A mysterious masked Samurai who is part of myth and legend is brought into reality when he gets an unexpected guest. An Empress who needs his help to save her entire family before they are subjected to the same curse that has been bestowed upon her. All the Masked Warrior can do is hope he gets to them in time.
Intro -- Relocation, or a travelin' girl -- Don't fence me in -- A tisket, a tasket, a brown and yellow basket... -- From a broken past into the future -- Twice as good -- Shall we dance! -- School daze -- Chop suey -- We shall overcome -- Power to the people -- A single stone, many ripples -- Something about me today -- The people's beat -- A song for ourselves -- Nosotro somos Asiaticos -- Foster children of the Pepsi Generation -- A grain of sand -- Free the land -- What will people think? -- Some things live a moment -- How to mend what's broken -- Women hold up half the sky -- Our own chop suey -- What is the color of love? -- Talk story -- Yuiyo, just dance -- Float hands like clouds -- Deep is the chasm -- To all relations -- Bismillah Ir Rahman Ir Rahim -- The seed of the dandelion -- I dream a garden -- Mottainai : waste nothing -- Black Lives Matter -- Bambutsu : all things connected -- Epilogue.
This is the true story of the tragic life of Okichi Saito who became the pawn to placate Townsend Harris, the first American Consul to Japan in the turbulent mid 1800's. This poignant story takes place during a period in history when the "Black Ships" arrived in Japan and changed many lives, especially those of Okichi and her fianc and lover, Tsurumatsu. Like a butterfly, Okichi was beautiful but fragile, easily tossed about and bruised by the stronger forces of political wheeling and dealing. The story takes the readers on a journey from the wild windswept fishing village of Shimoda to the colorful world of the geishas Okichi was literally sold into, then onto the awesome stage of politics and power and finally to a lonely outcast who walked into the icy waters of the Shimoda Bay one cold grey March morning....
Butterflies of the Night is an American woman's inside view of Japan's lively and powerful nightclub world. Includes interviews with women in both high-end clubs and the sleazy end of the business, as well as comments from customers of geisha houses as well as sex clubs.
When three-year-old Benji is plucked from the security of his home in Nagasaki to live with his American father, Lt. Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, and stepmother, Kate, on their farm in Illinois, the family conceals Benji’s true identity as a child born from a liaison between an officer and a geisha—and instead tells everyone that he is an orphan. When the truth surfaces, it will splinter this family’s fragile dynamic and send Benji on the journey of a lifetime from Illinois to the Japanese settlements in Denver and San Francisco, then across the ocean to Nagasaki, where he will uncover the truth about his mother’s tragic death. Don’t miss the exclusive conversation between Angela Davis-Gardner and Jennifer Egan at the back of the book.
MORNING SUN LIGHTS UP THE TWO DIFFERENT AND FASCINATING WORLDS OF AMERICA AND JAPAN BEFORE PEARL HARBOR This bestselling author’s wonderfully moving adventure-love story takes us to Japan in 1913. When his US Navy officer father dies, teenage Sam Pinkerton discovers he’s the son of a Japanese mother, and follows his heart to find her. Too late. Madam Butterfly ended her life with a samurai blade. Whether American or Japanese, he’s an outcast desperately alone in the strange and dangerous lower depths of Nagasaki, struggling to stay alive. A wily criminal Japanese kid helps him avoid the law and endure to young manhood and sex in varieties gaijins know little of. A breathtaking fantasy with a geisha ends when corrupt and powerful Kodo traps the American-looking Sam into marrying his club-footed daughter. Sam feels no love, yet respects Mayumi, who bears the children he adores. Her father sends him to the States, posing as an American in a lumber deal illegal for a Japanese. Accepted among the Jazz-Age youth, he falls in love with blonde Nicola. One slip, however, will reveal his identity and mean prison for Sam. Now truly between two worlds -- Nagasaki and Mayumi waiting with his children, or America and his deep love for Nicola. Desert Mayumi the way his father betrayed Butterfly? Where does young Sam belong in the world?
Using the framework of Edward Said’s Orientalism, this work examines how Western rock and pop artists—particularly during the age of album rock from the 1970s through the 1990s—perpetuated long-held stereotypes of Japan in their direct encounters with the country and in songs and music videos with Japanese content.
A Blanket of Butterflies explores the journey of Shinobu, a mysterious stranger who visits Fort Smith, NWT, to retrieve his family’s samurai suit of armor and sword from the museum. When he discovers that his grandfather’s sword has been lost in a poker game to the man they call “Benny the Bank,” he sets out to retrieve it, with the help of a young boy, Sonny, and his grandmother. Together, they face Benny and his men, Torchy, Sfen and the giant they call Flinch. This graphic novel, beautifully illustrated by Scott B. Henderson, explores the grace of family and the power of the Great Mystery. A Blanket of Butterflies is nominated for a 2016 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue/One-Shot.
Thomas Glover arrived in Nagasaki in 1859, just as Japan was opening to the West. Within a few years he had played a crucial part in the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate, providing the rebels with war-winning, Scottish-designed warships, and modern arms. Bankruptcy by the age of thirty was barely a setback and he went on to become a pivotal figure in the rapidly expanding Mitsubishi empire, founding shipyards and breweries. As energetic in his love-life as in business and politics, Glover had a string of Japanese mistresses, one of whom inspired Puccini's Madam Butterfly. This 'Scottish Samurai' was to become an adviser to the Japanese government; he also arranged for many Japanese to visit Britain and see the wonders of the industrial revolution, a lesson they enthusiastically absorbed. Today, Glover is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the Japanese economic miracle.
Painstakingly researched, 30 accurate, detailed illustrations depict the samurai and the tools of their trade: koshozan helmets, armor of metal and leather, su-yari spears, a wall-gun, and other weaponry used on horseback, at sea, and in training.