Water, Wood, and Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town by Hannah Kirshner (Penguin Books, 366 pages)
A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata. Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter (Counterpoint Press, 320 pages)
We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Siyou Ishida. Translated by E. Madison Shimoda (Berkley Press, 304 pages)
Whether it’s post-Covid wanderlust or the decline of the yen, a lot of folks have been traveling to Japan. Before we went, a Japanese friend (and inveterate reader) recommended three wildly different books that I thoroughly enjoyed. Load them onto your Kindle for your trip.
In “Water, Wood, and Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town”, Brooklyn-based artist Hannah KIrshner gets the opportunity to apprentice with a sake bar owner in Yamanaka, a western mountain town historically known for its many famous artisans but facing a steep decline in modern times. Kirshner expands her initial gig to explore the many other traditional arts and occupations of the area – woodturning, enamelware, ceramics, charcoal making, carving, foraging, sake making, hunting – all with an incredible respect for the people she meets and their livelihoods. She captures much of what makes Japan so unique in its approach to art and design as well as the cultural barriers one navigates in gaining an understanding of the mindset behind this craftsmanship. And there’s recipes!
The historical novel “A Woman of Pleasure” portrays the life of prostitutes in early 20th century Japan through the eyes of Ichi, a 15 year old girl from a remote fishing village who in 1903 is sold by her impoverished family to a brothel on a southern island. The novel heartbreakingly conveys the merciless brutality of the brothels but also shows how through the mandatory schooling provided Ichi learns to think for and express herself. Eventually the brothel girls stage a strike and escape with the possibility of a different life. The novel is based on real Meiji-era events.
The charming novel “We’ll Prescribe You a Cat” concerns the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul (operating out of a dim alley in Kyoto) which prescribes its patients a cat for their various psychological maladies. Need I say more?
And, in general for those of you hitting the road and looking for books set in your destination check out the podcast Strong Sense of Place for reading “that took us there on the page”.
Edna Lewis is a Piedmont resident and former longtime reference librarian at the UC Berkeley Law Library