Japanese Books - Page 2

Ki: A Practical Guide for Westerners

William Reed

List Price: $18.00 By: Japan Publications (USA) Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $6.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> Japanese

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A good begining 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

William Reed has tried to define and teach the meaning of KI so that we in the west can learn. The first part of the text helps us undersatnd KI, develop KI and pratcie KI. There are a series of excericses and a section on KI meditation. The second part of the text goes into KI development in the Japanese Arts (Shodo, Aikido, Kiatsu, Go, Noh and the Tea Ceremony). And the third part, Ki in our ever changing world. A must have book.

The truth... 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Like William Reed, I spent over 10 years in the Orient learning martials arts from men who had dedicated their life to the practice. This book ranks among the best written concerning ki. The ideas put forth are universal, and can be assimilated by a broad minded and discerning person. Enjoy this book, I certainly did and continue to do so everytime I pick up my copy.

Essential Teachings of Zen Master Hakuin

Norman Waddell

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Shambhala Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $9.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> Japanese
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Buddhism -> Zen
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Buddhism -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Firebrand of Authentic Zen 5 out of 5 stars.
32 of 32 people found this review helpful.

The "golden age" of Zen was in the T'ang Dynasty (619-906) in China. By early eighteenth century, what was left of Zen in Japan wasn't much. But the strength of Zen is in the individuals, the truly liberated spirits, it produces, and early eighteen century Japan saw one of the greatest ever: Hakuin Zenji (1685-1768). This book is a translation of what is considered the most important text by this legendary exponent of the Rinzai Zen tradition. Hakuin was a man of high standards, and he had little patience for the soft soothing "Zen" of his day. He pulls no punches in his criticism: "At present, this country is infested with a race of smooth-tongued, worldly-wise Zen teachers who feed their students a ration of utter nonsense" (pp. 24f); "Now that's not even good rubbish" (p. 52); "Phffmp! What graveyard did you pillage for those old left-over offerings?" (p. 92). (Waddell's lively translation contributes to one's appreciation of this dynamic personality.) For Hakuin, what was most important was the breakthrough *kensho* experience, reached after years of rigorous meditation practice; apart from *kensho*, the words and ideas of Zen are worthless and meaningless. Hakuin's Zen represents a level of authenticity consonant with the height of Zen in the T'ang Dynasty. It is a Zen that focuses on the central matter relentlessly, and has absolutely no use for anything that serves to distract from this. In this respect, Hakuin's words may be a useful corrective to some of the more diffuse, feel-good, self-satisfying elements of the New Age. I would not necessarily recommend this book to someone who knew nothing about Zen; at least a cursory knowledge of classical Zen is useful in making sense of Hakuin's many references to great Zen Masters of the past. Not the best starting book, but any serious study of Zen will eventually involve confronting this fiercely determined defender of authentic Zen, and this book is undoubtedly the best English introduction to Hakuin.

Editorial Review:

A fiery and intensely dynamic Zen teacher and artist, Hakuin (1686-1769)is credited with almost single-handedly revitalizing Japanese Zen after three hundred years of decline. As a teacher, he placed special emphasis on koan practice, inventing many new koans himself, including the famous, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" The text translated here offers an excellent introduction to the work of this extraordinary teacher.

The Book of Macrobiotics: The Universal Way of Health, Happiness and Peace

Michio Kushi, Alex Jack

List Price: $21.00 By: Japan Publications Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $3.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Special Diet -> Healthy
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A NEW AND COMPLETELY REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION OF THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO MACROBIOTICS.
The Book of Macrobiotics is the passport to a new world of infinite understanding and adventure. It has been read, reread, studied, and treasured by hundreds of thousands of people seeking a clear, comprehensive approach to the problem of living in a world of endless change.
Now, after nearly a decade, The Book of Macrobiotics has been completely revised and expanded to reflect refinements in Michio Kushi's teachings, as well as many new developments in the spread of macrobiotics in modern society. During this time, the Standard Macrobiotic Dietary approach has been simplified and broadened. Macrobiotic approaches to cancer, heart disease, and other degenerative diseases have evolved and expanded, as have basic home cares, and way of life recommendations.
The revised edition of The Book of Macrobiotics also includes a new chapter on the Spiritual World, new material on Yin and Yang and the Five Transformations, Man/Woman Relations, and Humanity's Origin and Destiny, and an annotated East West Reading List for further reading and enjoyment. Many new illustrations have been furnished, and the Food Composition tables have been expanded to include nutritional information on dozens of foods such as tempeh, seitan, rice cakes, and amazake not previously available.

