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Subject Area: Japan & Japanese Studies
Métraux, Daniel A.2024 1-4955-1193-6 236 pages
"This book follows Asian-American history in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in northeastern California. When one thinks of ethnic Chinese communities throughout North America today, one may consider urban locations such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Vancouver. One would not ordinarily think of Chinese communities in remote rural areas. But during the late 1800s and early 1900s , many small towns and cities throughout northern California had their own well-established Chinese communities. ...This book offers the reader an opportunity to learn about the many small rural Chinatowns that proliferated across northern California in the late 1800s and early 1900s as well the first Japanese settlement near Coloma in 1869. There were at least thirty of these rural Chinese settlements; I have chosen to write about ten of these as representative samples of their great variety and legacies." -from The Author's "Introduction"
Wang, Gabe T.
1996 0-7734-8759-X 220 pages
Research carried beyond the traditional item to item comparison or simple descriptive statistical analysis, developing a comprehensive and systematic theoretical framework and utilizing a comprehensive statistical method to study work values and comparison of employees in the two countries. Pays attention not only to qualitative theory building but also to the use of quantitative computerized research methods. This book is designed for those interested in American and Japanese employees and management, in American and Japanese cultures, in cross-cultural comparative studies, in LISREL models. Managers, organizational theorists, sociologists, psychologists, and researchers interested in quantitative computer usage should also find this book useful.
Liman, Anthony V.
1992 0-7734-9614-9 608 pages
Ibuse's writing is characterized by a great deal of unromantic skepticism, and by a unique style: a rich, precise language combined with bold, innovative experimentation. This book traces the genesis and development of this style, and defines Ibuse's overall artistic contribution.
Poister, Geoffrey
2002 0-7734-7299-1 304 pages
This study determined that there are significant differences in subject content, visual style, and expression of cultural values in the photo collections, and that these are most strongly linked to differences in the parent culture, class, and gender. The effect of immigration is a dominant factor. “. . . until this book by Geoffrey Poister no one has done a systematic cross-cultural study of family photography. Poister not only looks at the private pictures of kin in their everyday worlds but also analyzes how family photography constructs family life. The author does not rely on methods that might distance him or us from his subjects, he gets close and personal using long interviews and participant observation on location, in homes. Poister reveals how photograph albums capture an idealized romantic version of the nuclear family. . . . By integrating the study of visual culture and family life, Poister’s innovative scholarship makes a contribution to many fields including sociology, anthropology, communications, and human development. This is both an insightful and richly descriptive book, one that will keep you reflecting about your own life and how you picture it.” – Robert Bogdan
Baker, Kevin
2006 0-7734-5886-7 288 pages
This book describes the history and development of the Orthodox Church in China from its origins in 1242 A.D., its Eastern Church forebears, and its development in the other nations of North Asia – Korea and Japan.
By 1955, on the eve of its establishment as an independent entity, the Orthodox Church in China reached its greatest numbers. There were more than 100,000 communicants in former Russian territory in Manchuria, with 200 priests and 60 parishes, as well as monasteries and a seminary. Elsewhere, in China, there were another 200,000 Orthodox Christians and 150 parishes. These conservative figures mean that at that time, around 6% of Chinese Christians were adherents of the Orthodox Church.
The activities and achievements of the Orthodox Church, especially since the 17th century, have been understated in many historical studies of Christianity in China.
It is a similar story in regard to the first impact of Christianity with the cultures of Japan and Korea. Eastern Christianity came to Japan from China between the seventh and ninth centuries. There is also evidence that Eastern Christian missionaries were present in Korea during the sixth century. This book details the nature and evidence of these early activities.
Ito, Kinko
2011 0-7734-1420-7 300 pages
This work is a book about the history, content, and functions of ladies’ comics, the most recent addition to the modern comics in Japan. This book employs the methodology of visual sociology which uses imagery as a source of data and material for analysis. It describes Japanese ladies’ comics’ unique history and explores how love and sexuality of Japanese women is depicted as a reflection of their everyday life.
Being a significant part of Japanese popular culture, manga (Japanese comics) as texts can be an extremely important subject matter for sociology, especially visual sociology, comparative cultural studies, Gender Studies, and anthropology. This book will contribute to the understanding of Japanese social reality, current social issues, and sexuality of adult women through the analysis of ladies’ comics.
