Cognoscenti Books: 20 books

Between 1866 and 1868 the celebrated Japanese artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, in collaboration with his colleague Utagawa Yoshiiku, produced a series of images of graphic horror and cruelty entitled '28 Famous Murders with Verse'. The series of 28 ukiyo-e woodblock prints shocked, horrified and...

Suzuki Harunobu was a celebrated 18th century Japanese ukiyo-e artist who produced thousands of exquisite woodblock prints illustrating aspects of life and society in old Edo - today's Tokyo. His subjects extended from Kabuki actors and courtesans to landscapes, explicit eroticism and street...

An illustrated version of Okakura Kakuzo’s classic ‘The Book of Tea’ with an introductory biography of Okakura and a chapter on ‘Tea - The Serviceable Herb’. 22,000 words, 75 images Perhaps the most universal of all drinks but water, tea enjoys a unique popularity around the globe....

There can be few people in the world that do not know the name, location and recent history of Vietnam. Yet beyond the period of US involvement in what Americans call the 'Vietnam War' how much is really known? Almost no Vietnamese bear a grudge against the USA, but this is less true for China,...

The photographs in this coffee table e-book colourfully reveal the glamorous world of Thai transvestite cabaret. 4,000 words, 86 full colour images In Thailand practically every town or village has several openly transsexual boys or men who dress as women and are born with feminine characteristics....

Sun Tzu’s Art of War has been read and appreciated by a host of military men and philosophers down through the ages. More recently, it has become popular as a manual for business success and guide to boardroom battles, seen by many as a lodestar in achieving success in the ruthless world of competitive...

The story of the 47 Ronin is perhaps the most popular and best known legend of traditional Japan. Set in the early 18th century, it tells a tale of honour and bloody revenge as the brotherhood of 47 masterless Samurai pursue the ruthless killing of Lord Kira, the official who brought about the downfall...

In 2011 former US Rebublican Senator Rick Santorum stated that: 'All the people that live in the West Bank are Israelis. They are not Palestinians. There is no Palestinian'. This was echoed by another former Rebublican Senator, Newt Gingrich, who claimed: 'I think we have had an invented Palestinian...

The Book of Kells is a magnificently illuminated manuscript Gospel in Vulgate Latin containing the four Gospels of the New Testament - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created by Celtic monks on the small Island of Iona off the coast of western...

Utagawa Hiroshige’s ‘One Hundred Famous Views of Edo’, actually composed of 118 woodblock landscape and genre scenes of mid-19th century Tokyo, is one of the greatest achievements of Japanese art. The series, which includes many of Hiroshige’s most famous prints, represents a celebration of...

The Tao Te Ching or ‘Canon of the Way of Virtue' is a classical Chinese text generally dated to the 6th century BCE. It has traditionally been attributed to Laozi (or Lao Tzu), the ‘Old Master', said to have been a scribe at the court of the Zhou Dynasty. The Tao Te Ching, is central to both...

The antique Silk Road that connected the Chinese and Mediterranean Worlds for more than a millennium, facilitating the exchange of both goods and cultures, is widely known and celebrated. Less familiar is its more southerly equivalent, the ‘Ancient Tea-Horse Road’ that once linked the lush gardens...

During the latter half of the twentieth century the little-known and often lawless region where Laos, Burma, Thailand and China meet has become known and widely romanticised as ‘The Golden Triangle’. Originally a Western designation applied to the region because of its wealth in jade, silver,...

For much of the second half of the 20th century Cambodia was racked by war and famine. Considered a sideshow in the Vietnam War, the country was nevertheless invaded by both North and South Vietnam, bombed to smithereens by the United States, and—worst of all—ruled, between 1975 and 1979, by...