Water, Wood, and Wild Things
Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town
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Narrated by:
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Hannah Kirshner
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By:
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Hannah Kirshner
About this listen
"With this book, you feel you can stop time and savor the rituals of life." (Maira Kalman)
An immersive journey through the culture and cuisine of one Japanese town, its forest, and its watershed - where ducks are hunted by net, saké is brewed from the purest mountain water, and charcoal is fired in stone kilns - by an American writer and food stylist who spent years working alongside artisans
One night, Brooklyn-based artist and food writer Hannah Kirshner received a life-changing invitation to apprentice with a "saké evangelist" in a misty Japanese mountain village called Yamanaka. In a rapidly modernizing Japan, the region - a stronghold of the country's old-fashioned ways - was quickly becoming a destination for chefs and artisans looking to learn about the traditions that have long shaped Japanese culture. Kirshner put on a vest and tie and took her place behind the saké bar. Before long, she met a community of craftspeople, farmers, and foragers - master woodturners, hunters, a paper artist, and a man making charcoal in his nearly abandoned village on the outskirts of town. Kirshner found each craftsperson not only exhibited an extraordinary dedication to their work but their distinct expertise contributed to the fabric of the local culture. Inspired by these masters, she devoted herself to learning how they work and live.
Taking listeners deep into evergreen forests, terraced rice fields, and smoke-filled workshops, Kirshner captures the centuries-old traditions still alive in Yamanaka. Water, Wood, and Wild Things invites listeners to see what goes into making a fine bowl, a cup of tea, or a harvest of rice, and introduces the masters who dedicate their lives to this work. Part travelogue, part meditation on the meaning of work, and full of her own beautiful drawings and recipes, Kirshner's refreshing book is an ode to a place and its people, as well as a profound examination of what it means to sustain traditions and find purpose in cultivation and craft.
This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF of illustrations and recipes.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Hannah Kirshner (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“If you have a yearning (as I do) to go to Japan and do exactly what Hannah did (without the mountain biking), you will be very grateful for her essays on life among the craftspeople of a small town. Hannah transports you to a place of serenity and beauty, where moments of exquisite wonder pervade. With this book, you feel you can stop time and savor the rituals of life.” (Maira Kalman, author of Cake and Beloved Dog)
“How does one engage ethically with a culture not their own? Kirshner offers one possible way. Her humility, curiosity, and dedication shine through in the accuracy and honesty of her discussions of historical contexts and the privilege she enjoys as a white American woman in Japan. Kirshner listened, and allowed me to hear the voices of Yamanaka’s people, who are recreating traditions every day.” (Takeshi Watanabe, author of Flowering Tales: Women Exorcising History in Heian Japan)
"In Kirshner's explorations and excavations, we navigate the pulls of place and identity - Water, Wood, and Wild Things settles us into Yamanaka, and alongside the folks who live there. Kirshner is both participant and observer, humbly and tactfully weaving a portrait of a history, its mores, and how they've changed. But, above all, she listens - allowing the community to tell their story, and allowing us to view the tapestry she's painted alongside them. Water, Wood, and Wild Things is a trove and a boon - we can't help but feel grateful that Kirshner brought us along for the journey.” (Bryan Washington, author of Memorial)
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Interesting material that's well-narrated
- By John S. on 11-09-16
By: Michael Booth
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Infused
- Adventures in Tea
- By: Henrietta Lovell
- Narrated by: Henrietta Lovell
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Henrietta Lovell is on a mission to revolutionize the way we drink tea by replacing industrially produced teabags with the highest quality tea leaves. Infused invites us to discover these remarkable places, introducing us to the individual growers and household-name chefs Lovell has met along the way - and reveals the true pleasures of tea. The result is a delicious infusion of travel writing, memoir, and recipes, all written with Lovell's unique charm and wit.
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I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite tea but this is definitely my favorite book on the topic of tea!
- By Mindful Tea Queen on 05-15-21
By: Henrietta Lovell
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Buttermilk Graffiti
- A Chef’s Journey to Discover America’s New Melting-Pot Cuisine
- By: Edward Lee
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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American food is the story of mash-ups. Immigrants arrive, cultures collide, and out of the push-pull come exciting new dishes and flavors. But for Edward Lee, who, like Anthony Bourdain or Gabrielle Hamilton, is as much a writer as he is a chef, that first surprising bite is just the beginning. What about the people behind the food? What about the traditions, the innovations, the memories? A natural-born storyteller, Lee decided to hit the road and spent two years uncovering fascinating narratives from every corner of the country.
