let's study japaneseby jun maeda

Let's Study Japanese by Jun MaedaReview by: D. E. M.Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 85, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1965), pp. 610-611Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/596762 .

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610 Brief Notices of Books

Text (71 pp.), two appendices (composition of CIFRC Executive Committee by years and list of CIFRC engineering projects), notes, bibliography, glossary, index. Photo-reproduction, with hand- written characters in bibliography and glossary.

(C. S. G.)

Tales from the Japanese Storytellers as Collected in the H6-Dan-Zo by Post Wheeler. Selected and edited by HAROLD G. HENDERSON. Pp. x + 139. Rutland, Vermont: CHARLES E. TUTTLE Co. $4.95. In his Introduction Prof. Henderson notes that the HO- dan-z6 was a collection of storytellers' tales collected by Wheeler, an American Foreign Service officer, " in ten enormous volumes " but never published. The present selection contains 24 tales, followed by a glossary and a note on chronology and Japanese family crests used for decorative pur- poses in this volume. (C. S. G.)

The Manyosh i: The Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Trans- lation of One Thousand Poems, with the texts in Romaji. With a New Foreword by DONALD KEENE. New York and London: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY New York and London: Pp. lxxxii + 502. COLuM- BIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1965. This volume, No. LXX of the Columbia University series Records of Civili- zation: Sources and Studies, is a UNESCO-spon- sored reprint of the long out-of-print collection of translations from the eighth-century Japanese anthology, the Manyoshii, published in 1940 for the Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai. The earlier book is reproduced in its entirety (introduction, translations, notes, romaji text, appendices, index and maps), together with a brief foreword by Donald Keene, in which he indicates some respects in which he indicates some respects in which Manycshfi scholarship has progressed since 1940, but stresses the excellence of these translations, which amply justifies their reproduction. It is partly out of respect for the book as originally conceived that the original introduction is reproduced without alteration; although its approach to Manyo poetry is so heavily influenced by a now out-dated phi- losophy of the Japanese state, it nevertheless contains much valuable information. These translations are, as Keene says, the only really successful example of collaboration between Japanese scholars and native speakers of English (in this case the poet Ralph Hodgson), and we may certainly share his hope that their re-issue will bring about recog- nition of the Manyoshil as one of the great poetic masterpieces of the world. (D. E. M.)

Zen: Poems, Prayers, Sermons, Anecdotes, Interviews. Edited and translated by LUCIEN STRYK and TAKA- SEI IKEMOTO. Pp. xxxvii + 160, 8 plates. New York: DOUBLEDAY (Anchor Books), 1965. $.95. Free translations and commentary in an idiosyn- cratic style. The authors condemn " the rehashes of Dr. Suzuki that one can pick up at the corner drug store." Paperback. (M. B. U.)

The Magical Carpenter of Japaun. By RoKUJIuYE; translated by FREDERICK VICTOR DIOKINS. Pp. 260. Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: 1965. CHARLEs E. TUTTLE Co. The translation reprinted here first appeared in 1912 as " The Story of a Hida Crafts- man," a literal rendering of the title. The original Japanese work, published in 1808, is not without interest in that its author was a scholar of the National Learning movement, Ishikawa Masamochi or Gabo (alias Rokujuen). Not surprisingly, there- fore, the language is occasionally self-consciously archaic; there is thus some small justification for the very irritating archaisms of Dickins' translation (e. g. " world-wights," " clomb " instead of "climbed" etc.). The highly fantastic story is a composite of legends and concerns a master crafts- man who is given magical powers in the land of immortals, and a pair of young lovers cast out from that land for the crime of having allowed the Elixir of Life to bubble over. It is a not very good example of the yomihon, a Tokugawa period category of story-books in which the text was im- portant for itself and not simply as an explanation of the illustrations. Strange to say, this particular one is of most interest because it is accompanied by seventy full-page drawings by Hokusai, at whose urging, it appears, the story was first written.