The Nothingness Beyond God: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Nishida Kitaro

Robert E. Carter

Amazon Price: $16.95 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Paragon House Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $14.74

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> Japanese
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Something to Say About Nothing 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Carter's "The Nothingness Beyond God" is a beacon that opens up for discovery new possibilities of a meaningful dialogue between Eastern and Western philosophical traditions. Dedicating a chapter to each developmental stage, the book clearly illuminates the evolution of the philosophy of Nishida Kitar . Initiating the inquiry with the concept of pure experience, Carter deftly, yet with eloquent brevity, extricates the essential elements of Nishidan thought from a complex of the philosopher's writings. Carter demonstrates how Nishida never lost sight of his founding concept, pure experience, while he continued to tender increasingly more elucidated refinements that saw the genesis of the Logic of Basho and the concept of Self-Contradictory Identity. The refinement eventually produced a philosophical stance which he called The Dialectical World of "Acting Intuition", and of which this edition offers a substantially expanded exegesis. But Carter does not rest here, he suggests that issues of religion, morality and ethics, in short of value in general, can be, and indeed must be, tied to an understanding of the essential unfolding of the individual, without which, these concepts, lacking a form for expression, would be essentially empty.. In other words, what Carter sees as groundbreaking in Nishida is an insight that offers an ontology that can participate in the resolution of contemporary world issues. Ecology and environmental issues now become deep issues that are inseparable from our own well being. In what has clearly secured itself as a masterpiece of comparative philosophy, its contemporary relevance has additionally advanced the endeavour to bridge the gap between East and West. Yet, one of the more salient features of "The Nothingness Beyond God" is its range of accessibility. It is equally stimulating for the neophyte as well as the seasoned comparativist, in that its accessibility does not come at the expense of scholarly exactness. Well done.

Editorial Review:

One of the 20th century''s most profound inte rpreters of Western philosphy, Nishida Kitaro, lived his ent ire life in Japan. This book will prove an invaluable introd uction to the work of a true world philosopher. '

Philosophy as Metanoetics (Nanzan Studies in Religion and Culture)

Hajime Tanabe

Amazon Price: $26.95 List Price: $26.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of California Press Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $22.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> Japan
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> Japanese
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Let "the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah show us the way" 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Tanabe Hajime wrote his Preface for PHILOSOPHY AS METANOETICS in October 1945, a year after delivering his final series of lectures on which this book is based at Kyoto Imperial University. Though he fell ill in November 1944, he left his sickbed just long enough to deliver lectures until "It was with a great sigh of relief that I completed the final lecture in December, after which I spent the rest of the winter in bed." (p. lix). The book uses some Greek words to describe the kind of change involved in religious experiences that parallel the philosophy which gave Tanabe Hajime the strength to complete his final year before retirement in the midst of "the hunger and poverty of the vast majority of the people in sharp contrast with the luxury enjoyed by a very few owing to the maldistribution of food and goods," (p. lxi), notably, "Since metanoesis implies remorse and sorrow, it is necessarily accompanied by feelings of shame and guilt." (p. lx).

The Japanese Ministry of Education sent Tanabe to study in Europe in 1922, where he spent a year in Berlin before going to Freiburg to study with Husserl. Heidegger tutored him privately in German philosophy. Numerous thinkers familiar from this tradition are mentioned in this book, including Walter Kaufmann, who did not get a Ph.D. until 1947, a year after the Japanese version of the book was published. Kaufmann's English translations of THE WILL TO POWER, ECCE HOMO, and THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA by Nietzsche were used for the University of California Press translation of this book into English in 1986: "that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity" (p. 298).

The first paragraph of Tanabe's Preface states an extreme condition about which philosophers have frequently had a desire to complain. "All public opinion, except for propaganda in favor of the government's policy, was suppressed. Freedom of thought was severely restricted, and the only ideas given official recognition were those of the extreme rightists." (p. il). In a democratic society, a similar complaint is heard whenever rightists feel they have some mandate from the last election or public reaction to events such as 9/11. While I did not play a large part in the movement opposing the Vietnam war as an undesirable aspect of American foreign policy, I was subject to what Tanabe called "a radical self-awareness" (p. l) of how weak the American position in Vietnam as a global superpower desiring peace with honor fit the dialectical basis for a religious situation, where "anything I achieve apart from true zange can only be immediately contradicted by reality itself. ... This is in fact the basic principle that shapes history. In terms of its concrete content, metanoetics is a radical historicism in that the continuous repetition of zange provides basic principles for the circular development of history." (p. lii).

Bitter experience is the basis for the insight, "Quite by accident I was led along the same path that Shinran followed in Buddhist doctrine, although in my case it occurred in the philosophical realm." (p. lii). Chapters 6 and 7 are based on the three stages of religious transformation of the Pure Land Shin sect established by Shinran (1173-1262).

