Baird, Merrily C., Symbols of Japan: Thematic Motifs in Art and Design, Rizzoli, 2001.

Japanese literature and art are full of symbols, and one of the most common symbols is that of the pine tree. To better understand a piece of Japanese art or a work of literature, it is helpful to be aware of the symbolic language. This great reference book offers its readers an insider's point of view.

Hirshfield, Jane, The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan, Vintage, 1999.

Komachi and Shikibu were women poets of the Heian period. They, along with other poets from that time, have greatly influenced Hahn's writing. This book offers the reader a taste of the sensual love poems from that era.

Huang, Guiyou, ed., Asian American Poets: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, 2002.

Huang has collected...