Description
Book SynopsisSpanning the fields of book history, travel literature, map history, and visual culture,
Printing Landmarks provides a new perspective on Tokugawa-period culture. Robert Goree draws on diverse archival and scholarly sources to explore why
meisho zue enjoyed widespread and enduring popularity.
Trade ReviewA valuable addition to the understanding of early modern publishing culture and geographical imagination. -- Radu Leca * Journal of Japanese Studies *
Goree’s work is methodologically rigorous, insightful, and well researched in English and Japanese… Printing Landmarks is a terrific work of scholarship, and it should change how we read, cite, and understand
meisho zue for many years to come. -- R. Keller Kimbrough * Monumenta Nipponica *
Constitutes not only an important introduction to an underrepresented genre, but also a model for approaching the complex illustrated printed works of the Tokugawa period. …Goree’s book will no doubt be invaluable for specialists who must contend with this dense and complex material. …[This] book illustrates just how groundbreaking it was for a Tokugawa-period reader to enjoy virtual travel through
meisho zue. This important study of
meisho zue shows the broad-reaching possibilities of popular geography in print, shaping a common understanding of places near and far -- Quintana Heathman Scherer * Journal of Asian Studies *
A tour de force of interdisciplinary scholarship that draws on studies of literature, history, art history, cartography, and visual culture in order to create the first comprehensive account of
meisho zue… The meticulousness and precision of Goree’s prose facilitates his presentation of documents that might otherwise appear obscure to modern readers, thereby rendering them as living texts. Perhaps the greatest virtue of
Printing Landmarks is that it makes
meisho zue readable in an intuitive way, thereby opening up an entire world of topographic literature that was previously inaccessible to nonspecialists. -- Pedro Bassoe * Journal of the American Oriental Society *
