Carte

From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior. The Samurai emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan and would have a powerful influence on the history and culture of the country from the next 500 years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in the 17th and 18th centuries and how the caste was finally demolished in the advent of the mechanized world.

In the past decades, Japanese food has become part of the global culinary scene: sushi, maki, miso soup, teriyaki, and tofu have found their way to our plates and palates. Japanese cooking not only harmoniously combines flavors and aesthetics, it is also praised for its nutritional and health benefits. This book introduces readers to the essence of Japanese cuisine: what are the basic ingredients and utensils? Which basic recipes need one know to cook Japanese style? Why is rice so important that the word "gohan" (rice) also means "meal"? More than one hundred recipes of traditional yet simple Japanese dishes are explained step-by-step with tips and variants. Beautiful photographs of soups, noodles, sushi, meat, fish, seafood, vegetables, and deserts (chocolate tofu mousse, matcha tart with almonds and lemon, to name but a few) take you on a tour of Japanese culinary culture.

Compiled and annotated by an authority on Japanese food who has lived in Japan since 1973, this dictionary aims to eliminate the mystery, explain the nuances and reveal the wonders of Japanese food. For each entry in the Japanese-English section, Hosking lists the Japanese term in kana or kanji or both, a Latin name where appropriate, an English name, and a detailed English definition. The English-Japanese section defines common non-Japanese food items in Japanese and annotates those which need explanation. The book also contains 17 appendices on topics such as mountain vegetables, cooking utensils, vegetarianism, tofu, miso, sake, and soy sauce.

The Japanese Tea Ceremony is a detailed examination of the five-centuries-old tea ceremony-or Cha-no-Yu in Japanese, literally "hot water for tea"-a cornerstone of Japanese culture and a core practice of Zen Buddhism.

Developed out of the aesthetic philosophy of cha-no-yu (the tea ceremony) in fifteenth-century Japan, wabi sabi is an aesthetic that finds beauty in things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.