Description
Book SynopsisThis pioneering collection of 15 essays argues that Japan's medieval age began in the 14th century rather than the 12th, and marks the beginning of a fundamentally new debate about how Japan's lengthy classical period finally ended.
Trade Review"A good selection of the latest scholarship by European, North American, and Japanese researchers. . . . An appealing aspect of the work is its multidisciplinary scope: essays on political history dominate, but the inclusion of several on religion, women, peasants, and literature add considerably to our understanding of the fouteenth century." --
Monumenta Nipponica"The work is a valuable tool for the speacialist, for it provides information about a period woefully under-represented by English works. . . .
Origins is to be commended for presenting a reevaluation of the relationship between the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, a process that in-and-of itself aids in understanding the complexity that was fourteenth centufy Japan." --
Canadian Journal of History"Any specialist in Japanese history or culture should read this book. . . . All of the essays deserve serious attention." --
Journal of Japanese Studies"Together, the essays provide a rich and varied perspective on the fourteenth century." --
ChoiceTable of ContentsPart I: 1. Of hierarchy and authority at the end of Kamakura Jeffrey P. Mass; 2. Largesse and the limits of loyalty in the fourteenth century Thomas Conlan; 3. The Kikuchi and their enemies in the 1330s Seno Seiichiro; 4. Bakufu and Shugo under the early Ashikaga Thomas Nelson; 5. Peasants, elites and villages in the fourteenth century Kristina Kade Troost; Part II: 6. Visions of an emperor Andrew Goble; 7. Re-envisioning women in the post-Kamakura age Hitomi Tonomura; 8. Warrior control over the imperial anthology Robert N. Huey; 9. Cultural life of the warrior elite in the fourteenth century H. Paul Varley; 10. The warrior as ideal for a new age G. Cameron Hurst III; Part III: 11. Enraykuji - an old power in a new era Mikael Adolphson; 12. Muso Soseki Martin Collcutt; 13. Kokan Shiren and the sectarian uses of history Carl Bielefeldt; Part IV: 14. Ashikaga Takauji and the fourteenth-century dynastic schism in early Tokugawa thought I. J. McMullen; 15. The fourteenth century in twentieth-century perspective Oyama Kyohei; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
