Perseus Academic: Premodern Japan by Mikiso Hane

This newly revised volume drawn from Professor Hane’s classic text, Japan: A Historical Survey, presents a rich account of early Japanese history for students. Important elements of early Japanese history persist in present-day Japan more tenaciously than is sometimes realized. Hane traces the key developments of Japanese history in the premodern period, including the establishment of the imperial dynasty, early influences from China and Korea, the rise of the samurai class and the establishment of feudalism, the culture and society of the long Tokugawa period, the rise of Confucianism and Shinto nationalism, and, finally, the end of Tokugawa rule. Although the book is structured around major political developments, Hane also carefully integrates the social, economic, cultural, and intellectual aspects of Japanese history. His revisions incorporate important recent scholarship on this formative period of Japan’s history.

Mikiso Hane is professor emeritus of history at Knox College and has written extensively on Japan for over twenty-five years.