Another Kyoto

Description

An evocative, definitive work on Kyoto, the most beautiful city in Japan Another Kyoto is a matchless guide to a great city, It is the fruit of Alex Kerr's half-century of living in Japan and of lore gleaned from people he's met along the way- artists, Zen monks and Shinto priests, Japanese literati, and expat personalities from days past, such as legendary art dealer David Kidd. Kerr turns what we thought we knew about Kyoto inside-out, revealing the inner ideas behind simple things like walls, floors, and sliding doors. After this book, one can never walk through a Zen gate in the same way again.

Alex Kerr is an American writer, antiques collector and Japanologist. Lost Japan is his most famous work. He was the first foreigner to be awarded the Shincho Gakugei Literature Prize for the best work of non-fiction published in Japan. Kathy Arlyn Sokol is a non-fiction author, interviewer and Emmy award-winning narrator who has spent over 30 years in Kyoto. Her book RasTa Time on Bob Marley's life & legacy will soon be released in English.

By exposing the convenient demarcations which define Kyoto, Alex Kerr and Kathy Sokol have deconstructed Kyoto cliches and in the process have produced a surprising and refreshing addition to Kyoto lore. ... Kerr and Sokol have performed a minor miracle by presenting that which is present in Kyoto as that which we have yet to see. I know that I will never pass a wall, or tread a floor, or sit on tatami the same way again. ... Another Kyoto is a kind of rapturous rupture which explodes the field of cultural, social, and poetic possibilities. * Kyoto Journal *