This lady's life story has helped me understand both the Japanese people and how God's grace extends itself in the context of the culture of those receiving it. It would be fascinating simply as a biography of triumph in the face of life. It is made much more so as a spiritual journey's unwinding. Miura (I believe her married name is Hotta ?) also has a most gentle way of bringing other people's life intersections with hers into a focus I have rarely read in an author....One feels one is there in the room with the people she meets. Honesty to a fault was a breath of fresh air. She does not attempt to spline the curve of her actions and thoughts closer to some more genteel model. Reading this one is privileged to meet Ayako Miura and the Answer she discovers to the meaning of life in bold relief.

The story is set in Japan. It's a very powerful and gripping book about a young woman's journey during the years following Japan's surrender.

The book is part one of three from Miyura Ayako's autobiography. The other two parts are not available in English to my knowledge. I really recommend this book for anyone who wants an interesting perspective on Japanese culture. Of course, it's set about 50 years ago, though... but still very interesting and as I said, powerful.

I found this book in a tiny drugstore in Idaho. So, keep your eyes peeled and you might find it yourself somewhere.

One of the most memorable books I've read. Very Surprised to here it's out of print.

Wors In Context will give you an angle by which you may evaluate your deeply held cultural concepts, especially those that you may not consciously consider as cultural (and therefore, fluid) concepts.

For example, the author considers the concept of mercy killing of animals. The average American mind would consider it a cruelty not to "alleviate misery" and through this lens, any alternate behavior becomes a violation of Natural Law. The Japanese concept as put forth in this book considers "mercy killing" a human-centered concept that, as such, is the antithesis of holding the animal's corporeality in high regard. Nature should decide the fate of an animal, instead.

So, we have here two differing ideas of right-to-life concepts that people hold with the highest integrity. what to do??

Another example extends the differing concepts on animals by examining our relationships with pets. Whereas the American must have complete obedience of the animal to his every whim, the Japanese concept of a pet recognizes this treatment as a larger distortion of nature and gives more leeway for a dog to be a dog.

(New York city in this light is an eye-opening case indeed as the New Yorker's near pet-worship is held in its highest dysfunctional relief when a man kneels to pick up after his dog, while the dog stares on and seemingly recongnizes and enjoys this debasing servitude. "Kind master, you missed a bit.")

Despite that last poke, don't take the book as a polemic. It's not. It's just a solid exposition with ample reflection that, at a minimum, gets you far away from any of the common and misguided blanket statements on Japanese culture. However, in a wider view, the book gives many opportunities for you to evaluate your own culture.

It is difficult to understand your own culture by holding it up to its own standards.

Use this book to take a look inside yourself and learn something about Japan along the way.

This is a wonderful book. Suzuki teaches us how to see our own language and culture "from the outside" (from the perspective of a non-Indo-European mentality); because of this I have assigned Suzuki's book as a required text in several college courses on language and culture. I particularly recommend the sections on "translatability" (especially chapters 1 and 2) and the chapter on "Words for Self and Others" (chapter 6). The latter reports a splendid bit of linguistic research and analysis that any reader can understand and appreciate: in it Suzuki undertakes to explain how and why "I" and "You" relate to one another differently in Japanese- and English-speaking cultures.

Although I am very much an casual student of Japanese, I was attracted by the contents of this publication as I flicked through it at the bookshop. It is a translation of an old (1973) work by Takao Suzuki, a Japanese linguistics academic. Surprisingly the book is written in a quite light style, with some humor even if a little dated. On the surface I found the book quite exciting because it helps explain how words which appear to have similar meanings from a 'dictionary' viewpoint, can have very different social meanings and cultural usage. Examples are the verbs "cut" and "wear", which appear relatively simple to English speakers, yet have a range of different verbs and very different contexts in their Japanese usage. The section on the cultural context of the words "lips", "nose" and "chin", for example, start to bring a feeling for the complexity of meaning, and perhaps the inadequacy of many dictionary definitions which up to now I had taken at face value.

Moving through to the last chapter "Words for Self and Others" I found myself totally captivated by Suzuki's clear exposition of the misclassification of these parts of Japanese speech according to a misunderstanding of their relationship to English personal pronouns. It sounds heavy, but it is not, on the contrary it is a clear insight into the social context of words and language. I will never see those words in the same light again, and my Japanese will be certainly better for it.

At a much more profound level Suzuki expounds his core belief that words create things, in contrast to our "natural" acceptance of the idea that objects exist independently of language. If this is too deep then fortunately it does not impose on the value of the book at the more pedestrian level at which I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you are a curious student of Japanese, then you will enjoy this book. I intend to read it again, and expect to enjoy it at least as much as the first time.