Growing up deep in the forest, Misha is a thirteen-year-old girl learning how to craft medicine from nature’s bounty, but she’s also picked up a tremendous amount of knowledge from her mother, an estranged member of a distant tribe of remarkably skilled apothecaries. When tragedy draws the pair out of their forest home, Misha finds herself confronted with a grim truth: all the knowledge in the world is of no help if she doesn’t have the experience to put it to use. Faced with her own inade...

After a surprisingly long journey, Misha arrives in the Kingdom of Redford. Her identity as one of the People of the Forest grants her an exceptionally warm welcome, though her first taste of high society ends up being a bit bewildering for her. However, it’s not long before she’s back in her element. After a few days of living in Redford Castle, she encounters the king’s younger sister, a frail and sickly girl just about Misha’s age. Driven by her insatiable curiosity, she can’t help but ...

The daily lives of ordinary people are replete with objects, common things used in commonplace settings. These objects are our constant companions in life. As such, writes Soetsu Yanagi, they should be made with care and built to last, treated with respect and even affection. They should be natural and simple, sturdy and safe - the aesthetic result of wholeheartedly fulfilling utilitarian needs. They should, in short, be things of beauty.In an age of feeble and ugly machine-made th...

The ball on the first evening of the Moonflower Festival ends as a resounding success, and though exhausted from the previous long night, Misha jumps at the chance to experience the second day of the festival in the city among the common people. As the celebrations draw to a close, she finds herself looking for ways to spend the remainder of her time with the friends who will be leaving in the wake of the festival’s conclusion. But while life tries to slip back into a peaceful rhythm, Mish...

With the help of a tremendous number of the People of the Forest—and some unexpected friends Misha had abroad—the crisis in Redford was contained. Though the devastation wrought by the last plague was averted this time, the event still served as a sobering reminder of how much more Misha has to learn. And as grateful as Misha was to see the People of the Forest turn out in such numbers to help, a dangerous precedent has been set: If Misha is in trouble, the elusive People of the Forest wil...

With dozens of lovely photographs and insightful commentary, The Folk Arts of Japan deals with a rediscovered branch of Japanese art.Although these folkcraft creations have their roots in the country's ancient and colorful art tradition, their unassuming grace makes them unmistakably in harmony with modern functional design.The author, Dr. Munsterberg brings to his work the fruits of four years of study in Japan and a deep knowledge of Asian cultur...

Though Misha and Ryne didn’t plan on traveling to the People of the Forest’s village with much urgency, it seems every time they turn around, there’s some crisis or emergency clamoring for their attention. With the realization that they are months behind schedule, Ryne decides to make up some of their lost time by boarding a ship to carry them to the Ourenge Alliance. Misha quickly becomes a favorite among the crew and passengers, but she’s also still a magnet for more incidents along thei...

The author proposed the satoumi concept, analogous to the satoyama concept on land, as “coastal sea with high biodiversity and productivity in harmony with human interaction” in 1998. The concept for environmental conservation in the coastal seas has been widely accepted and was included in the Japanese national policy of “Strategy for Establishment of an Environmental Nation” in 2007. This book is a translation of the author’s Japanese book (2010) in response to concerns and questions abo...

This is the first book to furnish a root cause of the low valuation of Japanese listed companies by using, as qualitative evidence, unique global investor surveys, which are rarely available for Japanese companies. Also contained in this book as quantitative evidence is empirical research with regression analysis implying a positive correlation between corporate governance and value creation in Japan.The author explains the rationale underlying the suggestion of the Ito Review on r...

This book guides readers to the new concept of “Satoumi” and explains how its practice works to solve challenges in complex social-ecological systems of coastal areas. The book describes the significance of Satoumi Science as a transdisciplinary process. It starts with introducing the definition of Satoumi, highlights the important distinction between active measures (direct actions to improve ecosystem functions and services) and passive measures (a variety of management activities), and ...

Integrated Coastal Management in the Japanese Satoumi: Restoring Estuaries and Bays provides an in-depth exploration of the integrated costal management (ICM) used in the Japanese Satoumi. The lessons of Satoumi―coastal areas where biological productivity and biodiversity have increased through human interaction―are important for the rest of the world, given the political consensus reached in Japan to truly restore estuaries and bays. The book will discuss and explain how this method could...

This book presents lessons learnt from Japan’s past, in relation to coastal waters, industrial pollutants and concentrated urban populations. It examines ecosystem damage and pollution in coastal sea areas and addresses the question: What is the present status of Japanese estuaries from the view point of eutrophication and oligotrophication? The authors describe three typical situations, namely eutrophication problems in Tokyo Bay, oligotrophication problems in the Seto Inland Sea, and the...