modern japan a social and political history

[...]... such as shogun and zaibatsu Elise K.Tipton Map 1.1 Modern Japan 1 Tokugawa background The ideal and the real Tokugawa Japan If the time and place suggests any picture at all, it is probably a Japan of samurai warriors, ninja, rice paddies and geisha Asked to add a few political and social features to the picture, one might come up with a shogun, the country isolated from foreign contact, and a rigid... War, the image of Tokugawa Japan has gradually changed Instead of depicting Tokugawa Japan as the feudal source of the authoritarianism and repression characteristic of politics until the end of the Second World War, many historians now emphasize the economic and social changes which occurred beneath the feudal facade and laid the foundations for modern developments Should the Japanese economy collapse... [replaced tayu and met customers at teahouses without any ¯ formalities]: Takigawa of the Ogiya House and Karauta of Cho ¯jiya… Tamaya has no sancha [mid-level courtesans]; all are the lowly umecha … It seems to me that the courtesans are fewer and the number of famous ladies halved.5 While the change in customers may on the one hand indicate the development of a popular culture shared by aristocracy and. .. shogunate keep chonin and samurai culture completely ¯ separate Although floating world art, literature and drama were created by and for chonin, samurai also participated in it, though often incognito, and ¯ in Edo stimulated kabuki to create a distinctive regional style Daimyo and ¯ Tokugawa retainers’ fascination with kabuki actors particularly disturbed shogunal authorities, which tried in vain to... scholars, for in Marxian use, ‘feudal’ refers to a society where farmers are bound to the land and denied political power, paying high taxes to a ruling class of military men In post-Second World War Japanese usages, ‘feudal’ often referred to social and political traits going back to the Tokugawa period that had not yet been destroyed in the process of industrialization and modernization, such as hierarchical... of Japanese society and the complexity of the modernization process in Japan At the same time this is not solely a social history of Japan, nor a history of the marginalized or peripheral, but also an attempt to explore links between social and political developments of the various periods and to blur the boundaries between them There is no denying the importance of politics and diplomacy, particularly... of village social developments and peasant protests and rebellions present a contrary view Rather than homogeneous, the peasant class was stratified, even at the beginning of the Tokugawa period, and became increasingly differentiated as time passed In addition, development of a commercial economy led to greater regional variations as rural areas near cities became more involved in the market than did... remote areas such as To ¯hoku in northern Honshu Despite regional differences, by the eighteenth century village society comprised an economic, political and social pyramid with a stratum of very wealthy landowners and industrialists at the top, medium and small landholders in the middle, and landless tenant farmers, wage labourers and hereditary servants at the bottom Out of the spread of commercial farming... rear vassals of senior families, and so-called goshi, nominal ‘rural’ samurai who may have been survivors of samurai¯ farmers of medieval times or originally commoners granted samurai rank as a reward for service to the han Social mobility within the class remained a possibility, but it was easier to move down than up the ranks A samurai could advance by showing skill and efficiency in office and more... century to maintain either the traditional social or political structure Transformation of the samurai into civilian administrators required the acquisition of literacy and formal education Almost all han had established schools for samurai youth by the end of the Tokugawa period and numerous private schools also emerged, so that almost all samurai males were literate The role of samurai women did . background The ideal and the real Tokugawa Japan . If the time and place suggests any picture at all, it is probably a Japan of samurai warriors, ninja, rice paddies and geisha. Asked to add a few. of Japan s Relations with Africa: South Africa, Tanzania and Nigeria Kweku Ampiah The Right to Life in Japan Noel Williams The Nature of the Japanese State: rationality and rituality Brian J.McVeigh Society. 1973–1995 Michael L.Beeman Modern Japan: a social and political history Elise K.Tipton Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: dislocating the salaryman doxa Edited by James E.Roberson and Nobue Suzuki The