The Taming of The Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan

Ikegami, Eiko

ISBN 10: 0674868080 / ISBN 13: 9780674868083

Edité par Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 1995

A propos de cet article

English text.; Hardcover (with dust jacket); 17 x 24.5 cm.; 0.78 Kg.; 428 pages.; Used with signs of wear, namely on the outside text block. Interior as new. Signs of wear on the dust jacket that is now protected with a clearcover.; Modern Japan offers us a view of a highly developed society with its own internal logic. Eiko Ikegami makes this logic accessible to us through a sweeping investigation into the roots of Japanese organizational structures. She accomplishes this by focusing on the diverse roles that the samurai have played in Japanese history. From their rise in ancient Japan, through their dominance as warrior lords in the medieval period, and their subsequent transformation to quasi-bureaucrats at the beginning of the Tokugawa era, the samurai held center stage in Japan until their abolishment after the opening up of Japan in the mid-nineteenth century. This book demonstrates how Japan's so-called harmonious collective culture is paradoxically connected with a history of conflict. Ikegami contends that contemporary Japanese culture is based upon two remarkably complementary ingredients, honorable competition and honorable collaboration. The historical roots of this situation can be found in the process of state formation, along very different lines from that seen in Europe at around the same time. The solution that emerged out of the turbulent beginnings of the Tokugawa state was a transformation of the samurai into a hereditary class of vassal-bureaucrats, a solution that would have many unexpected ramifications for subsequent centuries. Ikegami's approach, while sociological, draws on anthropological and historical methods to provide an answer to the question of how the Japanese managed to achieve modernity without traveling the route taken by Western countries. The result is a work of enormous depth and sensitivity that will facilitate a better understanding of, and appreciation for, Japanese society.

N° de réf. du vendeur 712B

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Taming of The Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan
• Éditeur: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England
• Date de parution: 1995
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0674868080
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780674868083
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: Very Good
• État de la jaquette: Dust Jacket Included
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Asian History

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Modern Japan offers us a view of a highly developed society with its own internal logic. Eiko Ikegami makes this logic accessible through a sweeping investigation into the roots of Japanese organizational structures, focusing on the diverse roles that the samurai have played in Japanese history. From their rise in ancient Japan, through their dominance as warrior lords in the medieval period, and their subsequent transformation to quasi-bureaucrats at the beginning of the Tokugawa era, the samurai held centre stage in Japan until their abolishment after the opening up of Japan in the mid-19th century. This book demonstrates how Japan's so-called harmonious collective culture is paradoxically connected with a history of conflict. Ikegami contends that contemporary Japanese culture is based upon two remarkably complementary ingredients, honourable competition and honourable collaboration. The historical roots of this situation can be found in the process of state formation, along very different lines from that seen in Europe at around the same time. The solution that emerged out of the turbulent beginnings of the Tokugawa state was a transformation of the samurai into a hereditary class of vassal-bureaucrats, a solution that would have many unexpected ramifications for subsequent centuries. Ikegami's approach, while sociological, draws on anthropological and historical methods to provide an answer to the question of how the Japanese managed to achieve modernity without travelling the route taken by Western countries. The result is a work that should facilitate a better undertsanding of, and appreciation for, Japanese society.

Présentation de l'éditeur

Modern Japan offers us a view of a highly developed society with its own internal logic. Eiko Ikegami makes this logic accessible to us through a sweeping investigation into the roots of Japanese organizational structures. She accomplishes this by focusing on the diverse roles that the samurai have played in Japanese history. From their rise in ancient Japan, through their dominance as warrior lords in the medieval period, and their subsequent transformation to quasi-bureaucrats at the beginning of the Tokugawa era, the samurai held center stage in Japan until their abolishment after the opening up of Japan in the mid-nineteenth century. This book demonstrates how Japan's so-called harmonious collective culture is paradoxically connected with a history of conflict. Ikegami contends that contemporary Japanese culture is based upon two remarkably complementary ingredients, honorable competition and honorable collaboration. The historical roots of this situation can be found in the process of state formation, along very different lines from that seen in Europe at around the same time. The solution that emerged out of the turbulent beginnings of the Tokugawa state was a transformation of the samurai into a hereditary class of vassal-bureaucrats, a solution that would have many unexpected ramifications for subsequent centuries. Ikegami's approach, while sociological, draws on anthropological and historical methods to provide an answer to the question of how the Japanese managed to achieve modernity without traveling the route taken by Western countries. The result is a work of enormous depth and sensitivity that will facilitate a better understanding of, and appreciation for, Japanese society.