Yuriko Saito
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199278350
- eISBN:
- 9780191707001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278350.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
We normally react to manifestations of aging and different degrees of cleanliness and organization by cleaning, organizing, restoring, or discarding. These familiar reactions are rather complex, ...
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We normally react to manifestations of aging and different degrees of cleanliness and organization by cleaning, organizing, restoring, or discarding. These familiar reactions are rather complex, presupposing various conceptual considerations, including functionality, context, and personal relationship to the object. The appreciation of aged, messy, or defective appearance was encouraged by the British picturesque movement with its cult of ruins, Japanese wabi aesthetics underlie the tea ceremony, and rebellion against modernist aesthetics reveals a tension between our desire for control over life and the wisdom of submitting to its transient and other uncontrollable aspects. It also creates another tension: to decontextualize those qualities ordinarily depreciated to illuminate their positive aesthetic potential, while analyzing our common reactions to them in the ordinary context. Finally, the discussion highlights the danger of utilizing the power of the aesthetic through aestheticizing the social status quo and transience of life by taking examples from Japanese history.Less
We normally react to manifestations of aging and different degrees of cleanliness and organization by cleaning, organizing, restoring, or discarding. These familiar reactions are rather complex, presupposing various conceptual considerations, including functionality, context, and personal relationship to the object. The appreciation of aged, messy, or defective appearance was encouraged by the British picturesque movement with its cult of ruins, Japanese wabi aesthetics underlie the tea ceremony, and rebellion against modernist aesthetics reveals a tension between our desire for control over life and the wisdom of submitting to its transient and other uncontrollable aspects. It also creates another tension: to decontextualize those qualities ordinarily depreciated to illuminate their positive aesthetic potential, while analyzing our common reactions to them in the ordinary context. Finally, the discussion highlights the danger of utilizing the power of the aesthetic through aestheticizing the social status quo and transience of life by taking examples from Japanese history.
Hiro Saito
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780824856748
- eISBN:
- 9780824873714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824856748.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Between 1997 and 2015, the history problem became more complex due to changes in both domestic and international situations of the three countries. The LDP returned to power, but it had to form a ...
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Between 1997 and 2015, the history problem became more complex due to changes in both domestic and international situations of the three countries. The LDP returned to power, but it had to form a coalition government with other small parties. Various new actors also entered the field, including the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform that promoted “healthy nationalism” in history education. At the same time, historians and educators in the three countries began organizing joint historical research and education projects to promote the logic of cosmopolitanism, and even the LDP-led coalition government launched bilateral joint historical research projects with South Korea and China to prevent a further escalation of the history problem. Thus, nationalist commemorations in the three countries continued to fuel the history problem, but they came to coexist, in a complex manner, with mutual cosmopolitan commemoration initiated by the governmental and nongovernmental joint projects.Less
Between 1997 and 2015, the history problem became more complex due to changes in both domestic and international situations of the three countries. The LDP returned to power, but it had to form a coalition government with other small parties. Various new actors also entered the field, including the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform that promoted “healthy nationalism” in history education. At the same time, historians and educators in the three countries began organizing joint historical research and education projects to promote the logic of cosmopolitanism, and even the LDP-led coalition government launched bilateral joint historical research projects with South Korea and China to prevent a further escalation of the history problem. Thus, nationalist commemorations in the three countries continued to fuel the history problem, but they came to coexist, in a complex manner, with mutual cosmopolitan commemoration initiated by the governmental and nongovernmental joint projects.
Hiroyuki Odagiri and Akira Goto
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198288022
- eISBN:
- 9780191684555
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198288022.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter begins with a brief summary of the history of Japan from the mid-nineteenth century to World War II. Japan started investing in social and economic infrastructure during the Meiji ...
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This chapter begins with a brief summary of the history of Japan from the mid-nineteenth century to World War II. Japan started investing in social and economic infrastructure during the Meiji Government. These developments bore fruit in 1910s when Japan experienced an economic boom. Their exports tripled and this enhanced the Japanese influence over other countries. Their economy collapsed in the 1920s but began recovering in the early 1930s. Japan adopted an expansionary fiscal policy where heavy spending on military was implemented. It invested in education, technology, and research and development activities. R&D activities strengthened in the 1930s and 1940s, which enabled some Japanese manufacturing industries to start building world-class products.Less
This chapter begins with a brief summary of the history of Japan from the mid-nineteenth century to World War II. Japan started investing in social and economic infrastructure during the Meiji Government. These developments bore fruit in 1910s when Japan experienced an economic boom. Their exports tripled and this enhanced the Japanese influence over other countries. Their economy collapsed in the 1920s but began recovering in the early 1930s. Japan adopted an expansionary fiscal policy where heavy spending on military was implemented. It invested in education, technology, and research and development activities. R&D activities strengthened in the 1930s and 1940s, which enabled some Japanese manufacturing industries to start building world-class products.
