"A Tokyo Romance: a Memoir" by Ian Buruma (Penguin Press)

ISBN: 978-1-101-98141-2

Over the years, and especially going back and forth from Japan, I have read many books by fellow Americans and some British citizens on their time spent in Japan.  A lot of them are crap.  The ones that stand out are the ones that wrote about Japanese cinema and literature.  The girls or guys who went there to get a job as an English teacher are usually not that interesting, but alas, those who are devoted to a specific Japanese artist or thinker, then yes I very much enjoy that type of book.  There are two writers that I love when they write about Japan - Donald Richie and the other fellow is Ian Buruma. 

Buruma wrote a fascinating book called "Behind the Mask," which is an excellent book on some of the darker elements of Japanese literature and the arts.  His new book "A Tokyo Romance: A Memoir" accounts for his time spent in Japan to study cinema, but mostly the theater arts of Kara Juro, an avant-garde playwright, with his theater group in Tokyo. Similar to temperament but not precisely in style as Terayama Suiji.  Buruma knew both men, and it's his unique point-of-view, due that he was a foreigner, being involved with Kara's theater group.   A lot of foreign writers have written about the oddness of one being part of Japanese society, or living in Japan, and finding it alienating.  But then again I think that's the nature of the Western fellow or girl.  We're raised to be apart than together, and therefore lies the situation of such countries in Asia and elsewhere. 

What makes this book unique for me is that I share Buruma's interest in the Japanese arts, and spending time there as well, I can identify in what he writes about, in regards of living there and appreciating the same sort of artists/writers.  Also, the book is full of fascinating figures, some know and some entirely new to me.  Donald Richie is a writer I know quite well through his writings in various articles (mostly in the Japan Times) as well as reading his books on Japanese cinema.  His Journals are without a doubt, the classic work by him.   He is a guy who knew everyone from Ozu to Mishima, and also a gay man living in Tokyo.   His insights into the Japanese culture, but also his somewhat detached views are excellent observations of life around him.  In that sense, he reminds me of Paul Bowles' travel writing.  Buruma shares the same interest as Richie, and is also, a fantastic prose writer.  His commentary on Richie, who sort of led him through Tokyo when he first arrived, is a fascinating tour of the metropolis.  The second personality of interest is the Actress Yamaguchi Yoshiko.  She started her career during the war years making a propaganda film in China, where she was identified as a Chinese actress.  But alas, no, she's Japanese and eventually went on to star in the American Film "House Of Bamboo" directed by Sam Fuller.  The book doesn't mention it, but she was also married to the artist Isamu Noguchi. Yamaguchi eventually became a member of the Japanese parliament for 18 years and had a TV show where she focused on and interviewed such characters as Mao, Idi Amin, and Kim Il-sung.  

"A Tokyo Romance" is a book full of fascinating people, and Buruma himself is interesting because he is also an individual who is half-Dutch and half-English, so he's very much a bi-cultural, or maybe at this point, since he lives in New York City now, a tri-cultural figure.  With his background, he has an understanding of what it's like to be in a culture that is very singular in focus and design.   A classic book on Japan, but also a rare text in English on the world of Terayama and Kara Juro.  

Choukitsu Kurumatani's "The Paradise Bird Tattoo (or, attempted double-suicide)"

I never heard of Kurumatani before I picked this book up at the Downtown Kinokuniya Bookstore here in Los Angeles (excellent bookstore by the way).  I wanted to read something new by a Japanese writer, and I didn't want to go down the thriller or horror route - which now seems to be new trend in contemporary translated-into-English Japanese literature.

"The Paradise Bird Tattoo" is very much of a quiet modern noir novel that deals with an individual who is slowly losing it in contemporary Japan.   He's an office bee worker, where he gets no pleasure, and decides to go on to a world that has no beginning or ending.  A vagrant of sorts. Most of the narrative takes place in a low-rent apartment building where the leading character gets involved with the neighbors.  All either a little bit off or criminal minded.

Kurumatani captures the quiet despair of the little guy who is sort of floating on the tide of human waste and disappointment.  While reading the book I thought of the films by Jim Jarmusch, because the characters float in and out of the narrative, while having one main figure staying there for the whole ride (narrative).  There is also a touch of Kafka, but without the humor.  Interesting writer, and I will keep him in mind for the future.

Donald Richie

I woke up this morning hearing that Donald Richie had passed away.  One of the few, if not only, voices that expresses Japanese pop and historical cultural into English.  Richie was very much the door entrance to Japan, and all of its peculiar and wonderful cultural adventures that makes that country a spiritual as well as a consumer's sense of heaven.  But of course with heaven, there is always hell around the corner as well.   And Richie exposed and wrote about the culture as a living daily lifestyle.

