[Book Reviews] Spooks and Sticks
One of the more illuminating books I've read on Shinto is Rev. Dr. Yukitaka Yamamoto's "Kami no Michi: The Way of the Kami". If you're looking for a guide to the details of Shinto ritual and practice, this isn't it. If you're looking to understand the community interweaving and modern revival of Shinto practice and philosophy in Japan, it's an excellent resource. It's a mostly biographical look at the life of the 96th priest of Tsubaki Grand Shrine in Japan, and covers his experiences in World War II and how they shaped his commitment to pacifism, his work rebuilding and repairing Tsubaki Grand Shrine, their deep relationship with Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba and their enshrining of the patron kami of Aikido at the shrine, and the connected web of Japanese and international businesses that have a relationship with Shinto. For a shrine that's just celebrated its 2,000th anniversary, it's a really good look at how they got there and how they carried on the tradition. There's as much surrounding the text as is actually said. I found the section on Aikido particularly interesting; four renewals out of five.
Also in the Japanese martial arts arena, Hatsumi-sensei's "Advanced Stick Fighting" was a deeply layered but occasionally puzzling book. I always have a hard time learning physical motions from stepwise diagrams in print, but the book was so well produced that I figured I'd give it a try. Despite careful attention, it is a hard go in the technique sections... they never shoot from the angles that I'd want to see. (Embedded video in the page!) I'm not sure that I learned much about staff use; I think the book will be a lot more valuable post-seminar, where I can look back and go, "Oh, *that's* what we did" and perhaps gain additional knowledge about techniques that I've seen done in person. Despite this, I still really enjoyed reading the book -- there's plenty of surrounding information about the background and context of various martial arts traditions. I was amused as anything to stumble into a quote about Zeami's "Fushikaden" (just reviewed in the last batch), and to read that ninja diets are apparently vegan. (There's a section on how Hatsumi-sensei had problems with blood sugar and a high hematocrit A1C after teaching overseas and eating Western food, and how it quickly returned to normal when he resumed his tofu-vegetables-tea "ninja diet".) The book is accessible to English-only speakers, but there's a lot of material there for those with some Japanese, and I'm sure it's richer still to those with good Japanese. There are plenty of kanji slung about that I can't yet read, and some discussion of associated concepts based on those. So, three and a half swinging jo-staffs for this one. I really want to give it more, since it was educational about bujinkan thought, but I didn't learn much about stick fighting by reading it.
I picked up a copy of the "The Fair Folk: Six Tales about the Fey" collection for the Patricia McKillip kelpie story, and although that was my favorite, several of the others are quite good as well. There's a certain amount of grit in almost all the tales, but also a large dollop of humor -- witness the modern longshoreman bachelor with a Martha Stewart would-be brownie redoing his place. Poor guy. [grin] Nothing was earthshakingly original, but the stories are short enough that even if you don't happen to like one of them (I was unfond of one), it's not that long of a slog until you can have a change of pace. Three and a half put-out pixies out of five.
Another gift from miss_adventure, "Japanland: A Year In Search Of Wa" was really thought-provoking for me, particularly in terms of my own future intended travel to Japan. The author, an independent Western journalist, goes to Japan for a year-long stay to make a documentary. She's a judoka, so is able to collect a host family through that connection, and they kindly offer her a place to live. However, this comes with social expectations that she finds incredibly irritating, difficult, and confining. Although she was less polite in some ways than I think I would have been in her shoes, I had a lot of empathy for that aspect of her situation. I left my *own* family when they started expecting unquestioning obedience to the parents from adult children; I don't want to give that to anyone else's family either! (In general, I do poorly with strict social hierarchies, no matter where I am on them. If I'm at the bottom, I'm gloweringly resentful, and eventually tell them where to shove it. If I'm at the top I feel horrifically guilty and keep trying to help those below me. Usually they don't appreciate it, as it makes them stick out as a target.) Sadly, I think I'm better as a outsider businesswoman tourist than I would be trying to fit in to a social structure that doesn't want me and would drive me nuts.
I had high hopes for "Celtic Ireland West of the River Shannon: A Look Back at the Rich Heritage and Dynastic Structure of the Gaelic Clans", but it didn't really engage me, and didn't have a lot of new information that I cared about. The focus is mainly on three clans located in the valley between the Shannon and the Suck, and their heritage and history. I'm sure it would be great if you were a member of one of those families interested in your history, but I'm not. It pretty much ignored most of the rest of Connaught in favor of that most eastern part of the province. (I wanted to read about Galway and Clew Bay more than I did about who was making alliances with which Norman or British lords in Roscommon. Next time, I should get a Galway-specific book, I guess.) I also didn't find the speculation about which tribes were descended from which wave of invaders particularly interesting -- in only one place was there an actual genetic study to back it up, rather than cites regarding physical characteristics of people from Romans and Greeks who never even saw the region. It just reminded me of the creepy "well, MY tribe is descended from the great Speculative Bullshit, and therefore WE are the real Gael and all y'all are six-fathered outsider mutts!" jerks. (The author doesn't say that himself, but it's often been used as a divisive wedge in Celtic culture, so I'm sensitive to things that might feed it.) Three gallowglasses out of five... it's well footnoted, I just wasn't interested.