Ethan Mark
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231165686
- eISBN:
- 9780231538596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231165686.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This introductory chapter discusses the common misconceptions surrounding Japanese wartime behavior during and after World War II. More specifically, it questions the distinction between the Japanese ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the common misconceptions surrounding Japanese wartime behavior during and after World War II. More specifically, it questions the distinction between the Japanese state—thought to be responsible for the nation's role in the Second World War—and that of the Japanese people, who are often treated as passive victims within the historical narrative. Such a view obscures the underlying complexity surrounding the Japanese wartime behavior and instead creates an image of a nation backwards in its thinking as it is swept into a Westernized power struggle. But rather than observe Japan's history from the actions of the leaders of the state, this book focuses on the “common people” of Japanese society, and how the complex socio-cultural interactions taking place as a whole have come to shape a “bottom-up” characterization that presents Japan as both victim and victimizer.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the common misconceptions surrounding Japanese wartime behavior during and after World War II. More specifically, it questions the distinction between the Japanese state—thought to be responsible for the nation's role in the Second World War—and that of the Japanese people, who are often treated as passive victims within the historical narrative. Such a view obscures the underlying complexity surrounding the Japanese wartime behavior and instead creates an image of a nation backwards in its thinking as it is swept into a Westernized power struggle. But rather than observe Japan's history from the actions of the leaders of the state, this book focuses on the “common people” of Japanese society, and how the complex socio-cultural interactions taking place as a whole have come to shape a “bottom-up” characterization that presents Japan as both victim and victimizer.
CHUSHICHI TSUZUKI
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205890
- eISBN:
- 9780191676840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205890.003.0022
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, Political History
This chapter starts by discussing the end of the Showa era. It describes the idea of Showa, and the emperor and the war. The emperor's funeral and the bubble economy are also explained. There is ...
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This chapter starts by discussing the end of the Showa era. It describes the idea of Showa, and the emperor and the war. The emperor's funeral and the bubble economy are also explained. There is certainly no direct connection between the end of the Showa era in 1989 and the bubble economy that took the form of an ‘abnormal’ rise in share- and land prices in the period 1987–90. Yet these two incidents can be presented as the two sides of the same coin. The collapse of the LDP hegemony is illustrated. Japan and the Japanese found themselves in disarray, faced with the stark realities underlying their inflated image of themselves. Japan was remade by the Americans after 1945 and established as a junior partner on security matters after 1951. The transformation of post-war Japan has not altered the quality of man. In general, the identity-crisis itself is rooted deep in Japanese history.Less
This chapter starts by discussing the end of the Showa era. It describes the idea of Showa, and the emperor and the war. The emperor's funeral and the bubble economy are also explained. There is certainly no direct connection between the end of the Showa era in 1989 and the bubble economy that took the form of an ‘abnormal’ rise in share- and land prices in the period 1987–90. Yet these two incidents can be presented as the two sides of the same coin. The collapse of the LDP hegemony is illustrated. Japan and the Japanese found themselves in disarray, faced with the stark realities underlying their inflated image of themselves. Japan was remade by the Americans after 1945 and established as a junior partner on security matters after 1951. The transformation of post-war Japan has not altered the quality of man. In general, the identity-crisis itself is rooted deep in Japanese history.
George Akita
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824825607
- eISBN:
- 9780824869328
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824825607.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter illustrates how published and transcribed primary sources can be used to sustain, question, or strengthen some of the themes and approaches adopted by non-Japanese scholars working on ...
