On the Process of Civilisation in Japan (Guest Lecture Presentation 2024) (original) (raw)
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The Japanese Civilising Process
University of Manchester, 2020
This thesis examines the patterns of development found in Japanese society to establish how structural and psychological changes led to the Japanese seeing themselves as ‘more civilised’ than their forebears and neighbouring countries in the nineteenth century that contributed to the breakdown of their civilisation in the twentieth century. While existing scholarship from Eiko Ikegami, Shmuel Eisenstadt, and Johann Arnason sought to explain the development of the Japanese, they focus on a structuralist or culturalist approach. Both approaches have been limited and problematic because they have reached an impasse. To bridge this scholarly impasse, I have employed a novel approach by examining the development of Japanese society in a four-dimensional approach from longitudinal and latitudinal and macro and micro ways. Using Norbert Elias’s theory of civilising processes as the foundation of this thesis, I have traced the long-term developments in Japanese society from the seventh century to the nineteenth century. By drawing from primary and secondary sources in particular, I have illustrated various complex underlying psychological and structural processes similar to those found in Europe by Elias. Although the theory of civilising processes outlined in On the Process of Civilisation by Elias is the most crucial reference point, I have drawn from other parts of his writing to trace how the Japanese cultural arts (e.g., the tea ceremony), the Japanese court society (e.g., imperial and warrior courts), and the Japanese state-formation process (e.g., imperial and warrior state formations) form the civilising process in Japan. Moreover, to compensate for some shortfalls that Elias’s theory presents when examining the civilising process in Japan, I have engaged with writings from other scholars that have built on a partially scholarly consensus on the historical experience of the Japanese to address the different complex questions that have emerged. As such, by examining the Japanese civilising process, this thesis has presented an alternative way to understand the complex development of Japanese society and interceded into an ongoing debate about the applicability of Elias’s theory in a non-Western context by establishing, with minor modifications, a way to address developments beyond Europe.
Civilizational Aspects of Japanese History: Continuities and Discontinuities
HISTORICKÁ SOCIOLOGIE, 2021
This paper discusses the merits and problems of civilizational perspectives on Japanese history, with particular reference to the task of combining a comparative approach with valid points made by those who see Japan as a highly self-contained cultural world. After a brief consideration of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s reflections on Japan, the central section of the paper deals with Shmuel Eisenstadt’s work. His conception of Japan as a distinctive civilization characterized by pre-axial patterns is rejected on the grounds that the native mode of thought which he proposes to describe is more plausibly interpreted as an offshoot of Chinese traditions, although a notably autonomous and historically changing one. The transmission of Daoism to Japan, although much less explicit than the reception of Confucianism and Buddhism, was of crucial importance. That said, Eisenstadt’s concrete analyses of Japanese ways to transform foreign inputs are often detailed and insightful, and his comments on t...
This lengthy and dense book will take any reader, myself included, a long, long time to assimilate: it is a masterful assemblage of data and interpretations, many never before expressed in English. I welcome it not only for its revelations but because it was written by a Japanese scholar: it is time they spoke for themselves without having their works passed through a foreign scholar's mind. However, Mizoguchi offers this work as an "intervention" for "illustrating to the international audience the potential and excitement of the study of the Yayoi and Kofun periods" because he thinks "the periods have not attracted as much international interest as the Jomon period" (p. xviii). With this sweeping statement he dismisses much good work by foreign scholars (Barnes, Chard, Edwards, Farris, Hudson, Kidder, Pearson, Piggott, Seyock…) as well as many Japanese writing in English. Far better to have said he was taking this opportunity to apply Niklas Luhmann's social system theory to Japanese prehistory.
Qualunque parte di questa pubblicazione può essere riprodotta, memorizzata in un sistema di recupero dati o trasmessa in qualsiasi forma o con qualsiasi mezzo, elettronico o mecca-nico, senza autorizzazione, a condizione che se ne citi la fonte. Any part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission provided that the source is fully credited. Edizioni Ca' Foscari-Digital Publishing Università Ca' Foscari Venezia Dorsoduro 3246 30123 Venezia http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/ ecf@unive.it 1a edizione ottobre 2014 ISBN 978-88-97735-75-5 (pdf) ISBN 978-88-97735-76-2 (stampa) Il volume è stato pubblicato grazie alla collaborazione di | The book has been published with the support of: Progetto grafico di copertina: Studio Girardi, Venezia | Edizioni Ca' Foscari Progetto grafico del logo «Ca' Foscari Japanese Studies»: Marco Tecco Certificazione scientifica delle Opere pubblicate da Edizio...
Johann Arnason and Shmuel Eisenstadt's social theories have remarkably different origins. Yet each has moved onto common ground with the other over a period of time. They meet in historical sociology in dialogue over theories of state formation and images of civilisation. Each is engaged in a project of revising civilisations sociology that reaches an apex with the comparative study of Japan. Their groundbreaking contributions can be read critically against a wider background of debates about postcolonialism, the reputation of the notion of civilisation and the state of area studies in the humanities and social sciences.
A History of Japan: A Book Review
A History of Japan was originally written from 1969 and was published in Australia in 1972. The book was revised and translated into Hungarian by Dr. Lajos Kazar, moreover the authors were grateful since Mr. Nicholas Ingleton of Tokyo agreed to revise the Hungarian version into a new and revised English version. Revision of the book has been thoroughly made by Richard Henry Pitt Mason or known as R.H.P. Mason. Mason graduated from Cambridge University and he obtained his Ph.D. from the Australian National University. Furthermore, Mason specialized in Meiji period politics but he had also some interest on Japanese poetry. As Mason progressed with the preparation of the book, he consulted Dr. Caiger from time to time to keep him informed about the progress and for the consultation of facts and some others. Dr. John Caiger was born in Japan and graduated from Sydney University and had studied history in the University of London, like Mason, he also earned his Ph.D. from the Australian National University. Authors claimed that the study of any Asian country cannot be seen solely in terms of its recent history and its present situation. (Mason and Caiger 1997) They also hoped that through this book, students will have a more subtle and sympathetic understanding of the characters of the Asians. As a history student, I agree to the authors claim since one can understand the modern situation of such event or place if one must know and explore the history of such. Like understanding a character of a person, or to have a deeper comprehension of one’s culture, the researcher should exhaust all the possible sources because as what the author have said to perceive the perseverance of convention into the present and the path in which contemporary conduct may mirror the long established examples of antiquated social orders. (Mason and Caiger 1997) And most importantly, for me, it is essential and worthy to study the traditional societies, people and culture.