Donald Richie takes the reader on a revealing tour of the different districts of Japan's capital city. Starting from the original centre of Tokyo – the Imperial Palace – Richie branches outwards, taking in other areas such as Yoshiwara, the original red-light district, and Ginza, the world-famous shipping street. The author has kept a diary for the entire time he has lived in Tokyo, and excerpts from it provide on-the-spot insights into the significance of fashions and fads in Japanese culture (for example the recent Tamagochi craze), as well as the various aspects of life in a small neighbourhood. Richie gives a real sense of how Japanese society has changed since the Second World War, yet remained rooted in its past.
With the eclectic eye and ear of a film-maker, Richie describes the flavour and idiosyncracies of this chaotic, teeming city. Tokyois illustrated with 30 illuminating photographs by Seattle-based photographer, Joel Sackett.
About author
Donald Richie was born in Ohio and has lived in Tokyo for over 50 years. He is the author of many books including the travel book "The Inland Sea" and "The Image Factory: Fads and Fashions in Japan" (Reaktion, 2003).
Reviews
"The book is illustrated with intimate and witty black-and-white photographs which, like the writing, show the real face of Tokyo as people who live there know it, utterly different from city that tourists see" – TLS
"brings alive everything from the city's popular bath-houses to its hectic back streets" – The Observer
"Richie has lived in the capital of Japan since 1947, so he knows more answers than most of us know questions" – The Guardian
"magisterial... For anyone fascinated or repelled by the city that both Donald Ritchie and myself would call our real home, this book is essential reading" – The Japan Times