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This chapter illustrates how published and transcribed primary sources can be used to sustain, question, or strengthen some of the themes and approaches adopted by non-Japanese scholars working on modern Japanese history. The illustrations come from, but are not limited to, documents related to Yamagata Aritomo (1838–1922), a prominent figure in Japan's post-Restoration political history. However, the obverse is equally important for the non-Japanese scholar working on primary sources, given that the analyses of non-Japanese scholars are notably useful for the insights they provide in interpreting the unpublished primary documents. The chapter also includes papers of other key Meiji-Taishō political leaders and remarks on the relevance of Japan's post-Restoration political history for understanding political modernization.Less
This chapter illustrates how published and transcribed primary sources can be used to sustain, question, or strengthen some of the themes and approaches adopted by non-Japanese scholars working on modern Japanese history. The illustrations come from, but are not limited to, documents related to Yamagata Aritomo (1838–1922), a prominent figure in Japan's post-Restoration political history. However, the obverse is equally important for the non-Japanese scholar working on primary sources, given that the analyses of non-Japanese scholars are notably useful for the insights they provide in interpreting the unpublished primary documents. The chapter also includes papers of other key Meiji-Taishō political leaders and remarks on the relevance of Japan's post-Restoration political history for understanding political modernization.
Gregory Clancey
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520246072
- eISBN:
- 9780520932296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520246072.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Beginning in the 1870s, shortly after the Meiji Restoration, foreign teachers were brought to Japan to train the first generation of architects and engineers. The foreign (mostly British) architects ...
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Beginning in the 1870s, shortly after the Meiji Restoration, foreign teachers were brought to Japan to train the first generation of architects and engineers. The foreign (mostly British) architects taught Japanese to build in brick and stone, and the engineers demonstrated how to string telegraph wires, lay railroads, and span rivers with iron truss bridges. Then, on October 28, 1891, one of the most powerful earthquakes in modern Japanese history, centered on the Nōbi Plain just north of Nagoya, rocked the main island of Honshu from Tokyo to Osaka. Large iron bridges and the walls of brick factories and post offices came crashing down, while Japanese temples, pagodas, and architectural monuments such as Nagoya Castle seemingly escaped unharmed. In the aftermath of the great earthquake, Japanese architects and engineers were forced to question foreign knowledge, and the foreign teachers began even to question themselves.Less
Beginning in the 1870s, shortly after the Meiji Restoration, foreign teachers were brought to Japan to train the first generation of architects and engineers. The foreign (mostly British) architects taught Japanese to build in brick and stone, and the engineers demonstrated how to string telegraph wires, lay railroads, and span rivers with iron truss bridges. Then, on October 28, 1891, one of the most powerful earthquakes in modern Japanese history, centered on the Nōbi Plain just north of Nagoya, rocked the main island of Honshu from Tokyo to Osaka. Large iron bridges and the walls of brick factories and post offices came crashing down, while Japanese temples, pagodas, and architectural monuments such as Nagoya Castle seemingly escaped unharmed. In the aftermath of the great earthquake, Japanese architects and engineers were forced to question foreign knowledge, and the foreign teachers began even to question themselves.
Yuko Matsuzaki
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781781381373
- eISBN:
- 9781781384886
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381373.003.0012
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History
Since the late 19th century, more than 13,000 volumes of shashi (company history publications) have been published in Japan and, despite the current economic climate; approximately two hundred ...
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Since the late 19th century, more than 13,000 volumes of shashi (company history publications) have been published in Japan and, despite the current economic climate; approximately two hundred companies publish new shashi every year. Shashi were traditionally made within the company by employees often without formal training in history or archiving. From the late 1960s onward, however, Japanese business history specialists, some of whom studied at major US graduate schools, started contributing to recording corporate history in Japanese companies. Academic business historians came to enjoy privileged access to corporate archives, which fostered the development of business history as a scientific discipline, and companies could publish credibility-enhancing corporate histories.This article focuses on the Toyota Motor Corporation, which celebrated its 75th company anniversary in 2012. Toyota has long made use of its heritage, publishing numerous shashi and other works, and marked its 75th anniversary by launching an extensive historical website.Less
Since the late 19th century, more than 13,000 volumes of shashi (company history publications) have been published in Japan and, despite the current economic climate; approximately two hundred companies publish new shashi every year. Shashi were traditionally made within the company by employees often without formal training in history or archiving. From the late 1960s onward, however, Japanese business history specialists, some of whom studied at major US graduate schools, started contributing to recording corporate history in Japanese companies. Academic business historians came to enjoy privileged access to corporate archives, which fostered the development of business history as a scientific discipline, and companies could publish credibility-enhancing corporate histories.This article focuses on the Toyota Motor Corporation, which celebrated its 75th company anniversary in 2012. Toyota has long made use of its heritage, publishing numerous shashi and other works, and marked its 75th anniversary by launching an extensive historical website.
