David Howell
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520240858
- eISBN:
- 9780520930872
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520240858.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This pioneering study looks beneath the surface structures of the Japanese state to reveal the mechanism by which markers of polity, status, and civilization came together over the divide of the ...
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This pioneering study looks beneath the surface structures of the Japanese state to reveal the mechanism by which markers of polity, status, and civilization came together over the divide of the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The book illustrates how a short roster of malleable, explicitly superficial customs—hairstyle, clothing, and personal names—served to distinguish the “civilized” realm of the Japanese from the “barbarian” realm of the Ainu in the Tokugawa era. Within the core polity, moreover, these same customs distinguished members of different social status groups from one another, such as samurai warriors from commoners, and commoners from outcasts.Less
This pioneering study looks beneath the surface structures of the Japanese state to reveal the mechanism by which markers of polity, status, and civilization came together over the divide of the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The book illustrates how a short roster of malleable, explicitly superficial customs—hairstyle, clothing, and personal names—served to distinguish the “civilized” realm of the Japanese from the “barbarian” realm of the Ainu in the Tokugawa era. Within the core polity, moreover, these same customs distinguished members of different social status groups from one another, such as samurai warriors from commoners, and commoners from outcasts.
Luke S. Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835132
- eISBN:
- 9780824870690
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835132.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book offers a cultural approach to understanding the politics of the Tokugawa period, at the same time deconstructing some of the assumptions of modern national historiographies. Deploying the ...
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This book offers a cultural approach to understanding the politics of the Tokugawa period, at the same time deconstructing some of the assumptions of modern national historiographies. Deploying the political terms uchi (inside), omote (ritual interface), and naisho (informal negotiation)–all commonly used in the Tokugawa period—the book explores how daimyo and the Tokugawa government understood political relations and managed politics in terms of spatial autonomy, ritual submission, and informal negotiation. It suggests as well that a layered hierarchy of omote and uchi relations strongly influenced politics down to the village and household level, a method that clarifies many seeming anomalies in the Tokugawa order. The book analyzes how the identities of daimyo and domains differed according to whether they were facing the Tokugawa or speaking to members of the domain and daimyo household. It further investigates the common occurrence of daimyo who remained formally alive to the government months or even years after they had died in order that inheritance issues could be managed peacefully within their households. The operation of the court system in boundary disputes is analyzed as are the “illegal” enshrinements of daimyo inside domains that were sometimes used to construct forms of domain-state Shinto.Less
This book offers a cultural approach to understanding the politics of the Tokugawa period, at the same time deconstructing some of the assumptions of modern national historiographies. Deploying the political terms uchi (inside), omote (ritual interface), and naisho (informal negotiation)–all commonly used in the Tokugawa period—the book explores how daimyo and the Tokugawa government understood political relations and managed politics in terms of spatial autonomy, ritual submission, and informal negotiation. It suggests as well that a layered hierarchy of omote and uchi relations strongly influenced politics down to the village and household level, a method that clarifies many seeming anomalies in the Tokugawa order. The book analyzes how the identities of daimyo and domains differed according to whether they were facing the Tokugawa or speaking to members of the domain and daimyo household. It further investigates the common occurrence of daimyo who remained formally alive to the government months or even years after they had died in order that inheritance issues could be managed peacefully within their households. The operation of the court system in boundary disputes is analyzed as are the “illegal” enshrinements of daimyo inside domains that were sometimes used to construct forms of domain-state Shinto.
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/9780198205890.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, Political History
This chapter concentrates on a crisis in Japan which happened in 1825. It starts by looking at the Tokugawa hegemony and the Bakuhan system. The policy of seclusion was adopted by the early Tokugawa ...
