a Crabtree Book

This fascinating book describes how Japan grew from rule by local chieftains to an emperor-led nation with many noble families competing for prominence. Beautiful spreads and full-color photographs unveil Japan’s rich history and the people who struggled to make it their own.
Topics include
• wet rice cultivation
• trade with other cultures, their influence,and isolation in the 17th century
• from early pit dwellings to the development of castle towns
• nature worship, the rise of Shinto, and Buddhism and Confucianism
• life as a samurai warrior
• sword making and pottery
• herbal medicine
 Index and Glossary included.

See inside

by Darlene Rose

“‘As an American spy, you are worthy of death. ‘ With that, he drew his finger across his throat then slapped the hilt of the sword at his side. All time froze around me…In terror I watched the man’s hand fold around the iilt of the sword…” This is the true story of a young American missionary woman’s courage and triumph of faith in the jungles of New Guinea and her four years in a notorious Japanese prison camp. Never to see her husband again, she was forced to sign a confession to a crime she did not commit and face the executioner’s sword only to be miraculously spared. Age 14+.  240p, 200g.