Urban Culture in Pre-War Japan

Urban Culture in Pre-War Japan PDF Author: Adam Thorin Croft
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429748892
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Politically the 1910s and 1920s were dark days for Japan: economic instability, frequent political assassinations, and increasing violent military interventions at home and overseas affected many. This book explores the literature of the period, showing how it contributed to this overall mood. It focuses on the Tatsukawa Library, an unusual collection of military chronicles based on traditions of popular storytelling found in the yose — a network of small theatrical venues that provided the masses living and working in Japan’s major cities with affordable entertainment. Capitalising on local advances in Western-style printing, the series facilitated a ‘new wave’ of literature that appealed especially to young, marginalised, economically-insecure urban youths. This book discusses how the narrative content of the Tatsukawa Library, which focuses on historical samurai struggling valiantly against adverse circumstances, helped inspire a generation with admiration for violence. This work also examines how this outlook fitted with the Japanese state’s reintroduction of imperial propaganda.

Urban Culture in Pre-War Japan

Urban Culture in Pre-War Japan PDF Author: Adam Thorin Croft
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429748892
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
Politically the 1910s and 1920s were dark days for Japan: economic instability, frequent political assassinations, and increasing violent military interventions at home and overseas affected many. This book explores the literature of the period, showing how it contributed to this overall mood. It focuses on the Tatsukawa Library, an unusual collection of military chronicles based on traditions of popular storytelling found in the yose — a network of small theatrical venues that provided the masses living and working in Japan’s major cities with affordable entertainment. Capitalising on local advances in Western-style printing, the series facilitated a ‘new wave’ of literature that appealed especially to young, marginalised, economically-insecure urban youths. This book discusses how the narrative content of the Tatsukawa Library, which focuses on historical samurai struggling valiantly against adverse circumstances, helped inspire a generation with admiration for violence. This work also examines how this outlook fitted with the Japanese state’s reintroduction of imperial propaganda.

Urban Culture in Pre-war Japan

Urban Culture in Pre-war Japan PDF Author: Adam Thorin Croft
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781138392014
Category : Japanese literature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In 1910s and 1920s Japan there was economic instability, political assassinations, and violent military interventions. This book explores the literature of the period, focusing on the Tatsukawa Library. It discusses how the books helped inculcate the generation that fought for Japan's emerging empire with admiration for marital violence.

Urban Spaces in Japan

Urban Spaces in Japan PDF Author: Christoph Brumann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136318836
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Urban Spaces in Japan explores the workings of power, money and the public interest in the planning and design of Japanese space. Through a set of vivid case studies of well-known Japanese cities including Tokyo, Kobe, and Kyoto, this book examines the potential of civil society in contemporary planning debates. Further, it addresses the implications of Japan's biggest social problem – the demographic decline – for Japanese cities, and demonstrates the serious challenges and exciting possibilities that result from the impending end of Japan's urban growth. Presenting a synthetic approach that reflects both the physical aspects and the social significance of urban spaces, this book scrutinizes the precise patterns of urban expansion and shrinkage. In doing so, it also summarizes current theories of public space, urban space, and the body in space which are relevant to both Japan and the wider international debate. With detailed case studies and more general reflections from a broad range of disciplines, this collection of essays demonstrates the value of cross-disciplinary cooperation. As such, it is of interest to students and scholars of geography and urban planning as well as history, anthropology and cultural studies.