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This chapter concentrates on a crisis in Japan which happened in 1825. It starts by looking at the Tokugawa hegemony and the Bakuhan system. The policy of seclusion was adopted by the early Tokugawa Bakufu, which became far more sensitive than Hideyoshi had supposed it to be to the risks involved in Christian missions and foreign trade: these, it was felt, might endanger the Tokugawa hegemony, which was still a delicate creature born out of forced settlements after the Battle of Sekigahara. The chapter then describes the Tokugawa religion and Confucianism. Next, it deals with the Tokugawa economy, specifically the rise of the merchants and rural discontent. It also discusses Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and Tokugawa Yoshimune. The National Learning school had a direct impact on the restoration movement towards the end of the Bakufu's rule through its appeal to the idea of sonno (Revere the Emperor). A discussion on Rangaku or Dutch studies is given. The visions of Honda Toshiaki and Sato Nobuhiro are shown. Russia, Britain, and America cause a major threat to Japan also. Furthermore, the chapter mentions the roles of Aizawa Seishisai, Watanabe Kazan, and Takano Choei.Less
This chapter concentrates on a crisis in Japan which happened in 1825. It starts by looking at the Tokugawa hegemony and the Bakuhan system. The policy of seclusion was adopted by the early Tokugawa Bakufu, which became far more sensitive than Hideyoshi had supposed it to be to the risks involved in Christian missions and foreign trade: these, it was felt, might endanger the Tokugawa hegemony, which was still a delicate creature born out of forced settlements after the Battle of Sekigahara. The chapter then describes the Tokugawa religion and Confucianism. Next, it deals with the Tokugawa economy, specifically the rise of the merchants and rural discontent. It also discusses Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and Tokugawa Yoshimune. The National Learning school had a direct impact on the restoration movement towards the end of the Bakufu's rule through its appeal to the idea of sonno (Revere the Emperor). A discussion on Rangaku or Dutch studies is given. The visions of Honda Toshiaki and Sato Nobuhiro are shown. Russia, Britain, and America cause a major threat to Japan also. Furthermore, the chapter mentions the roles of Aizawa Seishisai, Watanabe Kazan, and Takano Choei.
Soho Takuan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835439
- eISBN:
- 9780824871321
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835439.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Takuan Sōho's (1573–1645) two works on Zen and swordsmanship are among the most straightforward and lively presentations of Zen ever written and have enjoyed great popularity in both premodern and ...
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Takuan Sōho's (1573–1645) two works on Zen and swordsmanship are among the most straightforward and lively presentations of Zen ever written and have enjoyed great popularity in both premodern and modern Japan. Although dealing ostensibly with the art of the sword, Record of Immovable Wisdom and On the Sword Taie are basic guides to Zen. Along with translations of Record of Immovable Wisdom andOn the Sword Taie, this book includes an introduction to Takuan's distinctive approach to Zen, drawing on excerpts from the master's other writings. It also offers an overview of the actual role of the sword in Takuan's day, a period that witnessed both a bloody age of civil warfare and Japan's final unification under the Tokugawa shoguns. Takuan was arguably the most famous Zen priest of his time, and as a pivotal figure, bridging the Zen of the late medieval and early modern periods, his story offers a rare picture of Japanese Zen in transition. For modern readers, whether practitioners of Zen or the martial arts, Takuan's emphasis on freedom of mind as the crux of his teaching resonates as powerfully as it did with the samurai and swordsmen of Tokugawa Japan.Less
Takuan Sōho's (1573–1645) two works on Zen and swordsmanship are among the most straightforward and lively presentations of Zen ever written and have enjoyed great popularity in both premodern and modern Japan. Although dealing ostensibly with the art of the sword, Record of Immovable Wisdom and On the Sword Taie are basic guides to Zen. Along with translations of Record of Immovable Wisdom andOn the Sword Taie, this book includes an introduction to Takuan's distinctive approach to Zen, drawing on excerpts from the master's other writings. It also offers an overview of the actual role of the sword in Takuan's day, a period that witnessed both a bloody age of civil warfare and Japan's final unification under the Tokugawa shoguns. Takuan was arguably the most famous Zen priest of his time, and as a pivotal figure, bridging the Zen of the late medieval and early modern periods, his story offers a rare picture of Japanese Zen in transition. For modern readers, whether practitioners of Zen or the martial arts, Takuan's emphasis on freedom of mind as the crux of his teaching resonates as powerfully as it did with the samurai and swordsmen of Tokugawa Japan.
Hiroshi Oda
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199232185
- eISBN:
- 9780191705335
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199232185.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law
This chapter focuses on the history of modern Japanese law. It discusses the three stages wherein foreign law was received. The first stage was in the 7th and 8th centuries, when Japan imported the ...
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This chapter focuses on the history of modern Japanese law. It discusses the three stages wherein foreign law was received. The first stage was in the 7th and 8th centuries, when Japan imported the Chinese political and legal system. The second stage occurred between the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the mid-19th century and the early 20th century, when the industrialization of Japan was accomplished. The third stage began after the Second World War and continued during the period of the Allied occupation.Less
This chapter focuses on the history of modern Japanese law. It discusses the three stages wherein foreign law was received. The first stage was in the 7th and 8th centuries, when Japan imported the Chinese political and legal system. The second stage occurred between the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the mid-19th century and the early 20th century, when the industrialization of Japan was accomplished. The third stage began after the Second World War and continued during the period of the Allied occupation.
