Friday, December 05, 2008

New Books I Wish I Were Perusing...

...or were wasting time on on a quiet Saturday night...

Emplacing a Pilgrimage: The Ōyama Cult and Regional Religion in Early Modern Japan. By Barbara Ambros.

From Foot Solder to Finance Minister: Takahashi Korekiyo, Japan's Keynes. By Richard J. Smethurst.

Kingdom of Beauty: Mingei and the Politics of Folk Art in Imperial Japan. By Kim Brandt.

...instead of what I am doing. (No, it's not blogging!)

If you need something to read, check out Okumura Jun's latest post on the revolt of the ara fifu (?) members of the Liberal Democratic Party. I have to admit a fondness for all the current lineup up of prominent talkers (OK, Yamamoto Ichita does get on my nerves more often than not). As for dark hidden impulses driving them to these extreme measures, Watanabe Yoshimi and Ishihara Nobuteru both have fathers who gave up on the LDP. Yamamoto Ichita, Shiozaki Yasuhisa and Motegi Toshimitsu are a priori incapable of simple loyalty and humble deference to authority thanks to having been infected with the virus of American higher education.

I wish these angry middle-aged political stars of the LDP well, whatever they think they are doing. Their counterparts in the party--those whom they would have to rouse to action to accomplish anything--were not exactly yūtōsei in school, if you know what I mean.

When the angry middle-aged men start plotting with the angry middle aged women, however, then the fun will really begin.

1 comment:

Jun Okumura said...

Ah, the good old days, when Oda Nobunaga danced as he sang, “A fifty-year life, compared to the lowest of this world is a dream or hallucination.”He was assassinated soon after.

Speaking of angry middle-aged ladies, your favorite, the other Seiko, is still in her forties. And she’s not angry at all. How about that? And no, the ara fifu (now how many of your readers are going to decode that?) LDP lady on deck (much less the other one) won’t make the cut, nor will the ara foh with the big head (literally and figuratively). You read it here first, on your blog. Be happy.

Thanks for commenting on my blog.