Since Meiji
Since Meiji

Author: J. Thomas Rimer

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 9780824835828

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Research outside Japan on the history and significance of the Japanese visual arts since the beginning of the Meiji period (1868) has been, with the exception of writings on modern and contemporary woodblock prints, a relatively unexplored area of inquiry. In recent years, however, the subject has begun to attract wide interest. As is evident from this volume, this period of roughly a century and a half produced an outpouring of art created in a bewildering number of genres and spanning a wide range of aims and accomplishments. Since Meiji is the first sustained effort in English to discuss in any depth a time when Japan, eager to join in the larger cultural developments in Europe and the U.S., went through a visual revolution. Indeed, this study of the visual arts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries suggests a fresh history of modern Japanese culture--one that until now has not been widely visible or thoroughly analyzed outside that country. In this extensive collection, which includes some 190 black-and-white and color reproductions, scholars from Japan, Europe, Australia, and America explore an impressive array of subjects: painting, sculpture, prints, fashion design, crafts, and gardens. The works discussed range from early Meiji attempts to create art that referenced Western styles to postwar and contemporary avant-garde experiments. There are, in addition, substantive investigations of the cultural and intellectual background that helped stimulate the creation of new and shifting art forms, including essays on the invention of a modern artistic vocabulary in the Japanese language and the history of art criticism in Japan, as well as an extensive account of the career and significance of perhaps the best-known Japanese figure concerned with the visual arts of his period, Okakura Tenshin (1862-1913), whose Book of Tea is still widely read today. Taken together, the essays in this volume allow readers to connect ideas and images, thus bringing to light larger trends in the Japanese visual arts that have made possible the vitality, range, and striking achievements created during this turbulent and lively period.

Since Meiji
Since Meiji

Author: J. Thomas Rimer

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2011-10-31

Total Pages: 554

ISBN-13: 0824861027

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Research outside Japan on the history and significance of the Japanese visual arts since the beginning of the Meiji period (1868) has been, with the exception of writings on modern and contemporary woodblock prints, a relatively unexplored area of inquiry. In recent years, however, the subject has begun to attract wide interest. As is evident from this volume, this period of roughly a century and a half produced an outpouring of art created in a bewildering number of genres and spanning a wide range of aims and accomplishments. Since Meiji is the first sustained effort in English to discuss in any depth a time when Japan, eager to join in the larger cultural developments in Europe and the U.S., went through a visual revolution. Indeed, this study of the visual arts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries suggests a fresh history of modern Japanese culture—one that until now has not been widely visible or thoroughly analyzed outside that country. In this extensive collection, which includes some 190 black-and-white and color reproductions, scholars from Japan, Europe, Australia, and America explore an impressive array of subjects: painting, sculpture, prints, fashion design, crafts, and gardens. The works discussed range from early Meiji attempts to create art that referenced Western styles to postwar and contemporary avant-garde experiments. There are, in addition, substantive investigations of the cultural and intellectual background that helped stimulate the creation of new and shifting art forms, including essays on the invention of a modern artistic vocabulary in the Japanese language and the history of art criticism in Japan, as well as an extensive account of the career and significance of perhaps the best-known Japanese figure concerned with the visual arts of his period, Okakura Tenshin (1862–1913), whose Book of Tea is still widely read today. Taken together, the essays in this volume allow readers to connect ideas and images, thus bringing to light larger trends in the Japanese visual arts that have made possible the vitality, range, and striking achievements created during this turbulent and lively period. Contributors: Stephen Addiss, Chiaki Ajioka, John Clark, Ellen Conant, Mikiko Hirayama, Michael Marra, Jonathan Reynolds, J. Thomas Rimer, Audrey Yoshiko Seo, Eric C. Shiner, Lawrence Smith, Shuji Tanaka, Reiko Tomii, Mayu Tsuruya, Toshio Watanabe, Gennifer Weisenfeld, Bert Winther-Tamaki, Emiko Yamanashi.

Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Restoration, 1868-2000
Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Restoration, 1868-2000

Author: R. Sims

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-06-12

Total Pages: 437

ISBN-13: 1349632406

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Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Restoration, 1868-2000 explores, through a combination of narrative and analysis, the changes in the political process which lay behind Japan's transformation into a modern nation state; its successive turn toward militarism, fascism, and the Pacific War; and the imposition of a fully democratic constitution. Sims examines closely such central topics as the Meiji renovation, samurai modernisers, the rise of liberal political parties, the Meiji constitution, 'Taisho democracy', the wartime changes in the political system, postwar reforms and the 'reverse course', four decades of Liberal Democratic rule, and the shake-up of Japanese politics during the 1990s. No other book has covered Japanese political history over the entire period since 1868 in such detail, and the present volume aims to fill the gap between the various general histories of modern Japan and the ever-increasing monographic literature.

