Japan at Nature's Edge

Japan at Nature's Edge

The Environmental Context of a Global Power

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

University of Hawaii Press | 2013

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824838775

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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 information

MillerIan Jared:

Ian Jared Miller teaches modern Japanese history at Harvard University. ThomasJulia Adeney:

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

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

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

Japan at Nature's Edge

The Environmental Context of a Global Power

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