Christopher Harding is the bestselling author of Japan Story, The Japanese, The Light of Asia and A Short History of Japan. He teaches at the University of Edinburgh and frequently broadcasts on Radio 3 and Radio 4. He also writes the Japan and the World Substack, about Japanese history and culture. He is on Instagram and YouTube: @ChrisHardingJapan.

This beautifully written, deeply absorbing and revelatory account … offers a fresh perspective … a judicious, far-reaching exploration of how the discovery of Eastern beliefs, customs and mores helped to shape Western ideas as much as Western advancements were in turn being taken up in the East … fascinating … makes an elegant and entertaining progress from the Ancient Greeks to the “raga rock” of the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood

Christopher Harding is the bestselling author of Japan Story, The Japanese, The Light of Asia and A Short History of Japan. He teaches at the University of Edinburgh and frequently broadcasts on Radio 3 and Radio 4. He also writes the Japan and the World Substack, about Japanese history and culture. He is on Instagram and YouTube: @ChrisHardingJapan.

This beautifully written, deeply absorbing and revelatory account … offers a fresh perspective … a judicious, far-reaching exploration of how the discovery of Eastern beliefs, customs and mores helped to shape Western ideas as much as Western advancements were in turn being taken up in the East … fascinating … makes an elegant and entertaining progress from the Ancient Greeks to the “raga rock” of the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood

Christopher Harding is the bestselling author of Japan Story, The Japanese, The Light of Asia and A Short History of Japan. He teaches at the University of Edinburgh and frequently broadcasts on Radio 3 and Radio 4. He also writes the Japan and the World Substack, about Japanese history and culture. He is on Instagram and YouTube: @ChrisHardingJapan.

This beautifully written, deeply absorbing and revelatory account … offers a fresh perspective … a judicious, far-reaching exploration of how the discovery of Eastern beliefs, customs and mores helped to shape Western ideas as much as Western advancements were in turn being taken up in the East … fascinating … makes an elegant and entertaining progress from the Ancient Greeks to the “raga rock” of the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood