Kure Tomofusa’s book recommendations
Earlier in this blog we heard from Nishibe Susumu and Watanabe Shōichi. Now it is time to break out the list of the man himself, Kure Tomofusa, from his book New Techniques for Readers 読書家の新技術 (1987). Kure-sensei sorted his recommendations into categories.
Politics
Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political
Carl Schmitt, Political Theology
Carl Schmitt, Theory of the Partisan
Yoshimoto Takaaki, Tentative Proposals on Mathieu (A recommendation offered without comment in New Techniques, but in 2012 Kure-sensei reread Yoshimoto’s complete works and discovered that he had been deceived by the difficult style of writing, and in fact there was nothing interesting about them. I’m guessing he would rescind his recommendation.)
D. H. Lawrence, Apocalypse and the Writings on Revelation (Recommended as a supplement to reading the Bible.)
Carl Schmitt, Essays on Political Philosophy
Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
Lenin, State and Revolution
Yoshimoto Takaaki, Communal Illusions (Read instead Kure-sensei’s commentary on this book.)
The rest of the suggestions are not nearly as interesting…
History
Story of Japan’s Cruelties [日本残酷物語; untranslated]
Document: The Japanese [ドキュメント日本人; untranslated]
Complete works of Yanagita Kunio [virtually untranslated; Tales of Tono is available]
Compete works of Orikuchi Shinobu [completely untranslated]
Complete works of Minakata Kumagusu [completely untranslated]
Shirakawa Shizuka, Folk Customs of Ancient China [untranslated]
Shirakawa Shizuka, On the Early Man’yō Poems [untranslated]
Shirakawa Shizuka, Talks about Kanji [untranslated]
Yuasa Yasuo, The Spiritual World of the Ancients [untranslated]
Amino Yoshihiko, Placelessness/Public Space/Joy
Amino Yoshihiko, The Mongol Invasion [untranslated]
Abe Kin’ya, The Pied Piper of Hamelin [untranslated]
Abe Kin’ya, A Social History of the Executioner: Popular Life in Medieval Europe [untranslated]
Abe Kin’ya, Ishii Susumu, Kabayama Kōichi The Medieval Landscape (actually a very interesting, wide-ranging, 2-volume comparison of medieval East Asia and Europe. untranslated, obviously)
Abe Kin’ya and Amino Yoshihiko, The Rediscovery of the Middle Ages [untranslated]
Yokoi Kiyoshi, The Life and Culture of Medieval People [untranslated]
Science
Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Paul Karl Feyerabend, Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge (A good discussion of Feyerabend can be found in Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics.)
Murakami Yōichirō, New Theory on Science [untranslated]
Murakami Yōichirō, Beyond Modern Science [untranslated]
Murakami Yōichirō, Modern Science and Sacred–Profane Revolution [untranslated]
Itō Shuntarō, Science and Reality [untranslated]
Hiroshige Tōru, Rethinking Modern Science [untranslated]
Yoshioka Hitoshi, Beyond Technotopia [untranslated] (however, a summary is available at a high price)
Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications
Imanishi Kinji, The World of Living Things (builds on Bertalanffy)
Imanishi Kinji and Yoshimoto Takaaki, Beyond Darwin (untranslated, but simply an addition to the information in the translated book)
Asia
Ashidzu Uzuhiko, The Eternal Restorationist [untranslated]
Yamagiwa Motoo, Untouchables [untranslated]
Nagasaki Nobuko, The Indian Rebellion of 1857 (untranslated, but there are many comparable books in English)
Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China
Several Japanese books are named that simply offer summaries of Needham, as well as a primary text: Tiangong Kaiwu
Yamada Keiji, The Natural Philosophy of Zhu Xi [untranslated]
Wm. T. de Bary, The Liberal Tradition in China (recently republished in English as The Great Civilized Conversation)
Gotō Sueo, Introduction des idées chinoises en France au 17e et au 18e siécle [translated but unpublished]
Kim Tal-su, Joseon and History of Joseon [untranslated]
R. H. Mitchell, The Korean Minority in Japan
Some more Korea books and criticisms of North Korea omitted; these are too boring to list. In the early sections of this book Kure-sensei takes a very credulous stance towards Zainichi stories.
Complete works of Takeuchi Yoshimi
Complete works of Ishimitsu Makiyo [completely untranslated] (documentation of lower class life in Imperial Japan)
Religion
Oguchi Iichi, Religious Studies [untranslated, and rare]
Takatori Masao and Hashimoto Mineo, Before Religion [untranslated] (a good introduction to Shinto)
Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy
Horigome Yōzō, Orthodoxy and Heresy (a discussion of Christianity. untranslated, but surely there are good English books available on the subject)
Aiba Shin 相葉伸, History of the Fuju-fuse Martyrs [untranslated]
Peter Worsley, The Trumpet Shall Sound: A Study of “Cargo” Cults in Melanesia
Vittorio Lanternari, The Religions of the Oppressed: A Study of Modern Messianic Cults
Miyata Noboru, A Study of the Miroku Faith (this is quite good. untranslated, obviously)
Maeyama Takashi, The Return Movements of Japanese Emigrants [untranslated]
A long list of publishers and discussions of their editors’ biases, etc. is omitted.
Posted: March 15th, 2015 | Books