Tanabe Hajime was originally a student in mathematics who discovered that he did not have the ability to solve problems in mathematics at a university level. He turned to philosophy, only to end his career with `a philosophical method of "destruction" more radical than even the methodical skepticism of Descartes. It cannot be treated on the same level as philosophy up to the present inasmuch as it is a philosophy achieved through a death-and-resurrection process of transformation.' (p. lv). "In the radical self-consciousness of being driven to the extreme, reason can only be torn to shreds in absolute disruption, after which such self-affirming reason is no longer of any use to us. Absolute criticism means that reason, faced with the absolute crisis of its dilemma, surrenders itself of its own accord." (p. lvi). Basing everything on "a relationship of reciprocal mediatory transformation between the absolute and the self" (p. lvii), the only possibility of irony is that a rightist campaign identifying flip-flops always works to put together a democratic majority of voters who can't figure out the message. Nevertheless, anyone interested in advanced oriental thought in a world dominated by superpower politics should find plenty of food for thought in this book.

Editorial Review:

A milestone in Japan's post-war philosophical thought and a dramatic turning point in Tanabe's own philosophy, Philosophy as Metanoetics calls for nothing less than a complete and radical rethinking of the philosophical task itself. It is a powerful, original work, showing vast erudition in all areas of both Eastern and Western thought.

Last Writings: Nothingness and the Religious Worldview

Kitaro Nishida

Amazon Price: $21.00 List Price: $21.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of Hawaii Press Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $10.20

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> Japan
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> Japanese
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> General

Encounter With Enlightenment: A Study of Japanese Ethics (S U N Y Series in Modern Japanese Philosophy)

Robert Edgar Carter

List Price: $68.50 By: State University of New York Press Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $43.22

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> Japanese
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Review of Encounter with Enlightenment 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Carter has now anchored his position as THE comparative philosophy scholar whose clear and unmistakable writing makes him the favorite author of students of the Japanese philosophical tradition. In this new book, Carter sensitively and faithfully explains not only the basics of Japanese ethics, but also the diverse sources of inspiriation behind Japanese moral philosophy (Shintoism, Confucianism, Buddhism), as well as modern Japanese intellectual and spritual encounters with the West.

Editorial Review:

Examines the influence of Shintoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism on Japanese ethics, with implecations for our understanding of various social, economic, and environmental problems.

A History of the Development of Japanese Thought

NATAMURA, Hajime Nakamura

Amazon Price: $255.50 List Price: $350.00 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks By: Taylor and Francis Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $75.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> Japan
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> Japanese
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> General

Editorial Review:

This revised and expanded edition of a classic work traces the development of the history of philosophy in pre-modern Japan. While many historians take the view that Japanese philosophy only started with the Meiji Restoration and the entrance of Western culture into Japan, Hajime Nakamura demonstrates that there has been a long history of philosophy in Japan prior to the Meiji. Beginning in 592 AD, when Japan first became a centralized state and continuing into the early modern era, this work deals with the important problems and salient feature of Japanese philosophical thought at all stages in its development, dealing with subjects such as the philosophical ideas of the Nara and Heian periods, Japanese medieval thought, the major sects of Buddhism, the way of meditation, controversy between Buddhism and Christianity, modern trends in the Tokugawa period, religion and capitalism, Buddhist influences upon Japanese ways of thinking, and the basic features of Japanese philosophical thought.

Rude Awakenings: Zen, the Kyoto School, & the Question of Nationalism (Nanzan Studies in Religion and Culture)

James W. Heisig

List Price: $42.00 By: University of Hawaii Press Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $399.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> Japanese
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Thought provoking 4 out of 5 stars.
22 of 23 people found this review helpful.

In view of the challenge this book has posed for the Western Buddhist community, it was surprising to find but one review for it - on Amazon. com. Published ten years ago (Hawaii Uni Press) the material edited by James Heisig and John C. Maraldo puts Zen in a decidedly critical spotlight, effectively tracing the historical precedents linking Zen Buddhism, the State, Nationalism and - Militarism. Read alongside Daizen Victoria's 'Zen at War/Zen to Senso,' (Weatherhill, 1997), it is obvious that we need to review the ethical bases of Zen and face the fact that it has been put to some distinctly 'un-buddhist' uses. Hence, the rather derisory title -'Rude Awakenings.

While such issues have elicited concern in the Western Buddhist community, the ties between Zen and the martial arts hardly raise an eyebrow in other quarters and even seem to bestow a 'normative' perspective on things. After all, Zen became the adopted religion of the Samurai, the Japanese warrior caste. It is often said that true exponents of Budo see their arts as a way of sublimating aggression. That is probably true of the best sort of Budo practitioners and it would be mean spirited to see the traditional samurai as blood thirsty brigands, who like violence for its own sake. Encyclopaedia Brittanica - surely an objective source, has described the Samurai as one of the most efficient fighting forces known to history, for the most part displaying high mindedness and a strong sense of discipline.

