Asian history Books

The civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists drove the largest refugee exodus in the modern history of China,across the sea to the southern island of Taiwan. Martial artists of many styles were among this diaspora.In the 1940's areas of...

The fascinating account of two former British colonies with a shared past but vastly different identities today!Singapore and Malaysia sit astride the sea lanes linking East with West - vital choke points in the world's commerce. Since ancient...

An engaging history covering a century of conflict on the Korean Peninsula Korea at War recounts how two separate nations emerged on the Korean peninsula as the result of devastating conflicts involving provocative personalities and superpower intrigues...

The ultimate guide to the Japanese martial arts by the world's foremost expert! Author Alexander Bennett is the ultimate insider, having lived in Japan for decades. He holds multiple black belts in Kendo and Naginata, as well as PhDs in Japanese...

The unknown history of economic conservatism in India after independenceNeoliberalism is routinely characterized as an antidemocratic, expert-driven project aimed at insulating markets from politics, devised in the North Atlantic and projected on the...

AWARDSFINALIST-Sports,Best Book Awards, 2023 Genuine Okinawan Karate was developed as a fighting tool. Non-Okinawan Karate are for other purposes.Karate practitioners, scholars, and everyone caring about Asian martial arts and its culture will...

Asian art expert Dr. Patricia Graham helps guide readers through the aspects of Japanese art and design we've all come to appreciate--whether it's a silk kimono, carefully raked garden path or modern snack food packaging. From the ten key characteristics...

Enchanting Embroidery invites you to create your own world using bright thread and imaginative stitching. Full of motifs that are both simple and playful - zany crocodiles, cats, bears, even bats and ravens - this book invites you to be creative...

'Lucid and lyrical...a vivid history of Japan's turbocharged (and painful) modernisation.' - The Daily Telegraph In A History of Modern Japan, cultural historian Christopher Harding delves into the untold stories of...

This book tells the story of Kazuo Odachi who - in 1943, when he was just 16 years-old-joined the Imperial Japanese Navy to become a pilot. A year later, he was unknowingly assigned to the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps - a group of airmen whose mission...

Power to them meant everything. It was founded on courage, which begot honour. And by this courage and for this honour they fought to the death.The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps tells the thrilling story of the Shinsengumi - the legendary corps of Samurai...

At the heart of the Floating World and the system it supported was an extensive network of talented courtesans and entertainers, typified by the still fascinating, enigmatic Geisha. Stephen and Ethel Longstreet bring the reader on an in-depth tour of the...

Ninja Fighting Techniques explains how to defend yourself against real-world threats using techniques perfected centuries ago by the great Ninja masters.Author Stephen K. Hayes is the world's leading expert on Ninjutsu techniques. In this book, he...

Whether you're planning a trip to Japan, or are just interested in manga, anime and Japanese pop culture, let Otaku Japan Travel Guide transport you to the global capital of cool! If you're crazy about manga, anime, gaming, cosplay,...

Edward Seidensticker's A History of Tokyo 1867-1989 tells the fascinating story of Tokyo's transformation from the Shogun's capital in an isolated Japan to the largest and the most modern city in the world. With the same scholarship and sparkling style...

This seminal work by historian Alexander Bennett presents a broad overview of the Japanese "Way of the Warrior" as it is expressed in scores of classical Japanese texts written by famous Samurai themselves. Bennett's analysis of these writings shows that...

Modern Ninja Warfare takes a contemporary look at the stealthy methods of the Ninja (Shinobi) and how they can be employed to counter modern security threats. This book provides an ideal overview of Ninjutsu techniques for security personnel, military,...

*Winnerof a 2019 Gourmand World Cookbook Award*Japanese whisky has been around for less than a century - but is now winning all the major international awards. How did this happen and what are the secrets of the master distillers? This whisky book...

Ninjutsu is the most renowned and misunderstood of all martial arts. The long history of ninjutstu is often murky; surrounded by mystery and legend. Here, for the first time, is an in-depth, factual look at the entire art of ninjutsu, including emergence...

Created specifically for fans of Japanese 'cool culture,' A Geek in Japan is one of the most iconic, hip, and concise cultural guides available.Reinvented for the internet age, it is packed with personal essays and hundreds of photographs and...

Samurai Castles features hundreds of stunning color photographs and little-known details about the most important and well-preserved Samurai castles in Japan, including their history, design and military features.Japan's ancient castles provide profound...

Tokyo is ground zero for Japan's popular "Geek" or otaku culture-a phenomenon that has now swept across the globe.This is the most comprehensive guide ever produced to Tokyo's geeky underworld. It provides a comprehensive run-down on each major Tokyo...

True stories of glamour, drama, and tragedy told through five generations of a Shanghai family, from the last days of imperial rule to the Cultural Revolution.A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family...

