Everyday Life in Traditional Japan

by Charles Dunn

Everyday Life in Traditional Japan paints a vivid portrait of Tokugawa Japan, a time when contact with the outside world was deliberately avoided, and the daily life of the different classes consolidated the traditions that shaped modern Japan. With detailed descriptions and over 100 illustrations, authentic samurai, farmers, craftsmen, merchants, courtiers, priests, entertainers and outcasts come to life in this magnificently illustrated portrait of a colorful society. Most works of Japanese history fail to provide enough details about the lives of the people who lived during the time. The level of detail in Everyday Life in Traditional Japan allows for a nearly complete picture of the history of Japan. In fascinating detail, Charles J. Dunn describes how each class their food, clothing, and houses; their beliefs and their fears. At the same time, he takes account of certain important groups that fell outside the formal class structure, such as the courtiers in the emperor's palace at Kyoto, the Shinto and Buddhist priests, and the other extreme, the actors and the outcasts. he concludes with a lively account of everyday life in the capital city of Edo, the present-day Tokyo.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Japan

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 23, 2014

Reviews

[Merreh65 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written for a general audience this book is filled with details and charming illustrative line sketches. How I wish we had read something like this before we travelled in Japan!
Chapters are not overlong and easy to read one at a time without losing the context
of the book.

[Melitta · Rating 4 out of 5]

fairly easy read.

[Arend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short book, well organized, but not exhaustive, sometimes a bit dated (in its references to “current” Japan, its attitudes to gender), but in the end a very interesting glimpse into historical life.

[Patrick Lovell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished for about the thousandth time. It is a good reference to historical life in an age that has passed but still impacts modern Japan