Nishiyama Matsunosuke is one of the most important historians of Tokugawa (Edo) popular culture, yet until now his work has never been translated into a Western language. Edo Culture presents a selection of Nishiyama's writings that serves not only…
This guide to 26 of O'ahu's snorkeling and diving sites includes maps showing where it is safest to enter and exit the water, what to look for (coral, shells, fishes, underwater caverns) and what hazards to avoid. Also, each site is rated according…
How does a man serving in the Imperial Japanese Army feel when he suddenly sees his brother in the uniform of the enemy United States? How does a Japanese mother, surrounded by barbed wire in an American internment camp for enemy aliens, feel when h…
The Meiji Restoration of 1868 is most often seen as a glorious event marking the overthrow of Tokugawa feudalism and the beginning of Japan's modern transformation. Yet it had its dark side. The Aizu domain in northeastern Japan had staunchly suppor…
The deity Inari has been worshipped in Japan since at least the early eighth century and today is a revered presence in such varied venues as Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, factories, theaters, private households, restaurants, beauty shops, and r…
This collection of essays constitutes the first history of modern Japanese aesthetics in any language. It introduces readers through lucid and readable translations to works on the philosophy of art written by major Japanese thinkers from the late n…
Haunted Houses and Ghostly Encounters: Ethnography and Animism in East Timor, 1860-1975 presents a history of Western ethnography of animism in East Timor during the Portuguese period. The book consists of ten chapters, each one a narrative of the w…
The Zhongyong--translated here as Focusing the Familiar--has been regarded as a document of enormous wisdom for more than two millennia and is one of Confucianism's most sacred and seminal texts. It achieved truly canonical preeminence when it becam…
The past twenty years have seen the publication of numerous translations and commentaries on the principal philosophers of the Kyoto School, but so far no general overview and evaluation of their thought has been available, either in Japanese or in…
The Challenge of Sustainable Forests is an innovative piece of work that provides a range of insights into forest resource use in Malaysia and the power relations behind the working of forest policy at the local level. It explores the rich debate on…
In 1899 a chartered yacht, the Casco, brought to Honolulu Robert Louis Stevenson and his family. The writer was then already at the height of his popularity in Europe and the United States. He spent the next six months and another, shorter period in…
The political influence of temples in premodern Japan, most clearly manifested in divine demonstrations--where rowdy monks and shrine servants brought holy symbols to the capital to exert pressure on courtiers--has traditionally been condemned and i…
Angeles Monrayo began her diary on January 10, 1924, just before she moved from a sugar plantation in Waipahu to Pablo Manlapit's strike camp in Honolulu with her father and older brother. This is a young Filipino girl's view of life in Hawaii and c…
This is the first systematic, historical inquiry into the emergence of victim consciousness (higaisha ishiki) as an essential component of Japanese pacifist national identity after World War II. In his meticulously crafted narrative and analysis, th…
An English eccentric and adventurer, Tom Harrisson (1911-1976) sought knowledge and renown in a dizzying number of fields, while breaking most of the rules of civilized society. He was a precursor in the field of modern market research; he won the D…
Zen Sand is a classic collection of verses aimed at aiding practitioners of k an meditation to negotiate the difficult relationship between insight and language. As such it represents a major contribution to both Western Zen practice and English-lan…
In 1960 millions of Japanese citizens took to the streets for months of protest against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty (Anpo) and its forcible ratification by the Kishi government. In the decades that followed, the Anpo era citizens' movements exert…
Western scholars and educators are generally far less familiar with the samurai in his original-and, ostensibly, primary-role as warrior and masters of arms than in his other functions as landowner, feudal lord, literature, or philosopher. Yet, any…
In this highly insightful analysis of Western and Chinese concepts of efficacy, Fran ois Jullien subtly delves into the metaphysical preconceptions of the two civilizations to account for diverging patterns of action in warfare, politics, and diplom…
Outdoors adventurers interested in natural beauty will make this book a must for any anticipated visit to the island of Kauai. Valier's descriptions of park routes, natural wonders, and trails are supplemented by maps pinpointing each point of inter…
