T. Griffith Foulk
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195304671
- eISBN:
- 9780199866861
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304671.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Chapter 1 summarizes the modern scholarly opinion that throughout its history, the Zen tradition rejected religious ritual as a legitimate means of carrying out its unique Buddhist mission, and ...
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Chapter 1 summarizes the modern scholarly opinion that throughout its history, the Zen tradition rejected religious ritual as a legitimate means of carrying out its unique Buddhist mission, and subjects this view to a contemporary historical critique. The author's thesis is that modern Japanese Zen scholars constructed the anti‐ritual theme in Zen in order to make Zen more relevant to the modern age in the eyes of both the ruling elite in Meiji/Taisho Japan and Western intellectuals who tended to be dismissive of religious ritual. Pushed in this direction by their own historical circumstances, modern Zen scholars portrayed the entire Zen tradition as anti‐ritual in basic intent and practice in spite of the historical record that belies this view. The author proceeds to describe the history of Zen ritual and presents a catalog description of ritual activities that are practiced in contemporary Sōtō Zen.Less
Chapter 1 summarizes the modern scholarly opinion that throughout its history, the Zen tradition rejected religious ritual as a legitimate means of carrying out its unique Buddhist mission, and subjects this view to a contemporary historical critique. The author's thesis is that modern Japanese Zen scholars constructed the anti‐ritual theme in Zen in order to make Zen more relevant to the modern age in the eyes of both the ruling elite in Meiji/Taisho Japan and Western intellectuals who tended to be dismissive of religious ritual. Pushed in this direction by their own historical circumstances, modern Zen scholars portrayed the entire Zen tradition as anti‐ritual in basic intent and practice in spite of the historical record that belies this view. The author proceeds to describe the history of Zen ritual and presents a catalog description of ritual activities that are practiced in contemporary Sōtō Zen.
Pär Kristoffer Cassel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199792054
- eISBN:
- 9780199932573
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199792054.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History, World Modern History
This chapter examines how legal pluralism and extraterritoriality contributed to shape the public debate in China and Japan in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It contrasts official ...
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This chapter examines how legal pluralism and extraterritoriality contributed to shape the public debate in China and Japan in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It contrasts official Chinese and Japanese responses to a series of widely publicized consular courts cases and shows that the Japanese authorities were much more successful in mobilizing public opinion against extraterritoriality than the Qing Empire was. The chapter argues that one of the reasons for the Japanese success was the fact that the Japanese state had created a relatively unified citizenry by abolishing all traces of legal pluralism.Less
This chapter examines how legal pluralism and extraterritoriality contributed to shape the public debate in China and Japan in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It contrasts official Chinese and Japanese responses to a series of widely publicized consular courts cases and shows that the Japanese authorities were much more successful in mobilizing public opinion against extraterritoriality than the Qing Empire was. The chapter argues that one of the reasons for the Japanese success was the fact that the Japanese state had created a relatively unified citizenry by abolishing all traces of legal pluralism.
Pär Kristoffer Cassel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199792054
- eISBN:
- 9780199932573
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199792054.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History, World Modern History
This chapter argues that prior to the Opium Wars in the mid-nineteenth century, both Qing China and Tokugawa Japan were familiar with the principle of personal jurisdiction and the existence of ...
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This chapter argues that prior to the Opium Wars in the mid-nineteenth century, both Qing China and Tokugawa Japan were familiar with the principle of personal jurisdiction and the existence of ethnic and social groups that had separate legal existences prior to the Opium War. In the Qing legal order, the Manchu conquest élite enjoyed extensive legal privileges, which placed them outside the criminal jurisdiction of the local Chinese administration. Similarly, the Tokugawa shogunate was accustomed to devolving jurisdiction to local domains and different status groups.Less
This chapter argues that prior to the Opium Wars in the mid-nineteenth century, both Qing China and Tokugawa Japan were familiar with the principle of personal jurisdiction and the existence of ethnic and social groups that had separate legal existences prior to the Opium War. In the Qing legal order, the Manchu conquest élite enjoyed extensive legal privileges, which placed them outside the criminal jurisdiction of the local Chinese administration. Similarly, the Tokugawa shogunate was accustomed to devolving jurisdiction to local domains and different status groups.
