Strange Light Afar

Strange Light Afar PDF Author: Rui Umezawa
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
ISBN: 1554987245
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
A bitterly jealous brother, a samurai who makes the ultimate sacrifice, a cold-hearted husband, a monk who mistakes desire for piety, a fraudulent merchant who meets his match in a supernatural river otter — the motives underlying these traditional Japanese folktale characters are explored with haunting results. Prompted by the sometimes illogical and perplexing actions of folktale characters (Why doesn’t the wolf kill Little Red Riding Hood right away?), master storyteller Rui Umezawa revisits eight popular Japanese folktales, delving beneath their sometimes baffling plot lines to highlight the psychological motivations behind the characters’ actions. In “Betrayal,” a treacherous husband poisons his wife so he can marry another woman. In “Paradise,” a young man saves the life of a sea turtle, who takes him to a luxurious underwater palace, where his every whim is fulfilled. A brother in “Rage” is consumed by jealousy when his brother’s dog digs up a cache of gold. In “Honor,” a samurai kills himself to keep a promise made to his blood brother. Tales of addiction, bravery, sex, greed, abuse and control — these stories take their inspiration from the great Japanese storytelling traditions, as well as from Noh and Kabuki. Sometimes laced with ironic humor, sometimes truly horrifying, these stories of the strange and supernatural will appeal to readers of all ages, but they particularly speak to teenagers. Evocative and haunting illustrations by the stunningly talented Mikiko Fujita add to the eerie beauty of this collection. A detailed afterword outlines the author’s storytelling approach and provides source material for each tale.

Strange Light Afar

Strange Light Afar PDF Author: Rui Umezawa
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
ISBN: 1554987245
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 117

Get Book Here

Book Description
A bitterly jealous brother, a samurai who makes the ultimate sacrifice, a cold-hearted husband, a monk who mistakes desire for piety, a fraudulent merchant who meets his match in a supernatural river otter — the motives underlying these traditional Japanese folktale characters are explored with haunting results. Prompted by the sometimes illogical and perplexing actions of folktale characters (Why doesn’t the wolf kill Little Red Riding Hood right away?), master storyteller Rui Umezawa revisits eight popular Japanese folktales, delving beneath their sometimes baffling plot lines to highlight the psychological motivations behind the characters’ actions. In “Betrayal,” a treacherous husband poisons his wife so he can marry another woman. In “Paradise,” a young man saves the life of a sea turtle, who takes him to a luxurious underwater palace, where his every whim is fulfilled. A brother in “Rage” is consumed by jealousy when his brother’s dog digs up a cache of gold. In “Honor,” a samurai kills himself to keep a promise made to his blood brother. Tales of addiction, bravery, sex, greed, abuse and control — these stories take their inspiration from the great Japanese storytelling traditions, as well as from Noh and Kabuki. Sometimes laced with ironic humor, sometimes truly horrifying, these stories of the strange and supernatural will appeal to readers of all ages, but they particularly speak to teenagers. Evocative and haunting illustrations by the stunningly talented Mikiko Fujita add to the eerie beauty of this collection. A detailed afterword outlines the author’s storytelling approach and provides source material for each tale.

The Way of the Samurai

The Way of the Samurai PDF Author: Inazo Nitobe
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
ISBN: 1788880382
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 89

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Book Description
This classic text by Inazo Nitobe defining the moral code of the warrior class or Samurai has had a huge impact both in the West and in Japan itself. Drawing on Japanese traditions such as Shinto and Buddhism, and citing parallels with Western philosophy and literature, Nitobe's text is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the culture and morals of Japan.

Of Love and Union: A Saga of Christ in Japan: Book I - The Twenty-Six Martyrs and Arima Harunobu

Of Love and Union: A Saga of Christ in Japan: Book I - The Twenty-Six Martyrs and Arima Harunobu PDF Author: Luke O'Hara
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 9781728883090
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
When Saint Francis Xavier landed in Kagoshima on August 15, 1549, he found a people thirsty for love and truth yet bound by stout cords of martial severity. This novel is the first in a series that will depict the rise of Christianity in early modern Japan and its suppression by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the Tokugawa Shoguns. In this first volume, we meet Saint Paul Miki and Saint Luís Ibaraki (among the 26 Martyrs of Japan), the Christian daimyos Arima Harunobu and Konishi Yukinaga, and the great warlord Shimazu Yoshihisa, as well as the immortal Saint Francis Xavier and his dauntless disciple, Lorenzo. There is history and heroism in these pages.

Japan Magazine

Japan Magazine PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Japan
Languages : en
Pages : 534

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Book Description


A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary

A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary PDF Author: James Curtis Hepburn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anglès
Languages : en
Pages : 1054

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Book Description


The Samurai

The Samurai PDF Author: Julia Kristeva
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231075428
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
Passionate and promiscuous intellectual warriors - the "samurai" for whom "writing is the only lasting act of pleasure and war combined." Readers will instantly recognize finely sketched and often searing portraits of some of this century's most influential minds: Lacan, Derrida, Barthes, Althusser, and many others. With an authorial voice that modulates between the erotic and the meditative, the ironic and the rancorous, The Samurai moves from Paris to Mao's China.

The Japan Magazine

The Japan Magazine PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Japan
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description


African Samurai

African Samurai PDF Author: Thomas Lockley
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 1488098751
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 518

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Book Description
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

Blue Light Yokohama

Blue Light Yokohama PDF Author: Nicolas Obregon
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250110483
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
-Inspired by a real-life unsolved murder---Front jacket flap.

The Last Samurai

The Last Samurai PDF Author: Helen DeWitt
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 0811225518
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
Called “remarkable” (The Wall Street Journal) and “an ambitious, colossal debut novel” (Publishers Weekly), Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai is back in print at last Helen DeWitt’s 2000 debut, The Last Samurai, was “destined to become a cult classic” (Miramax). The enterprising publisher sold the rights in twenty countries, so “Why not just, ‘destined to become a classic?’” (Garth Risk Hallberg) And why must cultists tell the uninitiated it has nothing to do with Tom Cruise? Sibylla, an American-at-Oxford turned loose on London, finds herself trapped as a single mother after a misguided one-night stand. High-minded principles of child-rearing work disastrously well. J. S. Mill (taught Greek at three) and Yo Yo Ma (Bach at two) claimed the methods would work with any child; when these succeed with the boy Ludo, he causes havoc at school and is home again in a month. (Is he a prodigy, a genius? Readers looking over Ludo’s shoulder find themselves easily reading Greek and more.) Lacking male role models for a fatherless boy, Sibylla turns to endless replays of Kurosawa’s masterpiece Seven Samurai. But Ludo is obsessed with the one thing he wants and doesn’t know: his father’s name. At eleven, inspired by his own take on the classic film, he sets out on a secret quest for the father he never knew. He’ll be punched, sliced, and threatened with retribution. He may not live to see twelve. Or he may find a real samurai and save a mother who thinks boredom a fate worse than death.