Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan

Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 296
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781134080465
ISBN-13 : 1134080468
Rating : 4/5 (65 Downloads)

Synopsis Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan by : David G. Wittner

In this book David Wittner situates Japan’s Meiji Era experience of technology transfer and industrial modernization within the realm of culture, politics, and symbolism, examining how nineteenth century beliefs in civilization and enlightenment influenced the process of technological choice. Through case studies of the iron and silk industries, Wittner argues that the Meiji government’s guiding principle was not simply economic development or providing a technical model for private industry as is commonly claimed. Choice of technique was based on the ability of a technological artifact to import Western "civilization" to Japan: Meiji officials’ technological choices were firmly situated within perceptions of authority, modernity, and their varying political agendas. Technological artifacts could also be used as instruments of political legitimization. By late the Meiji Era, the former icons of Western civilization had been transformed into the symbols of Japanese industrial and military might. A fresh and engaging re-examination of Japanese industrialization within the larger framework of the Meiji Era, this book will appeal to scholars and students of science, technology, and society as well as Japanese history and culture.

French Policy Towards the Bakufu and Meiji Japan 1854-95

French Policy Towards the Bakufu and Meiji Japan 1854-95
Author :
Publisher : Psychology Press
Total Pages : 410
Release :
ISBN-10 : 1873410611
ISBN-13 : 9781873410615
Rating : 4/5 (11 Downloads)

Synopsis French Policy Towards the Bakufu and Meiji Japan 1854-95 by : Richard Sims

Little serious work has been done on the policies towards Japan of countries other than the US or Britain in the seminal Meiji period. This study looks to fill this gap by investigating French policy from the opening of Japan to the Japanese triumph in the Sino-Japanese war.

Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture

Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 711
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781400869015
ISBN-13 : 1400869013
Rating : 4/5 (15 Downloads)

Synopsis Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture by : Donald H. Shively

Essays on the Iwakura Embassy, the realistic painter Takahashi Yuichi, the educational system, and music, show how the Japanese went about borrowing from the West in the first decades after the Restoration: the formulation of strategies for modernizing and the adaptation of Western models to Meiji culture. In the second half of the volume, the darker side, the pathology of modernization, is seen. The adjustment of the individual and the effects of progressive modernization on culture in an increasingly complex, twentieth-century society are recurring themes. They are illustrated with particular intensity in the experience of such writers as Natsume Soseki and Kobayashi Hideo, in the thought of Nishida Kitaro, and in the millenarian aspects of the new religions. Originally published in 1971. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Writing Technology in Meiji Japan

Writing Technology in Meiji Japan
Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Total Pages : 312
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0674244494
ISBN-13 : 9780674244498
Rating : 4/5 (94 Downloads)

Synopsis Writing Technology in Meiji Japan by : Seth Jacobowitz

Seth Jacobowitz rethinks the origins of modern Japanese language, literature, and visual culture, presenting the first systematic study of the ways that media and inscriptive technologies available in Japan at its threshold of modernization in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century shaped and brought into being modern Japanese literature.

The Culture of Japanese Fascism

The Culture of Japanese Fascism
Author :
Publisher : Duke University Press
Total Pages : 492
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780822390701
ISBN-13 : 0822390701
Rating : 4/5 (01 Downloads)

Synopsis The Culture of Japanese Fascism by : Alan Tansman

This bold collection of essays demonstrates the necessity of understanding fascism in cultural terms rather than only or even primarily in terms of political structures and events. Contributors from history, literature, film, art history, and anthropology describe a culture of fascism in Japan in the decades preceding the end of the Asia-Pacific War. In so doing, they challenge past scholarship, which has generally rejected descriptions of pre-1945 Japan as fascist. The contributors explain how a fascist ideology was diffused throughout Japanese culture via literature, popular culture, film, design, and everyday discourse. Alan Tansman’s introduction places the essays in historical context and situates them in relation to previous scholarly inquiries into the existence of fascism in Japan. Several contributors examine how fascism was understood in the 1930s by, for example, influential theorists, an antifascist literary group, and leading intellectuals responding to capitalist modernization. Others explore the idea that fascism’s solution to alienation and exploitation lay in efforts to beautify work, the workplace, and everyday life. Still others analyze the realization of and limits to fascist aesthetics in film, memorial design, architecture, animal imagery, a military museum, and a national exposition. Contributors also assess both manifestations of and resistance to fascist ideology in the work of renowned authors including the Nobel-prize-winning novelist and short-story writer Kawabata Yasunari and the mystery writers Edogawa Ranpo and Hamao Shirō. In the work of these final two, the tropes of sexual perversity and paranoia open a new perspective on fascist culture. This volume makes Japanese fascism available as a critical point of comparison for scholars of fascism worldwide. The concluding essay models such work by comparing Spanish and Japanese fascisms. Contributors. Noriko Aso, Michael Baskett, Kim Brandt, Nina Cornyetz, Kevin M. Doak, James Dorsey, Aaron Gerow, Harry Harootunian, Marilyn Ivy, Angus Lockyer, Jim Reichert, Jonathan Reynolds, Ellen Schattschneider, Aaron Skabelund, Akiko Takenaka, Alan Tansman, Richard Torrance, Keith Vincent, Alejandro Yarza

