| A Kamigata Anthology: Literature from Japan's Metropolitan Centers, 1600-1750 Contributor(s): Jones, Sumie (Editor), Kern, Adam L. (Editor), Watanabe, Kenji (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0824881818 ISBN-13: 9780824881818 Publisher: University of Hawaii Press OUR PRICE: $37.05 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Collections | Asian - Japanese - History | Asia - Japan - Literary Criticism | Asian - General |
| Dewey: 895.609 |
| LCCN: 2019050456 |
| Physical Information: 1.1" H x 6" W x 8.9" (1.55 lbs) 544 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Japanese |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This is the first of a three-volume anthology of Edo- and Meiji-era urban literature that includes An Edo Anthology: Literature from Japan's Mega-City, 1750-1850 and A Tokyo Anthology: Literature from Japan's Modern Metropolis, 1850-1920. The present work focuses on the years in which bourgeois culture first emerged in Japan, telling the story of the rising commoner arts of Kamigata, or the "Upper Regions" of Kyoto and Osaka, which harkened back to Japan's middle ages even as they rebelled against and competed with that earlier era. Both cities prided themselves on being models and trendsetters in all cultural matters, whether arts, crafts, books, or food. The volume also shows how elements of popular arts that germinated during this period ripened into the full-blown consumer culture of the late-Edo period. The tendency to imagine Japan's modernity as a creation of Western influence since the mid-nineteenth century is still strong, particularly outside Japan studies. A Kamigata Anthology challenges such assumptions by illustrating the flourishing phenomenon of Japan's movement into its own modernity through a selection of the best examples from the period, including popular genres such as haikai poetry, handmade picture scrolls, travel guidebooks, kabuki and joruri plays, prose narratives of contemporary life, and jokes told by professional entertainers. Well illustrated with prints from popular books of the time and hand scrolls and standing screens containing poems and commentaries, the entertaining and vibrant translations put a spotlight on texts currently unavailable in English. |
Contributor Bio(s): Kern, Adam L.: - Adam L. Kern is professor of Japanese literature and visual culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Walley, Glynne: - Glynne Walley is Assistant Professor of Japanese Literature at the University of Oregon. His research interests involve popular literature and how it negotiates the requirements of industry and genre, the demands of mass audience, and the aspirational pull of serious literature.Jones, Sumie: - Sumie Jones, a specialist in eighteenth-century comparative literature and Edo arts, is professor emerita of East Asian languages and cultures and comparative literature and a residential fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, Indiana University, Bloomington.Watanabe, Kenji: - Kenji Watanabe, an expert in Edo-period literature and society, is professor emeritus of Rikkyo University and academic dean of the Jiyugakuen College, Tokyo. |