Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-270) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: The Shogun's Japan -- How to evaluate primary documents -- Timeline -- I. The domestic sphere -- Getting married -- Obtaining a divorce -- The consequences of adultery -- A woman's place -- II. Material life -- Fashion and sumptuary legislation -- Samurai dress and grooming standards -- Lunisolar calendar -- Japanese foodways and diet -- The communal bath -- The Japanese home -- III. The political sphere -- A foreigner's view of the Battle of Osaka -- Forging political order -- The emperor and the Kyoto aristocracy -- Weapons control in Japanese society -- Self-governance in villages -- Regulating townsmen in two cities -- IV. Foreign relations -- Regulating foreign relations -- Tokugawa Japan and Choson Korea -- Leaving a window open to the Western world -- A Dutch audience with the Shogun -- Sizing up the foreign threat -- V. Social and economic life -- The social estates -- Trying to get by on a fixed income -- The samurai and death -- Private vengeance among samurai -- Rules of merchant houses -- Dealing with deviant behavior -- Loans among the peasantry -- Unrest in the countryside -- Outcastes in Tokugawa society -- VI. Recreational life -- Advice to travelers in the Edo period -- Documentation for travel -- Children and their amusements -- The tea ceremony -- Archery and the martial arts -- Courtesans and the sex trade -- A hero for the masses -- VII. Religion and morality -- Preaching to the people -- Anti-Christian propaganda -- Controlling the populace -- Religious views of the Japanese -- The teachings of Zen Buddhism -- Appendix 1: Biographical Sketches of Important Individuals Mentioned in Text -- Appendix 2: Glossary of Terms Mentioned in Text.
Summary:
Voices of Early Modern Japan offers an accessible and well-balanced view of an extraordinary period in Japanese history, ranging from the unification of the warring states under Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early seventeenth century through the overthrow of the shogunate just prior to the opening of Japan by the West in the mid-nineteenth century. Through a close examination of primary sources from "The Great Peace," this fascinating volume offers fresh insights into the Tokugawa era--its political institutions, rigid class hierarchy, artistic and material culture, religious life, and more. Sources from all levels of Japanese society, from government documents and household records to personal correspondence and diaries, are carefully translated and examined in light of the latest scholarship. Constantine Nomikos Vaporis ably demonstrates how historians use primary documents and what can be uncovered from the words of ordinary people who lived centuries earlier. With robust reader resources and comprehensive coverage, Voices of Early Modern Japan is the perfect addition for students and interested readers seeking a fuller understanding of the Tokugawa period.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.