Bücher der Reihe New Studies in Modern Japan

This book examines early modern Mito, today an ordinary provincial capital on the outskirts of the Tokyo commuter belt, but once the headquarters of Mito Domain, one of the most consequential places in all of Japan. As one of just three senior branches of the Tokugawa familywhich ruled over Japan for 260 yearsMito's ruling family enjoyed unparalleled status and exerted enormous influence throughout its history. In the seventeenth century, its scholars produced some of early modern Japan's most important historical scholarship. In the eighteenth century, it developed a robust and pragmatic program of reform to confront depopulation and foreign threats. In the nineteenth century, it became the birthplace of a revolutionary ideology that transformed Japan into a modern, imperial nation. The power of these ideas swept across Japan, inspiring activists everywhere to take up the cause of building a new nationbut they also devastated Mito, leading to a brutal civil war that scarred its people for generations. This book complements existing studies of Mito's ideas by focusing on the history of Mito as a place and telling the stories of Mito's politicians, reformers, and ordinary people from the beginning of the domain's history to its end.

This book presents an ethnographic portrait of transnational Japanese-Brazilian labor migrants and their families as they navigate life between Japan and Brazil. The author pays particular attention to gender, generation, and class, and to structures besides work such as family, education, and religion.

This seminal book is the first sustained critical work that engages with the varieties of literature following the triple disastersthe earthquake, tsunami, and meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

This collection brings together scholars from around the world to recognize and assess the achievements of Tawada Yoko, the prolific and highly lauded author who writes in Japanese and German.

This book investigates the construction of Japaneseness from a transnational perspective. By analyzing a variety of communication during the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the author examines how Japaneseness is constructed in relation to discursive Others.

This cultural history examines representations of pleasure work during Japan's transformation into a modern nation-state. It traces the figure of the prostitute in the context of Japanese nation- and empire-building immediately before and during the Meiji era.

This study provides a political and economic examination of the impact of the silk trade on nineteenth-century Japan. It analyzes the role of Japan's eastern interior region and the port of Yokohama and argues that the growth of the silk industry was largely responsible for the integration of Japan into the global economy.

This collection brings together scholars from around the world to recognize and assess the achievements of Tawada Yoko, the prolific and highly lauded author who writes in Japanese and German.