The emperors of modern Japan / edited by Ben-Ami Shillony.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Shillony, Ben-Ami.

Louis A. Duhring Fund.

Series:

Handbuch der Orientalistik. Japan ; Fünfte Abteilung, 14. Bd.

Handbook of Oriental studies = Handbuch der Orientalistik. Section five, Japan, 0921-5239 ; v. 14

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Emperors--Japan.

Emperors.

Japan.

Japan--History--1868-.

History.

Physical Description:

vi, 348 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2008.

Summary:

The Japanese emperors, a peculiar and unique phenomenon in modern times, are the subject of this important handbook edited by Ben-Ami Shillony. An international team of leading scholars looks at these emperors - Meiji (Mutsuhito), Taisho (Yoshihito), Showa (Hirohito), and the present emperor Akihito - both as personalities, and as a constantly developing institution. It becomes clear that both the personalities, and the periods in which they reign(ed) have shaped Japanese monarchy, and our image of it.

The essays thoroughly deal with topics such as the ideology behind the institution, the roles of the emperors and their wives, their visual representation, their links to Christianity, the antagonism they called forth in right-wing circles, Hirohito's much-debated war responsibility, and the controversy over amending the succession rules.

Contents:

Part 1 General Themes

The Strange Survival and Its Modern Significance / Imatani Akira 15

The Way of Revering the Emperor: Imperial Philosophy and Bushido in Modern Japan / Christopher Goto-Jones 23

State Shinto and Emperor Veneration / Shimazono Susumu 53

Ise Jingu and Modern Emperorship / Rosemarie Bernard 79

The Emperor and the Left in Interwar Japan / Rikki Kersten 107

Conservative Dissatisfaction with the Modern Emperors / Ben-Ami Shillony 137

Emperors and Christianity / Ben-Ami Shillony 163

The Unreciprocated Gaze: Emperors and Photography / Julia Adeney Thomas 185

Part 2 Individual Emperors and Empresses

The 'Great Emperor' Meiji / Hara Takeshi 213

Taisho: An Enigmatic Emperor and his Influential Wife / Hara Takeshi 227

Empress Nagako and the Family State / Sally A. Hastings 241

Axes to Grind: The Hirohito War Guilt Controversy in Japan / Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi 271

The Emperor in the Constitutional Debate / Sigal Ben-Rafael Galanti 299

Akihito and the Problem of Succession / Takahashi Hiroshi 313

Chronology of the Japanese Emperors since the Mid-Nineteenth Century 335.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [339]-341) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Louis A. Duhring Fund.

ISBN:

9789004168220

9004168222

OCLC:

231588781