Books about Iwasaki from Amazon.com

This engaging series of childhood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. This unusual school had old railroad cars for classrooms, and it was run by an extraordinary man-its founder and headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi-who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity.
In real life, the Totto-chan of the book has become one of Japan's most popular television personalities-Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. She attributes her success in life to this wonderful school and its headmaster.
The charm of this account has won the hearts of millions of people of all ages and made this book a runaway bestseller in Japan, with sales hitting the 4.5 million mark in its first year..
Price: $6.06 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Now in her 50s, Mineko Iwasaki was one of the most famed geishas of her generation (and the chief informant for Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha). Her ascent was difficult, not merely because of the hard, endless training she had to undergo--learning how to speak a hyper-elevated dialect of Japanese and how to sing and dance gracefully while wearing a 44-pound kimono atop six-inch wooden sandals--but also because many of the elaborate, self-effacing rules of the art went against her grain. A geisha "is an exquisite willow tree who bends to the service of others," she writes. "I have always been stubborn and contrary. And very, very proud." And playful, too: one of the funniest moments in this bittersweet book describes a disastrous encounter with the queen of England and her all-too-interested husband.

Revealing the secrets of the geisha's "art of perfection," this graceful memoir documents a disappearing world. --Gregory McNamee.
Price: $2.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $25.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

First published in 1933 as Cha-No-Yu, or The Japanese Tea Ceremony, this classic remains the gold standard for books on the five-centuries-old tea ceremony, which is itself 'an epitome of Japanese civilization'.



The Japanese Tea Ceremony is a fascinating exploration of one of Japan's greatest arts and details the importance of the tea ceremony's history and traditions, its historical tea masters and its physical manifestations..
Price: $13.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Like Jeff Taylor's earlier book, Tools of the Trade, this book offers a lyrical glimpse in each chapter at one commonly used implement--in this case, those used in gardening (wheelbarrow, hoe, auger, hammock, etc.). Along with lovely photographs by Rich Iwasaki, it relates a personal description, story, or ode to each particular item. As in his earlier work, the author's writing is often quite funny (there's a chapter about the author's misadventures with a wheelbarrow), sometimes moving, very personal, and very entertaining for gardeners and nongardeners alike. A little history, a little storytelling, and another delight from Jeff Taylor. --Mark A. Hetts.
Price: $1.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]