BOOKS

Toward the Meiji Revolution

Toward the Meiji Revolution

The Search for “Civilization” in Nineteenth-Century Japan

Karube Tadashi
Translated by David Noble

Japan Library series
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

History

¥3,000 + tax

ISBN 9784866580593
210 mm x 148 mm / 256 pp. / March 2019

ISBN 9784866581040 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866580883 (PDF)

In 2018, Japan marked the 150th anniversary of the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate and the establishment of a new government under Emperor Meiji. This was not simply a transfer of political authority but instead signaled revolutionary transformation in Japan, including the abolition of the domains and the formation of a modern nation-state in the years that followed. A period of radical social change was ushered in with the abolition of the class system, the introduction of Western industrial and military technology, the development of mass media, and the establishment of constitutional government.

The impact on Japan of diplomatic, economic, and cultural pressure from the United States and other Western powers from 1853 onward was previously thought to be the immediate catalyst of this “Meiji Revolution.” But Japan’s modern transformation was rooted in a much deeper process of social and intellectual development that gradually unfolded throughout the latter half of the Tokugawa period. Surveying a diverse group of thinkers spanning the Tokugawa and early Meiji years—Ogyū Sorai, Yamagata Bantō, Motoori Norinaga, Rai San’yō, Fukuzawa Yukichi, Takekoshi Yosaburō, and others—this ambitious book liberates modern Japanese history from the stereotypical narrative of “Japanese spirit and Western technique,” offering a detailed examination of the elements in Tokugawa thought and culture that spurred Japan to articulate its own unique conception of civilization during the course of the nineteenth century.

In the latter half of the Tokugawa period, Japan faced many possible alternate paths as it gradually advanced toward its encounter with “civilization”—which could also be described as an encounter with the unknown. This book offers the reader a bird’s-eye view of this process of encounter, which provides a fascinating model for the advancement of understanding and coexistence among the world’s diverse cultures. Exploring the legacy of Japan’s quest for “civilization” in the nineteenth century thus serves as a lens for examining our world today, while also suggesting an alternative narrative to the conventional success stories of Japan’s modernization.

KARUBE Tadashi
Karube Tadashi (b. 1965) is a professor in the School of Legal and Political Studies at the University of Tokyo, where he earned his Doctor of Laws (LL.D.). He is a specialist in the history of Japanese political thought, and his published works include Hikari no ryōkoku: Watsuji Tetsurō [Domain of Light: Watsuji Tetsurō]; Utsuriyuku “kyōyō” [Cultivation of Humanity and Its Changing Forms]; Kagami no naka no hakumei [Through a Glass Darkly], winner of the Mainichi Book Review Prize; Rekishi to iu hifu [The Membrane of History]; Seijigaku (Hyūmanitīzu) [Political Theory (Humanities)]; Abe Kōbō no toshi [The City in Abe Kōbō]; Chitsujo no yume: Seiji shisō ronshū [The Dream of Order: Essays on Political Thought]; and Monogatari Iwanami Shoten hyakunen-shi 3: Sengo kara hanarete [A Narrative Centennial History of Iwanami Books: Farewell to the Postwar Era]. Maruyama Masao: Riberaristuto no shōzō, winner of the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and the Humanities, was published in English as Maruyama Masao and the Fate of Liberalism in Twentieth-Century Japan.

*information as of time of publication

 

Japan Library series
History

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥3,000 + tax
ISBN 9784866580593
210 mm x 148 mm / 256 pp. / March 2019

eBook
ISBN 9784866581040 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866580883 (PDF)

Preface to the English Edition / Introduction / 1. Meiji Restoration or Meiji Revolution? / 2. The Long Revolution / 3. History in Reverse / 4. The Voltaire of Osaka / 5. Is Commerce Evil? / 6. The Age of Economics / 7. Another Side of Motoori Norinaga / 8. A New Cosmology and the Concept of Ikioi / 9. Ikioi as the Motive Force of History / 10. A Farewell to the Hōken System / 11. The Advent of “Civilization” / Notes / References / Illustration Credits / About the Author and About the Translator

日本の「近代」は、江戸後期にすでにその萌芽を迎えていたのだ。荻生徂徠、本居宣⾧、頼山陽、福澤諭吉ら、徳川~明治時代にいたる思想家たちを通観し、19世紀の日本が自らの「文明」観を成熟させる過程を描く。「明治維新=文明開化」史観を覆す意欲作。

苅部 直
1965年、東京都生まれ。東京大学法学部教授。東京大学大学院法学政治学研究科博士課程修了。専門は日本政治思想史。著書に、『光の領国 和辻哲郎』、『丸山眞男―リベラリストの肖像』(サントリー学芸賞)、『移りゆく「教養」』、『鏡のなかの薄明』(毎日書評賞)、『歴史という皮膚』、『政治学(ヒューマニティーズ)』、『安部公房の都市』、『秩序の夢―政治思想論集』、『物語岩波書店百年史 3―「戦後」から離れて』など。

*著者略歴は書籍刊行時のものを表示しています。

Original Japanese Edition

「維新革命」への道:「文明」を求めた十九世紀日本

苅部 直 著

新潮社 刊

2017/05/26