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Early Modern Japan
This thoughtfully organized survey of Japan's early modern period (1568-1868) is a remarkable blend of political, economic, intellectual, literary, and cultural history. The only truly comprehensive study in English of the Tokugawa period, it also introduces a new ecological perspective, covering natural disasters, resource use, demographics, and river control.
624 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 1993
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208 people want to read
About the author
Conrad D. Totman
14 books5 followersA specialist in Japanese history, Conrad Davis Totman is professor emeritus of history at Yale University.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 23, 2019
The author merits kudos on many counts for a fine piece of scholarship covering what is called the Edo Period (1600-1865).
First, it is an extremely comprehensive review of the political, social, cultural, intellectual, and economic/ecological trends which marked those 265 years. The info on the significance of the role of ecological issues during this period, for example, is not something most other scholars have written about. Most note that the country’s limited natural resources were important. Totman demonstrates in great depth just how that affected how people lived and the ways in which the country developed.
Second, he integrates information from hundreds of primary and secondary sources in both Japanese and English into very well organized chapters. Each of these covers a particular period of time and summarizes one or more of the areas noted above. After a brief introduction each chapter is broken down into subsections about more specific related issues.
Third, all of this is done for the most part in a direct, narrative style of prose. Thus, it reads pretty well, save for the proviso noted below.
Fourth, Totman provides a number of maps, a smattering of visual examples of the art, and some charts to demonstrate ecological and population trends. All of these helps the reader to grasp more thoroughly what the text is describing.
Fifth, at the end of the book there are summaries of suggested readings in English on various topics. Thus, help is provided for those who wish to follow up on a wide range of topics.
The only criticism I have of the book is its density: since it is so thorough and comprehensive it is challenging to assimilate, let alone to retain, all the information which Totman is providing. Many times I had to limit myself to reading 8-10, maybe 12 pages. By that point it was becoming a case of TMI. Ie, in some respects EMJ is a victim of its own scholarly success! This, plus the fact that I had to try to fit it into my other reading, was the main reason why it took me 7 weeks to complete the 500 page book.
I would still recommend it highly for anyone wanting a serious exposition on this very interesting and important period in Japan’s history. I plan to keep it as a reference to which I will return in the future should I want to review some particular aspect of those 265 years.
Totman has written a number of other books on the Edo Period. I plan to read some of those in the coming months as my time permits. One cannot recommend an author any more highly than that.
First, it is an extremely comprehensive review of the political, social, cultural, intellectual, and economic/ecological trends which marked those 265 years. The info on the significance of the role of ecological issues during this period, for example, is not something most other scholars have written about. Most note that the country’s limited natural resources were important. Totman demonstrates in great depth just how that affected how people lived and the ways in which the country developed.
Second, he integrates information from hundreds of primary and secondary sources in both Japanese and English into very well organized chapters. Each of these covers a particular period of time and summarizes one or more of the areas noted above. After a brief introduction each chapter is broken down into subsections about more specific related issues.
Third, all of this is done for the most part in a direct, narrative style of prose. Thus, it reads pretty well, save for the proviso noted below.
Fourth, Totman provides a number of maps, a smattering of visual examples of the art, and some charts to demonstrate ecological and population trends. All of these helps the reader to grasp more thoroughly what the text is describing.
Fifth, at the end of the book there are summaries of suggested readings in English on various topics. Thus, help is provided for those who wish to follow up on a wide range of topics.
The only criticism I have of the book is its density: since it is so thorough and comprehensive it is challenging to assimilate, let alone to retain, all the information which Totman is providing. Many times I had to limit myself to reading 8-10, maybe 12 pages. By that point it was becoming a case of TMI. Ie, in some respects EMJ is a victim of its own scholarly success! This, plus the fact that I had to try to fit it into my other reading, was the main reason why it took me 7 weeks to complete the 500 page book.
I would still recommend it highly for anyone wanting a serious exposition on this very interesting and important period in Japan’s history. I plan to keep it as a reference to which I will return in the future should I want to review some particular aspect of those 265 years.
Totman has written a number of other books on the Edo Period. I plan to read some of those in the coming months as my time permits. One cannot recommend an author any more highly than that.
March 19, 2025
A top history of the Tokugawa period
A few history books really manage to bring together huge masses of data and write it all up in a very readable style. I remember books by Simon Schama (Dutch cultural history), Lord Kinross (Ottoman Turkey), John Womack Jr. (the Mexican Revolution), and Eric Cochrane (Florence) among some others. This is yet another such amazing work. Totman’s book does not deal with battles, emperors or samurai shenanigans, rather he chooses to examine economy, trade, administration, and the environment, the last being a topic rarely examined in most history books I’ve ever read. There is also ample coverage of the arts and popular life during the three centuries covered (1568-1868).
The author divides the period into two sections: an era of growth between the foundation of the Tokugawa system and 1710, and an era of stagnation that followed, finally ending when American ships forced Japan to open its doors in the 1850s which led to the overthrow of the Tokugawa and establishment of a more Western style government from 1868.
