When the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier introduced Catholic Christianity to Japan in 1549, it developed quickly in the country. The Japanese called this new religious movement and its believers Kirishitan. This volume explores the popular religious life and culture of the native adherents, which have been so often ignored in conventional studies of Christianity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Japan. Subjects included are lay missionaries, followers' engagement in symbols and rituals, Japanese catechism, and apostasy, underground practice, and martyrdom under persecution. This...
When the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier introduced Catholic Christianity to Japan in 1549, it developed quickly in the country. The Japanese called ...
The oldest written stage of the Japanese language forms the subject of John Bentley's important new volume. The underlying texts (also presented here) are those of the religious liturgies (norito) and imperial edicts (A.D. 685). Part one deals with the liturgies, the writing system, texts, and phonology and the dating problem. The main chapters of the book are a description of nominals, verbs, verbal suffixes, auxiliary verbs, particles, and conjunctions. A chapter on the lexicon, detailing many hapax legomena and interesting words, makes this into a major reference work on early...
The oldest written stage of the Japanese language forms the subject of John Bentley's important new volume. The underlying texts (also presented here)...
Capital punishment has been carried out in Japan since ancient times. Although ancient Japan uniquely suspended executions for several centuries towards the end of the first millennium, today the death penalty is firmly established in Japan. This volume explores the current state of capital punishment, the domestic discussion on the subject, and the influence of the political orientations of the governments of recent years. The treatise is of current interest especially because of the Aum cult, whose leader Shoko Asahara is at present tried in Tokyo. If found guilty, he may be sentenced...
Capital punishment has been carried out in Japan since ancient times. Although ancient Japan uniquely suspended executions for several centuries towar...
This work on Hiratsuka Raichō at last fully assesses her key role in the history of the Japanese women's movement. It provides a full and contextual analysis of the life (1886-1971) and work of this leading Japanese feminist, all in the light of the changes affecting women in Japan. At the same time the author compares her working with similar historical shifts and movements in western countries, notably Great Britain and the United States. International comparisons at the level of personal biography and associated ideas are made, to see the influence of Western feminists on Hiratsuka's...
This work on Hiratsuka Raichō at last fully assesses her key role in the history of the Japanese women's movement. It provides a full and context...
This book sketches the life and poetry of Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), a Japanese poet popularly known as one of the Three Pillars of Haiku. While Basho with his mystic asceticism and Buson with his romantic aestheticism immeasurably enriched the haiku tradition, it was Issa who, with his bold individualism and all-embracing humanism, helped to modernize the form to a degree matched by no other poet. Based on the most recent scholarship, the book attempts to identify the sources of his originality in terms of his long checkered life. It traces his growth and maturity by examining his...
This book sketches the life and poetry of Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), a Japanese poet popularly known as one of the Three Pillars of Haiku. While Bash...
This monograph with an accompanying CD-ROM explores through plot repetition the relationships between three genres of traditional Japanese theatre, nō, kabuki and ningyō-jōruri, with a focus on plays depicting the final, fugitive years of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. First, the theoretical background to the concept of plot repetition is discussed and the theme of Yoshitsune's downfall is introduced. The next and main section analyses the treatment of the Funa Benkei and Ataka/Kanjinchō plots in the three genres, with reference to their historical development and contemporary...
This monograph with an accompanying CD-ROM explores through plot repetition the relationships between three genres of traditional Japanese theatre, n&...
This reexamination of Sendai kuji hongi (Kujiki) convincingly leads the reader to new conclusions on its place within the history and historiography of early Japan. While the Sendai kuji hongi is generally considered as simply derivative, drawing on Kojiki, Nihon shoki, and Kogo shūi, John Bentley's careful textual analysis demonstrates that the work has actually drawn from drafts of Kojiki and Nihon shoki, but not Kogo shūi, which has quoted from Kujiki. Thus the work can not be seen as a product of the early Heian era,...
This reexamination of Sendai kuji hongi (Kujiki) convincingly leads the reader to new conclusions on its place within the history and historiog...
The reconstruction of identity in post World War II Japan after the trauma of war, defeat and occupation forms the subject of this latest volume in Brill's monograph series Japanese Studies Library. Closely examining the role of fiction produced during the Allied Occupation, Sharalyn Orbaugh begins with an examination of the rhetoric of wartime propaganda, and explores how elements of that rhetoric were redeployed postwar as authors produced fiction linked to the redefinition of what it means to be Japanese. Drawing on tools and methods from trauma studies, gender and race studies, and film...
The reconstruction of identity in post World War II Japan after the trauma of war, defeat and occupation forms the subject of this latest volume in Br...
This book uses the haikai verse and paintings of the brilliant, innovative artist Yosa Buson (1716-1783) as a focal point from which to explore how Japanese writers competed for artistic authority in a time when popular responses to economic, technological, and social changes were creating the beginnings of a modern literature. The first part of the book discusses Buson's role in the Bashō Revival movement, situating his haikai in the context of the social networks that writers of his time both relied on and resisted. The second part explores Buson's hokku, linked verse, and...
This book uses the haikai verse and paintings of the brilliant, innovative artist Yosa Buson (1716-1783) as a focal point from which to explore how Ja...
This is the first work to deal comprehensively with the historical and physical aspects of the Nagaoka palace and capital, which were constructed in the eighth century at the order of Kanmu Tennō, but abruptly abandoned after only ten years. New research and the information yielded by decades of excavation made possible this fresh reassessment of conventional theories of the construction and layout of Nagaoka, as well as the life and reign of its founder. It also examines the motivations behind Nagaoka's establishment and abandonment within the context of Kanmu's reign and personal...
This is the first work to deal comprehensively with the historical and physical aspects of the Nagaoka palace and capital, which were constructed in t...