EARLY MODERN JAPAN SPRING, 2003 Summary of Discussions: The

EARLY MODERN JAPAN SPRING, 2003

Summary of Discussions: 3) to suggest possible directions for future research in and development of the field, all con- The State of the Field in Early cerns that lie at the heart of this essay. Modern Japanese Studies Major Cross-cutting Issues ©Philip C. Brown, Ohio State University* 1. Different disciplines in “Early Modern At some point during the Hōei era (1704-1710), (kinsei) Japan” do not share chronological a low-ranking samurai (ashigaru) of Kaga do- bounds and publishing practice can further main, Yamada Jirōemon, edited a collection of exacerbate differences by narrowing discipli- materials that various people had been collecting nary focus considerably. While the terms of since the mid-seventeenth century. The materi- political history often provide the broad frame- als focused largely on the formative years of work for much political, diplomatic, intellectual Kaga domain. In accord with common practice, and socio-economic history, historians typically Yamada gave his work the self-deprecatory title, recognize that within large periods, non-political Mitsubo kikigaki, loosely translated as “Three developments might mark important subdivisions. Jars of Jottings on Hearsay.” In part, the inspi- The Tokugawa era lies at the heart of this period ration for his choice of title may have been his on which our essays focused, giving a nod to the sensitivity to the unoriginal nature of his work. groundwork laid during the late sixteenth century. He was, after all, collecting, editing and transmit- From the historian’s perspective, the designa- ting materials that others had researched or that tion of the period as “early modern” began with they had written based on their own personal ex- the publication of Studies in the Institutional His- perience. tory of Early Modern Japan.1 There is a certain This essay, based on discussions at the confer- irony in the fact that, despite the title, the essay- ence on the state of early modern Japanese stud- ists' conceptual discussions, when they character- ies has some of this same character. I wish to ized the period at all, focused on “feudalism” – stress that this is a summary of the discussions, “early modern” was not directly defined or dis- and eschews any effort to summarize the ten pa- cussed and does not even appear in the index to pers that formed the basis for them. Nonethe- the book.2 (There can be little doubt that the less, a number of the themes noted here also ap- title of the volume reflects the heavy involvement peared in some form in the essays themselves. of the editors and many of its contributors to the Furthermore, the title of Yamada’s collection conceptualization underlying the conferences and suggests a metaphor for the major tasks of the essay collections associated with the Princeton conference: 1) to review recent trends in the series on Japan’s modernization. In this series, scholarship, 2) to discuss methodological and treatment of Tokugawa as an “early modern” pre- theoretical problems of the field at this time and cursor to a modern Meiji extended beyond political, social and economic history into the realms of cultural history, too.) * I have attempted to draw examples and illus- trations from all of the fields represented at the conference and in the essays EMJ has published 1 Edited by John W. Hall and Marius B. Jansen, since, but I have made no effort to discuss each in Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968. relationship to the various points that constitute this 2 The volume’s heavy emphasis on the summary. limitations of characterizing Tokugawa Japan as I would especially like to thank Patricia Graham “feudal” combined with current academic interests for her comments on the manuscript version of this in “pre-modern” precursors to Japan’s late essay. I have also benefited from an extended nineteenth century rapid economic development and discussion with her regarding a number of specific political, social and cultural transformation led most issues touched on in discussions at the conference. scholars in the U.S. to substitute “early modern” for Brett Walker also made helpful comments on an “feudal” as the standard characterization of earlier draft. Tokugawa Japan.