The Making of Modern Japan
The Making of Modern Japan

Author: Marius B. Jansen

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 933

ISBN-13: 0674039106

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Magisterial in vision, sweeping in scope, this monumental work presents a seamless account of Japanese society during the modern era, from 1600 to the present. A distillation of more than fifty years’ engagement with Japan and its history, it is the crowning work of our leading interpreter of the modern Japanese experience. Since 1600 Japan has undergone three periods of wrenching social and institutional change, following the imposition of hegemonic order on feudal society by the Tokugawa shogun; the opening of Japan’s ports by Commodore Perry; and defeat in World War II. The Making of Modern Japan charts these changes: the social engineering begun with the founding of the shogunate in 1600, the emergence of village and castle towns with consumer populations, and the diffusion of samurai values in the culture. Marius Jansen covers the making of the modern state, the adaptation of Western models, growing international trade, the broadening opportunity in Japanese society with industrialization, and the postwar occupation reforms imposed by General MacArthur. Throughout, the book gives voice to the individuals and views that have shaped the actions and beliefs of the Japanese, with writers, artists, and thinkers, as well as political leaders given their due. The story this book tells, though marked by profound changes, is also one of remarkable consistency, in which continuities outweigh upheavals in the development of society, and successive waves of outside influence have only served to strengthen a sense of what is unique and native to Japanese experience. The Making of Modern Japan takes us to the core of this experience as it illuminates one of the contemporary world’s most compelling transformations.

Modern Japan’s Place in World History
Modern Japan’s Place in World History

Author: Masayuki Yamauchi

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-03-24

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9811995931

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This Open Access book includes chapters on the key turning points in modern Japanese history from the Meiji Restoration to Japan-China diplomatic normalization in the 1970s and beyond. The topics covered include the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, the First and Second World Wars, the Manchurian Crisis, the US Occupation, postwar Japan-China relations, and postwar decolonization. Readers will learn how new research by Japanese historians has led to the revision of conventional views on the turbulent history of Japan, once the enemy of the United States in the war in the Asia-Pacific and now the US’s closest ally in the region. Historical research on the modern history of Japan has been constantly updated. From the Meiji Restoration to the present day, Japan has experienced the effects of modernization and globalization. Recent historical inquiries in Japan tend to focus on the merging of modern history with global history. During the past 150 years, Japan has never been separated from events in international affairs. Scholars and general readers will appreciate the new factual details and philosophical perspectives that this volume provides drawing on the work of fourteen authors who are recognized leaders in their fields. Yuichi Hosoya is Professor of International Politics at Keio University. Masayuki Yamauchi is Specially Appointed Professor at the Musashino University Institute for Global Affairs and Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo.

Japan's Role in International Politics since World War II
Japan's Role in International Politics since World War II

Author: Edward R. Beauchamp

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-04-11

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1136524274

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The best scholarship on the development of contemporary Japan This collection presents well over 100 scholarly articles on modern Japanese society, written by leading scholars in the field. These selections have been drawn from the most distinguished scholarly journals as well as from journals that are less well known among specialists; and the articles represent the best and most important scholarship on their particular topic. An understanding of the present through the lens of the past The field of modern Japan studies has grown steadily as Westerners have recognized the importance of Japan as a lading world economic force and an emerging regional power. The post-1945 economic success of the Japanese has, however, been achieved in the context of that nation's history, social structure, educational enterprise and political environment. It is impossible to understand the postwar economic miracle without an appreciation of these elements. Japan's economic emergence has brought about and in some cases, exacerbated already existing tensions, and these tensions have, in turn, had a significant impact on Japanese economic life. The series is designed to give readers a basic understanding of modern Japan-its institutions and its people-as we stand on the threshold of a new century, often referred to as the Pacific Century.

