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Bibliographic Data: Najita, Tetsuo. Ordinary Economies in Japan: A Historical Perspective, 1750-1950. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
Main Argument: Najita argues for a kind of deep persistence of a hidden history of commoner cooperative organizations (kô) from the early modern period into the modern period--although he does not say as much, it is clear that the kô played a vital role in alleviating the rural misery associated with the late Tokugawa and early imperial periods, and thus a key role in Japan's successful transition to industrial modernity. Moreover, albeit in somewhat changed forms, many kô still exist in Japan to blunt the effects of state indifference, a kind of silent citizens' movement.
Historiographical Engagement: In his own words, Robert Bellah, Irwin Scheiner, Thomas C. Smith, Anne Walthall, Sakurai Tokutarô, Irokawa Daikichi, Mori Kahei, and Mori Shizurô
( Hidden and fragmented )
Critical assessment: This is definitely a final book in that it is much more meditative and much more associative than more tightly written books by younger scholars, but it is also illuminating of a history that has been not so much suppressed as ignored, because hiding in plain sight. I've joined cooperatives in Japan and in the States, and Najita's arguments about the persistence of kô make a lot of sense.
That said, I find Najita's sweeping references to "commoners" to be more obfuscatory than helpful. The four official social orders were status groups, not classes, and some merchants, officially commoners, were far richer than many samurai by the middle of the Tokugawa period if not earlier. By the end of the period, there was a great deal of status mixing at elite levels, and I find that Najita's flattening of those class-based distinctions blunts his analysis, and especially its potential comparability.
Further reading: Najita, Visions of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan; Hitomi Tonomura, Community and Commerce in Late Medieval Japan
Meta notes: At this point I should put my cards on the table and say that I really like comparability.
Main Argument: Najita argues for a kind of deep persistence of a hidden history of commoner cooperative organizations (kô) from the early modern period into the modern period--although he does not say as much, it is clear that the kô played a vital role in alleviating the rural misery associated with the late Tokugawa and early imperial periods, and thus a key role in Japan's successful transition to industrial modernity. Moreover, albeit in somewhat changed forms, many kô still exist in Japan to blunt the effects of state indifference, a kind of silent citizens' movement.
Historiographical Engagement: In his own words, Robert Bellah, Irwin Scheiner, Thomas C. Smith, Anne Walthall, Sakurai Tokutarô, Irokawa Daikichi, Mori Kahei, and Mori Shizurô
( Hidden and fragmented )
Critical assessment: This is definitely a final book in that it is much more meditative and much more associative than more tightly written books by younger scholars, but it is also illuminating of a history that has been not so much suppressed as ignored, because hiding in plain sight. I've joined cooperatives in Japan and in the States, and Najita's arguments about the persistence of kô make a lot of sense.
That said, I find Najita's sweeping references to "commoners" to be more obfuscatory than helpful. The four official social orders were status groups, not classes, and some merchants, officially commoners, were far richer than many samurai by the middle of the Tokugawa period if not earlier. By the end of the period, there was a great deal of status mixing at elite levels, and I find that Najita's flattening of those class-based distinctions blunts his analysis, and especially its potential comparability.
Further reading: Najita, Visions of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan; Hitomi Tonomura, Community and Commerce in Late Medieval Japan
Meta notes: At this point I should put my cards on the table and say that I really like comparability.