Ian Neary taught at the universities of Huddersfield, Newcastle and Essex before arriving at Oxford University in 2004. He retired in 2019 and is now an emeritus fellow at the Nissan Institute and St Antony’s College. He has written about Buraku issues, human rights and industrial policy in Japan and published a textbook on Japanese politics (2002, 2nd edition 2018). He lives for part of each year in the town of Soeda, Fukuoka prefecture.

• List of Illustrations List of Tables Preface and Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction and early history Chapter 2: Mt Hiko – the evolution of a monastic community Chapter 3: Soeda: Its early modern history Chapter 4: The modernisation of Soeda Chapter 5: Coal mining in Soeda Chapter 6: Soeda in the war years Chapter 7: Soeda under occupation and after Chapter 8: Buraku in Soeda Chapter 9: ‘Post-industrial’ Soeda 1970–2010 Epilogue Soeda’s present and future List of Mt Hiko’s abbots (zasu) Kanji Glossary Bibliography Index