Anne Walthall - Böcker

In 1862, 51-year-old Matsuo Taseko left her old life behind by travelling to Kyoto, the old imperial capital. Peasant, poet, and local political activist, Taseko had come to Kyoto to support the nativist campaign to restore the Japanese emperor and expel Western "barbarians". Although she played a minor role in the events that led to the Meiji Restoration of 1868, her actions were nonetheless astonishing for a woman of her day. Honoured as a hero even before her death, Taseko has since been adopted as a patron saint by rightist nationalists. In telling Taseko's story, the text gives both the biography in English of a peasant woman of the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) and fresh perspectives on the practices and intellectual concerns of rural entrepreneurs and their role in the Meiji Restoration.

In 1862, 51-year-old Matsuo Taseko left her old life behind by travelling to Kyoto, the old imperial capital. Peasant, poet, and local political activist, Taseko had come to Kyoto to support the nativist campaign to restore the Japanese emperor and expel Western "barbarians". Although she played a minor role in the events that led to the Meiji Restoration of 1868, her actions were nonetheless astonishing for a woman of her day. Honoured as a hero even before her death, Taseko has since been adopted as a patron saint by rightist nationalists. In telling Taseko's story, the text gives both the biography in English of a peasant woman of the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) and fresh perspectives on the practices and intellectual concerns of rural entrepreneurs and their role in the Meiji Restoration.

Although scholars have emphasized the importance of women’s networks for civil society in twentieth-century Japan, Women and Networks in Nineteenth-Century Japan is the first book to tackle the subject for the contentious and consequential nineteenth century. The essays traverse the divide when Japan started transforming itself from a decentralized to a centralized government, from legally imposed restrictions on movement to the breakdown of travel barriers, and from ad hoc schooling to compulsory elementary school education. As these essays suggest, such changes had a profound impact on women and their roles in networks. Rather than pursue a common methodology, the authors take diverse approaches to this topic that open up fruitful avenues for further exploration.Most of the essays in this volume are by Japanese scholars; their inclusion here provides either an introduction to their work or the opportunity to explore their scholarship further. Because women are often invisible in historical documentation, the authors use a range of sources (such as diaries, letters, and legal documents) to reconstruct the familial, neighborhood, religious, political, work, and travel networks that women maintained, constructed, or found themselves in, sometimes against their will. In so doing, most but not all of the authors try to decenter historical narratives built on men’s activities and men’s occupational and status-based networks, and instead recover women’s activities in more localized groupings and personal associations.

In the Presence of Gods and Spirits brings to life the early nineteenth-century Japanese religious leader and scholar Hirata Atsutane, whose fear of Russian incursion onto Japan’s soil led him to redefine what it means to be Japanese. Atsutane advocated the study of the Way of the Gods, commonly known as Shinto, to explain what happens to the soul after death and to cultivate a Japanese identity centered on gods, spirits, and the emperor. His teachings would later attract thousands of followers and feed the movements that led to the Meiji Restoration. Drawing on the concept of material religion, Walthall demonstrates how Atsutane and his collaborators sought out knowledge of the unseen world and educated others, while seeking to bring themselves closer to the gods and spirits. This work showcases Atsutane and his community’s legacy, which has had a profound influence on Japanese society, religious belief, and culture far beyond his lifetime.

Although scholars have emphasized the importance of women’s networks for civil society in twentieth-century Japan, Women and Networks in Nineteenth-Century Japan is the first book to tackle the subject for the contentious and consequential nineteenth century. The essays traverse the divide when Japan started transforming itself from a decentralized to a centralized government, from legally imposed restrictions on movement to the breakdown of travel barriers, and from ad hoc schooling to compulsory elementary school education. As these essays suggest, such changes had a profound impact on women and their roles in networks. Rather than pursue a common methodology, the authors take diverse approaches to this topic that open up fruitful avenues for further exploration.Most of the essays in this volume are by Japanese scholars; their inclusion here provides either an introduction to their work or the opportunity to explore their scholarship further. Because women are often invisible in historical documentation, the authors use a range of sources (such as diaries, letters, and legal documents) to reconstruct the familial, neighborhood, religious, political, work, and travel networks that women maintained, constructed, or found themselves in, sometimes against their will. In so doing, most but not all of the authors try to decenter historical narratives built on men’s activities and men’s occupational and status-based networks, and instead recover women’s activities in more localized groupings and personal associations.

