Wrapping Culture: Politeness, Presentation, and Power in Japan and Other Societies

This is an excellent book about Japan - one of the best books of Japanology, up their with Benedict's Chrysanthemum, Doi's Amae/Dependence, and Nakane's Verticle Soceity and other sleeper, Nakashima Yoshimichi's "Urusai Nihonjin no Watash". This book reads a little like a series of lectures, upon which I guess it was based going for breadth, and a considerable degree of repetition. I would have liked to read more about "why" (but then see below). And the style is couched in antrhopologist speak (e.g. calling her friends and aquaintances in Japan "informants," ho ho) but then scholars have to tow the jargon if they are to be accepted as scholars. I would recommend this book to anyone as a fun and informative back door to understanding Japanese society, and as food for further thought. If I might be allowed to highlight one point, that I wish Hendry had addressed further... She cricises Barthes' (and Maruyama Masao's?) "empty center" theory with reference to the imperial palace, saying (in a moment of enlightenment, about herself too on p109) "In fact, contrary to Barthe's expectation, I think that the place does irradiate power of a certain sort, and the problem may lie in our Western propensity to want always to be unwrapping, deconstructing, seeing the objects at the center of things." Here I think that Hendry really hits the nail on the head, but in so doing she challenges the notion of Japan being a "Wrapping" culture. Japan is a "wrapping culture" so long as you are a Westerner that expects there to be something inside. To the Japanese wrapping is not wrapping, but the real deal. The problem is that we attempt to find something inside. Perhaps the same criticism could be leveled at this review.