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/9780520246072.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Kōbudaigakkō's zōka course was only one of a number of sites constructing new archi-technical models for Meiji Japan. Compromise within daiku culture had actually begun under the Tokugawa regime, and ...
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Kōbudaigakkō's zōka course was only one of a number of sites constructing new archi-technical models for Meiji Japan. Compromise within daiku culture had actually begun under the Tokugawa regime, and by the time zōkagaku arrived was even taking on the characteristics of a creole — a pidgin that moves from being strictly a language of trade between foreigners to one used in domestic communication. By the late 1870s ɀōkagaku came to define “architecture.” Yet “architecture”had as yet no monopoly on imagining Western-style governmental and factory buildings.Less
Kōbudaigakkō's zōka course was only one of a number of sites constructing new archi-technical models for Meiji Japan. Compromise within daiku culture had actually begun under the Tokugawa regime, and by the time zōkagaku arrived was even taking on the characteristics of a creole — a pidgin that moves from being strictly a language of trade between foreigners to one used in domestic communication. By the late 1870s ɀōkagaku came to define “architecture.” Yet “architecture”had as yet no monopoly on imagining Western-style governmental and factory buildings.
Julia Adeney Thomas
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228542
- eISBN:
- 9780520926844
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228542.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the views of Japanese politician Katō Hiroyuki about nature. It explains that in 1881 Hiroyuki turned decidedly in favor of autocratic control, relying in large part on Social ...
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This chapter examines the views of Japanese politician Katō Hiroyuki about nature. It explains that in 1881 Hiroyuki turned decidedly in favor of autocratic control, relying in large part on Social Darwinism, and that he claimed that oligarchic rule was the correct form of government for Meiji Japan according to the dictates of natural evolution. The chapter discusses the opposition of Baba Tatsui, Ueki Emori, and others who found in nature a tool against Hiroyuki and against oligarchic power, and suggests that the 1881–1883 debate was a contest over definitions of nature, with all sides seeking to assert nature as they defined it.Less
This chapter examines the views of Japanese politician Katō Hiroyuki about nature. It explains that in 1881 Hiroyuki turned decidedly in favor of autocratic control, relying in large part on Social Darwinism, and that he claimed that oligarchic rule was the correct form of government for Meiji Japan according to the dictates of natural evolution. The chapter discusses the opposition of Baba Tatsui, Ueki Emori, and others who found in nature a tool against Hiroyuki and against oligarchic power, and suggests that the 1881–1883 debate was a contest over definitions of nature, with all sides seeking to assert nature as they defined it.
RUTH ROGASKI
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520240018
- eISBN:
- 9780520930605
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520240018.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter addresses the “birth” of hygienic modernity as Meiji physician-bureaucrats used the term weisheng to convey a philosophy that linked the health of the individual to the health of the ...
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This chapter addresses the “birth” of hygienic modernity as Meiji physician-bureaucrats used the term weisheng to convey a philosophy that linked the health of the individual to the health of the nation. It specifically reviews the specific textual influences, the circulations between Japan and Europe, and the significant linguistic choices that went into the process of developing hygienic modernity in Japan. Nagayo Sensai outlined an ideal vision of hygienic modernity for Japan. Eisei shinron renames the relationship between the natural world and the human body using the vocabularies of chemistry, physiology, and anatomy. Eisei implied that national survival was the ultimate purpose of disease prevention. Zhibao would not be unique in the turn-of-the-century world for maintaining conflicting views on the etiology of cholera. In the twentieth century, eisei as hygienic modernity would become a foundational element in the creation of the Japanese empire.Less
This chapter addresses the “birth” of hygienic modernity as Meiji physician-bureaucrats used the term weisheng to convey a philosophy that linked the health of the individual to the health of the nation. It specifically reviews the specific textual influences, the circulations between Japan and Europe, and the significant linguistic choices that went into the process of developing hygienic modernity in Japan. Nagayo Sensai outlined an ideal vision of hygienic modernity for Japan. Eisei shinron renames the relationship between the natural world and the human body using the vocabularies of chemistry, physiology, and anatomy. Eisei implied that national survival was the ultimate purpose of disease prevention. Zhibao would not be unique in the turn-of-the-century world for maintaining conflicting views on the etiology of cholera. In the twentieth century, eisei as hygienic modernity would become a foundational element in the creation of the Japanese empire.
