For nearly six decades, Yosihiko Sinoto, senior anthropologist at the Bishop Museum, has conducted field research on island groups across the Pacific. His work has fundamentally changed what was known about early Polynesian migration, ancient ocean voyaging and navigation, sacred places, and the everyday life of the Pacific's indigenous people.

Curve of the Hook was originally published in Japanese as Rakuen kokogaku (Archaeology in Paradise), a book-length interview of Sinoto by Hiroshi Aramata. In 1996, the book received the Yoshikawa Eiji Cultural Award and in 1999 was selected as one of the best one hundred biographies of a Japanese in the twentieth century. Translated by Madoka Nagado and Frank Stewart for publication as Curve of the Hook, the original text has been updated and revised.