Liza Crihfield Dalby Orden de los libros

According to Buddhist theology, the world is suffering through a final corrupt era called mappo. As mappo continues, chaos will increase until the center can no longer hold. Then the world will end. Hundreds of temples in Japan are known to keep mysterious "hidden buddhas" secreted away except on rare designated viewing days. These statues are not hidden because they are powerful - their power lies in their being hidden. Are they being protected, or are they protecting the world? In this novel, one Buddhist priest struggles with the dictates of his inherited orthodoxy, while another rebels. An American graduate student begins to suspect the mysterious purpose of the hidden buddhas, just as he falls in love with a beautiful Japanese artist who is haunted by an aborted child. The weaving of karma that brings these two together results in a tech-savvy half-Western, half-Japanese child who text-messages her way through the profane world to enlightenment. Tracing the lives of its characters through the late twentieth century to the present, from Paris to Kyoto to California, Hidden Buddhas turns a cosmopolitan eye on discipline and decadence in religion, fashion, politics, and modern life.

Writing in luminous prose, Liza Dalby, acclaimed author of Geisha and The Tale of Murasaki, brings us this elegant and unique year’s journal— a brilliant mosaic that is at once a candid memoir, a gardener’s diary, and an enlightening excursion through cultures east and west. Structured according to the seasonal units of an ancient Chinese almanac, East Wind Melts the Ice is made up of 72 short chapters that can be read straight through or dipped into at random. In the essays, Dalby transports us from her Berkeley garden to the streets of Kyoto, to Imperial China, to the sea cliffs of Northern California, and to points beyond. Throughout these journeys, Dalby weaves her memories of living in Japan and becoming the first and only non-Japanese geisha, her observations on the recurring phenomena of the natural world, and meditations on the cultural aesthetics of Japan, China, and California. She illuminates everyday life as well, in stories of keeping a pet butterfly, roasting rice cakes with her children, watching whales, and pampering worms to make compost. In the manner of the Japanese personal poetic essay, this vibrant work comprises 72 windows on a life lived between cultures, and the result is a wonderfully engaging read.

One of the famous work of Japanese literature is the eleventh-century Tale of Genji by a woman of the imperial court. This title evokes Murasaki's close family, the men and women she loved, the vortex of high politics she was drawn into at court, and the way in which Murasaki came to write her masterpiece.

Liza Dalby tenía veinticinco años cuando decidió que la mejor manera de completar su tesis sobre el mundo de las geishas sería un viaje a Oriente, para observar muy de cerca los usos y las costumbres de estas mujeres exóticas y fascinantes. Lo que quizá no sospechaba entonces es que su viaje a Japón y sus ganas de saber la convertirían en la primera mujer extranjera que trabajaría como geisha en Kioto. Lo que empezó siendo el objeto de un estudio académico pronto se convirtió en una experiencia inolvidable, y la mirada pretendidamente neutra tropezó con sensaciones y sentimientos nuevos. La convivencia diaria con su maestra y con las demás compañeras le mostró formas insólitas de entender el juego de la seducción, que tiene sus secretos guardados en los pliegues de seda de un kimono y en la sonrisa enigmática que se dibuja sobre un rostro de mujer. Ese universo cerrado, rico en detalles y matices que suelen pasar desapercibidos a los ojos del viajero, se abrió ante el gesto respetuoso de Liza Dalby, que durante un año miró, preguntó y escuchó, sin querer juzgar ni criticar. El fruto de esta aventura vital está condensado en Geisha, un libro que nos permite oír la voz de lo desconocido.

William Morrow & Co (October 1984) English 9780688025304 978-0688025304 0688025307 Product 9.9 x 9.9 x 0.8 inches