Laura Nenzi
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824839574
- eISBN:
- 9780824869656
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824839574.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko is the story of a rural Mito woman – a political activist, oracle, poet, and teacher – whose life coincided with the late-Tokugawa crisis, the collapse of the ...
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The Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko is the story of a rural Mito woman – a political activist, oracle, poet, and teacher – whose life coincided with the late-Tokugawa crisis, the collapse of the shogunate, and the rise of the modern Meiji state. Tokiko’s political activism combines focus and visionary flights of the imagination, nuancing our understanding of political consciousness among the non-elites in nineteenth-century Japan by blurring the line between rational and irrational and between discourse and action. Her use of prognostication, her appeals to the cosmic forces, and her conversations with ghosts illuminate original paths to female participation in the political debate of the late Tokugawa on one side, and resourceful ways to preserve identity in the face of modernity, science, and the onset of historical amnesia on the other. Tokiko’s story places the ordinary individual within the frame of large-scale history, squaring well-known historical moments with the private microcosm of a self-described “nobody.” By putting an extra in the spotlight, The Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko offers a new script for the drama that unfolded on the stage of late-Tokugawa and early-Meiji history.Less
The Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko is the story of a rural Mito woman – a political activist, oracle, poet, and teacher – whose life coincided with the late-Tokugawa crisis, the collapse of the shogunate, and the rise of the modern Meiji state. Tokiko’s political activism combines focus and visionary flights of the imagination, nuancing our understanding of political consciousness among the non-elites in nineteenth-century Japan by blurring the line between rational and irrational and between discourse and action. Her use of prognostication, her appeals to the cosmic forces, and her conversations with ghosts illuminate original paths to female participation in the political debate of the late Tokugawa on one side, and resourceful ways to preserve identity in the face of modernity, science, and the onset of historical amnesia on the other. Tokiko’s story places the ordinary individual within the frame of large-scale history, squaring well-known historical moments with the private microcosm of a self-described “nobody.” By putting an extra in the spotlight, The Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko offers a new script for the drama that unfolded on the stage of late-Tokugawa and early-Meiji history.
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.
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/9780198288022.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter begins with the introduction of the most famous entrepreneur in the early Tokugawa Era, Yodoya Tsuneyasu. Tsuneyasu was a building contractor and a food trader during the Toyotomi ...
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This chapter begins with the introduction of the most famous entrepreneur in the early Tokugawa Era, Yodoya Tsuneyasu. Tsuneyasu was a building contractor and a food trader during the Toyotomi government. Several other entrepreneurs are also featured. These are: Konoike, who started with brewing sake; Sumitomo, who started copper refining and selling medicine; and Mitsui, who started as a draper. The Western corporate system and accounting system was introduced in Japan by Fukuzawa Yukichi. Zaibatsu were dominant until the end of World War II. These are the giant group of diversified firms, the biggest being Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Yasuda.Less
This chapter begins with the introduction of the most famous entrepreneur in the early Tokugawa Era, Yodoya Tsuneyasu. Tsuneyasu was a building contractor and a food trader during the Toyotomi government. Several other entrepreneurs are also featured. These are: Konoike, who started with brewing sake; Sumitomo, who started copper refining and selling medicine; and Mitsui, who started as a draper. The Western corporate system and accounting system was introduced in Japan by Fukuzawa Yukichi. Zaibatsu were dominant until the end of World War II. These are the giant group of diversified firms, the biggest being Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Yasuda.
Constantine Nomikos Vaporis
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832056
- eISBN:
- 9780824868789
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832056.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This concluding chapter asserts that the Tokugawa state mobilized its elite in an unprecedented fashion, calling on the daimyo to attend the shogun in his capital of Edo every other year, a practice ...
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This concluding chapter asserts that the Tokugawa state mobilized its elite in an unprecedented fashion, calling on the daimyo to attend the shogun in his capital of Edo every other year, a practice that continued for more than two centuries. In addition, the impact of alternate attendance was widespread. It created economies of service that affected the nature of domainal governance, the lifestyle of daimyo retainer bands, their support staffs, and more broadly the vast numbers of people who tilled the soil and whose labor supported the samurai. The requirements of service also transformed the shape of the former regional castle town of Edo and remade it into a national capital, the vestiges of which can still be seen across Tokyo to date, primarily in its parks and public gardens.Less
This concluding chapter asserts that the Tokugawa state mobilized its elite in an unprecedented fashion, calling on the daimyo to attend the shogun in his capital of Edo every other year, a practice that continued for more than two centuries. In addition, the impact of alternate attendance was widespread. It created economies of service that affected the nature of domainal governance, the lifestyle of daimyo retainer bands, their support staffs, and more broadly the vast numbers of people who tilled the soil and whose labor supported the samurai. The requirements of service also transformed the shape of the former regional castle town of Edo and remade it into a national capital, the vestiges of which can still be seen across Tokyo to date, primarily in its parks and public gardens.
