Korean in a Hurry: A Quick Approach to Spoken Korean . By Samuel E. Martin. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1954. xi, 137. - Practical Korean Grammar . By Chang Hei Lee. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1955. xi, 225. $4.50.

Abstract

as an organized religion is weak, sect Shinto is absent, and direct Chinese— especially Confucian—influences have survived much longer. I t is not meaningful therefore to make comparisons between the Okinawans and the Japanese; it would be more apt to compare Okinawan culture with that of a Japanese rural province, for Okinawan rural life is but little disturbed by the growth of cities" (p. 299). This reviewer would add only the caution that there is such great variation among the rural provinces of Japan that the above characterization of Okinawa might apply as well to many parts of rural Japan. A number of errors and inconsistencies of romanization of Japanese words appear, among them: for momit-suriki read momi-tsuriki (p. 144); for rokujugo read rokujugo (p. 146); for chisi read chishi (p. 152); for kamobuko read kamaboko (p. 203); for uino read yuinfi (p. 215); for ireizumi read irezumi (p. 238). Those familiar with the festivals of rural Japan will be surprised to find that tandbata is a preliminary to o-bon on Okinawa, where the former is "occasionally... referred to as a 'star festival'" (p. 315). This reviewer found the book interesting and informative throughout, particularly because it offers for the first time detailed field data on a variant of Japanese culture about which there has heretofore been much speculation and little sound information. The author has skillfully combined his cultural and geographical materials into a book highly recommended to all students of Japan and its culture.