Any good books out there on Japanese history?

Question

Specifically the Tokugawa period, but if there are really good ones anyone can recommend, that'd be fine as well.

Answer 1

Pixie . . . since the Tokugawa is really the period I study this post will hopefully be more insightful then the other on Modern Japanese works.

As far as a textbook is concern there is a series by Mikiso Hane that are okay. I use this text in my class as it is pretty basic, but for more in depth I recommend Conrad Totman's textbook Early Modern Japan. Unfourtanetly Japanese history textbooks are rather lacking. But, Anne Walthall has a new textbook Japan: A Cultural, Social And Political History, Japan. I have gotten a desk copy yet but you make wnat to look at it. The George Sansom are a little outdated and are okay if you wanted more of a histiographical understanding of how Japanese hisotry has changed. I do not recommend it.

Also despite the post above a lot happened in the Tokugawa period

Stephen Vlastos, Peasant Protests and Uprising in Tokugawa Japan (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986)

Anne Walthall, Peasant Uprisings in Japan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991)

Susan Hanley, Everyday Things in Premodern Japan: The Hidden Legacy of Material Culture (Los Angales: University of California Press, 1999)

Ryotaro Shiba, The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Ronald Toby, State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of Tokugawa Bakufu (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991)

Noel Perrin, Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879 (David R. Godine Publisher, 1995)

Herman Ooms, Tokugawa Village Practice: Class, Status, Power, Law (Los Angales: University Of California Press, 1996)

Kikue Yamakawa, Women of the Mito Domain: Recollections of Samurai Family Life (Stanford: Stanford Univeristy Press, 2001)

These books are pretty accessable and not to overly scholarly and give youa wide variety of topics. Also if you enjoy the Shogun I recommend reading a works on William Adams who served as the basis of the Englishman in this work There are about five or six works on him that I have read some are popular works some scholarly.

I hope this helps

Answer 2

The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori by Mark Ravina is a good insite into the fall of the Tokugawa period. Has nothing to do with the movie of the same name featuring Tom Cruise.

I would highly recomend The Yamato Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave, it's a massive book that chronicles the fall of the Tokugawa to the end of WWII. It's manly about the Imperial family but also revials they weren't really in control. It's written by an Englishman, who normaly writes about Chinese history, so we don't any bias creeping in. It is very well researched and backed up.

Answer 3

www.wikipedia.org - a great place to get a primer. Just do a search withing wikipedia for Tokugawa.

Do a search for Tokugawa in Amazon to see a list of books about the Tokugawa Shogunate. Specifically there are some good writings from UC Berkley and Standford University.

Answer 4

i can recommend James Clavell's Shogun. it is a bit of an epic, but basically a fictionalisation of real events during the Tokugawa period. it's a great read, and gives you a good insight into Japanese culture as well.

Answer 5

George Sansom has a Three Volume Set that covers Japanese History from Prehistoric Times to the end of the Tokugawa (Edo) Period.
http://www.amazon.com/History-Japan-1615-1867-George-Sansom/dp/0804705275/sr=8-4/qid=1171795801/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4/104-1599841-7276737?ie=UTF8&s=books

For Samurai history anything by Stephen Turnbull and Anthony Byrant is good. They have a number of illustrated books detailing various aspects of samurai and key battles.

Samurai Sourcebook:
http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Sourcebook-Stephen-Turnbull/dp/1854095234/sr=1-8/qid=1171796103/ref=sr_1_8/104-1599841-7276737?ie=UTF8&s=books

Battle of Sekigahara which started the Edo Period:
http://www.amazon.com/Sekigahara-1600-Final-Struggle-Campaign/dp/1855323958/sr=8-2/qid=1171796175/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-1599841-7276737?ie=UTF8&s=books

For Fiction go with the above suggestion: Shogun but keep in mind the characters' names have been changed as have some of the incidents. This story is a good introduction to the period leading up to the Edo Period.

Eiji Yoshikawa is a Japanese writer who has three good historical fictional novels:

Heike Story - which serves as a more modern prequal to the classic Heike Monogatari set at the end of the 12th Century

Taiko - tells of the rise of Toyotomi Hideyoshi from the mid to late 16th Century

Musashi - tells of the life of famed sword master Miyomoto Musashi. The novel takes place in the early Edo Period.
http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/4770019572/sr=8-1/qid=1171796249/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1599841-7276737?ie=UTF8&s=books

A majority of history books, novels, and films tend to focus on the times before the Edo Period because the Edo Period for the most part was rather stable due to the strict control of the Tokugawa Shogunate. However one of the most impacting events occurred in 1703 when 47 masterless samurai avenged their wronged master by killing his enemy:
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=201954&rel_no=1

There are numerous films, plays, and books on this subject as it touches deeply on the Japanese psyche. You'll often find it named as Chushingura.

Here's a book that details the history of Tokyo through-out the Edo Period:
http://www.amazon.com/Edo-City-that-Became-Tokyo/dp/4770027575/sr=1-2/qid=1171796305/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-1599841-7276737?ie=UTF8&s=books

Answer 6

Here are some books that deal specifically with the Tokugawa period. The last link is the cheapest and has good reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Early-Modern-Japan-1603-1868/dp/0520232690/sr=1-1/qid=1171516514/ref=sr_1_1/105-8935338-3088441?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/History-Japan-1582-1941-Internal-External/dp/0521529182/sr=1-18/qid=1171516582/ref=sr_1_18/105-8935338-3088441?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-History-Japan-Tokugawa-Present/dp/0195110617/sr=1-26/qid=1171516646/ref=sr_1_26/105-8935338-3088441?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/Male-Colors-Construction-Homosexuality-Tokugawa/dp/0520209001/sr=1-56/qid=1171516726/ref=sr_1_56/105-8935338-3088441?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/History-Japan-1615-1867-George-Sansom/dp/0804705275/sr=1-63/qid=1171516773/ref=sr_1_63/105-8935338-3088441?ie=UTF8&s=books

Answer 7

NOt by Japanese. Especially concerning their atrocities.