Edo Japan Encounters the World

Edo Japan Encounters the World continues the conversation, begun nearly twenty years earlier in The People and Culture of Japan, between scholar of Japanese literature Donald Keene and historical novelist Shiba Ryotaro. In discussions that took place in Osaka and Kyoto from 1989 to 1990, these two penetrating and original observers of Japanese culture turn their attention to the long peace of the Edo period (1603–1868), when Japan developed in relative isolation from outside influence. From analysis of literary masters like Basho and Chikamatsu to critiques of the repressive aspects of Edo life, their exchanges bring much insight to this often romanticized period of Japanese history.

Donald KEENE
Donald Keene was born in New York in 1922. He graduated from Columbia University in 1942 and immediately entered the Navy Japanese Language School. He served as a translator and interpreter during World War II. Afterwards, he obtained a doctoral degree from Columbia. He first taught at Cambridge University in 1948–53. He spent 1953–55 at Kyoto University, then became a professor at Columbia in 1955. Since then, he has published over 50 books related to Japan’s literature and culture in Japanese and English. He received Japan’s Order of Culture in 2008.

SHIBA Ryotaro
Shiba Ryotaro was born in Osaka in 1923, and graduated from the Mongolian department at the Osaka Foreign Language School. In 1960, while working as a newspaper reporter, he received the Naoki Prize for his first novel Fukurō no shiro (Castle of Owls), after which he became a full-time novelist. He has received many other awards, including the Japan Art Academy’s Imperial Award, for his many historical works such as Kūkai no fūkei (Kūkai the Universal: Scenes from His Life). He received the Order of Culture in 1993. Other main works include Ryōma ga yuku (Ryōma Goes His Way), Kaidō o yuku (On the Highway), Kono kuni no katachi (The Form of Our Country), and Saka no ue no kumo (Clouds above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War). He died in February 1996

*information as of time of publication

Japan Library series
Culture

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥2,600 + tax
ISBN 9784866580180
210 mm x 148 mm / 140 pp. / March 2018

Softcover
ISBN 9784866581460

eBook
ISBN 9784866580401 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866580302 (PDF)

CONTENTS
Japan in the World
Preface to the English Edition
Preface
The Joy of Conversing with Shiba Ryōtarō
1. The Dutch Arrive
2. Japanese Views of the Early Modern Era
3. Meiji Melancholy
4. An Era for the Masses
5. Japanese Language in Literature
6. The Japanese and the Absolute
7. Japan as a Member of the Global Community
Afterword, by Shiba Ryōtarō
About the Authors
Index

『日本人と日本文化』に続く対談第2弾。江戸時代に活躍した松尾芭蕉や近松門左衛門の分析から当時の生活の抑圧的側面に対する批評まで、日本文化について独創的な見識をもつ2人の対談が、江戸時代について多くの洞察をもたらす。

ドナルド・キーン
1922年にニューヨークで生まれる。1942年にコロンビア大学を卒業してすぐ、アメリカ海軍の日本語学校に入学。第二次世界大戦では、翻訳者及び通訳官として務める。大戦後、コロンビア大学で博士号を取得。1948-53年に、初めてケンブリッジ大学で教員として立つ。1953-55年の京都大学への留学を経、1955年にコロンビア大学の教授に就任。依頼、日本文学や文化に関する書籍を、日本語と英語で多数出版する。2008年には日本で文化勲章を受章した。

司馬遼太郎
1923年、大阪生まれ。大阪外国語大学のモンゴル語学科を卒業。1960年、新聞記者として働きながら書いた『梟の城』が直木賞を受賞、新聞社を退職し作家となる。『空海の風景』等の歴史小説により、日本芸術院恩賜賞を含め、多数の賞を受賞。1993年には文化勲章を受章。代表作として『竜馬がゆく』『この国のかたち』『坂の上の雲』ほか多数。1996年2月、死去。

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