A five-minute stroll from Palaceside Building brought me to the Chiyoda Ward Library (Kudanminami 1-2-1, Chiyoda-ku, 9th floor of the ward office) for the exhibition "Books That Sparkle with Asian Colors—We Have Gathered 200 Books to Know Asia." I had kept putting it off and only made it in the nick of time—the show runs through Saturday, May 25—but there is still time to see it.
For better or worse, interest in Asia is running high. Compared with the past, information about countries across Asia is everywhere around us. Yet with information flooding the internet and countless new books being published, finding exactly what you are looking for may actually be getting harder.
That concern, it seems, is what prompted this exhibition. The organizer, "Asian Books Network," brings together 15 publishers, including several smaller houses. Asia ranges from major powers such as China and India to small nations like Bhutan and East Timor—sometimes a center of global economic growth, sometimes a region holding fast to its own culture—with religions and ethnic groups of every kind. These publishers have shone a light on Asia's many facets and produced books across a wide range of genres. Here, roughly 200 volumes on Asian history, society, culture, daily life, religion, food, travel, development, conflict, and more have been brought together.
The display currently highlights 45 titles chosen by the 15 publishers and Asian specialists, each with a recommendation
= photo upper left. Titles such as "Aung San Suu Kyi: Love and Mission" (Akashi Shoten), "Park Chung-hee: Mobilized Modernization" (Sairyusha), "Buddhism Seen through Comparative Thought" (Toho Publishing), and "Modern History for Adults" (University of Tokyo Press) fill the shelves with books you will want to pick up.
More than 200 additional titles are listed under the headings "Asia I Want to Visit," "Japan and Asia," "Feeling Asia," and "Asia I Want to Know." A chronology of modern history in East, Southeast, and South Asia is also on view.
In conjunction with the show, bookstores in nearby Jimbocho and Marunouchi are holding a 20th-anniversary fair for Asian Books Network. These three shops still have it running: Iwanami Book Center register counter (through the 25th), Maruzen Marunouchi main store 3rd-floor register counter (through the 31st), and Sanseido Jimbocho main store 4th-floor register counter (same date). Buy a fair-band book at the designated register during the period and you may receive a gift—check at the library and each bookstore.