An insightful look into the culture, religion, and magic of the native people of Japan: the Ainu.John Batchelor gives a first-hand account of the Ainu people who are indigenous to the Northern Japanese island Hokkaido. Having been sent as a Christian missionary to the community, Batchelor details the Ainu religion and culture. He describes their animistic rituals and their belief that all things, including nature, animals, and objects, possess a godly spirit. First...

The Aino people of Japan are very little known and where treated as savages when discovered by western travellers. Their religion was rich and cultured and this book opens the eyes of the reader to a culture that so few people know of. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwor...

An entertaining account of an extraordinary cultural and historical event: - the establishment by one highly intelligent woman of a salon of the arts in a beautiful country house in Northumberland. Wallington Hall was remote from the major centres of artistic activity, such as London and Edinburgh. Yet Pauline Trevelyan single handedly made it the focus of High Victorian cultural life. Among those she attracted into her orbit were Ruskin, Swinburne, the B...

Bird cults have existed in almost every culture from the ancient Egyptians to the Polynesians of Easter Island. This book looks at one of the worlds least known but most fascinating cultures, the Ainu people of Japan. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The following specimens of Ainu folk-lore form a small portion of matter which the writer has himself collected, from time to time, during a period of nearly six years. They are merely specimens. Many other examples might be given. But it is presumed that the following half-dozen samples will be fully sufficient to illustrate the manner in which this crude race of men, in the absence of books, keep their legends, fables, and traditions alive. It is not pretended that all such legends are i...

The author of Buddhism Without Beliefs bridges the gap between Western and Eastern philosophy with this humanist approach to Buddhism.This uniquely contemporary guide to understanding the timeless message of Buddhism, and in particular its relevance in actual human relations, was inspired by Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way Of Life, which the author translated into English, the oral instructions of living Buddhist masters, Heidegger's c...

Specimens of Ainu Folk-lore by John Batchelor Another collection of Ainu folktales, by a Christian missionary who lived among them for many years; these translations are considered primary source material to this day. "These folktales were originally published in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan in three installments. The printed original is in parallel columns with the Ainu alongside Batchelor's English translations, and these Ainu versions ar...

This collection of magnificent original full-color paintings accurately depicts 100 amazing ships — from the royal barge of the Egyptian pharaoh Cheops (2657 B.C.) and the Viking ships that visited North America around A.D. 1001 to Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria (1492), and the nuclear submarine U.S.S. Seawolf. 100 illustrations in full color.

Alfred Lord Tennyson, Queen Victoria's favorite poet, commanded a wider readership than any other of his time. His ascendancy was neither the triumph of pure genius nor an accident of history: he skillfully crafted his own career and his relationships with his audience. Fame and recognition came, lavishly and in abundance, but the hunger for more never left him. Resolving never to be anything except 'a poet', he wore his hair long, smoked incessantly, and sported a cloak and wide-brimmed S...

We are born with some human instincts, but we have no real knowledge of what this crazy world of ours is all about, so we have to turn to our parents for some primary knowledge and this may be knowledgeable or it may just be very uninformed and apathetic. They obtained their knowledge from their parents and others, depending on their circumstances and may have given it a lot of thought or none at all. At any rate that is all we have available at this time and as we grow older, we come in c...

This book examines the importance of the topic of *‘*feeling tone’ (vedanā) as it appears in early Buddhist texts and practice, and also within contemporary, secular, mindfulness-based interventions.The volume aims to highlight the crucial nature of the ‘feeling tone’ or ‘taste of experience’ in determining mental reactivity, behaviour, character, and ethics. In the history of Buddhism, and in its reception in contemporary discourse, vedanā has often been a much-n...

Published in 1900, Conrad’s Lord Jim can in many ways be seen as the first ‘modern’ novel. This important full study of the book, originally published in 1988, emphasizes the outstanding historical and artistic significance of Conrad’s masterpiece.John Batchelor pursues the ways in which Conrad dramatizes with unprecedented fidelity a relationship between friends and also explores what for Conrad is clearly a central truth about the human condition, namely the inalienable ...