(D. E. M.)

Let's study Japanese. By JUN MAEDA. Pp. 130. Rut- land, Vermont and Tokyo: CHAaLEs E. TurmE CO., INC., 1965. One cannot expect much of any book of this kind aimed at tourists. This one attempts to be not simply a phrase-book but also to give the beginner "a knowledge of the fundamental Japanese language, so that he can express himself in simple Japanese sentences." In its way, this little book is quite well set out. But it is some- what disconcerting to find that as a matter of policy "the author has avoided complicated gram- matical explanations, for she knows that these are often discouraging to beginners." The tourist's knowledge will be fundamental indeed. He will have to live in the present, since a few past tense verbs are given but no explanation of how they are formed. And even in the present, he will not

Stray Leaves from the Manyoshu. Translated by H. H. HoNDA. Pp. xiii + 88. Tokyo: HoKusEo PREss, 1965. This little book contains translations (all reprinted from the Mainichi Daily News) of two hundred poems taken, unaccountably, from only the first seven of the twenty books of the eighth-century Man'y,5shf7, the oldest extant anthology of Japa- nese poetry. The translations are mostly in rhym- ing form, and in some places the translator seems determined to achieve rhyme at all costs. But occasionally he seems to have been defeated. Thus 925 is rendered: "Deep at midnight plovers cry/ the clear Yoshino River nigh," but 924 appears as: "Many birds I hear now singing/ among the trees upon Mt. Kisa." (D. E. M.)



Brief Notices of Books 611

find life very easy when confronted with such sentences as Anata wa Eigo ga dekimasu ka, for this book tells him only that wa indicates the nominative case, emphasizing the subject, and ga a less emphatic nominative. (D. E. M.)

Ataturk; a Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey. By LORD KINROsS. Pp. 615, 18 photographs. Great Britain, 1964, and New York: WILLIAM MORROW AND CO., 1965. $7.50. A sub- stantial, judicious and fascinating narrative, based on copious sources in English, French and Turkish, including the Presidential archives at Cankaya and interviews with many of Atat-Urk's comrades and associates, some since deceased. Chronology, bibliography, maps, index. (G. F. H.)

A Tentative Bibliography of Geniza Documenzts. By SHAUL SHAKED. Prepared under the direction of D. H. BANETH and S. D. GoITERN. Pp. 355. Paris and the Hague: MOUTON AND CO., 1964. Library references and brief descriptions of contents, classi- fied by location. The largest collection is in Cam- bridge University Library. Documents are Arabic and Hebrew, all in Hebrew script, of the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, from Fustlt (Old Cairo).

(G. F. H.)

Rajataraihgihi of Ealhana. Ed. critically and annotated

with teat-comparative data from original mnmu- scripts and other available manterials. By VISHVA BANDHU. Part I (Taranga-s I-VII). Pp. xxv + 465. VISHVESHVARANAND VEDIO RESEARCH INST- TuTE. Hoshiarpur, 1963. First of the four volume edition of the Rdjatarangini which utilizes, in addi- tion to the textual and critical materials of the four previous editions, new manuscripts, which have facilitated the preparation of a purer and more correct text with the numerous lacunae of all the previous editions almost entirely filled up This new very valuable and excellently prepared edition is of particular interest in view of the im- portance of the Rljatarangin-1 and unknown ma- terial published for the first time. (L. S.)

Letteratura classics dell'India Antica. By OscAR BoTno. (Universale Studium No. 94.) Editrice Studium. Pp. 190. Roma, 1964. This is an excellent, concise and very clearly written history of Sanskrit literature comprising a description of Sanskrit drama, poetry and kavya literature, history, gnomic and didactic poems, literature of tale and fable, ro- mances and Campfus. The author shows a thorough knowledge of the most recent writings on the subject and includes the newest achievements in the field of Sankrit literature. The book contains also a short bibliography and a useful index of authors and literary works. (L. S.)

