Stephen Vlastos, ed. Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).Finally - FINALLY - a book of the stripe I have been looking for: hithertofore, all the books promising discussion of 'myths' or 'invented traditions' have been sorely lacking. I'm still on the hunt for a volume that ( Read more... )

Mariko Asano Tamanoi, Under the Shadow of Nationalism: Politics and Poetics of Rural Japanese Women (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998).

Successful in parts, and I suppose in tracing some threads of thought regarding rural 'Japanese' women from the Meiji to the (relative) present; I wish there had been more delivery on the promise of ( Read more... )

Peter B. High, The Imperial Screen: Japanese Film Culture in the Fifteen Years' War, 1931-1945 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003).

This is essentially the English language work on Japanese film during the '30s and '40s. Actually, having talked to (Chinese) film people, they will usually say something to the effect of 'oh yes, the book ( Read more... )