Takeo has finally achieved his dream; he has left behind the darkness of his past and become a Samurai. But now, with the courage that comes from knowing you are worthy, he finally feels ready to confront his demons. Yet Imperial Japan is in turmoil; General Akuma, one of the Empire's most powerful men has turned his back on the Emperor, and is planning to betray him. The two men are linked by a dark secret; the 13th prophet. It is into this mysterious feud that Takeo will stray on his quest to find out who he really is and answer the questions that have followed him his whole life. Why was he left to grow up in a monastery? And where is the brother that abandoned him ten years earlier?

From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize–winning novel The Remains of the Day In the face of the misery in his homeland, the artist Masuji Ono was unwilling to devote his art solely to the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he put his work in the service of the imperialist movement that led Japan into World War II. Now, as the mature Ono struggles through the aftermath of that war, his memories of his youth and of the "floating world"—the nocturnal world of pleasure, entertainment, and drink—offer him both escape and redemption, even as they punish him for betraying his early promise. Indicted by society for its defeat and reviled for his past aesthetics, he relives the passage through his personal history that makes him both a hero and a coward but, above all, a human being.

Rescued by an American whaler after a terrible shipwreck leaves him and his four companions castaways on a remote island in 1841, Manjiro learns new laws and customs as he becomes the first Japanese person to set foot in the United States.

Having escaped from the clutches of the 13th Prophet, Takeo, the young Samurai, is free to continue with his quest to find out who he is. His journey leads him to an unnamed island, where he hopes to find his missing brother. Instead, he finds a place where he learns the Bushido way, the code of life that all Samurai must live by…

They Must Be Stopped is New York Times bestselling author Brigitte Gabriel's warning to the world: We can no longer ignore the growth of radical Islam–we must act soon, and powerfully. Drawing from seventh-century teachings, Gabriel probes into how fundamentalist Islam, under the guise of religious liberty, perpetuates hatred towards western values while exploiting the U.S. legal system. This crucial work takes a hard look at madrassas, flagging their surge in America as part of a rising radical army on U.S. soil. Gabriel fearlessly critiques an overbearing climate of political correctness that often stifles candid discussions about radical Islam. She passionately advocates that America must shed its restraint, questioning its complacency towards this growing internal threat, and demand its representatives to take protective action. Delving into its religious and historical basis, the encroachments across the globe, and systemic abuses of democracy in the name of religion, They Must Be Stopped serves as a clarion call to the world.

The Book of Tea is a brief but classic essay on tea drinking, its history, restorative powers, and rich connection to Japanese culture. Okakura felt that "Teaism" was at the very center of Japanese life and helped shape everything from art, aesthetics, and an appreciation for the ephemeral to architecture, design, gardens, and painting. In tea could be found one source of what Okakura felt was Japan's and, by extension, Asia's unique power to influence the world. Containing both a history of tea in Japan and lucid, wide-ranging comments on the schools of tea, Zen, Taoism, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony and its tea-masters, this book is deservedly a timeless classic and will be of interest to anyone interested in the Japanese arts and ways. Book jacket.