Joshua Frydman is Assistant Professor of Japanese in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at the University of Oklahoma. An expert on ancient Japan, his academic interests include the development of writing systems (in East Asia and worldwide), and the role of transregional and global cultural interactions in the development of premodern societies as viewed through literature and art. He is also the author of Inscribed Objects and the Development of Literature in Early Japan.
'Well-written, thought-provoking, and visually engaging ... this book is a wonderful guide to an enduring fascination with stories and the supernatural in Japan. Frydman's explanations prove mythology acts as a compass to guide past, present and future generations' - The Japan Society 'Students, travellers, and all readers interested in the history of Japan, Japanese ideology, and the nation's current cultural products will find this authoritative work absorbing' - Library Journal