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November 1999 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 1 Volume VIII Number 2 CONTENTS November 2000 From the Editors' Desk 編纂者から 2 Articles 論文 The Diverse Japanese: Local History's Challenge to National Narratives in the Nineteenth Century: An Introduction Jonathan Dresner 2 Community and Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Japan: A Re-consideration Edward Pratt 5 Lost in History: Aizu and the Meiji Restoration John E. Van Sant 14 Meiji Education and the Uses of Local History Brian Platt 20 Sacred Sites and the Dynamics of Identity Sarah Thal 28 Local History’s Challenge to National Narratives Philip C. Brown 38 Book Notes, Etc. 研究書ノート等 Book Introduction: Questioning Edo as a Free-Sex Paradise: Koyano Atsushi 小谷野敦, Edo gensō hihan—"Edo no seiai" raisanron wo utsu 『江戸幻想批判― 江戸の性愛」礼讃論を撃つ』("Critiquing the Edo Fantasy: Shooting Down the Discourse in Praise of 'Edo Sexual Love') Lawrence Marceau 48 NOVEMBER 2000 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 1 Editors Philip C. Brown Ohio State University Lawrence Marceau University of DelDelaaawareware Editorial Board Sumie Jones Indiana University Ronald Toby University of Illinois For subscription information please refer to the end page The editors welcome preliminary inquiries about manuscripts for publication in Early Modern Japan. Please send queries to Philip Brown, Early Modern Japan. Department of History, Ohio State University, 230 West 17th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210 or, via e-mail to [email protected]. Books for review and inquiries regarding book reviews, please contact Lawrence Marceau, Review Editor, Early Modern Japan, Foreign Languages & Literatures, Smith Hall 326, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716-2550. E-mail correspondence may be sent to [email protected]. Subscribers wishing to review books are encouraged to specify their interests on the sub- scriber information form. NOVEMBER 2000 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2 From the Editors' Desk schach test for historians, because it tends to re- flect and reveal what is sought. Scholarship on 編纂者から Japan in the United States has been searching for new approaches and directions for some time, This issue of EMJ is devoted to papers that and the substantial studies of Japan's local history were presented at the American Historical Asso- produced recently in English suggest that local ciation’s annual meeting in Chicago, in January history may be the means by which our under- 2000. The session, “The Diverse Japanese: Lo- standing of Japan is going to take its next steps cal History's Challenge to National Narratives in forward. the Nineteenth Century,” brought together four Much scholarship on the 19th century is fo- papers that focused on developments in nine- cused on the question of Japan's national history, teenth century Japan and employed local history and takes as a given the uniformity of Japan's materials and perspectives to critique our under- development. Part of this is due to the deliberate standing of the transition to Meiji. In the proc- obfuscation of regionality on the part of the Meiji ess, they raise some significant questions about government, and part of it is due to the uninten- how we create our “national” narratives and deal tional difficulty of getting beyond the nation-state with issues of local variations in telling the story unit in our thinking. Tokugawa scholarship has or stories of Japanese history. begun to articulate a concept of "Japan" not as a unitary national society but as an interactive sys- tem of classes, regions and communities, but only recently has there been scholarship that gave real The Diverse Japanese: Local attention to diversity and regionality in the late 19th century. Recent scholarship is beginning to History's Challenge to National challenge the imposition of paradigmatic history Narratives in the Nineteenth with complex and diverse studies that are both CeCennnturyturytury:: An InIntroductiontroduction local in focus but regional and national, some- times even international, in implication. Jonathan Dresner Local history, by both professional and ama- Coe College teur historians, has been steadily popular in Japan since the end of World War II. The presentation "But history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavor toward better under- of local history is not immune to the errors of standing and, consequently, a thing in movement. dogmatism. Much of this scholarship was de- To limit oneself to describing a science just as it is voted to either promoting or denying the impor- will always be to betray it a little. It is still more tance of the central state in the modernization of important to tell how it expects to improve itself in Japan in the 19th century, and was highly politi- the course of time. Now, such an undertaking inevi- cized; most of the rest were sentimental attempts tably involves a rather large dose of personal opin- ion. Indeed, every science is continually beset at to situate important national movements in each stage of its development by diverging tenden- largely neglected peripheries. Though it is im- cies, and it is scarcely possible to decide which is portant to deconstruct the concept of Japanese now dominant without prophesying the future. We nationhood, local history should be more than shall not shirk this obligation. The dread of respon- just a challenge to the nation-state unit of histori- sibility is as discreditable in intellectual matters as cal writing. Nor can it simply glorify the "com- in any others. But it is only honest to give the reader fair warning." -- Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft, mon people", though it certainly brings their sto- pp. 12-13. ries to the fore and makes it possible to gain a sense of what life was like during this period of The nineteenth century is perhaps the most change. Rather than focusing on local history as frequently studied period of Japanese history, but "exemplar" or "challenger" to national narratives, it remains poorly understood. It is complex, we need to build up a substantial body of broad dynamic, contradictory, and clearly crucial to local histories, which can then become the foun- understanding what Japan is and was. It is a Ror- dation of a regionally diverse but interactive na- NOVEMBER 2000 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 3 tional history, without the subject-object dichot- movements of Japanese in a changing national omy so common in the master narrative. economy and international environment. It will The late nineteenth century has most fre- also provide the foundation for closer examina- quently been studied for clues as to what came tion of the effects of "national" trends and phe- before and after it. The "legacy of the Tokugawa" nomena – the Matsukata deflation, unequal trea- scholarship looks at the way in which Meiji gov- ties, growth of the banking system, etc. – on ernment, economics and culture are continuations small communities. of pre-Restoration society, both to challenge the When I put out a call for scholars to join me "modernization transformation" motif of early presenting a panel on Japanese local history at the 20th Century scholarship and to cast light on the American Historical Association (AHA) 2000 less well-sourced Tokugawa society. The "key to Annual Convention, I expected a few responses, the future" scholarship looks for clues to Japan's and had some candidates in mind for gentle per- 20th century imperialistic nationalism and eco- suasion if recruitment failed. The response was so nomic success. Both of these kinds of studies strong that I decided to forego presenting a paper answer important questions, but they are difficult myself in order to have the chance to hear as to integrate into a coherent picture: Japan is ei- many of the other papers as possible. Of the pre- ther lingeringly pre-modern or an incipient mod- senters, only one was previously known to me ern society. Local studies can complicate this di- (Edward Pratt), which suggested to me that there chotomy, perhaps even eliminate it, by examining are a lot more people working in the area of local systemic change in terms of the individuals and history than I had realized. So the panel, "The communities who participate, as both subject and Diverse Japanese: Local History's Challenge to actor. Most importantly, local historical studies National Narratives," represents just a small por- give scholars a chance to sift through the raw data tion of this new wave of scholarship, but covers a of history, looking for the typical and atypical, wide range of topics within a relatively focused the striking details that lead to questions, and the time period. Taken together, these papers suggest questions that lead to greater understanding. the potential of local history to both answer ques- This is what I am trying to do in my own re- tions raised at the national level and to question search on Meiji-era international emigration and answers accepted as national truisms. its effects on local social and economic develop- Ed Pratt challenges conventional ideas of ment in Yamaguchi Prefecture. This is an in- village structure by looking at both cooperative tensely regional phenomenon: most emigrants in and competitive behavior together rather than the 19th century came from five prefectures, usu- seeing the two in Manichean opposition. His es- ally from a few counties within those prefectures; say exemplifies the wonder of discovery in local outside of the high emigration regions, interna- historical study, how the most important discov- tional emigration was nearly non-existent until eries begin, as Isaac Asimov said, with "That's colonial migration. Nonetheless, histories of these odd" rather than with "Eureka!" The diary of regions rarely point to the flow of people and Ichikawa Shōemon provides a vivid and detailed money as a significant factor in local growth. The account of both family and hamlet affairs in the reason, if I may anticipate my own research, late 19th century.
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