Morgan Pitelka
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824851576
- eISBN:
- 9780824868277
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824851576.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book investigates the significance of material culture and sociability in Japan’s sixteenth century, focusing in particular on the career and afterlife of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), the ...
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This book investigates the significance of material culture and sociability in Japan’s sixteenth century, focusing in particular on the career and afterlife of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Using letters, diaries, and historical chronicles, as well as a wide range of visual and material evidence, the book links the extreme violence of this age of civil and international war to the increasing significance of samurai social rituals and cultural practices. It argues that warlords accrued power and reinforced hierarchy both in tea houses and on the battlefield, and that the resulting logic of “spectacular accumulation” had a profound effect on the creation and character of Japan’s early modern polity. Moving from the Ashikaga palaces of Kyoto to warlord collections of tea utensils, to the hostage exchanges of internecine military conflicts, to the tea gatherings and gift rituals of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Spectacular Accumulation traces the growing power of Japan’s military rulers over famous artworks as well as objectified human bodies. This innovative and eloquent history of a transitional age in Japan’s premodern past reframes the relationship between art and politics, between culture and war, in a readable and thoroughly-researched narrative.Less
This book investigates the significance of material culture and sociability in Japan’s sixteenth century, focusing in particular on the career and afterlife of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Using letters, diaries, and historical chronicles, as well as a wide range of visual and material evidence, the book links the extreme violence of this age of civil and international war to the increasing significance of samurai social rituals and cultural practices. It argues that warlords accrued power and reinforced hierarchy both in tea houses and on the battlefield, and that the resulting logic of “spectacular accumulation” had a profound effect on the creation and character of Japan’s early modern polity. Moving from the Ashikaga palaces of Kyoto to warlord collections of tea utensils, to the hostage exchanges of internecine military conflicts, to the tea gatherings and gift rituals of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Spectacular Accumulation traces the growing power of Japan’s military rulers over famous artworks as well as objectified human bodies. This innovative and eloquent history of a transitional age in Japan’s premodern past reframes the relationship between art and politics, between culture and war, in a readable and thoroughly-researched narrative.
Marcia Yonemoto
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520292000
- eISBN:
- 9780520965584
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292000.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Contrary to popular perceptions of premodern Japanese women as oppressed and subjugated by patriarchal norms, this book contends that when we read texts by and about women written between the ...
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Contrary to popular perceptions of premodern Japanese women as oppressed and subjugated by patriarchal norms, this book contends that when we read texts by and about women written between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, we see a broad and complex picture of women’s lives, one in which women were far from passive or powerless. Instead, women were seen as active participants in society who could effect both positive and negative change. This book explores the tension inherent in women’s roles and lives through close readings of two types of primary sources: the first includes prescriptive literature and instructional manuals for women, as well as fiction, drama, woodblock prints and book illustrations, all of which were produced and circulated in considerable number throughout the Tokugawa period. The second body of sources the book examines consists of narratives of women’s lives, including diaries and memoirs written by women or their family members, primarily those of the samurai class, whose lives spanned the entirety of the Tokugawa period. These personal narratives reveal how individual women grappled throughout their lives with the challenges presented by social, political, and legal norms for gendered behavior, the very norms reinforced in the aforementioned prescriptive literature. The book combines elements of cultural and social history, balancing close readings of primary sources with investigation of trends, patterns, and data that reflect the growth and change in key social institutions such as marriage, reproduction, family structure, and life course. The result is a study that captures both the representation and the lived experience of women’s lives across the span of the Tokugawa period.Less
Contrary to popular perceptions of premodern Japanese women as oppressed and subjugated by patriarchal norms, this book contends that when we read texts by and about women written between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, we see a broad and complex picture of women’s lives, one in which women were far from passive or powerless. Instead, women were seen as active participants in society who could effect both positive and negative change. This book explores the tension inherent in women’s roles and lives through close readings of two types of primary sources: the first includes prescriptive literature and instructional manuals for women, as well as fiction, drama, woodblock prints and book illustrations, all of which were produced and circulated in considerable number throughout the Tokugawa period. The second body of sources the book examines consists of narratives of women’s lives, including diaries and memoirs written by women or their family members, primarily those of the samurai class, whose lives spanned the entirety of the Tokugawa period. These personal narratives reveal how individual women grappled throughout their lives with the challenges presented by social, political, and legal norms for gendered behavior, the very norms reinforced in the aforementioned prescriptive literature. The book combines elements of cultural and social history, balancing close readings of primary sources with investigation of trends, patterns, and data that reflect the growth and change in key social institutions such as marriage, reproduction, family structure, and life course. The result is a study that captures both the representation and the lived experience of women’s lives across the span of the Tokugawa period.