There are academics who have written books on manga for the general reader. However, there exist few books for English readers specifically on Japanese ladies’ comics with a sociological orientation. This book can be used at many universities by scholars of Japanese studies and possibly by students in courses on popular culture, visual sociology, Asian Studies, International Studies, Gender Studies, and anthropology.
Bradstock, Timothy R.
1997 0-7734-8560-0 442 pages
This anthology comprises annotated translations of four hundred kanshi (poems written in Chinese) by one hundred of the most renowned Japanese poets of the Edo Period (1603-1868). The largest ever such collection, this work also provides biographies for each of the poets as well as commentaries on the verses. The annotations are designed to illuminate the aesthetics and values of Edo society, enabling even the lay reader to appreciate the historical and philosophical milieu in which this genre flourised. The composition of Chinese poetry in Japan dates back to around the seventh century. During the Edo period in particular, it was central to the literary lives of Japanese from all sectors of society and remained popular until the early twentieth century. The Edo period, a time of enforced national isolation from the rest of the world, paradoxically represents the high-water mark for Chinese literary composition in Japan. Chinese studies flourished, and hundreds of thousands of kanshi were written and recorded during these centuries.
Edo popular culture has been studied extensively in the West and is well-known to us through the puppet theater, kabuki drama, haiku poetry, and other vernacular genres. However comparatively little research has been done on kanshi, even though the genre was extremely popular during the Edo period, particularly among Confucian scholar-officials, Buddhist priests, and educated members of the townsman class. It is hoped that this work will bring kanshi more into the mainstream of Japanese studies into the consciousness of modern readers in the Western world.
Haushofer, Karl
2002 0-7734-7122-7 444 pages
"The original publication of Haushofer's Geopolitics of the Pacific Ocean had an immediate impact. Quickly translated and published in Japan and Russia it became an object of study.... A Russo-Japanese Convention was signed in 1925. ...Then cam the Tanaka Memorandum of 1927. Reportedly based on Haushofer's Geopolotics of the Pactific Ocean it provoked a split between the Imperial Army and Navy. ...Hiterler had comet to power in Germany in 1933. Espousing many of Haushofer's geopolitical theories, except alliance with communist Russia, the Nazis pushed Haushofer into prominence" -L.A. Tambs, "Preface"
Antis, Andrew
2013 0-7734-2633-7 744 pages
Modern forms of grappling and wrestling martial arts in Japan can trace their historical and philosophical roots back to the Takenouchi School. Antis argues that there is a body of evidence that proves this point, and he expands upon previous work by translating rare historical scrolls, poetry, and other documents. Modern martial arts have spiritual connections to this particular school, and it is presented as a physical and curricular manifestation of philosophical and religious traditions that extend throughout Asian history. The author provides an exhaustive reference guide based on an accumulation of primary sources dealing with this influential Japanese school.
Plotkin, Ira L.
1991 0-88946-729-3 180 pages
Begins with a general introduction dealing with the turn of the century, then studies the anarchist movement and the political participants, the plot to assassinate the emperor, the activities of the police, the trial, and finally the philosophy of anarchism and the minor participants in this affair. Sets in perspective the issue of governmental control of deviant political behaviour in Japan.
Harada, Hiroko
2000 0-7734-7865-5 264 pages
Against the background of post-war literary developments in Germany and Japan, this study compares several representative dramas. These playwrights attempt to come to terms with military defeat, betrayal by leaders, wartime atrocities, holocaust, blindness, passivity, guilt, collective and individual responsibility.
Johnson, Jeffrey
2001 0-7734-7494-3 256 pages
Although Bakhtinian theory has influenced a great many fields, this book is the first study of its kind in Japanese Studies. The essays rigorously apply Bakhtin’s ideas to Japanese texts or to situations in Japan. This book will aid in bringing the central notions in Bakhtin’s work to the aid of scholars working in Japanese fields both inside and outside of Japan.
Sorensen, Lars-Martin
2009 0-7734-4673-7 356 pages
Very few English-language books have focused exclusively upon the occupation period and its effects on cinema. This book investigates how Japanese fiction films produced during the American occupation 1945-1952 subverted occupation film censorship. It is based on extensive archival research and the primary focus is on the films of Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa.
Hunt III, William Walter
2008 0-7734-5081-5 216 pages
This work examines the relationship between religion and protest on the Japanese island of Okinawa by analyzing the intertwining of various religious beliefs, colonialism, and politics in the region.
Helgert, Joseph P.
2006 0-7734-5904-9 164 pages
This study explores the practice and dynamics of advertising in the second largest democratic economy in the world – Japan. The work examines advertising practices through seven case studies, dramatically framed by individual vignettes written in the style of the Japanese business novel. The case problems and chosen solutions illustrate successful Japanese adaptations of advertising from around the world, in addition to advertising practices that are culturally unique to Japan. The analysis highlights similarities and differences in Japanese and American advertising practice. The study concludes that an understanding of the external and internal influences in developing creative objectives and strategies, combined with an identification of the structural components in advertising, is key to a greater understanding of how social, political and other cultural trends affected the evolution of advertising in modern Japan. In a conclusion, the author recommends new advertising strategies that are in response to changing national and international trends since the collapse of the bubble economy.
Hallett, Brien
2012 0-7734-3055-5 96 pages
The book describes the severe consequences of going after an ‘unconditional surrender’ during WWII. Instead of intimidating the enemies, it infuriated them, and created an insurgent effect and ill-will that made picking up the pieces after the war all the more difficult. Whether or not Japan actually agreed to an unconditional surrender is contested in this book, precisely because Japanese leaders did not want to completely submit to outside influence after the war in a “Super Versailles” like scenario that would hold back progress indefinitely.
Hallett, Brien
2012 0-7734-3053-9 88 pages
In this provocative book Hallett argues that dropping the atomic bomb on Japan had no impact on their surrender to America. What was more important was the threat of a Soviet and American invasion, and the Japanese government preferred to deal with America rather than have the Soviets turn the country communist.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were certainly evil, but how evil? Evil in which way? Conventionally, their evil has been explained away by repeating that the atomic bombings ‘ended the war to save lives.’ If true, the evil was not truly evil. In this book, Professor Hallett challenges this all too comforting explanation. If lives were saved, then how many were saved, he asks? Did bombs cause the surrender of Japan; or was the Soviet involvement in the Pacific another influence among many that coincided with the end of the war? Reviewing the dramatic events of August, 1945, Hallett concludes that few, if any lives were saved and that the dropping of the atomic bombs was merely coincidental with the ending of the war. Instead, Soviet entry into the Pacific War was the immediate causal factor in the timing of the Japanese surrender. This study concludes that there was a banal evil induced by an ordinary lack of imagination on the part of President Truman and the American officials.
Silk, Martine
2003 0-7734-3490-9 64 pages
The Dream That Becomes Us illustrates the adventure of an enamored newcomer confronted with the beautiful and gentle culture shock that is Japan. It paints a modern picture of the graceful time-held traditions of Japan’s people and their unique philosophy and way of life. Embedded in and interwoven with this is the personal experience of being a stranger in a strange land. It is written in the Haiku form most appropriate to the subject, and respectful of the traditions of those who made the poet so welcome.
Ellington, Lucien
1992 0-7734-9609-2 252 pages
This study describes and analyzes the varieties of educational experiences of Japanese from infancy through old age. It also compares these experiences with those of Americans. It is an integration of the major findings of American and Japanese scholars of education, the author's own research, and the reactions of American scholars. Each chapter contains both general information and illustrative case studies. Unlike other studies of the Japanese education system, it examines not only the formal education systems but also the roles of the family, the adult kendo or English conversation club, workplace on-the-job training, and senior citizens organizations, providing a unique and realistic perspective on the subject.
Mori, Maryellen Toman
2021 1-4955-0900-1 648 pages
Dr. Maryellen Toman Mori has collected this collection of erotic Japanese tales that have been translated into the English language for the first time. It is a collection of 17 stories, written by both male and female authors.
Lei, Christine
2024 1-4955-1273-8 240 pages
This is an 8.5 x 11 in. softcover book. "It is necessary to expose thoroughly the traumatic effects of past POW experiences of minorities such as Asian Canadians in Canada so that no other minorities may suffer the same fate in the future. This is my main reason for initiating this research of Japanese-Canadian children's internment experiences in Canada. ...I have limited the fictional narratives in this study to Canadian literature, including two children's books and three adult novels. These five texts offer children's psychological traumatization from their POW experiences during World War II, as well as their cultural traumatization from legacies of the internment after the war.
Lei, Min
2024 1-4955-1273-8 240 pages
This is an oversize (8.5 x 11 inch), softcover book. "This thesis investigates the traumatic internment experiences of Japanese-Canadian children during World War II in Canadian fictional writings. Specifically, this thesis examines the trauma these children have suffered as represented in three adult novels: Joy Kogawa's Obasan (1981), Kerri Sakamoto's The Electrical Field (1998), and Frances Itani's Requiem (2011) and two children's books: Shizuye Takashima's A Child in Prison Camp (1971) and Kogawa's Naomi's Road (2005)." -Dr. Min Lei
Shuji, Terayama
1998 0-7734-8320-9 164 pages
First full collection of Terayama's poetry to appear in English. Better known in Japan for his success as a playwright and founder of his own theater troupe, Terayama was also a literary critic, script writer, film-maker, and essayist. He experimented with new poetic structures, blending classic and avant garde styles. Includes the original Japanese with facing-page translations, and a short biographical introduction.
Métraux, Daniel A.
2017 1-4955-0543-X 268 pages
Dr. Metraux’s study uses seven Western writers who reported on the Russo-Japanese War from behind Japanese lines. The author examines how personal bias and media censorship can affect the flow of information from journalists to the general public, making this book incredibly topical in today’s world of journalistic reporting.
Oblas, Peter B.
2009 0-7734-4660-5 256 pages
The writings of Hugh Byas, journalist and japanologist, developed while he was editor of the Japan Advertiser and later as correspondent of the London Times and New York Times. His work in Japan between the World Wars, is a discourse on progressive sovereignty. Byas equated a sovereign state with one that possessed an organized government capable of modernizing the state and developing democratic institutions to empower public opinion.
Hirono, Tatsushi
2017 1-4955-0559-6 104 pages
This books consists of two series of studies conducted by the author on natural disaster relief efforts and the roll of the roll of religious leaders in the United States and Japan. One of the studies focuses on the disaster relief efforts by interviewing Japanese Buddhist monks in Fukashima.
Bergamini, David
2012 0-7734-3949-7 1700 pages
Now, for the first time, David Bergamini tells how Hirohito and the imperial family plotted the war against the West and how the Emperor himself led his nation through it. Mr. Bergamini, a Rhodes Scholar, who was raised in the Orient and who speaks and reads Japanese, spent six years in research for this book. He conducted hundreds of hours of interviews, read hundreds of thousands of pages in both Japanese and English included the journals and diaries kept by the Emperor’s closest advisors, among them his wartime chief of staff and his chief civilian advisor. Most of the information in this book has never been released in English. The result is an engrossing tale of intrigue conducted at the highest levels of Japanese government.
Owoeye, Jide
1993 0-7734-9236-4 200 pages
This analytical and empirical study traces antecedents to the development of Japan's African policy and considers the implications of Japan's imperial past vis-a-vis Africa's colonial legacy for the shaping of that policy. It also weighs relevant domestic and external factors which impinge on political actors both in Japan and Africa. Examines the evolution of foreign diplomacy in Japan, economic relations, cultural and psychological dimensions. Finally, it speculates on the future role of Japan in Africa's international economic and political relations.
Hamada, Masako
2005 0-7734-5937-5 292 pages
Over the last quarter century, as interest in Japan has increased and Japanese language classes have proliferated all over the world, Japanese professors (of whom about 80% are female) have become an increasingly significant presence on U.S. college campuses. However, when Japanese professors teach American students, they face various issues caused by differences in cultural backgrounds, communication styles and expectations about the education process.
This study focuses on Japanese women, especially professors, working in institutions of higher education in the U.S. Then, using concrete examples, it explores their styles of handling classroom conflict, the effectiveness of different styles, and how their methods change with the length of time they have lived and worked in the U.S.
The book discusses the factors that contribute to the problems and conflicts, and gives professionals some suggestions and recommendations on how to face and resolve conflicts both in the classroom and in multicultural situations in “the real world.”
This study will appeal to scholars in Asian studies, women’s studies, intercultural communication, and conflict resolution management programs, and also professionals in global organizations and will help them to resolve culturally-based communication style differences and interpersonal conflicts more effectively.
Hamada, Masako
2012 0-7734-2903-4 316 pages
Using statistical analysis the book shows how male Japanese professors in American colleges handle themselves in the classroom. The study is based on surveys. It shows that the length of stay in America impacts the way male Japanese professors resolve conflict. There is also a lengthy comparison between female and male professors.
Wixted, John Timothy
1993 0-7734-9571-1 517 pages
Japanese scholarship is of great importance for virtually every field of Chinese studies. This Handbook leads to a wealth of bibliographical and biographical information about more than 1,500 twentieth-century Japanese scholars of China. The work offers accurate readings of scholars' names, short characterizations of their areas of specialization, and indexes references to them in four other volumes. It includes as many bibliographies as possible of the work of individual Japanese China scholars, and includes hundreds of Japanese-language books and articles about them, as well as Festschriften dedicated to them. Pays special attention to English and other Western-language material about their scholarship: book-length translations, book reviews, and summaries. The Handbook has eight indexes: scholars' surnames by Chinese reading, scholars listed by field of study, scholars' western-language books; names of non-Japanese cited in volume; Chinese characters for journal titles, publishers, place of publication, phrases cited. As numerous scholars included in the Handbook are of importance to the study of Japan, Korea and other parts of Asia, the volume will benefit students of these areas as well.
Farge, William J. S.J.
2002 0-7734-6918-4 156 pages
Through examples, the methods of translation and editing used by the mission press in its attempt to produce a native Christian literature for Japan is explored. Part One examines two translations of De Imitatio Christi - Contemptus mundi jenbu and the Kontemutsusu munji, a later version. Part Two examines Guia de Pecadores - Giya do pekadoru. The study details their background, structure and style, with a textual analysis and comparison. The author identifies the translations' Buddhist terminology, the only religious language available to the Jesuits in Japan, and explains how Buddhist terms were used to convey Christian ideas.
Nakagawa, Masako [Nakagawa Graham]
2016 1-4955-0419-0 120 pages
Kasai Zenzō (1887-1928) was one of the first and most prominent shishosetsu writers during the Taisho period (1912-1926). The shishōsetsu, “I” novel or autobiographical narrative, was once believed to be an ideal form of writing, the purest of prose, and an expression of the depth of the self, which was said to be created without fabrications derived from conventional fiction. The shishosetsu is the most outstanding feature of modern Japanese literature. This work examines and analyzes the narrative structure as well as the theme of At the Lakeside to shed light on the final stage in the development of shish?setsu in its finest form.
Kilson, Marion
1991 0-7734-9728-5 160 pages
Presents a case study of a pioneering Protestant missionary wife and mother whose years in Japan spanned the Meiji era. Based upon personal correspondence and mission records, the portrait is organized sociologically rather than chronologically. Begins with brief discussion of the foreign missionary movement as a significant component of 19th century western expansion, sociological sketches of the contexts of her life, analysis of her social relationships, finally her role as mediator between Japanese and American culture. Contributes to the study of the American foreign missionaries movement and the understanding of late 19th century American women's lives while demonstrating the utility of anthropological categories and constructs in such studies.
Marcus, Marvin Howard
2016 1-4955-0488-3 325 pages
Within Japan’s literary tradition, sketches on literary, psychological, and other miscellaneous topics enjoy considerable popularity. Western academia tends to dismiss such writings but they are crucial to understanding Japanese culture. This collection fills a critical lacuna in scholarship on Kindai literature.
Marcus, Marvin Howard
2016 325 pages
Ito, Michio
2018 1-4955-0688-6 124 pages
This work offers the first complete translation of an autobiographical talk the dancer and choreographer Michio Ito gave in Japanese in 1955, which was originally transcribed and published in 1965 as "Omoide wo kataru: Taka no i shutsuen no koto nado" (Reminiscences: On Appearing in At the Hawk's Well and Other matters). Ito's memorable account of an important interlude in the history of early twentieth-century Anglophone modernism has been recognized as a significant primary source in the scholarship of Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, and Modernist studies more generally. This translated text includes 8 color photos.
Mori, Maryellen Toman
2018 1-4955-0644-4 708 pages
Dr. Mori is a noted scholar and translator of Japanese literature. Her book-list introduction to Takahashi's oeuvre in relation to her life provides astute analyses of Takahashi's major works and positions her in the modern Japanese literary world. The carefully crafted translation of three of Takahashi's major works lets us sample the literary excellence of this female writer.
Perez, Louis G.
2001 0-7734-7366-1 342 pages
Assembles in one convenient volume seven chapter-length articles about Matsu Munemitsu, the foreign minister of Japan who led Japan into war in 1894, the same summer that he successfully negotiated the end of the Unequal Treaties with the West; and examinations of identity formation. It examines the formation of Mutsu’s identity, and then the reinvention of his character and persona in the face of ostracism and rapprochement with his feudal domain, the new Meiji government, and the political parties in Japan. Similarly, three Japanese identities are also examined: Kido Takayoshi; Furuno Inosuke, and the national press. The articles reconsider the importance of self-reference, national and regional ethos, homeland and furosato, ideology, and nationalism in the formation of identity.
