Reviews of books in premodern / early modern Japanese studies

See also Selected bibliography by year of publication

Usual abbreviations for journals used. See note on sources.
[info] = link to web page at university publishers
[TOC] = link to web page with table of contents

Adolphson, Mikael S. The Gates of Power: Monks, Courtiers and Warriors in Premodern Japan. University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. 472 pp.
REV: Thomas Keirstead, JJS 27.2 (Summer 2001)

Bargen, Doris G. A Woman's Weapon: Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997.
REV: Haruo Shirane, JJS 25.2 (Summer 1999)

Baroni, Helen J. Obaku Zen: The Emergence of the Third Sect of Zen in Tokugawa Japan. University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. [Abstract on page at press.]
REV: Steven Heine, JJS 27.2 (Summer 2001)

Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice, Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed. U. of Hawai'i, 1999. [Pbk. See link for editorial review.]
REV: Wolfgang Michel, "His story of Japan: Engelbert Kaempfer's manuscript in a new translation" [review article]. MN 55.1 (Spring 2000), 109-120

Brazell, Karen, ed. Traditional Japanese Theater: An Anthology of Plays. Columbia University Press, 1998. [Link is to 1999 pbk. reissue edition. Editiorial reviews.]
REV: Marleigh Grayer Ryan, Asian Theatre Journal 17.1

Breen, John, and Mark Teeuwen, eds., Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.
REV: Klaus Antoni, JJS 27.2 (Summer 2001): Fabio Ravelli, MN 56.2 (Summer 2001).

Brower, Robert H., tr., with an introduction and notes by Steven D. Carter. Conversations with Shotetsu (Shotetsu Monogatari). Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, No. 7. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan 1992.
REV: Judit Arokay, NOAG 155-156 (1994) online

Brownlee, Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600-1945: The Age of the Gods and Emperor Jinmu. University of British Columbia Press, 1998. Pbk 1999. 266 pp. [TOC ]
REV: Stefan Tanaka, JJS 25.2 (Summer 1999)

Cunningham, Buddhist Treasures from Nara
REV: Donald F. Mccallum, JJS 26.1 (Winter 2000)

Farris, William Wayne. Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures: Issues in the Historical Archaeology of Ancient Japan. Hawai'i, 1998. [Pkb]
REV: Hannelore Eisenhofer-halim, JJS 26.1 (Winter 2000)

Formanek, Susanne. Denn dem Alter kann keiner entfliehen. Altern und Alter im Japan der Nara- und Heian-Zeit. Wien: Verlag der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1994, 557 p. ISBN 3-7001-2166-0.
REV: Ulrich Pauly, NOAG 159-160 (1996) online

Frank, Bernard. Kata-imi et kata-tagae. Etude sur les interdits de direction a l'epoque Heian. Paris: College de France-Institute des Hautes Etudes Japonaises, 1998. 288 pp. [Reissue].
REV: Lucia Dolce, BSOAS 63.2, pp. 314-315

Gerhart, Karen M. The Eyes of Power: Art and Early Tokugawa Authority.
REV: William H. Coaldrake, MN 56.1 (Spring 2001).

Gerstle, Andrew, Chikamatsu: Five Late Plays: New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
REV: Anne Wathall, MN 57.2 (Summer 2002)

Goble, Andrew Edmund. Kenmu, Go-Daigo's Revolution. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, no. 169. Cambridge MA: Harvard Council on East Asian Studies, 1997. 390 pp. [info. / reviews at Harvard University Press]
REV:. Reinhard Zollner, "The sun also rises: Go-Daigo in revolt [review article], MN 53.4 (Winter 1998) 517-527

Hérail, Francine. Poemes de Fujiwara no Michinaga ministre a la cour de Hei.an (995-1018). Publication de l'ecole pratique des hautes etudes, Hautes etudes orientales 28, Geneve/Paris: Librairie Droz, 1993.
REV: Judit Arokay, NOAG 155-156 (1994) online

Hickman, Money L., ed. Japan's Golden Age: Momoyama. Yale UP, 1996. 320 pp.
REV: Karen Brock, Journal of Asian Studies 56.2 (May 1997): 501-503.

