JAPANimals: History and Culture in Japan's Animal LifeGregory M. Pflugfelder, Brett L. Walker Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2005 - 370 pages From swift steeds to ritually slaughtered deer to symbolic serpents, nonhuman animals of every stripe have participated from the earliest of times in the construction of the cultural community that we know as Japan. Yet the historical accounts that have hitherto prevailed, claim the authors of this innovative volume, relegate our fellow animals to a silent and benign "nature" that lies beyond the realm of narrative and agency. What happens when we restore nonhuman creatures to the field of historical vision?This book challenges many of the fundamental assumptions that have shaped contemporary scholarship on Japan, engaging from new perspectives questions of economic growth, isolation from and interaction with the outside world, the tools of conquest and empire, and the character of modernity. Essay by essay, this provocative collection compels readers to acknowledge the diversity of living beings who exist at the ragged edges of our human, as well as our historical, horizons. |
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Ainu American Andō appears archipelago Asia Asian badgers beasts became breeds Buddhist cages Cambridge canines cassowaries chapter Chinese Chūsei civilization colonial dog context creatures crops cultural deer Deshima dōbutsu Dōbutsuen dog breeds domain Dutch early economic elite Emishi emperor English essay European example folklore folktales foreign frontier Fujiwara Hachinohe Hachinohe Shishi Hearn Hideyoshi Hiraizumi historians horses human human-animal hunting Ibid imperial important insects Japan killing Kita Õu Kojiki Kyoto Little Ice Ages living medieval Meiji Minato motif Nagasaki Nanbu narrative native dogs nature Nihon shoki nineteenth century nonhuman animals northeast northeastern Nukanobu officials ongaeshi political practices realm region rekishi serpent ships Shiryō shogun snakes social Society soybean species story Studies tale type tion Tokugawa period Tokugawa shogunate Tokyo Tosa Minato trade traditional Tsugaru Ueno Zoo University Press vols Wakan sansai zue Western whaling wild boar wild-boar famine Yamato zoological garden