This latest entry in the publisher's Handbook to Life series surveys Japanese life during the Kamakura (1185-1333), Muromachi (1333-1573), Azuchi-Momoyama (1573-1615), and Edo (1615-1868) periods. The Edo period, marked by some 250 years of both peace and nearly complete exclusion of foreign influences, constitutes early modern Japan. Valuable supporting features include some 85 black-and-white photographs and illustrations, 5 maps, 17 tables and charts, and a thorough bibliography and index. The bibliography of some 600 English-language publications is a single alphabetical listing, most easily approached through the topically arranged reading suggestions at the end of each chapter.