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First published in 1985, this Routledge Revival is a lively and colourful account of life in the Japanese countryside, as seen through the eyes of an anthropologist who did fieldwork there for four years. Part journal, part ethnographic observation, part social and moral commentary, this very personal and sensitive book depicts not only the intricate relationships among the valley people, but also those between them and the anthropologist who has come from the outside world to study them. The book has a dual purpose: to portray the intimate, day-to-day lives of people living in a remote part of Japan, and to describe how one anthropologist tries – and eventually fails – to \"become at one\" with his informants. Throughout, the book questions the premises of participant observation, which has become a mainstay of modern anthropology. 1. The River’s Flow 2. Scattered Blossoms 3. Voice of the Cicada

This essay explores innovation as a socially and culturally embedded practice, coming to life in correlation between structural organizational conventions and entrepreneurial performances. With an empirical departure, it describes a rational understanding of creation, and it identifies innovation as a retrospective concept that entails a “re-development” process from the final product to the initial idea. Furthermore, it (re)locates innovation “in the (organizational) box”, and discusses the prototype as an enchanting artifact that entraps and transmits an innovative sensation. The essay concludes that innovation, although put forward as a strategic vision of a prosperous future, rather seems to serve as an inducted fundamental, a working imperative, from which employees are to manage and negotiate their everyday work. The essay emerges from ethnographic fieldwork that is consciously organized as a productive collaboration involving both applied and academic dimensions.

Scott Malia, Book Review Editor, College of the Holy Cross, Theatre Department, O'Kane 492, Worcester, MA, 01610, or an email to: smalia@holycross.edu. Please indicate areas of expertise and specify which title(s) you are interested in reviewing; you may also review a book not on this list if you obtain the Editor's approval. Stunning Males and Powerful Females: Gender and Tradition in East Javanese Dance.

Jill Kleinberg reviews \"Lost Innocence: Folk Craft Potters of Onta, Japan,\" by Brian Moeran.

Focused primarily on creative practices in Japan, business anthropologist/artist [Moeran] here alternates chapters on ethnography with propositions on the nature of creativity. Too many Anglo-European theorists romanticize creativity as indescribable, based only on individual talent.

Pickett reviews \"A Far Valley: Four Years in a Japanese Village\" by Brian Moeran.

For some decades now, anthropologists have analyzed complex institutions of contemporary urban life. Here, senior Japan scholar Moeran (business anthropology, Copenhagen Business School) adds to the list with a monograph that covers fashion industries and magazines in the US, Great Britain, France, Hong Kong, and Japan. This book represents fieldwork spanning over two decades, including textual and visual analysis and interviews with fashion industry personnel.

Ikuo Uchida reviews \"Language and Popular Culture in Japan by Brian Moeran.

Janet Goff reviews \"Language and Popular Culture in Japan,\" by Brian Moeran.