Hudson, Ruins of Identity: Ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands
REV: David L. Howell, JJS 26.2 (Summer 2000)

Hur, Nam-lin. Prayer and Play in Late Tokugawa Japan: Asakusa Sensÿji and Edo Society. 320 pp. Harvard East Asian Monograph. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 2001. [info.]
REV: Donald F. McCallum, JJS 28.2 (Summer 2002).

Kamens, Utamakura, Allusion, and Intertextuality in Traditional Japanese Poetry
REV: Robert N. Huey, JJS 25.2 (Summer 1999)

Kawamoto, Kôji.The Poetics of Japanese Verse: Imagery, Structure, Meter. Translated by Stephen Collington, Kevin Collins, and Gustav Heldt. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. [sample pages online at Amazon]
REV: Aileen Gatten, MN 54.4 (Winter 1999)

Kawashima, Terry. Writing Margins: The Textual Construction of Gender in Heian and Kamakura Japan. Harvard East Asian Monographs, 201. Harvard University Press, 2001.
REV: Rajyashree Pandey, MN 57.1 (Spring 2002); Margaret H. Childs, JJS 28.2 (Summer 2002).

Kidder, J. Edward, Jr., The Lucky Seventh: Early Horyu-Ji and Its Time.
REV: Joan R. Piggott, JJS 28.2 (Summer 2002).

Kluge, Inge-Lore. Kanbun. Ein Lehr- und Uebungsbuch. Ueberarbeitet und herausgegeben von Hannelore Eisenhofer-Halim. Europaeische Hochschulschriften, Reihe XXVII, Asiatische und Afrikanische Studien, Bd. 62. Frankfurt: Peter Lang 1997. 263 p. ISBN 3-631-31412-4.
REV:. Heidi Buck-Albulet in NOAG 163-164 (1998) online

Kominz, Avatars of Vengeance: Japanese Drama and the Soga Literary Tradition
REV: Robert Borgen, JJS 25.2 (Summer 1999)

Kornicki, Peter F., and I. J. McMullen, eds. Religion in Japan: Arrows to Heaven and Earth. University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, 50. Cambridge, 1996.
REV: Gary L. Ebersole, JJS 23.2 (1997).

Kornicki, Peter. The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century. Handbuch der Orientalistik/Handbook of Oriental Studies. Vol. 7. Leiden, Boston, Cologne: Brill, 1998. --> now available in paperback from Hawaii University Press, 2000.
REV: Henry D. Smith, II, MN 53.4 (Winter 1998) 499-515; Amy V. Heinrich, JJS 26.2 (Summer 2000); Charles Shiro Inouye, "Japanese books in perspective ." HJAS 60, no.1 (Jun 2000): 229-257.

LaMarre, Thomas. Uncovering Heian Japan: An Archaeology of Sensation and Inscription. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000. [info,][author's publications]
REV: Edward Kamens, JJS 27.2 (Summer 2001); Rein Raud, MN 56.2 (Summer 2001).

Lamers, Jeroen Pieter. Japonius Tyrannus: The Japanese Warlord Oda Nobunaga Reconsidered. [Holland]: Hotei Publishing, 2001. 236 pp. [Based on 1998 Leiden dissertation. IIAS Article by Lamers on Nobunaga.]
REV: James L. McClain, JJS 28.1 (Winter 2002). Conrad Totman, MN 56.4 (Winter 2001).

Linhartov, Vera. Sur un fond blanc. Ecrits japonais sur la peinture du IXe au XIXe siecle. Paris: Editions Gallimard 1996. 687 pp. ISBN 2-07-074300-4.
REV:. Rose Hempel, NOAG 163 (1998) online

Machida, Soho. Renegade Monk: Hônen and Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. Translated and edited by Ioannis Mentzas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
REV: Galen Amstutz, JJS 27.2 (Summer 2001): Mark L. Blum, MN 56.1 (Spring 2001).

Marra, Michele. The Aesthetics of Discontent. Politics and Reclusion in Medieval Japanese Literature. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press 1991.
REV: Vollmer in OLZ, Bd. 87, Heft 6 (1992), 591-594 [German].