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Historians also widely recognize that if one good sense of what appealed to this foreign audi- takes a broadly social or economic historical per- ence, the tendency was to focus on what was fa- spective, a completely different scheme for peri- miliar to or resonated with "us" rather than to odization might result. Indeed, several alterna- place principal emphasis on understanding Ja- tives were briefly mentioned during the discus- pan's past on its own terms.3 sions, including some that clearly violated the Even if scholars today have an awareness of un- standard schemes of periodization beloved by explored vistas, what is published, especially in political historians. book form, has often remained quite narrowly Yet nothing in this general set of expectations focused. In the field of literature, English lan- could have prepared the historians in our group guage publication is trained heavily on Genroku (and perhaps others) for the arguments made in and largely avoids anything else before or after the fields of art history and literature. For ex- that. The styles of literary expression dominant ample, noting the emphasis in art history on the in the medieval era are treated as though they study of individual artists (despite the emergence continued to dominate literary production through of post-modernist theory as an important element most of the seventeenth century. The period in the field), Patricia Graham argued that in the after Genroku has largely been ignored, Haruo major fields of art history, the period would have Shirane argued, because it seems to have little to begin with the late Muromachi era (mid- connection to the emergence of “modern” forms sixteenth century, with the flourishing of urban of literary expression, notably the novel. From merchant classes) and would not end until well this perspective, “early modern Japan” is, in pub- into the late nineteenth century. This is partly lishing practice, comprised of just a few decades because styles change more gradually, without and the objects of investigation are quite limited. the sharp demarcations based on pivotal events 2. The field is young and relatively small; such as those that are commonly invoked by po- publications in many areas are spotty. A litical historians. common thread running through much of our The different definitions of the period are inevi- discussion, that there are yet big projects or prob- tably linked to the differing definitions of “mod- lems that remain to be undertaken, can in part be ern” applied within disciplines in the U.S. and traced to the fact that the ranks of laborers in the Western Europe. For political history, the key early modern field are still rather thin. Pre- lies in the emergence of more effective, centrally modern Japan’s role as backdrop to Japan’s late controlled state apparatus, largely in the eight- nineteenth- and twentieth-century transformation eenth and nineteenth century. In the field of provided the major justification for the expansion diplomatic relations, the definition is generally of the Japan field into the Tokugawa era in the tied to the emergence of a system of diplomatic United States. The influence of the moderniza- relations based on equality of states as expressed tion problematic – at least in the sense of the To- in treaties and an emerging diplomatic protocol in kugawa–Meiji links in politics, society, econom- the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In ics, literature, religion and thought, if not in the prose literature, the issue is linked to the devel- modernization paradigm of the nineteen fifties opment of the novel. These different definitions and nineteen-sixties – remain influential, even if are further linked to the historical circumstances they may be undergoing transformation. Now, in which the Western intellectual traditions began for example, in political and social history these to think of the “modern” as a distinct historical days, work bridging the Tokugawa-Meiji divide break. is more likely to trace the ill effects of the Toku- These differences of definition have had conse- gawa connection than would once have been the quences that extend back in time, beyond the development of the field in the latter half of the 3 twentieth century. Given the fact that many of Recall that many Japanese were trying to prove that they were "civilized" and "sophisticated" like the early European and North American scholars the West, and were assiduously striving to re- worked with Japanese intellectual guides who, by fashion themselves to demonstrate the validity of the twentieth century, had developed a pretty that claim.

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case. Links between Tokugawa and Meiji may North America and Western Europe); we also not be chronologically direct but nonetheless, the tend to anticipate that the first studies of political old ties still bind. In art history, ukiyoe prints of history and foreign relations focus on elite poli- the eighteenth century were of particular interest tics. in the West, and associated with the Japonisme The realm of art history, however, introduces and Impressionist movements of the late nine- other powerful forces in deciding what gets stud- teenth century, both reflected the nature of West- ied: the connoisseur, the major art collector, the ern interest in Japanese art. That interest re- consumer. Exhibition catalogs, one of the major mains highly prominent today, to the exclusion of publication venues in the field of art history, are many other styles and art forms. built around the display of exhibitions that often This leaves relatively large areas of research feature the holdings of a single collector. Col- virtually or completely untouched. This is true lectors’ tastes come to define the subjects in art not only for fields that have been in vogue re- history that get broad exposure here. (There is cently (e.g., women’s history), but also for older something of a parallel to this phenomenon in the “established” fields such the study of as upper field of literature where, Shirane noted, transla- class literary genres in which we might typically tions have a fundamental role to play in stimulat- imagine attention to have been concentrated here- ing interest in one aspect of the field or another. tofore, simply by virtue of the fact that a heavy If the translations are found appealing, they are emphasis on high culture characterized literary likely to spark scholarly interest.) In addition, studies until the mid-twentieth century. the Bunkachō (Japanese Ministry of Culture), as 3. Major influences shaping the early de- partner with foreign institutions, has frequently velopment of the field continue to affect our overseen the conception and planning of interna- image of early modern Japan. Intriguing ob- tional exhibitions featuring Japanese art from servations regarding the forces shaping the differ- major Japanese collections. In this way, they ex- ent fields emerged in the course of discussions. ert profound influence on the conceptualization In some cases, a field has been shaped largely by of Japanese art for foreigners as well as control a single individual. For example, historical de- the canon of art objects deemed worthy of study mography, in its current form, owes everything to and display. the work of Hayami Akira and people he has 4. Scholars generally presume that the era trained. Literary studies of the period, espe- is marked by a sameness despite the fact that cially the broad overviews, are overwhelmingly notable potential turning points have not yet informed by the perspectives of Donald Keene. been examined. For example, noticeably ab- In literature, art, religion, and intellectual his- sent from the English-language repertoire is a full tory, the initial models of academic research ap- study of that dynamic Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshi- plied in the post-war era stressed the creation of a mune. While participants first raised the exam- canon to match that of the Western world, and ple of Yoshimune and their belief that his reign focused on the accomplishments of the great men marked a substantial breaking point in the context who produced that work. That approach shaped of political history, participants working in other the selection of subjects even when, as in litera- fields quickly identified the same era as marking ture, the focus was on the literature of the a major shift in the cultural, intellectual and so- townsmen rather than the samurai elites. Indeed, cial spheres as well. That such a consensus de- that the bourgeois taste seemed to produce a veloped quickly and spontaneously reinforces the product that paralleled expected literary devel- impression that periodizations that divide the To- opments (the novel) and reinforced the similari- kugawa are conceivable and worthy of considera- ties with European literary history. tion; the possibility even exists that breaks are Of course, upon even slight reflection, we are sufficiently great that they should be treated as not surprised at the dominance of a few energetic marking a shift in era, not just sub-periods within and very productive individuals and the tendency the early modern era. to mimic existing academic models (especially A roughly parallel situation can be found in the during the early years of the Japan field in the realm of Japanese literature, although there are

