Book Description
Analyzing the dynamics of historical change, the text discusses the major forces in Japan's development from 1600 to the present day, including samurai officialdom, industrialization, militarism, and social values.
Customer Reviews:
The Only Book of Its Kind.......2006-03-24
Professor Kenneth Pyle paints a superb picture of the conscious decisions that made modern Japan using concise, clear prose. No other book offers such a clear history outlining the key trends and themes shaping Japanese history since the Tokugawa period. One reviewer criticizes the thematic organization of the book, but I argue this is its greatest strength. By drawing out these themes, Pyle provides an easy reference for following the course of specific developments, such as economic policy or women's rights in post-war Japan, as opposed to continually flipping back and forth between chapters.
This should not be considered the be-all, end-all of Japanese history but rather a superb introduction to Japanese from one of the leaders of the field. The breadth and grand view of Pyle's work allows the reader to see the big picture rather than getting mired in the details and highlights key questions for further study while maintaining the context of history. No other Japanese history textbook addresses so many issues with such conciseness and clarity that will provide the kind of solid foundation as The Making of Modern Japan. Simply put, this is the only book of its kind and a must-read for anyone aspiring to understand modern Japan.
Best book on Modern Japan.......2003-11-05
This is easily the best book on modern Japanese history. Professor Pyle uses the book as an introduction to modern Japanese history. He divides each chapter into a specific historiographical issue instead of writing one long narrative on modern Japan, and as such is an invaluable asset not only for those who know little about Japan but also as a reference for the more knowledgeable. Pyle focuses on the trends of modern Japanese history, leaving out minor details in order to give the broader picture and context of the historical forces governing the making of modern japan. Pyle has a knack for terse prose; not a word was wasted in the writing of this book. As such, he has produced a wonderful book that vividly describes the historical forces that shaped modern Japan without bogging the reader down in details.
Interesting, thought-provoking, yet flawed.......2000-06-25
I read this book as a textbook for a beginning course in Japanese history (this book was used for the Meiji period onward in Japan, using Totman's "Japan Before Perry" for pre-Meiji Japan). It offers a reasonably good survey of post-Meiji Japanese history and does not read like a "this happened, then this happened" textbook. It tries to show how modern Japan was "made," and succeeds in this; in its focus on this goal, other material is neglected, giving the book a teleological bent. It would make a much better read if the order of chapters and the material covered in the book was presented in a more chronological and straightforward manner. One loses track of time and position in Japanese history in reading the various sections, the format of many chapters is questionable, and major historical events are often covered sparsely or glossed over: World War II in Japan begins and ends in a matter of pages. The prose is choppy, and a good editor could clear up some embarassing flaws in the writing. Also, despite the title, very little time is spent on post-1950 Japan.
For all that, Pyle certainly makes one think, gives excellent portrayals of historical figures, writes a mean index, has an eye for crisp, clear detail, and gives one a sense of why modern Japan developed as it did. Could do better, though.
Book Description
Modern Japan offers us a view of a highly developed society with its own internal logic. Eiko Ikegami makes this logic accessible to us through a sweeping investigation into the roots of Japanese organizational structures. She accomplishes this by focusing on the diverse roles that the samurai have played in Japanese history. From their rise in ancient Japan, through their dominance as warrior lords in the medieval period, and their subsequent transformation to quasi-bureaucrats at the beginning of the Tokugawa era, the samurai held center stage in Japan until their abolishment after the opening up of Japan in the mid-nineteenth century.
This book demonstrates how Japan's so-called harmonious collective culture is paradoxically connected with a history of conflict. Ikegami contends that contemporary Japanese culture is based upon two remarkably complementary ingredients, honorable competition and honorable collaboration. The historical roots of this situation can be found in the process of state formation, along very different lines from that seen in Europe at around the same time. The solution that emerged out of the turbulent beginnings of the Tokugawa state was a transformation of the samurai into a hereditary class of vassal-bureaucrats, a solution that would have many unexpected ramifications for subsequent centuries.
Ikegami's approach, while sociological, draws on anthropological and historical methods to provide an answer to the question of how the Japanese managed to achieve modernity without traveling the route taken by Western countries. The result is a work of enormous depth and sensitivity that will facilitate a better understanding of, and appreciation for, Japanese society.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating historical analysis..........2007-07-26
...of the origin and ongoing evolution of the Samurai class in Japan.
