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The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan
Modern Japan offers us a view of a highly developed society with its own internal logic. Eiko Ikegami makes this logic accessible to us through a sweeping investigation into the roots of Japanese organizational structures. She accomplishes this by focusing on the diverse roles that the samurai have played in Japanese history. From their rise in ancient Japan, through their dominance as warrior lords in the medieval period, and their subsequent transformation to quasi-bureaucrats at the beginning of the Tokugawa era, the samurai held center stage in Japan until their abolishment after the opening up of Japan in the mid-nineteenth century.
This book demonstrates how Japan’s so-called harmonious collective culture is paradoxically connected with a history of conflict. Ikegami contends that contemporary Japanese culture is based upon two remarkably complementary ingredients, honorable competition and honorable collaboration. The historical roots of this situation can be found in the process of state formation, along very different lines from that seen in Europe at around the same time. The solution that emerged out of the turbulent beginnings of the Tokugawa state was a transformation of the samurai into a hereditary class of vassal-bureaucrats, a solution that would have many unexpected ramifications for subsequent centuries.
Ikegami’s approach, while sociological, draws on anthropological and historical methods to provide an answer to the question of how the Japanese managed to achieve modernity without traveling the route taken by Western countries. The result is a work of enormous depth and sensitivity that will facilitate a better understanding of, and appreciation for, Japanese society.
This book demonstrates how Japan’s so-called harmonious collective culture is paradoxically connected with a history of conflict. Ikegami contends that contemporary Japanese culture is based upon two remarkably complementary ingredients, honorable competition and honorable collaboration. The historical roots of this situation can be found in the process of state formation, along very different lines from that seen in Europe at around the same time. The solution that emerged out of the turbulent beginnings of the Tokugawa state was a transformation of the samurai into a hereditary class of vassal-bureaucrats, a solution that would have many unexpected ramifications for subsequent centuries.
Ikegami’s approach, while sociological, draws on anthropological and historical methods to provide an answer to the question of how the Japanese managed to achieve modernity without traveling the route taken by Western countries. The result is a work of enormous depth and sensitivity that will facilitate a better understanding of, and appreciation for, Japanese society.
448 pages, Paperback
First published March 25, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 17, 2014
Other than her tendency to tell you that she's telling you, tell you, then tell you that she told you, Eiko Ikegami has developed a fascinating compendium of knowledge on Samurai culture and Japanese society. It answers so many of the questions Westerners often have about why they are the way that they are, and connects aspects of history to current cultural trends in such ways as I've never seen. A truly enlightening and informative read.
November 24, 2021
After having read a handful of books in the context of auditing a course this fall on the samurai in Japan I decided to go back and re-read Taming which I had read maybe 2 years ago. The readings and discussions for this semester's course has helped me obtain more knowledge on which to base my understanding of this book. Thus, I found it much more informative and rewarding this second time around.
Relying mostly on what seemed to be a wide variety of Japanese language sources Ikegami crafted a thorough and systematic analysis of the sociocultural dynamics that led to the development, maintenance, and evolution of the samurai from medieval times to the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
She made some interesting comparisons to feudalism in Europe and relied on Hobbes, Weber, and other Western theorists at times. However, she disputed, rather effectively IMHO, what some call western analogue theory: that the development of Japanese culture and social/political institutions can best be understood as a variation of those found in the West. Instead, Ikegami used her sources and her seemingly very deep understanding of the culture and history of her native homeland to demonstrate that Japan's social and political development in general and the samurai in particular followed a course firmly based in the country's culture.
Likewise with her comments about Ruth Benedict's well known and in some quarters highly regarded The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: she respectfully but thoroughly critiqued the ways in which Benedict failed to grasp the essentially different nature of 'the self' in Japanese culture. Thus, she opined that Benedict's observations are narrow, if not inaccurate.
There are three other outstanding chapters in Taming which provided great insight into the ways in which samurai culture evolved from its medieval origins through what is called the pre-modern period of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1865). The ones on The 47 Ronin and Hagakure provided me with a much deeper understanding how these reflected the changes taking place in samurai society in the early 1700's. The one on the role which Confucian thinking played in the Tokugawa period was equally informative and interesting to read.
There is much about it that made this book quite readable. First, the author presented her arguments clearly. Second, most of the chapters were not inordinately long. Third, the chapters were broken down into sections and sub-sections which were clearly noted. Fourth, she consistently provided English language translations for Japanese language terms when she used the latter. Finally, she took care to explain concepts or theories thoroughly and in language that was not too abstract or vague.
The only relative flaw with this book was that Ikegami sometimes used complex, compound sentences. Occasionally, I had to go back and re-read a sentence before I could grasp what she was trying to communicate. That is a modest weakness in what was otherwise an outstanding piece of scholarship in what for her as a native Japanese is a second language.
