Viewed Sideways: Writings on Culture and Style in Contemporary Japan

Donald Richie

Sep 2011 · Stone Bridge Press

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"An indispensable guide to Japanese cinema and culture." —Library Journal

"Viewed any which way, Japan through the eyes of Donald Richie is an interesting and rewarding place to read about. This is...yet another reminder that he is a master of the short essay and a thought-provoking guide to his subject." —Jeff Kingston, The Japan Times

This definitive new collection of essays by the writer Time calls "the dean of arts critics in Japan" ranges from Kyogen drama to the sex shows of Shinjuku, from film and Buddhism to Butoh and retro rock 'n' roll, from wasei eigo (Japanese/English) to mizushobai, the fine art of pleasing. Spanning some fifty years, these thirty-seven essays—most never anthologized before—offer cross-sections of Japan's enormous cultural power. They reflect the unique perspective of a man attempting to understand his adopted home.

The writings of Donald Richie—film critic, reviewer, novelist, and essayist—have influenced generations of Japan observers around the world.

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Over the past sixty years, no one has written more, or more artfully, about Japan than Donald Richie. Arriving as a young merchant seaman in Okinawa in 1946, Richie set out to observe Japan and to set down his witness in clear, expressive language. The result is over 40 volumes of fiction and nonfiction, scores of essays and speeches, and hundreds of book and film and arts reviews. He is acknowledged as one of the world's authorities on Japanese cinema, especially the work of Yasujiro Ozu. His Inland Sea is one of a few classic expatriate treatments of Japan and is considered one of the finest travel memoirs of the 20th century. Richie is formerly curator of film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Of him Susan Sontag wrote that he “writes about Japan with an unrivaled range, acuity and wit.”