William Wayne Farris
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833251
- eISBN:
- 9780824870119
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833251.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book surveys Japanese historical development from the first evidence of human habitation in the archipelago to the consolidation of political power under the Tokugawa shogunate at the beginning ...
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This book surveys Japanese historical development from the first evidence of human habitation in the archipelago to the consolidation of political power under the Tokugawa shogunate at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Its focus is on developments that impacted all social classes rather than the privileged and powerful few. The book weaves together major economic and social themes. It focuses on continuity and change in social and economic structures and experiences, but it by no means ignores the political and cultural. Most chapters begin with an outline of political developments, and cultural phenomena—particularly religious beliefs—are also taken into account. In addition, it addresses the growing connectedness between residents of the archipelago and the rest of the world. The book describes how the early inhabitants of the islands moved from a forager mode of subsistence to a more predominantly agrarian base, supplemented by sophisticated industries and an advanced commercial economy. It reveals how the transition to farming took place over many centuries as people moved back and forth from settled agriculture to older forager-collector regimes in response to ecological, political, and personal factors. Economics influenced demographics, and, as the population expanded, the class structure became increasingly complex and occupational specialization and status divisions more intricate. Along with this came trends toward more tightly knit corporate organizations (village, city, market, family), and classes of servants, slaves, and outcasts formed.Less
This book surveys Japanese historical development from the first evidence of human habitation in the archipelago to the consolidation of political power under the Tokugawa shogunate at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Its focus is on developments that impacted all social classes rather than the privileged and powerful few. The book weaves together major economic and social themes. It focuses on continuity and change in social and economic structures and experiences, but it by no means ignores the political and cultural. Most chapters begin with an outline of political developments, and cultural phenomena—particularly religious beliefs—are also taken into account. In addition, it addresses the growing connectedness between residents of the archipelago and the rest of the world. The book describes how the early inhabitants of the islands moved from a forager mode of subsistence to a more predominantly agrarian base, supplemented by sophisticated industries and an advanced commercial economy. It reveals how the transition to farming took place over many centuries as people moved back and forth from settled agriculture to older forager-collector regimes in response to ecological, political, and personal factors. Economics influenced demographics, and, as the population expanded, the class structure became increasingly complex and occupational specialization and status divisions more intricate. Along with this came trends toward more tightly knit corporate organizations (village, city, market, family), and classes of servants, slaves, and outcasts formed.
Adam Clulow
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231164283
- eISBN:
- 9780231535731
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164283.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The Dutch East India Company was a hybrid organization combining the characteristics of both corporation and state that attempted to thrust itself aggressively into an Asian political order in which ...
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The Dutch East India Company was a hybrid organization combining the characteristics of both corporation and state that attempted to thrust itself aggressively into an Asian political order in which it possessed no obvious place and was transformed in the process. This book focuses on the company's clashes with Tokugawa, Japan, over diplomacy, violence, and sovereignty. In each encounter the Dutch were forced to retreat, compelled to abandon their claims to sovereign powers, and to refashion themselves again and again—from subjects of a fictive king to loyal vassals of the shogun, from aggressive pirates to meek merchants, and from insistent defenders of colonial sovereignty to legal subjects of the Tokugawa state. Within the confines of these conflicts, the terms of the relationship between the company and the shogun first took shape and were subsequently set into what would become their permanent form. The first book to treat the Dutch East India Company in Japan as something more than just a commercial organization, it presents new perspective on one of the most important, long-lasting relationships to develop between an Asian state and a European overseas enterprise.Less
The Dutch East India Company was a hybrid organization combining the characteristics of both corporation and state that attempted to thrust itself aggressively into an Asian political order in which it possessed no obvious place and was transformed in the process. This book focuses on the company's clashes with Tokugawa, Japan, over diplomacy, violence, and sovereignty. In each encounter the Dutch were forced to retreat, compelled to abandon their claims to sovereign powers, and to refashion themselves again and again—from subjects of a fictive king to loyal vassals of the shogun, from aggressive pirates to meek merchants, and from insistent defenders of colonial sovereignty to legal subjects of the Tokugawa state. Within the confines of these conflicts, the terms of the relationship between the company and the shogun first took shape and were subsequently set into what would become their permanent form. The first book to treat the Dutch East India Company in Japan as something more than just a commercial organization, it presents new perspective on one of the most important, long-lasting relationships to develop between an Asian state and a European overseas enterprise.