Ninth Building is a fascinating collection of vignettes drawn from Zou Jingzhi's experience growing up during the Cultural Revolution, first as a boy in Beijing and then as a teenager exiled to the countryside. Zou poetically captures a side of the...

According to the United Nations, Myanmar's Rohingyas are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Only now has the media turned its attention to their plight at the hands of a country led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Yet the...

Japan's post-war armed forces are a paradox, both embarrassing remnants of the past and valuable repositories of experience. This book charts the development of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) from 1954 as both unorthodox military institutions and...

Why are relations between politically mobilised ethnic identities and the nation-state sometimes peaceful and at other times fraught and violent? Madurika Rasaratnam's book sets out a novel answer to this key puzzle in world politics through a detailed...

New York Times Book of the Year The Blood Telegram is an unprecedented chronicle of a pivotal but little-known chapter of the Cold War. Gary J. Bass shows how Nixon and Kissinger supported Pakistan's military dictatorship as it brutally quashed the...

In 2012 Narendra Modi became the first Hindu nationalist politician thrice elected to lead a state of the Indian Union, his stewardship as Chief Minister of Gujarat being the longest in that state's history. Modi and his BJP supporters explained his...

The history of Tibet has long intrigued the world, as well as the dilemma of its future - will it ever return to independence or will it always remain part of China? Is a 'Tibet outside of Tibet' a viable expression of...

South Korea has a remarkable history. Born from the ashes of imperial domination, partition and a devastating war, back in the 1950s there were real doubts about its survival as an independent state. Yet South Korea endures: today it is a boisterous...

How can we explain Britain's long rule in India beyond the clichs of 'imperial' versus 'nationalist' interpretations? In this new history, Roderick Matthews tells a more nuanced story of 'oblige and rule', the foundation of common purpose between...

India's caravan trade with central Asia was at the heart of the complex web of routes making up the Silk Roads. But what was the fate of these overland connections in the ages of sail and steam? Jagjeet Lally sets out to answer this question by bringing...

This book addresses the most important question in geopolitics today - the future of relations between the US and China. Concerned that the rise of China will challenge the its hegemony in world affairs, the US has decided to reassert its influence in...

By the time of Japan's surrender in 1945, an entire generation had grown up knowing nothing but conflict; but the transformation of Japan into a militarist power began decades earlier, with the toppling of the old samurai regime, and the rush of...

"Presented alongside Hiroshige's prints, with descriptions and context, Delord's work offers an absorbing contemplation of Japan's past and present via one legendary travel route, and shows how thoroughly upended our surroundings have been in what was,...

Japanese Legends and Folklore invites English speakers into the intriguing world of Japanese folktales, ghost stories and historical eyewitness accounts. With a fascinating selection of stories about Japanese culture and people, A.B. Mitford - who lived...

Japan is home to some of the world's most interesting alcoholic beverages - from  traditional Sak and Shochu to Japanese whisky, beer, wine and cocktails that are winning global acclaim and awards. In this comprehensive survey of...

Bushido: The Samurai Code of Japan is one of the most influential books ever written on "the way of the warrior." A classic study of Japanese culture, the book outlines the moral code of the Samurai way of living and the virtues every Samurai warrior...

Based on the author's study with instructors at the Tokyo police academy, this book presents all the traditional techniques of Jujitsu, also known as Jiu-jitsu. These techniques teach you valuable restraining techniques forcing...

Between South and Central Asia, in the high mountains and cold deserts, India, Pakistan and China have fought brutal wars over barren, uninhabited territory in a bid for control over their national peripheries, including Xinjiang and Tibet in China, and...

The ultimate visual guide to Samurai history and culture! The Samurai are continuously celebrated as the greatest warriors the world has ever seen. They ruled Japan for centuries, finally uniting the nation after a prolonged period of brutal war and...

This new edition contains a new introduction by the translator, and has been thoroughly updated to reflect developments that shed new light on the original Japanese text. True Path of the Ninja is the first authoritative...

This fascinating book tells the story of the people of Japan, from ancient teenage priest-queens to teeming hordes of salarymen, a nation that once sought to conquer China, yet also shut itself away for two centuries in self-imposed seclusion...

*Finalist for the US National Book Award for Poetry 2020*A powerful work of cultural memory that recovers voices from Korea's heartbreakingly violent postcolonial history.Woven from poems, prose, photographs, and drawings, Don Mee Choi's DMZ...

There are many books published in English on Chinese gardens, but the majority are primarily picture books with little informative content. With a large number of illustrations of Chinese gardens, ancient paintings, block prints, and other artefacts,...

How did a venerable Indian spiritual discipline turn into a 20 billion-a-year mainstay of the wellness industry? What happened along yoga's winding path from the caves and forests of the sages to the gyms, hospitals and village halls of the modern...

A gripping royal saga of charmed lives in a changing world.The Jaipurs were India's mid-century golden couple; its answer to the Kennedys, or Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Jai and Ayesha, as they were known to friends like Frank Sinatra, Truman...