I would like to thank Michael Leaman, for his support of my work and his extraordinary bibliophilic sense; the Japan Foundation (New York), for their generous support of this project; Michaël Ferrier, for sharing his vast erudition concerning Japanese culture as well as his joie de vivre; Mark Halpern, for all the pleasures he made possible in my discovery of Tokyo and for his invaluable reading of the manuscript; Michael Lazarin, for his extreme generosity and matching erudition; Sekitani Kazuhiko and Kawabe Tsutsumi, for their extraordinary hospitality which revealed so many subtleties of Japanese refinement and beauty; Karen Shimakawa, for all the inspiring discussions; Umeda Minoru and Umeda Mitsuko, for introducing me to the marvels of Japanese pottery and cuisine; Robert Yellin, for his erudition, enthusiasm and kindness; Ikeba Kumi, for her generosity and the remarkable precision of her research into art history; and above all to Chantal Thomas, for sharing so many things with so much joy. Thanks also go to all those others who helped me in so many ways, notably: Aoyama Tom, Aoyama Wahei, François Bizet, René de Ceccatty, Murielle Hladik, Hosokawa Shuhei, Koie Ryōji, Sylvia Lachter, Masuda Makoto, Mori Chikako, Nakamura Ryōji, Ofer Shagan, Jeff Shapiro, Abbot Yamada Sōshō of Shinju-an; also the Cavin-Morris Gallery, Jukō-in, Omote Senke, the Japan Foundation Kyoto Office, and special thanks to Raku Kichizaemon XV and the Raku Museum.
Portions of this book were published in earlier forms in the following journals: ‘Cracks’, artUS, 29 (2010); ‘Dry Mountain Water’, Cabinet, 38 (2010); ‘Guinomi’, Cabinet, 30 (2008); ‘Guinomi’, Gastronomica, X/1 (2010); ‘Impossible Possibles’, Log, 19 (2010); ‘The Limits of Metaphor: Ideology and Representation in the Zen Garden’, Social Analysis, LIV/2 (2010); ‘On the Circulation of Metaphors in the Zen Garden’, AA Files, 60 (2010); ‘Seeing the Unspeakable’, artUS, 32 (2012); ‘The Toilet Bowl and the Tea Bowl’, artUS, 27 (2009).