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Japanese Classics of Beauty & Impermanence
14
items Japanese myths, chronicles, Zen writings, Ainu oral literature, essays, and seasonal traditions. A shelf shaped by beauty, impermanence, silence, nature, ritual, and the quiet wisdom of passing things.
'It was with awe That I beheld Fresh leaves, green leaves, Bright in the sun' In his perfectly crafted haiku poems, Basho described the natural world with great simplicity and delicacy of feeling. When he composed The Narrow Road to the Deep North, h...
The Narrow Road to the Deep North & Sketches
Basho, one of the greatest of Japanese poets and the master of haiku, was also a Buddhist monk and a life-long traveller. His poems combine 'karumi', or lightness of touch, with the Zen ideal of oneness with creation. Each poem evokes the natural wor...
On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho
Essays in Idleness and Hojoki
Essays in Idleness and Hojoki
Written around 1645, Miyamoto Musashi’s Five Rings is a classic Japanese work on mastery in swordsmanship, leadership and conflict. Musashi was a swordsman, philosopher and strategist, and today his work remains of influence not only in the realm of ...
FIVE RINGS ILLUSTRATED
Bushido is the chivalric code of moral principles that the Samurai followed: rectitude, courage, benevolence, respect, honesty, honour and loyalty. Beautifully produced in traditional Chinese binding, Bushido Illustrated will appeal to anyone interes...
Bushido Illustrated: The Soul of Japan
Written by Saga Domain samurai Yamamoto Tseunetomo in the early 18th century, Hagakure is the definitive guide to samurai values and practice. In it, Tseunetomo explicates bushido, the warrior values to which samurai devoted themselves. In a time whe...
Amber Books Hagakure Illustrated
The graceful, evocative haiku featured here were composed by the renowned Japanese haiku masters of the past four hundred years, including Matsuo Bash, Taniguchi Buson, and Kobayashi Issa. The deceptively simple poemsrendered in English with Japanese...
Haiku: Japanese Art and Poetry
Written by the legendary swordsman Musashi Miyamoto, The Five Rings (c.1645) is more than just a manual on sword-fighting techniques: its Zen philosophy offers tactics and strategies as relevant to personal success today as they were to 17th-century ...
The Five Rings: Miyamoto Musashi's Art of Strategy
The classic story of Japan's origins—now in a fully revised and reader-friendly edition. The Kojiki is Japan's oldest surviving text, chronicling the mythical creation of the Japanese islands, the origins of the imperial family, and the early develop...
“Kojiki”
Often called the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji is not simply a court romance, but a quiet study of beauty, longing, impermanence, and the emotional lives hidden beneath ritual and elegance. Written in Heian Japan, it follows Genji and the pe...
Tale of Genji
This translation, supported by the Japan Foundation, makes a strong claim to be the definitive translation of the 95 chapter edition of Shobogenzo, the essential Japanese Buddhist text, written in the 13th century by Zen Master Dogen. The translation...
Master Dogen's Shobogenzo 1
This translation, supported by the Japan Foundation, makes a strong claim to be the definitive translation of the 95 chapter edition of Shobogenzo, the essential Japanese Buddhist text, written in the 13th century by Zen Master Dogen. Following on fr...
Master Dogen's Shobogenzo 2
This translation, supported by the Japan Foundation, makes a strong claim to be the definitive translation of the 95 chapter edition of Shobogenzo, the essential Japanese Buddhist text, written in the 13th century by Zen Master Dogen. Following Shobo...
Master Dogen's Shobogenzo 3
As an especially beautiful and pure example of the archaic epic styles that were once current among the hunting and fishing peoples of northern Asia, the Ainu epic folklore is of immense literary value. This collection and English translation by Dona...
Songs of Gods, Songs of Humans: Ainu Epic