Masland Library Blog

Are you interested in Japanese history and culture? If so, then you will be pleased to know that the Masland Library has over 100 books focusing solely on this subject. In fact, the library recently won a grant from the Nippon Foundation to obtain these books. The Nippon Foundation is a Japanese philanthropic organization that seeks to improve the condition of humanity in Japan and abroad. Established in 1962, the foundation originally aimed to increase the domestic development of Japan. However, in recent years, the Nippon Foundation has expanded to an international level administering aid and promoting education, welfare, and public health in over one hundred countries. With world peace as their fulcrum, the Nippon Foundation seeks to transcend, while maintaining respect for, global cultures to promote global harmony. Therefore, it is appropriate for them to award us for the possessions of more than one hundred books that will help to remove some of the cultural mysteries that exist between the Americans and Japanese people.

Included within the collection are cultural books such as Kabuki Heroes on the Osaka Stage, 1780-1850. This catalog examines the culture of the Kabuki Theater in Osaka and Kyoto. Family and Social Policy in Japan, another novel in our extremely intriguing collection, focuses specifically on the false nature of the stereotype that Japanese culture is unchanging. Other pieces include: Post War Japan as History, Modern Japan, Samurai and Silk, Japanese Economic System and Historical Origins, Japanese Financial Crisis.

Our very full collection of documents that focuses on Japanese society possesses the potential to break some of the modern tension between global cultures. They just need to be read. So, if you desire to know more about Japanese culture and wish to transcend the cultural boundaries between America and Japan, come on out and read from our ever expanding collection of books that reveal the mystery of Japanese culture and History.

Matt O.