Japan: a globally engaged island nation -- Understanding Japan through ancient myths -- The emergence of the Ritsuryō state -- Aspects of the Japanese language -- Early Japanese Buddhism -- Heian court culture -- The rise of the samurai -- Pure land Buddhism and Zen Buddhism -- Samurai culture in the Ashikaga period -- Japan at home and abroad, 1300-1600 -- Japan's isolation in the Tokugawa period -- Japanese theater: Noh and Kabuki -- The important of Japanese gardens -- The meaning of Bushidō in a time of peace -- Japanese poetry: the road to Haiku -- Hokusai and the art of wood-block prints -- The Meiji restoration -- Three visions of prewar Japan -- War without a master plan: Japan, 1931-1945 -- Japanese family life -- Japanese foodways -- Japan's economic miracle -- Kurosawa and Ozu: two giants of film -- The making of contemporary Japan.