Cultural Atlas of Japan

Martin Collcutt, Marius Jansen, and Isao Kumakura, Cultural Atlas of Japan. Amsterdam: Time Life Books, 1996.

Quarto, hard cover, dustwrapper, 240 pages, heavily illustrated.

In excellent condition.

53 maps; 336 illustrations, 266 in colour

'The story of modern Japan is one of dramatic recovery and unparalleled prosperity, which is often described as miraculous. ...

'Since the end of the Ice Age some 12 000 years ago, when the archipelago was first severed from the Asian mainland, Japan has evolved its own distinct and homogeneous culture, fostered by its insular isolation but frequently subject to penetrating Chinese influence.

'The Cultural Atlas of Japan tells the story of that culture, beginning with its debt to geography and its earliest surviving traces as revealed by archaeology. Early chapters cover the introduction of rice-farming and metalworking techniques, the age of the great tombs and the arrival of Buddhism and its assimilation with Shinto. A central section carries the discussion of Japanese culture from ancient times through the aristocratic and feudal ages to the eve of the Meiji restoration in 1868. The final part is devoted to Japan's modern century, from the Meiji restoration to the present.'