Takashi Yoshida
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195180961
- eISBN:
- 9780199869633
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195180961.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter traces the history and memory of the Nanjing Massacre in the United States from 1971 to 1989. During this period American media rediscovered the Nanjing Massacre, but the number of ...
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This chapter traces the history and memory of the Nanjing Massacre in the United States from 1971 to 1989. During this period American media rediscovered the Nanjing Massacre, but the number of journalists and other writers who participated in this revival of interest was still quite small.Less
This chapter traces the history and memory of the Nanjing Massacre in the United States from 1971 to 1989. During this period American media rediscovered the Nanjing Massacre, but the number of journalists and other writers who participated in this revival of interest was still quite small.
David L. Howell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824836979
- eISBN:
- 9780824870973
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824836979.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter discusses how Ainu history has been balkanized within the discipline of Japanese history. The idea that the Ainu are the subjects rather than merely the objects of history gained ...
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This chapter discusses how Ainu history has been balkanized within the discipline of Japanese history. The idea that the Ainu are the subjects rather than merely the objects of history gained credence in Japan in the late 1970s and by now has become a matter of common sense among scholars. Recent scholarship on Ainu history has contributed importantly to the revisionist literature on Japanese identity, but by the same token it has been limited by its tendency to reduce the Ainu's story to a critique of the hegemonic discourse of Japaneseness. Recognizing this limitation, specialists now are taking another look at the relationship between Ainu history and Japanese history in an effort to craft a narrative that endows the Ainu people with agency and subjectivity while also acknowledging the enormous influence of the Japanese state over the Ainu and their homeland during the past four centuries.Less
This chapter discusses how Ainu history has been balkanized within the discipline of Japanese history. The idea that the Ainu are the subjects rather than merely the objects of history gained credence in Japan in the late 1970s and by now has become a matter of common sense among scholars. Recent scholarship on Ainu history has contributed importantly to the revisionist literature on Japanese identity, but by the same token it has been limited by its tendency to reduce the Ainu's story to a critique of the hegemonic discourse of Japaneseness. Recognizing this limitation, specialists now are taking another look at the relationship between Ainu history and Japanese history in an effort to craft a narrative that endows the Ainu people with agency and subjectivity while also acknowledging the enormous influence of the Japanese state over the Ainu and their homeland during the past four centuries.
Julia Yongue
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781526110886
- eISBN:
- 9781526124272
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526110886.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Factors such as climate and geography were important determinants of the types vaccines selected for use and the prevalence of certain infectious diseases in Japan. However, as shown in this chapter, ...
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Factors such as climate and geography were important determinants of the types vaccines selected for use and the prevalence of certain infectious diseases in Japan. However, as shown in this chapter, there is strong evidence that preventive vaccination policies that were strongly influenced by foreign health authorities, changing societal expectations, pressure from special interest groups, and new scientific discoveries played as an important, if not a more significant role in the formation of Japan’s approach to immunisation and vaccine production. By delineating the principal features and influences on the development of Japan’s vaccine policies and production using a wide range of illustrations, the writer argues that Japan’s approach differed markedly from the ones adopted by the health authorities in other nations. This distinctiveness stems from Japan’s unique history of disease, policies and institutions, whose centerpiece is the Preventative Vaccination Law (PVL) introduced in 1947 during the Allied occupation (1945-52). This chapter will trace these influences—both past and present—on Japan’s vaccination policies in order to shed light on its unique approach to immunisation and production.Less
Factors such as climate and geography were important determinants of the types vaccines selected for use and the prevalence of certain infectious diseases in Japan. However, as shown in this chapter, there is strong evidence that preventive vaccination policies that were strongly influenced by foreign health authorities, changing societal expectations, pressure from special interest groups, and new scientific discoveries played as an important, if not a more significant role in the formation of Japan’s approach to immunisation and vaccine production. By delineating the principal features and influences on the development of Japan’s vaccine policies and production using a wide range of illustrations, the writer argues that Japan’s approach differed markedly from the ones adopted by the health authorities in other nations. This distinctiveness stems from Japan’s unique history of disease, policies and institutions, whose centerpiece is the Preventative Vaccination Law (PVL) introduced in 1947 during the Allied occupation (1945-52). This chapter will trace these influences—both past and present—on Japan’s vaccination policies in order to shed light on its unique approach to immunisation and production.