Mass, ed., The Origins of Japan's Medieval World: Courtiers, Clerics, Warriors, and Peasants in the Fourteenth Century
REV: Steven D. Carter, JJS 25.2 (Summer 1999)

Mass, Yoritomo and the Founding of the First Bakufu: The Origins of Dual Government in Japan
REV: Carl Steenstrup, JJS 27.1 (Winter 2001)

McClain and Wakita, eds., Osaka: The Merchants' Capital of Early Modern Japan
REV: Luke Roberts, JJS 26.2 (Summer 2000)

McKinney, Meredith, trans. Tale of Saigyo.
REV:William R. LaFleur "Families-at-Risk in a Medieval Tale." [review article] MN 56.1 (Spring 2001), 93-98

McMullen, James. Japanese Confucianism. Idealism, Protest, and the Tale of Genji: The Confucianism of Kumazawa Banzan (1619-91). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
REV: Peter Nosco, JJS 28.1 (Winter 2002).

Miller, Stephen, ed. Partings at Dawn: An Anthology of Japanese Gay Literature (Gay Sunshine Press, 1996).
REV: William Haver, JJS 23.2 (1997).

Pandey, Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan: The Works of the Poet-Priest Kamo no Chomei
REV: William R. Lafleur, JJS 25.2 (Summer 1999)

Perkins, George W. The Clear Mirror: A Chronicle of the Japanese Court during the Kamakura Period (1185-1333). Stanford University Press, 1998. [See link for table of contents]
REV: Robert Borgen, JJS 26.1 (Winter 2000)

Pflugfelder, Gregory M. Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999.
REV: Romit Dasgupta, Intersections 6 (August 2001) [online]; Ayako Kano, JJS 28.2 (Summer 2002).

Pigeot, Jacqueline, and Kosugi Keiko, Voyages en d'autres Mondes: Recits japonaise du xvieme siecle. Paris: Editions Philippe Picquier/Bibliotheque Nationale, 1993. *Annoted tr. of Urashima Taro, Sumiyoshi no honji (extracts), Horai-san (extracts), Kibune, Tanabata.
REV: Karen Brock, JJS 21.2 (Summer, 1995): 529-33. // Royall Tyler, MN 49, 2 (Summer 1994), 240-241.

Ravina, Mark. Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan. Stanford UP, 1999.
REV: Luke S. Roberts, JJS 27.2 (Summer 2001)

Raud, Rein. The Role of Poetry in Classical Japanese Literature. Tallinn, Estonia: Eesti Humanitaarinstituut 1994.
REV: Klaus Vollmer, NOAG 153 (1993 [pub. 1995]), online.

Roberts, Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of Economic Nationalism in 18th-Century Tosa
REV: Philip C. Brown, JJS 26.1 (Winter 2000)

Ruppert, Brian D. Jewel in the Ashes: Buddha Relics and Power in Early Medieval Japan. Harvard, 2000. [May. Hardcover. See link for editorial review.]
REV: Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan, "Considering the Alchemy of Relics" [review article], MN 56.3 (Autumn 2001). *check

Sarra, Edith. Fictions of femininity: literary inventions of gender in Japanese court women's memoirs. Stanford University Press, 1999.
REV: Joshua S. Mostow, MN 55.3 (2000).

Schalow, Paul Gordon, and Janet A. Walker, eds. The Woman's Hand: Gender and Theory in Japanese Women's Writing. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 1996. 511 pp. [papers include Lynne Miyake on Tosa nikki, and Meera Viswanathan, "In Pursuit of the Yamamba"]
REV:. Mark Morris, MN 53.4 (Winter 1998) 529-547.

Scheid, Bernhard, Im Innersten meines Herzens empfinde ich tiefe Scham. Das Alter im Schrifttum des japanischen Mittelalters. Wien: Verlag der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1996. 408 p. ISBN 3-7001-2474-0 (= Beitraege zur Kultur und Geistesgeschichte Asiens, vol. 17)
REV:. Markus Ruettermann, NOAG 161-162 (1997) online cf. author's reply, comment by Sepp Linhart, editor of series.

Screech, Timon. The Shogun's Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States 1760-1829. London: Reaktion Books, 2000. 311 p. [On Matsudaira, Sadanobu, 1759-1829]
REV: Adam L. Kern, MN 56.4 (Winter 2001).

