Download or read book Times Square Samurai written by Robert B. Johnson and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-07-12 with total page 87 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty years of story-telling have passed since American troops first "occupied" themselves in Japan--years of storing up, savoring, and enlarging on those zany GI escapades that are responsible for prolonging many a coffee break and extending many a "just for a quickie" bar stop. Today, little reality remains in the stories even for the chest thumping vet, let alone his breathless listeners. But here's where Bob Johnson and Bill Chadbourne--vets themselves--put a little perspective back into those occupation memories with this rib-tickling cartoon account of what actually happened…with a major switch. The shoe, or in this case the geta, is on the other foot and it is New York that is imaginatively occupied by the Japanese. This turn-about is sure to give the GI a look at himself that he has never seen before. It will also introduce his heretofore unwary listeners to the real occupation story, the one responsible for adding a new, rollicking chapter to American humor.
Download or read book African Samurai written by Thomas Lockley and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography of the first foreign-born samurai and his journey from Africa to Japan is “a readable, compassionate account of an extraordinary life” (The Washington Post). When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went. His arrival in Kyoto, however, literally caused a riot. Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned Buddha. Among those who were drawn to his presence was Lord Nobunaga, head of the most powerful clan in Japan, who made Yasuke a samurai in his court. Soon, he was learning the traditions of Japan’s martial arts and ascending the upper echelons of Japanese society. In the four hundred years since, Yasuke has been known in Japan largely as a legendary, perhaps mythical figure. Now African Samurai presents the never-before-told biography of this unique figure of the sixteenth century, one whose travels between countries and cultures offers a new perspective on race in world history and a vivid portrait of life in medieval Japan. “Fast-paced, action-packed writing. . . . A new and important biography and an incredibly moving study of medieval Japan and solid perspective on its unification. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Eminently readable. . . . a worthwhile and entertaining work.” —Publishers Weekly “A unique story of a unique man, and yet someone with whom we can all identify.” —Jack Weatherford, New York Times–bestselling author of Genghis Khan
Download or read book Manners and Customs of the Japanese in Nineteenth Century written by Philipp Franz von Siebold, Ph.D. and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Manners and Customs of the Japanese in the Nineteenth Century is a delightful account of the Japanese of Tokugawa Japan. This unique handbook of Japanese manners, customs, history, and singular happenings was published in New York in 1841. Based on the firsthand observations of Dr. Philipp Franz von Siebold of the Dutch trading port Deshima in the years 1823—29, as well as on Spanish, Portuguese, German, and English records of early Japan, it provided us with a very rare picture of what Japan was like in the final years of its feudal period. Dr. von Siebold, the chief contributor, was attached to the Deshima post as a medial adviser and traveled within Japan, befriending and teaching many Japanese who were later to distinguish themselves in Western scientific knowledge. An indiscretion in accepting a map of Japan brought about his banishment by the Edo government and forced return to his native Germany. No collection of books on Japan is complete without a copy of Manners and Customs of the Japanese. It is here reprinted in its entirety from the original edition. Long submerged and virtually forgotten after a century of neglect, it is now made available for a new generation of readers.
Download or read book Japanese Food Cooking written by Stuart Griffin and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japanese Food and Cooking contains over 100 appetizing recipes, ranging from Japanese soups and salads to Japanese boiled and baked foods. Savory sukiyaki, delectable domburi, tempting tempura, and the many other palatable dishes contained in this cookbook are only one feature of this new and complete volume on Japanese cookery. Here are the exotic, fascinating, and tasty foods of Japan; the special condiments that make Japanese foods so successful; and the distinctive Japanese holiday dishes. Also included in Japanese Food and Cooking are sections on Japanese table manners, the preparation of Japanese teas and wines, and many other interesting side lights on Japanese culinary arts. Written in a simple-to-follow style, with exact, simple, and direct cooking instructions, Japanese Food and Cooking is a book for anyone who enjoys cooking and for everyone who enjoys eating.
