Publications of Note

Publishing the Stage: Print and Performance in Early Modern Japan. Edited by Keller Kimbrough and Satoko Shimazaki. Center for Asian Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2011. ix, 247 pages. This volume features expanded versions of 11 papers presented at a March 2011 conference devoted to exploring the confluence of theater and publishing in Edo- and early Meiji-period Japan. PDF copies of individual chapters, as well as information for ordering copies of the paperback book, are available at http://cas.colorado.edu/index.php/events/event-publications.

Loanwords in Japanese. By Mark Irwin. John Benjamins Publishing Co., Amsterdam, 2011. xix, 276 pages. $143.00. This work considers the history, phonology, morphology, and orthography of Japanese loanwords. It includes indexes of donor words and loanwords. The description on the back cover of the book indicates it is “the first monograph in a Western language to offer a systematic and coherent overview of the vast number of words borrowed in Japanese since the mid-16th century.”

Establishing the Revolutionary: An Introduction to New Religions in Japan. Edited by Birgit Staemmler and Ulrich Dehn. Bunka-Wenhua (Tübingen East Asian Studies), Vol. 20 (2011); distributed by LIT Verlag, Münster. ix, 397 pages. €29.90, paper. “The aim of this book is . . . to provide students and non-specialists alike with an up-to date, academically sound and comprehensive overview over new religions in Japan” (p. vii). After an outline of “general facts and structures” of new religions, the case studies consider Ōmoto, Seichō no Ie, Sekai Kyūseikyō, Shinnyo-en, Sōka Gakkai, Risshō Kōsei-kai, Sekai Mahikari Bunmei Kyōdan and Sūkyō no Mahikari, Kōfuku no Kagaku, Aum Shinrikyō, and Chino Shōhō and the Pana-Wave Laboratory.

Living Spirit: Literature and Resurgence in Okinawa, special issue of Mānoa. Edited by Frank Stewart and Katsunori Yamazato. University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, 2011. xii, 282 pages. $20.00, paper. This is a collection of “extraordinary literary works from the Ryūkyūs, most of which have never been translated into English, or are newly translated for this volume. The selections range from the oldest poetry born in the islands to contemporary prose and poetry” (p. vii). Also included are a series of photographs by Higa Yasuo which record disappearing cultural practices.

Toward Dusk and Other Stories. By Yoshiyuki Junnosuke; translated by Andrew Clare. Kurodahan Press, Fukuoka, 2011. xxvii, 219 pages. ¥1,600, paper. Beginning with a 20-page introduction to Yoshiyuki by James Dorsey, this volume contains translations of ten short works that examine a wide range of human interaction.

The Body as a Screen: Japanese Art Photography of the 1990s. By Lena Fritsch. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, 2011. 372 pages. €49.80, paper. This Ph.D. thesis seeks “to examine the human body as a motif in Japanese photographic art of the 1990s, with particular reference to socio-cultural issues” (p. 15). The three parts of the work examine “The Japanese Context,” “Case Studies: Ten Photographic Artworks of the 1990s,” and “The Body as a Screen: Readings of the Analysed Artworks.”

Japan’s Shrinking Regions in the 21st Century: Contemporary Responses to Depopulation and Socioeconomic Decline. By Peter Matanle and Anthony S. Rausch, with the Shrinking Regions Research Group. Cambria Press, Amherst, N.Y., 2011. xxvii, 530 pages. $139.99. With origins in a 2008 workshop, this book is, “first, an examination and evaluation of the contemporary demographic and socioeconomic decline of Japan’s non-metropolitan rural regions and, second, an analysis of the responses to shrinkage that have been developed thus far at the national, regional, community, and individual levels” (p. 4). Rather than discrete chapters by many authors, it is “a properly coauthored monograph” with its many authors collectively named the Shrinking Regions Research Group.

Histoire du théâtre classique japonais. By Jean-Jacques Tschudin. Anacharsis, Toulouse, 2011. 506 pages. €28.00, paper. Of encyclopedic proportions, this book traces the history of classical Japanese theater from its origins to its position in contemporary society. It considers composers, texts, costumes, masks, makeup, genres, actors, puppets, repertoire, and how all these changed over time.

Ukiyo-e Caricatures. Edited by Noriko Brandl...