• List of Figures
• Introduction: Nothing but Words
1. Roots and Branches
2. Icarus Descending: Expendable Males and the Poetry of Nakagami Kenji
3. Brother-Sister Love and the Creation of Akiyiki
4. Knowing Pleasures: Sennen no yuraku, a Tale for Our Times
5. A Language of Kumano
6. Violent Histories: The Snake and the Shaman
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

Eve Zimmerman is Associate Professor of Modern Japanese Literature, Wellesley College.