cover Book Review by Paul Chapman
(from The Kiteflier, oct97)

This delighfful 95 page softback book has been prepared by the cognoscenti of Japanese kites: Tal Streeter, Scott Skinner. Masaaki Modegi and Tsutomu Hiroi. The group has come together under the auspices of Scott Skinner's Drachen Foundation to provide an in-depth catalogue of the Drachen Foundation travelling exhibition of Japanese kines. The result is a well coordinated series of chapters that cover all aspects of Japanese kites.

I particularly appreciated the explanation of the characters that feature on the kite skins - poor old Daruma who was so absorbed in his meditation that his legs rotted away from under him and leaving him egg shaped. True or false? Fascinating mythology. The history - both ancient and modern - is adequately described as are notable kite makers. Kites by the master kite maker, Teizo Hashimoto, form a significant part of the large number of excellent colour illustrations. It is worth buying the book just for the illustrations of these inspiring kites; Tiezo and Kiyo Hashimoto devoted their lives to kites in a way that is impossible today and it is no wonder that probably only one master Edo kitemaker survives. Of course there are many other kitemakers and illustrations of a wide diversity of their kites is given. I was particularly taken by the gently erotic kites of Kazuo Inoue.

Probably, because of the exhibition catalogue nature of the book, it has not been possible to be truly comprehensive in showing the full diversity of Japanese kite forms - for this you need to start with Saito's 'Colourful Kites from Japan'. It is a pity that the chapter on the Anatomy of the Kite is only a short two pages as the details of making these exquisite kites is intriguing. The chapter on aerodynamics could easily have been made over to the construction section. The latter part of the book is given to describing individual well known kitemakers. Again it is a pity that this section could not have been longer because all the kite makers described would warrant a double page spread; some are rather meanly relegated to four kitemakers to a page The book closes with a catalogue of festivals, kite museums and kite clubs - all essential if you are to make the visit to Japan. The book has a useful glossary, but it has no index. The bibliography is extremely basic which, for a kite book collector, is disappointing.
While I have no hesitation in recommending the book there is one enigmatic exception. Nowhere in the book is the Japanese character for kite - Tako. This is rather odd as all Tako-Kichi love the symbology of the wind blown octopus character that forms the centre of their universe.

Thames and Hudson, 1997
ISBN=0-5002-7942-X		 You want to go to Amazon.com to buy it now?