Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands

From Prehistory to the Present
Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-87071-801-4
Verlag: Oregon State University Press

Buch, Englisch, 296 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 233 mm, Gewicht: 509 g

Over the long course of Japan's history, its rich natural environment simultaneously supported its human inhabitants and created significant hazards and challenges. The Japanese have also influenced nature in numerous ways, from landscape modification to industrial pollution. How has the human-nature relationship changed over time in Japan? How does Japan’s environmental history compare with that of other countries, or that of the world as a whole?

Environment and Society in the Japanese Islands attempts to answer these questions through a series of case studies by leading Japanese and Western historians, geographers, archaeologists, and climatologists. These essays, on diverse topics from all periods of Japanese history and prehistory, are unified by their focus on the key concepts of “resilience” and “risk mitigation.” Taken as a whole, they place Japan’s experience in global context and call into question the commonly presumed division between premodern and modern environmental history.

Primarily intended for scholars and students in fields related to Japan or environmental history, these accessibly written essays will be valuable to anyone wishing to learn about the historical roots of today’s environmental issues or the complex relationship between human society and the natural environment.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Batten, Bruce L

Brown, Philip C

Über Autor(innen)

Bruce L. Batten is Professor of Japanese History at J. F. Oberlin University in Tokyo, Japan and the former director of the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama, Japan. He is a specialist on ancient and medieval Japan and is the author of To the Ends of Japan: Premodern Frontiers, Boundaries, and Interactions and Gateway to Japan: Hakata in War and Peace, 500-1300

Philip C. Brown is Professor of History at The Ohio State University, USA. He is a specialist in early modern and modern Japanese history and focuses on developments affecting rural Japan. He is the author of Central Authority and Local Autonomy in the Formation of Early Modern Japan: The Case of Kaga Domain and Cultivating Commons: Joint Ownership of Arable Land in Early Modern Japan.