Water of the Sky: A Dictionary of 2,000 Japanese Rain Words

Water of the Sky

$34.95
Sale price  $34.95 Regular price 
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Water of the Sky: A Dictionary of 2,000 Japanese Rain Words

Water of the Sky

$34.95
Sale price  $34.95 Regular price 
Unit price $34.95 each
A breathtakingly elegant visual dictionary of 2000 Japanese words for rain, with 100 drawings in indigo.

In Water of the Sky, artist Miya Ando offers us a beautifully rich, bilingual visual dictionary for rain. Through a collection of 2,000 Japanese words, their English interpretations, and 100 drawings, Ando describes the breadth and diversity of rain's many expressions: when it falls, how it falls, and how its observer might be transformed physically or emotionally by its presence. The words range from prosaic to esoteric, extending from the meteorological (mukaame, or "very fine rain that falls in spring") to the mystical (bunryūu, or "rain that splits a dragon's body in half") and from the minute (kisame, or "raindrops that fall off the leaves and branches of trees") to the vast (takuu, or "blessed rain that quenches all things in the universe").

Ando's visual interpretations of these terms are not so much illustrations as evocations, attempts to embody or imagine each rain's precise and essential quality. The book presents 100 of these 2,000 drawings of rain accompanied by the full index of 2,000 Japanese words and their approximate English equivalents, presented alphabetically using a hybrid Japanese-English alphabetization rubric.

Details

ISBN
9780262049863
Binding
Hardcover
Authors
Miya Ando
Publisher
MIT Press
Published Date
November 4, 2025
Language
English
Pages
280
Physical Info
1.1 in H x 8.1 in L x 6.2 in W (1.71 lb)

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