Download or read book Chess Variations written by John Gollon and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 1974-06-01 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn the many varieties of chess the world over with this concise chess guide. Chess Variations is a must for all chess enthusiasts and an outstanding book which promises many hours of pleasurable entertainment for all others. With more than 40 variations of the popular board game, this book contains, among others, the oldest known form of chess (Chaturanga), the game created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and introduced in his Martian series (Jetan), as well as regional forms currently played in Korea, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, and Japan. For those games that require boards or pieces other than those issued in playing modern chess, the author presents guidelines on "The Construction of Sets." Also included in the book are charts, diagrams, and sample games played by the author and his friends. The excitement of playing these exotic chess variations increases with the knowledge of their historic beginnings as well as with the movements of such strange-sounding pieces as the Zarafah, Ashwa, and Firzan.
Download or read book Art Life Nature in Japan written by Masaharu Anesaki and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 1964-06-15 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The artistic and philosophical heritage of Japan has a special meaning for the modern world. During the present century, Japanese thought and Japanese art have exerted a strong influence on the western mind. Art, Life, and Nature in Japan takes us to the roots of Japanese culture and the origins of this influence. In this brief but deeply meaningful book Masaharu Anesaki provides a panoramic view of Japanese culture, with particular emphasis on the spirit of Japanese art. The book has, in fact, established itself as a classic, and it ranks with such other valuable works of its time as The Book of Tea, in which Kakuzo Okakura deals with a similar theme. Anesaki expresses himself in crystal-clear English to convey a message that is significant today as it was before World War II, when his book first appeared. He advocates peace and a turning inward to the beauty of art and nature. He is as familiar with the Zen philosophy of the samurai and the tea master as with sentiments of ancient court noblemen and the quiet thought of a humble peasant.
Download or read book Six Months in the Sandwich Islands written by Isabella L. Bird and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2013-02-19 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic of Hawaiian literature offers a charming glimpse at the splendid and fascinating world of pre–American Hawaii. Isabella Lucy Bird won fame in her own time as the most remarkable woman traveler of the nineteenth century, and Six Months in the Sandwich Isles, in which she describes her sojourn in Hawaii in 1873, is one of the gems of Pacific literature. It is safe to say that no other book about Hawaii surpasses it in fascination. Much of the charm of Isabella's writing is due to her use of personal letters for conveying her her experiences and her impressions. The thirty–one letters that compose the book were written to her beloved sister Henrietta, who dutifully stayed at home in Edinburgh to take care of the household while Isabella was away on her travels. The book is an authentic record of daily life in Hawaii in the late nineteenth century. It describes a life style during the brief reign of King Lunalilo, not too may years before the sad reign of Queen Liliuokalani ended her dethronement by revolution. Isabella Bird met royalty, missionaries, cowboys, and ordinary, everyday Hawaiians. It is fortunate that she left such a vivid narrative of her Hawaiian Interlude.
Download or read book The Black Lotus Shadow of the Ninja written by Kieran Fanning and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ninja and samurai lore come together with action and adventure to create an explosive new book perfect for fans of Rick Riordan and Brandon Mull! "Wonderful characters, unbelievable adventure . . . I loved this book." -- Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl seriesGhost, Cormac, and Kate are not like other kids. Ghost can turn invisible, Cormac can run up walls, and Kate can talk to animals--all abilities that make them perfect recruits for the Black Lotus, a training school for ninjas who are sworn to protect the world from the evil samurai-run Empire. But when the Moon Sword--a source of unimaginable power--is stolen, the three are forced to put their new skills to the test and go back in time to sixteenth-century Japan and retrieve it.
