CompleteMartialArts.com - The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto (A Philip E. Lilienthal book)

	List Price: $26.95 Our Price: $26.95 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: University of California Press
Average Customer Rating:
Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 952 EAN: 9780520208773 ISBN: 0520208773 Label: University of California Press Manufacturer: University of California Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 407 Publication Date: 1997-03-20 Publisher: University of California Press Studio: University of California Press
Related Items Hideyoshi (Harvard East Asian Monographs) Selling Songs and Smiles: The Sex Trade in Heian and Kamakura Japan Warlords Artists and Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century Hired Swords: The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan The Confessions of Lady Nijo
Editorial Reviews: How do ordinary people respond to prolonged terror? The convulsion of Japan's "Warring States" period between 1467 and 1568 destroyed the medieval order and exposed the framework of an early modern polity. Mary Elizabeth Berry investigates the experience of upheaval in Kyoto during this time. Using diaries and urban records (extensively quoted in the text), Berry explores the violence of war, misrule, private justice, outlawry, and popular uprising. She also examines the structures of order, old and new, that abated chaos and abetted social transformation. The wartime culture of Kyoto comes to life in a panoramic study that covers the rebellion of the Lotus sectarians, the organization of work and power in commoner neighborhoods, the replotting of urban geography, and the redefinition of authority and prestige in the arena of play.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Intriguing Comment: The writer takes an interesting approach to history, looking for oddities in the historical record and then thinking them through. The result is she brings alive life in Kyoto during the diificult years of the 16th century. Customer Rating: Summary: Thorough and fascinating view of late-medieval Kyoto Comment: This book is a bit of a paradox. Working with incomplete primary sources, Mary Elizabeth Berry has put together a remarkably textured and complete picture of Kyoto in the late Medieval period of Japan. The book examines the fate of 'classical' Kyoto, the political and economic changes of the time, and shows a view not commonly seen in historical Japan: that of the urban commoners who had to live underneath and among the Samurai. Well worth reading for anyone who wants a much better understanding of the period, and of Japanese history in general. The only things that keep the book from being perfect are Ms. Berry's tendency to repeat herself in order to emphasize a point, and a lack of good maps. It makes the book somewhat longer than it probably needs to be, and also somewhat dry. Best consumed in small chunks with time for reflection in between. More Reviews