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Japan: A Documentary History; Book question
Topic Started: Mar 25 2015, 11:12 AM (1,206 Views)
ltdomer98
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Daijo Daijin

This doesn't fit a particular time-period as we have them broken down, so I'll put it here.

Have any of you worked with/read Japan: A Documentary History? This two volume set (Beginnings to late 18th century, then late 18th to 1995) seems to be history through documents of each time period, and I've seen it listed on quite a few syllabi as I've surfed around the academic internet. Thoughts on it? I'm assuming it doesn't have the Japanese in the books, though it might--if it did, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. If it's all translation, is it worth getting? Seeing it on so many syllabi, it sort of makes me feel inadequate having not read it... :'(

Of course, I also have a bit of an issue with the slavish devotion to documents, documents, nothing but documents that many traditional historians seem to have, so...
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Toranosuke
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Tosa no kami
David Lu's two-volume set is entirely in English. Rather than being a book that stands on its own, to be read cover-to-cover, I think it's much more intended (and certainly more widely used) as a source of primary documents to assign to students (or simply to reference and quote from for research).

If you're planning a course, or something like that, I'd say it's one of the chief go-to books, right alongside Sources of Japanese Tradition, for texts to assign students to read, to discuss, to base their papers on. Where Sources of Japanese Tradition is more literature, culture, and religion, Japan: A Documentary History includes more documents related to political history.

In terms of reading it or using it just for yourself... I have only ever read sections of it when I was assigned to do so, either as a TA preparing to discuss the week's readings with my students, or as an undergraduate myself. I've certainly found it an interesting read, to see for example the actual text of writings by Okubo Toshimichi, Kido Koin, Ito Hirobumi and other prominent Meiji figures expressing their views on how government should be structured. But, unless you're interested in reading, for example, three drafts of the Charter Oath, followed by the Imperial Rescript on Education, and then the Meiji Constitution, this isn't a book to be read cover-to-cover by any means. Lu offers some introduction to each document, providing context and some analysis, but the book is primarily translations of documents, and not "secondary source" historical narrative or description.
Edited by Toranosuke, Mar 25 2015, 05:00 PM.
上り口説 Nubui Kuduchi – Musings on the arts of Japan and beyond
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ltdomer98
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Daijo Daijin

Toranosuke
Mar 25 2015, 04:59 PM
But, unless you're interested in reading, for example, three drafts of the Charter Oath, followed by the Imperial Rescript on Education, and then the Meiji Constitution, this isn't a book to be read cover-to-cover by any means.


Not so much, but the items in Volume 1, like documents related to "Sengoku Daimyo as domainal lords" or "Jito's encroachment on shoen" (from the table of contents) do sound fascinating to me... B-)

Thanks for the references. I'll likely get around to a copy at some point, but won't put it on my "must have" list just yet.

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