Above the clouds : status culture of the modern Japanese nobility / Takie Sugiyama Lebra.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lebra, Takie Sugiyama, 1930- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nobility--Japan.

Nobility.

Japan--Social life and customs--20th century.

Japan.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (461 p.)

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [1993]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This latest work from Japanese-born anthropologist Takie Sugiyama Lebra is the first ethnographic study of the modern Japanese aristocracy. Established as a class at the beginning of the Meiji period, the kazoku ranked directly below the emperor and his family. Officially dissolved in 1947, this group of social elites is still generally perceived as nobility. Lebra gained entry into this tightly knit circle and conducted more than one hundred interviews with its members. She has woven together a reconstructive ethnography from their life histories to create an intimate portrait of a remote and archaic world.As Lebra explores the culture of the kazoku, she places each subject in its historical context. She analyzes the evolution of status boundaries and the indispensable role played by outsiders.But this book is not simply about the elite. It is also about commoners and how each stratum mirrors the other. Revealing previously unobserved complexities in Japanese society, it also sheds light on the universal problem of social stratification.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Tables

Illustrations

Orthographic Note on Japanese Words

Acknowledgments

1. Studying the Aristocracy: Why, What, and How?

2. Creating the Modern Nobility: The Historical Legacy

3. Ancestors: Constructing Inherited Charisma

4. Successors: Immortalizing the Ancestors

5. Life-Style: Markers of Status and Hierarchy

6. Marriage: Realignment of Women and Men

7. Socialization: Acquisition and Transmission of Status Culture

8. Status Careers: Privilege and Liability

9. Conclusion

Epilogue: The End of Showa

Notes

Glossary

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 395-407) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786612758690

9781282758698

1282758691

9780520911796

0520911792

9780585106021

0585106029

OCLC:

43475916