Scholarship on premodern Japan has grown spectacularly over the past four decades, in terms of both sophistication and volume. A new approach has developed, marked by a higher reliance on primary documents, a shift away from the history of elites to broader explorations of social structures, and a re-examination of many key assumptions. As a result, the picture of the early Japanese past now taught by specialists differs radically from the one that was current in the mid-twentieth century. This handbook offers a comprehensive historiographical review of Japanese history up until the 1500s. Featuring chapters by leading historians and covering the early Jōmon, Yayoi, Kofun, Nara, and Heian eras, as well as the later medieval periods, each section provides a foundational grasp of the major themes in premodern Japan. The sections will include: Geography and the environment Political events and institutions Society and culture Economy and technology The Routledge Handbook of Premodern Japanese History is an essential reference work for students and scholars of Japanese, Asian, and World History.
The Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese History is a concise overview of modern Japanese history from the middle of the nineteenth century until the end of the twentieth century. Written by a group of international historians, each an authority in his or her field, the book covers modern Japanese history in an accessible yet comprehensive manner. The subjects featured in the book range from the development of the political system and matters of international relations, to social and economic history and gender issues, to postwar discussions about modern Japan's historical trajectory and its wartime past. Divided into thematic parts, the sections include: Nation, empire and borders, Ideologies and the political system, Economy and society, Historical legacies and memory, Each chapter outlines important historiographical debates and controversies, summarizes the latest developments in the field, and identifies research topics that have not yet received sufficient scholarly attention. As such, the book will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese history, Asian history and Asian Studies. Book jacket.
The Routledge Handbook of Translation History presents the first comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of this multi-faceted disciplinary area and serves both as an introduction to carrying out research into translation and interpreting history and as a key point of reference for some of its main theoretical and methodological issues, interdisciplinary approaches, and research themes. The Handbook brings together 30 eminent international scholars from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, offering examples of the most innovative research while representing a wide range of approaches, themes, and cultural contexts. The Handbook is divided into four sections: the first looks at some key methodological and theoretical approaches; the second examines some of the key research areas that have developed an interdisciplinary dialogue with translation history; the third looks at translation history from the perspective of specific cultural and religious perspectives; and the fourth offers a selection of case studies on some of the key topics to have emerged in translation and interpreting history over the past 20 years. This Handbook is an indispensable resource for students and researchers of translation and interpreting history, translation theory, and related areas.
A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 'Mightily impressive ... a marvellous read' Sunday Times From the acclaimed author of Japan Story, this is the history of Japan, distilled into the stories of twenty remarkable individuals. The vivid and entertaining portraits in Chris Harding's enormously enjoyable new book take the reader from the earliest written accounts of Japan right through to the life of the current empress, Masako. We encounter shamans and warlords, poets and revolutionaries, scientists, artists and adventurers - each offering insights of their own into this extraordinary place. For anyone new to Japan, this book is the ideal introduction. For anyone already deeply involved with it, this is a book filled with surprises and pleasures.
Japanese historian Louis Perez brings Mikiso Hane's rich and beloved account of early Japanese history up-to-date in this thoroughly revised Second Edition of Premodern Japan. The text traces the key developments of Japanese history in the premodern period, including the establishment of the imperial dynasty, early influences from China and Korea, the rise of the samurai class and the establishment of feudalism, the culture and society of the long Tokugawa period, the rise of Confucianism and Shinto nationalism, and finally, the end of Tokugawa rule. While the text provides many political developments through the early modern period, it also integrates the social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of Japanese history as well. Perez's updates to the text provide a comprehensive overview of the major social, political, and religious trends in premodern Japan as well as offering the most current scholarship.
This Companion is a comprehensive examination of the varied ways in which gender issues manifest throughout culture in Japan, using a range of international perspectives to examine private and public constructions of identity, as well as gender- and sexuality-inflected cultural production. The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture features both new work and updated accounts of classic scholarship, providing a go-to reference work for contemporary scholarship on gender in Japanese culture. The volume is interdisciplinary in scope, with chapters drawing from a range of perspectives, fields, and disciplines, including anthropology, art history, history, law, linguistics, literature, media and cultural studies, politics, and sociology. This reflects the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of the dual focal points of this volume—gender and culture—and the ways in which these themes infuse a range of disciplines and subfields. In this volume, Jennifer Coates, Lucy Fraser, and Mark Pendleton have brought together an essential guide to experiences of gender in Japanese culture today—perfect for students, scholars, and anyone else interested in Japan, culture, gender studies, and beyond.