Christopher Ives
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833312
- eISBN:
- 9780824870126
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833312.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter provides an overview of the actions and ideology that characterized Imperial-Way Buddhism from the Meiji Restoration up to 1945. During these years, Japanese religious history is divided ...
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This chapter provides an overview of the actions and ideology that characterized Imperial-Way Buddhism from the Meiji Restoration up to 1945. During these years, Japanese religious history is divided into five periods. The first (1868–1872) featured the advocacy of the “unity of rites and rule” (saisei itchi) and the separation of Shinto and Buddhism. In the second period (1872–1877), the Ministry of Religion and the Great Teaching Promulgation Campaign attempted to consolidate Shinto and Buddhism. During the third period (1877–1912), government officials cemented the power of the imperial system and State Shinto. The fourth period (1912–1935) saw how the state pressured authorized religions to foster “Japanese spirit,” cultivate Imperial-Way Buddhism, and pacify colonized areas. Finally, the fifth period (1937–1945) centered on the system established by the Religious Organizations Law and the full mobilization of religions.Less
This chapter provides an overview of the actions and ideology that characterized Imperial-Way Buddhism from the Meiji Restoration up to 1945. During these years, Japanese religious history is divided into five periods. The first (1868–1872) featured the advocacy of the “unity of rites and rule” (saisei itchi) and the separation of Shinto and Buddhism. In the second period (1872–1877), the Ministry of Religion and the Great Teaching Promulgation Campaign attempted to consolidate Shinto and Buddhism. During the third period (1877–1912), government officials cemented the power of the imperial system and State Shinto. The fourth period (1912–1935) saw how the state pressured authorized religions to foster “Japanese spirit,” cultivate Imperial-Way Buddhism, and pacify colonized areas. Finally, the fifth period (1937–1945) centered on the system established by the Religious Organizations Law and the full mobilization of religions.
Brett J. Esaki
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190251420
- eISBN:
- 9780190251352
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190251420.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, Philosophy of Religion
The Introduction presents a genealogy of Japanese American silence throughout modern Japanese American history and the theory of non-binary silence. It focuses on the survival strategy called ...
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The Introduction presents a genealogy of Japanese American silence throughout modern Japanese American history and the theory of non-binary silence. It focuses on the survival strategy called gaimenteki doka (outward assimilation), especially how it has enfolded multiple dimensions of silence into non-binary silences and multiple cultures into Japanese American culture. The genealogy covers silence from sixteenth-century Japan, through immigration in early twentieth-century United States, the World War II internment camps, and to the redress movement. The theory of non-binary silence outlines how to move beyond the binary of sound and silence to conceive of multidimensional silences and argues that a perspective of non-binary silence can provide a fresh perspective on the sacred of Emile Durkheim. The chapter also introduces the relationship between silence and alternating racial shame and racial pride by contextualizing it within the author's own experiences with his elders.Less
The Introduction presents a genealogy of Japanese American silence throughout modern Japanese American history and the theory of non-binary silence. It focuses on the survival strategy called gaimenteki doka (outward assimilation), especially how it has enfolded multiple dimensions of silence into non-binary silences and multiple cultures into Japanese American culture. The genealogy covers silence from sixteenth-century Japan, through immigration in early twentieth-century United States, the World War II internment camps, and to the redress movement. The theory of non-binary silence outlines how to move beyond the binary of sound and silence to conceive of multidimensional silences and argues that a perspective of non-binary silence can provide a fresh perspective on the sacred of Emile Durkheim. The chapter also introduces the relationship between silence and alternating racial shame and racial pride by contextualizing it within the author's own experiences with his elders.
Yukiko Koshiro
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451805
- eISBN:
- 9780801467752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451805.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This epilogue critiques the standard books on Japan's final war against the Soviet Union, saying that they fail to present a theoretical framework that synthesizes the Pacific, Asian, and European ...
