Description
Book SynopsisMoving from the politics of the public square to the invention of neighborhood community, to oddities found and appropriated in the streets, to the consecration of everyday scenes and artifacts as heritage in museums, this title traces the rediscovery of the past - sometimes in unlikely forms - in a city with few traditional landmarks.
Trade Review"Written with grace and acuity, Tokyo Vernacular offers valuable reflections on the meanings of community, citizenship, rights, property, history, and materiality for urbanites faced with the rapid transformations of Japan's postindustrial consumer society." -- David R. Ambaras American Historical Review "[The book] fills an important gap in the English-language literature about Japanese heritage and preservation ... a rich and ambitious work that achieves what it set out to do." -- Inge Daniels Pacific Affairs "Tokyo Vernacular has a fascinating and highly-convincing story to tell ... a powerful historical narrative of the reconstitution of Tokyo's spatial politics." -- Simon Avenell Journal of Historical Geography "Tokyo Vernacular ... is a treasure trove of valuable information, insights, and perspectives on a vast topic and a work that merits reading several times over so that its nuances and subtleties can begin to sink in." -- Chester H. Liebs Buildings & Landscapes 21, no. 2 "Sand has succeeded in producing a nuanced and historicized account of preservation in Tokyo and relating preservation to the politics of creating a usable urban past." -- Sally A. Hastings Journal of Japanese Studies 41, no. 1
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Hiroba: The Public Square and the Boundaries of the Commons 2. Yanesen: Writing Local Community 3. Deviant Properties: Street Observation Studies 4. Museums, Heritage, and Everyday Life: From Exoticism to Common Heritage Conclusion: History and Memory in a City without Monuments Notes Index
