Author: Boye De Mente
Publisher: Cultural-Insight Books
ISBN: 0914778250
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 168
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Book Description
Male members of Japan's famous samurai class, which began evolving at the end of the 12th century, were required to undergo physical, mental and spiritual training that gave them incredible skills in a number of martial arts. By the 1600s, samurai were also expected to become versed in aesthetics, calligraphy, philosophical matters and writing poetry. SABURO-The Saga of a Teenage Samurai are true-to-life stories of a young boy who opts to become a roving shugyosha (shuu-g'yoh-shah), or samurai in training, rather than serve a feudal lord, leading him to extraordinary adventures that bring out the culture of his times. Saburo was born in the mid-1600s when the country was ruled by the illustrious Tokugawa line of shoguns who had closed the country off to foreigners except for a tiny detachment of traders in Nagasaki-and had turned their backs on Western guns in favor of the traditional sword. Each story is filled with cultural and historical facts that reveal both negative and positive elements in the lives of the samurai class, with Saburo surmounting those that are negative and eventually finding a master who explains the essence and the purpose of life. It is both an educational and an inspirational read for young people.
Author: Boye De Mente
Publisher: Cultural-Insight Books
ISBN: 1469986167
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 198
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Book Description
Dramatic changes have occurred in Japan's way of doing business since the late 1980s and early 1990s when its economic juggernaut was literally stopped in its tracks. The rapid rise of global competition and te fact that the Japanese real estate and financial industries copied the doomed American practices added to Japan's woes.
Author: Boye Lafayette De Mente
Publisher: Cultural-Insight Books
ISBN: 0914778714
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
Arizona is unique among American states, not only in its geography and geology but also in the diversity of its climate, in its indigenous animal and plant life, and in the history of its first inhabitants-communities of Indians whose ancestors arrived on the scene more than 20,000 years ago. Arizona is also the youngest of the contiguous mainland states of America...precisely because of these very same factors. Its climate, geography and Indian tribes were major barriers that prevented the territory from becoming widely populated by the Spanish, Mexicans and early European-Americans, and from being used as a cross-roads by American fur/pelt trappers, gold prospectors and settlers who began pushing west in the mid-1800s. Now, it is exactly these same factors that make Arizona a great place to live as well as a world-famous travel destination. The stories of how Arizona finally became what it is today are as amazing as the lay and the beauty of the land. Great background reading for residents and visitors alike, and an ideal gift.
Author: Boye De Mente
Publisher: Cultural-Insight Books
ISBN: 1470125838
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 177
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Book Description
China has emerged on the world scene as a major economic and political force that appears destined to surpass the United States-a portent of the future that goes well beyond anything the U.S. has faced before. The business practices of today's China are a mixture of traditional values and customs combined with Western concepts and practices that, despite bumps in the highway, are propelling the country forward at warp speed. This book addresses both the traditional and modern-day aspects of how business is done in China, and offers valuable insights in how to deal with them effectively. It also covers aspects of China's appearance on the international scene and the globalization of its economy that are political in nature. It is an ideal handbook for businesspeople, consultants, educators, and students.
Author: Boye Lafayette De Mente
Publisher: Cultural-Insight Books
ISBN: 1452882738
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 134
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Book Description
Arizona's Navajo Indians, the largest tribe of Native Americans in the U.S. with a Reservation larger than 10 of the smaller states, arrived in the area several thouand years agos--an amazing event chornicled in their oral history and in key words in their language. Author Boye Lafayette De Mente has used these key words to reveal not only the history but the extraordinary culture and wisdom of the Navajos. Far from being simple savages when they first encountered white men in the 1500s, they had a long tradition of poetry and healing that equaled that of European nations. The book also details the virtual extinction of the Navajos in the 1860s by the U.S. military and their comback from this "Fearing Time"--an amazing saga of American arrogance, ignorance and inhuman treamtment of an extraordinary people.
Author:
Publisher: Cultural-Insight Books
ISBN: 0914778099
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 143
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Book Description
Author: Boye De Mente
Publisher: Cultural-Insight Books
ISBN: 1477468358
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
How Serendipity Shaped the Lifeof Author Boyé Lafayette De MenteThis is the personal memoir of author Boyé Lafayette De Mente, the 4th of ten children born to poor parents in an isolated valley in the Ozark Hills of southeast Missouri, and raised during the Great Depression of the 1930s.He went on to have a remarkable life which he attributes to the incredible power of serendipity. As editor of The IMPORTER magazine in Tokyo in the late 1950s and early 1960s and as the author of numerous pioneer books on the mindset and business practices of the Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans he made major contributions to the initial rise of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China as economic superpowers. He played a leading role in helping to launch the career of Thunderbird School of Global Management alumnae brother Merle Hinrichs who became the largest trade magazine publisher in Asia, a major financial donor to Thunderbird and member of the board of directors. And he launched the publishing career of Kentucky hillbilly Larry Flynt who achieved great wealth and notoriety as the publisher of HUSTLER magazine and champion of freedom of speech. [On the day De Mente met Flynt he told his wife that he had just met a 26-year old man who had the intelligence and drive to become president of the United States by the time he was old enough to qualify for the office.] De Mente's encounters and relationships with such extraordinary individuals as Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, America's ranking naval officer during World War II; Akio Morita, co-founder and leading light of what was to become the Sony empire; Toshio Karita, former protocol officer for the Imperial Family of Japan; and Daisetzu Suzuki, Japan's leading Zen master, plus many more, were experiences he could not have even dreamed about before they happened. His story is an example of the potential of ordinary individuals to achieve significant things when life presents opportunities and they follow up on them.
