main island of Honshu, and iconic Mount Fuji. The guide describes nine day-walks and thirteen treks of 2-8 days covering the North, Central and South Alps, as well as the four main routes up Mount Fuji - Japan's highest mountain at 3776m - and a further route on neighbouring Mount Kurodake. The routes visit many of the region's key summits, including several over 3000m. They are graded according to difficulty, although several entail steep ascents and difficult terrain and a few include scrambling and exposure, calling for a sure foot and a good head for heights. Comprehensive step-by-step route descriptions are accompanied by clear mapping. The Japan Alps and Mount Fuji boast a well-developed walking infrastructure, and the routes make use of the many mountain huts and campgrounds, full details of which are given in the guide. Some also include the opportunity to visit a traditional hot-spring bath for a refreshing soak after your hike. You will find all the information you will need to plan a successful walking or trekking holiday, with a wealth of advice on travel, bases, accommodation and facilities. There are additional notes on plants and wildlife, the history of hiking in Japan and safety in the mountains, as well as full mountain-hut listings and a helpful glossary. Inspirational colour photography completes the package, offering a taste of the breathtaking mountain vistas to whet your appetite.

Author : Lonely Planet
Publisher : Lonely Planet
ISBN 13 : 1787019306
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Lonely Planet Kyoto written by Lonely Planet and published by Lonely Planet. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lonely Planet's Kyoto is your most up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Walk through vermillion gates towards the summit of Fushimi Inari-Taisha; glimpse 'old Japan' in the lanes of Gion; and time your trip for the best cherry blossom and crimson maple leaves -all with your trusted travel companion.

Author : William Scott Wilson
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
ISBN 13 : 1590309871
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Lone Samurai written by William Scott Wilson and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert on samurai history paints a vivid, multi-faceted portrait of feudal Japan and Miyamoto Musashi—the legendary swordsman who wrote the classic martial arts treatise, The Book of Five Rings Born in 1584, Miyamoto Musashi was the legendary samurai known throughout the world as a master swordsman, spiritual seeker, and author of the classic book on strategy, The Book of Five Rings. Over 350 years after his death, Musashi and his legacy still fascinate readers worldwide, inspiring artists, authors, and filmmakers. In The Lone Samurai, respected translator and expert on samurai culture William Scott Wilson presents both a vivid account of a fascinating period in feudal Japan and a portrait of the courageous, iconoclastic samurai who wrestled with philosophical and spiritual ideas that are as relevant today as they were in his time. For Musashi, the way of the martial arts was about mastery of the mind rather than simply technical prowess—and it is this path to mastery that is the core teaching in his Book of Five Rings. This special volume includes supplemental material on Musashi’s legacy as a martial arts icon, his impact on literature and film, and the influence of his Book of Five Rings.

Author : Lucia St. Clair Robson
Publisher : Forge Books
ISBN 13 : 1429935995
Total Pages : 643 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Tokaido Road written by Lucia St. Clair Robson and published by Forge Books. This book was released on 2005-11-29 with total page 643 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the execution of her father, the young and beautiful Lady Asano is in grave danger from the powerful Lord Kira. In order to save herself Asano must find Oishi, the leader of the fighting men of her clan. She believes he is three hundred miles to the southwest in the imperial city of Kyoto. Disguising her loveliness in the humble garments of a traveling priest, and calling herself Cat, Lady Asano travels the fabled Tokaido Road. Her only tools are her quick wits, her samurai training, and her deadly, six foot-long naginata. And she will need them all, for a ronin has been hired to pursue her, a mysterious man who will play a role in Cat's drama that neither could have ever imagined. . . . At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Author : Hideo Kamei
Publisher : U of M Center For Japanese Studies
ISBN 13 : 0472038044
Total Pages : 375 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Transformations of Sensibility written by Hideo Kamei and published by U of M Center For Japanese Studies. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in Japan in 1983, this book is now a classic in modern Japanese literary studies. Covering an astonishing range of texts from the Meiji period (1868–1912), it presents sophisticated analyses of the ways that experiments in literary language produced multiple new—and sometimes revolutionary—forms of sensibility and subjectivity. Along the way, Kamei Hideo carries on an extended debate with Western theorists such as Saussure, Bakhtin, and Lotman, as well as with such contemporary Japanese critics as Karatani Kojin and Noguchi Takehiko. Transformations of Sensibility deliberately challenges conventional wisdom about the rise of modern literature in Japan and offers highly original close readings of works by such writers as Futabatei Shimei, Tsubouchi Shoyo, Higuchi Ichiyo, and Izumi Kyoka, as well as writers previously ignored by most scholars. It also provides a new critical theorization of the relationship between language and sensibility, one that links the specificity of Meiji literature to broader concerns that transcend the field of Japanese literary studies. Available in English translation for the first time, it includes a new preface by the author and an introduction by the translation editor that explain the theoretical and historical contexts in which the work first appeared.

Author : Kristin Hersh
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477308741
Total Pages : 181 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Don't Suck, Don't Die written by Kristin Hersh and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Friend, asshole, angel, mutant,” singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt “came along and made us gross and broken people seem . . . I dunno, cooler, I guess.” A quadriplegic who could play only simple chords on his guitar, Chesnutt recorded seventeen critically acclaimed albums before his death in 2009, including About to Choke, North Star Deserter, and At the Cut. In 2006, NPR placed him in the top five of the ten best living songwriters, along with Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Paul McCartney, and Bruce Springsteen. Chesnutt’s songs have also been covered by many prominent artists, including Madonna, the Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M., Sparklehorse, Fugazi, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Kristin Hersh toured with Chesnutt for nearly a decade and they became close friends, bonding over a love of songwriting and mutual struggles with mental health. In Don’t Suck, Don’t Die, she describes many seemingly small moments they shared, their free-ranging conversations, and his tragic death. More memoir than biography, Hersh’s book plumbs the sources of Chesnutt’s pain and creativity more deeply than any conventional account of his life and recordings ever could. Chesnutt was difficult to understand and frequently difficult to be with, but, as Hersh reveals him, he was also wickedly funny and painfully perceptive. This intimate memoir is essential reading for anyone interested in the music or the artist.

Author : Matsuo Bashō
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 0791483436
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Bashō's Journey written by Matsuo Bashō and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2010-03-29 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers the most comprehensive collection of Basho's prose available, beautifully translated into English.

Author : William E. Naff
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 082486073X
Total Pages : 693 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Kiso Road written by William E. Naff and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2010-11-30 with total page 693 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William E. Naff, the distinguished scholar of Japanese literature widely known and highly regarded for his eloquent translations of the writings of Shimazaki Toson (1872–1943), spent the last years of his life writing a full-length biography of Toson. Virtually completed at the time of his death, The Kiso Road provides a rich and colorful account of this canonic novelist who, along with Natsume Soseki and Mori Ogai, formed the triumvirate of writers regarded as giants in Meiji Japan, all three of whom helped establish the parameters of modern Japanese literature. Professor Naff’s biography skillfully places Toson in the context of his times and discusses every aspect of his career and personal life, as well as introducing in detail a number of his important but as yet untranslated works. Toson’s long life, his many connections with other important Japanese artists and intellectuals, his sojourn in France during World War I, and his later visit to South America, permit a biography of depth and detail that serves as a kind of cultural history of Japan during an often turbulent period. The Kiso Road, as approachable and exciting as any novel, with Toson himself as its complex protagonist, is arguably the most thorough account of any modern Japanese writer presently available in English.