Schalow and Walker, eds., The Woman's Hand: Gender and Theory in Japanese Women's Writing
REV: Alan Tansman, JJS 25.2 (Summer 1999)

Singer, Edo: Art in Japan 1615-1868
REV: Timon Screech, JJS 26.1 (Winter 2000)

Smits, Ivo. The Pursuit of Loneliness. Chinese and Japanese Nature Poetry in Medieval Japan, ca. 1050-1150. Muenchener Ostasiatische Studien, Band 73. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 1995. 235 pp.
REV: Judit Arokay, NOAG 163-4 (German) online.

Stevenson, Barbara, and Cynthia O. Ho, eds. Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays on Medieval European and Heian Japanese Women Writers. Palgrave, 2001. 224 pp.
REV: Sonja Arntzen, JJS 28.1 (Winter 2002).

Scheid, Bernard. Der Eine und Einzige Weg der Götter: Yoshida Kanetomo und die Erfindung des Shinto. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2001. See link for English abstract.
REV: Mark Teeuwen, MN 56.4 (Winter 2001)

Shively, Donald H., and William H. McCullough, eds., The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 2: Heian Japan. Cambridge University Press, 1999. [Introduction; 1. The Heian court, 794­1070 William H. McCullough; 2. The capital and its society William H. McCullough; 3. Land and society Dana Morris; 4. Provincial administration and land tenure in Early Heian Cornelius J. Kiley; 5. Chinese learning and intellectual life Marian Ury; 6. Aristocratic culture Helen Craig McCullough; 7. Aristocratic Buddhism Stanley Weinstein; 8. Religious practices Allan G. Grapard; 9. Insei G. Cameron Hurst III; 10. The rise of the warriors Rizo Takeuchi.] [CUP info.]
REV: Karl Friday, JJS 27.2 (Summer 2001)     

Stein, Michael. Japans Kurtisanen. Eine Kulturgeschichte der Meisterinnen der Unterhaltungskunst und Erotik aus zwoelf Jahrhunderten (Munich: Iudicium, 1997) [ISBN 3-89129-314-3] *On the pmjs list, John Schmitt-Weigand described this as "a fascinating study that treats the socio-historical and cultural backgrounds of 'pre-modern' entertainment business & prostitution in Japan." REV Klaus Vollmer, MN _.

Stone, Jacqueline. Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Hawai'i UP, 1999.        
REV: William E. Deal, JJS 27.1 (Winter 2001)     

ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography.
REV: Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan, MN 54.4 (Winter 1999)

Teeuwen, Mark. Watarai-Shinto: An Intellectual History of the Outer Shrine in Ise. Leiden: Research School CNWS 1996.
REV:. Bernhard Scheid, NOAG 161-162 (1997) online

Thornton, S. A. Charisma and Community Formation in Medieval Japan : The Case of the Yugyo-Ha (1300-1700). (Cornell University East Asia Series, Number 102) [Pbk. See link for editorial review.]
REV: Janet Goodwin, MN 54.4 (Winter 1999)

Tomimura, Hitomi, Anne Walthall, Haruko Wakita, eds. Women and Class in Japanese History. Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, 25. Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan, 1999.
REV: Gregory M. Pflugfelder, MN 57.1 (Spring 2002). David Howell, JJS 28.2 (Summer 2002).

Yang, kanaCLASSIC: An Electronic Guide to Classical Kana Writing
REV: Aileen Gatten, "Mastering Hentaigana" [review article], MN 54.3 (Fall 1999) 387-393;
Adam L. Kern, JJS 26.1 (Winter 2000)

Yiengpruksawan, Mimi Hall. Hiraizumi: Buddhist Art and Regional Politics in Twelfth-Century Japan      
REV: Robert Borgen, JJS 27.1 (Winter 2001)

Yokota-Murakami, Gerry. The Formation of the Canon of No: the Literary Tradition of Divine Authority. Osaka: Osaka University Press, 1997. $74.
REV: Stanca Scholz-Cionca, Asian Theatre Journal 16.2 (online)

sources

Bibliography of Asian Studies
Review articles only inlcuded. Requires subscription.

Journal of Japanese Studies (JJS)
Online issue contents listed only for past three years:
Volume 25, Number 2 (Summer 1999) - Volume 28, Number 2 (Summer 2002)

Monumenta Nipponica (MN)
Reviews listed only since Vol. 54 No. 4 (Winter 1999)