Remnants of days past
Subtitle: a journey through old Japan
By: Watanabe Kyoji ; translated by Joseph Litsch
Contributors: Litsch, Joseph, 1976- translator
Edition: First English edition
Series: Japan library; Japan library (Shuppan Bunka Sangyō Shinkō Zaidan)
Publisher: Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture
Published: 2020
Place of publication: Tokyo, Japan
Language: eng
Number of pages: 471
ISBN-13: 9784866581408
Copyright date: 2020
Subjects: Civilization; History; Sources; Foreign public opinion; Foreign Visitors; Civilisation; Histoire; Visiteurs étrangers; Tokugawa period, Japan, 1600-1868; Public opinion; Nihon-Rekishi-Bakumatsuki; Nihon-Rekishi-Meiji jidai; Gaikokujin(Nihon zairyū)
Work titles: Yukishi yo no omokage
Description: "Remnants of Days Past, by Kyoji Watanabe, is an epic journey into Japan's past. It is a comprehensive look at the 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 of women and children, attitudes towards sex, labor, and the body and religious beliefs, as well as the unique cosmology behind this civilization. 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 to support his views. As the author writes in the book, "What is important in my mind is the reality that the civilization of 'Old Japan' developed through a universal desire, as well as the ideas behind this desire, to make it as comfortable as possible for human existence." This is a massive work that takes an in-depth look at what modern Japan has lost"--
Notes: "This book is a translation of Yukishi yo no omokage which was originally published by Ashishobo in 1998"--Title page verso

Includes bibliographical references (pages 457-466) and index

Translated from the Japanese.
Table of contents: title: Illusions of a civilization; title: Cheerful people; title: Simplicity and wealth; title: Friendliness and courtesy; title: Fullness and variety; title: Labor and the body; title: Freedom and status; title: The naked body and sex; title: The status of women; title: A children's paradise; title: Scenery and cosmology; title: Living things and cosmology; title: Religious beliefs and festivals; title: Barriers of the mind; title: Afterword; title: A postscript to the Heibonsha Library edition; title: Commentary: Sympathy is the best method for understanding / Hirakawa Sukehiro; title: References: Important people of note; title: Bibliography; title: Index.