Kyoto

Kyoto PDF Author: Matthew Stavros
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824847849
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Kyoto was Japan’s political and cultural capital for more than a millennium before the dawn of the modern era. Until about the fifteenth century, it was also among the world’s largest cities and, as the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, it was a place where the political, artistic, and religious currents of Asia coalesced and flourished. Despite these and many other traits that make Kyoto a place of both Japanese and world historical significance, the physical appearance of the premodern city remains largely unknown. Through a synthesis of textual, pictorial, and archeological sources, this work attempts to shed light on Kyoto’s premodern urban landscape with the aim of opening up new ways of thinking about key aspects of premodern Japanese history. The book begins with an examination of Kyoto’s highly idealized urban plan (adapted from Chinese models in the eighth century) and the reasons behind its eventual failure. The formation of the suburbs of Kamigyō and Shimogyō is compared to the creation of large exurban temple-palace complexes by retired emperors from the late eleventh century. Each, it is argued, was a material manifestation of the advancement of privatized power that inspired a medieval discourse aimed at excluding “outsiders.” By examining this discourse, a case is made that medieval power holders, despite growing autonomy, continued to see the emperor and classical state system as the ultimate sources of political legitimacy. This sentiment was shared by the leaders of the Ashikaga shogunate, who established their headquarters in Kyoto in 1336. The narrative examines how these warrior leaders interacted with the capital’s urban landscape, revealing a surprising degree of deference to classical building protocols and urban codes. Remaining chapters look at the dramatic changes that took place during the Age of Warring States (1467–1580s) and Kyoto’s postwar revitalization under the leadership of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Nobunaga’s construction of Nijō Castle in 1569 transformed Kyoto’s fundamental character and, as Japan’s first castle town, it set an example soon replicated throughout the archipelago. In closing, the book explores how Hideyoshi—like so many before him, yet with much greater zeal—used monumentalism to co-opt and leverage the authority of Kyoto’s traditional institutions. Richly illustrated with original maps and diagrams, Kyoto is a panoramic examination of space and architecture spanning eight centuries. It narrates a history of Japan’s premodern capital relevant to the fields of institutional history, material culture, art and architectural history, religion, and urban planning. Students and scholars of Japan will be introduced to new ways of thinking about old historical problems while readers interested in the cities and architecture of East Asia and beyond will benefit from a novel approach that synthesizes a wide variety of sources. For more on Kyoto: An Urban History of Japan’s Premodern Capital, visit www.kyotohistory.com.

The Making of Urban Japan

The Making of Urban Japan PDF Author: André Sorensen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134736576
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
During the twentieth century, Japan was transformed from a poor, primarily rural country into one of the world's largest industrial powers and most highly urbanised countries. Interestingly, while Japanese governments and planners borrowed carefully from the planning ideas and methods of many other countries, Japanese urban planning, urban governance and cities developed very differently from those of other developed countries. Japan's distinctive patterns of urbanisation are partly a product of the highly developed urban system, urban traditions and material culture of the pre-modern period, which remained influential until well after the Pacific War. A second key influence has been the dominance of central government in urban affairs, and its consistent prioritisation of economic growth over the public welfare or urban quality of life. André Sorensen examines Japan's urban trajectory from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, paying particular attention to the weak development of Japanese civil society, local governments, and land development and planning regulations.

Embracing Defeat

Embracing Defeat PDF Author: John W Dower
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393320275
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 692

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Book Description
This study of modern Japan traces the impact of defeat and reconstruction on every aspect of Japan's national life. It examines the economic resurgence as well as how the nation as a whole reacted to defeat and the end of a suicidal nationalism.

Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan

Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan PDF Author: Andrew Gordon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520067837
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
"An important study on modern Japanese social history that persuasively articulates quantitative data with well-chosen qualitative texts to tell the story of imperial democracy in Japan. The work shows real intelligence and great originality, and will make its mark on the practice of writing Japanese history."--Harry D. Harootunian, University of Chicago

World War I and the Triumph of a New Japan, 1919-1930

World War I and the Triumph of a New Japan, 1919-1930 PDF Author: Frederick R. Dickinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107037700
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
A new, integrative history of interwar Japan, highlighting the transformative effects of the Great War far from the Western Front.

Routledge Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society

Routledge Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society PDF Author: Victoria Bestor
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1136736271
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
This Handbook is an interdisciplinary resource that focuses on contemporary Japan and the social and cultural trends that are important at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Japan faces the World, 1925-1952

Japan faces the World, 1925-1952 PDF Author: Mary L. Hanneman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317878965
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
By 1925 the process of Japan's transition to a modern industrialised, westernised state was pretty much complete. Not only had the imperial tradition been restored with the Meiji Restoration in 1868, but some forms of democratic parliamentary institutions had been set up. However, during the years that followed, the so-called imperial democracy came under pressure as the Japanese sought to impose tight control over not only their own people but their neighbours as well. This impressive survey looks at developments at home, Japan's aggressive foreign policy particularly in China during the 1930s and 1940s, and her role in the Second World War. Finally, the post-war reconstruction orchestrated by the Americans is examined. The cut-off point is 1952 - the date when Allied Occupation formally came to an end and Japan once again became independent.