Yulia Frumer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226516448
- eISBN:
- 9780226524719
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226524719.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
We tend to think of time as an abstract and universal phenomenon that is independent of human activity. Making Time challenges this view, claiming that humans construct their own time, including the ...
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We tend to think of time as an abstract and universal phenomenon that is independent of human activity. Making Time challenges this view, claiming that humans construct their own time, including the very idea that time exists outside of the human realm. The book does so by documenting the emergence of conceptions of time in Japan. Before 1872, the Japanese used a variable hour time-measurement system in which hours changed their durations according to the seasons. In 1872, however, the Japanese government carried out a reform that adopted the Western-style 24 equal-hour system. Rather than seeing this reform as a response to the rapid industrial development and modernization of the Meiji period (1868-1912), Making Time proposes that the 1872 reform occurred because the equal-hour system better reflected a new conception of time — as abstract and universal—which had been developed earlier, during the Tokugawa period (1600-1868). The book shows how the notion of time as universal and mathematical first emerged among a narrow circle of astronomers, for whom initially it was a kind of time that best suited their measurement and calculation practices. As this notion of time spread however, scholars —and future policy-makers—gradually stopped treating it as a time, suitable to a particular situation, and instead came to see it as the Time that would set the standard for all possible uses of time.Less
We tend to think of time as an abstract and universal phenomenon that is independent of human activity. Making Time challenges this view, claiming that humans construct their own time, including the very idea that time exists outside of the human realm. The book does so by documenting the emergence of conceptions of time in Japan. Before 1872, the Japanese used a variable hour time-measurement system in which hours changed their durations according to the seasons. In 1872, however, the Japanese government carried out a reform that adopted the Western-style 24 equal-hour system. Rather than seeing this reform as a response to the rapid industrial development and modernization of the Meiji period (1868-1912), Making Time proposes that the 1872 reform occurred because the equal-hour system better reflected a new conception of time — as abstract and universal—which had been developed earlier, during the Tokugawa period (1600-1868). The book shows how the notion of time as universal and mathematical first emerged among a narrow circle of astronomers, for whom initially it was a kind of time that best suited their measurement and calculation practices. As this notion of time spread however, scholars —and future policy-makers—gradually stopped treating it as a time, suitable to a particular situation, and instead came to see it as the Time that would set the standard for all possible uses of time.
Tze-Yue G. Hu
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622090972
- eISBN:
- 9789882207721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622090972.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter investigates and hypothesizes the productive spirit of anime as a whole in relation to the underlying native philosophical inclinations and cultural thought. It examines the country's ...
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This chapter investigates and hypothesizes the productive spirit of anime as a whole in relation to the underlying native philosophical inclinations and cultural thought. It examines the country's depth of thinking in relation to its expressive visual self, natural or constructed, and in response to a larger long-running project—dialogue with the industrialized West. First, it discusses the primary aspects of Shintoism. It also analyzes the anti-Confucianist thought of a Tokugawa shintō advocate, Motoori Norinaga, in comparison to a similar trend of thinking that already existed in China and Korea at the time. It also considers the philosophical works of Nishida Kitarō in order to show that anime lies at the heart of an extensive prolonged communication project.Less
This chapter investigates and hypothesizes the productive spirit of anime as a whole in relation to the underlying native philosophical inclinations and cultural thought. It examines the country's depth of thinking in relation to its expressive visual self, natural or constructed, and in response to a larger long-running project—dialogue with the industrialized West. First, it discusses the primary aspects of Shintoism. It also analyzes the anti-Confucianist thought of a Tokugawa shintō advocate, Motoori Norinaga, in comparison to a similar trend of thinking that already existed in China and Korea at the time. It also considers the philosophical works of Nishida Kitarō in order to show that anime lies at the heart of an extensive prolonged communication project.
Julie Nelson Davis
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824839383
- eISBN:
- 9780824869533
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824839383.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Through a discussion of collaboration in the genre of ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) this book offers a new approach to understanding the production and reception of print culture in early ...
