Recollections of Japan is a personal account of living in Tokugawa Japan in the beginning of the nineteenth century, from a European's perspective. The author, Hendrik Doeff, chief of the United Dutch East India Company in Deshima, mastered the Japanese language, giving him a unique grasp of the Japanese culture which he describes with dispassionate, journalistic objectivity and respect. With Europe engulfed in the Napoleonic wars, Holland occupied by the French and the Dutch colonies usurped by the English, Hendrik Doeff successfully thwarted attempts by the Russians, English and Americans to break the Dutch monopoly on trade with Japan. Twice English ships forced themselves into the bay of Nagasaki and only Doeff's skill and diplomacy prevented a massacre of the English which in turn might have provoked a was between England and Japan and changed history. Doeff also describes in detail one of his three treks to the Court in Edo and the eagerness of Japanese scholars to obtain Western knowledge. There is a link with America's early history as the Dutch used American ships, to circumvent the capture of their own ships by the English. An embargo imposed by the United States Congress had idled many American ships who sailed to the Pacific instead. This book is a micro history and gives a delicious insight into international intrigues, national pride, hatreds and prejudices in a time of competitive monopoly seeking. Most of all, it reveals how supposedly "closed" Japan kept a window open to the world, especially the West, which explains its rapid transformation from a feudal to an industrialized nation after Perry opened Japan to the wider world.

Born at the height of the Heian period, the pseudonymous Lady Sarashina reveals much about the Japanese literary tradition in this haunting self-portrait. Born in 1008, Lady Sarashina was a lady-in-waiting of Heian-period Japan. Her work stands out for its descriptions of her travels and pilgrimages and is unique in the literature of the period, as well as one of the first in the genre of travel writing. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Over 50 reminiscences of pre-modern Japan. This book presents an illustrationf a way of life that has virtually disappeared.

This study of modern Japan traces the impact of defeat and reconstruction on every aspect of Japan's national life. It examines the economic resurgence as well as how the nation as a whole reacted to defeat and the end of a suicidal nationalism.

Based on the recollection of the author's mother, other relatives, and family records, this is a vivid picture of the everyday life of a samurai household in the last years of the Tokugawa period.

Approximately three million Japanese died in a conflict that raged for years over much of the globe, from Hawaii to India, Alaska to Australia, causing death and suffering to untold millions in China, southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, as well as pain and anguish to families of soldiers and civilians around the world. Yet how much do we know of Japan's war?In a sweeping panorama, Haruko Taya and Theodore Cook take us from the Japanese attacks on China in the 1930s to the Japanese home front during the devastating raids on Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, offering the first glimpses of how this violent conflict affected the lives of ordinary Japanese people.'Oral History of a compellingly high order.' Kirkus Reviews'This book seeks out the true feelings of the wartime generation [and] illuminates the contradictions between official views of the war and living testimony.' Yomiuri Shimbun

At the age of thirty, Kaoru Nonomura left his family, his girlfriend, and his job as a designer in Tokyo to undertake a year of ascetic training at Eiheiji, one of the most rigorous Zen training temples in Japan. This book is Nonomura's recollection of his experiences. He skillfully describes every aspect of training, including how to meditate, how to eat, how to wash, even how to use the toilet, in a way that is easy to understand no matter how familiar a reader is with Zen Buddhism. This first-person account also describes Nonomura's struggles in the face of beatings, hunger, exhaustion, fear, and loneliness, the comfort he draws from his friendships with the other trainees, and his quiet determination to give his life spiritual meaning. After writing Eat Sleep Sit, Kaoru Nonomura returned to his normal life as a designer, but his book has maintained its popularity in Japan, selling more than 100,000 copies since its first printing in 1996. Beautifully written, and offering fascinating insight into a culture of hardships that few people could endure, this is a deeply personal story that will appeal to all those with an interest in Zen Buddhism, as well as to anyone seeking spiritual growth.

Geoffrey Bownas, widely known for his writings, translations, broadcasts and commentaries relating to Japan, and an eminent Japanese Studies scholar, has at last completed a memoir. It is a historical record of some significance tracking Japan's post-war history from abject poverty to unimaginable prosperity as the world's second largest economy, and the 'lost' post-bubble years.