Book Review: A History of Japan...

I found this book in a bookstore in the Naritia Airport as I waited for my flight back to Vermont.  I picked it up with every intention of reading it on the plane.  Instead I watched three movies trying to pass the time as I was so psyched to be heading home I just couldn't concentrate enough to read.  

But since I've been back I've been (slowly) reading this book and I have to say it's great.  It starts with Japanese pre-history, which may stretch back 30,000 years and traces Japanese history, life and culture up to the Occupation after World War II.  It treats cultural elements such as poetry, religion, art and architecture with wonderful appreciation as well as politics and war with informative detail.

But most of all it reminded me that all of Buddhism, with our Shingon being no exception happens in a historical context that shapes, contributes and even constrains its expression, development and eventual character.  And if anyone wishes to understand Shingon or Buddhism or anything cultural phenomena it has to include what we can and can't know about the time and place it happened.

So, even though I haven't finished it yet, I'm very enthusiastic about this book.  Give it a try if you want to get a nice introduction to Japan's history without going back to college.

jim

A History of Japan, Revised Edition

R.H.P. Mason & J.G. Caiger

Tuttle Publishing

1997