Geographies of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Japan [Hardcover]

In this pioneering study, David L. Howell looks beneath the surface structures of the Japanese state to reveal the mechanism by which markers of polity, status, and civilization came together over the divide of the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Howell illustrates how a short roster of malleable, explicitly superficial customshairstyle, clothing, and personal names served to distinguish the civilized realm of the Japanese from the barbarian realm of the Ainu in the Tokugawa era. Within the core polity, moreover, these same customs distinguished members of different social status groups from one another, such as samurai warriors from commoners, and commoners from outcasts.

David L. Howellis Professor of East Asian Studies and History at Princeton University. He is the author ofCapitalism from Within: Economy, Society, and the State in a Japanese Fishery(California, 1995).

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction
2. The Geography of Status
3. Status and the Politics of the Quotidian
4. Violence and the Abolition of Outcaste Status
5. Ainu Identity and the Early Modern State
6. The Geography of Civilization
7. Civilization and Enlightenment
8. Ainu Identity and the Meiji State
Epilogue Modernity and Ethnicity

Notes
Works Cited
Index

One of the most important contributions of this book is its compelling portrait of the various itinerants within, and often without, early-modern Japan's status system. Even though the topic is a rather serious one, Howell reveals a refreshing sense of humor and an original approach. This is a pleasure to read. Brett L. Walker, author ofThe Conquest of Ainu Lands

David Howell's immersion in contemporary Japanese scholarship is evident on every page of this masterful book. A probing work of great erudition. K?ren Wigen, author ofThe Making of a Japanese Periphery