P.S. to the message I just sent (below).

I hadn't checked the Midorikai recipe page recently, and they seem to have added a few more wagashi recipes. In case you don't already know about it - here's the webpage:

http://www.midorikai.org/wagashi_recipe_...

posted by chamekke at 11:24 am (EST) on Jun 26, 2006

Thank you for the link to the wagashi webpage. How I wish I could read Japanese! (Although I suppose I could try running the webpage through an online translator such as Nifty... the results can be dodgy, though.)

I haven't yet managed to find a book in English on wagashi-making, but if I do manage to find one, I will certainly buy it on the spot... and let you know, too, if you like.

Are you interested in learning how to make these sweets? I did find a few English-language webpages with a few recipes, and I'd be happy to share them with you if you like. That's not to mention forums such as eGullet, which has an entire section devoted to wagashi:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?show...

posted by chamekke at 11:13 am (EST) on Jun 26, 2006

Hi, hrabbit. Per your comment--yes, I guess I have used that japan tag a lot, haven't I? ;-D

Still have a couple of shelves of Japan-related books (mainly on modern subjects) that aren't in the system yet. Not as much modern Japanese literature as I'd like, though. Hoping to learn more about that subject and improve there.

I've heard of Chibi Maruko, but don't have any volumes myself. Do have _a lot_ of other manga that's not yet listed, both in English and in Japanese. Fluffy shoujo romantic stuff for the most part. What can I say? It's brain candy and I love it.

posted by reynardine at 6:27 pm (EST) on Jun 11, 2006

Hi Sara,

Yes, I'm in the mood for wagashi too. Isn't it delicious stuff! Please, if you know of any good titles on this topic, do let me know - I only own the one at present.

Tim has just added Amazon Japan to the Add Books combo box, and I gave it a whirl this morning. Dunno how other people will be using this, but here's how I do it: (1) search and locate the book on Amazon Japan using the ISBN, (2) copy and paste the title into the Search terms field, and (3) voila - LibraryThing locates it!

I have to consolidate the new Japanese entries with my prior manual efforts in Romaji/English, so there's a bit of work to do yet ... but this really is a wonderful new feature. (I do want to include the titles in Romaji if I can, to ease the pain of other non-readers of Kanji like myself :-)

posted by chamekke at 2:28 pm (EST) on Sep 23, 2005

Hi Sara,
I think that's a great idea. No doubt we'll need a copy to bolster our mutual collections:-))
Sue

posted by suechef at 7:58 am (EST) on Sep 23, 2005

Thanks for your note, Sara! About your Chado question ("If I were to add one book on Chado to my collection, should it be the Book of Tea?"); you mean the book by Kakuzo Okakura, right? Well, I know it's a classic and I appreciate that it's the first book on the topic in English, but... personally I find Okakura's writing to be a bit affected, and his use of the word "Teaism" (which is of course a perfectly reasonable translation of Chado) really gets up my nose! So as you've guessed by now, this book is not a personal favourite with me. But many other people would give it pride of place in their collection, and you may feel differently when you read it. (Perhaps a good browse in a bookshop is in order!)

For me, if I'm recommending a first book to someone, it's a toss-up between Tanaka's "The Tea Ceremony" and Soshitsu Sen's "Chado: The Way of Tea". If you end up studying Chado, and it's within the Urasenke school, you should probably give preference to the latter. Both are excellent books. And as a general principle, anything written by Soshitsu Sen is worth reading.

As for books on wagashi, the one I have isn't regarded as remarkable for its genre. It just happens to be the one I managed to obtain! I hear there are many other/better books on wagashi out there, and if I ever manage to snarfle more of them, I'll let you know how they are. (Bearing in mind that because I can't read Japanese, I'm still very much basing my opinion on the pictures!)

posted by chamekke at 11:44 am (EST) on Sep 17, 2005

hrabbit, your collection of books on Japan is breathtaking! Many of the, especially the "life in Japan" titles, are completely new to me ... I'm looking forward to tracking them down too. Thanks for sharing your extensive collection of titles online.

posted by chamekke at 4:00 pm (EST) on Sep 16, 2005