Japan in Print

Information and Nation in the Early Modern Period

English language

Published April 7, 2006 by University of California Press.

ISBN:
978-0-520-23766-7
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5 stars (1 review)

A quiet revolution in knowledge separated the early modern period in Japan from all previous time. After 1600, self-appointed investigators used the model of the land and cartographic surveys of the newly unified state to observe and order subjects such as agronomy, medicine, gastronomy, commerce, travel, and entertainment. They subsequently circulated their findings through a variety of commercially printed texts: maps, gazetteers, family encyclopedias, urban directories, travel guides, official personnel rosters, and instruction manuals for everything from farming to lovemaking. In this original and gracefully written book, Mary Elizabeth Berry considers the social processes that drove the information explosion of the 1600s. Inviting readers to examine the contours and meanings of this transformation, Berry provides a fascinating account of the conversion of the public from an object of state surveillance into a subject of self-knowledge.

Japan in Print shows how, as investigators collected and disseminated richly diverse data, they came …

1 edition

reviewed Japan in Print by Mary Elizabeth Berry (Asia - Local Studies/Global Themes)

Lucid and convincing

5 stars

I loved this book. The important caveat is that I know nothing about Japanese history or textual cultures. But I know more now and even without any familiarity with the subject, this book was fun to read. If you are looking for either a way of understanding how Japan shifted towards nationhood in the Edo period or how texts can shape a culture’s sense of itself, I highly recommend this.

Subjects

  • Printing -- Japan -- History -- 17th century

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