Remnants of days past : a journey through old Japan / Watanabe Kyoji ; translated by Joseph Litsch

Remnants of days past : a journey through old Japan / Watanabe Kyoji ; translated by Joseph Litsch

Yukishi yo no omokage. English

First English edition

9784866581408 (hardback)
4866581409 (hardback)

Tokyo, Japan : Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, 2020

©2020

English

Translated from the Japanese.

471 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

DS822.3 .W3713 2020

"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

"This book is a translation of Yukishi yo no omokage which was originally published by Ashishobo in 1998"--Title page verso

Includes bibliographical references (pages 457-466) and index

Japan library (Shuppan Bunka Sangyō Shinkō Zaidan)

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