I'd always thought that, despite congruences with warrior classes in other cultures, the Samurai were unique in a lot of ways. Certainly, no other warrior class ruled their society for 800 years.
Ms. Ikegami's book now informs me that they were unique in different ways, at different times, and frequently subject to unique stressors and sociological conditions. The changes in the samurai, from reputation-and-power-seeking free agents to powerful rulers, lords and warlords, finally to confucianist administrators in the Tokugawa shogunate, demonstrate remarkable adaptivity. The author describes these changes against the background of Japanese state formation. People more qualified than myself seem to think her approach is revelatory.
I had thought there would be more material documenting how the twin motors of bushido, honor-seeking and service-owing have been internalized in modern Japanese culture, but that final section was not in great depth. In any event, it was still an eye-opener, viewing the early stages of the class, and of bushido...anyone who has ever thought the Japanese culture inculcates only conformity, shame-aversion and discipline has gotten things badly wrong. (except for the discipline part)
As to the difficulty factor, Ms. Ikegami's ideas can be followed, and her historical attributions, while not dense, certainly seem sound. That said, parts of the book sounded very much like they were aimed at a dissertation-review committee rather than 'people interested in the samurai'. If you've ever read any dissertations-turned-general-release-books, you'll know how to wade through.
Excellent, but not for the novice.......2005-06-03
This was one of the first studies on the samurai I ever read, and it proved a very tough read, yet rewarding as well. Now that I know much more than I did on the topic back then I've re-read this book, and it's reaffirmed how great it is.
As the other reviewer states, this is a sociological study of the samurai rather than a history book, so this is not the book for you if you are after a rundown on the history of the samurai - for that I'd recommend you pickup the three Sansom 'History of Japan' books. This book instead deals with the warrior class of Japan's evolution sociologically, focussing primarily on the evolution that the class undertook during the Edo period of Japan, after the great civil war was over.
During these final two centuries of samurai rule there were no large scale battles to be fought, and with a ruling class whose right to rule was based on it's warrior status & lineage this created many tensions in society, requiring a series of changes that took place over the years aimed at refocussing what it meant to be a samurai. It is with this topic that Eiko Ikegami excels and what makes this book such an interesting read.
Though it may not be a history book, it does contain many historical case studies and even has chapters devoted to several of the more well known samurai incidents & works, including the case of the 47 ronin & the infamous Hagakure. The Hagakure section in particular is fantastic, being the first text on this topic I've read that doesn't either take it at face value or outright dismiss it as garbage. Instead Eiko interprets it as it should be interpreted - the work of a man who was struggling to envision the meaning of being a samurai during times of peace.
I really can't recommend this book enough if you have an interest in this area of the samurai, though I'd definitely recommend that you are already familiar with the basic history of the samurai beforehand.
A modern classic, essential to understanding Japan.......2004-06-18
Professor Ikegami examines the evolution of the samurai as a social institution from its beginnings nearly 1,000 years ago up to the formal dissolution of the samurai in the late 19th century, as well as the continuing influence of samurai society on modern Japan. She shows that the concept of honor was central to the samurai throughout their history, but also demonstrates that their concepts of honor changed greatly. The samurai are presented not as distant, inscrutable creatures of a mysterious culture but as human beings constructing and living within a society adapted to their needs and circumstances. Their combination of ferocity and refinement are made comprehensible.
Along the way she presents important and insightful analyses of such familiar aspects of samurai life as ritual suicide, bushido, the _Hagakure_, and the story of the revenge of the 47 ronin.
The book begins with a section in which Ikegami sets out her analytical structure and theses. This may seem dry to some, but it is important in introducing concepts that run through the subsequent narrative. The bulk of the book consists of a chronologically arranged history of the development of samurai society, based in a wide range of Japanese and western sources.
The book is well written and has many touches to aid the reader (such as reminders of the meanings of key Japanese terms and avoidance of unexplained jargon). Nevertheless, the density of the argument and facts demand careful and thoughtful reading.
As the title should suggest, this is not a book for the novice, unfamiliar with the broad outlines of Japanese history. Nor is it a military history of the samurai.
