The Culture of the Meiji Period / Edition 1

by Daikichi Irokawa, Marius B. Jansen

Overview

The description for this book, The Culture of the Meiji Period, will be forthcoming.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691000305
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	10/21/1988
Series:	Princeton Library of Asian Translations , #36
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

	Preface to the English Translation	vii
	Editor's Introduction	ix
	Introduction	3
	Japan: A Very Strange Country	3
	The Emperor System as a "Weight Upon the Eyes,"	9
	The Limits and Scope of the Problem	15
I	The Creation of A Grass-Roots Culture	19
	The Silent Folk World	19
	First Stirring	25
	Subtle Transformations Toward Modernity	29
	A Sickness of Soul	40
	The Impact of the Restoration on Mountain Villages	44
II	The Impact Of Western Culture	51
	The Approach of Reform Bureaucrats	51
	Advocates of Enlightenment and the People	59
	The Cultural Gulf Between Japan and the West	68
III	Wandering Pilgrims	76
	Restoration Youth	76
	A Spiritual Journey	84
	Grass-Roots Self-Government	92
	Substitution and Restatement	102
	Creating a People's Constitution	108
	Swan Song	113
IV	Poetry in Chinese and Revolutionary Thought	123
	Onuma Chinzan and Mori Shunto
	Two Contrasting Undercurrents	123
	Historical Consciousness and Poetic Spirit	131
	The Life of Local Men of Letters	139
	Politics and Literature	143
V	The Heights and Depths of Popular Consciousness	151
	The Voices of the Inarticulate	151
	The Thoughts of Unknown Soldiers	159
	Mountain Village Communes	164
	Abandoning Conventional Morality	171
	The Clash of Ideas at the Lower Social Level	181
	From Peak to Valley	191
VI	Carriers of Meiji Culture	196
	The Establishment of the Japanese Intellectual Class	196
	Opening the Eye to the Inner Life	207
	Views of Civilization	212
VII	Meiji Conditions of Nonculture	219
	Desperate Farming Villages in the Meiji Era	219
	Consciousness in the Lower Depths	224
	The Age of the Lost Ideal	234
VIII	The Emperor System as a Spiritual Structure	245
	Introduction	245
	The Legacy of Kokutai	247
	The Emperor and the People	251
	A Tradition Without Structure	260
	Maruyama's Interpretation of Kokutai	267
	The Kyodotai	273
	The "Family-State" (Kazoku Kokka)	280
	"Domicide" (Iegoroshi)	287
	A Soldier's Feelings	293
	The Power of National Education	299
	Conclusion	309
	Index of Names Cited	313

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating account of aspects of Japanese culture between 1868 and the early twentieth century. . . . Irokawa Daikichi is an indefatigable researcher, and the fruits of his own and others' labors on back roads and in old storehouses are amply represented here. Moreover, he has discovered materials untouched since the Meiji period, and he is able to interpret them in fresh, provocative ways. He makes excellent use of poetry, letters, diaries, and songs to probe the mentality of peasants and rustic intellectuals, and he interprets his findings in a way that challenges major post-World War II trends in historiography.

Journal of Asian Studies - J. Victor Koschmann

This book, a translation of Irokawa's 1969 classic Meiji no Bunka, is best described as an analysis of popular political consciousness in the Meiji period and its corruption by the Emperor System. . . . the translation is lucid and seamless, a remarkable achievement given the number of contributors who worked on it.

Pacific Affairs - L. L. Cornell

This book, a translation of Irokawa's 1969 classic Meiji no Bunka, is best described as an analysis of popular political consciousness in the Meiji period and its corruption by the Emperor System. . . . the translation is lucid and seamless, a remarkable achievement given the number of contributors who worked on it.

Pacific Affairs - L.L. Cornell

A fascinating account of aspects of Japanese culture between 1868 and the early twentieth century. . . . Irokawa Daikichi is an indefatigable researcher, and the fruits of his own and others' labors on back roads and in old storehouses are amply represented here. Moreover, he has discovered materials untouched since the Meiji period, and he is able to interpret them in fresh, provocative ways. He makes excellent use of poetry, letters, diaries, and songs to probe the mentality of peasants and rustic intellectuals, and he interprets his findings in a way that challenges major post-World War II trends in historiography.
— J. Victor Koschmann

Journal of Asian Studies

This book, a translation of Irokawa's 1969 classic Meiji no Bunka, is best described as an analysis of popular political consciousness in the Meiji period and its corruption by the Emperor System. . . . the translation is lucid and seamless, a remarkable achievement given the number of contributors who worked on it.
— L. L. Cornell

Pacific Affairs

"This book, a translation of Irokawa's 1969 classic Meiji no Bunka, is best described as an analysis of popular political consciousness in the Meiji period and its corruption by the Emperor System. . . . the translation is lucid and seamless, a remarkable achievement given the number of contributors who worked on it."—-L. L. Cornell, Pacific Affairs

"A fascinating account of aspects of Japanese culture between 1868 and the early twentieth century. . . . Irokawa Daikichi is an indefatigable researcher, and the fruits of his own and others' labors on back roads and in old storehouses are amply represented here. Moreover, he has discovered materials untouched since the Meiji period, and he is able to interpret them in fresh, provocative ways. He makes excellent use of poetry, letters, diaries, and songs to probe the mentality of peasants and rustic intellectuals, and he interprets his findings in a way that challenges major post-World War II trends in historiography."—-J. Victor Koschmann, Journal of Asian Studies

From the Publisher