It is often said that Masamune was the greatest Japanese swordsmith of all times From a mere technical point of view, it is next to impossible to say if there was one "greatest" swordsmith as the country brought forth so many great master smiths. Each of these masters had a personal approach in producing a perfect sword, and within these elite circles we are not only referring to technical perfection but also to aesthetical considerations. So putting aside the claim to name a "greatest," we can at least say for sure that Masamune is by far the most famous swordsmith of Japan. The aim of this publication is to contribute to the understanding and appreciation of this great master, that is to say by not only presenting his works but also by providing a newly researched and detailed historic overview of his life and the circumstances in the establishment of a new forging tradition. This publication introduces more than 50 of his meibutsu (noted swords). PLEASE SEE LULU.COM FOR THE HARDCOVER COLOR DELUXE EDITION.

This completely new encyclopedic reference for the Japanese sword contains about 2,500 terms, many of them illustrated by photos and drawings. The Encyclopedia of Japanese Swords is an A-Z general encyclopedia covering each and every part of the sword: the blade, the mountings, the fittings, and all their different interpretations. Further, this encyclopedia also explains the literal or etymological meaning of each Japanese term and provides an even deeper insight into the subject.

With this publication I try to systematically and comprehensively process the subject of ,,Japanese sword mountings". It was not my goal to depict as many extant interpretations of sword mountings as possible but to deal with their different styles. With this publication the reader will be informed in which way the Japanese swords were mounted over time, the origins of the various styles, what changes they underwent and it will also serve as a reference material to classify extant specimen. In this sense the descriptions were embedded in an explanation of their historical context rather then listing them simply by their interpretation or in alphabetical order. As the main focus lies on ,,koshirae", explanations on the sword fittings - the tosogu - were omitted because their descriptions can be easily found elsewhere. Also, the military mountings - the gunto-koshirae - were left out because there are excellent publications available which deal with them in great detail.

The story of humanity overcoming divinity is about an orphan and a princess. Two very different individuals would go on to write human history. Together they gather other powerful humans to combat the powerful Onika. Using powerful spells to trap the Onika in their weapons, they fight against the very gods for their freedom.

Since the end of the Second World War—and particularly over the last decade—Japanese science fiction has strongly influenced global popular culture. Unlike American and British science fiction, its most popular examples have been visual—from Gojira (Godzilla) and Astro Boy in the 1950s and 1960s to the anime masterpieces Akira and Ghost in the Shell of the 1980s and 1990s—while little attention has been paid to a vibrant tradition of prose science fiction in Japan. Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams remedies this neglect with a rich exploration of the genre that connects prose science fiction to contemporary anime. Bringing together Western scholars and leading Japanese critics, this groundbreaking work traces the beginnings, evolution, and future direction of science fiction in Japan, its major schools and authors, cultural origins and relationship to its Western counterparts, the role of the genre in the formation of Japan’s national and political identity, and its unique fan culture. Covering a remarkable range of texts—from the 1930s fantastic detective fiction of Yumeno Kyûsaku to the cross-culturally produced and marketed film and video game franchise Final Fantasy—this book firmly establishes Japanese science fiction as a vital and exciting genre. Contributors: Hiroki Azuma; Hiroko Chiba, DePauw U; Naoki Chiba; William O. Gardner, Swarthmore College; Mari Kotani; Livia Monnet, U of Montreal; Miri Nakamura, Stanford U; Susan Napier, Tufts U; Sharalyn Orbaugh, U of British Columbia; Tamaki Saitô; Thomas Schnellbächer, Berlin Free U. Christopher Bolton is assistant professor of Japanese at Williams College. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. is professor of English at DePauw University. Takayuki Tatsumi is professor of English at Keio University.

This volume presents the contributions delivered at the "Josef-Loschmidt-Sympo sium," which took place in Vienna, June 25-27, 1995. The symposium was arranged to honor Josef Loschmidt one hundred years after his death (8 July 1895), to evaluate the sig nificance of his contributions to chemistry and physics from a modem point of view and to trace the development of scientific fields in which he had done pioneering work. Loschmidt is widely known for the first calculation of the size of molecules (1865/66), which also led to values for the number of molecules in unit gas volume and for the mass of molecules. With critical analyses of problems in statistical physics he made important contributions to the development of that field, "Loschmidt's paradoxon" continuing to be a point of departure for present day studies and discussions. For decades there was little awareness that Loschmidt was a pioneer in organic struc tural chemistry. Only in recent years has Loschmidt's first scientific publication "Chemis che Studien I", published in 1861, become more widely known and it is now recognized that with his ideas on the structure of organic molecules he was greatly ahead of the chemists of that time. The papers in these proceedings are arranged in three sections: l. Organic structural chemistry (Chapters 1-12). 2. Physics and physical chemistry (Chapters 13-26). 3. Loschmidt's biography, Loschmidt's world (Chapters 27-33).

Anime: A Critical Introduction maps the genres that have thrived within Japanese animation culture, and shows how a wide range of commentators have made sense of anime through discussions of its generic landscape. From the battling robots that define the mecha genre through to Studio Ghibli's dominant genre-brand of plucky shojo (young girl) characters, this book charts the rise of anime as a globally significant category of animation. It further thinks through the differences between anime's local and global genres: from the less-considered niches like nichijo-kei (everyday style anime) through to the global popularity of science fiction anime, this book tackles the tensions between the markets and audiences for anime texts. Anime is consequently understood in this book as a complex cultural phenomenon: not simply a “genre,” but as an always shifting and changing set of texts. Its inherent changeability makes anime an ideal contender for global dissemination, as it can be easily re-edited, translated and then newly understood as it moves through the world's animation markets. As such, Anime: A Critical Introduction explores anime through a range of debates that have emerged around its key film texts, through discussions of animation and violence, through debates about the cyborg and through the differences between local and global understandings of anime products. Anime: A Critical Introduction uses these debates to frame a different kind of understanding of anime, one rooted in contexts, rather than just texts. In this way, Anime: A Critical Introduction works to create a space in which we can rethink the meanings of anime as it travels around the world.