Will O'Neil
Sociological Emphasis.......2003-12-24
It was difficult for me to finish this book. I am relatively new to the samurai culture as well as Japan in general. Though the book brings some interesting facts to light that interest the beginner enthusiast, it's depth of sociological theory and comparison proved dry and monotonous at times. My impressions were largely influenced by the fact that I have yet to read, or be instructed about Japanese history as well as ethics and politics in Japanese culture.
In short, before tackling this book pick up a couple of textbook-style history books concerning "feudal" Japan and foster a solid understanding and following of it before reading this book.
Amazon.com
To many, Emperor Hirohito of Japan is remembered as a helpless figurehead during Japan's wars with China and the U.S. According to the received wisdom, he knew nothing of the plan to bomb Pearl Harbor and had no power to stop atrocities like the Rape of Nanking. The emperor was the mild-mannered little man who traipsed with Mickey Mouse in Disneyland and who brought peace through surrender, certainly not "one of the most disingenuous persons ever to occupy the modern throne." Herbert Bix's charged political biography, however, argues that such accepted beliefs are myths and misrepresentations spun by both Japanese and Americans to protect the emperor from indictment. Since Hirohito's death in 1989, hundreds of documents, diaries, and scholarly studies have been published (and subsequently ignored) in Japan. Historian Bix used these sources to develop this shocking and nuanced portrait of a man far more shrewd, activist, and energetic than previously thought. Caught up in the fever of territorial expansion, Hirohito was the force that animated the war system, who, acting fully as a military leader and head of state, encouraged the belligerency of his people and pursued the war to its disastrous conclusion. To the very end, Hirohito refused to acknowledge any responsibility for his role in the death of millions as well as the brutalities inflicted by his forces in China, Korea, and the Philippines. In fact, he worked with none other than General MacArthur to select his fall guys and fix testimony at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials--the emperor trying to protect the throne at all cost, the U.S. acting to ensure control of the Japanese population and the military by retaining Hirohito as a figurehead.
Not surprisingly, this hefty work of scholarship is making waves, as Americans and Japanese reconsider their roles in WWII and its aftermath. By placing Hirohito back in the center of the picture and puncturing the myths that surround him, Bix has effectively asked the Japanese to come out of their half-century repression of the past and face their wartime responsibility. Without doing so, he implies, the monarchy will forever impede the development of democracy. For those interested in Japan's wartime past and its influence on the present, this is fascinating, if lengthy, reading. --Lesley Reed
Book Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
In this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose sixty-three-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. Never before has the full life of this controversial figure been revealed with such clarity and vividness. Bix shows what it was like to be trained from birth for a lone position at the apex of the nation's political hierarchy and as a revered symbol of divine status. Influenced by an unusual combination of the Japanese imperial tradition and a modern scientific worldview, the young emperor gradually evolves into his preeminent role, aligning himself with the growing ultranationalist movement, perpetuating a cult of religious emperor worship, resisting attempts to curb his power, and all the while burnishing his image as a reluctant, passive monarch. Here we see Hirohito as he truly was: a man of strong will and real authority.
Supported by a vast array of previously untapped primary documents, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan is perhaps most illuminating in lifting the veil on the mythology surrounding the emperor's impact on the world stage. Focusing closely on Hirohito's interactions with his advisers and successive Japanese governments, Bix sheds new light on the causes of the China War in 1937 and the start of the Asia-Pacific War in 1941. And while conventional wisdom has had it that the nation's increasing foreign aggression was driven and maintained not by the emperor but by an elite group of Japanese militarists, the reality, as witnessed here, is quite different. Bix documents in detail the strong, decisive role Hirohito played in wartime operations, from the takeover of Manchuria in 1931 through the attack on Pearl Harbor and ultimately the fateful decision in 1945 to accede to an unconditional surrender. In fact, the emperor stubbornly prolonged the war effort and then used the horrifying bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together with the Soviet entrance into the war, as his exit strategy from a no-win situation. From the moment of capitulation, we see how American and Japanese leaders moved to justify the retention of Hirohito as emperor by whitewashing his wartime role and reshaping the historical consciousness of the Japanese people. The key to this strategy was Hirohito's alliance with General MacArthur, who helped him maintain his stature and shed his militaristic image, while MacArthur used the emperor as a figurehead to assist him in converting Japan into a peaceful nation. Their partnership ensured that the emperor's image would loom large over the postwar years and later decades, as Japan began to make its way in the modern age and struggled -- as it still does -- to come to terms with its past.