The sixteenth century was a time of confused warfare among various local lords. Slowly out of this morass, Nobunaga and Hideyoshi established political unity throughout the Japanese islands. Japan also invaded Korea in the 1590s causing huge death and destruction, but to no benefit. Totman avoids much comment. The early history here is one about the religious legacy, the governmental style, the urban condition, and what the author calls “the nexus of money, muscle, and myth”. [Readers will note that the author has a penchant for alliteration. For example, on p.83 he writes of “luxury, leisure, learning, and leadership” being reflected in decorative styles and castle architecture.]
Once peace was established, rapid urban growth occurred, mining could begin—of stone and metals—and very quickly all arable land (in a country without a lot) was turned to agriculture. Transport and commerce grew rapidly. The forested mountains furnished a vast amount of wood used for building and fuel. The newly-established Tokugawa rulers regulated taxation and currency. At first Japanese traders (and pirates) spread all around East and Southeast Asia, but the seas also brought Portuguese and Spanish missionaries who spread Catholicism and began to influence society and politics in ways that disturbed the Japanese rulers. Not only did they stamp out Christianity, but they closed the country for over 200 years with only one tiny port open to Dutch and Chinese ships. Japanese contact with the outside world shrank to nearly nothing.
At the same time, cultural life underwent a vibrant expansion. Theatre (kabuki and bunraku—the puppet theatre), poetry, fiction, and painting (especially of wood-block prints called ukiyo-e) flourished. Philosophy, though not for the masses, also developed in various schools of thought mostly derived from China and enhanced by local thinkers. The participants in such debates criticized Buddhism and praised Confucian thought, trying to legitimize the regime in power and justify samurai privilege.
Summing up the first period of Tokugawa history, the author writes (p.159) that when the shogun Tsunayoshi “....died in 1709 he left his successor a realm that was essentially tranquil, at least on the surface. Decades of attentive administration by…the leaders had guided society through the transition from turbulence to political stability.” This could be credited to the order of the leadership, as he said, but “…in greater part, the credit accrued to producers, whose industry so expanded the economic base of society that a burgeoning population could obtain sufficient necessities to lead reasonably satisfying lives.” But the era of dramatic economic growth had passed.
In the 18th century, arable land became increasingly scarce. Coal mining and fishing expanded to absorb some labor as well as the non-farming use of land. Japan needed to enlarge its resource base as well as look northward to the big island of Hokkaido, which until the early 19th century had played almost no part in Japanese history. But due to a big increase in population and use or over-use of resources, the environment of Japan was in trouble. The country was hit by crop failures and famines leading to sumptuary regulations (what people could consume) and reorganization of village lands. Population control was initiated, while the exploitation of resources was sharpened and Japan began to think of expansion.
Rather than continue to detail everything found in this great book, I will just say that there are more chapters about thought and society in the 18th century, visual arts, popular literature and drama at that time, plus little sketches of the careers of various writers, artists, poets, philosophers and businessmen. There’s a very interesting chapter on pilgrimage, cults, and millenarianism (i.e. folk religions) as ways of “disengagement from established authority” and finally more interesting material on relations with Russia in the 19th century, a subject usually neglected in comparison to the relations with the USA.
I certainly have not covered everything available here to people interested in Japanese history. If the subject appeals to you, I strongly recommend you get hold of this book, because I don’t think there’s going to be a better one in English.
A few history books really manage to bring together huge masses of data and write it all up in a very readable style. I remember books by Simon Schama (Dutch cultural history), Lord Kinross (Ottoman Turkey), John Womack Jr. (the Mexican Revolution), and Eric Cochrane (Florence) among some others. This is yet another such amazing work. Totman’s book does not deal with battles, emperors or samurai shenanigans, rather he chooses to examine economy, trade, administration, and the environment, the last being a topic rarely examined in most history books I’ve ever read. There is also ample coverage of the arts and popular life during the three centuries covered (1568-1868).
The author divides the period into two sections: an era of growth between the foundation of the Tokugawa system and 1710, and an era of stagnation that followed, finally ending when American ships forced Japan to open its doors in the 1850s which led to the overthrow of the Tokugawa and establishment of a more Western style government from 1868.
The sixteenth century was a time of confused warfare among various local lords. Slowly out of this morass, Nobunaga and Hideyoshi established political unity throughout the Japanese islands. Japan also invaded Korea in the 1590s causing huge death and destruction, but to no benefit. Totman avoids much comment. The early history here is one about the religious legacy, the governmental style, the urban condition, and what the author calls “the nexus of money, muscle, and myth”. [Readers will note that the author has a penchant for alliteration. For example, on p.83 he writes of “luxury, leisure, learning, and leadership” being reflected in decorative styles and castle architecture.]
Once peace was established, rapid urban growth occurred, mining could begin—of stone and metals—and very quickly all arable land (in a country without a lot) was turned to agriculture. Transport and commerce grew rapidly. The forested mountains furnished a vast amount of wood used for building and fuel. The newly-established Tokugawa rulers regulated taxation and currency. At first Japanese traders (and pirates) spread all around East and Southeast Asia, but the seas also brought Portuguese and Spanish missionaries who spread Catholicism and began to influence society and politics in ways that disturbed the Japanese rulers. Not only did they stamp out Christianity, but they closed the country for over 200 years with only one tiny port open to Dutch and Chinese ships. Japanese contact with the outside world shrank to nearly nothing.