I read my first Tony Hillerman novel on the recommendation of kyra_ojosverdes, who knew of my fondness for mysteries. I read the second, "The Ghostway", out of a deliberate desire to learn more about the Navajo Ghost Way ceremony, about which there is little in print. Normally reading fiction to learn about nonfiction topics is something that I approach with caution, but when it's one of the only things easily accessible on a topic, you pack your grains of salt and go with what you've got. Jim Chee was again a personable and likeable protagonist, the murder mystery was interesting and not too predictable, and I enjoyed the cultural setting and its drive-by educationalness. I'm sure it's not perfect, but it gave me more of a feel for context than I had before, as well as being a pretty good mystery novel. Four death hogans out of five.
Also in the Japanese martial arts arena, Hatsumi-sensei's "Advanced Stick Fighting" was a deeply layered but occasionally puzzling book. I always have a hard time learning physical motions from stepwise diagrams in print, but the book was so well produced that I figured I'd give it a try. Despite careful attention, it is a hard go in the technique sections... they never shoot from the angles that I'd want to see. (Embedded video in the page!) I'm not sure that I learned much about staff use; I think the book will be a lot more valuable post-seminar, where I can look back and go, "Oh, *that's* what we did" and perhaps gain additional knowledge about techniques that I've seen done in person. Despite this, I still really enjoyed reading the book -- there's plenty of surrounding information about the background and context of various martial arts traditions. I was amused as anything to stumble into a quote about Zeami's "Fushikaden" (just reviewed in the last batch), and to read that ninja diets are apparently vegan. (There's a section on how Hatsumi-sensei had problems with blood sugar and a high hematocrit A1C after teaching overseas and eating Western food, and how it quickly returned to normal when he resumed his tofu-vegetables-tea "ninja diet".) The book is accessible to English-only speakers, but there's a lot of material there for those with some Japanese, and I'm sure it's richer still to those with good Japanese. There are plenty of kanji slung about that I can't yet read, and some discussion of associated concepts based on those. So, three and a half swinging jo-staffs for this one. I really want to give it more, since it was educational about bujinkan thought, but I didn't learn much about stick fighting by reading it.
I picked up a copy of the "The Fair Folk: Six Tales about the Fey" collection for the Patricia McKillip kelpie story, and although that was my favorite, several of the others are quite good as well. There's a certain amount of grit in almost all the tales, but also a large dollop of humor -- witness the modern longshoreman bachelor with a Martha Stewart would-be brownie redoing his place. Poor guy. [grin] Nothing was earthshakingly original, but the stories are short enough that even if you don't happen to like one of them (I was unfond of one), it's not that long of a slog until you can have a change of pace. Three and a half put-out pixies out of five.
Another gift from miss_adventure, "Japanland: A Year In Search Of Wa" was really thought-provoking for me, particularly in terms of my own future intended travel to Japan. The author, an independent Western journalist, goes to Japan for a year-long stay to make a documentary. She's a judoka, so is able to collect a host family through that connection, and they kindly offer her a place to live. However, this comes with social expectations that she finds incredibly irritating, difficult, and confining. Although she was less polite in some ways than I think I would have been in her shoes, I had a lot of empathy for that aspect of her situation. I left my *own* family when they started expecting unquestioning obedience to the parents from adult children; I don't want to give that to anyone else's family either! (In general, I do poorly with strict social hierarchies, no matter where I am on them. If I'm at the bottom, I'm gloweringly resentful, and eventually tell them where to shove it. If I'm at the top I feel horrifically guilty and keep trying to help those below me. Usually they don't appreciate it, as it makes them stick out as a target.) Sadly, I think I'm better as a outsider businesswoman tourist than I would be trying to fit in to a social structure that doesn't want me and would drive me nuts.
I had high hopes for "Celtic Ireland West of the River Shannon: A Look Back at the Rich Heritage and Dynastic Structure of the Gaelic Clans", but it didn't really engage me, and didn't have a lot of new information that I cared about. The focus is mainly on three clans located in the valley between the Shannon and the Suck, and their heritage and history. I'm sure it would be great if you were a member of one of those families interested in your history, but I'm not. It pretty much ignored most of the rest of Connaught in favor of that most eastern part of the province. (I wanted to read about Galway and Clew Bay more than I did about who was making alliances with which Norman or British lords in Roscommon. Next time, I should get a Galway-specific book, I guess.) I also didn't find the speculation about which tribes were descended from which wave of invaders particularly interesting -- in only one place was there an actual genetic study to back it up, rather than cites regarding physical characteristics of people from Romans and Greeks who never even saw the region. It just reminded me of the creepy "well, MY tribe is descended from the great Speculative Bullshit, and therefore WE are the real Gael and all y'all are six-fathered outsider mutts!" jerks. (The author doesn't say that himself, but it's often been used as a divisive wedge in Celtic culture, so I'm sensitive to things that might feed it.) Three gallowglasses out of five... it's well footnoted, I just wasn't interested.
I read my first Tony Hillerman novel on the recommendation of kyra_ojosverdes, who knew of my fondness for mysteries. I read the second, "The Ghostway", out of a deliberate desire to learn more about the Navajo Ghost Way ceremony, about which there is little in print. Normally reading fiction to learn about nonfiction topics is something that I approach with caution, but when it's one of the only things easily accessible on a topic, you pack your grains of salt and go with what you've got. Jim Chee was again a personable and likeable protagonist, the murder mystery was interesting and not too predictable, and I enjoyed the cultural setting and its drive-by educationalness. I'm sure it's not perfect, but it gave me more of a feel for context than I had before, as well as being a pretty good mystery novel. Four death hogans out of five.