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This epilogue critiques the standard books on Japan's final war against the Soviet Union, saying that they fail to present a theoretical framework that synthesizes the Pacific, Asian, and European dimensions of Japan's war. These works did not delve into the complex layers of Soviet–Japanese relations during the war. Nor did they discuss that the Soviet Union was Japan's most critic ally in the war in China as well as in the war against the United. The chapter concludes that as long as Japanese today continue to believe that during and shortly after World War II they were utterly ignorant or naive bystanders of the two superpowers' growing rivalry, the transitional period from World War II to the Cold War can never become an integral part of Japanese history.Less
This epilogue critiques the standard books on Japan's final war against the Soviet Union, saying that they fail to present a theoretical framework that synthesizes the Pacific, Asian, and European dimensions of Japan's war. These works did not delve into the complex layers of Soviet–Japanese relations during the war. Nor did they discuss that the Soviet Union was Japan's most critic ally in the war in China as well as in the war against the United. The chapter concludes that as long as Japanese today continue to believe that during and shortly after World War II they were utterly ignorant or naive bystanders of the two superpowers' growing rivalry, the transitional period from World War II to the Cold War can never become an integral part of Japanese history.
Philip C. Brown
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833923
- eISBN:
- 9780824871710
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833923.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book challenges the common understanding of Japanese economic and social history by uncovering diverse landholding practices in early modern Japan. It argues that it was joint landownership of ...
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This book challenges the common understanding of Japanese economic and social history by uncovering diverse landholding practices in early modern Japan. It argues that it was joint landownership of arable land that characterized a few large areas of Japan in the early modern period and even survived in some places down to the late twentieth century. The practice adapted to changing political and economic circumstances and was compatible with increasing farm involvement in the market. Land rights were the product of villages and, to some degree, daimyo policies. Joint ownership structured a number of practices compatible with longer-term investment in and maintenance of arable land. The book provides new perspectives on how villagers organized themselves and their lands, and how their practices were articulated (or were not articulated) to higher layers of administration. It employs an unusually wide array of sources and methodologies: In addition to manuscripts from local archives, it exploits interviews with modern informants who used joint ownership and a combination of modern geographical tools to investigate the degree to which the most common form of joint ownership reflected efforts to ameliorate flood and landslide hazard risk as well as microclimate variation. Further it explores the nature of Japanese agricultural practice, its demand on natural resources, and the role of broader environmental factors—all of which infuse the study with new environmental perspectives and approaches.Less
This book challenges the common understanding of Japanese economic and social history by uncovering diverse landholding practices in early modern Japan. It argues that it was joint landownership of arable land that characterized a few large areas of Japan in the early modern period and even survived in some places down to the late twentieth century. The practice adapted to changing political and economic circumstances and was compatible with increasing farm involvement in the market. Land rights were the product of villages and, to some degree, daimyo policies. Joint ownership structured a number of practices compatible with longer-term investment in and maintenance of arable land. The book provides new perspectives on how villagers organized themselves and their lands, and how their practices were articulated (or were not articulated) to higher layers of administration. It employs an unusually wide array of sources and methodologies: In addition to manuscripts from local archives, it exploits interviews with modern informants who used joint ownership and a combination of modern geographical tools to investigate the degree to which the most common form of joint ownership reflected efforts to ameliorate flood and landslide hazard risk as well as microclimate variation. Further it explores the nature of Japanese agricultural practice, its demand on natural resources, and the role of broader environmental factors—all of which infuse the study with new environmental perspectives and approaches.
Woojeong Joo
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748696321
- eISBN:
- 9781474434775
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748696321.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Bringing three key issues - Ozu, everyday life and the modern Japanese history - into a unified discussion, The Cinema of Ozu Yasujiro re-examines the renowned film director Ozu Yasujiro and his ...
