BOOKS

Pax Tokugawana

Pax Tokugawana

The Cultural Flowering of Japan, 1603–1853

Haga Tōru
Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

Japan Library series
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

History

¥3,400 + tax

ISBN 9784866581484
210 mm x 148 mm / 372 pp. / March 2021

When thinking about Tokugawa Japan, some people always envision fancy Edo exotica; others conjure up a dark age of stagnation and gloom; still others reject these extremes and look only for keys to Japan’s swift modernization.

Yet Tokugawa Japan was in fact a time of immense cultural flowering: there was the Rimpa school of art developed by Tawaraya Sōtatsu and Ogata Kōrin; remarkable haiku by Matsuo Bashō and Yosa Buson; groundbreaking natural science treatises by Kaibara Ekiken and others; seminal writings like Arai Hakuseki’s Tidings of the West (Seiyō kibun) and Sugita Gempaku’s Dawn of Western Science in Japan (Rangaku kotohajime); and the appearance of such towering intellectuals as Watanabe Kazan and Hiraga Gennai. In fact, the Tokugawa period marked the zenith of Japan’s long history of cultural achievements.

This ambitious work provides a comprehensive review of those two and a half centuries of peace—what the author calls the “Pax Tokugawana”—and the expansion of learning and culture during those years. Marshalling wide-ranging scholarship and unflagging enthusiasm, the author has made a major contribution to comparative cultural studies and provided fresh ways to approach long-accepted ideas. This volume represents the culmination of a lifetime’s research by a brilliant, award-winning scholar.

HAGA Tōru
Born in Yamagata, Haga Tōru (1931–2020) earned his BA and doctorate in literature from the University of Tokyo. A professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, he was also a Princeton University visiting researcher, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars fellow, president of Kyoto University of the Arts, director of both the Okazaki Mindscape Museum and the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, and a member of the Japan Academy.

*information as of time of publication

Japan Library series
History

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥3,400 + tax
ISBN 9784866581484
210 mm x 148 mm / 372 pp. / March 2021

eBook
ISBN 9784866581842 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866581958 (PDF)

Tokugawa Japan as a Model for the World: The Past as Prologue / Author’s Introduction: The Changing Image of the Tokugawa Period / A Note from the Translator // Part I / 1. Rakuchū Rakugai-zu: Paintings of Scenes in and around Kyoto / 2. “Come, Let Us Be Crazy”: Izumo no Okuni and Ryūtatsu Kouta / 3. Kōetsu, Sōtatsu, and the Classical Revival // Part II / 4. All Roads Lead to Edo: Bashō’s Praise of Tokugawa / 5. An Enlightened Practical Scientist: Kaibara Ekiken, Gazetteerist and Naturalist / 6. A Visitor in the Sakoku Era: Kaempfer and Genroku Japan / 7. Winter 1709: East-West Dialogue in the Christian Compound // Part III / 8. The Century of Natural History: Eighteenth-Century Japan and the West / 9. A Letter with No Addressee: Sugita Gempaku, Nine Times Blessed Old Man / 10. Reading Sugita Gempaku’s Memoir: Dawn of Western Science in Japan / 11. Pictures of Peace // Part IV / 12. Poet of the Pax Tokugawana: Yosa Buson / 13. Buson’s Youthful Elegy: “Mourning the Old Sage Hokuju” / 14. Women Becoming More and More Beautiful: Buson and Harunobu / 15. Coping with the Long Peace: Young Rowdies, Ōta Nampo / 16. The French Revolution and Japan: Mild Spring Weather in a “Little Ice Age” // Part V / 17. Toward The End of the Pax Tokugawana / 18. Tokugawa Colors and Design // Afterword / References / Chronology / Index / About the Author/About the Translator

"Pax Tokugawana will fascinate anyone interested in the history of art or science in Asia. The very effective translation captures the voice of the mind of one of the world’s most eminent scholars of Japanese cultural history. The length of the chapters and the at times humorous tone makes it a manageable yet thoroughly educational read."

Fiona Collins
Asian Review of Books






"That the Tokugawa may not have been as close to perfection as portrayed should not detract us from its accomplishments: Haga makes his case persuasively. His lyrical prose and the often elusive nuances of his subject matter must have been daunting to translate. Fortunately, Juliet Winters Carpenter, a professor Emerita at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, is more than equal to the task: the book is a joy to read, and re-read."

Dr. June Teufel Dreyer
Japan Forward

俵屋宗達、光琳、芭蕉、与謝蕪村、貝原益軒、杉田玄白らの多様な活躍に、著者は江戸時代の文化的達成、文明としての「徳川の平和」を評価する。250年という時間と、日本列島という限定空間のなかで生まれた独特な文化的風景を点描する。

芳賀 徹
1931年生まれ。東京大学教養学部教養学科卒、同大学大学院人文科学研究科比較文学比較文化専攻博士課程修了。文学博士(東京大学)。東京大学教養学部教授、プリンストン大学客員研究員、国際日本文化研究センター教授、京都造形芸術大学学長、岡崎市美術博物館、静岡県立美術館の館長などを経て、現在は国際日本文化研究センター名誉教授、東京大学名誉教授。主な著書に『大君の使節』、『渡辺崋山・優しい旅びと』、『明治維新と日本人』、『みだれ髪の系譜』、『平賀源内』(サントリー学芸賞)、『絵画の領分――近代日本比較文化史研究』(大佛次郎賞)、『与謝蕪村の小さな世界』、『詩の国 詩人の国』、『詩歌の森へ――日本詩へのいざない』、『藝術の国日本――画文交響』(蓮如賞)など多数。

*著者略歴は書籍刊行時のものを表示しています。

Original Japanese Edition

文明としての徳川日本:一六〇三―一八五三年

芳賀 徹 著

筑摩書房 刊

2017/10/18