Books published by University of Hawai'i Press

Contains translations of one hundred and seventy-four stories in the section of China from Konjaku monogatarish, the largest story collection in Japan, dating from the early twelfth century. The original work contains more than one thousand tales of India, China, and Japan.

The Otogibōko is a collection of 65 fictional tales -written in 1666 by Asai Ryōi (d. 1691), an acclaimed writer of kanazōshi (prose literature). Asai adopted most of these stories from Chinese and Korean texts and then shaped them for the Otogibōko's didactic Buddhist framework. In some tales he replaced historical contexts and names of places and people with ones familiar to his Japanese contemporaries. Asai embellished the Otogibōko with waka poems, giving it an elegance reminiscent of Heian-period romantic fiction. Otogibōko be translated as A Doll for Entertainment. Like the bōko (doll) traditionally kept next to children to ward off evil spirits, Asai wrote the Otogibōko as a companion for young readers and guide to the Buddhist Way. The stories are at once entertaining and instructive. They mix in equal measure human passion and intrigue with suspense and supernatural spectacle. As morality tales, each one's denouement exemplifies Buddhist teachings and precepts. With this new English translation of the Otogibōko, today's readers can enjoy the later work of Japan's finest writer of kanazōshi. The Otogibōko will be of interest to scholars of Edo-period history and religion and to folklorists. As a kanazōshi masterpiece, this collection is an excellent introduction to a popular Japanese literary genre for the reader whose imagination likes to wander.

The Kakure Kirishitan, or "hidden Christians", practiced their religion in secret for several hundred years. The Kakure bible, "Beginning of Heaven and Earth," is an amalgam of Bible stories, Japanese fables, and Roman Catholic doctrine. This book offers a complete translation of this unique work accompanied by an illuminating commentary.

Western scholars are generally far less familiar with the samurai in his original role as warrior and master of arms than in his other functions as landowner, feudal lord, litterateur, or philosopher. Karl Friday examines samurai martial culture from a historical and worldview in this study.

Combining interviews and biographies with archive materials and ephemeral popular literature, this text documents the monastic lives of three generations of forest-dwelling ascetics and challenges the stereotype of Thai Buddhism.

A leading cultural historian of premodern Japan draws a rich portrait of the emerging samurai culture as it is portrayed in gunki-mono, or war tales, examining eight major works spanning the mid-tenth to late fourteenth centuries. Warriors of Japan is the first book-length study of the tales and their place in Japanese history.

Includes the finest translations available of representative works in all the major genres, including poetry, fiction, essays, and drama. Readers will gain a clear sense of the development of twentieth-century Korean literature and a vivid impression of the resilience, strength, and tenacity of modern Korean writers.

"The entry into the middle way": p. [141]-196.

"In 12 excellent essays by scholars East and West, this collection explores the many dimensions of Heidegger's relation to Eastern thinking.... Because of the quality of the contributions, the eminence of the many contributors... this volume must be considered an indispensable reference on the subject. Highly recommended." --Choice.

Provides an introduction to the philosophy of the Hua-yen school of Buddhism, one of the cornerstones of East Asian Buddhist thought. Cleary presents a survey of the unique Buddhist scripture on which the Hua-yen teaching is based and a brief history of its introduction into China. He also presents a succinct analysis of the essential metaphysics of Hua-yen Buddhism.

This volume is the first concise introduction to the splendid variety of the Chinese theatrical tradition. It presents a rounded perspective on the development of Chinese theater by considering all of its major aspects--history and social context, performance, costume, makeup, actors, playwrights, and theaters--and by discussing all the major forms of Chinese theater, including the Beijing opera, which arose in the eighteenth century, and the spoken play, an entirely twentieth-century form. Its contributors are uniquely qualified to write about the Chinese theater. They have enjoyed an intimate relationship with their subject, both as academics and as theater workers, and they have combined a deep knowledge of Chinese theater with a high regard for its long tradition and continuing vitality. The book is intended for general as well as more specialized readers. Those with an interest in theater as a worldwide phenomenon and those wanting a new light on Chinese culture and society will find it equally useful. To those with a particular interest in Chinese theater, it will be a rich and important resource.

A collection of 46 essays that trace the course of democracy in Japan from 1868 to 1952.

Rickshaw is a new translation of the twentieth-century Chinese classic Lo-t'o Hsiang Tzu, the first important study of a laborer in modern Chinese literature. While the rest of the Chinese literary world debated hotly, and for years, the value of proletarian literature, Lao She wrote the novel that the left wing insisted on but failed to produce.

From earliest times, the chanting of poetry served the Hawaiians as a form of ritual celebration of the things they cherished. This anthology embraces a wide variety of compositions: it ranges from song-poems of the Pele and Hiiaka cycle and the pre-Christian Shark Hula for Ka-lani-opuu to postmissionary chants and gospel hymns.

The present translation is based on the standard version by Menzan Zuihao as edited by Watsuji Tetsurao.

Between 1886 and 1924 thousands of Japanese journeyed to Hawaii to work the sugarcane plantations. First the men came, followed by brides, known only from their pictures, for marriages arranged by brokers. This book tells the story of two generations of plantation workers as revealed by the clothing they brought with them and the adaptations they made to it to accommodate the harsh conditions of plantation labor. Barbara Kawakami has created a vivid picture highlighted by little-known facts gleaned from extensive interviews, from study of preserved pieces of clothing and how they were constructed, and from the literature. She shows that as the cloth preferred by the immigrants shifted from kasuri (tie-dyed fabric from Japan) to palaka (heavy cotton cloth woven in a white plaid pattern on a dark blue background) so too their outlooks shifted from those of foreigners to those of Japanese Americans. Chapters on wedding and funeral attire present a cultural history of the life events at which they were worn, and the examination of work, casual, and children's clothing shows us the social fabric of the issei (first-generation Japanese). Changes that occurred in nisei (second-generation) tradition and clothing are also addressed. The book is illustrated with rare photographs of the period from family collections.