Book Review: Samurai Swords, A Collector's Guide to Japanese Swords

I mentioned a long while back that I was growing interested in Nihontou (Nee-hon-toh) 日本刀, or "Japanese swords", and possibly collecting them as I do kimono.

However (you sword collectors out there can stop laughing! ;) ), my naive enthusiasm was squashed as I soon learned actual antique katana, etc. prices make kimono look cheap!

I knew I wanted to learn more anyway, but haven't had a chance until I recently ran across the 2009 book Samurai Swords: A Collector's Guide to Japanese Swordsat my local Barnes and Noble ($14.99).

Written by Clive Sinclaire, a collector of 40 years, kendo instructor, and a Chairman of the To-ken (Sword) Society of Great Britain, this book is a densely-packed introduction to the world of the Japanese sword. He covers history, construction, preservation, sword etiquette (did you know you are supposed to bow to a sword you're about to examine?), and a variety of interesting facts.

For those of you interested in kimono, I would compare this book with Liza Dalby's seminal work Kimono. It's a ton of information written in a half-casual, half-scholarly style that gives you the basics but also allows you to delve much deeper.

One of the most interesting parts for me wasn't in the text: it was the flipped mirror image photographs of the bare blades (no guards or wrapping) of various antique swords. Beyond making me laugh at my $50 knock-off I take with me to kimono-dressing panels, the swords are gorgeous and intriguing in their simple, deadly beauty. It reminded me of looking at prototypes of cars: all curves, metal and sheen.

Despite this beauty, however, Sinclaire is quick to point out exactly what they were meant for and keeps a fairly neutral, even-handed tone throughout the book, giving more facts than opinion and not sinking into the "Mystical Magical Japan" fluff some Western authors fall prey to.

An unusual example from the history section: To test a newly made Japanese sword several hundred years ago, an official tester used it on either living convicts or the bodies of convicts who had been given the death penalty. The results of the test (for example, how many bodies the sword made it through) were inscribed on the blade as a ranking system of sorts.

On a less gruesome note: if you've ever wondered, like I have after seeing the terms tossed around, what the difference between a katana and a tachi is, that's here too. Generally speaking, a tachi is a longer, lighter sword meant to be worn and used one-handed on horseback, slung with the cutting edge down, and a katana is worn as part of a man's clothing, worn with the scabbard pushed through the side of the obi with the cutting edge uppermost.

(As a note, my copy says "A Collector's Guide" while the ones I'm finding online are "Practical Guide", but the ISBN numbers are the same: ISBN 10 0-7858-2563-0, so I'm guessing it's just different cover runs.)

Book Review: Okimono Kimono

When I do kimono panels at anime conventions, my goal is to introduce kimono and traditional culture to fans of pop Japanese culture in a fun yet informative way.

Next time I do one, I'm definitely going to recommend the 2010 English translation of CLAMP manga artist and kimono enthusiast Mokona's 2007 book Okimono Kimono. It's a great, lightweight introduction to kimono, which respects the garment's cultural importance but mostly focuses on it as a living garment worn with individual style and creativity.
  

I received my copy today, and had a lot of fun looking through Mokona's ideas and ensembles. The book features a collection of kimono Mokona designed herself, 17 coordinates created from vintage kimono and pieces, an interview with her and Onuki Ami (Puffy AmiYumi), a photoshoot, accessory ideas, a mini-comic and more. The only thing I was hoping for more of were illustrations like the one on the cover, but that's the only full illustration in the whole book beyond the mini-comic.

Overall, I found it a great book to get anyone started on what kimono are in a fun, unintimidating way. :)

One note, however: If you are a serious collector used to books like the scholarly Kimono by Liza Dalby or someone looking for detailed kitsuke (kimono wearing) advice, this is not the book for you. There are a lot of great photos and ideas for coordinates, but beyond a few tidbits here and there no hard facts about kimono history and proper kitsuke. In fact, Mokona actually suggests breaking "standard" rules in a few cases, for example, by breaking out summer kimono earlier in the calendar than usual and making collars out of tenegui towels.

CLAMP's New Kimono Book: Okimono Kimono

CLAMP is a hugely popular and influential force in the manga/anime world, the creators behind a ton of titles like xxxHolic, Tsubasa Reservior Chronicle, Chobits, Cardcaptor Sakura, RG Veda, Tokyo Babylon, X/1999, Magic Knight Rayearth and more.

Member Mokona is also a fan of kimono, and so "Okimono Kimono" was born. A mixture of kimono-themed illustrations, interviews and more from CLAMP, this book has been available in Japanese for awhile but is due out later this month in English. The English-version release date seems to vary from site to site, but Barnes and Noble has a member-price special running right now where you can preorder it for $8.76, a nice chunk off the regular $12.99 price, with a release date of March 24.

Along with Yoshitaka Amano, CLAMP was one of my biggest artistic influences as a teen, so it's pretty cool to see them doing a kimono book. I'm pre-ordering my copy today and will do a review once I've finished it. In the meantime, here's the official description from Borders' site:

"Here's an exciting and charming addition to the CLAMP collection of works! CLAMP artist Mokona loves the art of traditional Japanese kimono. In fact, she designs kimono and kimono accessories herself and shares her love in Okimono Kimono, a fun and lavishly illustrated book full of drawings and illustrations, interviews (including an interview with Ami of the J-pop duo Puffy AmiYumi!), and even short manga stories from the CLAMP artists."

And here's a shot of CLAMP at Anime Expo 2006, courtesy of John (Phoenix) Brown, with Mokona in kimono on the right. Very cute!

