Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914 is a cultural and engineering history of railway building in Japan during the Meiji era. The importance of early railways in the industrialization of the United States and Europe is a fact all of us are familiar with. To witness the amazing parallel development of the railways in Japan, happening at much the same time as America was connecting its vast hinterland to the East and West coasts, is an eye-opening realization. Early Japanese Railways, tells the fascinating story of the rise of Japanese rail amidst a period of rapid modernization during Japan's Meiji era. Leaving behind centuries of stagnation and isolation, Japan would emerge into the 20th century as a leading modern industrialized state. The development of the railways was a significant factor in the cultural and technological development of Japan during this pivotal period. Free's rare photographic and historical materials concerning Japan's early railways, including a print showing the miniature steam engine brought to Japan by Admiral Perry aboard his "Black Ships" to demonstrate American superiority, combine to form a richly detailed account that will appeal to students of Japanese history and railway buffs alike. This one-of-a-kind book, Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914, illuminates for non-Japanese-speaking readers the early history of Japanese railroads and in the process the fascinating story of Japan's prewar industrial modernization. Anyone interested in train history or model trains will find this book a fascinating read.

This book explores contemporary tourism and coastal developments in Hyogo, Japan—the nation’s only non-peninsular prefecture bordering two oceans. In striking detail, Dr. Lesley Crowe-Delaney skillfully contextualizes tourism industry and policy; illustrates coastal urban and rural development dichotomies; discusses hegemonic devices of nationalism, nature, authenticity and tradition, as embedded in tourism strategies; and highlights the nuances of Japan’s distinctive administrative systems and specific approaches to tourism. Crowe-Delaney reveals the strains placed on coastal communities when fisheries, tourism, sustainable development, and national policies intersect, offering readers an enlightening discourse of the potency of tourism as a rejuvenation tool.

This book is about the largest debate that has occurred in the field of cultural psychiatry and its impact on diagnosing, theorizing, and clinical practice. It is also about the role of culture in psychopathology specifically in relation to China. This book is the first comprehensive and critical assessment of the anthropological psychiatry that has provided Western physicians with their ideas about somatization and culture. It is argued that psychiatric nosology and the broader cultural milieu interact in a fascinating way and co-facilitate individual conformity to culturally salient categories, consciously or unconsciously, through a process of belief, expectation, and learning. The result is that codified experiences can be translated from the mind to the body and back again. Through a critical evaluation of the Neurasthenia-Depression controversy, we can gain a view of the contested and shifting nature of psychiatric nosology, and thereby attempt to introduce the beginnings of a model that elucidates how psychiatric distress varies across cultures. This timely book challenges conventional wisdom about neurasthenia and depression in Chinese societies. Its findings will be of value to anyone who works with Chinese people with these mental illnesses across the global diaspora.

This book is the culmination of a lifetime of research into Chinese development, situated in a global historical context. The author explores the irreplaceable role of state capacity, state-owned-enterprises and five-year plan in China’s transformation from an agricultural state to an industrial state and then to the world's economic powerhouse, as well as the remarkable achievements of social policy to reduce the rural-urban gap and regional gap. This book will be of interest to China scholars, development economists, political activists, and general readers who would like to know more about China's growth miracle.

Ulysses S Grant, besides being the General-in-Chief of the Union armies at the time of the Union victory in the American Civil War, was also President, 1869–1878, at a time when the United States was undergoing significant transformations, both economically and strategically, and growing in confidence as a world power. At the same time, Japan, following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, was seeking to join the ranks of the developed, read exclusively Western, states. This book explores the interaction of Grant with Meiji Japan, compares and contrasts developments in the two countries and assesses the impact each country had on the other. It discusses the travels of the Iwakura Mission in the United States, considers Grant’s 1879 visit to Japan and examines the personal relationship between Grant, the Meiji emperor and the other leaders of the Meiji government. The book argues that Grant’s thoughtful consideration of the key issues of the day, issues common to many countries at the time, and his suggested policy responses had a huge impact on Meiji Japan.

