Popular Literacy in Early Modern Japan Now in Paperback

Popular Literacy in Early Modern Japan, by Richard Rubinger, is now available in paperback. The focus of Rubinger’s study of Japanese literacy is the least-studied (yet overwhelming majority) of the premodern population: the rural farming class. In this book-length historical exploration of the topic, the first in any language, Rubinger dispels the misconception that there are few materials available for the study of popular literacy in Japan. He analyzes a rich variety of untapped sources from the sixteenth century onward, drawing for the first time on material that allows him to measure literacy: signatures on apostasy oaths, diaries, agricultural manuals, home encyclopedias, rural poetry-contest entries, village election ballots, literacy surveys, and family account books.

August 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3124-0 / $24.00 (PAPER)

Jizo in Hawaii

Jizo, one of the most beloved Buddhist deities in Japan, is known primarily as the guardian of children and travelers. In coastal areas, fishermen and swimmers also look to him for protection. Soon after their arrival in the late 1800s, issei (first-generation Japanese) shoreline fishermen began casting for ulua on Hawai‘i’s treacherous sea cliffs, where they risked being swept off the rocky ledges. In response to numerous drownings, Jizo statues were erected near dangerous fishing and swimming sites. Guardian of the Sea: Jizo in Hawai‘i, by John R. K. Clark, tells the story of a compassionate group of men who raised these statues as a service to their communities.

August 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3158-5 / $19.95 (PAPER)

“John Clark has written a remarkable book about shoreline statues of Jizo, a Buddhist figure dedicated to our protection and enlightenment. . . . John draws on interviews with more than three hundred individuals to document the location of these statues and in the process offers us a glimpse of the daily lives and spirituality of early Japanese Americans. We are indebted to him for making us aware of these Jizo monuments and their role in shaping Hawai‘i’s multicultural heritage.” —Dennis Ogawa, chair, American Studies Department, University of Hawai‘i

John R. K. Clark is the author of numerous best-selling books on Hawai‘i’s beaches— most recently Beaches of Oahu (revised edition); Hawai‘i Place Names: Shores, Beaches, and Surf Sites; and Hawai‘i’s Best Beaches—all published by University of Hawai‘i Press.

The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva

In modern Chinese Buddhism, Dizang is especially popular as the sovereign of the underworld. Often represented as a monk wearing a royal crown, Dizang awaits the faithful to help them navigate the complex underworld bureaucracy, avert the sufferings of hells, and arrive at the happy realm of rebirth. The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva: Dizang in Medieval China, by Zhiru, examines this important Buddhist deity during his formative period—before he settled into his modern role as beneficent ruler of the underworld, when his iconography and hagiography were still rife with possibilities.

August 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3045-8 / $50.00 (CLOTH)
Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism, No. 21
Published in association with the Kuroda Institute

“This is a welcome, important, and very helpful study of a hitherto poorly understood topic, and will remain the standard work of reference on the distinctively Chinese development of this important bodhisattva figure for years to come.” —Robert Campany, University of Southern California

Interview with Bruce Connew

New Zealand photojournalist Bruce Connew is the author of Stopover, a book of dutones documenting the Indian-Fijian sugar cane settlement of Vatiyaka and one extended family’s story of migration. Connew discussed his latest project in an interview with New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times. Read the interview here.

Stopover is published and distributed outside New Zealand by University of Hawai‘i Press.

“The way I see it, their dislocation is less from India, their country of heritage, than Fiji, the country of their birth, where they are second-class citizens. Sometimes, you must cut your losses and move on. Today, we are witness to that migration.”

Broken Trust Authors to Participate in ABA Teleconference

Samuel P. King and Randall W. Roth will take part in “Bad Times for Nonprofits,” a course offered in the the American Bar Association (ABA) Connection TeleConference Series and scheduled for August 15, 2007. The course is available to ABA members only and is sponsored by the ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education. Visit the ABA website here for registration, course information, and teleconference times.

King and Roth are the authors of Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement, and Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust, published in 2006 by University of Hawai‘i Press. Broken Trust is the latest recipient of the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association’s Samuel M. Kamakau Award for Hawai‘i Book of the Year.

Economic and Social Development in East and Southeast Asia

It is well known that Taiwan and South Korea, both former Japanese colonies, achieved rapid growth and industrialization after 1960. The performance of former European and American colonies (Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) has been less impressive. Some scholars have attributed the difference to better infrastructure and greater access to education in Japan’s colonies. Colonial Legacies: Economic and Social Development in East and Southeast Asia, by Anne E. Booth, examines and critiques such arguments in this ambitious comparative study of economic development in East and Southeast Asia from the beginning of the twentieth century until the 1960s.

August 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3161-5 / $60.00 (CLOTH)

Visual and Material Cultures of Ming China

Empire of Great Brightness: Visual and Material Culture of Ming China, 1368–1644, by Craig Clunas, is an innovative and accessible history of a high point in Chinese culture, seen through the riches of its images and objects. Not a simple emperor-by-emperor history, it instead introduces the reader to themes that provide stimulating and original points of entry to the culture of China: to ideas of motion and rest, to the position occupied by writing and objects featuring writing; to ideas about pleasure, about violence and ageing.

Craig Clunas is the author of Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China and Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming, both published by University of Hawai‘i Press.

August 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3149-3 / $59.00 (CLOTH)

Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Taiwan

Since the mid-1990s Taiwanese artists have been responsible for shaping much of the international contemporary art scene, yet studies on modern Taiwanese art published outside of Taiwan are scarce. The nine essays collected in Refracted Modernity: Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Taiwan, edited by Yuko Kikuchi, present different perspectives on Taiwanese visual culture and landscape during the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945), focusing variously on travel writings, Western and Japanese/Oriental-style paintings, architecture, aboriginal material culture, and crafts.

August 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3050-2 / $60.00 (CLOTH)

Hydrological Science in Hawaii Symposium

The Water Resources Research Center, University of Hawai‘i, will host a symposium on the state of hydrological science in the Islands on Friday, August 13, 2007. The half-day event is open to the public and will be held at the Manoa campus’ Marine Science Building, Room 114, from 8:30 a.m.

The symposium is inspired by Hydrology of the Hawaiian Islands, written by L. Stephen Lau and John Mink and published by University of Hawai‘i Press in October 2006. The book provides a basic understanding of hydrology for the general reader and more in-depth discussion for those familiar with the discipline. The goal of the symposium is to bring together people who work or study in the field of hydrology in all its aspects, review the history of Hawaiian hydrology, and discuss topics for future development.