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differences. Political history often focused on in the U.S., Europe, and Australia, have rein- the samurai elites (creation of the Tokugawa ba- forced early orthodox images of thematic unity to kufu, formation of castle towns and domains, land the period in each of its major sub-fields. In taxation and the like) and gave short shrift to politics and foreign relations, the rise of a fairly lower levels of political activity; however, the centralized government under the Tokugawa sho- case is reversed in important respects in studies gun and the image of a “closed country” (sakoku) of literature. Our discussion of Japanese literary provided the major themes through the early works after Genroku revealed a rich body of ma- nineteen-sixties. In the world of art, ukiyoe terial not yet exploited by English-language dominated our view. The rise of urban literary scholars. Among the Tokugawa corpus, the traditions in prose, theater, and poetry marked the works of authors such as Saikaku and Chika- period as distinctive. Almost simultaneously, matsu, which are seen to presage the emergence the emergence of national learning (kokugaku) of modern literature, do not come from the elite and Confucian rationalism marked distinctive literary traditions. They represent an important trends in religious and intellectual history. Eco- part of the literary culture of townsmen and nomic growth, diversification and (more recently) commoners, certainly not the only group to create a rising standard of living were treated as the literature in the Edo period. The absence of atten- general trend line in economic history. All were tion given to the literary traditions of other Edo viewed as making major contributions to the period social groups, such as that created by elite emergence of a “modern” Japan. Yet most of samurai, Buddhists, and intellectuals in the stud- these developments occupied relatively short ies our specialists surveyed represents a large spans of time within the Tokugawa era or charac- void, and failure to treat these genres may create terized a relatively limited geographic reach, and a false impression of uniformity in literary forms the heavy focus on them ignores not only other and evolution. The omissions included some gen- chronological eras within the period but topics, res, such as gesaku, which are now drawing some too. attention, but also Chinese-style prose and poetry, The late nineteen-sixties and early nineteen- Buddhist literature (仏教説話), travel literature seventies generated tremors of discontent with (紀行文), essays and miscellanies (随筆), fantas- attempts to draw a straight line from Tokugawa to tic tales (怪談、奇怪小説), and women writers a “successfully modernized” Japan, but the new and poets (all genres). As these attract our at- scholarship that undermines the old images and tention, we can expect (at the least) that we will complicates our understanding of the Meiji trans- have a new vision of the development of litera- formation came in publications of the nineteen- ture in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. eighties and nineties. This concern may be most 5. The defining characteristics of the pe- significant in the fields of diplomatic, political, riod within each discipline are not clear. At social and economic history. To briefly note the least, scholars have become aware of a broad several examples: Sakoku is now widely seen as range of subjects that complicate past characteri- a Euro-centric interpretation and while the issue zations and hint at the need for something new. is hardly settled, there is now also much greater Despite this, no one expressed confidence that we stress on the limitations of shogunal authority and currently have sufficient grasp of the overall de- domain autonomy of action. Some participants velopment within the various areas which com- argued that scholars too readily abandoned the prise the field of early modern Japanese studies to utility of “feudalism” as an attribute of the age. be able to identify distinctive colorings that pro- A half-dozen monographs in the late nineteen- vide a sense of thematic unity to the period. If eighties and early nineteen-nineties used com- this is true within major fields, it is all the more moner protests (ikki) to argue that farmers still the case if we think about characterizations that had it rough, a claim reinforced by some demog- cut across fields. raphers who took effective potshots at early sug- The small number of scholars in the field and gestions that birth patterns showed conscious the fact that Japanese studies is still rather young family planning rather than response to a Malthu- sian vise. As noted above, the world of arts and

