Disc 1. Japan: a globally engaged island nation --

Understanding Japan through ancient myths --

The emergence of the Ritsuryō state --

Aspects of the Japanese language --

Early Japanese Buddhism --

Heian court culture --

Disc 2. The rise of the samurai --

Pure land Buddhism and Zen Buddhism --

Samurai culture in the Ashikaga period --

Japan at home and abroad, 1300-1600 --

Japan's isolation in the Tokugawa period --

Japanese theater: Noh and Kabuki --

Disc 3. The important of Japanese gardens --

The meaning of Bushidō in a time of peace --

Japanese poetry: the road to Haiku --

Hokusai and the art of wood-block prints --

The Meiji restoration --

Three visions of prewar Japan --

Disc 4. War without a master plan: Japan, 1931-1945 --

Japanese family life --

Japanese foodways --

Japan's economic miracle --

Kurosawa and Ozu: two giants of film --

The making of contemporary Japan.