Dollarhide, Kenneth J
1989 0-88946-051-5 170 pages
Holthus, Barbara G.
2010 0-7734-3898-X 624 pages
This book provides the most in-depth analysis of contemporary Japanese women’s magazines to date. It focuses on the period from the 1970s to the 1990s, as these decades have seen significant and long-lasting changes in many aspects of Japanese society, in particular regarding Japanese women. Discourses on ‘marriage’, ‘love’, ‘sexuality’, and ‘masculinity’ lie at the core of a qualitative and quantitative content analysis. In German.
Mullins, Mark R.
1995 0-7734-8868-5 252 pages
These essays resulted from a project on "Christianity in East Asia" co-sponsored by Meiji Gakuin University's Institute for Christian Studies and the Global Mission Unit of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and are written by scholars who are themselves mainly from East Asia. The papers, using an intraregional approach (i.e. Christianity in Japan from a Korean perspective and vice-versa) deal with various aspects of the transplantation and historical development of Christianity, explore various aspects of the Christian encounter with indigenous religions and societies, and consider some of the major difficulties faced by the transplanted religion. The perspectives offered here will be useful to scholars in Asian studies and religion, to those engaged in theological education and mission studies, and to church administrators responsible for policy and direction in mission planning.
McLauchlan, Alastair
2003 0-7734-6568-5 232 pages
The buraku issue is a continuing thorn in the side of the Japanese government’s human rights record, although it is seldom discussed by Japanese politicians, academics, the media, or society in general. A buraku is an enclave (carrying social overtones of ghetto) where some, but not all, residents claim ancestral association to the leather workers and butchers (then called eta, a very insulting term which means ‘much filth’ and which is only used today in graffiti and discriminatory insults) of the Tokugawa Era (600-1868). Prejudice and discrimination against buraku residents continues to this day.
Kang, Wi Jo
1986 0-88946-056-6 126 pages
A documented study of major religions and their relationship to politics in Korea from 1910-1945. ". . . a balanced treatment of this intensely controversial subject. . . . we are fortunate in having this even-handed study to cover what has hitherto been a relatively neglected era of modern Korean religious history. . . . a valuable contribution to the history of religions in modern Korea." _ International Bulletin of Missionary Research
LaCure, Jon
1997 0-7734-8510-4 224 pages
This monograph deals with the unique rhetorical devices of Japanese waka poetry through an exhaustive analysis of the first and most important of the Japanese imperial anthologies, the Kokinshu» (compiled 905 AD). The chapters are organized around the poetic devices, including kakekotoba (conventionalized puns, usually translated as 'pivot words'), makurakotoba (set phrases or epigraphs, usually translated as 'pillow words'), joshi (introductory phrases of varied length), and utamakura (famous places names, literally 'poem pillows'). The analysis presented here uses a new kind of descriptive model which defines and classifies these rhetorical devices as structural elements in the poetry. Because the approach is exhaustive, a romanized index to the Kokinshû is included as an appendix.
Lim, Tai-Wei
0 1-4955-0301-1 136 pages
Studiesthe way in which robotics and the re-deployment of the aged labor pool in Japan could increase economic productivity in order to cope with the demographic challenges facing that country. It provides options for advocates and policy-makers to select arguments most relevant to their interests for deployment in public intellectual discourse and debate.
Reider, Noriko T.
2002 0-7734-7095-6 200 pages
Nakagawa, Masako [Nakagawa Graham]
2007 0-7734-5396-2 188 pages
This study offers both a chronological description of the literary career of Kasai Zenz? (1887-1928), as well as an historical examination of shi-sh?setsu (a Japanese autobiographical/confessional literary genre) during and after his lifetime. Zenz? was one of the most important shi-sh?setsu authors, living in the Taish? Period (1912-1926) in which this genre was in the height of its ascendancy. In shi-sh?setsu, the “I” novel, the author recounts details of his or her personal life with only a thin veneer of fiction. This genre was believed to be an ideal form of prose writing and an expression of individual depth, created without the fabrications normally found in conventional fiction, making it one of the most striking features of modern Japanese literature. Kasai, living his entire life in poverty, turned to Zen Buddhism for spiritual solace and became both a major architect of the Taish? shi-sh?setsu and its defining author.