Until the very end of a career that embodied the conflicting aims of Japan's development as a nation, Hirohito remained preoccupied with politics and with his place in history. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan provides the definitive account of his rich life and legacy. Meticulously researched and utterly engaging, this book is proof that the history of twentieth-century Japan cannot be understood apart from the life of its most remarkable and enduring leader.
Customer Reviews:
Biased perspective - "History" by Objective.......2007-02-21
I've read this book twice, and came to the same conclusions as Mr. O'Neil (before reading his review). Bix seems to almost bend over backwards to paint leftist and communists in idealized light, akin to the current vogue iconization of Che' as a liberating hero. Never understood why most intellectuals can't see communism/socialism as the same thing as facism - move far enough to the left and you meet the far right.
Anyhow, to provide an Abstract for the books thesis: Factions in the US governement - lead by left-hating McArthur - used Hirohito after the war as a tool to suppress communism in Japan and help Chaing-Kai-Shek fight against Mao. This was accomplished by white-washing the evils of Hirohito, who was a key architect of not only WWII, but also of brutal suppression of communist liberators seeking only democracy for Japan.
And don't forget to throw in unreferenced purgoratives that support your thesis ... my favorite is this one: a government minister said "Hirohito wept when he heard the judgement against Tojo." No reference is given, no name, no context or location. Its just a cheap shot akin to Michael Moore journalism. And there are NUMEROUS such examples of this in the book.
A better title of the book would be .. "Too bad Mao's revolution couldn't have spread successfully into Japan: Darn that Hirohito and his right-wing enabler McArthur."
Overrated.......2006-07-29
Perhaps I had too many expectations of this book, because it won a Pulitzer Prize and other awards. I enjoyed the wording and style employed by the author; the sentences and paragraphs were both very fluid and readable. My main complaint with this book is that I do not feel that I learned much by reading it, i.e., I do not believe the factual information to words ratio (facts/words) was high enough for me to recommend it to someone else. In some parts of the book, it seems that the author attempts to employ a written form of filibusters. Usually after reading a few pages or chapters of a non-fiction book, I have to sit back to take in all the information. This book never necessitated such a pause in my reading. In short, I believe this book may be interesting to those few people extremely interested in Hirohito's role during and after World War II. But, I believe most people will agree that the best one-word summary of this book would be as follows: Overrated.
An Enjoyable Bio on an Interesting Figure.......2006-07-16
I actually found this one in a bookstore while I was in Japan, then bought it over here in the states. Hirohito is probably not read about much here, but he should be because his life impacts Asian thought and politics to this day.
While everyone knows that Hitler was responsible for the death of probably 12 million during the holocaust, few people realize that Hirohito was responsible for the death of 20 million people. Therefore, Korea, and China still harbor feelings due to WWII.
Bix explains how Hirohito escaped war crimes trials. This is what makes the book somewhat controversial. Bix maintains that Hirohito played an active role in the Asian agression by Japan before and during WWII, rather than just being a mere figurehead. He also spends quite a bit of time covering the contributions that McArthur made in rebuilding Japan after WWII.
Bix's writing style is pleasant. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan seems very well researched. This book is the place to start if you want to understand U.S. - Japanese relations.
Hirohito's Life Revealed.......2005-10-06
This book explicitly tells of Hirohito's life from a newborn Crown Prince to an Emperor on his deathbed. It shows how his upbringing had a serious impact on his decisions in the war and how he dealt with the consequences of those decisions after the war. As a child, he was given the best education according to Japanese custom. He spent most of his life away from his father and grandfather, since they were both busy men. He witnessed the glorious aftermath of the Russo-Japanese war and believed that this was the standard that should happen for the War of Greater East Asia.
In the war, most people perceived him as a puppet being operated by a group of military advisors. This is blatantly wrong. He played an active role in what happened and didn't happen in the war. He knew about the treatment of POW's and Chinese civilians but did little to stop this. The delay of the surrender was also his fault, as he sought a way out that would leave him and his regime intact.
