General Reading
Lost Japan: last glimpse of beautiful Japan, by Alex Kerr
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden – this classic has also been made into a movie
Meshi by Katherine Tamiko Arguile
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Understanding Japan: A Cultural History, by Mark Ravina (audiobook: a course by The Smithsonian)
Anything by Haruki Murakami
Lists of books to read before travelling to Japan are here and here
Lists of recommended books set in Japan are here and here
Books by Japanese authors are here
General Viewing
Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, Season 2/Episode 7 – Tokyo
Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, Season 8/Episode 6 – Back to Tokyo
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (2023): Netflix series. Two inseparable friends move to Kyoto to chase their dreams of becoming maiko, but decide to pursue different passions while living under the same roof.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi – documentary on the legendary 85 year old sushi chef
Lost in Translation (2003): set in Tokyo with a brief stint in Kyoto
Perfect Days (2023): A gentle and poetic journey, featuring a cleaner of public toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. A moving reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world.
Memoirs of a Geisha – based on the classic book by Arthur Golden
Midnight Diner – focuses on a late night diner in Shinjuku, Tokyo, its mysterious chef known only as ‘Master’, and the lives of his customers. (Netflix)
Shall we dance (1996) – be sure to watch the Japanese original, not the remake
Tampopo
When the Last Sword is Drawn (2003): a Samurai joins a notorious clan known as the Shinsengumi samurai (an elite group of swordsmen sworn to defend the shogunate) and is torn apart by conflicting loyalties to family, clan and country. Set in Kyoto during the dramatic period of the fall of the Shogun.
Textiles and Handcrafts
Beyond the Tanabata Bridge: Traditional Japanese Textiles – William Jay Rathbun
Boro – David Sorgato
Cotton and Indigo from Japan – Teresa Duryea Wong
Country Textiles of Japan – Reiko Mochinaga Brandon
Craftland Japan – Uwe Rottgen and Katharina Zetti
Intuitive Thread – The Beauty of Process in Japanese Textiles by Eloise Rapp, an Australian designer, researcher and educator specialising in textile design. Link to the article in Garland Magazine is HERE
Japanese Country Textiles – Anna Jackson
Kimono Vanishing Traditions: Japanese Textiles of the 20th Century – Cheryl Imperatore and Paul MacLardy
Made in Japan – Shinya Maezaki and Masako Yamamoto
Riches from Rags – Saki-Ori & Other Recycling Traditions in Japanese Rural Clothing – San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum
Structure and Surface: Contemporary Japanese Textiles – Cara McCarty and Matilda McQuaid
Textiles of Japan: The Thomas Murray Collection – Thomas Murray
The Beauty of Everyday Things – Soetsu Yanagi
The Stories Clothes Tell: Voices of Working Class Japan, by Tatsuichi Horikiri
Utsuwa: Japanese objects for everyday use – Kylie Johnson and Tiffany Johnson
Wabi Sabi: Japanese wisdom for a perfectly imperfect life – Beth Kempton
Japanese Gardens
Japanese Gardens: Kyoto – Akira Nakata
Japanese Stone Gardens: origins, meaning, form – Stephen Mansfield
Shinrin-Yoku: the Art and Science of Forest-Bathing – Dr Qing Li
Zen Gardens and Temples of Kyoto – John Dougill
Cultural Dance & Performance Arts
Butoh: Cradling Empty Space – Vangeline. Approaching the avant-garde Japanese performance art form of butoh from a cross-cultural, gender studies, and scientific perspective, award-winning artist and teacher Vangeline brings a fresh look at this postmodern dance form. With origins in modern dance, French mime, and the surrealist movement, this fascinating postmodern dance genre is often thought of as mysterious and is frequently misunderstood.
Butoh: Metamorphic Dance and Global Alchemy – Sondra Fraleigh. Both a refraction of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a protest against Western values, butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that emerged in the aftermath of World War II. Through highly descriptive, thoughtful, and emotional prose, Fraleigh traces the transformative alchemy of this metaphoric dance form by studying the international movement inspired by its aesthetic mixtures. Employing intellectual and aesthetic perspectives to reveal the origins, major figures, and international development of the dance, Fraleigh documents the range and variety of butoh artists around the world with first-hand knowledge of butoh performances from 1973 to 2008. With a blend of scholarly research and direct experience, she also signifies the unfinished nature of butoh and emphasizes its capacity to effect spiritual transformation and bridge cultural differences.
Butoh: Transcript of an interview with Mr Morishita, a Butoh researcher https://performingarts.jpf.go.jp/E/art_interview/1008/1.html
Japanese Folding Fans, their History and Origin. Articles are HERE and HERE. Folding fans are used in Nihon Buyo, Samurai Kenbu, Mikomai, Noh, Kyogen and other traditional dance and theatre performances.
Kabuki – history and overview – video
Kamaitachi – Masahiko Taniguchi. This legendary photo book was produced in collaboration with Tatsumi Hijikata, dancer/choreographer and the founder of the dance performance art called Butoh.
Noh as Living Art: Inside Japan’s Oldest Theatrical Tradition – Yasuda Noboru. For centuries noh has served as a window into the Japanese classics and as a means of spiritual and physical cultivation, not only for the samurai class in past centuries, but also for commoners. Noh as Living Art provides a quick, standard history of this form and the singular contributions that Zeami and his father Kan’ami made to lifting it out of a popular, but low-class, entertainment into a high art patronized by Japan’s elites. Along the way, Yasuda suggests that noh served as a civilizing influence particularly for Japan’s warrior class, noting how it was a successful “attempt to redirect the energies of the samurai from warfare to dance”. Japan, after all, enjoyed 250 years of peace under the Tokugawa rule.
Odori performance – video
Sensational Knowledge: Embodying Culture through Japanese Dance – Tomie Hahn (Wesleyan University Press, 2007) ‘An ethnography offering a peek into some of the everyday life at the Tachibana school of Nihon Buyo in order to convey the sensitivities of the culturally constructed process of teaching’
The Secrets Of Noh Masks – Michishige Udaka, Shuichi Yamagata, Ruth Ozeki. Noh master, Michishige Udaka (the only living actor to continue to make masks while still performing and teaching) presents 32 of the 200+ masks he has created, accompanied by revelatory text about the masks and the simple yet nuanced ancient dramatic art of Noh.
Note: The above list is by no means exhaustive. If you’d like to recommend a book or movie that you’ve enjoyed or found informative and inspiring, please email us at retreatrecreate@gmail.com
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