
- 288 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Shortest Histories
About this book
'A terrific overview of Japan's long and rich history... covers an astonishing amount of ground' PETER FRANKOPANJapan is a country of islands, strung like a necklace around the Asian mainland...Ever since US Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to open its borders in 1853, the culture of this remarkable and distant archipelago has enriched western life. At the same time the country has embraced foreign institutions from baseball to barber shops. Yet for centuries under the rule of the shoguns, the islands were largely sealed off from the outside world. In charting a course between openness and insularity, Japan has found a way to become ultra-modern while breathing new life into its own unique traditions.In The Shortest History of Japan, Lesley Downer brings an expert storyteller's eye to the sweep of Japanese history. Here are the emperors and warlords, the samurai and women warriors, the merchants and geisha who shaped this extraordinary modern society. From the hunter-gatherers who fashioned the world's first pots to the novel-writing ladies of the eleventh-century Heian court, from the devastation of Hiroshima to today's economic and cultural powerhouse, this is an indispensable, riveting history of the land of the rising sun.
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Information
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Maps
- Timeline
- Foreword
- Introduction: Before Time Began
- 1: Children of the Sun: 400 BCE–710 CE
- 2: Nara: The Flowering of Buddhism, 710–794 CE
- 3: Heian: City of Purple Hills and Crystal Streams, 794–1180
- 4: Kamakura: Rise of the Samurai, 1180–1333
- 5: Muromachi: Beauty and Turmoil, 1333–1573
- 6: Azuchi Momoyama: The Men Who Would Be Shogun, 1573–1603
- 7: Edo: Tokugawa Renaissance, 1603–1853
- 8: Bakumatsu: Fall of the Tokugawa, 1853–1868
- 9: Meiji: Headlong into the Modern World, 1868–1912
- 10: Taishō: Cross Currents, 1912–1926
- 11: Shōwa: From Defeat to Prosperity, 1926–1989
- 12: Heisei: Darker Years, 1989–2019
- 13: Reiwa: A New Emperor for a New Age, 2019–
- Acknowledgements
- Further Reading
- Image Credits
- Index
- Also by Lesley Downer
- Also in this series
- Copyright