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letters is now known to have been far richer and that a review of recent doctoral theses suggested more complicated than previous treatments sug- not only that were people choosing (and being gested. allowed to choose) dull topics of limited interest; Participants generally agreed that no widely further, they were also writing in opaque and agreed upon unifying paradigm and charac- spiritless idiom. terization of the era is likely to emerge until Participants agreed that this issue could be more of the Tokugawa heritage has been explored, solved partly by exploring subjects that personal- and explored in new ways. Art history, intel- ize and humanize our writings on this period. lectual history and religious studies of the period, This suggests a need to create less purely schol- for example, have been dominated by those in arly publications (especially those in which which a scholar analyzes a single, prominent scholars of each of the respective sub-fields write figure; however, that approach has begun to lose mainly for each other) and more attractive mate- its luster and workshop participants across all rials for classroom use. However, these forms disciplines have expressed interest in moving of professional activity tend to be under-rewarded away from that model to study the religious in the institutions whose faculty author most of practices and intellectual-cultural lives of more the publications in the field. ordinary folk. (The discussion below regarding A hopeful note regarding this theme lay in the the need to accommodate the multifaceted, acute awareness of dynamic stories of change at syncretic character of artists, intellectuals and the family and individual level even in the religious figures also implies approaches that framework of substantial social and institutional move beyond traditional practice.) stability. There are at least a few examples of 6. Regardless of discipline, there was a scholarly publication that suggest the feasibility sense that the field needs to make our work of of generating interesting personal detail in the broader interest. There was general agree- context of scholarly work. Recent work by Ed ment that early modern Japan specialists talk Pratt in social history, and Melinda Takeuchi in largely with and to each other or (sometimes only art history come to mind.4 implicitly) to our modern Japan counterparts. Nonetheless, even the inclusion of personal de- To those outside the field, the period is seen as tail does not obviate the challenge of describing potentially interesting largely in its relationship to social settings, practices, religious concepts, of- characteristics identified as precursors to the fice titles and functions for non-Japanese in a “modern” rather than holding attractiveness when way that is consonant with an engaging and well- treated on its own terms and defined by internal written story.5 Quick shorthands such as de- developments rather than its teleological links to scribing a bugyō as a “magistrate” often fail be- Meiji Japan. This appears to be true across all cause the contemporary Japanese office has con- of the disciplines we surveyed. Counter- siderably different duties than a court magistrate examples might be offered to suggest interest in Japan from outside the field (sociologist S. N. Eisenstadt and Southeast Asian historian Victor 4 Edward E. Pratt, Japan’s Proto-Industrial Lieberman come to mind), but these examples are Elite: The Economic Foundations of the Gōnō. sufficiently rare that they highlight the problem Harvard East Asian Monographs 179, Cambridge, rather than inspire confidence that others take Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center, interest in the work of early modern Japan spe- 1999, and Melinda Takeuchi, Taiga’s True Views: cialists. The Language of Landscape Painting in Eighteenth- Beyond this, however, lies a broader question Century Japan, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992, are suggestive. of how scholars can make this field interesting to 5 people in other professional contexts, and to The world of Tokugawa Japan is sufficiently students and the broader public. While not the removed from that of today’s Japan to pose a similar challenge even within the Japanese market. subject of extensive discussion, there was general One can find a variety of examples, some more agreement that the latter part of this problem was successful than others, every Sunday evening on significant. Indeed, one participant commented NHK’s Taiga dorama series.

