We bring to your attention a book written by a modern French researcher, Danielle Eliseev, dedicated to such an attractive and mysterious eastern country as Japan. A country where, on the one hand, everything there is is history and tradition, but on the other hand, it is a completely urbanized culture, formed in less than two generations. Japan is a world of paradox. The image of this country is always painted in bright contrasting colors: on the one hand, it is a culture of aristocratic, refined femininity, embodied primarily in early Japanese literature, on the other, it is a land of stern, warrior masculinity, known throughout the world under the name of the samurai spirit or the path of the warrior. This is a country where life and death reign with equal force. Being an archipelago, this country, unlike most island states, knew almost no maritime travel, but on the contrary, spent most of its history in self-isolation. But as the author believes: “the sea continues to invade Japanese historiography, where traditionally it was a figure of silence.” In her research, she seeks to understand to what extent “its fate was decided outside the islands as such” and what the country’s role as a maritime power might be in the future. It is the country “between China and the Pacific Ocean” that the reader who picks up this book will see.