Anti-Kirishitan Surveillance in Early Modern Japan

From 1614 to 1873 Christianity was outlawed in Japan. The Tokugawa Shogunate, which ruled Japan for most of this period, built rigorous and complicated systems of surveillance in order to monitor their population’s religious habits. This paper seeks to describe the evolution of Edo period (1603–1868) anti-Christian religious surveillance. The first two sections of the paper explore the development of surveillance under the first three Tokugawa leaders. The following sections focus on the evolution of these systems (the recruitment of informants, temple registration, the composition of registries, and tests of faith) in subsequent periods and includes some short passages from previously untranslated contemporaneous documents. Finally, the paper offers some thoughts on the efficacy of anti-Christian surveillance, arguing that the toleration of the existence of hidden communities resulted from changes in Christian behaviour that made them harder to discover and a willingness on the part of the authorities to tolerate illegal activity due to economic disincentive and a reduction in the threat that Christianity posed.

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The Japanese Early-Modern Publishing Market Unveiled: A Survey of Edo-Period Booksellers’ Catalogues

East Asian Publishing and Society ◽

10.1163/22106286-12341235 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 199-308 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Laura Moretti

Keyword(s):

Early Modern ◽

Early Modern Literature ◽

Modern Literature ◽

Editorial Process ◽

Edo Period ◽

Publishing History ◽

Early Modern Japan ◽

Publication History ◽

Modern Japan ◽

Definition Of

Abstract This article explores an under-researched area of the Japanese early-modern (1603-1867) publishing history, by examining the catalogues called shojaku mokuroku. First, it analyses the publication history, the editorial process and the contents of these catalogues. By doing so, it offers a new definition of shojaku mokuroku, it reflects upon the growth and the variety which characterize the production of Kyoto publishers/booksellers and proves to what extent these publishers constituted a self-conscious, self-promoting, business-driven unified body. Second, by considering the order that was given to books in shojaku mokuroku, it explores what this order reveals about the publishing market in early-modern Japan and shows revealing differences with widely-held views on Japanese early-modern literature. Third, it investigates how these catalogues were used in the Edo period across the country and reflects upon what the circulation of these catalogues tell us about the circulation of books outside urban centres.

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Nightless Cities: Timing the Pleasure Quarters in Early Modern Japan

KronoScope ◽

10.1163/15685241-12341370 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 61-93

Author(s):

Angelika Koch

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Early Modern ◽

Economic Value ◽

Diurnal Rhythms ◽

Late Nineteenth Century ◽

Edo Period ◽

Early Modern Japan ◽

Time Patterns ◽

Modern Japan ◽

Abstract Notion

This article traces the time practices relevant to Edo-period pleasure-quarter life and business in eighteenth and nineteenth century Japan, discussing two time patterns that appeared in pleasure-quarter directories at the time: more long-term, loosely circumscribed stays based around diurnal rhythms of light and darkness, as well as more short-term transactions centered on units of time measured with incense sticks—two aspects of time that were central to the trade plied in the quarters, as I show. I argue that the sex trade is significant in that it provided a rare example of a service “paid by the hour” in early modern Japan, thus crucially also calling us to (re-)consider larger issues regarding the economic value of time within the early modern Japanese world of work and especially also its relationship to modern time and labor. I demonstrate how the exigencies of a certain trade required the elaboration of a set of time units and, where necessary, a system to measure and co-ordinate them, which ultimately points towards the existence of an abstract notion of time that commanded a certain price in early modern Japan. As such, the present paper serves to qualify narratives that mainly identify the commodification of time with Japan’s industrialization, modernization, and Westernization in the late nineteenth century, as well as with the dissemination of mechanical clock-time

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Book Reviews

Journal of Economic Literature ◽

10.1257/jel.54.1.240.r4 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 54 (1) ◽

pp. 246-247

Keyword(s):

Early Modern ◽

Economic History ◽

Early Modern Period ◽

Social Changes ◽

Edo Period ◽

Social Transformations ◽

Early Modern Japan ◽

Modern Period ◽

History Of ◽

Modern Japan

Carl Mosk of the University of Victoria reviews “Japan's Industrious Revolution: Economic and Social Transformations in the Early Modern Period”, by Akira Hayami. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores how the economic and social transformations in pre-1600 Japan led to an “industrious revolution” in the early modern period, focusing on the rise of labor-intensive agriculture. Discusses viewpoints and methods in the economic history of Japan; history before the emergence of economic society; the delayed formation process of economic society; the establishment of economic society and the Edo period; the economic and social changes in the Edo period; the rise of industriousness in early modern Japan; economic development in early modern Japan; and historical reflections on Japan's industrialization.”

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