Andrea Geiger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780824847586
- eISBN:
- 9780824873066
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824847586.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Cultural attitudes rooted in the Tokugawa-era status system (mibunsei) provided an interpretive framework for the race-based hostility Meiji-era Japanese encountered in the United States and Canada, ...
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Cultural attitudes rooted in the Tokugawa-era status system (mibunsei) provided an interpretive framework for the race-based hostility Meiji-era Japanese encountered in the United States and Canada, informing the discursive strategies of Meiji diplomats who sought to refute the claims of anti-Japanese exclusionists by distinguishing Japanese labor migrants from themselves, aiding in the reproduction of Japanese as an excludable category when anti-Japanese elements turned their arguments against all Japanese. Concerns about social hierarchy and the significance of historical status categories (mibun), including cultural taboos associated with outcaste status, also mediated the responses of Meiji immigrants to conditions they encountered on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, including white racism and job opportunities. Japanese immigrant negotiations of race and identity in the North American West can be fully understood only by also considering mibun, in addition to more the familiar paradigms of race, class, and gender, in analyzing Meiji-era Japanese immigration history.Less
Cultural attitudes rooted in the Tokugawa-era status system (mibunsei) provided an interpretive framework for the race-based hostility Meiji-era Japanese encountered in the United States and Canada, informing the discursive strategies of Meiji diplomats who sought to refute the claims of anti-Japanese exclusionists by distinguishing Japanese labor migrants from themselves, aiding in the reproduction of Japanese as an excludable category when anti-Japanese elements turned their arguments against all Japanese. Concerns about social hierarchy and the significance of historical status categories (mibun), including cultural taboos associated with outcaste status, also mediated the responses of Meiji immigrants to conditions they encountered on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, including white racism and job opportunities. Japanese immigrant negotiations of race and identity in the North American West can be fully understood only by also considering mibun, in addition to more the familiar paradigms of race, class, and gender, in analyzing Meiji-era Japanese immigration history.
Jason G. Karlin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824838263
- eISBN:
- 9780824871451
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824838263.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the discourse of heroes in Meiji Japan through its principal forms of representation, namely, history and fiction. In many cultures, the ideology of “masculine hegemony” finds ...
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This chapter examines the discourse of heroes in Meiji Japan through its principal forms of representation, namely, history and fiction. In many cultures, the ideology of “masculine hegemony” finds cultural expression in the figure of the hero, whose exemplary masculinity compels imitation. The hero is seen as central in the process of identification among adolescent males since the transition to manhood is predicated upon conformity to normative definitions of gender, which heroes are deemed to exemplify. This chapter analyzes the ways in which heroes have shaped gender identity in Japan by focusing on the narratives of historical biographies and adventure novels during the Meiji period. It also considers the tendency of heroism narratives in modern Japan to invoke a popular nationalism that celebrated defiance of state authority. The chapter describes heroes as one kind of transitional object that plays an essential role in the development of identity. It argues that the ideological effect of heroes in shaping gender identity can only be understood in relationship to narrativity.Less
This chapter examines the discourse of heroes in Meiji Japan through its principal forms of representation, namely, history and fiction. In many cultures, the ideology of “masculine hegemony” finds cultural expression in the figure of the hero, whose exemplary masculinity compels imitation. The hero is seen as central in the process of identification among adolescent males since the transition to manhood is predicated upon conformity to normative definitions of gender, which heroes are deemed to exemplify. This chapter analyzes the ways in which heroes have shaped gender identity in Japan by focusing on the narratives of historical biographies and adventure novels during the Meiji period. It also considers the tendency of heroism narratives in modern Japan to invoke a popular nationalism that celebrated defiance of state authority. The chapter describes heroes as one kind of transitional object that plays an essential role in the development of identity. It argues that the ideological effect of heroes in shaping gender identity can only be understood in relationship to narrativity.
Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835623
- eISBN:
- 9781469601830
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807882665_guthrie-shimizu.5
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter traces the genesis of baseball in Japan and its diffusion during the Meiji period. Evidence suggests that baseball played in Japan put the genesis of the game in the nation's capital in ...
