Japan at Nature's Edge: The Environmental Context of a Global Power

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2013

Japan at Nature's Edge

The Environmental Context of a Global Power

Edited by: Ian Jared Miller , Julia Adeney Thomas and Brett L. Walker

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824838775

Overview
Contents

About this book

Japan at Nature’s Edge is a timely collection of essays that explores the relationship between Japan’s history, culture, and physical environment. It greatly expands the focus of previous work on Japanese modernization by examining Japan’s role in global environmental transformation and how Japanese ideas have shaped bodies and landscapes over the centuries. The immediacy of Earth’s environmental crisis, a predicament highlighted by Japan’s March 2011 disaster, brings a sense of urgency to the study of Japan and its global connections.

The work is an environmental history in the broadest sense of the term because it contains writing by environmental anthropologists, a legendary Japanese economist, and scholars of Japanese literature and culture. The editors have brought together an unparalleled assemblage of some of the finest scholars in the field who, rather than treat it in isolation or as a unique cultural community, seek to connect Japan to global environmental currents such as whaling, world fisheries, mountaineering and science, mining and industrial pollution, and relations with nonhuman animals.

The contributors assert the importance of the environment in understanding Japan’s history and propose a new balance between nature and culture, one weighted much more heavily on the side of natural legacies. This approach does not discount culture. Instead, it suggests that the Japanese experience of nature, like that of all human beings, is a complex and intimate negotiation between the physical and cultural worlds.

Contributors: Daniel P. Aldrich, Jakobina Arch, Andrew Bernstein, Philip C. Brown, Timothy S. George, Jeffrey E. Hanes, David L. Howell, Federico Marcon, Christine L. Marran, Ian Jared Miller, Micah Muscolino, Ken’ichi Miyamoto, Sara B. Pritchard, Julia Adeney Thomas, Karen Thornber, William M. Tsutsui, Brett L. Walker, Takehiro Watanabe.

Author / Editor information

Miller Ian Jared :

Ian Jared Miller is professor of history at Harvard University. Thomas Julia Adeney :

Julia Adeney Thomas is associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.Walker Brett L. :

Brett L. Walkeris Regents Professor at Montana State University, Bozeman.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Brett L. Walker Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Writing Japan at Nature’s Edge: The Promises and Perils of Environmental History Ian Jared Miller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: Oceans and Empires
1. The Pelagic Empire: Reconsidering Japanese Expansion William M. Tsutsui Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
From Meat to Machine Oil: The Nineteenth-Century Development of Whaling in Wakayama Jakobina Arch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
Fisheries Build Up the Nation: Maritime Environmental Encounters Between Japan and China Micah Muscolino Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
Part II: Changing Landscapes
Talking Sulfur Dioxide: Air Pollution and the Politics of Science in Late Meiji Japan Takehiro Watanabe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
Constructing Nature Philip C. Brown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
Toroku: Mountain Dreams, Chemical Nightmares Timothy S. George Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Part III: Between Bodies
Fecal Matters: Prolegomenon to a History of Shit in Japan David L. Howell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
Weathering Fuji: Marriage, Meteorology, and the Meiji Bodyscape Andrew Bernstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
Animal Histories: Stranger in a Tokyo Canal Christine L. Marran Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Part IV: Vistas and Vantage Points
Inventorying Nature: Tokugawa Yoshimune and the Sponsorship of Honzōgaku in Eighteenth-Century Japan Federico Marcon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Japanese Literature and Environmental Crises Karen Thornber Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Japanese Environmental Policy: Lessons from Experience and Remaining Problems Ken’ichi Miyamoto Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
Part V: The Triple Disaster of 3/11
An Envirotechnical Disaster: Negotiating Nature, Technology, and Politics at Fukushima Sara B. Pritchard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Postcrisis Japanese Nuclear Policy: From Topdown Directives to Bottom-Up Activism Daniel P. Aldrich Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	280
Using Japan to Think Globally: The Natural Subject of History and Its Hopes Julia Adeney Thomas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
List of Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 336
Illustrations
- Other: 33 illus.

eBook

Published: July 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780824838775