Nevertheless, whatever it meant in Japan's feudal past, the saying 'Zen ken ichinyo' - or that 'The way of Zen and the way of the sword - are the same' has been grossly exploited in the context of modern state power - and indeed, used as a cover to glorify sheer brutality. Like Daizen Victoria's book, the essays found in the present volume explore the way that Buddhist language has been exploited to serve ulterior motives i.e. - to further the self-interest of power groups and ultimately, in the modern context - the State. Moreover, contrary to what might be supposed, this strange alliance and the terms of thinking underpinning it, did not come to an end with the cessation of hostilities at the close of W.W. 2. In modified form, it survived as part of the Japanese corporate mentality - or as a vehicle to help sustain it. Furthermore, elements of it have informed the Kyoto-school of philosophy - which, despite the kudos it has enjoyed in the West, might need to be thought-through, all over again.

Like Daizen Victoria's book, this material is a 'wake-up call' for Western students of Buddhism. Nevertheless, as with the 'Critical Buddhist' movement as a whole, there are points where the arguments in this book become overly generalised and jejune. For instance, one wonders if it makes any historical sense to fault Prince Shotoku's 'Constitution' of 604 A.D. because it didn't function like a modern one? Still, accepting the limitations of feudal society for what they are - or were, it would be fallacious to assume that it has all been a question of base 'yea-saying' in accordance with the hierarchical pecking order. Despite its surface politeness, Hakuin Zenji's long letter to Ikeda, governor of Iyo (Iyo no kame) - which appears in Hakuin's Zenshu under the title Hebiiichigo, was virtually a diatribe and written as an act of social justice. To my knowledge, nothing like it, penned by anyone of eminence in the Japanese Buddhist establishment, found its way to the authorities in the modern era. Bearing this in mind, it seems problematic and somewhat unjust, to draw a line through Japanese history, seeing the old alliance between the Zen establishment and the Bushi/samurai as a precursor to Zen's role in the emergence of modern Japanese state nationalism. Under the Meiji, traditional samurai families were disenfranchised and no longer determined strategy or decision making, a privilege reserved for a centralised high command, whose desire for 'lebensraum' (to be blunt - a wholesale invasion of S.E. Asia) would have seemed incomprehensible to samurai leaders of yore.

In a mytho-poeic sense, perhaps, the ideologues who drove Japan down the road to war in the 20th c. had exploited 'traditional' imagery and archetypes. Nevertheless, like Hitler's invocation of the 'volk' - and the Nazi philosophy of 'blut und boden' - the images invoked were hollow caricatures. The causes underlying the rise of modern nationalism are complex, but wherever it has manifested, it has depended upon idealised abstractions. Yet these have been but remotely connected with the realities of the past. 'Emperor worship' has frequently been blamed as one of the sustaining causes of modern Japanese nationalism, but in actual fact, the military government which seized control of Japan in the 1930's had little respect for the Emperor.@Moreover, historically speaking, the exercise of power in Japan has often rested in the hands of a Shogun, rather than the Royal family. In other words, it is has been an arbitrary lust for power, rather than ‚definite social entity or status quo which has invoked trouble. Modern nationalism is very abstract and faceless, hence its need to exploit the past - including religious imagery, in the hope of giving itself substance.We ought to exercise caution here, lest we blame the unworthy deeds - on the worthy, and ignoble deeds - upon the noble./

Sex and the Japanese: The Sensual Side of Japan

Boye Lafayette De Mente

Amazon Price: $11.66 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tuttle Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $4.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Sexuality -> Human
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Sex -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Sex -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Don't waste your money... 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

...unless this is your very first venture into the erotic side of the Japanese, that is. For the neophyte to Japanese and Asian women in general, this might be an OK 1st grade-level book. If you are at all interested in this book, however, chances are you already have some idea of sexual attitudes in this part of the world. This book won't tell you anything you don't already know, or at least have an idea of. Chapters covering each topic are very short and superficial. Add to that, half of the book is nothing more than a glossary of sorts. Again, possibly useful to the babe-in-the-woods, but to anyone else, nothing more than filler to take up space and make the book seem longer than it really is.

Editorial Review:

Sex and the Japanese provides a broad look at the changing concepts of sexuality in Japanese culture. From the days of concubines and geishas to the present, sex and sexuality in Japan have been more openly discussed and available than in the West-due for the most part to Shinto, the native religion of Japan that recognizes, celebrates and respects the sensual side of life.