Hawaii Books

I purchased this map so that I could locate the rental property I was considering. It was tremendously helpful. I am able to find landmarks and make informed vacation plans. A wise purchase! I would recommend this to anyone considering a vacation to this "less travelled" island.

"Religion in Contemporary Japan" is a highly enjoyable, informative and surprisingly readable book on the somewhat obscure subject of religion in contemporary Japan. As an MA student studying religion in Japan, this book was recommended as a starting place, and I found it invaluable.

Ian Reader lays out how religion is treated in Japan, what its general effect is on everyday life, and explores some of the more hidden corners of the Zen Buddhist temples and the new-new religions. Don't expect information on doctrines or specifics of any particular religion. This is far more of a sociological treatment than a theological one.

Of particular interest, I enjoyed his comments on the holy sites of Japan, and how they have been transformed to serve tourist interests. Also, his insights into the modern religion of Agonshu are very interesting, and highlights the modern "invention of tradition" found in Neo-pagan religions in the US. I found it interesting that this same phenomenon, of trying to link back to a mythical past, also existed in Japan.

Specific areas touched upon are "Turning to the Gods in times of trouble," "Unifying Traditions, " "Born Shinto, Die Buddhist," "Individuals, Ascetics and Expressions of Power," "Sites and Sights," "Actions, Amulets and the Expression of Meaning," "Spirits, Satellites and a User-friendly Religion."

to cultural poetics in timely, disjunctive, and importan ways from the interviews with Clifford and Said to the poems and stories and essays by indigenous peoples, settlers, interlopers, disciplinarians and a cast of thousands. I have used this text in a postcolonial writing course at Santa Cruz and it worked quite well to prod theory reflection and to thicken Pacific dimensionality. It is a well wrought text, finely made by editor and UH Press deserving broad circulation and use

This book gives you a look at another culture, where women are more important in family structure. It was haunting and compelling. A good read.

This novel paints a realistic and believable portrait of Cook, his protege Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame), and the events of Captain Cook's final voyage. It is an interesting and rivetting read, and kept me up for a few nights. The conflict between Cook, the practical-minded captain, and the religious Bligh, is at the heart of the book, and the author takes no sides in the argument, allowing the reader to draw his/her own conclusions from the tragedy that ensues. I heartily recommend this novel to all who are interested in well-researched historical fiction.

an excellent resource full of detailed maps, full color photographs, and detailed explanations of the geological features of each area of the Park. It will greatly enhance your exploration of the park.

A great way to experience Hawaii!

Exhibition catalogs are of course primarily meant as mementos of a pleasant museum visit, often perhaps of some certain interesting exhibit that especially captured one's imagination that day. And if you were lucky enough to see the "Sacred Treasures of Mount Koya" exhibit at the Honolulu Academy of Arts back in 2002, then this fine, beautifully printed book would serve that function wonderfully. Like many such exhibition catalogs, though, it transcends its original purpose and makes for a visually stunning and intellectually fascinating art book in its own right, one featuring many religious art works of Shingon Buddhism both famous and obscure, common and unusual. Ninety-one items were loaned to Hawaii straight from Mount Koya (one of the chief headquarters of Shingon Buddhism), a generous and historic first; twenty more items came from the Honolulu Academy of Art's own holdings in conjunction with this event, and are themselves more or less rarely seen.

In terms of illustrations, this book gets it right. All are in gloriously vibrant full color, and all are printed reasonably large (full page, usually). The explanatory text is a bit weaker. Introductory essays by Jane Tanabe and Shinryu Izutsu do a fine job overall of kicking things off, especially for those who are new and unfamiliar to this form of sacred art and iconography. Little blurbs explaining each item are more uneven in quality sometimes and are all the way in the back of the book, making a constant flip back-and-forth necessary for anyone who wants to know what they're looking at (I ended up using two bookmarks as I navigated along). On the good side, all text is thoroughly bilingual, in English and Japanese--nobody gets skimped, as sometimes occurs. Anyway, a picture's worth a thousand words, and it's the pictures that count here.

So, illustrations of what? iconographic renderings of Buddhist deities both in sculpture and painting, both singly and arranged in complex mandalas--some serene, some full of righteous fury, some of a cosmic scale, some local guardians of Koyasan's grounds. And much more: portraits of Shingon saints, historically valuable maps of Koyasan's temple complex through the ages, actual ritual implements, portable personal shrines, calligraphic scrolls of scriptures, and in general a fabulous variety befitting such a wondrously intricate religious system. And all dating from its origins in the Heian period up until the twentieth century.

In fact, I was surprised. I've been deeply interested in Shingon Buddhism for almost two decades now; I've been to its temples in Japan and collected any number of works on Shingon art and iconography. I thought I'd more or less seen it all. I was wrong. This book does include some old familiar standards that are nonetheless nice to see again, but it also features a very large number of pieces I've never set eyes on before in all my years of enthusiasm. Partly that seems to be due to the practical limitations of the exhibit itself, so that fewer registered national treasures from the Heian and Kamakura periods show up, yielding the floor to more commonly ignored but actually very fine works of lesser (art historical) distinction from the Muromachi, Edo, and even Meiji periods (even one from 1935 by Buzan Kimura, a student of Okakura Tenshin). The religious significance of these works, though, more than makes up for any art historical and aesthetic deficiencies--and for that matter, most of them seemed deficient only in lacking the patina of age, the accumulation of centuries for pigments to fade or flake off and so accord the work a misleadingly austere appearance. Anyway, even if you have dozens of books on this subject, I bet you'll find something new and intriguing herein. Check it out!

P.S. for more on the sacred mountain temple complex from which these works come, check out the very readable and informative Sacred Koyasan: A Pilgrimage to the Mountain Temple of Saint Kobo Daishi and the Great Sun Buddha.

I should start by admitting that I am biased towards the author -- he was my professor at UCLA and he taught a great class. We actually got to read parts of this book before it was published. Now that I read the whole thing, I can see how much I learned from Professor DuBois. The book is full of detail from the time he lived in China, and is something that ordinary people can understand and enjoy. Just like he was in class, DuBois is a natural storyteller, and this book not only educates, it also entertains. After reading this, I really felt like I could understand the beliefs and lives of the people in the book. This is a slightly expensive book (I read it in a library!), but worth it!

Just like the book says it is full of photographic pictures. Outstanding scenery and beautiful people. Author & photographer did an excellent job in portraying the Samoan lifestyle, custom, family, etc.