Description
Book SynopsisAn introduction to Japanese history and culture. This fourth edition includes expanded sections on numerous topics, among which are samurai values, Zen Buddhism, the tea ceremony, Confucianism in the Tokugawa period, the story of the 47 ronin, and mass culture in contemporary times.
Trade ReviewThough many books on Japanese culture have appeared in recent years, none has yet matched Varley's for the combined breadth and depth of detail and for his skill at conjuring up the zeitgeist of each period of Japanese history.-
New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies;
""This is a masterpiece of much in little space. It neatly surveys over 2,000 years of the arts, religion, and cultural peculiarities (e.g., the tea ceremony) of one of the most cultivated of nations. It leaves virtually no major individual, religious sect, genre and style of visual art, form of literary expression, variety of theater, or influence of extra-Japanese origin unconsidered. It nonetheless admirably retains its focus, ignoring the temptation to relate history that doesn't impinge on cultural developments. What's more, Varley writes superbly lucid prose. . . . A superior one-volume introduction to Japanese culture.""-
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