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Bringing three key issues - Ozu, everyday life and the modern Japanese history - into a unified discussion, The Cinema of Ozu Yasujiro re-examines the renowned film director Ozu Yasujiro and his films from a socio-historical point of view to present a more contextualised contour of his cinema. The new approach will revise the previous tendency in Ozu studies that have emphasised Ozu's formal style, and articulate his consistent effort to explore the everyday life of ordinary Japanese people. The main subjects of this book include major issues of the history of Japan and Japanese cinema from prewar modernism and coming of sound cinema through struggles at war and during the US occupation, and the reconstruction and change of the postwar. It also emphasizes Ozu’s status and role as a studio director in Japanese film industry, with discussions of his generic contributions, such as shōshimin films, family melodrama, and bourgeois drama, which could be established under the constant conflict and negotiation with the studio Shochiku’s everyday realism. Upon this socio-historical context, the book attempts detailed reanalysis of Ozu's films throughout his career, centering on the multilateral aspect of the everyday in terms of space and time, produced through constant negotiation among different genders, classes and generations.Less
Bringing three key issues - Ozu, everyday life and the modern Japanese history - into a unified discussion, The Cinema of Ozu Yasujiro re-examines the renowned film director Ozu Yasujiro and his films from a socio-historical point of view to present a more contextualised contour of his cinema. The new approach will revise the previous tendency in Ozu studies that have emphasised Ozu's formal style, and articulate his consistent effort to explore the everyday life of ordinary Japanese people. The main subjects of this book include major issues of the history of Japan and Japanese cinema from prewar modernism and coming of sound cinema through struggles at war and during the US occupation, and the reconstruction and change of the postwar. It also emphasizes Ozu’s status and role as a studio director in Japanese film industry, with discussions of his generic contributions, such as shōshimin films, family melodrama, and bourgeois drama, which could be established under the constant conflict and negotiation with the studio Shochiku’s everyday realism. Upon this socio-historical context, the book attempts detailed reanalysis of Ozu's films throughout his career, centering on the multilateral aspect of the everyday in terms of space and time, produced through constant negotiation among different genders, classes and generations.
Jason G. Karlin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824838263
- eISBN:
- 9780824871451
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824838263.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book is a historical analysis of the discourses of nostalgia in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan. Through an analysis of the experience of rapid social change in Japan's ...
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This book is a historical analysis of the discourses of nostalgia in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan. Through an analysis of the experience of rapid social change in Japan's modernization, it argues that fads (ryūkō) and the desires they express are central to understanding Japanese modernity, conceptions of gender, and discourses of nationalism. In doing so, the book uncovers the myth of eternal return that lurks below the surface of Japanese history as an expression of the desire to find meaning amid the chaos and alienation of modern times. The Meiji period (1868–1912) was one of rapid change that hastened the process of forgetting. However, repression merely produced new forms of desire seeking a return to the past, with the result that competing or alternative conceptions of the nation haunted the history of modern Japan. This book examines the intellectual, social, and cultural factors that contributed to the rapid spread of Western tastes and styles, along with the backlash against Westernization that was expressed as a longing for the past. By focusing on the expressions of these desires in popular culture and media texts, it reveals how the conflation of mother, countryside, everyday life, and history structured representations to naturalize ideologies of gender and nationalism.Less
This book is a historical analysis of the discourses of nostalgia in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan. Through an analysis of the experience of rapid social change in Japan's modernization, it argues that fads (ryūkō) and the desires they express are central to understanding Japanese modernity, conceptions of gender, and discourses of nationalism. In doing so, the book uncovers the myth of eternal return that lurks below the surface of Japanese history as an expression of the desire to find meaning amid the chaos and alienation of modern times. The Meiji period (1868–1912) was one of rapid change that hastened the process of forgetting. However, repression merely produced new forms of desire seeking a return to the past, with the result that competing or alternative conceptions of the nation haunted the history of modern Japan. This book examines the intellectual, social, and cultural factors that contributed to the rapid spread of Western tastes and styles, along with the backlash against Westernization that was expressed as a longing for the past. By focusing on the expressions of these desires in popular culture and media texts, it reveals how the conflation of mother, countryside, everyday life, and history structured representations to naturalize ideologies of gender and nationalism.
Yukichi Fukuzawa
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231167147
- eISBN:
- 9780231536615
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231167147.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The intellectual and social theorist Yukichi Fukuzawa wrote An Encouragement of Learning (1872–1876) as a series of pamphlets while completing his critical masterpiece, An Outline of a Theory of ...