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This chapter traces the genesis of baseball in Japan and its diffusion during the Meiji period. Evidence suggests that baseball played in Japan put the genesis of the game in the nation's capital in 1872 with Horace E. Wilson identified as the pioneer instructor. In Meiji Japan, baseball had established a dedicated following among Japanese adolescents who received education in Gilded Age America. By the end of the nineteenth century, America's national pastime blossomed into a transoceanic pastime fostered in multiple networks built and sustained by aspiring Americans and Japanese.Less
This chapter traces the genesis of baseball in Japan and its diffusion during the Meiji period. Evidence suggests that baseball played in Japan put the genesis of the game in the nation's capital in 1872 with Horace E. Wilson identified as the pioneer instructor. In Meiji Japan, baseball had established a dedicated following among Japanese adolescents who received education in Gilded Age America. By the end of the nineteenth century, America's national pastime blossomed into a transoceanic pastime fostered in multiple networks built and sustained by aspiring Americans and Japanese.
Kaoru Sugihara
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265321
- eISBN:
- 9780191760495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265321.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
The ‘European miracle’ needs to be compared to an East Asian development path. In East Asia efficient institutions fostered great use of labour, an ‘industrious revolution’ path entailing extensive ...
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The ‘European miracle’ needs to be compared to an East Asian development path. In East Asia efficient institutions fostered great use of labour, an ‘industrious revolution’ path entailing extensive use of family labour and systems of double cropping. The result was a ‘labour-intensive industrialization’ such as occurred in Meiji Japan. That labour-intensive path now shapes the centres of most of the world's manufacturing employment, currently situated in East, South-east and South Asia. The challenge for Japan and other East Asian economies has been to develop resource- and energy-saving technologies.Less
The ‘European miracle’ needs to be compared to an East Asian development path. In East Asia efficient institutions fostered great use of labour, an ‘industrious revolution’ path entailing extensive use of family labour and systems of double cropping. The result was a ‘labour-intensive industrialization’ such as occurred in Meiji Japan. That labour-intensive path now shapes the centres of most of the world's manufacturing employment, currently situated in East, South-east and South Asia. The challenge for Japan and other East Asian economies has been to develop resource- and energy-saving technologies.
Richard M Reitan
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832940
- eISBN:
- 9780824870591
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832940.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This innovative study of ethics in Meiji Japan (1868–1912) explores the intense struggle to define a common morality for the emerging nation-state. In the Social Darwinist atmosphere of the time, the ...
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This innovative study of ethics in Meiji Japan (1868–1912) explores the intense struggle to define a common morality for the emerging nation-state. In the Social Darwinist atmosphere of the time, the Japanese state sought to quell uprisings and overcome social disruptions so as to produce national unity and defend its sovereignty against Western encroachment. Morality became a crucial means to attain these aims. Moral prescriptions for re-ordering the population came from all segments of society. Each envisioned a unity grounded in its own moral perspective. It was in this atmosphere that the academic discipline of ethics (rinrigaku) emerged—not as a state-sponsored program with its own agenda. The book turns to the dominant moral theories of early Meiji. It considers the fluidity of moral subjectivity by juxtaposing rinrigaku texts with moral writings by religious apologists. By the beginning of the 1890s, moral philosophers in Japan were moving away from the empiricism and utilitarianism of the prior decade and beginning to place “spirit” at the center of ethical inquiry. This shift is explored through the works of two thinkers, Inoue Tetsujirō (1856–1944) and Nakashima Rikizō (1858–1918), the first chair of ethics at Tokyo Imperial University. Finally, the book looks at the national morality movement (kokumin dōtoku) and its close association with the state before concluding with an outline of some conceptual linkages between the Meiji and later periods.Less
This innovative study of ethics in Meiji Japan (1868–1912) explores the intense struggle to define a common morality for the emerging nation-state. In the Social Darwinist atmosphere of the time, the Japanese state sought to quell uprisings and overcome social disruptions so as to produce national unity and defend its sovereignty against Western encroachment. Morality became a crucial means to attain these aims. Moral prescriptions for re-ordering the population came from all segments of society. Each envisioned a unity grounded in its own moral perspective. It was in this atmosphere that the academic discipline of ethics (rinrigaku) emerged—not as a state-sponsored program with its own agenda. The book turns to the dominant moral theories of early Meiji. It considers the fluidity of moral subjectivity by juxtaposing rinrigaku texts with moral writings by religious apologists. By the beginning of the 1890s, moral philosophers in Japan were moving away from the empiricism and utilitarianism of the prior decade and beginning to place “spirit” at the center of ethical inquiry. This shift is explored through the works of two thinkers, Inoue Tetsujirō (1856–1944) and Nakashima Rikizō (1858–1918), the first chair of ethics at Tokyo Imperial University. Finally, the book looks at the national morality movement (kokumin dōtoku) and its close association with the state before concluding with an outline of some conceptual linkages between the Meiji and later periods.
