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MOERAN, Brian, A Far Valley: Four Years in a Japanese Village. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1998. 254 pp.
Published originally in 1985 by Stanford University Press, under the title Okubo Diary: Portrait of a Japanese Valley, and now re-released in a paperback edition, Brian Moeran's work is as relevant today as it was a decade ago. This work is highly accessible to those who enjoy reading about Japanese culture. The book's commercial publication is timely. A Far Valley ranks well above some of the recently commercially published works that attempt to unravel the "mystery" of Japan and its people.
Moeran has written about the four years that he spent (during the late 1970's and early 1980's) in a valley in southern Japan. While researching the life and work of the potters in the valley, Moeran kept three diaries. A Far Valley is based upon those diaries. In his words, it is "Part private journal, part ethnographic record, and part social and moral commentary on everyday life in a Japanese Valley." (p.2). Eloquently written with insight and feeling for the people he studies, Moeran's work moves from initial wide-eyed wonder of the valley culture, to criticism of its ways, to alienation from its people and finally to a realization of its place in his life.
A Far Valley is both an enlightening anthropolitical study and a...