The Cambridge History of Japan

Survey of the historical events and developments in medieval Japan's polity, economy, society and culture.

Kozo Yamamura (Edited by)

9780521223546, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 April 1990

736 pages, 8 b/w illus. 7 maps 7 tables
23.5 x 16.1 x 4 cm, 1.099 kg

"Essays by six American and six Japanese specialists provide readers with significant new perspectives and detailed information on political and economic institutions, foreign relations, and cultural developments...will be required reading for anyone wishing to take the measure of medieval Japanese historiography in English." Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History

This third volume of The Cambridge History of Japan is devoted to the three and a half centuries spanning the final decades of the twelfth century when the Kamakura bakufu was founded to the mid-sixteenth century when civil wars raged following the demise of the Muromachi bakufu. The volume creates a rich tapestry of the events that took place during these colourful centuries, when the warrior class ruled Japan, institutions underwent fundamental transformations, the economy grew steadily, and Japanese culture and society evolved with surprising vitality to leave legacies that still characterize and affect contemporary Japan. As with other volumes in The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 3 was carefully prepared so as to be accessible to specialists and students as well as to general readers wishing to increase their understanding of the period. This is the most extensive treatment available on medieval Japan, and it will serve as an indispensible tool and authoritative guide for all interested in Japan's medieval age.

Introduction Kozo Yamamura
1. The Kamakura Bakufu Jeffrey P. Mass
2. Medieval shoen Oyama Kyohei
3. The decline of the Kamakura bakufu Ishii Susumu
4. The Muromachi bakufu John Whitney Hall
5. Muromachi local government: shugo and kokujin Imatani Akira
6. The decline of the shoen system Nagahara Keiji
7. The medieval peasant Nagahara Keiji
8. The growth of commerce in medieval Japan Kozo Yamamura
9. Japan and East Asia Kawazoe Shoji
10. Cultural life in medieval Japan H. Paul Varley
11. The other side of culture in medieval Japan Barbara Ruch
12. Buddhism in the Kamakura period Osumi Kazuo
13. Zen and the gozan Martin Collcutt.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Asian history [HBJF]