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(★)(渡辺京二)(Translated by Joseph Litsch)(Titulo original : 逝きし世の面影 [Yukishi yo no omokage, 1998])(´Remnants of Days Past´, by WATANABE Kyoji, is an epic journey into Japan´s past. It is a comprehensive look at Tokugawa rule and the Edo period, an age in which the civilization of ´Old Japan´ was still on display and which,, for better or worse, ceased to exist with the advent of modernization. Watanabe covers in great detail several topics pertaining to this civilization, including the status and position of the various social classes, views on women and children, attitudes towards sex, labor, and the body, and religious beliefs, as well as the unique cosmology behind this civilization. To support his views, Watanabe makes use of a number of works written by foreign observers who visited Japan from the end of the Edo period to the beginning of the Meiji period. As the author writes in this book, ´What is important in my mind is the reality that the civilization of ´Old Japan´ was developed through a universal desire, as well as the ideas behind this desire, to make life as comfortable as possible for human existence´. This is a massive work that takes an in-depth look at what modern Japan has lost. ◆WATANABE Kyoji, a historian of modern Japan, was born in Kyoto in 1930. He has worked as a book review editor and is currently a chief researcher at Kawai Institute for Culture and Education in Fukuoka. He lives in Kumamoto City. Watanabe has published numerous books, including : ´Kita Ikki (Kita Ikki, Chikuma Shobo)´, ´Nihon komyun shugi no keifu (The School of Japanese Communism, Ashi Shobo)´, ´Hyoden Miyazaki Toten (Biography of Miyazaki Toten, Daiwa Shobo)´, ´Watanabe Kyoji hyoron shusei 1-4 (Collected Works of Watanabe Kyoji, Volumes 1-4, Ashi Shobo)´, ´Nihon kinsei no kigen (The Birth of Modern Japan, Yosensha)´, ´Edo to iu genkei (Fantastic Views of Edo, Gen Shobo)´, and ´Genpatsu to janguru (Nuclear Power Plants and the Jungle of Man, Shobunsha)´.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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