Geographies of Identity in Nineteenth-Century JapanIn this pioneering study, David L. Howell looks beneath the surface structures of the Japanese state to reveal the mechanism by which markers of polity, status, and civilization came together over the divide of the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Howell illustrates how a short roster of malleable, explicitly superficial customs—hairstyle, clothing, and personal names— served to distinguish the "civilized" realm of the Japanese from the "barbarian" realm of the Ainu in the Tokugawa era. Within the core polity, moreover, these same customs distinguished members of different social status groups from one another, such as samurai warriors from commoners, and commoners from outcasts. |
Contents
| 1 | |
2 The Geography of Status | 20 |
3 Status and the Politics of the Quotidian | 45 |
4 Violence and the Abolition of Outcaste Status | 79 |
5 Ainu Identity and the Early Modern State | 110 |
6 The Geography of Civilization | 131 |
7 Civilization and Enlightenment | 154 |
8 Ainu Identity and the Meiji State | 172 |
Modernity and Ethnicity | 197 |
Notes | 205 |
| 237 | |
| 255 | |
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Common terms and phrases
abolition agricultural Ainu Ainu communities Ainu culture Ainu’s assimilation authorities autonomy barbarian barbarism boundaries bunka Buraku Burakumin Burakushi civilization commoners core polity customs daimyo duties early Meiji early modern Japan economic ethnic example Ezochi feudal fisheries fuzoku hair hinin Hokkaido household hyakusho Ibid ikki imperial individual institutions Islands Japanese Kaiho Kaihorei Kanto kenkyu Kikuchi Kindai Kinsei Kinsei Nihon kokka kokudaka Kuril Ainu Kuril Islands Kyoto kyudojin labor land markers Matsumae domain Meiji period Meiji Restoration mibun Mimasaka Nanbu Nemuro nomic obligations occupation and livelihood officials outcaste status participation peasants political practices prefecture protest realm Rebellion regime ritual Ryukyu Ryukyuans sabetsu Sakhalin samurai samurai status Sapporo seiritsu shakai Shikotan Shobo shogunate shogunate’s social groups society state’s status groups status order status system status-based subjects territory tion Tokugawa Japan Tokugawa period Tokugawa shogunate Tokyo trade Tsugaru Tsukada uimam umsa University Press village violence Western yukar