After the war was concluded, The Japanese people felt as though they had to protect their emperor's innocence even after all that he had done. As the blame was placed on General Tojo, who accepted his death as willing as anyone else in history, and his cabinet, Hirohito escaped with no blame placed on him. The emperor then began to rebuild and recreate Japan as a peaceful nation with economic power to rival the western countries. This book is an excellent account of Hirohito's life and what influenced him to do what he did. I recommend this book to history or Japan fans so they can learn the emperor's story.
stating the obvious: that Hirohito was in the loop.......2005-10-01
Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine houses the souls of 2.4 million Japanese soldiers, most of whom fell in the Pacific War in the service of the late Emperor Hirohito, the subject of this rather acrid biography by Herbert P. Bix, who was a history professor at Tokyo's Hitotsubashi University when he published this tome.
The book has a simple thesis. The late emperor Hirohito was centrally involved in planning and prosecuting the Pacific war and should be held accountable even now for it. As part of this process, Bix would also like Yasukuni Shrine, one of Japan's three most important Shinto shrines, stripped of whatever militaristic and nationalistic symbolism it possesses. Bix is undoubtedly a good historian. But is he right? And is he fair? Probably not.
When 360 Japanese planes sank 90% of America's Pacific fleet moored in Pearl Harbour on Sunday, 7 December 1941, the Japanese bit off more than they could ever chew. The attack, which was modeled on the British attack on the Italian fleet a few months earlier, sank five battleships, two cruisers, three destroyers and two other naval vessels moored at Pearl Harbour. A further one hundred and seventy five planes were destroyed on Hickman Airfield. Only 28 Japanese planes were lost. Unfortunately for the Japanese, the Pacific Fleet's three aircraft carriers had not been in port and were not hunted down afterwards. These three aircraft carriers, joined by two others, eventually spearheaded the American counter attack. Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto's string of early successes ended only six months later at the Battle of Midway.
Even though Japan's navy was in the ascendant for only six months, the picture, even in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbour, was bleak. An early attack on Ceylon was repulsed by the wily cat and mouse tactics of the largely obsolete British Far Eastern fleet under Admiral Sir James Somerville; he engaged in hit and run tactics against a superior Japanese flotilla. As a consequence, Britain only had to defend India in Burma. Japan, in other words, was already getting boxed in. They would have to fight the war on ground chosen by their enemies. The war, even then, was unwinnable.
Unlike the Allies, Japan did not have a viable strategy. Despite Bix's attempts to paint Hirohito out as Nippon's supreme commander, he was no Eisenhower or MacArthur. He was the Emperor of a nation run by a bunch of feuding fools, who rushed headlong into a war they could never hope to win.
The Japanese of that generation paid a terrible price for their leaders' folly. Over 100,000 Tokyo citizens were incinerated from March 9-10 1945, when the United States Air Force carpeted the city with incendiary bombs. Even as Truman announced Japan's unconditional surrender, Tokyo was flattened by a further 1,000 planes, just, one supposed, to let the world know who was boss - unsurprisingly enough, given the scale of Japan's devastation, all 1,000 planes returned safely to base to celebrate VJ Day. By then, a third of Hirohito's surviving subjects were homeless, 65% of all Tokyo residences were destroyed - 89% of Nagoya was in ruins. Over 500,000 Japanese troops had been dragooned into Siberian slave camps. Some 2 million others had also died - Yasukuni houses a goodly number of those sad souls, whose lives were cut short by the madness that then gripped Japan's leaders. But at least the madness of that war ended.
Hirohito's surrender was a cruel awakening for himself as well as for all his subjects and only a fool would say that the trauma is over for the relatives of all the fallen. The protests by Japan's wartime victims, which rocked Britain on Emperor Akihito's recent visit, is evidence enough of that. Korea, China and the Philippines provide plenty more.
Bix is not a fool. He is a Harvard-trained historian, who includes almost 100 pages of largely superfluous footnotes in this massive tome. Yet the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal report was much bigger. And, unlike Bix, most historians and lawyers agree that it was a travesty of justice. Bix produces plenty of well-worn evidence against Hirohito, as well as some new findings as befitting his scholarly calling. But does it matter? Probably not, unless you are a professional historian. And if you are, you should probably give Stalin's judge a more prominent role than Bix does. You should also extend to the independent stance adopted by Radhabinod Pal, India's representative, more respect than Bix does. You should also give the British - and the Poles - more credit than Bix does for Hitler's defeat. They, not FDR, were Hitler's most implacable enemies; they were the only two nations which engaged in the fight without stint from start to finish. One only has to recall Churchill's most famous speeches to agree that no one was more implacably opposed to Hitler than he was.
