Ornella Civardi has translated the works of many celebrated Japanese writers and poets including Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Junzaburo Nishiwaki, and Yoko Ogawa. She has a degree in Oriental Languages and Literature from the Ca' Foscari University in Venice. In 2005, she won the prestigious Alcantara Prize for her Italian translation of Kawabata's Palm-of-the-Hand Stories . Felice Beato (1832-1909) was an Italian-born photographer known for his extensive work in the Mediterranean, East Asia, and South Asia, particularly in India, China, Japan, and Burma. He documented major events like the Crimean War, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and the Second Opium War. He ran a studio based in Yokohama, Japan, for twenty years and was a pioneer in producing albums of his photographs that were hand-colored by a team of artists. Francesco Paolo Campione teaches cultural anthropology at the University of Insubria, Italy, and is also the Director of the Museo delle Culture (MUSEC) in Lugano, Switzerland. He has curated over 90 art exhibitions in Italy, Switzerland, and other countries, and has published dozens of catalogues and over 120 articles in scholarly journals.