Everyday Things in Premodern Japan
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€33.99
A01=Susan B. Hanley
anthropology
asia
asian history
asian studies
Author_Susan B. Hanley
Category=JHM
Category=KCZ
Category=NHF
Category=NHTB
consumption
cultural history
daily diet
economics
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnic studies
food
food studies
furnishings
health
history
housing
human waste
hygiene
industrialization
irori
japan
japanese history
kamado
kosode
living standards
material culture
meiji
nonfiction
politics
premodern japan
quality of life
sanitation
shoin
social history
tokugawa
transportation
urban sanitation
wellness
world history
Product details
- ISBN 9780520218123
- Weight: 363g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 08 Jun 1999
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Japan was the only non-Western nation to industrialize before 1900 and its leap into the modern era has stimulated vigorous debates among historians and social scientists. In an innovative discussion that posits the importance of physical well-being as a key indicator of living standards, Susan B. Hanley considers daily life in the three centuries leading up to the modern era in Japan. She concludes that people lived much better than has been previously understood - at levels equal or superior to their Western contemporaries. She goes on to illustrate how this high level of physical well-being had important consequences for Japan's ability to industrialize rapidly and for the comparatively smooth transition to a modern, industrial society. While others have used income levels to conclude that the Japanese household was relatively poor in those centuries, Hanley examines the material culture - food, sanitation, housing, and transportation. How did ordinary people conserve the limited resources available in this small island country? What foods made up the daily diet and how were they prepared? How were human wastes disposed of? How long did people live?
Hanley answers all these questions and more in an accessible style and with frequent comparisons with Western lifestyles. Her methods allow for cross-cultural comparisons between Japan and the West as well as Japan and the rest of Asia. They will be useful to anyone interested in the effects of modernization on daily life.
Susan B. Hanley is Professor of Japanese Studies and History at the University of Washington. She is coeditor of Family and Population in East Asian History (1985).
