The Image Factory: Fads and Fashions in Japan
by Donald Richie, Roy Garner
List Price:
Our Price: $19.38
You Save: $5.57 (22%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $16.77 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Donald Richie, Roy GarnerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2003-04-15
ISBN: 1861891539
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Book Reviews of The Image Factory: Fads and Fashions in Japan
Book Review: More on Japan from the Dean of gaijin writers
Summary: 5 Stars
This book attacks a fairly narrow question, "Why does a society with such a reputation for conformity chase such outlandish fads?" Donald Richie, a long timer writer on Japanese culture, tackles this in a series of essays on pachinko, the culture of cute, sex culture and even Japanese who try to look foreign.
In the essays, he proposes explanations for these contradictions in behavior. Perhaps dressing in the outlandish fad of the month is part of a uniform for being in a group that dresses that way - membership created as such. The mobile phone craze (replacing Manga, another fad) is interpreted as an exercize in proving one's group belonging. In doing so, he also suggests that perhaps some of these beliefs about conformity are not to distinct to Japanese. Perhaps their uniqueness is in fessing up to a more universal tribalism.
Very interesting reading for both those interested in contemporary Japan, as well as people interested in the nature of belonging.
Arts & Photography Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in The Donald Richie Collection: Living National Treasure
A Tractate on Japanese Aestheticsby Donald Richie
Stone Bridge Press; Published: 2007-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.16
Price in other shops:
Tokyo Nightsby Donald Richie
Printed Matter Press; Published: 2005-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.45
Price in other shops:
The Japan Journals: 1947-2004by Donald Richie
Stone Bridge Press; Published: 2005-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.23
Price in other shops:
A View from the Chuo Lineby Donald Richie
Printed Matter Press; Published: 2004-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.75
Price in other shops:
The Image Factory: Fads and Fashions in Japanby Donald Richie, Roy Garner
Reaktion Books; Published: 2003-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.38
Price in other shops:
Tokyo Story: The Ozu/ Noda Screenplayby Yasujiro Ozu, Kogo Noda
Stone Bridge Press; Published: 2003-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Japanese Literature Reviewedby Donald Richie
ICG Muse; Published: 2003-11-25; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide to DVDs and Videosby Donald Richie
Kodansha International; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
The Donald Richie Reader: 50 Years of Writing on Japanby Donald Richie
Stone Bridge Press; Published: 2001-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Memoirs of the Warrior Kumagai: A Historical Novel (Tuttle Classics of Japanese Literature)by Donald Richie
Tuttle Publishing; Published: 2006-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.06
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Cross-Cultural Filmmaking: A Handbook for Making Documentary and Ethnographic Films and Videosby Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Taylor
University of California Press; Published: 1997-11-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.94
Price in other shops:
Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan (Twentieth-Century Japan - the Emergence of a World Power , No 6)by T. Fujitani
University of California Press; Published: 1998-02-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.10
Price in other shops:
Women, Media, and Consumption in Japan (Consumasian Series)University of Hawaii Press; Published: 1995-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.79
Price in other shops:
Fresh Fruitsby Shoichi Aoki
Phaidon Press; Published: 2005-06-01; Turtleback; Book
Best price: $18.71
Price in other shops:
Wrapping Culture: Politeness, Presentation, and Power in Japan and Other Societies (Oxford Studies in the Anthropology of Cultural Forms)by Joy Hendry
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1995-06-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $74.83
Price in other shops:
Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination (Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes)by Anne Allison
University of California Press; Published: 2006-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.50
Price in other shops:
Gothic and Lolitaby Masayuki Yoshinaga, Katsuhiko Ishikawa
Phaidon Press; Published: 2007-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops:
Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbookby Izumi Evers, Patrick Macias
Chronicle Books; Published: 2007-05-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.78
Price in other shops:
Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku Street Fashion - Tokyoby Tiffany Godoy
Chronicle Books; Published: 2007-12-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.93
Price in other shops:
The Tokyo Look Book: Stylish To Spectacular, Goth To Gyaru, Sidewalk To Catwalkby Philomena Keet
Kodansha International; Published: 2007-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.05
Price in other shops: