Another Kyoto

Another Kyoto is an insider's meditation on the hidden wonders of Japan's most enigmatic city. Drawing on decades of living in Kyoto and on lore gleaned from artists, Zen monks, and Shinto priests, Alex Kerr illuminates the simplest things—a temple gate, a wall, a sliding door—in a new way. A rich book of intimate proportions, it reveals how in Kyoto, facts and meaning are often hidden in plain sight. Kerr's gift is to make us stop and cast our eyes upward to a temple plaque or to squint into the gloom of an abbot's chamber. Kerr and Sokol have performed a minor miracle by presenting that which is present in Kyoto as that which we have yet to see. I know that I will never pass a wall, tread a floor, or sit on tatami the same way again.