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The intellectual and social theorist Yukichi Fukuzawa wrote An Encouragement of Learning (1872–1876) as a series of pamphlets while completing his critical masterpiece, An Outline of a Theory of Civilization (1875). These closely linked texts illustrate the core tenets of his philosophical outlook: freedom and equality as inherent to human nature, independence as the goal of any individual and nation, and the transformation of the Japanese mind as key to advancing in a rapidly evolving political and cultural world. In these essays, Fukuzawa advocated for the adoption of Western modes of education to help the Japanese people build a modern nation. He also believed that human beings’ treatment of one another extended to and was reflected in their government’s behavior, echoing the work of John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and other Western thinkers in a classically structured Eastern text. This book translates the full text into English and includes a chronology of Japanese history as it relates to Fukuzawa and his work. An introduction provides additional background on the life and influence of this profound thinker, and a selection of representative writings and suggestions for further reading fully introduce readers to the rare brilliance of his thought.Less
The intellectual and social theorist Yukichi Fukuzawa wrote An Encouragement of Learning (1872–1876) as a series of pamphlets while completing his critical masterpiece, An Outline of a Theory of Civilization (1875). These closely linked texts illustrate the core tenets of his philosophical outlook: freedom and equality as inherent to human nature, independence as the goal of any individual and nation, and the transformation of the Japanese mind as key to advancing in a rapidly evolving political and cultural world. In these essays, Fukuzawa advocated for the adoption of Western modes of education to help the Japanese people build a modern nation. He also believed that human beings’ treatment of one another extended to and was reflected in their government’s behavior, echoing the work of John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and other Western thinkers in a classically structured Eastern text. This book translates the full text into English and includes a chronology of Japanese history as it relates to Fukuzawa and his work. An introduction provides additional background on the life and influence of this profound thinker, and a selection of representative writings and suggestions for further reading fully introduce readers to the rare brilliance of his thought.
Margaret Lock
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520082212
- eISBN:
- 9780520916623
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520082212.003.0011
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
Although the subjective experience and interpretation of kōnenki vary among Japanese women, the term is a key concept in discussions of midlife in Japan and most probably, every adult has some ...
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Although the subjective experience and interpretation of kōnenki vary among Japanese women, the term is a key concept in discussions of midlife in Japan and most probably, every adult has some acquaintance with it. But if talking about growing older is not universal, their reasons for doing so differ. This chapter asks why, if we view kōnenki as a product of Japanese history and culture, we should not look on menopause as a product of the Euro-American cultural tradition. It traces the invention of the menopausal woman in Europe and North America, her reduction to the menopause, and still more recent demotion to a deficiency disease and an endocrinopathy. These changes profoundly influence the way the medical profession and the public respond to female midlife.Less
Although the subjective experience and interpretation of kōnenki vary among Japanese women, the term is a key concept in discussions of midlife in Japan and most probably, every adult has some acquaintance with it. But if talking about growing older is not universal, their reasons for doing so differ. This chapter asks why, if we view kōnenki as a product of Japanese history and culture, we should not look on menopause as a product of the Euro-American cultural tradition. It traces the invention of the menopausal woman in Europe and North America, her reduction to the menopause, and still more recent demotion to a deficiency disease and an endocrinopathy. These changes profoundly influence the way the medical profession and the public respond to female midlife.
Takie Sugiyama Lebra
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520076006
- eISBN:
- 9780520911796
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520076006.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter provides a historical sketch of the nobility. The basic structure of the nobility under study came into formal existence in 1884 as the result of an imperial ordinance called the ...
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This chapter provides a historical sketch of the nobility. The basic structure of the nobility under study came into formal existence in 1884 as the result of an imperial ordinance called the kazokurei. The embryo had taken shape fifteen years before, which calls us back to the dawn of Japan's modern era, the Meiji Restoration. The Meiji Restoration, launched in 1868, was a turmoil of sociopolitical events and transitions. When the Tokugawa shogunate, which had endured for over two and a half centuries, was defeated in the civil war of 1868–69, it collapsed, together with its feudal system of control. The winning camp thrust the thus-far marginalized imperial throne, then occupied by the sixteen-year-old Emperor Mutsuhito (known posthumously as Emperor Meiji), onto center stage of the political theater as the supreme symbol of legitimacy for the newly emerging order.Less
This chapter provides a historical sketch of the nobility. The basic structure of the nobility under study came into formal existence in 1884 as the result of an imperial ordinance called the kazokurei. The embryo had taken shape fifteen years before, which calls us back to the dawn of Japan's modern era, the Meiji Restoration. The Meiji Restoration, launched in 1868, was a turmoil of sociopolitical events and transitions. When the Tokugawa shogunate, which had endured for over two and a half centuries, was defeated in the civil war of 1868–69, it collapsed, together with its feudal system of control. The winning camp thrust the thus-far marginalized imperial throne, then occupied by the sixteen-year-old Emperor Mutsuhito (known posthumously as Emperor Meiji), onto center stage of the political theater as the supreme symbol of legitimacy for the newly emerging order.
