Engaging the Other: 'Japan' and Its Alter-Egos, 1550-1850

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BRILL, Jan 21, 2019 - History - 424 pages
In Engaging the Other: “Japan and Its Alter-Egos”, 1550-1850 Ronald P. Toby examines new discourses of identity and difference in early modern Japan, a discourse catalyzed by the “Iberian irruption,” the appearance of Portuguese and other new, radical others in the sixteenth century. The encounter with peoples and countries unimagined in earlier discourse provoked an identity crisis, a paradigm shift from a view of the world as comprising only “three countries” (sangoku), i.e., Japan, China and India, to a world of “myriad countries” (bankoku) and peoples. In order to understand the new radical alterities, the Japanese were forced to establish new parameters of difference from familiar, proximate others, i.e., China, Korea and Ryukyu. Toby examines their articulation in literature, visual and performing arts, law, and customs.
 

Contents

Introduction Between Engagement and Imagination
1
A Pair of Parables
17
The Ragged Edges of State and Nation
25
Chapter 3 Imagining and Imaging Anthropos
74
Responses to the Iberian Irruption
106
Chapter 5 Parades of DifferenceParades of Power
142
Ethnic Slur as Cultural Marker
190
Mt Fuji and the Foreign
252
Epilogue Antiphonals of Identity
327
Bibliography
349
Index
387
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