Books published by publisher Tuttle Pub

Tuttle Hardcover (approx. size: 6.2 x 8 1/2") with 191 pages. Filled with b/w illustrations, symbols and photos. - The Samurai Sword has long been considered the symbol of the spirit of old Japan. Surprisingly, there are a greater number of these swords in America today than there are in Japan. During the U.S. occupation of Japan after the end of the Pacific War, countless servicemen collected these swords, perhaps without fully realizing their value. The number of such swords if estimated to be between 250,000 and 350,000. This present volume is the first book of its kind in English. It is a complete handbook of the samurai sword. The informative text deals with the origins and development of the sword, its historical background, the various types of swords, their parts, styles, and differences in construction, the art of the swordsmith, the famous schools, the problem of identification and evaluation, and the care and maintenance of the sword. The any lists offer convenient means of collating vital information, while the numerous illustrations admirably augment the text.

Yukio Mishima's Runaway Horses is the second novel in his masterful tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. Again we encounter Shigekuni Honda, who narrates this epic tale of what he believes are the successive reincarnations of his childhood friend Kiyoaki Matsugae. In 1932, Shigeuki Honda has become a judge in Osaka. Convinced that a young rightist revolutionary, Isao, is the reincarnation of his friend Kiyoaki, Honda commits himself to saving the youth from an untimely death. Isao, driven to patriotic fanaticism by a father who instilled in him the ethos of the ancient samurai, organizes a violent plot against the new industrialists who he believes are usurping the Emperor's rightful power and threatening the very integrity of the nation. Runaway Horses is the chronicle of a conspiracy - a novel about the roots and nature of Japanese fanaticism in the years that led to war.