Kyoto is the heart and soul of Japan, the repository and guardian of itsncient spirit. With an informative text and 150 stunning colour images, thiseautifully produced book reveals all the charm and elegance of Japan's mosteloved city. Part 1 looks at historical Kyoto; Part 2 portrays the life andulture of the city; Part 3 introduces it's immediate predecessor as capitalnd close neighbour Nara; Part 4 tackles the juxtaposition of old and new inhe Kyoto of today.

During her thirty-plus years in Japan, award-winning translator JULIET CARPENTER, a graduate of the University of Michigan, has rendered into English a wide array of modern fiction, essays, and poetry by authors such as Kobo Abe, Fumiko Enchi, Machi Tawara, and Ryotaro Shiba. Her most recent translations include Shadow Family, a contemporary mystery by Miyuki Miyabe, and The Sail of My Soul, modern haiku by Seishi Yamaguchi. A devotee of traditional Japanese music, Carpenter is a licensed instructor of the koto and shamisen. She teaches at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto and resides in Ikoma, Nara Prefecture.
SEN SOSHITSU XVI was born in 1956, the first son of Sen Soshitsu XV. He graduated from Doshisha University in Kyoto and was ordained as a buddhist clergyman at the age of twenty-six. In 2002, he succeeded his father as the grand master of the Urasenke tea school.