Publications of Note

Translating Japanese Texts. By Kirsten Refsing and Lita Lundquist. Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen, 2009. 195 pages. 34.00, paper. This is both a practical textbook and a guide for professional translators. "We aim to present a short introduction to the main problems of translation, in casu between Japanese and English, and to provide descriptive tools for identifying such problems and to point to strategies for their solution" (pp. 5–6). The three parts of the book consider the source text, units of translation, and the target text, respectively.

The Edo Inheritance. By Tokugawa Tsunenari; translated by Tokugawa Iehiro. International House of Japan, Tokyo, 2009. xii, 200 pages. In his description on the dust jacket, Donald Richie says, "Here a descendant [of the family of Tokugawa shoguns] offers a revisionist history that de-demonizes an era sometimes said to constitute Japan's dark ages and discovers a harbinger." The work was originally published in Japanese as Edo no idenshi (PHP Kenkyujo, 2007).

Crucible Bodies: Postwar Japanese Performance from Brecht to the New Millennium. By Tadashi Uchino. Seagull Books, Calcutta, 2009. viii, 212 pages. 94.95, cloth; 29.95, paper (distributed by the University of Chicago Press). This collection of previously published essays is about "bodies-in-performance" witnessed by the author over the last 10 years, mainly in Tokyo. The topics of the essays range from Bertolt Brecht and Greek drama to "Japaneseness," intercultural performance, Murakami Takashi, nationalism, and "beautiful" and "cute."

Le monde comme horizon: État des sciences humaines et sociales au Japan. Edited by Anne Gonon and Christian Galan. Éditions Philippe Picquier, Arles, 2008. 387 pages. €19.00. This is a collection of essays in philosophy, history, cultural anthropology, and sociology. For each discipline, there is an overview essay about the field and then an essay focused on one particular Japanese scholar (Yamawaki Naoshi, Amino Yoshihiko, Funabiki Takeo, and Nishihara Kazuhisa, respectively). Contributions are by Jacques Joly, Erick Laurent, and the editors.

À la croisée du texte et de l'image: paysages cryptiques et poèmes cachés (ashide) dans le Japon classique et medieval. By Claire-Akiko Brisset. Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Japonaises, Paris, 2009. 545 pages. Ashide was a style of calligraphy in the Heian period in which the lines and shapes of the kana syllabary were rendered as pictures of elements of waterside scenery (e.g., reeds, rocks, waterfowl). Brisset's work describes this style and how it was used in Japanese art.