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Through a discussion of collaboration in the genre of ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) this book offers a new approach to understanding the production and reception of print culture in early modern Japan. It demonstrates that this popular genre was the result of an exchange among publishers, designers, writers, carvers, printers, patrons, buyers, and readers. By recasting selected works from the later eighteenth century as examples of a network of commercial and artistic cooperation, Partners in Print expands our understanding of the dynamic processes of production, reception, and intention in floating world print culture. Through four case studies this book explores collaboration between a teacher and a student, two painters and their publishers, a designer and a publisher, and a writer and an illustrator. Each begins with a single work—a specially commissioned print, a lavishly illustrated album, a printed handscroll, and an inexpensive illustrated novel—to investigate these partnerships. These materials represent some of the diversity of printed things ranging from expensive works made for a select circle of connoisseurs to those sold at a modest price to a large audience. They take up subjects familiar from the floating world—connoisseurship, beauty, sex, and humor—and explore multiple dimensions of inquiry vital to that dynamic culture: the status of art, the evaluation of beauty, the representation of sexuality, and the tension between mind and body.Less
Through a discussion of collaboration in the genre of ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) this book offers a new approach to understanding the production and reception of print culture in early modern Japan. It demonstrates that this popular genre was the result of an exchange among publishers, designers, writers, carvers, printers, patrons, buyers, and readers. By recasting selected works from the later eighteenth century as examples of a network of commercial and artistic cooperation, Partners in Print expands our understanding of the dynamic processes of production, reception, and intention in floating world print culture. Through four case studies this book explores collaboration between a teacher and a student, two painters and their publishers, a designer and a publisher, and a writer and an illustrator. Each begins with a single work—a specially commissioned print, a lavishly illustrated album, a printed handscroll, and an inexpensive illustrated novel—to investigate these partnerships. These materials represent some of the diversity of printed things ranging from expensive works made for a select circle of connoisseurs to those sold at a modest price to a large audience. They take up subjects familiar from the floating world—connoisseurship, beauty, sex, and humor—and explore multiple dimensions of inquiry vital to that dynamic culture: the status of art, the evaluation of beauty, the representation of sexuality, and the tension between mind and body.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804754897
- eISBN:
- 9780804779494
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804754897.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter analyzes the ways in which Japan's vaccinators finally engaged the Tokugawa bakufu in their efforts to promote Jennerian vaccination in the city of Edo. Following the outbreak of a ...
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This chapter analyzes the ways in which Japan's vaccinators finally engaged the Tokugawa bakufu in their efforts to promote Jennerian vaccination in the city of Edo. Following the outbreak of a severe smallpox epidemic in Ezo, the bakufu sent physicians from Edo to vaccinate the people of Ezo against smallpox—the bakufu's first official act that acknowledged vaccination. In July 1857, a small group of physicians prepared a petition to submit to the Shogun Tokugawa Iesada, asking for permission to open a vaccination clinic in Edo. With the opening of the Otamagaike Vaccination Clinic in Edo in 1858, the sponsors of the clinic and their descendants established themselves as the founding generation of modern medicine and public health in Japan.Less
This chapter analyzes the ways in which Japan's vaccinators finally engaged the Tokugawa bakufu in their efforts to promote Jennerian vaccination in the city of Edo. Following the outbreak of a severe smallpox epidemic in Ezo, the bakufu sent physicians from Edo to vaccinate the people of Ezo against smallpox—the bakufu's first official act that acknowledged vaccination. In July 1857, a small group of physicians prepared a petition to submit to the Shogun Tokugawa Iesada, asking for permission to open a vaccination clinic in Edo. With the opening of the Otamagaike Vaccination Clinic in Edo in 1858, the sponsors of the clinic and their descendants established themselves as the founding generation of modern medicine and public health in Japan.
Julia Adeney Thomas
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520228542
- eISBN:
- 9780520926844
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520228542.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book turns the concept of nature into a powerful analytical lens through which to view Japanese modernity. The author shows that nature necessarily functions as a political concept and that ...
