Understanding History in Asia

Hattori Ryuji
Translated by Tara Cannon

It is said that the twentieth century was a century of war. War and colonization can leave deep...

Unsung Heroes of Old Japan

Isoda Michifumi
Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

“I have waited eagerly for the day when Unsung Heroes of Old Japan would be translated into English...

Wasan, the Fascination of Traditional Japanese Mathematics

Sakurai Susumu
Translated by Emma Ford, with Gaynor Sekimori

Wasan—a unique form of Japanese mathematics—was developed during the Edo period (1603–1868), a time...

Well-Versed

Ozawa Minoru
Translated by Janine Beichman
Photography by Maeda Shinzō & Akira

This volume of seasonally-arranged poems is a guide to the appreciation and enjoyment of the great...

A Western Pacific Union

Supervised by Kitaoka Shinichi
Translated by David Noble and Marie Speed

The Cold War ended more than thirty years ago, but the world—and within it, the countries of Asia...

What Is Japanese Cinema?

Yomota Inuhiko
Translated by Philip Kaffen

What might Godzilla and Kurosawa have in common? What, if anything, links Ozu's sparse portaits of...

The Winding Road to Discovering iPS Cells

Yamanaka Shinya, Interviewer Midori Shinya
Translated by Tony Atkinson

The revolutionary discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, completely changed the...

Words to Live by

Nakano Kōji
Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

Nakano Kōji opens the door to the treasury of Japanese classics by introducing six writers who are...

The World of Ito Jakuchu

Sato Yasuhiro
Translated by Michael Brase

In 1760, when the Japanese painter Ito Jakuchu was working on his magnum opus, Plants and Animals...

Yoshida Shigeru and His Time

Okazaki Hisahiko
Translated by Noda Makito

Yoshida Shigeru is widely regarded as a pivotal figure in early postwar Japanese history―someone...