Lan Cao
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199915231
- eISBN:
- 9780199362936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199915231.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter demonstrates how a thick conception of development necessitates an examination of both law and culture. First, the chapter deals with culture change in Turkey, Japan, and Germany., which ...
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This chapter demonstrates how a thick conception of development necessitates an examination of both law and culture. First, the chapter deals with culture change in Turkey, Japan, and Germany., which postconflict This chapter centers on Japan’s experience, particularly its modernization in the Meiji era. Japan’s drive to modernize involved the active participation of many civic organizations, not just directives issued by a ruler. The chapter also discusses efforts by different countries as well as nongovernmental organizations involved in transnational social movements. The chapter then explores efforts taken in Kosovo, East Timor, Iraq, and Afghanistan. These case studies show how actors, mainly the United Nations and United States, have tried to establish legal systems in countries that have recently been embroiled in conflict and unrest. An important element to consider is the effect of security, or rather a lack of security, on forces attempting to implement law and development.Less
This chapter demonstrates how a thick conception of development necessitates an examination of both law and culture. First, the chapter deals with culture change in Turkey, Japan, and Germany., which postconflict This chapter centers on Japan’s experience, particularly its modernization in the Meiji era. Japan’s drive to modernize involved the active participation of many civic organizations, not just directives issued by a ruler. The chapter also discusses efforts by different countries as well as nongovernmental organizations involved in transnational social movements. The chapter then explores efforts taken in Kosovo, East Timor, Iraq, and Afghanistan. These case studies show how actors, mainly the United Nations and United States, have tried to establish legal systems in countries that have recently been embroiled in conflict and unrest. An important element to consider is the effect of security, or rather a lack of security, on forces attempting to implement law and development.
Timothy Brook, Michael van Walt van Praag, and Miek Boltjes (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226562629
- eISBN:
- 9780226562933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226562933.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The rules governing international relations in Inner and East Asia changed hugely in the nineteenth century. Asian laws of nations were supplanted under pressures coming from outside, most ...
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The rules governing international relations in Inner and East Asia changed hugely in the nineteenth century. Asian laws of nations were supplanted under pressures coming from outside, most conspicuously from the West but also from Japan. The resort to violence by Western powers and Asian rulers alike was justified through doctrines of European international law that had evolved so as to remove restraints on European imperialist projects. Asian states scrambled to reorganize along modern, Western lines, and most governments that had ruled them in the nineteenth century were gone by the twentieth, with few exceptions. As new political elites took power, a continent of khans, emperors, hierarchs, and kings became a world of presidents, party leaders, constitutional monarchs, and national assemblies. Interpolity relations underwent a complete conceptual and organizational transformation. Some states, such as Tibet and its Himalayan neighbors, became the objects of competing imperial ambitions, while others, such as Japan, used their new capacities to overturn the hierarchy of earlier relationships, especially with the Qing Great State, and spread their sway over others, notably Korea. Though the older sources of ruler legitimacy and legality did not fully disappear, newer ideologies and rules of interstate relationships largely replaced them.Less
The rules governing international relations in Inner and East Asia changed hugely in the nineteenth century. Asian laws of nations were supplanted under pressures coming from outside, most conspicuously from the West but also from Japan. The resort to violence by Western powers and Asian rulers alike was justified through doctrines of European international law that had evolved so as to remove restraints on European imperialist projects. Asian states scrambled to reorganize along modern, Western lines, and most governments that had ruled them in the nineteenth century were gone by the twentieth, with few exceptions. As new political elites took power, a continent of khans, emperors, hierarchs, and kings became a world of presidents, party leaders, constitutional monarchs, and national assemblies. Interpolity relations underwent a complete conceptual and organizational transformation. Some states, such as Tibet and its Himalayan neighbors, became the objects of competing imperial ambitions, while others, such as Japan, used their new capacities to overturn the hierarchy of earlier relationships, especially with the Qing Great State, and spread their sway over others, notably Korea. Though the older sources of ruler legitimacy and legality did not fully disappear, newer ideologies and rules of interstate relationships largely replaced them.