The History of Education in Japan (1600 – 2000)
The History of Education in Japan (1600 – 2000)

Author: Masashi Tsujimoto

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-03-16

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1317295757

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As one of the most rapid and earliest nations to achieve "Western modernisation", much of Japan’s success stems from its fruitful literacy history during the Tokugawa shogunate as well as later influences from Western educational ideals and consequent economic and democratic conflicts in Japan. This book seeks to enlighten readers on how education and schooling contributed to Japan’s particular process of modernisation and industrialisation. These historical insights can be applied to crises in formal and systemised education today, and form the basis of potential solutions to controversies faced by formal education in Japan and other nation-states. A book that bridges the international information gap in Japan’s history of education will be immensely valuable to historians of both international and Japanese education.

To Stand with the Nations of the World
To Stand with the Nations of the World

Author: Mark Ravina

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-09-15

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 0190656107

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The samurai radicals who overthrew the last shogun in 1868 promised to restore ancient and pure Japanese ways. Foreign observers were terrified that Japan would lapse into violent xenophobia. But the new Meiji government took an opposite course. It copied best practices from around the world, building a powerful and modern Japanese nation with the help of European and American advisors. While revering the Japanese past, the Meiji government boldly embraced the foreign and the new. What explains this paradox? How could Japan's 1868 revolution be both modern and traditional, both xenophobic and cosmopolitan? To Stand with the Nations of the World explains the paradox of the Restoration through the forces of globalization. The Meiji Restoration was part of the global "long nineteenth century" during which ambitious nation states like Japan, Britain, Germany, and the United States challenged the world's great multi-ethnic empires--Ottoman, Qing, Romanov, and Hapsburg. Japan's leaders wanted to celebrate Japanese uniqueness, but they also sought international recognition. Rather than simply mimic world powers like Britain, they sought to make Japan distinctly Japanese in the same way that Britain was distinctly British. Rather than sing "God Save the King," they created a Japanese national anthem with lyrics from ancient poetry, but Western-style music. The Restoration also resonated with Japan's ancient past. In the 600s and 700s, Japan was threatened by the Tang dynasty, a dynasty as powerful as the Roman empire. In order to resist the Tang, Japanese leaders borrowed Tang methods, building a centralized Japanese state on Tang models, and learning continental science and technology. As in the 1800s, Japan co-opted international norms while insisting on Japanese distinctiveness. When confronting globalization in 1800s, Japan looked back to that "ancient globalization" of the 600s and 700s. The ancient past was therefore not remote or distant, but immediate and vital.

Education and Schooling in Japan since 1945
Education and Schooling in Japan since 1945

Author: Edward R. Beauchamp

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-09-19

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 113564862X

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The best scholarship on the development of contemporary Japan This collection presents well over 100 scholarly articles on modern Japanese society, written by leading scholars in the field. These selections have been drawn from the most distinguished scholarly journals as well as from journals that are less well known among specialists; and the articles represent the best and most important scholarship on their particular topic. An understanding of the present through the lens of the past The field of modern Japan studies has grown steadily as Westerners have recognized the importance of Japan as a lading world economic force and an emerging regional power. The post-1945 economic success of the Japanese has, however, been achieved in the context of that nation's history, social structure, educational enterprise and political environment. It is impossible to understand the postwar economic miracle without an appreciation of these elements. Japan's economic emergence has brought about and in some cases, exacerbated already existing tensions, and these tensions have, in turn, had a significant impact on Japanese economic life. The series is designed to give readers a basic understanding of modern Japan-its institutions and its people-as we stand on the threshold of a new century, often referred to as the Pacific Century.

A Cultural History of Late Meiji Japan
A Cultural History of Late Meiji Japan

Author: Alistair Swale

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-11-30

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 3031436466

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Scholarship on Japan’s development from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century has, perhaps quite understandably, been dominated by attention given to Japan’s emergence as a world power through a succession of military conflicts, and the burgeoning of a modern literary canon. This book argues that the emergence of empire and high culture needs to be more thoroughly integrated with an awareness of popular culture in urban life, a culture that at times exhibited a less than whole-hearted enthusiasm for the trappings of 'civilization', - a culture that was, in a sense, ‘decadent’. It integrates coverage of popular culture across diverse media and platforms, accentuating the emergence of new modern forms that evolved from the inter-relation between textual, visual and performative traditions such as kōdan and gidayū. The commentary is seasoned with reference to contemporary narratives, aiming to capture more ‘on the street’ perceptions of momentous events such as war and natural disasters, as well as the more arcane or curious media sensations of the moment. These included exposés of scandalous conduct in high places, new fads in popular entertainments and riveting stories of human interest whether it be crime or tragedies of modern urban living.