Remnants of days past : a journey through old Japan / Watanabe Kyoji ; translated by Joseph Litsch
2020
DS822.3 .W3713 2020 (Mapit)
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Details
Title
Remnants of days past : a journey through old Japan / Watanabe Kyoji ; translated by Joseph Litsch
Uniform Title
Yukishi yo no omokage. English
Edition
First English edition
ISBN
9784866581408 (hardback)
4866581409 (hardback)
4866581409 (hardback)
Published
Tokyo, Japan : Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, 2020
Copyright
©2020
Language
English
Language Note
Translated from the Japanese.
Description
471 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Call Number
DS822.3 .W3713 2020
Summary
"Remnants of Days Past, by Kyoji Watanabe, is an epic journey into Japan's past. It is a comprehensive look at the Tokugawa rule and the Edo period, an age in which the civilization of "Old Japan" was still on display and which, for better or worse, ceased to exist with the advent of modernization. Watanabe covers in great detail several topics pertaining to this civilization, including the status and position of the various social classes, views of women and children, attitudes towards sex, labor, and the body and religious beliefs, as well as the unique cosmology behind this civilization. Watanabe makes use of a number of works written by foreign observers who visited Japan from the end of the Edo period to the beginning of the Meiji to support his views. As the author writes in the book, "What is important in my mind is the reality that the civilization of 'Old Japan' developed through a universal desire, as well as the ideas behind this desire, to make it as comfortable as possible for human existence." This is a massive work that takes an in-depth look at what modern Japan has lost"-- Book cover
Note
"This book is a translation of Yukishi yo no omokage which was originally published by Ashishobo in 1998"--Title page verso
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 457-466) and index
Added Author
Litsch, Joseph, 1976- translator.
Series
Japan library (Shuppan Bunka Sangyō Shinkō Zaidan)
Record Appears in
On-Campus Resources > Books
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Table of Contents
Illusions of a civilization
Cheerful people
Simplicity and wealth
Friendliness and courtesy
Fullness and variety
Labor and the body
Freedom and status
The naked body and sex
The status of women
A children's paradise
Scenery and cosmology
Living things and cosmology
Religious beliefs and festivals
Barriers of the mind
Afterword
A postscript to the Heibonsha Library edition
Commentary: Sympathy is the best method for understanding / Hirakawa Sukehiro
References: Important people of note
Bibliography
Index.
Cheerful people
Simplicity and wealth
Friendliness and courtesy
Fullness and variety
Labor and the body
Freedom and status
The naked body and sex
The status of women
A children's paradise
Scenery and cosmology
Living things and cosmology
Religious beliefs and festivals
Barriers of the mind
Afterword
A postscript to the Heibonsha Library edition
Commentary: Sympathy is the best method for understanding / Hirakawa Sukehiro
References: Important people of note
Bibliography
Index.