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Before the publication A Flower Lover's Guide to Tokyo: 40 Walks for All Seasons, Sumiko Enbutsu was arguably best known to patrons of Good Day Books as a co-author of the unique guidebook Water Walks in the Suburbs of Tokyo (Tokyo On Foot, 2000) and the author of the long-running column Edo-Tokyo: Then & Now in The Japan Times. The introductory sentences penned by Mimi LeBourgeois, Sumiko's Water Walks co-author and Smith College classmate, cannot be bettered as a succinct description of Sumiko's skills as as a guide:
A walk with Sumiko Enbutsu is unlike one with ordinary folk. With her discerning eye and deep
familiarity with Japanese history, she knows how to find the narrower road and the unsung small
sights that intrigue before we come to the major destinations.
Sumiko's first book, Discover Shitamachi: A Walking Guide to the Other Tokyo
(Shitamachi Times, 1984), long out of print, established her reputation
and introduced her distinctive writing style by combining
fascinating historical facts, enlightening cultural insights, clear
walking directions, and detailed maps that take readers to places
unfamiliar to even native Tokyo-ites. Her second book, Chichibu: Japan's Hidden Treasure (Tuttle, 1990), and a revised, updated edition of her first, Old Tokyo: Walks in the City of the Shogun (Tuttle, 1993), both also out of print, enhanced her reputation and confirmed the efficacy and appeal of her guidebooks.
Sumiko has worked for several historical preservation groups in Japan. She has also acted as
a consultant/coordinator for several cross-cultural exchange programs, most recently for
"Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum," an exhibition in 2007 at the New York Botanical Garden (a.k.a. the Bronx Zoo) that
celebrated Japanese art, life, and culture. Your ticket for admission to Sumiko Enbutsu's presentation "Flower Fillosophy" will be a copy of A Flower Lover's Guide to Tokyo: 40 Walks for All Seasons or Water Walks in the Suburbs of Tokyo, bought from Good Day Books.
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