Asobi no Shiki is Satoshi Kako’s study of traditional Japanese play through the cycle of the seasons. It treats children’s play as culture, combining the observational eye of a picture-book author with a scientific curiosity.

An essayistic study that reconsiders children’s culture through seasons and play.

Dialogue with Europe is a collection of essays and criticism in which Shosaburo Kimura speaks about European civilization for Japanese readers. Grounded in historical scholarship, it links cross-cultural understanding with a view of modern society.

From a historian’s perspective, it reads Europe and sets it against Japan’s present.

Issen Gorin-tachi no Yokocho is Takaya Kodama’s reportage tracing the memories of people who lived in Tokyo’s working-class neighborhoods during wartime. Using Kineo Kuwabara’s photographs as a clue, it depicts the weight of war brought by draft notices from the place of everyday life.

From photographs left in an alley, it follows the voices of ordinary people drawn into war.

Shanghai Days is Shigeharu Matsumoto’s testimonial memoir of his years as a journalist in 1930s Shanghai. It portrays Shanghai as a place where post-Manchurian Incident East Asian politics, diplomacy, journalism, and personal networks intersected.

It records East Asia moving toward war through the eyes of a journalist in Shanghai.