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A Lateral View: Essays on Culture and Style in Contemporary Japan

Donald Richie

4.03 · Rating details · 58 ratings · 6 reviews

A revealing look at the Japanese through the window of their contemporary culture.

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Paperback, 245 pages

Published July 1st 1998 by Stone Bridge Press (first published 1991)

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May 25, 2013 Stuart rated it really liked it

Shelves: japan, literature

A Lateral View is a series of essays by Donald Richie on Japanese arts and culture written between 1962 and 1989. So they are dated, but that makes the interesting for a different reason, especially the latter ones that lead up to the peak of the Japanese economic bubble, when everyone was making money, real estate was booming, and Japanese electronics were the best in the world.

My favorite essays were on the city of Tokyo, signs and symbols, the Japanese cinema (his greatest area of expertise; ...more

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Nov 07, 2007 Tosh rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Japanolics

Donald Richie is a treasure. Without a doubt he's one of the great observers on 20th Century Japanese customs and art. I strongly recommend this book (and other titles by him) for those who are even slightly interested in Japanese pop culture. There is a lot of crap books on Japan, and Richie is not only clear-headed, but also has a great eye on the everyday life in Tokyo. Plus the fact that he knows a lot about cinema and literature is an extra treat. And any person who is a fan of Robert Bress ...more

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Sep 29, 2010 AC rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japan

The book consists of 28 brief essays (often a mere 7-8 pages) that were published in magazines and the like between 1962 and 1989. So brief as sometimes to be devoid of sufficient context, many of them nonetheless contain a fascinating wealth of detail and reflection. This book is not quite to the level The Inland Sea -- which is really a little gem -- but it will be of great interest to anyone interested in modern Japan. It reads VERY quick - which is another plus.

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Mar 22, 2008 Powersamurai rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japan-related

Richie doing what he does best--writing essays about Japan and his experiences here. This is a collection of essays that have been published in various publications over the years. At times, I was surprised to find that the piece was originally written in the 60s or 70s, because it still describes Japan as it is today. An interesting book giving a full overview of Japan--culture, society and life.

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Jul 10, 2017 Ian Josh rated it really liked it

2017 Book 30

I gave this only 4 stars as a comparison to the author's other work, a few of those being so perfect that this one falls just a little short.

Full Review:

https://ianjoshyateswriting.blogspot.... ...more

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About Donald Richie

Donald Richie

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Donald Richie is an American-born author who has written about the Japanese people and Japanese cinema. Although he considers himself only a writer, Richie has directed many experimental films, the first when he was 17. Although Richie speaks Japanese fluently, he can neither read nor write it.

During World War II, he served aboard Liberty ships as a purser and medical officer. By then he had alrea Donald Richie is an American-born author who has written about the Japanese people and Japanese cinema. Although he considers himself only a writer, Richie has directed many experimental films, the first when he was 17. Although Richie speaks Japanese fluently, he can neither read nor write it.

During World War II, he served aboard Liberty ships as a purser and medical officer. By then he had already published his first work, "Tumblebugs" (1942), a short story.

In 1947, Richie first visited Japan with the American occupation force, a job he saw as an opportunity to escape from Lima, Ohio. He first worked as a typist, and then as a civilian staff writer for the Pacific Stars and Stripes. While in Tokyo, he became fascinated with Japanese culture, particularly Japanese cinema. He was soon writing movie reviews in the Stars and Stripes. In 1948 he met Kashiko Kawakita who introduced him to Yasujiro Ozu. During their long friendship, Richie and Kawakita collaborated closely in promoting Japanese film in the West.

After returning to the United States, he enrolled at Columbia University's School of General Studies in 1949, and received his Bachelor's Degree in English in 1953. Richie then returned to Japan as film critic for the The Japan Times and spent much of the second half of the twentieth century living there. In 1959, he published his first book, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, coauthored with Joseph Anderson. In this work, the authors gave the first English language account of Japanese film. Richie served as Curator of Film at the New York Museum of Modern Art from 1969 to 1972. In 1988, he was invited to become the first guest director at the Telluride Film Festival.

Among his most noted works on Japan are The Inland Sea, a travel classic, and Public People, Private People, a look at some of Japan's most significant and most mundane people. He has compiled two collections of essays on Japan: A Lateral View and Partial Views. A collection of his writings has been published to commemorate fifty years of writing about Japan: The Donald Richie Reader. The Japan Journals: 1947-2004 consists of extended excerpts from his diaries.

In 1991, filmmakers Lucille Carra and Brian Cotnoir produced a film version of The Inland Sea, which Richie narrated. Produced by Travelfilm Company, the film won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the Hawaii International Film Festival (1991) and the Earthwatch Film Award. It screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992.

Author Tom Wolfe describes Richie as: "the Lafcadio Hearn of our time, a subtle, stylish, and deceptively lucid medium between two cultures that confuse one another: the Japanese and the American."

Richie's most widely recognized accomplishment has been his analysis of Japanese cinema. From his first published book, Richie has revised not only the library of films he discusses, but the way he analyzes them. With each subsequent book, he has focused less on film theory and more on the conditions in which the films were made. One thing that has emerged in his works is an emphasis on the "presentational" nature of Japan's cinema, in contrast to the "representational" films of the West. His book, A Hundred Years Of Japanese Film includes a helpful guide to the availability of the films on home video and DVD mentioned in the main text. In the foreword to this book, Paul Schrader says: "Whatever we in the West know about Japanese film, and how we know it, we most likely owe to Donald Richie." Richie also has written analyses of two of Japan's best known filmmakers: Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa.

Richie has written the English subtitles for Akira Kurosawa's films Kagemusha (1980) and Dreams (1990)[8].

In the 21st century, Richie has become noted for his erudite audio commentaries for The Criterion Collection on DVDs of various classic Japanese films, notably those of Ozu (A Story of Floating Weeds, Early Summer), Mikio Naruse (When a Woman Ascend ...more