The Keys To The Chinese Characters (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781503036307)

Shizuka Shirakawa is East Asia's foremost scholar of Chinese characters who has made many breakthrough discoveries leading to the most convincing explanations of their system. His method of teaching and explaining Chinese characters is now the standard method adopted at a considerable part of Japanese elementary schools. He received many important prices and Japan's highest national decoration in the realm of culture, the Order of Cultural Merit. About the translator and commentator: Christoph Schmitz is a native of Cologne on the River Rhine and is of German and Polish descent. He studied Philosophy, History, and Japanology. Starting at the University of Constance (also a city on the Rhine) he continued studies at the Faculty of Comparative Culture of Sophia University (Tokyo), and at the University of D?seldorf (another city on the Rhine). M.A. and Dr. phil. (2002). He was then researcher at the Graduate School of Law and Politics of the University of Tokyo. Since being a freshman, Schmitz noticed how mistranslations of classics and misnomers result in severe international misunderstandings. He then turned to Chinese characters, a subject the history and explanation of which Occidental scholars have always neglected. For the first time in the history of East Asian studies, Schmitz illustrates that pivotal terms are mistranslated by most of the 'authorities' one is used to trust, with severe results. With this translation and commentary, hitherto clueless Sinology and Japanology is given a thorough foundation in Chinese character studies. Schmitz's comment is an additional piece of independent scholarship. Having corresponded with Shizuka Shirakawa in Kyoto, visiting him and hearing his lectures, he is now living in Japan (Tokyo) for sixteen years. For scholarly and business contact (ordering calligraphy of characters from the early styles) send an email to ChineseCharacters(at)telekom.de