At the same time, cultural life underwent a vibrant expansion. Theatre (kabuki and bunraku—the puppet theatre), poetry, fiction, and painting (especially of wood-block prints called ukiyo-e) flourished. Philosophy, though not for the masses, also developed in various schools of thought mostly derived from China and enhanced by local thinkers. The participants in such debates criticized Buddhism and praised Confucian thought, trying to legitimize the regime in power and justify samurai privilege.
Summing up the first period of Tokugawa history, the author writes (p.159) that when the shogun Tsunayoshi “....died in 1709 he left his successor a realm that was essentially tranquil, at least on the surface. Decades of attentive administration by…the leaders had guided society through the transition from turbulence to political stability.” This could be credited to the order of the leadership, as he said, but “…in greater part, the credit accrued to producers, whose industry so expanded the economic base of society that a burgeoning population could obtain sufficient necessities to lead reasonably satisfying lives.” But the era of dramatic economic growth had passed.
In the 18th century, arable land became increasingly scarce. Coal mining and fishing expanded to absorb some labor as well as the non-farming use of land. Japan needed to enlarge its resource base as well as look northward to the big island of Hokkaido, which until the early 19th century had played almost no part in Japanese history. But due to a big increase in population and use or over-use of resources, the environment of Japan was in trouble. The country was hit by crop failures and famines leading to sumptuary regulations (what people could consume) and reorganization of village lands. Population control was initiated, while the exploitation of resources was sharpened and Japan began to think of expansion.
Rather than continue to detail everything found in this great book, I will just say that there are more chapters about thought and society in the 18th century, visual arts, popular literature and drama at that time, plus little sketches of the careers of various writers, artists, poets, philosophers and businessmen. There’s a very interesting chapter on pilgrimage, cults, and millenarianism (i.e. folk religions) as ways of “disengagement from established authority” and finally more interesting material on relations with Russia in the 19th century, a subject usually neglected in comparison to the relations with the USA.
I certainly have not covered everything available here to people interested in Japanese history. If the subject appeals to you, I strongly recommend you get hold of this book, because I don’t think there’s going to be a better one in English.
May 12, 2024
This book was a required reading for my Tokugawa Japan history class. The wording is quite advanced and I found myself having to carry my phone dictionary just to be like, “Siri, what does this word mean”. Still, he would often be a source for me if one of the other required readings during the Edo Period got confusing.
It’s long and a little too wordy. I found myself reading a paragraph that could have been summarized by one or two of the sentences. I would have to reread paragraphs 3 or 4 times just to see what the point was. I would find myself daydreaming if it got too boring.
Dr. Totman is an incredible writer. For a book written in 1994, he often explains the who, what, where, when, how, and why, in great detail. He clearly has a great understanding of the material. Sometimes he would cite my professor, which was really cool to see (I guess it’s kind of a niche subject). He discusses politics, dynamics, economics, culture, geography, and gives extensive background. He is master of this subject, and if you want an in-depth look at Edo Japan (a precursor for Imperialistic Japan), this is absolutely the book for you.
If you think that Tokugawa something you might be interested in MAYBE sort of, please pick another book. This is long, repetitious, and requires intense critical thinking. I liked this book once I finished it, but getting through it was ROUGH.
If you decide to pick it up, HAPPY READING. AND GOOD LUCK!!
It’s long and a little too wordy. I found myself reading a paragraph that could have been summarized by one or two of the sentences. I would have to reread paragraphs 3 or 4 times just to see what the point was. I would find myself daydreaming if it got too boring.
Dr. Totman is an incredible writer. For a book written in 1994, he often explains the who, what, where, when, how, and why, in great detail. He clearly has a great understanding of the material. Sometimes he would cite my professor, which was really cool to see (I guess it’s kind of a niche subject). He discusses politics, dynamics, economics, culture, geography, and gives extensive background. He is master of this subject, and if you want an in-depth look at Edo Japan (a precursor for Imperialistic Japan), this is absolutely the book for you.
If you think that Tokugawa something you might be interested in MAYBE sort of, please pick another book. This is long, repetitious, and requires intense critical thinking. I liked this book once I finished it, but getting through it was ROUGH.
If you decide to pick it up, HAPPY READING. AND GOOD LUCK!!
May 9, 2010
Whatever issues I may have with Totman - his unexamined use of words such as "early modern," "japan," and "venture capital" - I admire his attention to ecological history, and his complication of the terms of the stagnation of the Tokugawa era. Someone could really do some interesting work using his sort of hints about the different temporalities involved in using different resources, such as old growth forests, commercial fertilizer, etc.
September 29, 2015
Academic account of Japan from the beginning of the Shogun era to the Meiji restoration. Much of the chapters on economic development and philosophical movements were dry, but well researched. Best when giving carious accounts to foreign attempts to open Japan prior to 1854, and the vacillating reactions of the different Shogun governments.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews