A Reading List for the Nanboku-chō Era?
Elisabeth Chogich
I am looking to put together a sort of reading list of works about the Nanboku-chō era, mainly for myself but also to share. I'm starting a second, different project that would use the era as a setting. In the interest of transparency, the project is actually a role-playing game that I would write my own setting supplement for, using one that already exists for the Heian Era in this same system as my guide. However, I would like to inject as much historical accuracy as possible, since both setting and character are paramount to the mechanics of the game.
I have already read many of the books suggested to me that cover or touch on it, and I'm looking for more to read. Books already read include From Sovereign to Symbol, Kenmu by Andrew Goble, Japan's Medieval Population, Medieval Japan: Essays in Institutional History, Japan's Renaissance: The Politics of the Muromachi Bakufu, Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan, Daily Life in the Time of the Samurai, Women in Medieval Japan by Wakita Haruko, Traditional Japanese Literature vol 1, book 2 of the Voices of Fourteenth-Century Japan series, and a high number of suggested papers and book chapters.
What other books do you think I should add to this list?
Thank you in advance for your time. I understand that this is a...nontraditional project, so questions are more than welcome.
Sincerely,
Elisabeth Chogich
Elijah Bender
Elisabeth,
There are not many books in English that are specifically devoted
to the Nanbokucho era. Are you looking for works in English? And
while there is not an overwhelming number of books on medieval
Japan in general, there are several dozen very fine volumes. Here
are just three to add to your list which I think would be
particularly useful to you in terms of understanding the context
of the era for your project.
"Community and Commerce in Late Medieval Japan," by Hitomi
Tonomura
"The World Turned Upside Down," by Pierre Souyri (trans. Kathe Roth)
"State of War," by Thomas Conlan
What a fun project - do you work at a software company?
Cheers,
Elijah Bender, PhD History Department Concordia College
Elisabeth Chogich --
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S. Tsumura
> On Aug 8, 2021, at 04:20, Elijah Bender <ben...@cord.edu> wrote:
>
> There are not many books in English that are specifically devoted to the Nanbokucho era. Are you looking for works in English? And while there is not an overwhelming number of books on medieval Japan in general, there are several dozen very fine volumes. Here are just three to add to your list which I think would be particularly useful to you
>
Some examples in various entries are
Yamato: “Also called Yamato-chôtei, 'heart of Japan.'" [A misreading of the French word for “court"?]
Fujiwara no Kiyohira: “He was the founder of the Chûsonji temple in Hiraizumi, where his mummified body was found." [Should be “is to be found."]
Eisai: "he was welcomed by Hôjô Masako and his son." [“His" son?]
Hitojichi: "Tokugawa Ieyasu took hostages for twelve years." [Presumably based on something like “Tokugawa Ieyasu was held as a hostage for twelve years (1548-1560).”]
Cabral, Francisco: “The Japanese had several names for him, among them Ômura Sumitada, Ôtomo Yoshimune, and Ichijô Kanesada (in 1575)” [What does that mean?]
Enomoto Takeaki: "rejoined Hakodate with his squadron." [Hakodate is a place name.]
Economy: "The main mining reserves are charcoal...." [Presumably confusion with “coal."]
See also Roy Andrew Miller's review in http://www.jstor.org/stable/41933346 .
I don’t know anything about Souyri, but you probably should try verifying anything that you use in the book.
Susan Tsumura
kktr...@me.com
I confess that I have not read either of the following books, but they cover, at least in part, your time period. Both by Suzanne Gay.
The moneylenders of late medieval Kyoto
The Muromachi bakufu in medieval Kyoto
Kris
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kktr...@me.com
I have been sorting my books (give away, keep and toss) and came across one that might be useful (it is one I am keeping). I am assuming you read Japanese but since it is a picture book, if you don’t, you might be able to find someone to help you. It is pictures of warriors and farmers from the Kamakura era through Sengoku.
絵で読む日本の歴史 ３節と農民 「鎌倉〜戦国」
佐々木勝男, 1944- 蔵持重裕, 1948- 石井勉, 1962
東京 : 大月書店, ©1990.
ISBN: 427250083X; 9784272500833;
I checked WorldCat; it is not widely held (UC-Irvine and Univ of Nebraska Lincoln).
I think it was done for school age students as there is a lot of furigana. I am thinking that the pictures will spark your imagination. There are 21 pictures plus a timeline and two essays, one on the warrior era and one on daily life.
Kris
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Kristina Troost, PhD
Raleigh NC
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Benjamin Schmidt
it is definitely a interesting project.
One more English book on medieval Japan which covers the Nanbokuchō-period a lot is:
The Origins of Japan's Medieval World: Courtiers, Clerics, Warriors, and Peasants in the Fourteenth Century. Edited by Jeffry P. Mass
Of course there are also some sources available in English translation like the Taiheiki.
The translation by Helen McCullogh) sadly includes just the beginning of the story up to the Fall of the Hōjō. Other parts are translated by Kyoko Selden and Joan Piggott in: Selections from the "Taiheiki: The Chronicle of Great Peace" in: Review of Japanese Culture and Society Vol. 27, Special Journal Issue in Honor of Kyoko Selden (2015), pp. 16-25.
Sincerely,
Benjamin
Claire-Akiko Brisset
Dear colleagues,
If I may, I would like to comment a bit on the remarks about the The World Turned Upside Down by Pierre-François Souyri, which is emeritus professor of Geneva University. He is one of the leading French speaking historians in Japanese
history, and I can assure the list that all the problems rightly pointed out by
Susan Tsumura should be attributed to mistranslations. I have the original
at hand (the second revised edition) and no such nonsense can be found in this book. May I suggest
that Elisabeth Chogich read the book in its original version (either the 1st, or the revised edition) rather than in translation since the latter is so problematic?
Claire Brisset
PO histoire culturelle du Japon
département ESTAS
Faculté des Lettres
Université de GenèveEnvoyé : dimanche 8 août 2021 10:51
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