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Good listen for the aspiring food snob
- By thurman r. on 02-09-22
By: Edward Lee
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Little Heathens
- Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
- By: Mildred Armstrong Kalish
- Narrated by: Ruth Ann Phimister
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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As foreclosure fragments her family, five-year-old Mildred and her three siblings find refuge with her grandparents enjoying a modest retirement. When the "little heathens" flush the seniors and their child-rearing skills out of retirement, the grandparents deploy tough but loving bedtime schedules, Bible and prayer routines, and plenty of character-building chores. Having no electricity or indoor plumbing and with little heat or money on the farm, Mildred learns to find joy in the priceless blessings of life.
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Makes you appreciate today's living
- By Susan on 03-11-11
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Unprocessed
- My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food
- By: Megan Kimble
- Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In January of 2012, Megan Kimble was a 26-year-old living in a small apartment without even a garden plot to her name. But she cared about where food came from, how it was made, and what it did to her body: so she decided to go an entire year without eating processed foods. Unprocessed is the narrative of Megan's extraordinary year, in which she milled wheat, extracted salt from the sea, milked a goat, slaughtered a sheep, and more - all while earning an income that fell well below the federal poverty line.
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Very insightful
- By Anonymous User on 01-10-21
By: Megan Kimble
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The Mezcal Rush
- Explorations in Agave Country
- By: Granville Greene
- Narrated by: Kevin Free
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Mezcal. In recent years, the oldest spirit in the Americas has been reinvented as a pricy positional good popular among booze connoisseurs and the mixologists who use it as a cocktail ingredient. Unlike most high-end distillates, most small-batch mezcal is typically produced by and for subsistence farming communities, often under challenging conditions.
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Wow! Just Wow!
- By Si saben cómo me pongo ¿pa' qué me invitan? on 09-25-17
By: Granville Greene
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Eating for England
- The Delights and Eccentricities of the British at Table
- By: Nigel Slater
- Narrated by: Nigel Slater
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The British have a relationship with their food that is unlike that of any other country. Once something that was never discussed in polite company, it is now something with which the nation is obsessed. But are we at last developing a food culture or are we just going through the motions? Eating for England is an entertaining, detailed, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek observation of the British and their food, their cooking, their eating, and how they behave in restaurants.
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A Must-Hear!
- By Laura on 07-04-08
By: Nigel Slater
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The Brewer's Tale
- A History of the World According to Beer
- By: William Bostwick
- Narrated by: Christopher Sutton
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The Brewer's Tale is a beer-filled journey into the past: the story of brewers gone by and one brave writer's quest to bring them - and their ancient, forgotten beers - back to life, one taste at a time. This is the story of the world according to beer, a toast to flavors born of necessity and place - in Belgian monasteries, rundown farmhouses, and the basement nanobrewery next door. So pull up a barstool and raise a glass to 5,000 years of fermented magic.
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Good insights!
- By Michael on 03-08-16
By: William Bostwick
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Hunting Camp 52: Tales from a North Woods Deer Camp
- By: John Marvin Hanson
- Narrated by: Kevin Meyer
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet the Jolly Boys - five men from northern Wisconsin who built a deer hunting shack in 1955 and established a tradition that has now lasted over six decades. Hunting Camp 52, affectionately known as Blue Heaven, is a place where every trail, rock, and ravine has its own nickname; every kill is recorded by hand on a window shade; every hunter happily croons along during evening songfests; and every rowdy poker game lasts late into the night.
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Love the story of tradition and laughs.
- By Anonymous User on 11-27-24
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Breakfast in Burgundy
- A Hungry Irishman in the Belly of France
- By: Raymond Blake
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Laced with compelling writing about French food and its ways, Breakfast in Burgundy is part travel memoir, part foodie detective story, and part love song to Raymond's adopted home. This audiobook tells the story of the Blake's decision to buy a house in Burgundy. Raymond describes the moments of despair such as the water leak that cost a fortune and the fantastic times too. Blake has admitted to being fascinated by flavor and how it is created."
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surprisingly lulz and interesting
- By Amazon Customer on 12-02-21
By: Raymond Blake
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Farm City
- The Education of an Urban Farmer
- By: Novella Carpenter
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Novella Carpenter loves cities - the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can't shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents' disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways.
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Hmmm.
- By THoward on 09-30-09
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Eight Flavors
- The Untold Story of American Cuisine
- By: Sarah Lohman
- Narrated by: Sarah Lohman
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The United States boasts a culturally and ethnically diverse population which makes for a continually changing culinary landscape. But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. In Eight Flavors, Lohman sets out to explore how these influential ingredients made their way to the American table.