Eppstein, Ury
1994 0-7734-9151-1 172 pages
This investigation into the introduction of Western music into the educational system of Japan reveals the existence of conflicting tendencies within both the Early Meiji period and then again in the Late Meiji period. While the acceptance of other Western cultural values in Japan, such as philosophy, the arts, natural sciences, and many more, have been studied extensively, this book contributes on a subject not treated in great detail until now.
Satow, Ernest Mason
1998 0-7734-8248-2 532 pages
Sir Ernest Satow was the doyen of the British scholar-diplomats of the Meiji era in Japan. Satow’s genius made him a colossal figure of his time, deeply respected by the Japanese who knew of his profound scholarship and knowledge of their country, and the desired representative of Britain in Tokyo where he was appointed Minister in 1895-1900. His presence in Tokyo assisted the process of coming to an agreement in the negotiations of Anglo-Japan Alliance of 1902.
Williams, Ron, G.
2011 0-7734-1552-1 100 pages
This comparative analysis of fire rituals examines the kinds of adaptations, innovations and guiding principles that led to the creation of this unique Shinto- Buddhist ritual fire.
Mitchell, Richard H.
2014 0-7734-4303-7 392 pages
A first ever comprehensive study on the history of assassinations, political murders and terrorist acts that impeded Tokyo’s campaign to portray Japan’s international image as a “civilized” nation, fit to join the comity of Western advanced nations.
Métraux, Daniel A.
1988 0-88946-055-8 200 pages
A Japanese New Religion The Soka Gakkai, with 10 million members, is a critically important force in Japan and remains the biggest of Japan's new religions. Metraux outlines the eschatological worldview of the Soka Gakkai and gives an analysis of its American branch.
Yamase, Shinji
2008 0-7734-5145-5 440 pages
Looks at the impact of Western Christianity on the native peoples of Mexico and Central America, as well as of China and Japan. The work thoroughly describes the collision of Christianity and paganism, asserting that the encounter is best understood via a full examination of their underlying cosmological points of view.
Itoh, Hiroshi
2008 0-7734-5029-7 248 pages
This work provides insiders’ examinations of Japan’s public policy responses to globalization and illuminates the dichotomy between practices which asymmetrically benefit Japan and the rhetoric it employs to justify initiatives which may or may not contribute to global peace and prosperity.
Métraux, Daniel A.
1989 0-88946-158-9 250 pages
This comprehensive introduction to the Japanese business world contains an analysis of their culture and methods of negotiation, explains the nature of the Japanese company, and examines the growth of U.S.-Japanese relations.
Willcock, Hiroko
2008 0-7734-5151-X 444 pages
This work investigates the foundation of the thought of Uchimura Kanz? against the backdrop of rigorous socio-political transition and modernization as part of a deeper investigation into the significance of the indigenous Japanese tradition. This book contains twenty-six black and white photographs.
Bernier, Bernard
2015 1-4955-0299-6 268 pages
This skillfully edited collection of essays analyzes the social engineering process employed by both public and private sector Conservative ruling elites in Japan in its effort to mold and cultivate a small minority of Japanese youth super-achievers in order to maintain its conservative view domination of society. Five important aspects of Japanese youth culture are discussed including the impact youth labor, youth education, young women, juvenile crime and youth culture have on the ruling elite structure as Japan transitions into this age of globalization.
Augustine, Jonathan Morris
2012 0-7734-2930-1 148 pages
Nishitani Keiji was an influential member of the 20th century Japanese philosophical scene known as the Kyoto School. His work fuses existentialism, notably that of Martin Heidegger, with Eastern influences such as Confucianism, various strands of Buddhist thinking, and even Christianity into a melting pot of original ideas. There are deep discussions of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and philosophy of religion which showcase Keiji’s broad range of interests.
Harris, John Wesley
2006 0-7734-5798-4 280 pages
There has never been a comprehensive survey in English of all the main forms of traditional Japanese drama – kyogen, noh, kabuki and puppetry. Individual works have been written on each form in abundance, some of them in English, and the majority of them are excellent, but they do not make the reader aware of the close connections between all of these older theatrical forms – their common origins in sacred dance, the high degree of stylization they all share, the selectivity in their use of gesture, the symbolic function of costume, the strict code of honour, which westerners often find so difficult to understand, and the heady mixture of violence with the appreciation of elegant form and a fragile, ephemeral beauty. The forms and conventions of theatre involved are also unique and challenge many of the theories that have been developed about the western stage. In fact, traditional Japanese drama is an area of theatre which should form an essential part of every dramatic specialist’s education.
