Elizabeth Kiritani

This classic text of Japanese culture contains a wealth of information about traditional Japan and Japanese customs.

Pawnshops and handmade paper, shoe shiners and Shinto jugglers, money rakes and mosquito netting—all these were once a familiar part of daily life in Japan. Many elements of that daily life, like the Obon dances and oreiboko apprenticeships, have no counterpart in any other culture: they are purely unique to Japan.

But with the tremendous changes of the modern age, most traces of traditional life in Japan are fast disappearing, soon to be gone forever. Still, there are a few holdouts, especially in Japan's shitamachi, or working-class neighborhoods, where many of the survivors of Japanese crafts, art forms, and festivals are making their last stand.

Vanishing Japan is a must-read for tourists, historians, architects, or artists who are interested in Japanese culture.