A History of Popular Culture in Japan: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present

by E. Taylor Atkins

Overview

The phenomenon of 'Cool Japan' is one of the distinctive features of global popular culture of the millennial age. A History of Popular Culture in Japan provides the first historical and analytical overview of popular culture in Japan from its origins in the 17th century to the present day, using it to explore broader themes of conflict, power and meaning in Japanese history.

E. Taylor Atkins shows how Japan was one of the earliest sites for the development of mass-produced, market-oriented cultural products consumed by urban middle and working classes. From traditional monochrome ink painting, court literature and poetry to anime, manga and J-Pop, popular culture was pivotal in the rise of Japanese nationalism, imperialism, militarism and economic development, and to the present day plays a central role in Japanese identity.

With updated historiography throughout, this fully revised second edition features:
- A new chapter on popular culture in the Edo period
- An expanded section on pre-Tokugawa culture
- More discussion on recent pop culture phenomena such as TV game shows, cuteness and J-Pop
- 10 new images
- A new glossary of terms including kanji

This improved edition is a vital resource for students of Japanese cultural history wishing to gain a deeper understanding of Japan's contributions to global cultural heritage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350195929
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/06/2022
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.15(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

E. Taylor Atkins is Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at Northern Illinois University, USA. He is the author of A History of Popular Culture in Japan (Bloomsbury 2017; 2nd. ed., 2022), Primitive Selves: Koreana in the Japanese Colonial Gaze, 1910-1945 (2010), and Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan (2001), and editor of Jazz Planet (2003).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 The worst which has been thought and said? Defining popular culture
2 Floating worlds-the birth of popular culture in Japan
3 A whole new world-cultural exchanges with East Asia and Europe
4 Naughty and nice-early modern Japan's culture wars
5 Popular culture as subject and object of Meiji modernization
6 Cultural living-cosmopolitan modernism in imperial Japan
7 Entertaining empire-popular culture as a “technology of imperialism”
8 “Our spirit against their steel”-mobilizing culture for war
9 Democracy, monstrosity, and pensive prosperity-postwar pop
10 Millennial Japan as dream factory
Afterword-Contemplating cool
Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

This book provides a rich picture of the ways in which the study of popular culture speaks to diverse national identities, how commercial culture can effectively transform a nation's identity on the international stage, and how embedded and interdisciplinary popular culture has become as a topic for study.” —Journal of Design History

“[It] brings to the fore themes such as cultural power, political conflict, and social identity (importantly, including gender, class, and race) against the backdrop of Japan's cultural history.” —H-Japan

“The result is certainly suitable for undergraduate teaching but in many ways goes so far beyond as to repay close reading by scholars, graduate students, and the public. What Atkins achieves is a dense, multilayered history, not simply of Japanese pop but of Japan itself as seen through the lens of its highly consumable cultural products … Immensely readable, Atkins's prose is as full of humor and idiosyncratic character as his subject matter. The book's strength lies in the author's ability to capture the very vibrancy of popular culture in Japan while untangling its knotty threads (pun intended). Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries.” —CHOICE

“[The] book provides, as well as an excellent narrative of historical popular culture, an articular and well-elaborated theoretical structure to understand it. It would be a valuable tool to teach theory as well as history and to sharpen the knowledge and wits of students and professors alike.” —Journal of Japanese Studies

“At last, a concise volume that places Japanese popular culture-from the 17th-century origins of kabuki to Babe Ruth barnstorming Tokyo ballparks to Godzilla movies and Hello Kitty slippers-in a broader historical context. Students and instructors alike will welcome this book for its richness of detail, nuanced analysis, crisp writing, and flashes of humor.” —William M. Tsutsui, President and Professor of History, Hendrix College

“This book surveys popular culture with a close eye on the socio-political workings that have shaped Japanese art, music, film, animation and sport through the years. Though expressly written as an undergraduate textbook, the detail of the research and the inclusion of sophisticated theory means that Atkins' book can also be used as a resource for writers working on contemporary Japanese culture.” —Carolyn Stevens, Professor of Japanese Studies, Monash University, Australia

From the Publisher