Paradoxes of Japan's Cultural Identity
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A01=Roy Starrs
Author_Roy Starrs
Category=GTM
Category=JHMC
Category=NHTB
cross-cultural transmission theory
cultural syncretism
culture. literature
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
japan
Japanese hybridity
Meiji literary analysis
national narrative studies
politics
religio-political dynamics
religion
Zen aesthetics
Product details
- ISBN 9781041188636
- Weight: 600g
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 01 Dec 2025
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Japan is widely regarded as having a unique culture and a strong national identity. Paradoxically, however, many basic elements of Japanese culture are not originally Japanese. Since the beginning of its history, Japan has been one of the world’s major importers of foreign cultures. Its culture was thoroughly hybrid long before that word became fashionable in contemporary global studies. But this does not mean that Japan’s culture lacks originality. The Japanese have always made strikingly original contributions, even improvements, to whatever they imported. Even more significantly, the hybridity of their culture produced ongoing tensions that served as a kind of creative dynamo for Japanese writers, artists, and intellectuals. This book explores the fundamental creative tension between the native and the foreign in many areas of Japanese culture, from politics and religion to art and literature – a tension also often interpreted as between tradition and modernity.
Prof. Roy Starrs, PhD (UBC) teaches Japanese studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand. His publications include Modernism and Japanese Culture, When the Tsunami Came to Shore: Culture and Disaster in Japan, and Politics and Religion in Modern Japan: Red Sun, White Lotus.
