An unusually substantial study of contortion as both a performing art and a cultural practice, this volume brings together three of Mariam Ala-Rashi's research projects: Mongolian Contortion: An Ethnographic Inquiry, China's Bending Bodies: Contortionism and Politics in China, and The Kakubei Jishi: The Rise, Fall, and Restoration of a Japanese Folk Performing Art. Rather than treating flexibility simply as technique, Ala-Rashi investigates how training methods, aesthetics, and performing traditions developed within the political, religious, and social histories of Mongolia, China, and Japan. Subjects range from training environments and performer education to costume, symbolism, mythology, body movement, and the Japanese Kakubei Jishi lion-dance tradition. Drawing on literature, material evidence, oral history, media reports, and research from anthropology, archaeology, and political history, it is a particularly valuable reference for circus practitioners,  contortion students, historians, and researchers of Asian performance culture.