He's mostly known for his superb books on Japanese cinema.  One can argue that if not for Richie's critical writings, we would not hear of Akira Kurosawa or Yasujiro Ozu in the West.  He organized film retrospectives for these filmmakers, as well as translating the subtitles for the English speaking world.  

Also the great beauty of his work is that he mostly focused on post-war Japan, and he had a huge net where he captured so many aspects of Japanese culture - both good, bad, great, weird, and always fascinating. 

Here are some of his books that is a must-read for anyone with even the slightest interest in the subject matter:

One of the great documents of life in Post-War Tokyo.  Richie knew everyone who was important in Post-War culture. Both in Japan and outside of Japan.  When Susan Sontag first came to Tokyo, the first person she made contact with is Richie.   For the 'interested' Westerner, Richie was the bridge between the two cultures.  He knew the high and the low in equal measures.  Also his personal observations on Kurosawa, Ozu, Oshima, and the Japanese pop cultural world is exposed in his journals.

My first introduction to the works of Ozu.  What intrigued me was not only a book on this obscure (at the time of its printing) filmmaker, but Richie's total understanding of his work and how he conveyed that into words.  Ozu seems simple, but there is nothing simple about his work, and Richie can put his work in a context with respect to modern Japan, old Japanese aesthetics, and which would make sense to an American reader.  One of the great film books.

Richie's "Inland Sea" is one of the first great travel journals regarding a specific region in Japan.  He captures the frustration, the humor, and the adventure of going out and discovering a new world (at the time).  Essential travel literature.

Probably the most important book on Japanese cinema.  He wrote it with Joseph L. Anderson, and for the most, the first introduction to Japanese film and its stars and directors.  Another essential film title for one's library.

But beyond books on Japanese cinema and being an experimental filmmaker, Richie also wrote about the Japanese tattoo, Japanese cooking, eroticism, and many book reviews for his great column in the Japan Times.  And without a doubt, he wrote highly personal books about his favorite city Tokyo, that to this day, are the best observations on that metropolis.  

For an overall of his work, check this out:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Richie

Here are two films by Donald Richie:

Donald Richie's film "Boy With Cat" (1966)

Donald Richie's film "Five Philosophical Fables (Part One)

"Five Philosophical Fables (Part Two)

"Five Philosophical Fables (Part Three)

"Five Philosophical Fables (Part Four)

"Five Philosophical Fables (Part Five)

Shinichi Mori 森 進

I found this album by Shinichi Mori (森 進) at a local record store.   The cover is great and so is the music inside.  Hardcore Enka that takes no prisoners.  Mori Shinichi is a major singer in Japan, and is known for his downbeat songs about Tokyo bar life.  The romance of the whiskey mizu/water or that glass of sake too many.  

Perhaps Shinichi Mori's masterpiece?  I found this vinyl yesterday.  It's his blues album or is it a blue album?  Nevertheless one gently goes into Shinjuku, with no hope of getting back.

Lun*na Menoh's Recent Exhibition in Japan

Lun*na Menoh just had an exhibition in Japan, and this is her most recent artworks.  And keep in mind that everything in her part of the show is made out of Dirty White Men's collars.  The other artist at this exhibition is the painter Adam Lee Miller.  The exhibition took place in Saitama, Japan at C.A.J. Artist Residency.

Paintings on the Wall by Adam Lee Miller

Paintings on the Wall by Adam Lee Miller.  Everything else by Lun*na Menoh

TamTam Books' Tribute to Shuji Terayama (Part One)

Shuji Terayama is probably one of the most interesting figures to come out of Post-War Japan. He’s up there with Yukio Mishima, but I don’t think one could separate Terayama from his time period.

At the time Tokyo arts were going big-time in the sixties. A lot of great stuff was being produced during this period, and Terayama was one of the great figures of that era. He was a writer, playwright, filmmaker, poet, visual artist, graphic artist and essayist.

For information on him in English, go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuji_Terayama

Here are some of his artworks and images.













Here are some of his films. And don't be afraid of the language, they're visual treats. Trust me on this!


Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Excerpt 1) (1971)


Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Excerpt 2) (1971)


Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Excerpt) 1971


Movie Guide For Young People Blue Screen (1974) A masterpiece!
Trailer for "To Die in the Country (1974)


A still from one of his films


A shrine to Shuji Terayamam