The Grand Voyage on the Holland America flagship Amsterdam to Asia and the Pacific remains one of the most memorable adventures I have had the privilege of being part of. I was thrilled to join the ship in San Diego California, listening to world-class scholars offering in-depth lectures on the places we would visit and to then see these countries first-hand. This volume reviews the port of San Diego, the point of departure, and the ship's visits to several ports of call in Japan. While these ports were interesting, research on Japan’s long reach of history offers up many troubling aspects of this unique people. I pondered their history and unique way of looking at themselves and the rest of the world. How is it possible, for example, for a people to create the highest forms of etiquette and graceful decorum, and to then conduct themselves with utter contempt for basic morality towards others? During World War Two, the massacres committed by the Japanese army in nearly every quadrant of their military and political reach during the Showa Empire begs the question of how common decency and ethical behavior can be so thoroughly absent as if it never existed? Even today, the Japanese government refuses to acknowledge or offer a public apology for wartime acts done during this period. I explore this very troubling issue, wondering where the lines of civility and conformity begin and end. The Japanese are a strange people, and I was frustrated at these two extremes of exemplary behavior and simultaneous contempt of others. It is my contention that a refusal to acknowledge the past, in conjunction with a reappraisal of what went wrong in that previous leadership, will eventually and inevitably force this issue into the present. There is therefore a huge divergence between the Germans and the Japanese. The former reappraised their horrific past, recognizing that a change from that past is a mandatory aspect of their social discourse. Even a Nazi salute in Germany is outlawed and a criminal offense. In contrast, the Japanese have barely tolerated criticisms of its own leaders during that period of darkness. This is a troubling volume in which I explore with an open mind, wondering if there is an answer to these troubling questions. In the Shinto Directive, formulated and implemented by General MacArthur following Japan's unconditional surrender, formalized belief in the emperor's divinity was outlawed. Today, beautiful Shinto shrines dot the Japanese countryside. Citizens can be seen washing hands and rinsing their mouths before entering these sacred spaces, then lighting incense while offering a prayer. Inevitably, I wonder as to the moral component of a people who are outwardly decorous, even recreating the common toothpick into a form of exceptional grace, while being unable to acknowledge common humanity. There are also modern aspects of Japanese society that are difficult to comprehend. Thousands of Japanese youth, for reasons that defy common sense, give up on themselves and their future by adopting the hikikomori lifestyle, living in their parent’s home, not interacting with their peers, and even refusing to emerge from their bedrooms for decades. Parents tolerate this odd behavior, refusing to confront their child, even refusing to acknowledge the presence of their child as the years pass. Similarly, are the jouhatsu, people who suddenly and without the slightest outward change, suddenly and inexplicably, disappear. Desperate to find the loved one, the government refuses to assist because of Japanese strict privacy laws. I describe these aspects of Japanese society, together with others similarly different from Western society. These are aspects of the ‘Asian face’ – that inscrutable and essentially unknown quantum, so different from that of the West. Knowing the facts, together with the statistics accompanying those facts, does not imply understanding the. As a Westerner, I review these manifestations without understanding the Japanese ‘soul,’ its core identity and substance. I can, therefore, only recount the facts and leave the rest to the reader. These questions aside, I very much enjoyed walking Japanese streets, riding its trains, and seeing its people. I also had occasion to chat with several Japanese who expressed surprise at my awareness of their culture, while I was unable to adequately answer my queries. And they too seemed perplexed by my queries, confounded by the imponderables dividing the Western the Eastern way of living a life.
This study considers the ways in which archaeology and landscapes of the archaic have been appropriated in Japanese nationalism since the early twentieth century, focusing on the writings of cultural historian Tetsurō Watsuji, philosopher Takeshi Umehara and environmental archaeologist Yoshinori Yasuda.
Recent interdisciplinary studies, combining scientific techniques such as ancient DNA analysis with humanistic re-evaluations of the transcultural value of bronze, have presented archaeologists with a fresh view of the Bronze Age in Europe. The new research emphasises long-distance connectivities and political decentralisation. 'Bronzisation' is discussed as a type of proto-globalisation. In this Element, Mark Hudson examines whether these approaches can also be applied to East Asia. Focusing primarily on Island East Asia, he analyses trade, maritime interactions and warrior culture in a comparative Eurasian framework. He argues that the international division of labour associated with Bronze Age trade provided an important stimulus to the rise of decentralised complexity in regions peripheral to alluvial states. Building on James Scott's work, the concept of the 'barbarian niche' is proposed as a way to model the longue durée of premodern Eurasian history. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