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at the same time in England or France. The of employing, for example, Weberian theory to challenge of basic translation of Japanese con- study Japan are by now well known, the issue cepts becomes even greater in realms beyond the arises in post-structuralist theory as well. As political. one example, a participant raised the controver- 7. The polymath quality of many figures in sial proposal of one scholar that Edo period lit- the cultural, intellectual and political world, erature might reasonably be characterized as and the varied economic bases from which “post-modern.” The question remains as to they operated strongly suggest the need for whether use of post-structuralist theory commits cross-disciplinary perspectives if we are to un- the same errors that brought criticism to the use derstand influences shaping developments in of other social science theory in Japanese studies: the late sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Are the concepts and theories being coarsely im- Thinkers, preachers, artists and craftsmen, poets, posed on the data without looking carefully at the and authors functioned in many contexts. Like fit between data and concept?7 their contemporaneous European and Chinese In this vein, some participants questioned the counterparts, they aspired to accomplishment in degree to which heavy focus on theory sometimes many fields. The practice of licensure in became a substitute for analysis of data. In this mathematics and other realms of learning played regard, the area of sharpest contention to date has to the desire of ambitious villagers as well as po- concerned charges, levelled in the pages of jour- litical and cultural elites who sought to demon- nals such as Monumenta Nipponica or Positions, strate their multi-faceted prowess. The time is of sacrificing accuracy in translation in the name ripe to exploit this circumstance through both of developing or applying theoretical approaches cross-disciplinary cooperation by several scholars derived from the work of Western scholars. and through the efforts of individual scholars to Participants who were critical of some of the apply multi-disciplinary perspectives and tools in trends they identified or of specific examples of their research. what they saw as “abuse” of theory were not 8. “Theory” represents one means to cross crying, “Abandon theory!” and to take that as the the divide between Japan scholars and col- thrust of their arguments would be a serious leagues with other regional – national focus; distortion. There was a widespread sense that however, use of “theory” raises questions theory (of the post-structuralist, literary criticism about 1) the applicability of largely Western type) was inescapable and that it had yielded conceptual schemes to Japan and 2) the way some productive results; the concern was how to Japan scholars have used “theory” in their use it in a responsible and productive way to 1) studies. I place the word “theory” in quotation learn more about Japan and 2) to find ways to marks here because current use is typically very communicate with non-Japan colleagues. Similar narrow. Unmodified, the term these days is of- issues can be raised in regard to the use of social ten simply shorthand for the theory of literary science theory in, e.g., the study of political, criticism and post-structuralist conceptualizations. social or religious history, whether that of grand We occasionally find reference to other forms of theorists such as Weber and Durkheim, or that of theory, derived from political science, sociology, modern “rational choice” partisans. or economics, but on the whole, there is a ten- Although the above comments reflect the em- dency to treat all social science theory as bound phasis in this facet of our discussion, a persistent up with a discredited “modernization theory” and set of additional questions arose regarding an it is extensively ignored.6 While early problems

two exceptions that specifically employ social 6 Chapters of J. Mark Ramseyer, Odd Markets in science perspectives that are not associated with Japanese History: Law and Economic Growth, post-structuralism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 7 It remains to be seen what reactions will be to 1996, and James W. White, Ikki: Social Conflict the continued efforts of S. N. Eisenstadt and his and Political Protest in Early Modern Japan, more theoretically-oriented colleagues. See “Early Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995, represent Modernities,” Daedalus 127:3 (Summer 1998).

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alternate means of expanding our audience: the strong sense that links with continental culture degree to which late-sixteenth to mid-nineteenth- merit fuller consideration. century Japanese practice was influenced by and 10. Despite the expansion of many cultural could be properly analyzed through contemporary fields (literature, art, religion), history, and or classical Chinese conceptualizations and prac- even social sciences into non-elite subjects tice of literature, art, religion and thought. A among our non-Japan colleagues, the impact consensus emerged that in such fields familiarity of such trends in the Enlgish-language litera- with Chinese practices was essential for appraisal ture are recent (dating largely from the 1980s) of developments in Japan, and fundamental for and still under-developed relative to other re- understanding the degree to which such practices gional-national fields. Among many factors were modified or employed selectively by Japa- that lead to this end, three stand out. First, the nese artists, thinkers, and religious groups. 8 field is still very small and those already estab- These concerns suggest the possibility of treating lished scholars have invested so much in master- Japan as part of the Chinese cultural sphere – ing the techniques, conceptual apparatus and vo- stressing the distinctive features of Japan’s use of cabulary of their original area of interest that they continental patterns not just their commonality. are unlikely to make a major shift to those re- 9. Western Europe and the United States search interests that reflect current American and may not be the appropriate comparative European academic trends. Second, while our spheres through which we can reach out to a students at both the undergraduate and graduate broader range of scholars. Implicit in much of level may get excited about topics and problems the preceding discussion is the expectation that that are au courant, Japanese language prepara- “The West” (western Europe and North America) tion of most of these students is still typically set the standard for international comparisons to inadequate for them to immediately begin re- developments in early modern Japan. While not search in pursuit of their intellectual interests. denying that there is merit in some such compari- The time lag between the generation of their in- son and for some projects, the question repeat- terest and their ability to act on that impulse is edly arose, “Why are developments in Japan so quite long even in the area of modern Japanese seldom compared to those of contemporary China, studies. The language demands of earlier his- Korea or India, for example?” Family demo- torical periods require still greater investments of graphic patterns in Japan are clearly distinct from time. Third, in many areas of art, literature, re- those in Western Europe; might we not learn ligion and intellectual history, one must under- more about the sources of difference if we also stand the practices of earlier eras (and perhaps of compared Japan’s patterns to those of some other China and Korea as well) in order to have an ap- non-European society? While the choice of preciation of developments in the early modern comparison in the case of demographic history era, adding to the body of preparatory material may result from lingering influences of the mod- that one must master before actually undertaking ernization perspective, comparison of artistic and research. literary practice with that of China, for example, Regardless of the source, the consequences of might yield an entirely different appreciation of this situation are clear and suggest some general the “non-standard” literary genre that professors realms for future research. Shirane and Marceau discussed in their arguments. Such studies have appeared in art history 1) Investigation of the workings of lower lev- and literature in the past fifteen years – e.g., work els of society, including popular religious by David Pollack, Melinda Takeuchi, and Patricia practices, factors affecting family planning Graham – but even in these fields there was a such as nutrition and religious belief, popular education and literacy and aspects of material culture. 8 One of the most readable and effective demonstrations of the modification of Chinese 2) Exploration of explicitly religious topics practice and its naturalization in Japan is Melinda Takeuchi’s Taiga’s True Views. that go beyond the secularized treatments