Perhaps that is a mere quibble to be expected from reading a book as vast as this one. However, there are several more. Although, for example, Bix presents a strong case against Hirohito, the author's most striking snippet of evidence favours the defense, not the prosecution. His first picture of the former emperor shows Hirohito as a brave and bonny babe waving the Rising Sun flag on his first birthday. That flag was to haunt the little boy ever since. It was to be almost his only companion.
He had few others. When he was only three months' old, he was taken away from his seventeen-year-old mother. He had no childhood games or friends. He was not allowed access even to his own brothers. His only companion was General Nogi Maresuke, the hero of Japan's formative 1905 Russian war, who committed hara kiri when the little boy was only seven. Aside from his wife, the Empress Nagako, his only social outlet was reviewing his assault troops from his pedigree white charger. Because the little boy grew up to have a strange, long, lonely and somehow unfulfilled life, perhaps he should be allowed, like those in Yasukuni, to sleep in peace. He'll be doing somersaults if Bix has his way.
Although Bix has done a good stitch-up, it is akin to another book on Diana or the Queen Mother. There is nothing major here that John Dower or other historians have not already told us. Although the book does shed valuable light on the past, throwing stones, however deservedly, at a revered emperor does not lead to parity of esteem. The challenge is to rise above the partisan venalities of history and to put an end not only to all wars but to their causes as well.
The Japanese, Hirohito's direct descendants included, have a key role to play in that process. Japan's challenge is to make amends for the grave mistakes of the past. Japan's politicians must chart the future. And to do that, they must learn the lessons and dynamics of history so that Japan and her neighbours never have the nightmare of war revisit them. This big book will be a very small but very important help in that regard.
Following Bix' award, this book was widely available in Japan. Whi says the Japanese do not have a sense of humor?
Book Description
Magisterial in vision, sweeping in scope, this monumental work presents a seamless account of Japanese society during the modern era, from 1600 to the present. A distillation of more than fifty years' engagement with Japan and its history, it is the crowning work of our leading interpreter of the modern Japanese experience.
Since 1600 Japan has undergone three periods of wrenching social and institutional change, following the imposition of hegemonic order on feudal society by the Tokugawa shogun; the opening of Japan's ports by Commodore Perry; and defeat in World War II. The Making of Modern Japan charts these changes: the social engineering begun with the founding of the shogunate in 1600, the emergence of village and castle towns with consumer populations, and the diffusion of samurai values in the culture.
Jansen covers the making of the modern state, the adaptation of Western models, growing international trade, the broadening opportunity in Japanese society with industrialization, and the postwar occupation reforms imposed by General MacArthur. Throughout, the book gives voice to the individuals and views that have shaped the actions and beliefs of the Japanese, with writers, artists, and thinkers, as well as political leaders given their due.
The story this book tells, though marked by profound changes, is also one of remarkable consistency, in which continuities outweigh upheavals in the development of society, and successive waves of outside influence have only served to strengthen a sense of what is unique and native to Japanese experience. The Making of Modern Japan takes us to the core of this experience as it illuminates one of the contemporary world's most compelling transformations.
Customer Reviews:
An Excellent Book.......2005-10-12
The Making of Modern Japan is an excellent book for both casual readers and persons truly interested in Japan. It is a sprawling canvass of historic events, major personalities and in-depth conclusions. Written in a well-structured way, the book tells about the ancient beginnings of the Japanese state, culture and people, goes through the times of the Shogunate and explains in great details the transformation from feudal seclusive society into modern state. The mission of Commodore Perry and the Mejii Restoration are the backbone of transforming Japan and the foundation to its future prosperity. Prof. Jansen shows a deep understanding for the complexity of the Japanese society and its historic development. Not only history, but also culture and religion rank as well-presented topics in the book. Interesting insights into business, architecture and literature are included in a far-reaching historic perspective. By looking at the long-term ability of the Japanese to adapt, transform and improve first religious practises, later political systems and business models, Prof. Jansen describes the driving force behind the never-ending Japanese miracle and the resilience of Japan in the face of periodic ups and downs.
