Books published by publisher Tuttle Pub

How Chiseok Festival came about in Korea A Korean classic legend of a herdboy and a weaving girl who loved so much that they neglected their duties to weave and tend to their herds. As punishment, the boy and girl were placed in the sky and separated forever by the the Milky Way. Once a year, on the 7th night of the 7th moon, the lovers were allowed to meet when a bridge of magpies spanned the river of stars, the milky way. This story tells of Chiseok festival in Korea and similar to Tanabata in Japan and Qixi Festival in China. July 7th lunar calendar is when Chilseok is celebrated in Korea. The legend says the lovers to stepping on their head is the reason why the magpies have bold spots late summer. If it rains on July 7th, it is said that they are the tears of the lovers.

Quirky, clever, and marvelously inventive, this book takes the reader into a world of imagination and adventure.Peter Newell utilizes a unique cartoon art form that the reader perceives as an optical illusion. Each illustration is supported by a caption that turns each page into loads of fun. Each page will delight the reader with a new and uniquely illustrated story that tells its tale right-side up and upside down. It provides as much entertainment for adults as it does for the children for whom it was created.Topsys & Turvys Book 2 also available from Tuttle Publishing.

Interest in the classical weaponry martial arts is growing enormously throughout the world, aided in part by the recent movements to include karate and kobujutsu in the Olympics. In Saijistu, renowned martial artist Katsumi Muakami offers the fundamentals of kobujutsu in clear, concise language, augmented with nearly 300 instructive black-and-white photographs. Readers will learn: * The history of the art and its relationship to karate * The foundation forms for basic weapon handling in step-by-step detail * The specific kata from the basic forms to the classical katas * Fascinating stories about the great weapons masters of Murakami's lineage: Bushi Tawada and Bushi Matsumara

Introduces readers to the Ainu people of Hokkaido, Japan s original inhabitants. The author is Japan s best known Ainu and his mission is to save the Ainu language and culture. The Ainu lived in an enchanted world filled with gods and spirits until their peaceful paradise was shattered by Japanese attempts to dominate them. The Ainu s rich history and culture, and their changing way of life is depicted through the eyes of a young Ainu boy. The narrative is interspersed with folktales and riveting encounters with gods. Features vivid descriptions of customs, clothing, food, habitats and beliefs. The full-color illustrations capture the natural surroundings of the Ainu and their historical relations with the Japanese. Translated from the Japanese ed.

Delightfully illustrated, this collection of Japanese myths and fairy tales presents readers with a rich folk tradition.Folk Legends of Japan contains of over one hundred Japanese folk legends. These have been selected by a distinguished American folklorist, drawn from expert Japanese transcriptions of oral legends, and carefully translated in such a way as to bring out the charming, unadorned, and sometimes disarmingly frank folk quality of the originals.Each legend is carefully annotated for the student, scholar, and a full bibliography is provided. Fortunately, the scholarly attributes of the book are now allowed to intrude between the general reader and his enjoyment of the legends themselves.Anyone who loves a genuine old wives' tales, who savors firelit evenings of listening to the folk stories will find much pleasure in these Japanese stories. At the same time the folklorist will find a mine of information, and the Japanophile will discover the folk basis for many of the beliefs and customs that may have puzzled him in the past.