Book Review: The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori

Mark Ravina's The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori (2005) follows one of the last samurai folk heroes in Japan, the leader of the Satsuma Rebellion (1877) and a hugely influential samurai in the chaos of the mid-late 1800s. It follows Saigo's rise from a low-ranking samurai tax clerk to Imperial adviser and finally national folk hero dying on the battlefield, hopelessly outnumbered by forces sent from the government he helped shape.

If you saw Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai, Ken Watanabe's Katsumoto character is based very loosely on Takamori: a powerful samurai unhappy with the changing times and the government but who, at the same time, has a worshipful, reverent view of the Emperor himself and strong moral ideals.

I picked this book up at my local library as part of my "learn more about samurai" goal, not knowing much about Japanese political history. It is definitely a scholarly text, with a lot of fine details, but written engagingly enough that I was able to read the entire book without losing interest.

One interesting note is that while I knew the Meiji government stripped the daimyo (lead samurai lords) of their titles and such, I never realized how brutally swift they were about it until this book: some of the main lords were called in for a meeting in the capital, not being told what it was about. When the meeting started, they were told that their ancestral titles of centuries, status, money, and lands were being taken from them, forever, as of that moment.

Another noteworthy cultural detail was the "Mito School" philosophy: named after the feudal region it came from, this way of thinking said that not only was Japan unique, it was literally the land of the gods and sacred. Saigo himself bought heavily into this idea, and felt it was worth learning Western technology not because it was desirable in itself, but for the express purpose of kicking Westerners out of Japan and preserving the sanctity of the country.

In general, if you're a casual reader, this is probably not the book for you. But if you want a very detailed look at one of the most famous samurai of his time and possibly ever, along with the unique circumstances that shaped his world, it's an excellent book written in a clear, objective voice and worth a read.

Book Review - Japan: Secrets from the Land of the Rising Sun

The same day I found the excellent Hiroshige print book a little while ago, I also ran across the 2009 book Japan: Secrets from the Land of the Rising Sun by Ellen Flynn and Deborah Stowe.

Unfortunately, Secrets is on the opposite end of the scale from Hiroshige. A general overview of Japan, it feels at best lazy and at worst uninformed and stereotypical.

Before I became a teacher, I used to do a small bit of graphics work at my job, and still do for fun on occasion. One of the tricks graphic designers have these days is the cheap stock photo: you can go to a handful of sites, type in "Japan" and get quality photos for your projects at absurdly low prices. They're quite useful, but only if you know what they show.

As I started reading Secrets, I began to feel the authors might be using stock photos they hadn't taken themselves, because the captions seemed needlessly vague, as if the authors themselves weren't exactly sure what the pictures showed. Sure enough, a few pages later I ran across a stock photo I'd used myself a few years ago, a very striking one of a maiko, an apprentice geisha, passing under a traditional curtain as she walks into a building.

Stock photos aren't evil, but if you're going to write a book on Japan and present yourself as an authority you've really got to know your stuff before you start using them.

The photos were also a source of some of the most annoying and misleading generalizations to be found in the book. A photo of Shinto priests, who of course are all dressed the same, is labeled with some BS about "conformity" in Japanese culture. While there is definitely pressure to conform in most parts of Japanese society, this is a completely nonsensical example of it. It'd be like taking a shot of Catholic cardinals on their way to church and saying it shows all Westerners dress the same. Again, it gives the feel the authors didn't even recognize the men were priests.

That shallow, stereotypical exoticism (Japan is magical, Japan is better than everyone else at most things, Japan is unknowable to mere Western mortals) is found elsewhere in the book, the geisha section being particularly bad. Apparently, we can "never know" if geisha today are flat-out prostitutes or not because they're hidden behind a veil of secrecy in their exotic, mystical world of secret mystery, yada yada. For anyone reading who isn't sure, it's pretty basic: geisha are NOT prostitutes. They're women and have their desires and needs, I'm sure, like any other woman, but their job is most definitely not to have sex with customers. Ten minutes of research on the part of the authors would have answered the question of prostitution.

Long story short, avoid this book like the plague unless you just want some pretty pictures to look at without any context or very basic facts to read (population, location of cities, etc.). Romanticizing a country is one thing, but doing so at the cost of facts and to the point of stereotyping is a disservice to both the country and those who would like to learn about it.

"Snow, Wave, Pine" Book Review: A Thing of Beauty

Bamboo leaves, piled high with snow, drifting across a green silk kimono. A sword guard made to look like a ring of delicate, open fans.

If you're looking for interesting, unique art or just artistic inspiration, Motoji Niwa and Sadao Hibi's Snow, Wave, Pine: Traditional Patterns in Japanese Design, a 196-page book published in 2001, is full of these sorts of luscious examples of Japanese design, with everything from wave-patterned geta (sandal) straps to a snowflake-adorned box for smokers.

The book walks the reader through 75 of the most common motifs, from peonies to lobsters, giving a page or two-page spread to each one. A paragraph of text gives a basic description, with the majority of the page devoted to several clear, vivid examples for each motif taken from a range of design: kimono, hair combs, musical instruments, dishes, fans, sword guards and more.

This book's blessing and curse comes from its minimal text and explanations. If you're a casual reader or someone who doesn't know much about Japan, you'll appreciate its very brief copy and lack of many Japanese-only words.

If you have more than a passing interest in the topics, however, it can prove annoying at times. For example, the back half of the book shows over 1,000 family crests (家紋 kamon), but in most cases only gives the English name of the pattern used, like "encircled intersecting arrows", not the family it usually belonged to or even what the pattern itself would be called in Japanese. (Finding out the kimono you own has a "paper dolls and paulownia" crest doesn't do much for learning more about it.)

That said, the book is, overall, a gorgeous introduction into the world of Japanese design. I'd recommend it for anyone with an interest in Japan, artists or designers looking for inspiration outside of the West, or just about anyone who enjoys beautiful things.