The tea ceremony and the martial arts are intimately linked in the popular and historical imagination with Zen Buddhism, and Japanese culture. They are commonly interpreted as religio-aesthetic pursuits which express core spiritual values through bodily gesture and the creation of highly valued objects. Ideally, the experience of practising the Zen arts culminates in enlightenment. This book challenges that long-held view and proposes that the Zen arts should be understood as part of a lit...

Wilby Linfox is the world's biggest flirt . . .From the moment he stumbles into my life—drunk, singing, shirtless—I knew he'd be trouble . . . But I'm in Australia to do exactly three things: work, check out some touristy hotspots, and scatter my mother's ashes.Not on the cards? Getting sidetracked by a charming, ruggedly handsome Aussie vet who's quite possibly got the loudest laugh in the southern hemisphere. Another thing I wasn't expecting? Finding out ...

MuirFitz and I have done some wild things, but waking up as newlyweds? Total disaster. It threatens to expose the one secret I've kept buried for years, the only secret I've ever kept from my best friend—that despite us both being straight, I think I'm in love with him.When Gramps needs me to stay married to lock in my inheritance, I'm terrified my feelings for Fitz could destroy everything we have.FitzTo the world,...

RydeI've been crushing on my boss, Linus, for years now. So when my best friend, Dario, starts working at the clinic for six months, I know he can help me. He's way better with guys than I am. I'm excited. Things with Linus might finally progress.DarioI'm an idiot for thinking moving to Scuttlebutt would help me get over my feelings for my bestie. All it does is amplify them even more. As if things weren't messy enough, I catch feel...

Routledge International Handbook of Visual Research Methods in Anthropology approaches the question of method through conceptualisations of the visual world as light, sight, images and technologies of imaging that can be analysed and described through a range of visual practices in the course of anthropological research.The aim of the book is to move beyond making a case for the importance of “the visual” via its notional arrangement as a subject and means of study in anth...

This book challenges the perception of Japan as a ‘copying culture’ through a series of detailed ethnographic and historical case studies.It addresses a question about why the West has had such a fascination for the adeptness with which the Japanese apparently assimilate all things foreign and at the same time such a fear of their skill at artificially remaking and automating the world around them. Countering the idea of a Japan that deviously or ingenuously copies others, it eluci...

This book examines the making of heritage in contemporary Japan, investigating the ways in which particular objects, practices and institutions are ascribed public recognition and political significance. Through detailed ethnographic and historical case studies, it analyses the social, economic, and even global political dimensions of cultural heritage. It shows how claims to heritage status in Japan stress different material qualities of objects, places and people - based upon their ages,...