Eerie stories from the fantastic world of the Shark God of Molokai, the Ghost of Wahaula Temple, and the King of Ghosts. Originally published in 1915.

Publisher: Tuttle
Paperback: 280 pages
Illustrated

“A fascinating dissertation on an esoteric subject. It is highly recommended to all those interested in exploring the little-known alcoves of history and culture.”

Publisher: Tuttle
Paperback: 176 pages

Hundreds of Japanese death poems, many with a commentary describing the circumstances of the poet’s death: “My whole life long I’ve sharpened my sword, and now, face to face with death I unsheathe it, and lo—the blade is broken—Alas!”

Publisher: Tuttle
Paperback: 366 pages

Butoh, a Japanese form of avant-garde dance founded in the 1960s, is a fusion of global influences in dance from both hemispheres. From Japan’s own culture it draws on Noh, kabuki and Shingeki (a radical 1920s Japanese theater) and from the West on Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual Eurhythmics, Mary Wigman’s Neue Tanze and the theories of Emile Dalcroze on movement and education. Yet Butoh differs from both Western and Eastern dance forms because the “Butoh spirit confronts the origins of fear”—distilling the literary and theoretical ideas of Lautréamont, Artaud and Genet into a marriage of opposites fusing beauty and pain.
The word Butoh is made up of two ideographs: “bu” meaning dance, and “toh” meaning step. The founders of Butoh believed that the body is fundamentally chaotic yet controlled by religious and cultural repressions that are instilled with hate from cradle to grave. In Butoh, the dancer must isolate himself from physical and social identity, only to be guided by the soul expressing its purity by reverting to the original memory of the body—allowing escape from surface reality in order to attain the essence of life. After designing what is now the blueprint for today’s modern dance, the Butoh pioneers then made an extensive journey back to the origins of dance, seeing it as a prehistoric painting, and performance as a ceremony for the audience. Illustrated with 250 exquisite photos, Butoh: Shades of Darkness, the first comprehensive study of its kind in English, explores the evolution of Butoh through interviews with its mystical fathers (the cosmic Ono and the dark Hijikata) and chronologies of its troupes and legendary performances. OAA

Publisher: Tuttle
Hardback: 208 pages
Illustrated

The author spent years researching the Japanese sex business (in particular those aspects ordinarily closed to foreigners) and finally gathered enough material to write this marvelous guide and fascinating study of the sexual life of the country. You think you have unusual tastes? “NAISHIN-KYO SUPESHARU—Endoscope Special—Customers interested in taking a closer look at their seikan girl’s vagina are handed an authentic gynecologist’s endoscope, with which they can study the organ to their heart’s content.” Soap girls, love motels, vending machines full of schoolgirl’s used panties and the ever-popular ganmen kijo zeme (facial horseback attack). What a country! JW

Publisher: Tuttle
Paperback: 208 pages
Illustrated