Few scholars have seriously studied the subject, and until now none have satisfactorily explained the origins of the tradition or elucidated how its conventions reflected class structure and gender roles. Gary P. Leupp fills the gap with a dynamic examination of the origins and nature of the tradition. Based on a wealth of literary and historical documentation, this study places Tokugawa homosexuality in a global context, exploring its implications for contemporary debates on the historical construction of sexual desire.Combing through popular fiction, law codes, religious works, medical treatises, biographical material, and artistic treatments, Leupp traces the origins of pre-Tokugawa homosexual traditions among monks and samurai, then describes the emergence of homosexual practices among commoners in Tokugawa cities. He argues that it was "nurture" rather than "nature" that accounted for such conspicuous male/male sexuality and that bisexuality was more prevalent than homosexuality. Detailed, thorough, and very readable, this study is the first in English or Japanese to address so comprehensively one of the most complex and intriguing aspects of Japanese history.

    "SENSO" provides the general reader and the specialist with moving, disturbing, startling insights on a subject deliberately swept under the rug, both by Japan's citizenry and its government. It is an invaluable index of Japanese public opinion about the war.

    In this study, Constantine Vaporis challenges the notion that this system of travel regulations prevented widespread travel, maintaining instead that a "culture of movement" in Japan developed in the Tokugawa era.Using a combination of governmental documentation and travel literature, diaries, and wood-block prints, Vaporis examines the development of travel as recreation; he discusses the impact of pilgrimage and the institutionalization of alms-giving on the freedom of movement commoners enjoyed. By the end of the Tokugawa era, the popular nature of travel and a sophisticated system of roads were well established. Vaporis explores the reluctance of the bakufu to enforce its travel laws, and in doing so, beautifully evokes the character of the journey through Tokugawa Japan.

    Does anything remain of the old city?The internationally known Japanese architectural historian Jinnai Hidenobu set out on foot to rediscover the city of Tokyo. Armed with old maps, he wandered through back alleys and lanes, trying to experience the city's space as it had been lived by earlier residents. He found that, despite an almost completely new cityscape, present-day inhabitants divide Tokyo's space in much the same way that their ancestors did two hundred years before.Jinnai's holistic perspective is enhanced by his detailing of how natural, topographical features were incorporated into the layout of the city. A variety of visual documents (maps from the Tokugawa and Meiji periods, building floorplans, woodblock prints, photographs) supplement his observations. While an important work for architects and historians, this unusual book will also attract armchair travelers and anyone interested in the symbolic uses of space.(A translation of Tokyo no kûkan jinruigaku.)

    Her focus, the Ina Valley, served as a gateway to the mountainous interior of central Japan. Using methods drawn from historical geography and economic development, Wigen maps the valley's changes—from a region of small settlements linked in an autonomous economic zone, to its transformation into a peripheral part of the global silk trade, dependent on the state. Yet the processes that brought these changes—industrial growth and political centralization—were crucial to Japan's rise to imperial power. Wigen's elucidation of this makes her book compelling reading for a broad audience.

    It is impossible to over-estimate Saigo's importance, both during the pivotal Meiji period and today. A samurai from Kagoshima, Saigo played a major role during the Meiji Restoration, then died in 1877 while involved in a samurai rebellion against the government he had done so much to create. He remains today among Japan's most beloved national heroes, and is universally believed to embody the very essence of what it means to be Japanese. As the Japanese say to foreigners - 'Understand Saigo and you will understand Japan.'. As this fascinating and highly important study shows, the controversy surrounding Saigo arose and continues today because Dai Saigo - 'The Great Saigo' - and the historical Saigo Takamori who lived in Japan between 1827 and 1877 are two very different characters. One is the myth, the other the man behind it, who has until now remained largely unknown, not just in the popular mind but even in the minds of Japan's professional historians. Returning to primary sources, the author reconstructs the historical Saigo from the clues he has left behind in his own words and deeds, disentangling him from the mythic Dai Saigo in order to provide the first accurate account of the career of one of the most widely known and admired figures in Japanese history.

    Japan underwent momentous changes during the nineteenth century. This book chronicles the transition from Tokugawa rule, and the political process that finally ended centuries of warrior rule. It goes on to discuss the samurai rebellions against the Meiji Restoration, national movements for constitutional government that indirectly resulted in the Meiji Constitution of 1889, and Japan's twentieth-century drive to Great Power status.

    In this study, David L. Howell looks beyond the institutional and technological changes that followed Japan's reopening to the West to probe the indigenous origins of Japanese capitalism.

    First in-depth study in English of Japanese names, their history and evolution, and ontological implications.