Greg Clancey
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520246072
- eISBN:
- 9780520932296
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520246072.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Accelerating seismic activity in late Meiji Japan climaxed in the legendary Great Nobi Earthquake of 1891, which rocked the main island from Tokyo to Osaka, killing thousands. Ironically, the ...
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Accelerating seismic activity in late Meiji Japan climaxed in the legendary Great Nobi Earthquake of 1891, which rocked the main island from Tokyo to Osaka, killing thousands. Ironically, the earthquake brought down many “modern” structures built on the advice of foreign architects and engineers, while leaving certain traditional, wooden ones standing. This book considers the cultural and political ramifications of this and other catastrophic events on Japan's relationship with the West, with modern science, and with itself. The book argues that seismicity was both the Achilles' heel of Japan's nation-building project — revealing the state's western-style infrastructure to be surprisingly fragile — and a new focus for nativizing discourses which credited traditional Japanese architecture with unique abilities to ride out seismic waves. Tracing the subject from the Meiji Restoration to the Great Kant Earthquake of 1923 (which destroyed Tokyo), the book shows earthquakes to have been a continual though mercurial agent in Japan's self-fashioning; a catastrophic undercurrent to Japanese modernity. This study moves earthquakes nearer the center of modern Japan change — both materially and symbolically — and also shows how fundamentally Japan shaped the global art, science, and culture of natural disaster.Less
Accelerating seismic activity in late Meiji Japan climaxed in the legendary Great Nobi Earthquake of 1891, which rocked the main island from Tokyo to Osaka, killing thousands. Ironically, the earthquake brought down many “modern” structures built on the advice of foreign architects and engineers, while leaving certain traditional, wooden ones standing. This book considers the cultural and political ramifications of this and other catastrophic events on Japan's relationship with the West, with modern science, and with itself. The book argues that seismicity was both the Achilles' heel of Japan's nation-building project — revealing the state's western-style infrastructure to be surprisingly fragile — and a new focus for nativizing discourses which credited traditional Japanese architecture with unique abilities to ride out seismic waves. Tracing the subject from the Meiji Restoration to the Great Kant Earthquake of 1923 (which destroyed Tokyo), the book shows earthquakes to have been a continual though mercurial agent in Japan's self-fashioning; a catastrophic undercurrent to Japanese modernity. This study moves earthquakes nearer the center of modern Japan change — both materially and symbolically — and also shows how fundamentally Japan shaped the global art, science, and culture of natural disaster.
Jason G. Karlin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824838263
- eISBN:
- 9780824871451
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824838263.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book explores the ways in which modern forms of nostalgia become articulated in the language of gender and nation by focusing on Meiji Japan. Beginning with the critique of the Westernized ...
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This book explores the ways in which modern forms of nostalgia become articulated in the language of gender and nation by focusing on Meiji Japan. Beginning with the critique of the Westernized Japanese “gentleman” or shinshi, it examines the cultural dimensions of popular nationalism in modern Japan by analyzing the diverse and popular forms of opposition to the state and relating them to what John Breuilly calls “governmental nationalism.” It also considers how antistate movements defined Japanese national identity and challenges narratives of Japanese history that emphasize the march of progress and the rationalization of everyday life as “disciplining” the nation, along with interpretations that equate the Meiji state with the rise of militarism. In addressing the phenomenon of rapid social change in relation to the construction of gender identity and the invention of national culture in modern Japan, the book uncovers the invention of a shared cultural identity by invoking the myth of an eternal return to timeless notions of gender and nation.Less
This book explores the ways in which modern forms of nostalgia become articulated in the language of gender and nation by focusing on Meiji Japan. Beginning with the critique of the Westernized Japanese “gentleman” or shinshi, it examines the cultural dimensions of popular nationalism in modern Japan by analyzing the diverse and popular forms of opposition to the state and relating them to what John Breuilly calls “governmental nationalism.” It also considers how antistate movements defined Japanese national identity and challenges narratives of Japanese history that emphasize the march of progress and the rationalization of everyday life as “disciplining” the nation, along with interpretations that equate the Meiji state with the rise of militarism. In addressing the phenomenon of rapid social change in relation to the construction of gender identity and the invention of national culture in modern Japan, the book uncovers the invention of a shared cultural identity by invoking the myth of an eternal return to timeless notions of gender and nation.
