Japan Before Perry

by Totman, Conrad

• ISBN13: 9780520254077
• ISBN10: 0520254074
• Edition: 25th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-14
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

By 1853 Japan had been transformed from a sparsely populated land of nonliterate tribal peoples into an elaborately structured commercial society sustaining massive cities and a varied array of sophisticated cultural production. In this authoritative survey, Conrad Totman examines the origins of Japanese civilization and explores in detail the classical, medieval, and early-modern epochs, weaving interpretations of the major themes in Japan's cultural and political development into a rich historical narrative.

Author Biography

Conrad Totman is Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University

Table of Contents

List of Maps	p. x
Preface	p. xi
The Beginnings	p. 1
Prehistoric cultures	p. 2
The Yamato age	p. 7
Classical Japan: An Age of Aristocratic Bureaucracy	p. 18
The origins of aristocratic bureaucracy	p. 19
Evolution of the political order, A.D. 700-1100	p. 26
Higher culture	p. 31
Aristocratic Buddhism	p. 32
Arts and letters	p. 42
The larger society	p. 54
The waning of an age	p. 63
Medieval Japan: An Age of Political Fluidity	p. 70
The emergence of bushi rule	p. 73
Evolution of the political order, A.D. 1250-1500	p. 80
Higher culture	p. 85
The bushi ethos	p. 85
Religious thought and action	p. 93
Arts and letters: a new aesthetic unity	p. 106
Social change: the early phase of a metamorphosis	p. 117
Economic trends	p. 118
Military trends	p. 123
Trends in gross productivity and population	p. 126
The legacy of an age	p. 129
Early-Modern Japan: An Age of Integral Bureaucracy	p. 133
The forging of integral bureaucracy	p. 137
Emergence of the new structure	p. 138
The chronology of pacification	p. 142
Evolution of the political order, A.D. 1615-1850	p. 145
Elaboration of the polity	p. 145
Articulation of an ideology of rule	p. 150
Stresses in the polity	p. 158
Higher culture	p. 164
Bushi culture	p. 166
Chonin culture	p. 167
The spread of literacy and learning	p. 174
The pattern of early-modern thought	p. 176
Social change: toward completion of a metamorphosis	p. 188
Urbanization	p. 189
Commercialization	p. 192
Rural change	p. 195
The decay of an age	p. 199
Rural disorder	p. 199
New directions in arts and letters	p. 201
New trends in political thought	p. 205
Growth and regulation	p. 213
The environmental legacy	p. 214
Early-modern growth	p. 219
Early-modern regulation	p. 222
Conclusion	p. 230
Glossary	p. 233
Bibliographical Note	p. 239
Index	p. 241
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