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Kansai-the western Japanese region that boasts the ancient capitals of Kyoto and Nara, the exciting commercial city of Osaka, and the cosmopolitan port city of Kobe-is home to Japan's oldest history, an area where the country's most time- honored arts and crafts still thrive. It's also the birthplace of video games, manga and anime, a center of robotics, and an otaku heaven. Worldly and otherworldly, spirited and spiritual, trendy and traditional, it's a place where past and future live side-by-side, sometimes at odds.
In Kansai Cool, anthropologist, writer and filmmaker Christal Whelan offers deep insights into the push and pull of old and new in Japan's ancient heartland. Part travel book, part cultural commentary, this collection of 25 essays paints a broad yet penetrating portrait of the region and its unique energy. From deep-seated ancient beliefs in Kyoto to costume play in Osaka and haute cuisine in Kobe, Whelan delves below the surface to let readers experience how art, science, faith and history swirl together in this singular wellspring of Japanese culture.
Christal Whelan is a writer, filmmaker, anthropologist, teacher and linguist who has lived and worked in Japan and Mongolia. She has taught in eminent universities in the US and Japan, and has written on everything from mushrooms in Kyoto to contemporary religious movements throughout Japan. She is the author of The Beginning of Heaven and Earth: The Sacred Book of Japan's Hidden Christians. Some of the chapters in Kansai Cool originated from her former column Kansai Culturescapes, which ran in The Daily Yomiuri from January 2011 through April 2012.
In Kansai Cool, anthropologist, writer and filmmaker Christal Whelan offers deep insights into the push and pull of old and new in Japan's ancient heartland. Part travel book, part cultural commentary, this collection of 25 essays paints a broad yet penetrating portrait of the region and its unique energy. From deep-seated ancient beliefs in Kyoto to costume play in Osaka and haute cuisine in Kobe, Whelan delves below the surface to let readers experience how art, science, faith and history swirl together in this singular wellspring of Japanese culture.
Christal Whelan is a writer, filmmaker, anthropologist, teacher and linguist who has lived and worked in Japan and Mongolia. She has taught in eminent universities in the US and Japan, and has written on everything from mushrooms in Kyoto to contemporary religious movements throughout Japan. She is the author of The Beginning of Heaven and Earth: The Sacred Book of Japan's Hidden Christians. Some of the chapters in Kansai Cool originated from her former column Kansai Culturescapes, which ran in The Daily Yomiuri from January 2011 through April 2012.