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of “Confucian” or “National Learning” divide, the underlying assumption has been that scholars and treat their subjects in the intel- the quality of the divide was generally uniform lectual context of the times rather than as throughout the land and other regional differences stages in the development of autonomous were relatively unimportant. The general pat- intellectual and religious history. tern of scholarship was to downplay the role of regional differences or dismiss them as excep- 3) Exploration of the links between religion tions that did not undermine accepted images. and politics (e.g., the efforts of Matsudaira That picture has now begun to change. For exam- Sadanobu to use Shingaku for political ple, literary studies have made something of a ends). kowtow in the direction of regional variation by noting differences between Kansai-based tradi- 4) Re-evaluation of the boundaries of, and tions and those of the Kanto; art history has fo- within Japan during the early modern era cused a lot on contrasting Kansai and Kanto artis- (status, class, village, domain, frontiers and tic traditions as well as connections between them, international, gender) regarding which par- without actually making that difference the object ticipants sense a far greater permeability of study. That focus, and the interrelationship than had generally been acknowledged. between the two earn greater attention these days, Do boundaries of this sort become more as does the active interaction of rural and urban elaborate over time? Do they become writers of poetry. In the realm of socio- more rigid? Or do they weaken over economic and political history, erstwhile national time? narratives are under attack and, in the extreme, domains are treated as nearly independent states. 5) Re-assessment of the degree of political Scholars today are more aware of the strong re- control of the Shogun over domains, do- gional variation in the incidence and impact of mains over villages and towns, and villages, famines, variation domain responses to economic families and towns over their constituents and population crises, variations in institutional and changing patterns of different groups’ development and domain autonomy. The im- participation in the political and economic pact of regionalism can no longer simply be ig- world. nored, no matter how much the relative balance of central authority and local autonomy might be 6) Rather than looking at the large urban areas debated in specific contexts or overall. In the as autonomous centers of economic and realm of art history, scholars are increasingly ex- cultural development, exploring changing ploring regional differences in craft traditions, patterns of social, economic and cultural especially ceramics. interaction between urb, suburb and coun- This consciousness underlay several broader tryside as geographic mobility (migration, themes that engaged participants. Can we speak dekasegi, pilgrimage), economic diversity, of a truly national culture at this point in Japan’s and trade increased during the period. history, one that extends beyond the capital and castle towns throughout the provinces? When 7) Examination of the role of gender and the do we get a self-conscious sense of national iden- appropriateness of our current understand- tity and under what circumstances? Is it largely ings of the role of gender. A number of a “positive” identification or created by a “nega- recent works clearly undermine the rigid tive” contrast with some “other,” initially situated gender boundaries that are often presumed in East Asia, later identified as the West? to have been operative. 12. Participants widely expressed a continued interest in exploring more aspects of everyday society and culture. Some of the 11. Recent scholarship in most fields cre- comments above suggest this concern, but it is ates a heightened awareness of regional diver- worth repeating here for emphasis. Examined sity. While scholars presume an urban – rural more closely, this interest is not just a simple wish

