Taiga’s True Views


Book Description

This lavishly illustrated book on one of Japan's preeminent painters focuses on the relationship between topography and the language of visual symbols a painter manipulates, or must invent, to suggest specific places.




Friends, Acquaintances, Pupils and Patrons


Book Description

Annotation. This study of the social circumstances of Japanese intellectuals in the last quarter of the eighteenth century is based on biographical data concerning 173 individuals. It deals with the image of intellectual life of that period in current scholarship, and with the self-image and ethos of scholars, authors, poets and artists. That self-image and ethos, however, often clash with the realities of their everyday lives. This prosopographical investigation offers a new look at intellectual life on a basic level. The current image of intellectual life in the Tokugawa period is one of dissatisfaction and withdrawal, whereas the image that results from this study is one of dynamism and interaction. For more (Dutch-language) titles on Japan, please visit: "http://www.aup.nl/do.php?a=show_visitor_booklist&b=series&series=21">www.aup.nl/japan This title can be previewed in Google Books - http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9789087280017.




Japanstudien. Band 16/2004


Book Description

Die Beiträge zum diesjährigen Schwerpunktthema „Grenzgänge – (De-)Konstruktion kollektiver Identitäten in Japan" zeigen in Form von Fallstudien im Verein mit theoretischen Überlegungen zum Diskurs über Differenz, Homogenität und Divergenz eine Möglichkeit auf, den Topos von der japanischen Gruppenorientiertheit, der u.a. ein zentrales Argument in der Nihonjinron-Debatte bildet, neu zu beleuchten. Zwar vermögen die sich vornehmlich mit marginalisierten gesellschaftlichen Gruppen befassenden Beiträge nicht alle Aspekte der Fragestellung abzudecken, die sich ja auch beispielsweise auf die Interdependenz mehrerer Gruppen bezieht. Oftmals aber konnten durch Schwerpunktthemen eines Jahrbuchs Anstöße zu weiterer Forschung gegeben werden, die dann bisweilen in späteren Ausgaben der Japanstudien dokumentiert wurden. Möge auch dieses Thema seine Fruchtbarkeit längerfristig unter Beweis stellen.




A Malleable Map


Book Description

Kären Wigen probes regional cartography, choerography, and statecraft to redefine restoration (ishin) in modern Japanese history. As developed here, that term designates not the quick coup d’état of 1868 but a three-centuries-long project of rehabilitating an ancient map for modern purposes. Drawing on a wide range of geographical documents from Shinano (present-day Nagano Prefecture), Wigen argues that both the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600–1868) and the reformers of the Meiji era (1868–1912) recruited the classical map to serve the cause of administrative reform. Nor were they alone; provincial men of letters played an equally critical role in bringing imperial geography back to life in the countryside. To substantiate these claims, Wigen traces the continuing career of the classical court’s most important unit of governance—the province—in central Honshu.




Honored Guests


Book Description




Imagined Neighbors


Book Description

Welches Bild von China hatten japanische Künstler vom späten 17. Jahrhundert, als ihr Land sich gegen die Welt abschottete, bis zur Öffnung im Zuge der Modernisierung ab der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts? Der Band untersucht vorrangig Darstellungen in der japanischen Malerei vom späten 17. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, die China als realen Ort ebenso wie als imaginäres gelobtes Land zeigen. In drei Essays renommierter japanischer Kunsthistoriker*innen und über fünfzig Katalogeinträgen zu außergewöhnlichen Werken werden die komplexen Reaktionen der Kunst Japans auf die chinesische Kunst, Geschichte und Kultur offenbar. Eine Handvoll wissenschaftlicher Studien hinterfragt in jüngerer Zeit das etablierte Narrativ, das moderne Japan habe sich allein am Westen orientiert. Diese verbreitete Vorstellung von einem ausschließlich westlich inspirierten heutigen Japan thematisiert "Imagined Neighbors". Mit einem nuancierteren Ansatz bemüht sich der Band, die schwierige Aussöhnung zwischen Alt und Neu im Zuge der Neuerfindung des modernen Nationalstaats Japan zu verstehen.




The Tôkaidô Road


Book Description

The Tôkaidô Road offers a comparative study of the Tôkaidô road's representations during the Edo (1600-1868) and Meiji (1868-1912) eras. Throughout the Edo era, the Tôkaidô highway was the most important route of Japan and transportation was confined to foot travel. In 1889, the Tôkaidô Railway was established, at first paralleling and eventually almost eliminating the use of the highway. During both periods, the Tôkaidô was a popular topic of representation and was depicted in a variety of visual and literary media. After the installation of the railway in the Meiji era, the Tôkaidô was presented as a landscape of progress, modernity and westernisation. Such representations were fundamental in shaping the Tôkaidô and the realm of travelling in the collective consciousness of the Japanese people.




World Painting Index


Book Description







The Physical Geography of Northern Eurasia


Book Description

This is the third volume in The Oxford Regional Environments series. The series volumes are devoted to major regions of the world, each presenting a detailed and up-to-date body of scientific knowledge concerning a particular region. For most topics on the physical geography of Northern Eurasia abundant literature now exists. Most of it, however, is in Russian and other East European languages and this has significantly limited the number of potential readers. This volume seeks to familiarize, at an international level, those with an interest in this area with the most significant achievements in classical and current geographical research. The Physical Geography of Northern Eurasia covers most of the territory of the former USSR. The first section discusses the individual compenents of the physical environment. These chapters cut across regional boundaries and treate the area discussed as a whole. A regional analysis follows mainly in the context of geographical zonation, though a number of specific regions are given individual treatment. The concluding chapters discuss the effects of anthropogenic activities on the physical environment. The approach is an integrative one, tying together various aspects of the physical environments with the environmental implications of human activites. Every component of the environment is treated as a step in the development of the multi-faceted landscapes which in turn provide possibilities and limitations for cultural and economic usage.