Vocabulary learning is the single most important component of second-language acquisition. In cases where the second language is unrelated to the learner's native tongue, this task presents special challenges because there are typically few clues in…
In this first detailed account of growing up in Tonga, Helen Morton focuses on the influence of anga fakatonga (the Tongan way) in all facets of Tongan childhood, from the antenatal period to late adolescence. Childhood is a crucial period when cult…
I stayed in the forest] for two nights. The first night, nothing happened. The second night, at about one or two in the morning, a tiger came--which meant that I didn't get any sleep the whole night. I sat in meditation, scared stiff, while the tige…
In 1865 a French priest was visited by a small group of Japanese at his newly built church in Nagasaki. They were descendants of Japan's first Christians, the survivors of brutal religious persecution under the Tokugawa government. The Kakure Kirish…
Southern Exposure is the first anthology of Okinawan literature to appear in English translation, and it appears at a propitious time. Although Okinawa Prefecture comprises only one percent of Japan's population, its writers have been winning a disp…
A major contribution both to the study of Japan and propaganda in the twentieth century. Barak Kushner meticulously and convincingly reveals the full scope of what was assumed to not have existed; namely an organized, multifaceted, and disturbingly…
This Chinese-English dictionary of proverbs (yanyu) consists of approximately 4,000 Chinese proverbs alphabetically arranged by the first word(s) (ci) of the proverb according to the Hanyu Pinyin transcription and Chinese characters (standard simpli…
Generals and Scholars is the first work in English to examine fully military rule during the Koryo. Although it lasted for only a century, the period was one of dynamic change--a time of institutional development, social transformation, and the reas…
The subject of sex was central to early Chinese thought. Discussed openly and seriously as a fundamental topic of human speculation, it was an important source of imagery and terminology that informed the classical Chinese conception of social and p…
Engaged Buddhism is the contemporary movement of nonviolent social and political activism found throughout the Buddhist world. Its ethical theory sees the world in terms of cause and effect, a view that discourages its practitioners from becoming ad…
Tsunayoshi (1646-1709), the fifth Tokugawa shogun, is one of the most notorious figures in Japanese history. Viewed by many as a tyrant, his policies were deemed eccentric, extreme, and unorthodox. His Laws of Compassion, which made the maltreatment…
The first Okinawan immigrants arrived in Honolulu in January 1900 to work as contract laborers on Hawai'i's sugar plantations. Over time Okinawans would continue migrating east to the continental U.S., Canada, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexic…
Waves of migration, from China to Thailand and from Thailand to the US, have helped shape the identities of three generations of diasporic Chinese Thai. Jiemin Bao focuses on how cultural identities - as seen through the lens of marriage - play a ce…
How can I know something? How can I convince someone of the rightness of my position? How does reality function? What is artistic creativity? What is the role of the state? It is well known that people from various cultures give dissimilar answers t…
The dead are potent and omnipresent in modern Indonesia. Presidents and peasants alike meditate before sacred graves to exploit the power they confer, and mediums do good business curing the sick by interpreting the wishes of deceased forebears. Amo…
The fall of Singapore and the brilliant victories achieved since the start of the war mean we are protected, but I don't know just how grateful I should be. --Takahashi Aiko, housewife, February 1942 This is my final departure from the home islands.…
Despite a severe economic crisis, social unrest and growing pressure for political change, President Suharto's position seemed secure until the revolt of 1998. This book describes the unfolding events since 1996 which led to his resignation and eval…
Here for the first time is a large collection of Hawaiian songs in an authoritative text with translation (music not included). The texts have never before been written consistently with the glottal stops (indicating syllabic breaks between vowels)…
A Tale of False Fortunes is a masterful translation of Enchi Fumiko's (1905-1986) modern classic, Namamiko monogatari. Written in 1965, this prize-winning work of historical fiction presents an alternative account of an imperial love affair narrated…
How did a girl from the provinces, meant to do nothing more than run the family store, become a bold and daring poet whose life and work helped change the idea of love in modern Japan? Embracing the Firebird is the first book-length study in English…
The history of Korea in the twentieth century has been a grim succession of oppressions, humiliations, and betrayals. Yet through it all, modern Korean writers have been able not only to find their own distinctive voices but to forge a national lite…
