I've heard that this is a beautiful coffee table book with extremely well written text.

This scholarly work covers a long neglected area in the art world. Southern India and the contribution of Islamic art to this region has had insufficient attention over the years. Here we have renowned experts surveying the area with great skill. A book that will give great joy and value to scholars and the general reader alike.

I met Keiko in 1963 in Mexico when she was representing Japan at an International Girl Scout Conference which I was leading. She and her husband have lived in Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Switzerland, Boston, and Washington, D.C.,as well as Japan. Rihito's work as a Bioethics leader has taken them to these various countries. They have three children--all accomplished adults.

Keiko is an author of six books, has a magnificent voice, and is very involved in her church and community in Arlington, Va. She also has a ten minute radio spot, which she broadcasts from her home each week to Japan--telling about various events or activities in the USA.

This is Keiko's first book in English. She sent me a copy, which I read the next day and was so enthusiastic that I ordered forty copies myself to distribute to friends. It is an outstanding description of Japanese morals, manners, and customs--a must read for anyone in contact with Japenese personally or professionally. It provides great insight into the Japanese culture and approach to life.

As I said to Keiko, I've known you for thirty-five years and knew very little of this. I found it fascinating and hope you do, too.

Julie Dawson

Joseph Bermudez is the best expert on North Korea's military and missile programs. I first saw his previous book, North Korean Special Forces(NKSF), in a classified cover on the desk of south Korean intelligence analysts.

His new book goes into even greater depth and covers the makeup, motivation, and enviroment that has created and maintained arguably the largest deployed combat force in the world.

The book is well written. The graphics are excellent, as are references to supporting documents.

This book is a must for anyone interested in knowing more about the security risks and challenges facing Japan, Korea, China, Russia and the United States.

This is the first book that I have read that presents clear and comprehensive look at Swordsmanship and Archery. This book is more historical in its nature. If you are looking for a MA manual this it is not. Here the author presents scholarly treatment of Swordsmanship and Archery in context to social history of Japan and I admire him for that reason. I have come away with a deeper understanding of the subject and a greater appreciation for how these two martial arts evolved through out the history of Japan. A Great Work.

I adored this book as a lower school student. It taught me about my culture and is full of so many beautiful pictures - I must have checked it out tens of times at our library... it's a must for any bestik Armenian child.

I purchased this book in my never ending pursuit of sholarly discourse on Japanese Buddhist sculpture. It is one thing to study sculpture and painting. It is quite another to understand it in the context of history and the architecture that housed it. Enlightening, to say the least, and meaningful reading. Its coverage of Buddhism and Buddhist art in Japan is noteworthy.

A very good "how to" manual for embroidery styles found in Japan, China and Korea. Covers the history of embroidery technique from personal and home accessories, to Chinese Dragon Robes, Japanese Kimono and Korean Wedding Robes. Full color plates augmented with black and white line drawings showing robe construction and embrodery placement. A very nice section in the back covering Chinese symbolism as found in dragon robes and other classical textiles.

This book traces one of the origins of modern racism. Its analysis of the intellectual history of the 19th century and their innocent creation of a theory which gives the inspiration of modern racism is an excellent piece of scholarship. The profound knowldge of the author on Indology and Indo-European studies made his argument authorative. This book should be read by all history students, instead of only the students in South Asian studies.

This book, as far as I know, is the first to focus on the anonymous warriors of feudal Japan. Turnbull does an excellent job of shedding light on the class of warriors that bore the brunt of fighting during sengoku jidai. He covers everything from arms and armor, how the farmer/soldiers were mobilized in time of war, to life on campaign and medical treatment for wounded soldiers. He also shows how ashigaru went from being despised underlings to finally being granted the social status of samurai under Hideyoshi, who himself started his military career as an ashigaru. All of this in 64 pages. Well worth the money.