Gallimore, Daniel John
2016 1-4955-0461-1 216 pages
This monograph presents an introduction to Shinkyoku Urashima (1904), a so-called ‘new musical drama’ (shinkyoku) by the Japanese writer and intellectual Tsubouchi Shōyō (usually known by his pen name Shōyō). Born at the end of the feudal era in 1859, Shōyō became one of the leaders of the movement to modernize Japanese literature and drama through the encounter with Western texts and ideas, and is particularly well known for his translation of the complete Works of Shakespeare (completed between 1909 and 1927).
Saeki, Chizuru
2008 0-7734-5249-4 248 pages
This study examines the efforts of United States government and affiliated non-governmental organizations to build pro-American sentiment in Japan in a critical decade in Japanese-American relations. The author challenges the portrayal of the American occupation of Japan as the success story that established Asia’s first liberal democracy.
Shin, Youngtae
2004 0-7734-6374-7 208 pages
This book is about the role of women in Korean and Japanese politics over the past century. It is exceedingly rare to have a comparative analysis of politics in Japan and the Republic of Korea, which gives this book a special status. At the same time these are countries with remarkably low levels of political participation by women, so it is very important to have an analysis of the reasons for this outcome. In the 1970s women accounted for less than two percent of legislative representatives in Japan, and less than one percent in Korea; today women constitute about seven percent of the members in each legislature, but these levels are still comparatively low in the developed world: about forty-three percent of Sweden’s legislators are women, and women constitute more than 30 percent of Germany’s Bundestag; the level in the U.S. Congress is about thirteen per cent.
The explanation for this phenomenon is by no means simple, and the author traverses a complex argument beginning with the “late” industrialization of both countries, followed by long periods of military rule and excesses of nationalism in both that until relatively recently subordinated women to state-sponsored goals of rapid development and national unity, to the situation today where, at least in Korea, the role of women in politics is growing rapidly. Her account is based on numerous interviews in Korea and Japan, a deft use of public opinion polls, and a wide comparative reading in the literature on the history and politics of both countries. After examining a host of theoretical and conceptual approaches to understanding the role of women in politics, she combines an historical analysis with an examination of patriarchal culture in Japan and Korea, and then scrutinizes the way in which the two respective political systems have both formal and informal mechanisms that militate against women’s participation. Furthermore at many points in the text she makes comparative judgments concerning women’s participation in Europe and the United States.
Both Korean and Japanese history in the early 20th century were marked by women who fought multiple battles on several fronts: to get any recognition at all outside the demands of the home, to fight discrimination against any woman who would dare challenge the suffocating society-wide support for family-based patriarchy, to suffer ostracism for joining socialist groups (which tended to more open to women) or for living lives independent of men (for which they were labeled promiscuous and even a threat to national unity). Ichikawa Fusae, the founder of Japan’s Women’s Suffrage League in 1924, suffered much ridicule from the society for decades, only to be forced into supporting Japan’s wars in Asia. Korea was then a colony, not a nation, but from the early point of the massive March First Movement in 1919 right down to the present, when thousands of civic groups and NGOs co-exist in Korea’s strong civil society, women have often been the leaders of protests. This sharp contrast with Japan makes for one of the most interesting aspects of this book.
Her discussion of how the postwar Japanese political system excludes women (without necessarily intending to do so) is also particularly illuminating. The Liberal Democratic Party, in power continuously since 1955 (with one brief interruption in 1993), is made up of factions which resemble one-man political machines or groups, with strong ties of patronage and favoritism in the local areas. These virtually all-male informal networks of patron-client ties, reinforced by male bonding rituals in drinking houses all over Japan, represent a formidable barrier to the entry of women into political careers. Even civic and grass-roots organizations seeking progressive goals tend to be run by men in Japan.
On the other hand, the largest number of women representatives in the history of the Republic of Korea is seen under the system of the Revitalization Congress. However, given the nature of the Congress at the time, one can hardly say their representation had much to do with the peoples’ will. Ironically though, the long history of the dictatorial military regimes gave Korean women the opportunity to hear their own political voices, and through their participations in anti-dictatorial protest movements they gained political experiences necessary to engage in politics in the future. She interviewed and observed many women involved in grassroots political organizing; their future seems to be a comparatively bright one compared to women in Japan, who still have not found a route to significant participation in the world’s second-largest economy.