Izumi Nakayama
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9789888390908
- eISBN:
- 9789888455096
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390908.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Mishima Michiyoshi, a Japanese pioneer of school hygiene, believed that Japanese children experienced precocious puberty, resulting in underdeveloped and inferior physical stature in comparison to ...
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Mishima Michiyoshi, a Japanese pioneer of school hygiene, believed that Japanese children experienced precocious puberty, resulting in underdeveloped and inferior physical stature in comparison to European and American children. This analysis of comparative anatomies interpreted the inferiority of the “Japanese” body as embodiment of its diminutive status in politics and civilizations. This chapter shows how intellectuals, government bureaucrats, school hygienists, and pediatric specialists viewed and interpreted children’s bodies and their physical growth, illustrating the complex interactions between ideals of civilization and gendered norms in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Japan.Less
Mishima Michiyoshi, a Japanese pioneer of school hygiene, believed that Japanese children experienced precocious puberty, resulting in underdeveloped and inferior physical stature in comparison to European and American children. This analysis of comparative anatomies interpreted the inferiority of the “Japanese” body as embodiment of its diminutive status in politics and civilizations. This chapter shows how intellectuals, government bureaucrats, school hygienists, and pediatric specialists viewed and interpreted children’s bodies and their physical growth, illustrating the complex interactions between ideals of civilization and gendered norms in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Japan.
Lee Yeounsuk
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833053
- eISBN:
- 9780824870553
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833053.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter traces the ideological background of the formation of the idea of kokugo. While the word itself existed before Meiji, kokugo with a modern connotation was a child of modernity born out ...
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This chapter traces the ideological background of the formation of the idea of kokugo. While the word itself existed before Meiji, kokugo with a modern connotation was a child of modernity born out of the intense determination of Meiji Japan. Tracing its historical origin is a considerable intellectual challenge today when the word kokugo is widely accepted as self-explanatory. Such an intellectual challenge in this chapter starts with examination of the violent potential in the ideology of kokugo, though it also takes the form of an academic critique of the field of kokugogaku (the study of kokugo) as a truism. In fact, both of these approaches are necessary in order to clarify the origin of the ideology of kokugo in history because kokugo has been not only the political apparatus that controls the nation-state, but also the intellectual apparatus that casts a spell over the spirit of modern Japan.Less
This chapter traces the ideological background of the formation of the idea of kokugo. While the word itself existed before Meiji, kokugo with a modern connotation was a child of modernity born out of the intense determination of Meiji Japan. Tracing its historical origin is a considerable intellectual challenge today when the word kokugo is widely accepted as self-explanatory. Such an intellectual challenge in this chapter starts with examination of the violent potential in the ideology of kokugo, though it also takes the form of an academic critique of the field of kokugogaku (the study of kokugo) as a truism. In fact, both of these approaches are necessary in order to clarify the origin of the ideology of kokugo in history because kokugo has been not only the political apparatus that controls the nation-state, but also the intellectual apparatus that casts a spell over the spirit of modern Japan.
Ann Jannetta
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804754897
- eISBN:
- 9780804779494
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804754897.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
In Japan, as late as the mid-nineteenth century, smallpox claimed the lives of an estimated twenty percent of all children born—most of them before the age of five. When the apathetic Tokugawa ...
