Book Announcement "Animals in Premodern Japan"

[Melissa Ann Kaul]

Dear List-Members,

Happy Lunar New Year!

I'm pleased to announce that my book, Animals in Premodern Japan: The Encyclopaedia of Andō Shōeki 安藤昌益 (1703-1762), has been published within the Palgrave Animals Ethics Series. It is available in print and as a free Open Access e-book at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-08005-9

About the book:

In this Open Access book, the reader is presented with an outlook on current developments in Japanese Animal Ethics and how Andō Shōeki's depictions of non-human animals, as well as the examination of Chinese and Japanese traditions of animal description, could give a new impetus to the field. Andō Shōeki is one of the most important thinkers in Japanese intellectual history, as a philosopher who demonstrates remarkable creativity in his critical engagement with the traditional knowledge of China and Japan. This makes him an ideal starting point for a book on non-human animals in pre-modern Japan. This book not only explains the world of one of the most fascinating thinkers of pre-modern Japan in simple terms, but also introduces the reader to the Chinese and Japanese zoological traditions. It provides well-founded information on the role of each non-human animal in the Japanese (and also Chinese) human-animal relationship.

The official Book Launch is set for March 4, 2026, at 4:10 pm GMT (in Martin Hall, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. For those not in bonny Scotland, attendance is available online via https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/meetings/85149463583/invitations?signature=c-PFL05yms7yFoXQJwho5zMYn9H09UxS_YCVLztOu48

All the best from Edinburgh,

Melissa Ann Kaul

-- 

 

Dr Melissa Ann Kaul

SNSF Postdoc.Mobility Fellow

Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics

Academic Visitor at PPLS

The University of Edinburgh

40 George Square, Room 5.15, Newington, Edinburgh EH8 9JX

v1m...@ed.ac.uk