Download or read book Hara kiri written by Jack Seward and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-07-17 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hari-Kiri is a definitive text on Japanese ritual suicide, also known as suppuku. To the average westerner, the word hara-kiri conjures up an image of excruciating, self-inflicted pain; of a deep, fatal incision. To the Japanese, this kind of suicide embodies the best qualities of courage, honor, and discipline. Through extensive research, author Jack Seward brings to the English-speaking public a dissertation on the subject that is thoroughly enlightening. Fluent in speaking, reading, and writing Japanese, he was able to glean information from ancient documents—many of them scrolls in the Japanese archives—that few foreigners have seen. The earliest writings on hara-kiri (known more formally as seppuku) are thus revealed, as are the intricate rituals surrounding the ceremony. "The major purpose of this book," says the author, "is to clarify the historical and sociological significance of a unique method of self-destruction." In fulfilling this purpose, author Seward has come up with a definitive work that is sure to arouse interest both as a scholarly effort and as simple, fascinating reading.
Download or read book The Story Bag written by Kim So-Un and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of Korean folk tales is sure to delight the hearts of all children between the ages of eight and eighty. Written with earthy wit and pathos, these Korea children's tales unveil the inevitable foibles of people everywhere and expose the human-like qualities of animals and the animal-like qualities of humans. Pulsating with the rhythm of life and the seasons, these stories transport the reader to a wonderland, where a tiny mouse teaches filial piety to a spoiled child, a blind man can "see" evil spirits, and fleas drink rice wine. It is somehow deeply reassuring to know that even in present-day war-ravaged and politically-divided Korea, these same stories are still being told, just as they have been for generations.
Download or read book Tales of Foreign Settlements in Japan written by Harold S. Williams and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-07-09 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here are twenty-five tales about the Foreign Settlements or Concessions in Japan following the opening of the country to foreign trade in 1859, and an additional ten strange stories that revoke around those times. The tales are historically accurate, sociologically significant and, most important of all, eminently readable. These Tales of Foreign Settlements in Japan are the product of years of painstaking and scholarly research by a writer who is a business man and a recognized authority on the history of the Foreign Concessions in Japan, a man who has resided here for over thirty-five years.
Download or read book Kotto written by Lafcadio Hearn and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic collection of Japanese ghost and folk stories is of enormous importance to the field of Japanese studies. Japanese curios, with sundry cobwebs, excite the curiosity and imagination of a master spinner of tales, and the result is Kotto, another Lafcadio Hearn classic about old Japan. Here Hearn spins tales from old Japanese books to illustrate some strange beliefs. They are only curios, he says laconically, but some of these legends will make your spine tingle and your heart trip faster, like the one about a waterfall called Yurei–Daki, or the Cascade of Ghosts. The ghosts were as real as their warnings, but a bold woman failed to heed them—a horrible mistake. Hearn could also find in the commonplace the stuff of which imperishable literature is spun. A drop of dew hangs quivering on the bamboo lattice of his study window. Its tiny sphere repeats the colors of the morning—of sky and field and far-off trees, of a cottage with children at play. But much more than the visible world is imaged by that dewdrop: the world invisible, of infinite mystery, is likewise repeated. Buddhism finds in such a dewdrop the symbol of that other microcosm called the Soul.
Download or read book Shades of the Past written by Harold S. Williams and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-02-14 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prowling among these stories about Japan one finds riffraff and gentlemen, pirates and warriors, saints and sinners, smugglers and legitimate businessmen. All those, in fact, who made up the foreign communities of Japan in the early days. Harold S. Williams tells about them with the same inimitable humor, irony, drama and whimsy that made his earlier Tales of the Foreign Settlements such a popular success. With due regard for historical accuracy he recreates those fantastic days and the furor and fun with which they were filled. Here you can enjoy the privileged social status of belonging to the Victorian Volunteer Steam Fire Engine Company of Yokohama; you can join those Japanese pirates who were the first to meet Englishmen; arbitrate Japan's first labor dispute, involving foreigners, of course; witness the massacre of forty thousand Japanese Christians; revel in Nagasaki when it was the Paris of the Far East; travel over the Tokaido when it was the most picturesque and colorful of the world's highways; watch at close range each gruesome detail of an act of harakiri; dive for sunken treasures; watch the world's largest wooden vessel burn to the water line; marvel at one of the greatest advertising feats of all time.
Download or read book Curious Punishments written by Earle, and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-09-11 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Curious Punishments of Bygone Days, the punishment did not always fit the crime, as this fine old illustrated history of wrath and righteousness shows. One of the earliest institutions in every New England community was a pair of stocks. The first public building was a meeting house, but often before any house of God was built, the devil got his restraining engine. And who were the heinous criminals that the righteous put in the stocks? The punishment generally, in England and America both, was for petty thieves, unruly servants, Sabbath-breakers, revilers, gamblers, drunkards, ballad-singers, fortunetellers, traveling musicians, and a variety of other offenders.
Download or read book Foreigners in Mikadoland written by Harold S. Williams and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an account of life in the foreign communities and former Foreign Settlements or Concessions in Japan that flourished after Japan was opened to foreign trade in 1859. It tells of the imposters, the eccentrics, and the scandals, no less than the achievements of the scholars, the merchants, and the diplomats who contributed so much to the development of modern Japan. Here you will meet Townsend Harris, the first U.S. Consul General to Japan, the Grand Duke Alexander, and many other less well known, but just as interesting figures such as the energetic Rev. Bailey, the remarkable Mr. McLeod, and the Misses Butterfly and Chrysanthemum. All these events are portrayed in a series of chapters, arranged as nearly as possible in chronological order, each woven around some of the happenings of those times. Carefully researched, all of these events are historically accurate in every detail, and are written in Mr. Williams' highly enjoyable style.
Download or read book Gleanings in Buddha Field written by Lafcadio Hearn and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-07-17 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic text about Buddhism in Japan by Lafcadio Hearn--on of the first Westerns to write about Japan--will be of great interests to scholars and Japanophiles alike. Lafcadio Hearn's books continue to charm and captivate readers, as the exotic subjects about which he wrote charmed and captivated him. Gleanings In Buddha-Fields presents more Hearn magic as he enters into the spirit of Buddhism as though he were born into it. Hearn says that if he were a god, dwelling in some old Izumo shrine on the summit of a hill, then "as air to the bird, as water to the fish, so would all substance be permeable to the essence of me. I should pass at will into the walls of my dwelling to swim in the long gold bath of a sunbeam, to thrill in the heart of a flower, to ride on the neck of a dragonfly." He writes of a trip to Kyoto, telling of hazy autumn rice fields, with dragonflies darting over the drooping grain; maples crimsoning above a tremendous gorge; ranges of peaks steeped in morning mist; and a peasant's cottage perched on the verge of some dizzy mountain road.
Download or read book How to Read Character written by Samuel R. Wells and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 1995-01-05 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phrenology, the practice of studying character and mental capacity from the confirmation of the skull, has always been a fascinating subject. As Pope said: "The proper study of mankind is man." Here is a book with a lot of character--in fact, many characters, some famous and others infamous, from misers and murderers to presidents, philosophers and plenipotentiaries. These many and varied personalities are presented as illustrations of character traits. An example of Mirthfulness is Artemus Ward, the noted American humorist of a century ago. The contrast between his head and that of Kanosh an Indian chief, is striking if not exactly hair-raising. Sublimity is represented by William C. Bryant, the famous American poet and author of "Thanatopsis." The "organ" of Sublimity is situated on the side-head, directly above acquisitiveness and behind Ideality. "The function of Sublimity, "The book tells us, "is to give perception of grand and sublime in nature, art, and literature--to appreciate lofty mountains, the vastness of the ocean, the grandeur of a thunderstorm, the roar of artillery, the clash of armies…It is also an element in religious faith, and assist our conceptions of God and immortality."
