Book review: Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan

Bibliographic Data: Ravina, Mark. Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.

Main Argument: There was "a simple fact of early modern politics" in Japan: "the shogunate was peripheral to broad areas of political practice" (2). Furthermore, for a lord, "the moral and economic rejuvenation of his domain" were "the areas where shogunal control and oversight were weakest," at least in the case of the so-called "kunimochi" domains, which were granted a degree of autonomy and prestige not available to most of the 240-odd other daimyo. It is no coincidence that four kunimochi domains (Satsuma, Chôshû, Tosa, and Saga) overthrew the shogunate, but the fact that so many domains were passive in the Restoration points to the federal nature of the system: having ceded diplomatic and "foreign policy" prerogatives to Edo, "daimyo were both fiercely protective of local autonomy and dependent on their union [with Edo] for survival" (15). This "federal" union was the first and indeed the necessary casualty of the Meiji Restoration.

( Three domains, three stories )

Critical assessment: This is an excellent book, and I cannot overstate the degree to which I agree with Ravina's final conclusions.

Further reading: Wigen, The Making of a Japanese Periphery

Meta notes: I cannot overstate the degree to which the United States are is weird historically. The proper comparands for Japan are not the United States but the countries of Europe.