The Genii Forum

I posted recently a thread on the Magic Caf here:

Japanese Magic Books?

As the post mentions, I am interested in finding Japanese magic books besides the ones I already have (also mention on the thread).

The reason I brought this over here is because I am hoping there will be more expertise on the subject on this forum. Especially since I was told Mr. Kaufman knows a lot on this particular subject. :grin:

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Sam

I don't believe any other books have been published on Japanese magic in English other than the ones I've done in the past 30 years. If you look on the right side of the screen, and scroll down, you'll find a phone number for John Greget, who sells used books. He may have a Sawa book. You might also try George Daily: gsdaily (at) comcast.net.

I have published quite a bit of Japanese magic in Genii from Hiro Sakai and Tomo Maeda, as well as some in The Looking Glass.

I will have three more books on Japanese magic coming out: a new book of Japanese close-up magic, a book on Tenkai, and a book on Tomo Maeda's magic. But you'll have to be patient.

There's also the New York Magic Symposium Collection Five, which has a good section on Japanese magic but might not be easy to find. And Takagi's Coin Assembly and Wild Card were also sold as separate manuscripts.

Edwin Corrie wrote:There's also the New York Magic Symposium Collection Five, which has a good section on Japanese magic but might not be easy to find.

If you don't mind buying the whole set at this price, New York Magic Symposium Collection Five is in this eBay listing.

JMD

When you say "Japanese Magic Books" do you mean magic books about Japanese magic, or magic books written in Japanese?

- T. Baxter

Books in English about Japanese magic.

Richard Kaufman wrote: I will have three more books on Japanese magic coming out: a new book of Japanese close-up magic, a book on Tenkai, and a book on Tomo Maeda's magic. But you'll have to be patient.

Great! That's awesome.
---
The New York Magic Symposium book seems very expensive and rare so I'll probably have to pass on that for now. I'll have to keep that in mind everyone, thanks.

I just purchased the Shigeo Takagi book from this site after I made this thread, (took advantage of that 2 for 3 deal) and if it wasn't for that I'd try calling one of those guys about the Sawa book. Again, thank you, I'll keep that in mind too.

By the way, I will also gladly accept any information about Japanese magic books written in Japanese. I just started learning Japanese so any recommendations could help in the future.

Thanks again,
Sam

It might take a while to get to a level where you can read books in Japanese, but when you do there is always Amazon Japan. A quick search for "magic" (tejina) produces the following:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_ja_JP=%83J%83%5E%83J%83i&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=%8E%E8%95i

Or you could look for Japanese translations of English books and read them in parallel. Years ago I happened to find The Magic of Pavel in Japanese, but you need quite a good knowledge of the language to even get off the ground. If you ever want to try there is always The Collected Almanac, which is easier to find and includes a copy of the Japanese edition of Vol. 1 No. 1.

Thank you.

I've also found https://www.frenchdrop.com has a good selection. I just don't know which ones are good because I can't read the language yet.

I know I won't be able to read them for a LONG time, but it's still helpful for the future.

Sam, somebody over at the Cafe recommended Nemoto's TOKYO TRICKERY...I too recommend it to you, since you are interested in Close Up magic....It is a remarkable sleight-of-hand manual and one of the few places you will find an outstanding description (and instruction) of the Oriental Cups/Bowls and Balls routine.
....opie

You will find a full description of the Japanese version of the Cups and Balls in Shigeo Takagi's book.

I've been meaning to ask you about that...

Tokyo Trickery is another one of those rare books I believe... what a shame.

I'll look forward to the Cups and Balls in Shigeo's book. Thank you.

Not all that rare:

http://www.magicinc.net/tokyotrickery.aspx

https://midwestmagic.net/shop/item.asp? ... 578&catid=

Wow! I looked all over the internet and couldn't find it... and what a price!

Thank you

No problem.