Our book today is Low City, High City by famed translator Edward Seidensticker, which appeared in 1983 with the enormous unnecessary subtitle “Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake: how the shogun’s ancient capital became a great modern city, 1867-1923,” and although its subject canvas is broad and picturesque and fascinating, Seidensticker chooses to kick things off on a carping, ill-tempered, and decidedly weird note.
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