Author: Boye De Mente
Publisher: Cultural-Insight Books
ISBN: 1456424750
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 165
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Book Description
The Bizarre and the Wondrous from the Land of the Rising Sun highlights unique aspects of Japan-ancient and modern-that have made the country fascinating to Westerners since they first stumbled upon the islands in 1543. These unusual attractions range from high-tech robots that do such things as act as tourist guides and perform delicate surgery, to festivals that go back more than two thousand years and strike many foreign visitors as being bizarre. Among the celebrations that could be labeled as bizarre are annual fertility festivals that feature authentic-looking replicas of the male penis carved in wood, from purse-size versions to ones that are over two meters long and weigh up to 800 pounds. The best known of the fertility festivals is the one staged each March 15 by the Tagata Shrine near the city of Nagoya. The largest wooden penis is carved anew each year, and after the ceremony is kept on display in the main shrine building until the following year when it is sold to private buyers. On the day of the festival the large version of the erect male organ is pulled through the streets on a wheeled cart by up to 12 men to the delight of raucous crowds and child-bearing-age women who try to touch the replica in order to increase their chances of becoming pregnant. Other penis replicas are edible versions made like candy and cookies that are sold to visitors as snacks and souvenirs to take home. Also on the incredible side is a legend that the young Jewish man now known and worshipped by Christians as Jesus Christ the son of God did not die on the cross-that, in fact, he lived and died in Herai Village in Japan. According to the Christian Bible Jesus was born in Israel. There is no further mention of him in the Bible until he is 12 years old when he appears at a Jewish synagogue and lambasts the rabbis for their un-Christian like behavior. The next mention of Jesus in the Bible is when he is in his early 30s and shows up at the Jordan River to be baptized by John, a well-known Jewish preacher. According to the Japanese legend, Jesus and his brother Isukiri spent most of those missing years in Japan, returning to Judea when Jesus was 34 years old. The story goes on to say that after he was betrayed to the Roman authorities he fled back to Japan, and it was his brother who was crucified. The story adds that Jesus married a Japanese girl, became a rice farmer, and lived the rest of his life in Herai [later renamed Shingo]. There is a tomb in Herai that has long been known as the burial place of Jesus [Jehova], the son of Mary. In the book, De Mente goes on to explain how the legend and the tomb became known to present-day Japanese authorities and was publicized in English for the first time in 1935. De Mente says he learned about the story in Tokyo in the early 1950s when he was editor of a monthly cultural magazine, including seeing a photograph of documentary evidence from a museum in Herai. Other fascinating stories in the book include how the infamous secret agents and assassins known as ninja [neen-jah] became a major part of Japanese history; why and how Japan became the first nation in the world to have a national network of roadside inns spaced one day's march apart; why the Japanese are so skilled at producing arts and crafts of extraordinary beauty; why single Japanese girls and men have a hard time hooking up; why Japan's izakaya are more fun than Irish pubs; why rice and other vegetables grow on top of buildings; how the Japanese came up with a new reason for wearing clothes...and some 50-plus other fascinating stories.
Author: Boye Lafayette De Mente
Publisher: Cultural-Insight Books
ISBN: 1452886296
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 134
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Book Description
The oral history of Arizona's Hopi Indian tribe tells them that they were the first human beings to inhabit the North and South American continents and that they arrived aboard large rafts, island-hopping across the Pacific Ocean...not by the land bridge that once connected Alaska and Siberia. The details of their arrival, splitting up into groups and going in different directions to populate the two continents, are so detailed that it is hard to believe that they are just myths concocted for some ulterior purpose. In this provocative title, the author, known for his code-word books on the cultures of China, Japan, Korea and Mexico, uses key Hopi words as windows to reveal the traditional beliefs, customs and spirit of the Hopi people. The spiritual-based lifestyle they created was in many ways far superior to those that developed in Europe and other parts of the world...especially in their understanding of both humans and nature, and the cosmos at large. Perhaps most astounding of all in the story of the Hopi is their tradition of prophecies and their in-credible accuracy.
Author: Boye De Mente
Publisher: Phoenix Books / Publishers
ISBN: 1468113127
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 164
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Book Description
Human males have been responsible for most of the violence that has plagued humanity since the origin of the species. It is something programmed into males by their genes. This built-in mindset is responsible for the present state of affairs in the United States and the economic, social and religious problems in virtually all other societies. Virtually all of the male-created institutions have traditionally been designed to keep women from using their minds and to repress their natural sexuality—and this especially applies to man-made religions. This book details the overall failures of American culture—from economics, education, entertainment, politics and religions to sexual behavior. It maintains that human beings cannot achieve even half of their potential until women play an equal if not primary role in the affairs of humanity. It also makes other suggestions for overcoming the built-in handicaps of humanity.
