Through a close examination of economic trends and case studies of particular families, this study demonstrates that Japan’s protoindustrial economy was far more volatile than portrayed in most studies to date. Few rural elites survived the competitive and unstable climate of this era. Onerous exactions, interregional competition, market volatility, and succession problems propelled many wealthy families into steep decline and others into drastic shifts in the focus of their businesses.

Includes section "Reviews".

This volume explores the process of carving out, in discourse and in practice, the boundaries delineating the state, the civil sphere, and the family in Japan from 1600 to 1950. One of the central themes is the demarcation of relations between the central political authorities and local communities.

Vols. 8-10 of the 1965-1984 master cumulation constitute a title index.

This fascinating environmental history of Japan examines how traditions and practices in several industries -- from raising silkworms to mining lead and coal to refining petroleum -- have affected the health of workers and those who have lived in these toxic landscapes.

Challenges many of the fundamental assumptions that have shaped contemporary scholarship on Japan, engaging from different perspectives questions of economic growth, isolation from and interaction with the outside world, the tools of conquest and empire, and the character of modernity.