Skip to Main Content

Japanese Studies

An introduction to Japanese Studies resources available from UMSL Libraries.

Japanese Studies. Image of a bridge over a river surrounded by cherry trees.


Header image: Koganeibashi no sekishō (1938) by Hiroshige Andō

 

Welcome! This guide offers an introduction to Japanese Studies resources at UMSL Libraries and on the web. You will find help with:

  • Background information
  • Searching Discover@UMSL for scholarly books & articles
  • Choosing & navigating library databases
  • Introductory information for special topics
  • Citing sources

...and more.


Questions?

Please contact the arts & humanities librarian. We also welcome purchase suggestions from UMSL affiliates for Japanese Studies materials.

Quick Resources

What's New?

Kore-Eda Hirokazu

Critics often see Kore-eda as a director steeped in the Japanese tradition defined by Yasujiro Ozu. Marc Yamada, however, views Kore-eda's work in relation to the same socioeconomic concerns explored by other contemporary international filmmakers. Yamada reveals that a type of excess, not the minimalism associated with traditional aesthetics, defines Kore-eda's trademark humanism.

The Arts of the Microbial World

Explores the significance of fermentation phenomena, both as life processes and as technologies, in Japanese scientific culture. Victoria Lee's careful study documents how Japanese scientists and skilled workers sought to use the microbe's natural processes to create new products, from soy-sauce mold starters to MSG, vitamins to statins.

Takashi Shimura

The first complete English-language account of Shimura's work. In addition to historical and critical coverage of Shimura's life and career, it includes an extensive filmography.

6000-do no ai | 六〇〇〇度の愛

(in Japanese) Thrilling and poised in equal measure, dealing with the travails of history, with gendered identity, and with the tension between private and public selves, Love at Six Thousand Degrees is a literary highwire act by one of the most unique voices in contemporary Japanese fiction.

Homesick Blues

Explores how artists, fans, amateur practitioners, and others have used music to tell stories of everyday life in Japan from the late 1940s to 2018, a practice that author Scott Aalgaard calls "musical storytelling."