Exasperating -- but worth the slog.......2005-03-26
What an exasperating book. At times, The Making of Modern Japan is a joy to read, filled with wonderful translations of primary sources and with Jansen's own wry asides. At others, the prose is painfully academic. It's almost like it was written by different authors. I found the first quarter of the book, a detailed description of the Tokugawa status quo on the eve of revolutionary change, to be deadly dull - 200 pages of sentences, none of which seemed to contain verbs. As the action increases - and Japan begins to reform in the face of foreign pressure - the book gets better. But even here the prose can be deadly. Readers approaching Jansen's otherwise interesting survey of Meiji culture must first get past this sentence, standing like a sentinel at the start of Chapter 14 waiting to bludgeon them senseless: "Histories of Meiji Japan usually follow a periodization derived from the construction of the modern nation-state.'' I found myself crying: "Stop this man before he writes `periodization' again!" But Jansen's immense knowledge, judicious analysis and well-chosen excerpts redeem the book. I loved the Japanese scholar who, upon encountering Western learning, describes the joy of discovery as "sweet as sugar cane.'' I was thunderstruck by the 19th century writer who sounds like Saruman ranting in Isengard as he extols the glories of environmental destruction: "The smoke coiling up from thousands of chimneys will obscure the sun. Ship masts will be as numerous as trees in a forest. The sound of drills, levers and hammers will be orchestrated with the echoes of steam engines...How delightful it will be!" The book also concludes with a lengthy and useful list of recommended reading. For readers who want a comprehensive, balanced and at times delightful introduction to the events that made modern Japan, this book is worth the slog. But a slog it sometimes is.
Thorough and informative.......2004-06-26
I bought this book for reference while taking a Modern History of Asia class - I ended up reading the whole thing! Informative, interesting and a great resource for the 3 papers on Japan I wrote.
Absolutely facinating to students of Japanese History.......2004-04-17
I could not put this book down once I started reading it. Anyone looking for details from the end of the Edo era through the Allied Occupation follwing WWII will not be able to find a better book than this.
The work of a liftetime. . ........2003-11-23
And for most, reading it may take a lifetime. But that might not be a bad thing.
This book has two strong points: first, it is remarkably all-inclusive - the work of a master historian; second, it is inexpensive for such a massive tome.
Jansen crafts a decent narrative, but the writing itself is sometimes plodding and only the most tenacious reader will be able to navigate all 765 pages.
Which means that this is an excellent book for researchers and budding Japan specialists. It is probably the best condensed history that covers this massive a timeframe.
But for the casual reader this book can at best be read over the years, chunk by chunk only as inspiration strikes.
Book Description
The year 1988 commenmorated the fourth generation since the Meiji Restoration of 1868 defined Japan's position-political, economic, and cultural-in the modern world. This period of history, which witnessed the rise, defeat, and rebirth of contemporary Japan, has been widely written about. Nevertheless, there remains, in the realm of architecture, an intractable gap in our knowledge of this span of more than a century. It is precisely that breach which Making of a Modern Japanese Architecture(with its more than 400 illustrations) undertakes to repair. It brilliantly charts the course of the art of building in this very old and yet, in a sense, quite new country from the middle of the mineteenth century to the onset of the 1980s. The book successfully sets before the reader, and illustrates in striking manner, the sea change that Japan's architecture underwent as feudal customs and an intense preoccupation with beauty encountered industrialization and modern lifetstyles. By what means, then, was the switch-over made from homes of paper and wood to efficient urban complexes of earthquakeproof reinforced concrete? The answer, during the Meiji era, was gaslighting and brick, followed in the second and third decades of the new century by an interval of Art Deco and jazz-age freneticism. On account of his controversial rebuilding of the great Imperial Hotel, the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was a participant in these years of so-called Taisho Democracy. Wright was more often than not present in the Japanese capital during this phase of his career, which he lived to the hilt by pursuing his instincts as a connoisseur and an aesthete of the first order. When he was, eventually, dismissed, his versatile assistant, the Czech modernist Antonin Raymond, stepped into the vanguard of Japanese architecture, a position which in many respects he retained well into the 1950s.
