Thank you so much to NetGalley and Watkins Publishing for my copy of The Japanese Art of Living Seasonally by Natalie Leon in exchange for an honest review. It publishes May 14, 2024.
This was a beautifully-written book chock full of so much fascinating information. I loved the way this book was set up, and I think there is truly something in it for everyone. Since it is springtime currently, we have cherry blossoms and I am definitely appreciating them more!

2.5 stars from me. It's quite obvious (even before I looked at the extensive bibliography) that Leon has done her research. The book is an aggregation of all that she learned and has very little in the way of originality other than the rather limpid ideas she has for celebrating. But as a compendium, it is useful though an index would have been quite helpful as some concepts come up in different locations. This is a nice enough reference book and would be a good gift for a budding Japanologist. A reader who came to Japan via manga might find this a useful way to obtain more background very easily instead of wading through the source material listed in the bibliography.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. New Japanophiles should find it useful.

This book was incredibly well researched and laid out quite nicely. I loved the lessons from each ritual that you can take away with and how accessible this text was. I also enjoyed that this author did not overly romanticize Japanese culture or rituals, and instead approached from a very nice place of teaching and not appropriation. 4.5/5

What a lovely book, very detailed and at times a bit dens, about the Japanese ethos of living life according to the current season. In the Japanese calendar, there are 72 micro seasons; the author presents ideas on how to celebrate each with food, flowers, kimonos, tea, and much more. I especially like the book’s focus on slowing down and noticing, celebrating every day.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

This book is very rich in information! While difficult to read straight through due to the many definitions and descriptions, it'll be a valuable reference to regularly return to. I really enjoyed the many practical recommendations for meditation practices and other ways to enrich your life throughout the seasons. I recommend this book for anyone interested in Japanese culture, food, and more! Or if you are looking for a new way to live more mindfully throughout the year.

This book is lovely. It has lots of interesting and fascinating information, and I learned many new things, but I found it a little dense and even boring at times. I think if you’re one of those people who are obsessed with Japanese culture you’ll love it. I just had a mild curiosity, so this ended up being a middle of the road read for me.

A wonderful resource. I found it all very interesting and will recommend it to anyone interested in alternative ways of living,

I thought this book was so interesting! I love seeing different points of view and how people live differently than others. I felt like the explanations made sense and were explained in a way I could understand.

It was a lovely read and I enjoyed how cozy it was to read this. Each season is beautiful and you can find joy and magic in each one as Japanese society does. I enjoyed reading this as I drank tea and listened to the birds outside.
Thank you to the publisher and author for this delightful arc.

Everything Japanese: from cooking to kimonos, from seasonal celebrations to ikigai and shrin-yoku. In short, a small breviary for all those who would like to incorporate a little bit of Japan into their lives. Lovely.

Tutto quello che é giapponese: dalla cucina ai kimono, dalle celebrazioni stagionali all'ikigai, passando dallo shrin-yoku. Insomma un piccolo breviario per tutti coloro che vorrebbero inserire un po' di Giappone nella loro vita. Molto carino.

An interesting and informative book covering all aspects of Japanese seasonal culture. Natalie Leon encourages us to reconnect with nature and live more mindfully, using our curiosity to enjoy the wonder of the world around us. The book is structured around 72 micro seasons.
It contains lots of interesting facts and snippets from Japanese culture, as well as ideas on how to maximise your engagement with the natural world. This is the sort of book you can dip into at any time, with 12 themed sections including clothing, tea, moon watching and flowers.
A lovely relaxed piece of reading.

The Japanese Art of Living Seasonally : An invitation to celebrate every day. This is the perfect book for anyone wanting a spiritual take on the Japanese culture. It is full of rituals, history, and snippets of interesting information based around the seasons. The author encourages you to . Increase your personal harmony, creativity and happiness by indulging in Japanese seasonal traditions and rituals. It is definitely for those with a love of Japan, and maybe for some nature lovers too.

This is a fairly comprehensive (historically), yet rudimentary (in terms of prose) account about a lot of good the Japanese do well: living day to day, mastery over a single thing, honouring culture and change, etc.
I am a beginner Japanese speaker currently and I figured this would help augment that experience but I was let down.
The book is split into twelve sections, talking about clothes, flower arranging, tea making, the food culture and a few more.
The food section I found fascinating. Same goes for the zero waste living and way of water. The rest? Not so much.
I consider myself a fairly spiritual person but I found this almost ‘self help-y’, rather than informative for the reader who wants to immerse deeper into the way of life of the Japanese.
One fundamental change I would make it adding the Kanji to every subtitled section as well, rather than just the romaji. That would add tons of immersion and actually would have added a whole star.
Natalie Leon clearly knows her stuff: it’s just not how I would have arranged it and that’s okay!
I thank NetGalley for this ARC, in response to an honest and fair review.

The Japanese Art of Living Seasonally is a lovely book that is well-researched. It documents carefully the ritual, tradition and key elements of the 72 microseasons observed in Japan in an accurate and succinct way

The layout is light and accessible and it is a good book to journey through the seasons with. There is so much in here to learn and do that it is a real delight to become immersed in. Leon writes very well and clearly knows their subject matter very, very well, writing with insight and empathy

I really enjoyed this in-depth review of living seasonally and it is certainly a book to keep for daily reference

Thank you to Netgalley, Watkins Publishing and Natalie Leon for this wonderful ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

Felt disjointed - it’s comprised of tons of short blurbs about everything Japanese without much connective tissue (from festivals to tea). I couldn’t really take this seriously since it felt like half a book report on Japan, and half just page fillers (ie how to make tea, as in…boil water and pick you tea).

Very excited for this beautiful book of Japenease tradition to help guide me through the year. Will be sharing much more soon