Japan's private spheres : : autonomy in Japanese history, 1600-1930 / / by W. Puck Brecher.

• Superior document: The Intimate and the Public in Asian and Global Perspectives
• VerfasserIn: Brecher, W. Puck,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: The Intimate and the Public in Asian and Global Perspectives
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xix, 364 pages) :; illustrations, maps

"Japan's Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 traces the shifting nature of autonomy in early modern and modern Japan. In this far-reaching, interdisciplinary study, W. Puck Brecher explores the historical development of the private and its evolving relationship with public authority, a dynamic that evokes stereotypes about an alleged dearth of individual agency in Japanese society. It does so through a montage of case studies. For the early modern era, case studies examine peripheral living spaces, boyhood, and self-interrogation in the arts. For the modern period, they explore strategic deviance, individuality in Meiji education, modern leisure, and body-maintenance. Analysis of these disparate private realms illuminates evolving conceptualizations of the private and its reciprocal yet often-contested relationship to the state"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The private "problem" -- Public and private in pre-Meiji thought and society -- The private self and the Meiji-Taisho state -- Peripheries as private spheres -- Boyhood as an autonomous sphere -- "Publicizing" the private : self-interrogation and self-indulgence in the arts -- The deviant in Meiji society : autonomy, individuality, and public power -- The private individual in early Meiji education (1872-1890s) -- Education and public individuality (1890s-1927) -- Vacationing and moral authority -- Nationalizing the body : physical exercise as a public ethic -- Conclusion: Can modern Japan's private spheres be moral?