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The Making of the Modern World: Visions from the West and East
Alan Macfarlane
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Japan
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
20th Century
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ASIN: 0333964462 |
Book Description
At the start of the third Christian millennium we are aware of massive political, economic, and ideological changes which condition the chances of liberty, wealth, and equality. Yet it is surprisingly difficult to understand these forces, because we cannot see what surrounds us so closely. This book analyzes our condition by looking at the work of two great thinkers; F.W. Maitland provides a deep historical perspective, while Yukichi Fukuzawa lays down a wide comparative analysis.
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Punishment and Power in the Making of Modern Japan
Daniel V. Botsman
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0691114919 |
Book Description
The kinds of punishment used in a society have long been considered an important criterion in judging whether a society is civilized or barbaric, advanced or backward, modern or premodern. Focusing on Japan, and the dramatic revolution in punishments that occurred after the Meiji Restoration, Daniel Botsman asks how such distinctions have affected our understanding of the past and contributed, in turn, to the proliferation of new kinds of barbarity in the modern world.
While there is no denying the ferocity of many of the penal practices in use during the Tokugawa period (1600-1868), this book begins by showing that these formed part of a sophisticated system of order that did have its limits. Botsman then demonstrates that although significant innovations occurred later in the period, they did not fit smoothly into the "modernization" process. Instead, he argues, the Western powers forced a break with the past by using the specter of Oriental barbarism to justify their own aggressive expansion into East Asia. The ensuing changes were not simply imposed from outside, however. The Meiji regime soon realized that the modern prison could serve not only as a symbol of Japan's international progress but also as a powerful domestic tool. The first English-language study of the history of punishment in Japan, the book concludes by examining how modern ideas about progress and civilization shaped penal practices in Japan's own colonial empire.
Book Description
Jewelry art in Japan is, surprisingly, mainly a twentieth-century development. Classical Japanese jewelry was never made simply for ornament, but had a practical purpose, with beautifully crafted belt toggles, fans, and haircombs being worn for social and religious occasions. In the last few years, however, a whole new studio jewelry scene has emerged in Japan, producing objects of astounding quality.
Featuring 200 beautifully illustrated examples of the very finest work by 50 contemporary artists, and in particular the revolutionary materials being used, including lipstick, ash, and naturally decaying naphthalene, Contemporary Japanese Jewellery is the first book to be published outside Japan that charts the trends and developments in this growing area of interest.
With a historical overview of the Japanese jewelry-making tradition and its social context, as well as twentieth-century developments as Japan became increasingly influenced by the West, Contemporary Japanese Jewellery will be indispensable to anyone interested in modern developments in jewelry-making, and of great appeal to the broader craft and design communities.
Customer Reviews:
Keep your trash - it's potential jewelry.......2004-02-27
This book is a catalogue of jewelry featured in an exhibition that toured the United Kingdom accompanying the "Japan 2001" festival. The pictures of personal ornamentation in this book will test how you define `jewelry.' Simplicity is thematic, giving the viewer an impression of movement in the swoops and curves shaping each piece. For example, ear ornaments do not hang from the earlobe but, instead, are shaped to the ear's interior, like a hearing aide, with a hole made for sounds to enter.
Teruo Akatsu makes beads from dust, threading them onto stainless steel wire. I surely have a surplus of this raw material at my home. (You might recall that our San Antonio artist Sherry Fotopoulos has used dryer lint to create sculptures.)
Tomomi Arata uses sand, enamel, silver, and gemstones to create rings that looks like they've been lost in an ancient shipwreck.
Hiromasa Hashimoto strings liquid silver bugle beads on silicone cord to make a geometric necklace. Yuta Hataya fashions bracelets checkered by brass and silver.
Mikiko Minewaki is the ultimate recycler, making rings from the ends of cigarette lighters and colored plastics.
The above examples show just a few unusual materials used by these inventive artists, but you must see the book to know how the materials are rendered into spectacular jewelry ornaments.
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The Foreign Policy of Modern Japan (Campus ; 196)
Scalapin
Manufacturer: Univ of California Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0520034996 |
Books:
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- The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Awakening, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND: 10 Keys for Unlocking Your Personal Potential, Achieving Spiritual Awakening, ... of Humanity's Ultimate Cosmic Destiny
- The Wandering Hill: A Novel (Beryybender Narratives)
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