Japan’s Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930

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Japan’s Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 is written by William Puck Brecher and published by BRILL. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 9004450157 (ISBN 10) and 9789004450158 (ISBN 13).

Japan’s Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 traces the shifting nature of autonomy in early modern and modern Japan. In this far-reaching, interdisciplinary study, W. Puck Brecher explores the historical development of the private and its evolving relationship with public authority, a dynamic that evokes stereotypes about an alleged dearth of individual agency in Japanese society. It does so through a montage of case studies. For the early modern era, case studies examine peripheral living spaces, boyhood, and self-interrogation in the arts. For the modern period, they explore strategic deviance, individuality in Meiji education, modern leisure, and body-maintenance. Analysis of these disparate private realms illuminates evolving conceptualizations of the private and its reciprocal yet often-contested relationship to the state.