Michael Laver is Department Chair and Associate Professor of History at the Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. He is the author of The Sakoku Edicts and the Politics of Tokugawa Hegemony (2011) and Japan's Economy by Proxy in the Seventeenth Century (2008).

List of Illustrations
Introduction: The VOC and the Rhythm of Life in Early Modern Japan
1. Gift Giving and the Early Modern Web of Diplomacy
2. The Shogun's Menagerie: Exotic Animals as Gifts
3. Objet d'art: Most Exquisite Curiosities of Nature and Art
4. Curios, Rarities and European Manufactured Goods
5. Butter Diplomacy: Food and Drink as Gifts
6. A Tale of Two Lanterns
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index