The Nightless City Or The History Of The Yoshiwara Yu Kwaku Classic Reprint

Organized sex in Japan has always been big business, and nowhere was it more politely offered than in the Yoshiwara Yukwaku (red light district) of Tokyo. The appeal of the Yoshiwara was its women, all the surroundings being a frame for display of their charms. The Nightless City provides us with a fascinating picture of a "floating world" that was as transient as a butterfly. Today its teahouses, establishments of assignation, geisha, courtesans, customers, pimps, love magic, laws, sayings, loves, and hates have vanished. This book, however, is a substantial monument to this remarkable place and its remarkable people. This fabulous book, containing fifty revealing maps and illustrations, is a pioneer social study of a Meiji community which lived close to traditional ways and according to the rules of the profession of pleasure. It is rich in folklore, magical charms, ceremonial, social rules, standards of dress, class stratification, and the rewards and punishments of the Yoshiwara. Yoshiwara had such an honored place in Japanese tradition, that its passing, in 1957, was regretted and lamented by many--Japanese and foreigners alike.

Edited by Gretchen Wilkins. Text by Ken Tadashi Oshima, George Wagner, Gretchen Wilkins.

Bringing together scholars from across the world, Haruo Shirane presents a fascinating portrait of The Tale of Genji's reception and reproduction over the past thousand years. The essays examine the canonization of the work from the late Heian through the medieval, Edo, Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei periods, revealing its profound influence on a variety of genres and fields, including modern nation building. They also consider parody, pastiche, and re-creation of the text in various popular and mass media. Since the Genji was written by a woman for female readers, contributors also take up the issue of gender and cultural authority, looking at the novel's function as a symbol of Heian court culture and as an important tool in women's education. Throughout the volume, scholars discuss achievements in visualization, from screen painting and woodblock prints to manga and anime. Taking up such recurrent themes as cultural nostalgia, eroticism, and gender, this book is the most comprehensive history of the reception of The Tale of Genji to date, both in the country of its origin and throughout the world.

Through the diaries of the actors themselves, anecdotes recorded about them, and the comments made by the critics of the day about their performances and their lives, Laurence Kominz builds a compelling narrative of a vibrant theatrical world, full of ambition, camaraderie, competition, and sudden twists of fate. A final chapter gives interviews with and insight into the careers of four leading contemporary actors. Kominz draws out the thoughts of Danjuro XII, Ennosuke, Ganjiro, and Tamasaburo on their own struggles and ambitions, and on the legacy that they inherited from these pioneering kabuki actors.

This thoughtfully organized survey of Japan's early modern period (1568-1868) is a remarkable blend of political, economic, intellectual, literary, and cultural history. The only truly comprehensive study in English of the Tokugawa period, it also introduces a new ecological perspective, covering natural disasters, resource use, demographics, and river control.

Japan was the only non-Western nation to industrialize before 1900 and its leap into the modern era has stimulated vigorous debates among historians and social scientists. In an innovative discussion that posits the importance of physical well-being as a key indicator of living standards, Susan B. Hanley considers daily life in the three centuries leading up to the modern era in Japan. She concludes that people lived much better than has been previously understood—at levels equal or superior to their Western contemporaries. She goes on to illustrate how this high level of physical well-being had important consequences for Japan's ability to industrialize rapidly and for the comparatively smooth transition to a modern, industrial society. While others have used income levels to conclude that the Japanese household was relatively poor in those centuries, Hanley examines the material culture—food, sanitation, housing, and transportation. How did ordinary people conserve the limited resources available in this small island country? What foods made up the daily diet and how were they prepared? How were human wastes disposed of? How long did people live? Hanley answers all these questions and more in an accessible style and with frequent comparisons with Western lifestyles. Her methods allow for cross-cultural comparisons between Japan and the West as well as Japan and the rest of Asia. They will be useful to anyone interested in the effects of modernization on daily life.

Winner of the 1990 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. ---------- "A welcome opportunity for wider comparison of the literary traditions and sexual conventions of Japanese and Euro-American cultures."--Journal of Japanese Studies