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This book turns the concept of nature into a powerful analytical lens through which to view Japanese modernity. The author shows that nature necessarily functions as a political concept and that changing ideas of nature's political authority were central during Japan's transformation from a semifeudal world to an industrializing colonial empire. In political documents from the nineteenth to the early twentieth century, nature was redefined, moving from the universal, spatial concept of the Tokugawa period, through temporal, social Darwinian ideas of inevitable progress and competitive struggle, to a celebration of Japan as a nation uniquely in harmony with nature. The so-called traditional “Japanese love of nature” masks modern state power. The book rejects the supposition that modernity is the ideological antithesis of nature, overcoming the determinism of the physical environment through technology and liberating denatured subjects from the chains of biology and tradition. In making “nature” available as a critical term for political analysis, this book yields new insights into prewar Japan's failure to achieve liberal democracy, as well as an alternative means of understanding modernity and the position of non-Western nations within it.Less
This book turns the concept of nature into a powerful analytical lens through which to view Japanese modernity. The author shows that nature necessarily functions as a political concept and that changing ideas of nature's political authority were central during Japan's transformation from a semifeudal world to an industrializing colonial empire. In political documents from the nineteenth to the early twentieth century, nature was redefined, moving from the universal, spatial concept of the Tokugawa period, through temporal, social Darwinian ideas of inevitable progress and competitive struggle, to a celebration of Japan as a nation uniquely in harmony with nature. The so-called traditional “Japanese love of nature” masks modern state power. The book rejects the supposition that modernity is the ideological antithesis of nature, overcoming the determinism of the physical environment through technology and liberating denatured subjects from the chains of biology and tradition. In making “nature” available as a critical term for political analysis, this book yields new insights into prewar Japan's failure to achieve liberal democracy, as well as an alternative means of understanding modernity and the position of non-Western nations within it.
Geoffrey C. Gunn
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083343
- eISBN:
- 9789882208988
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083343.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter traces the rise and fall of the major “charter” polities of Southeast Asia. Having described intra-Asian state diplomacy as part and parcel of an Asian Tributary Trade System, it seeks ...
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This chapter traces the rise and fall of the major “charter” polities of Southeast Asia. Having described intra-Asian state diplomacy as part and parcel of an Asian Tributary Trade System, it seeks to offer a series of snapshots of these mostly mainland Southeast Asian royal centers as they existed prior to or on the cusp of their “discovery” by European agents. The story is also one of the rise and fall or reconstitution of the Southeast Asian “charter” or foundation kingdoms. Lieberman (2003) has offered a useful tripartite delineation of the mainland states: western, central, and eastern. He also makes an important distinction among the charter states, often foundering; the newer states, which proliferated c. 1250–1440; and the period of state consolidation, more or less contemporaneous with Tokugawa Japan.Less
This chapter traces the rise and fall of the major “charter” polities of Southeast Asia. Having described intra-Asian state diplomacy as part and parcel of an Asian Tributary Trade System, it seeks to offer a series of snapshots of these mostly mainland Southeast Asian royal centers as they existed prior to or on the cusp of their “discovery” by European agents. The story is also one of the rise and fall or reconstitution of the Southeast Asian “charter” or foundation kingdoms. Lieberman (2003) has offered a useful tripartite delineation of the mainland states: western, central, and eastern. He also makes an important distinction among the charter states, often foundering; the newer states, which proliferated c. 1250–1440; and the period of state consolidation, more or less contemporaneous with Tokugawa Japan.
Kären Wigen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520259188
- eISBN:
- 9780520945807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520259188.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The rise of the warrior power in the Kanto effected an upheaval in Japan's geography. Tokugawa had to appoint provincial governors to execute their directives in the countryside. Shinano's ...
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The rise of the warrior power in the Kanto effected an upheaval in Japan's geography. Tokugawa had to appoint provincial governors to execute their directives in the countryside. Shinano's agricultural wealth was its main attraction to the feudal lords although it was, and still is, a mountainous place. Surveys estimated the province's yield at 400,000 koku in the 1590s, and new-field development steadily pushed that figure up in the succeeding decades. Shinano's aggregate assessment by 1647 stood at nearly 545,000 koku; by 1730, it had risen to more than 615,000 koku. Shinano's agrarian riches were not concentrated in a single region in contrast to most kuni. The distribution of agricultural settlements is clearly shown on their maps, confirming the province's polycentric character. Similar patterns can be detected in the cartography of commercial corridors and political divisions. The kuniezu reveals a province divided at every year.Less
The rise of the warrior power in the Kanto effected an upheaval in Japan's geography. Tokugawa had to appoint provincial governors to execute their directives in the countryside. Shinano's agricultural wealth was its main attraction to the feudal lords although it was, and still is, a mountainous place. Surveys estimated the province's yield at 400,000 koku in the 1590s, and new-field development steadily pushed that figure up in the succeeding decades. Shinano's aggregate assessment by 1647 stood at nearly 545,000 koku; by 1730, it had risen to more than 615,000 koku. Shinano's agrarian riches were not concentrated in a single region in contrast to most kuni. The distribution of agricultural settlements is clearly shown on their maps, confirming the province's polycentric character. Similar patterns can be detected in the cartography of commercial corridors and political divisions. The kuniezu reveals a province divided at every year.