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Great read... Terrible accents
- By S. Macklin on 12-14-18
By: Sarah Lohman
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The Backyard Parables
- Lessons on Gardening, and Life
- By: Margaret Roach
- Narrated by: Margaret Roach
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Margaret Roach has been harvesting 30 years of backyard parables - deceptively simple, instructive stories from a life spent digging ever deeper - and has distilled them in this memoir along with her best tips for garden making, discouraging all manner of animal and insect opponents, at-home pickling, and more. After ruminating on the bigger picture in her memoir And I Shall Have Some Peace There, Margaret Roach has returned to the garden, insisting as ever that we must garden with both our head and heart, or as she expresses it, with "horticultural how-to and woo-woo."
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Great Writing Distracting Reading
- By Amazon Customer on 02-11-13
By: Margaret Roach
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The Way Life Should Be
- A Novel
- By: Christina Baker Kline
- Narrated by: Caitlin Davies
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Angela can feel the clock ticking. She is single in New York City, stuck in a job she doesn't want and a life that seems to have somehow just happened. She inherited a flair for Italian cooking from her grandmother, but she never seems to have the time for it - these days, her oven holds only sweaters. Tacked to her office bulletin board is a photo from a magazine of a tidy cottage on the coast of Maine - a charming reminder of a life that could be hers if she could only muster the courage to go after it.
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Simple story
- By Dianna Bogart on 06-09-15
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Toast
- The Story of a Boy's Hunger
- By: Nigel Slater
- Narrated by: Nigel Slater
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Toast is Nigel Slater's truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. In each chapter, as he takes listeners on a tour of the contents of his family's pantry (rice pudding, tinned ham, cream soda, mince pies, lemon drops, bourbon biscuits), we are transported.
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Nigel Slater is fabulous!
- By S on 02-13-07
By: Nigel Slater
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Stir
- My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home
- By: Jessica Fechtor
- Narrated by: Jessica Fechtor
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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At 28, Jessica Fechtor was happily immersed in graduate school and her young marriage and thinking about starting a family. Then one day she went for a run, and an aneurysm burst in her brain. She nearly died. She lost her sense of smell and the sight in her left eye and was forced to the sidelines of the life she loved. Jessica's journey to recovery began in the kitchen as soon as she was able to stand at the stovetop and stir. There, she drew strength from the restorative power of cooking and baking.
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Wonderful powerful read
- By Amazon Customer on 01-13-24
By: Jessica Fechtor
What listeners say about Water, Wood, and Wild Things
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- claire hartman
- 05-24-22
Stunning amount of work and wisdom
This book is a staggering amount of work, commitment and dedication. What a feat. Not only did I learn so much, but the tenacity and humility with which the author pursued learning about various aspects of Japanese culture by true and dedicated participation are astounding. Her beautiful descriptions of village life and the careful ways she had to navigate labyrinthine social customs are moving. Highly recommend.
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- Heidi Parkes
- 04-20-24
A wonderful reading & story!
Loved hearing this story from the author herself. She revealed many interesting aspects of craft & food in Japan, and also reminded us to look closer at these things wherever we are. ❤️
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- Doris
- 03-27-21
Wonderful book, poor reading
This is a lovely little book, beautifully written, with just enough sense of poetry in the writing to convey the vanishing culture of Japanese craftsmen without getting the reader lost in the imagery. the author paints a near-perfect picture of her experiences, friends, and lessons with just the right touch of personal, and with a strong respect for the culture which was initially foreign to her. I highly recommend it.
Unfortunately, I'd recommend reading it, if the subject really interests you. The author reads her own work, and this is unfortunate. She reads as so many amateur readers do. Every single sentence in the book is read with the same tone, the same rhythm, the same emphasis, the same emotion. It became grating less than an hour into the book, and despite the beauty of the writing, I'd catch myself drifting off and losing attention. Such a book deserves a professional reader, and I hope that some day a new audio publication will give it that final touch of respect.
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- Helen McCarthy
- 09-03-21
Not that great; average
This book is okay but I would say just okay. It’s a straight forward description of Japanese traditions from when the author lived in Japan. But it was kind of boring and I don't know why some authors think they are good enough to read their own
book without being professional narrators. The audible book may have come off a little better if someone else narrated it. She
does intersperse the book with personal stories but again, her matter of fact accounting l and story lacks passion,The recipes are fine but not for the novice or average cook but the more advanced,
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- Tina
- 01-18-24
A new look at Japanese food.
Even though the author had experience of creating the food and drink, I found her voice did not enhance the story she told.
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