Bereavement and Consolation
Testimonies from Tokugawa Japan
Harold Bolitho(Author)
Yale University Press
Published on 11. October 2003
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-300-09798-6 (ISBN)
Description
Death came early and often to the people of Tokugawa Japan, as it did to the rest of the pre-modern world. Yet the Japanese reaction to death struck foreign observers and later scholars as particularly subdued. In this study, Harold Bolitho translates and analyses some extraordinary accounts written by three Japanese men of the late 18th and early 19th centuries about the death of a loved one - testimonies that challenge the impression that the Japanese accepted their bereavements with nonchalance. The three accounts were written by a young Buddhist priest mourning the death of his child; by the poet Issa, who recorded his father's final illness; and by a scholar and teacher who described his wife's losing struggle with diabetes. Placing their journals in the context of contemporary religious beliefs, customs and literary traditions, Bolitho offers insights into a previously hidden world of Japanese grief.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
386 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-09798-6 (9780300097986)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
10/2003
1st Edition
Yale University Press
€38.95
Available for download
Person
Harold Bolitho is professor of Japanese history in the department of East Asian Languages and Civilization at Harvard University.