Averting a Great Divergence

Averting a Great Divergence
Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages : 321
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781350121683
ISBN-13 : 1350121681
Rating : 4/5 (83 Downloads)

Synopsis Averting a Great Divergence by : Peer Vries

The most significant debate in global economic history over the past twenty years has dealt with the Great Divergence, the economic gap between different parts of the world. Thus far, this debate has focused on China, India and north-western Europe, particularly Great Britain. This book shifts the focus to ask how Japan became the only non-western county that managed, at least partially, to modernize its economy and start to industrialize in the 19th century. Using a range of empirical data, Peer Vries analyses the role of the state in Japan's economic growth from the Meiji Restoration to World War II, and asks whether Japan's economic success can be attributed to the rise of state power. Asserting that the state's involvement was fundamental in Japan's economic 'catching up', he demonstrates how this was built on legacies from the previous Tokugawa period. In this book, Vries deepens our understanding of the Great Divergence in global history by re-examining how Japan developed and modernized against the odds.

British Engagement with Japan, 1854–1922

British Engagement with Japan, 1854–1922
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 264
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781351105156
ISBN-13 : 1351105159
Rating : 4/5 (56 Downloads)

Synopsis British Engagement with Japan, 1854–1922 by : Antony Best

This book by a leading authority on Anglo-Japanese relations reconsiders the circumstances which led to the unlikely alliance of 1902 to 1922 between Britain, the leading world power of the day and Japan, an Asian, non-European nation which had only recently emerged from self-imposed isolation. Based on extensive original research the book goes beyond existing accounts which concentrate on high politics, strategy and simple assertions about the two countries’ similarities as island empires. It brings into the picture cultural factors, particularly the ways in which Japan was portrayed in Britain, and ambivalent British attitudes to race and supposed European superiority which were overcome but remained difficulties. It charts how the relationship developed as events unfolded, including Japan’s wars against China and Russia, and in addition looks at royal diplomacy, where the Japanese Court came eventually to be treated as a respected equal. Overall, the book provides a major reassessment of this important subject.

Reopening the Opening of Japan

Reopening the Opening of Japan
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Total Pages : 444
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789004685208
ISBN-13 : 9004685200
Rating : 4/5 (08 Downloads)

Synopsis Reopening the Opening of Japan by : Lewis Bremner

The 'Opening of Japan' has been central to the retelling of Japan's modern history. Reopening the Opening of Japan fundamentally reconsiders what that historical moment entailed. What did intensified connections between Japan and the world mean both inside and outside of the country, and what does this tell us about Japan's historical significance on a global scale? The chapters excavate a rich array of surprising cross-border connections, from the global trade in mummified mermaids to the Japanese-Russian intellectual links underpinning the work of Akira Kurosawa. Re-thinking connectivity through non-state transnational perspectives, the book guides readers to new ways of doing and writing history. Contributors are: Lewis Bremner, Natalia Doan, Manimporok Dotulong, Maki Fukuoka, Eiko Honda, Sho Konishi, Mateja Kovacic, Joel Littler, Chinami Oka, Yu Sakai, Olga Solovieva, and Warren Stanislaus.

Modern Japan, Student Economy Edition

Modern Japan, Student Economy Edition
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 382
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780429973062
ISBN-13 : 0429973063
Rating : 4/5 (62 Downloads)

Synopsis Modern Japan, Student Economy Edition by : Mikiso Hane

This book presents the essential facts of modern Japanese history. It covers a variety of important developments through the 1990s, giving special consideration to how traditional Japanese modes of thought and behavior have affected the recent developments.

Empire in Asia: A New Global History

Empire in Asia: A New Global History
Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages : 313
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781472596062
ISBN-13 : 1472596064
Rating : 4/5 (62 Downloads)

Synopsis Empire in Asia: A New Global History by : Brian P. Farrell

Asia was the principle focus of empire-builders from Alexander and Akbar to Chinggis Khan and Qianlong and yet, until now, there has been no attempt to provide a comprehensive history of empire in the region. Empire in Asia addresses the need for a thorough survey of the topic. This volume covers the long 19th century, commonly seen in terms of 'high imperialism' and the global projection of Western power. This volume explores the dynamic, volatile and often contested processes by which, by the early years of the 20th century, Asian states, space and peoples became deeply integrated into the wider dynamics of global reordering. Drawing on case studies from across Asia, the contributors discuss key themes including ideology, concepts of identity, religion and politics, state building and state formation, the relationships between space, people, and sovereignty, the movements of goods, money, people and ideas, and the influence and impact of conflict and military power. The two volumes of Empire in Asia offer a significant contribution to the theory and practice of empire when considered globally and comparatively and are essential reading for all students and scholars of global, imperial and Asian history.