The Merchant's Tale (eBook)

Yokohama and the Transformation of Japan

Simon Partner (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017
Columbia University Press (Verlag)
978-0-231-54446-7 (ISBN)

Infos

In a narrative history rich in colorful detail, Simon Partner uses the story of an ordinary merchant farmer as a vantage point onto sweeping social transformation and its unwitting agents. Partner’s history of Yokahama as a vibrant meeting place humanizes the story of Japan’s revolutionary 1860s and their profound consequences.

---

In April 1859, at age fifty, Shinohara Chuemon left his old life behind. Chuemon, a well-off farmer in his home village, departed for the new port city of Yokohama, where he remained for the next fourteen years. There, as a merchant trading with foreigners in the aftermath of Japan's 1853 "e;opening"e; to the West, he witnessed the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate, the civil war that followed, and the Meiji Restoration's reforms. The Merchant's Tale looks through Chuemon's eyes at the upheavals of this period.In a narrative history rich in colorful detail, Simon Partner uses the story of an ordinary merchant farmer and its Yokohama setting as a vantage point onto sweeping social transformation and its unwitting agents. Chuemon, like most newcomers to Yokohama, came in search of economic opportunity. His story sheds light on vital issues in Japan's modern history, including the legacies of the Meiji Restoration; the East Asian treaty port system; and the importance of everyday life-food, clothing, medicine, and hygiene-for national identity. Centered on an individual, The Merchant's Tale is also the story of a place. Created under pressure from aggressive foreign powers, Yokohama was the scene of gunboat diplomacy, a connection to global markets, the birthplace of new lifestyles, and the beachhead of Japan's modernization. Partner's history of a vibrant meeting place humanizes the story of Japan's revolutionary 1860s and their profound consequences for Japanese society and culture.

Autor

Simon Partner is professor of history at Duke University. He is the author of Assembled in Japan: Electrical Goods and the Making of the Japanese Consumer (1999); Toshie: A Story of Rural Life in Twentieth-Century Japan (2004); and The Mayor of Aihara: A Japanese Villager and His Community, 1865-1925 (2009).

Inhalt

List of Tables and IllustrationsNotes on the TextAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Out of Thin Air (1859–1860)2. Years of Struggle (1860–1864)3. Prosperity (1864–1866)4. Transformation (1866–1873)Conclusion: The Power of a PlaceTablesNotesBibliographyIndex

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 19.12.2017
• Reihe/Serie: Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture
• Reihe/Serie: Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture
• Zusatzinfo: 20 b&w illustrations
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 150 x 150 mm
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Freizeit / Hobby ► Sammeln / Sammlerkataloge
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
• ISBN-10: 0-231-54446-4 / 0231544464
• ISBN-13: 978-0-231-54446-7 / 9780231544467