Many Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan sell small wooden votive tablets (ema) which are meant to be left on a rack at the sanctuary. The reverse of these tablets offers space to send a self-written wish or personal thank you message to the enshrined deity or buddha. Their front usually has a pre-printed or hand-painted design that is indicative of the intended purpose.

In this book hundreds of contemporary ema designs for health-related purposes are reproduced and placed into thei...

"World History - A Genealogy" charts the history of the discipline through twenty-five in-depth conversations with historians whose work has shaped the field of World History in various fundamental ways. These conversations, which took place over a period of twenty years in and around Leiden University for its World History journal "Itinerario", cover these historians' lives, their work, and their views of the Academy in general and the field of World History in particular. An extensive intro...

In this essay Elleke Boehmer shares her interest in new moves in the postcolonial field to direct attention to the communicative and interpretative 'how' rather than the themed 'what' of representation; to the process of reading and reception rather than the political 'objects of difference' that are represented in texts.

It is this move beyond the phenomenology of 'code' that she believes maps the postcolonial future. Through a reinvigoration of postcolonial poetics and reader reception, Boe...

"Masked Warriors" provides new insights into the approach of form, function and meaning of the Japanese armor masks. The diversity and the connections with existing mask disciplines, especially nō masks, shows us that the Japanese armor masks form an integral part within the Japanese mask culture. This study also shows that nō-masks have been of much greater influence on the development of armour masks (menpō) than previously understood.

It is comprehensive display of artefacts illustratin...