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for more study of ordinary people. To state par- Summary ticipant interest in this way excludes concern with The preceding observations suggest a number the everyday life of elites, also a matter of inter- of common issues that cross disciplinary boun- est: What was life like at court? For residents daries in the field of early modern Japanese of castles? For women of all classes? Just as studies. The field is still relatively young, we asked above, “Can we speak of a truly national certainly still limited in numbers, and reflects culture at this point in Japan’s history?” in regard current Western academic fashions at a rather to the regional integration of Japan, we can extend slow pace. The challenges of integrating theo- that query across the social strata. Do we have a retical perspectives from literary theory, anthro- culture that extends beyond the elites and well pology and other social sciences loom as large into the middle and lower levels of society? If today as they did thirty years or more ago, both we have evidence that some people thought that from the standpoint of the applicability of a they shared a national culture, in what contexts particular theory and our ability to use it sen- did they sense it, and who within Japan was likely sitively with Japanese data. to have this sense? How far down the social A major trend in the field is the de-centering of ladder does this sense extend? our attention. We are more concerned with non- 13. Interest in new areas of research that elite groups and behavior and more aware of di- moves away from the political and cultural verse regional patterns of social, political and center toward the influences of regionalism, cultural development and interaction than twenty lower socio-economic strata, and everyday years ago. 9 Participants clearly embraced the practice encourage greater emphasis on the intellectual challenge of coping with the aware- ability to use manuscript materials. The ness of greater diversity and complexity that ac- themes which many scholars now wish to explore company this multi-faceted de-centering. One and for which conference participants expressed task for the field is to determine to what degree the most interest – greater understanding of the such diversity can be used to create new narra- lives of commoners and further exploration of the tives at the pan-Japan level. sources and consequences of regional variation, This challenge is matched by that of trying to to name just two – call for work in sources that create problem foci that are not slavishly tied to may not have been transcribed, edited and pub- the “the modern” and providing a strong positive lished in printed form. In contrast to studies of identity for the era on its own terms. While mod- the collected works of famous authors or analysis ernization theory typically was thought of as ap- of top-level domain and shogunal policy-making, plying to political, economic and social concerns, the documents that require exploration are in- our discussions made it clear that this approach completely available in printed form, not avail- affected the choice of topics for study in art and able at all in printed form, or, in some cases when literature as well. Discussions clearly indicated available, subject to error. A number of scholars the limiting our focus to the era’s link to post – Ronald Toby, Anne Walthall, Janine Sawada, and Lawrence Marceau to name but a few – have already plunged into the world of manuscript 9 While discussion above concentrated on the sources in order to explore subjects where printed role of literary/post-structuralist theory, theory materials presented only a limited opportunity to alone can not explain the range of interests that have explore questions of interest. This trend is been affected by this de-centering. Two alter- likely to continue and suggests a clear need to native examples: In historical demography, it is consider how best to fill this need in training the very application of statistical methodology, graduate students. approaches to sampling of data and the like that increased scholars’ desire to explore the influences of regional differences. Political science methodology has played a similar role in

encouraging recent scholars to think about the

distribution of power throughout Japan as well as the activities of state-building.

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Meiji Restoration developments distracts us from If the field(s) of early modern Japanese study a variety of significant developments that depart face large challenges, our discussions also re- from current emphases. vealed a great optimism and excitement. The In some instances phenomena heretofore ig- current state of the field provides a tremendous nored directly bear on our assessment of how stimulus to undertake interdisciplinary study. “modern” early modern Japan was. In the field The importance of thinking about the era from an of literature, popular genre of elite literature have interdisciplinary perspective was highlighted at a been given rather short shrift in Western studies follow up meeting the group had in conjunction in favor of those that seem to presage the arrival with the annual meeting of AAS the year follow- of more “modern” forms of literature such as the ing our conference. Participants then noted that novel. In the area of institutional history at the often change within their particular disciplines local level, the rather widespread existence of was motivated by external factors. For example, corporate forms of owning and managing arable art was motivated to change by an increase in and land tends to contradict the image of near-modern changing distribution of wealth as well as new property rights that dominates the field. In other developments in technology. Religion was influ- realms, such as the continuing conflicts and ten- enced by economics, literature by changes to sions between the Shogun and the daimyo and demographics (audience) also technology (i.e. between daimyo and retainers in the seventeenth development of printing). Indeed, one of the and eighteenth centuries, we have a different ap- most exciting elements of the conference was the preciation for the nature of the state even if this is opportunity it gave us all to learn about develop- treated separately from the question of its contri- ments and issues facing fields other than our own bution to the “modernization” of Japan. From and to explore the possibility of using data that is either perspective, we have much to gain by mov- not traditionally employed in one field in a new ing beyond investigations of problems that focus intellectual arena. This stimulus to interdisci- on the links between Tokugawa and Meiji Japan. plinary work comes not only in our concern for Both of these concerns underlie one broad the polymaths of the age, but also from the in- question for the field: Wherein lies the dynamic creased awareness of the importance of regional- story of the era? The answer to such a broad ism in socio-economic and political history. question will undoubtedly differ with each spe- One suggestion for multi-disciplinary study of a cialization, as it does today. It is likely to lead single region was especially well received – the to continued variation in the way in which people Shinano region – because there is already a sub- define the chronological boundaries of the field stantial clutch of studies that touch on this re- and its subspecialties.10 gion.11 In the future, interdisciplinary work may help to provide a deeper understanding of early modern Japan, a fuller awareness of characteris- 10 These issues of characterization and definition tics that usefully define a distinctive era of Japa- of the period extend beyond simple academic nese history, and provide a firm basis for integrat- debates. How they are resolved involves power ing a study of early modern Japan with historical relationships within the profession. Underlying and cultural developments in other parts of the many of the issues we identified looms the big world. question of who should or will have the principal role in defining the field. Western theorists? Classical or modern Japanese literature specialists? Comparable Chinese specialists? Our Japan scholar colleagues who focus on other eras? The people in the field? Non-Japanese practitioners in compa- primary role, especially in the area of faculty hiring rable American or European fields who make the decisions. hiring decisions in departments of history, religion, 11 There is already a core of people who have comparative literature, and art (especially in smaller published on at least some aspect of Shinshu: programs)? To some degree all play a role, but Laurel Cornell, Selcuk Esenbel, Anne Janetta, one hopes that those in the field will have the Herman Ooms, Ronald Toby, and Karen Wigen.