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In Japan, as late as the mid-nineteenth century, smallpox claimed the lives of an estimated twenty percent of all children born—most of them before the age of five. When the apathetic Tokugawa shogunate failed to respond, Japanese physicians, learned in Western medicine and medical technology, became the primary disseminators of Jennerian vaccination—a new medical technology to prevent smallpox. Tracing its origins from rural England, this book investigates the transmission of Jennerian vaccination to and throughout pre-Meiji Japan. Relying on Dutch, Japanese, Russian, and English sources, it treats Japanese physicians as leading agents of social and institutional change, showing how they used traditional strategies involving scholarship, marriage, and adoption to forge new local, national, and international networks in the first half of the nineteenth century. It details the appalling cost of Japan's almost 300-year isolation, and examines in depth a nation on the cusp of political and social upheaval.Less
In Japan, as late as the mid-nineteenth century, smallpox claimed the lives of an estimated twenty percent of all children born—most of them before the age of five. When the apathetic Tokugawa shogunate failed to respond, Japanese physicians, learned in Western medicine and medical technology, became the primary disseminators of Jennerian vaccination—a new medical technology to prevent smallpox. Tracing its origins from rural England, this book investigates the transmission of Jennerian vaccination to and throughout pre-Meiji Japan. Relying on Dutch, Japanese, Russian, and English sources, it treats Japanese physicians as leading agents of social and institutional change, showing how they used traditional strategies involving scholarship, marriage, and adoption to forge new local, national, and international networks in the first half of the nineteenth century. It details the appalling cost of Japan's almost 300-year isolation, and examines in depth a nation on the cusp of political and social upheaval.
Dan Reiter
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804753999
- eISBN:
- 9780804768092
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804753999.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter explores how military effectiveness is affected by nationalism. It develops a model of how nationalism affects soldier motivations. It describes two areas in post-Meiji Japan in which ...
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This chapter explores how military effectiveness is affected by nationalism. It develops a model of how nationalism affects soldier motivations. It describes two areas in post-Meiji Japan in which nationalism impacted military effectiveness during World War II: island warfare and suicide attacks. Social mobilization and strengthening the leadership's power base can shape nationalist culture. It is observed that nationalism is a tool available to states and militaries to increase the willingness of soldiers to die and kill in battle. Moreover, Japanese nationalism had mutated into an extreme version, and prisoners of war did not receive humane treatment. Japan experienced a meteoric rise in industrial, military, and political power after the Meiji restoration. Nationalism increased skill by increasing motivation, and it increased responsiveness by making possible suicide tactics. It can be stated that nationalism can significantly shape military effectiveness, and scholars and policymakers should recognize its potential significance.Less
This chapter explores how military effectiveness is affected by nationalism. It develops a model of how nationalism affects soldier motivations. It describes two areas in post-Meiji Japan in which nationalism impacted military effectiveness during World War II: island warfare and suicide attacks. Social mobilization and strengthening the leadership's power base can shape nationalist culture. It is observed that nationalism is a tool available to states and militaries to increase the willingness of soldiers to die and kill in battle. Moreover, Japanese nationalism had mutated into an extreme version, and prisoners of war did not receive humane treatment. Japan experienced a meteoric rise in industrial, military, and political power after the Meiji restoration. Nationalism increased skill by increasing motivation, and it increased responsiveness by making possible suicide tactics. It can be stated that nationalism can significantly shape military effectiveness, and scholars and policymakers should recognize its potential significance.
Julia Adeney Thomas
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228542
- eISBN:
- 9780520926844
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228542.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines Ueki Emori's thoughts on the relation between nature and politics. It discusses the problems in Emori's radical theory of unmediated bodiliness and describes his attempt to ...
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This chapter examines Ueki Emori's thoughts on the relation between nature and politics. It discusses the problems in Emori's radical theory of unmediated bodiliness and describes his attempt to reshape the cosmopolis of Meiji Japan so that both society and individuals would exemplify the perfect liberties of natural law and positive law simultaneously. The chapter argues that Emori supported egalitarian democracy and so distrusted hierarchies of ability or traditional power that he dismissed all aspects of mindful creation in proposing the fundaments of a democratic state.Less
This chapter examines Ueki Emori's thoughts on the relation between nature and politics. It discusses the problems in Emori's radical theory of unmediated bodiliness and describes his attempt to reshape the cosmopolis of Meiji Japan so that both society and individuals would exemplify the perfect liberties of natural law and positive law simultaneously. The chapter argues that Emori supported egalitarian democracy and so distrusted hierarchies of ability or traditional power that he dismissed all aspects of mindful creation in proposing the fundaments of a democratic state.
