Category: Japan

Purloined Letters: Cultural Borrowing and Japanese Crime Literature, 1868-1937, by Mark Silver, an engaging study of the detective story’s arrival in Japan—and of the broader cross-cultural borrowing that accompanied it—argues for a reassessment of existing models of literary influence between “unequal” cultures. Because the detective story had no pre-existing native equivalent in Japan, the genre’s formulaic structure acted as a distinctive cultural marker, making plain the process of its incorporation into late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japanese letters. Silver tells the story of Japan’s adoption of this new Western literary form at a time when the nation was also remaking itself in the image of the Western powers. His account calls into question conventional notions of cultural domination and resistance, demonstrating the variety of possible modes for cultural borrowing, the surprising vagaries of intercultural transfer, and the power of the local contexts in which “imitation” occurs.

“This is an impressive book, which casts the early history of Japanese detective fiction within the broader context of Japanese cultural and political modernity. Through his close analysis of three central figures—Kuroiwa Ruiko, Okamoto Kido, and Edogawa Ranpo—Silver demonstrates the complex ways in which detective fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was used to reflect upon new ideas, represent the past, and reveal Japan’s newly ‘modern’ society in grotesque and frightening ways. Lucidly argued and elegantly written, Purloined Letters will become essential reading for scholars of detective fiction, Japanese literature, and translation studies more generally.” —Amanda Seaman, author of Bodies of Evidence: Women, Society, and Detective Fiction in 1990s Japan

April 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3188-2 / $52.00 (CLOTH)

“Laura Nenzi’s fascinating work bridges visual and narrative representations of traveling with social history and views of traveling from below. She brings to light palpable details on the mechanics of traveling as a means of overturning socialconventions and speculates on their effect on self-transformation. Her discussion of the transformatory capacity of women’s traveling and place commodification are particularly notable contributions to the field and a delight to read. Her delving in grounds of both literary and visual studies is to be endorsed. This kind of interdisciplinary approach is absolutely necessary in the context of the Edo period’s cultural production that knew no division between the two.” —Jilly Traganou, Parsons The New School for Design

“Excursions in Identity provides a new understanding of familiar material by treating it in an original and lively manner. Nenzi approaches travel as a cultural act, arguing that it allowed individuals to challenge and redefine the strictures imposed upon them by social, political, and cultural conventions. She analyzes her subject from a variety of approaches, literary, religious, spatial, and gender, the last of these of particular value to the literature on Japan. The scholarship is sound, the treatment well balanced, and the narrative polished and accessible. The book will be widely read with great benefit by scholars in several fields, including specialists in Japanese history and literature, and more widely by those interested in gender studies.” —Constantine Vaporis, University of Maryland Baltimore County

April 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3117-2 / $57.00 (CLOTH)

In 1939 the painter Iwamatsu Jun (1908–1994) and his artist wife, Tomoe, arrived in the U.S. as political refugees. During World War II, Iwamatsu used his artistic talents for the U.S. war effort, and he adopted a pseudonym, Taro Yashima, to protect his young son, whom he left behind in Japan. The New Sun, which was published in the U.S. in 1943, is an account of his life in prewar Japan.

“The quality of Yashima’s art and the economy of the text make The New Sun a powerful and riveting tale of political dissidence against Japanese imperialism.” —from the Introduction by Naoko Shibusawa

Intersections: Asian and Pacific American Transcultural Studies
April 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3185-1 / $21.00 (PAPER)

Japan joined the League of Nations in 1920 as a charter member and one of four permanent members of the League Council. Until conflict arose between Japan and the organization over the 1931 Manchurian Incident, the League was a centerpiece of Japan’s policy to maintain accommodation with the Western powers. The picture of Japan as a positive contributor to international comity, however, is not the conventional view of the country in the early and mid-twentieth century. Rather, this period is usually depicted in Japan and abroad as a history of incremental imperialism and intensifying militarism, culminating in war in China and the Pacific. Even the empire’s interface with the League of Nations is typically addressed only at nodes of confrontation: the 1919 debates over racial equality as the Covenant was drafted and the 1931–1933 League challenge to Japan’s seizure of northeast China. Japan and the League of Nations: Empire and World Order, 1914–1938, by Thomas W. Burkman, fills in the space before, between, and after these nodes and gives the League relationship the legitimate place it deserves in Japanese international history of the 1920s and 1930s.

December 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-2982-7 / $58.00 (CLOTH)