Thus, I recommend the book most highly for anyone interested in the history of the samurai in Japan. Reading Taming along with Tour of Duty by Vaporis, which I also gave a 5 star rating a few weeks ago, would give one a very solid and relatively thorough picture of this topic.
Relying mostly on what seemed to be a wide variety of Japanese language sources Ikegami crafted a thorough and systematic analysis of the sociocultural dynamics that led to the development, maintenance, and evolution of the samurai from medieval times to the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
She made some interesting comparisons to feudalism in Europe and relied on Hobbes, Weber, and other Western theorists at times. However, she disputed, rather effectively IMHO, what some call western analogue theory: that the development of Japanese culture and social/political institutions can best be understood as a variation of those found in the West. Instead, Ikegami used her sources and her seemingly very deep understanding of the culture and history of her native homeland to demonstrate that Japan's social and political development in general and the samurai in particular followed a course firmly based in the country's culture.
Likewise with her comments about Ruth Benedict's well known and in some quarters highly regarded The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: she respectfully but thoroughly critiqued the ways in which Benedict failed to grasp the essentially different nature of 'the self' in Japanese culture. Thus, she opined that Benedict's observations are narrow, if not inaccurate.
There are three other outstanding chapters in Taming which provided great insight into the ways in which samurai culture evolved from its medieval origins through what is called the pre-modern period of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1865). The ones on The 47 Ronin and Hagakure provided me with a much deeper understanding how these reflected the changes taking place in samurai society in the early 1700's. The one on the role which Confucian thinking played in the Tokugawa period was equally informative and interesting to read.
There is much about it that made this book quite readable. First, the author presented her arguments clearly. Second, most of the chapters were not inordinately long. Third, the chapters were broken down into sections and sub-sections which were clearly noted. Fourth, she consistently provided English language translations for Japanese language terms when she used the latter. Finally, she took care to explain concepts or theories thoroughly and in language that was not too abstract or vague.
The only relative flaw with this book was that Ikegami sometimes used complex, compound sentences. Occasionally, I had to go back and re-read a sentence before I could grasp what she was trying to communicate. That is a modest weakness in what was otherwise an outstanding piece of scholarship in what for her as a native Japanese is a second language.
Thus, I recommend the book most highly for anyone interested in the history of the samurai in Japan. Reading Taming along with Tour of Duty by Vaporis, which I also gave a 5 star rating a few weeks ago, would give one a very solid and relatively thorough picture of this topic.
August 27, 2018
Reading this was a great introduction to Japanese culture. I just couldn't get started on a few books I have on Japanese culture/history, but after reading this I feel I've got some orientation with which to tackle and appreciate the more properly historical works.
If you find this passage from the epilogue intriguing, maybe you'll like the book:
"Our view of honor has become so "civilized" that most of us cannot see how it can coexist with violence. Our view of the samurai has been so strongly shaped by an emphasis on the virtue of loyalty that we often forget the history in which acts of betrayal were often motivated by deep convictions of honor. Our way of seeing honor is so firmly defined by social categories, that is, by a given hierarchy of public evaluation, that we cannot easily understand how it can also be simultaneously rooted in an individual's innermost being. And our notion of individuality has become so privatized that it is difficult to imagine the samurai's sense of individuality as wedded to an equally strong sense of sovereign power."
If you find this passage from the epilogue intriguing, maybe you'll like the book:
"Our view of honor has become so "civilized" that most of us cannot see how it can coexist with violence. Our view of the samurai has been so strongly shaped by an emphasis on the virtue of loyalty that we often forget the history in which acts of betrayal were often motivated by deep convictions of honor. Our way of seeing honor is so firmly defined by social categories, that is, by a given hierarchy of public evaluation, that we cannot easily understand how it can also be simultaneously rooted in an individual's innermost being. And our notion of individuality has become so privatized that it is difficult to imagine the samurai's sense of individuality as wedded to an equally strong sense of sovereign power."
October 5, 2020
This book has a lot of good ideas, but it quite difficult to read. It is certainly not something that you can leisurely pick up.
February 21, 2008
An assigned book for my Asian studies course in college where I learned that samurais circle jerked each other off b/c women were thought of as evil and should be avoided at most costs. One learns of samurai culture's deep impact on modern Japanese society, as well as flaws in their code of honor which are not necessarily glorious.
January 17, 2016
One of the most engrossing, important and impressive books ever written on the subject of Japanese history. Not a wasted word anywhere in this multi-faceted and magisterial work. Eiko Ikegami surely deserves to rank among the most exciting and gifted Japanese historians of today or any other era. I look forward to reading all of her other books.
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June 7, 2010Came across this via wiki diffusion: Gen. MacArthur->Corncob Pipe->Kiseru->Kibukimono. Excerpt on googlebooks is intriguing.
October 9, 2014
maybe 3.5 for that tebdency of academic writing to kinda spring a theory on ya in the last 10 pages hoping you're too tired to think about how well it holds up, but otherwise interesting.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews