Skip to main content
University of California Press

About the Book

By 1853 Japan had been transformed from a sparsely populated land of nonliterate tribal peoples into an elaborately structured commercial society sustaining massive cities and a varied array of sophisticated cultural production. In this authoritative survey, Conrad Totman examines the origins of Japanese civilization and explores in detail the classical, medieval, and early-modern epochs, weaving interpretations of the major themes in Japan's cultural and political development into a rich historical narrative.

About the Author

Conrad Totman is Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University.

Table of Contents

List of Maps
Preface

1 The Beginnings
Prehistoric cultures
The Yamato age

2 Classical Japan: An Age of Aristocratic Bureaucracy
The origins of aristocratic bureaucracy
Evolution of the political order, A.D. 700-1100
Higher culture
    Aristocratic Buddhism
    Arts and letters
The larger society
The waning of an age

3 Medieval Japan: An Age of Political Fluidity
The emergence of bushi rule
Evolution of the political order, A.D. 1250-1500
Higher culture
    The bushi ethos
    Religious thought and action
    Arts and letters: a new aesthetic unity
Social change: the early phase of a metamorphosis
    Economic trends
    Military trends
    Trends in gross productivity and population
The legacy of an age

4 Early-Modern Japan: An Age of Integral Bureaucracy
The forging of integral bureaucracy
    Emergence of the new structure
    The chronology of pacification
Evolution of the political order, A.D. 1615-1850
    Elaboration of the polity
    Articulation of an ideology of rule
    Stresses in the polity
Higher culture
    Bushi culture
    Chanin culture
    The spread of literacy and learning
    The pattern of early-modern thought
Social change: toward completion of a metamorphosis
    Urbanization
    Commercialization
    Rural change
The decay of an age
    Rural disorder
    New directions in arts and letters
    New trends in political thought
Growth and regulation
    The environmental legacy
    Early-modern growth
    Early-modern regulation
Conclusion

Glossary
Bibliographical Note
Index