David Ramey, DVM

David Ramey's Lost Traditions: Horses and Horse Medicine in Pre-Modern Japan is an encyclopedic exploration of the roles of horses and equine care in early Japan. Anchored by a previously unstudied 15th-century manuscript on equine medicine, the volume is divided into three parts: a historical examination of horses and their roles in early Japan (Part I), a transcription and translation of the manuscript (Part II), and an in-depth discussion of traditional Japanese equine medicine (Part III). The latter offers especially fascinating insights into topics like "demons, deities, and protectors of animals" and "sickness and Sino-Japanese cosmology."This beautifully crafted volume will appeal to diverse audiences. For horse-lovers and Japanophiles, it offers a remarkably detailed mosaic of facts about Japanese horses that opens fresh perspectives on the medieval and early modern periods. For students of early Japanese texts, the hand-brushed manuscript is transcribed into printed classical Japanese and translated into English, offering an accessible yet authentic engagement with the original. Lavishly illustrated with full-color images and printed on high-quality paper, this unique book also invites readers with no prior knowledge of Japan or horses to explore a world that is both exotic and richly detailed.

W, Puck Brecher, PhD
Professor of History
(specializing in early modern and modern Japanese social and cultural history)
Washington State University

Japan scholars and horse enthusiasts alike will be engrossed by equine veterinarian David Ramey’s Lost Traditions: Horses and Horse Medicine in Pre-Modern Japan, a carefully researched and meticulously illustrated volume on equine medicine throughout Japan’s history... Such a detailed evaluation of a historical animal medicine text by an experienced veterinarian is quite unusual and provides an invaluable specialist insight to the study of human-animal interactions in Japan.

Anna NielsenPhD candidate, University of California, Berkeley(specializing in landscape and equine use of Japan’s Kofun period)