In the Presence of Gods and Spirits brings to life the early nineteenth-century Japanese religious leader and scholar Hirata Atsutane, whose fear of Russian incursion onto Japan’s soil led him to redefine what it means to be Japanese. Atsutane advocated the study of the Way of the Gods, commonly known as Shinto, to explain what happens to the soul after death and to cultivate a Japanese identity centered on gods, spirits, and the emperor. His teachings would later attract thousands of followers and feed the movements that led to the Meiji Restoration. Drawing on the concept of material religion, Walthall demonstrates how Atsutane and his collaborators sought out knowledge of the unseen world and educated others, while seeking to bring themselves closer to the gods and spirits. This work showcases Atsutane and his community’s legacy, which has had a profound influence on Japanese society, religious belief, and culture far beyond his lifetime.

Mothers, wives, concubines, entertainers, attendants, officials, maids, drudges. By offering the first comparative view of the women who lived, worked, and served in royal courts around the globe, this work opens a new perspective on the monarchies that have dominated much of human history. Written by leading historians, anthropologists, and archeologists, these lively essays take us from Mayan states to twentieth-century Benin in Nigeria, to the palace of Japanese Shoguns, the Chinese Imperial courts, eighteenth-century Versailles, Mughal India, and beyond. Together they investigate how women's roles differed, how their roles changed over time, and how their histories can illuminate the structures of power and societies in which they lived. This work also furthers our understanding of how royal courts, created to project the authority of male rulers, maintained themselves through the reproductive and productive powers of women.

The essays in this groundbreaking book explore the meanings of manhood in Japan from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. "Recreating Japanese Men" examines a broad range of attitudes regarding properly masculine pursuits and modes of behavior. It charts breakdowns in traditional and conventional societal roles and the resulting crises of masculinity. Contributors address key questions about Japanese manhood ranging from icons such as the samurai to marginal men including hermaphrodites, robots, techno-geeks, rock climbers, shop clerks, soldiers, shoguns, and more. In addition to bringing historical evidence to bear on definitions of masculinity, contributors provide fresh analyses on the ways contemporary modes and styles of masculinity have affected Japanese men's sense of gender as authentic and stable.

Few things make Japanese adults feel quite as anxious today as the phenomenon called the "child crisis." Various media teem with intense debates about bullying in schools, child poverty, child suicides, violent crimes committed by children, the rise of socially withdrawn youngsters, and forceful moves by the government to introduce a more conservative educational curriculum. These issues have propelled Japan into the center of a set of global conversations about the nature of children and how to raise them. Engaging both the history of children and childhood and the history of emotions, contributors to this volume track Japanese childhood through a number of historical scenarios. Such explorations-some from Japan's early-modern past-are revealed through letters, diaries, memoirs, family and household records, and religious polemics about promising, rambunctious, sickly, happy, and dutiful youngsters.

The Human Tradition in Modern Japan is a collection of short biographies of ordinary Japanese men and women, most of them unknown outside their family and locality, whose lives collectively span the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their stories present a counterweight to the prevailing stereotypes, providing students with depictions of real people through the records they have left-records that detail experiences and aspirations. The Human Tradition in Modern Japan offers a human-scale perspective that focuses on individuals, reconstitutes the meaning of people's experiences as they lived through them, and puts a human face on history. It skillfully bridges the divides between the sexes, between the local and the national, and between rural and urban, as well as spanning crucial moments in the history of modern Japan. The Human Tradition in Modern Japan is an excellent resource for courses on Japanese history, East Asian history, and peoples and cultures of Japan.

Written by top scholars in the field, EAST ASIA: A CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL HISTORY, 3E delivers a comprehensive cultural, political, economic, and intellectual history of East Asia, while focusing on the narratives and histories of China, Japan, and Korea in a larger, global context. Full color inserts on such topics as food, clothing, and art objects illustrate the rich artistic heritage of East Asia. A range of primary source documents spotlights women's independence, students-turned-soldiers, and other stirring issues, while intriguing biographical sketches throughout highlight the lives of popular figures and ordinary people alike.

Written by top scholars in the field, EAST ASIA: A CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL HISTORY, VOLUME II: FROM 1600, 3E delivers a comprehensive cultural, political, economic, and intellectual history of East Asia, while focusing on the narratives and histories of China, Japan, and Korea in a larger, global context. Full color inserts on such topics as food, clothing, and art objects illustrate the rich artistic heritage of East Asia. A range of primary source documents spotlights women's independence, students-turned-soldiers, and other stirring issues, while intriguing biographical sketches throughout highlight the lives of popular figures and ordinary people alike.