Voices of early modern Japan : contemporary accounts of daily life during the age of the Shoguns /
Vaporis, Constantine Nomikos,1957-
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: The Shogun's Japan -- How to evaluate primary documents -- Timeline -- I. The domestic sphere -- Getting married -- Obtaining a divorce -- The consequences of adultery -- A woman's place -- II. Material life -- Fashion and sumptuary legislation -- Samurai dress and grooming standards -- Lunisolar calendar -- Japanese foodways and diet -- The communal bath -- The Japanese home -- III. The political sphere -- A foreigner's view of the Battle of Osaka -- Forging political order -- The emperor and the Kyoto aristocracy -- Weapons control in Japanese society -- Self-governance in villages -- Regulating townsmen in two cities -- IV. Foreign relations -- Regulating foreign relations -- Tokugawa Japan and Choson Korea -- Leaving a window open to the Western world -- A Dutch audience with the Shogun -- Sizing up the foreign threat -- V. Social and economic life -- The social estates -- Trying to get by on a fixed income -- The samurai and death -- Private vengeance among samurai -- Rules of merchant houses -- Dealing with deviant behavior -- Loans among the peasantry -- Unrest in the countryside -- Outcastes in Tokugawa society -- VI. Recreational life -- Advice to travelers in the Edo period -- Documentation for travel -- Children and their amusements -- The tea ceremony -- Archery and the martial arts -- Courtesans and the sex trade -- A hero for the masses -- VII. Religion and morality -- Preaching to the people -- Anti-Christian propaganda -- Controlling the populace -- Religious views of the Japanese -- The teachings of Zen Buddhism -- Appendix 1: Biographical Sketches of Important Individuals Mentioned in Text -- Appendix 2: Glossary of Terms Mentioned in Text.