A SELECT LISTING OF BOOKS BY MEMBERS OF WRITERS IN KYOTO
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AMY CHAVEZ (non-fiction)
Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan (Stone Bridge, 2018)
Guide to Japanese customs & etiquette.
Running the Shikoku Pilgrimage: 900 Miles to Enlightenment (Volcano Press, 2012)
First-person account of circling Japan’s Buddhist 88-Temple Pilgrimage route.
Japan, Funny Side Up (e-book, 2010)
A selection of ‘Japan Lite’ columns that appeared in the Japan Times from 1997-2010.
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JUDITH CLANCY (Kyoto)
Exploring Kyoto (rev. edition, Stone Bridge Press, 2018)
Guided walks that explore the city’s cultural wealth as well as its by-ways.
Kyoto Gardens: Masterworks of the Japanese Gardener’s Art (Tuttle, 2015)
A survey of the city’s best gardens richly illustrated by photographer Ben Simmons.
Kyoto Machiya Restaurant Guide (Stone Bridge Press, 2012, rev. ed. Kindle 2020)
An informed guide to dining in traditional townhouses illustrated by Ben Simmons.
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JOHN DOUGILL (non-fiction)
Kyoto: A Cultural History (Signal/OUP, 2006)
Overview of the city’s formative role in Japan’s cultural and artistic development.
Zen Gardens and Temples of Kyoto (Tuttle, 2017)
Guide and cultural background, with photographs by John Einarsen.
Japan’s World Heritage Sites (Tuttle, 2019)
An overview of the country’s diverse cultural and natural heritage, from Shiretoko to Okinawa.
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DAVID DUFF (non-fiction)
Ero-Samurai: An Obsessed Man’s Loving Tribute To Japanese Women (iUniverse, 2005)
A personal and cultural exploration of the spell cast by Japanese women.
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JOHN EINARSEN (photography and book design)
Kyoto: The Forest within the Gate (editions I and II)
Photographs by John Einarsen, poems by Edith Shiffert, calligraphy by Rona Conti, as well as essays.
Small Buildings of Kyoto I & II
Photographs by John Einarsen featuring Kyoto’s charming small buildings.
Upcoming: This Very Moment: The Experience of Seeing (2020)
To be published later this year, a collection of Miksang contemplative photographs.
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MICHAEL GRECO (comic fantasy)
Plum Rains on Happy House (independently published, 2018)
An absurdist take on communal living in a Tokyo guesthouse.
Assunta (independently published, 2019)
A hurricane strikes a small island community off Texas with unforeseen consequences.
Moon Dogg (independently published, 2018)
A small-time filmmaker’s plan to make an expose of a fundamentalist sect goes weirdly wrong.
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DAVID JOINER (fiction)
Lotusland (Guernica Editions, 2015)
A novel about expat life in contemporary Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
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ALEX KERR (Japanology)
Lost Japan: Last Glimpse of Beautiful Japan (Lonely Planet, 1996/ Penguin 2015)
A personal account of cultural aspects that are dying out, first written in Japanese.
Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan (Hill and Wang, 2002)
An unwavering look at the environmental and social cost of Japan’s economic miracle.
Another Kyoto (Penguin, 2018)
A unique look at Kyoto through the material with which its cultural heritage is shaped.
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REBECCA OTOWA (various)
At Home in Japan (Tuttle, 2010)
Illustrated essays about lessons learned from being wife to the heir of a farmhouse in rural Japan.
My Awesome Japan Adventure (Tuttle, 2013)
A children’s book illustrated by the author about a boy who lives with a homestay family in regional Japan.
The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper and other short stories (Tuttle, 2020)
Thirteen short stories, mostly fiction with a few historical or based-on-truth, about people in Japan. Illustrated.
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SIMON ROWE (fiction)
Good Night Papa: Short Stories from Japan and Elsewhere (Atlas Jones & Co., 2017)
Fifteen stories high, nine countries wide, and peopled with wily, dim-witted, hapless, strong and gentle characters.
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FERNANDO TORRES (fantasy and historical fiction)
A Habit of Resistance (Five Towers, 2015)
The humorous story of a quirky group of nuns who join the French Resistance.
The Shadow That Endures (Five Towers, 2013)
A curious globe found in an antique store in Scotland contains the key to the multiverse.
More Than Alive: Death of an Idol (Five Towers, 2020)
Forthcoming: A paranormal coming of age novel set in 2042 Japan. *************************
ALLEN S. WEISS (Aesthetics)
The Grain of the Clay: Reflections on Ceramics and the Art of Collecting
An autobiographical account of a passion for Japanese ceramics; photographs by the author.
Zen Landscapes: Perspectives on Japanese Gardens and Ceramics (Reaktion, 2013)
The first study of the relations between landscape and ceramics; photographs by the author.
The Wind and the Source: In the Shadow of Mont Ventoux (State University of New York Press, 2005).
A literary and philosophical study of the famed Provençal mountain.
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JANN WILLIAMS (ed.) (environment / Anthology editor)
(ed with I.J. Yates) Encounters with Kyoto: Writers in Kyoto Anthology 3 (WiK, 2019)
A miscellany of writing by 22 WiK members, which includes poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
(ed with R.A. Bradstock and A.M. Gill) Flammable Australia: The Fire Regimes and Biodiversity of a Continent (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
A synthesis of the current knowledge in this area and its application to contemporary land management.