In this beautiful and extraordinary zen calligraphy book, Shozo Sato, an internationally recognized master of traditional Zen arts, teaches the art of Japanese calligraphy through the power and wisdom of Zen poetry. Single-line Zen Buddhist koan aphorisms, or zengo, are one of the most common subjects for the traditional Japanese brush calligraphy known as shodo. Regarded as one of the key disciplines in fostering the focused, meditative state of mind so essential to Zen, shodo calligraphy is practiced regularly by all students of Zen Buddhism in Japan. After providing a brief history of Japanese calligraphy and its close relationship with the teachings of Zen Buddhism, Sato explains the basic supplies and fundamental brushstroke skills that you'll need. He goes on to present thirty zengo, each featuring: An example by a skilled Zen monk or master calligrapher An explanation of the individual characters and the Zen koan as a whole Step-by-step instructions on how to paint the phrase in a number of styles (Kaisho, Gyosho, Sosho) A stunning volume on the intersection of Japanese aesthetics and Zen Buddhist thought, Shodo: The Quiet Art of Japanese Zen Calligraphy guides beginning and advanced students alike to a deeper understanding of the unique brush painting art form of shodo calligraphy. Shodo calligraphy topics include: The Art of Kanji The Four Treasures of Shodo Ideogram Zengo Students of Shodo

A Short History of Transport in Japan from Ancient Times to the Present is a unique study: the first by a Western scholar to place the long-term development of Japanese infrastructure alongside an analysis of its evolving political economy. Drawing from New Institutional Economics, Black offers a historically informed critique of contemporary planning using the example of Japan’s historical institutions, their particular biases, and the power they have exerted over national and local transport, to identify how reformed institutional arrangements might develop more sustainable and equitable transport services. With chapters addressing each major form of transport, Black examines the predominant role of institutions and individuals – from seventeenth-century shoguns to post-war planners – in transforming Japan’s maritime infrastructure, its roads and waterways, and its adoption of rail and air transport. Using a multidisciplinary, comparative, and chronological approach, the book consults a range of technical, cultural, and political sources to tease out these interactions between society and technology. This spirited new contribution to transport studies will attract readers interested in institutional power, the history of transport, and the development of future infrastructure, as well as those with a general interest in Japan.

Shinsengumi: The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps is the true story of the notorious samurai corps formed in 1863 to arrest or kill the enemies of the Tokugawa Shogun. The only book in English about the Shinsengumi, it focuses on the corps' two charismatic leaders, Kondo Isami and Hijikata Toshizo, both impeccable swordsmen. It is a history-in-brief of the final years of the Bakufu, which collapsed in 1867 with the restoration of Imperial rule. In writing Shinsengumi, Hillsborough referred mostly to Japanese-language primary sources, including letters, memoirs, journals, interviews, and eyewitness accounts, as well as definitive biographies and histories of the era. The fall of the shogun's government (Tokugawa Bakufu, or simply Bakufu) in 1868, which had ruled Japan for over two and a half centuries, was the greatest event in modern Japanese history. The revolution, known as the Meiji Restoration, began with the violent reaction of samurai to the Bakufu's decision in 1854 to open the theretofore isolated country to "Western barbarians." Though opening the country was unavoidable, it was seen as a sign of weakness by the samurai who clamored to "expel the barbarians." Those samurai plotted to overthrow the shogun and restore the holy emperor to his ancient seat of power. Screaming "heaven's revenge," they wielded their swords with a vengeance upon those loyal to the shogun. They unleashed a wave of terror at the center of the revolution--the emperor's capital of Kyoto. Murder and assassination were rampant. By the end of 1862, hordes of renegade samurai, called ronin, had transformed the streets of the Imperial Capital into a "sea of blood." The shogun's administrators were desperate to stop the terror. A band of expert swordsmen was formed. It was given the name Shinsengumi ("Newly Selected Corps")--and commissioned to eliminate the ronin and other enemies of the Bakufu. With unrestrained brutality bolstered by an official sanction to kill, the Shinsengumi soon became the shogun's most dreaded security force. In this vivid historical narrative of the Shinsengumi, the only one in the English language, author Romulus Hillsborough paints a provocative and thrilling picture of this fascinating period in Japanese history.

Finding your way around the various regions of Indonesia is a breeze with this handy Tuttle Travel Atlas. Designed for the adventurous traveler and containing all the maps you'll need on your explorations, this atlas includes many views that are available nowhere else. This atlas is conveniently divided into the major regions of Indonesia: Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua. Each of the 144 maps in this atlas is presented in a logical, easy-to-follow manner, with emphasis on the most frequently-visited areas. All cities, towns, villages, places of interest and nature reserves are indexed for quick reference. Comprehensive: Detailed insets of major cities, travel destinations and business hubs in Indonesia Informative: Precise locations of all popular sights, hotels, restaurants, temples, shopping malls and other essential locations. Practical: The handy size, well-designed key maps and comprehensive index help you find places you are looking for quickly. Reliable: The maps in this atlas are thoroughly researched and regularly updated by the leading publisher of Asia Pacific maps.