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A Postscript Howard Hibbett, The Chrysanthemum Authors of the various essays that have ap- and the Fish: Japanese Humor Since the peared in the last several issues of EMJ have en- Age of the Shoguns. Kodansha Interna- deavored to incorporate in their essays the publi- tional, Tokyo, 2002. 208 pages. $28.00, cations that appeared between the conference and cloth. the time of publication; of these, I would like to take special note of Marcia Yonemoto’s Mapping © Cheryl Crowley, Emory University Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period, 1603-1868. 12 Her In The Chrysanthemum and the Fish, Howard work clearly moves in a number of intellectual Hibbett argues that the Japanese sense of humor directions that reflect the desiderata of conference has been unappreciated by both Japanese and participants. To cite only some of the larger Westerners, citing authorities as disparate as Ar- elements: She takes the era on its own terms, thur Koestler, who described Japanese humor as liberated from subservience to Tokugawa links to "astonishingly mild and poetical, like weak, mint- post-Restoration Japan. Comparison with the flavored tea" (p. 11) and Inoue Hisashi, who West plays a role in the study, but it does not be- claimed that "on the whole Japanese people are come one-sided; it is balanced by comparison serious" (p. 13). Hibbett challenges this assess- with those societies closest to Japan. Yonemoto ment, arguing that Japan actually possesses a rich creatively exploits materials (literary sources and and varied comic tradition, making "the enor- maps most heavily) that have not been widely mous corpus of Japanese literary humor, and of used by American scholars and, more importantly, jokes, comic poetry, [and] recorded vestiges of often uses them in ways that Japanese scholars oral storytelling" (p. 13) the subject of a book have not, expanding their utility beyond the which is both amusing and informative. boundaries of the disciplines that typically use The title is a parody of Ruth Benedict's famous these sources. (Literary sources are used to ex- 1946 study of Japanese cultural patterns, The plore mental maps of Japan; maps are explored Chrysanthemum and the Sword. Here, Hibbett for what they reveal of elite conceptions of Ja- pairs the chrysanthemum – Benedict's emblem of pan’s place in the world as well as in the context elite, aristocratic culture – with the fish, which he of scientific and technical development.) While uses as an emblem of earthy, low culture, or in not a biographical study, descriptions of her ac- other words the comic. (The joke works in Japa- tors’ reveal their polymath intellectual and pro- nese too: sakana [fish], though different semanti- fessional lives. Their activities, and the broader cally, has the same vowels as katana [sword], and description of her subject heighten awareness of hence is worth a bit of a chuckle.) He notes that regional and class variation in the way people the comic side of Japanese literary culture has perceived the Japan in which they lived. The been largely overlooked by scholars and excluded highly literate (and even artistic) individuals Yo- from the canon as well. Without attempting to nemoto analyzes clearly rank as members of the offer a complex theoretical conceptualization of elite, yet the study focuses on their more every- "humor" or facile generalizations about the Japa- day perceptions of their world, not their role in nese "national character," Hibbett observes that governance and generation of artifacts of “high” the comic tradition in Japan is diverse and shaped culture. by many forces, including regional and class differences, the interaction of literacy and orality, and changing social mores. His purpose is not to define Japanese humor, but to give readers some sense of its variety. While he does make frequent reference to humor in drama, rakugo storytelling, and other forms of performance, most of the discussion focuses on literary humor. 12 Berkeley: University of California Press, The first chapter presents an overview of Japa- 2003. nese humor from its earliest sources to its pre-