Turbulent Streams
An Environmental History of Japan's Rivers, 1600-1930
Published on 3. June 2021
Book
Hardback
308 pages
978-90-04-43301-4 (ISBN)
Description
In Turbulent Streams: An Environmental History of Japan's Rivers, 1600-1930, Roderick I. Wilson describes how the rivers of Japan are both hydrologically and historically dynamic. Today, these waterways are slowed, channeled, diverted, and dammed by a myriad of levees, multiton concrete tetrapods, and massive multipurpose dams. In part, this intensive engineering arises from the waterways falling great elevations over short distances, flowing over unstable rock and soil, and receiving large quantities of precipitation during monsoons and typhoons. But this modern river regime is also the product of a history that narrowed both these waterways and people's diverse interactions with them in the name of flood control. Neither a story of technological progress nor environmental decline, this history introduces the concept of environmental relations as a category of historical analysis both to explore these fluvial interactions and reveal underappreciated dimensions of Japanese history.
Reviews / Votes
"Wilson's careful attention to the literature in Japanese and English andto questions of method and approach are present throughout. Altogether this
is an important new contribution to the fast-developing fi eld of Japanese
environmental history and has major implications for the urban history of
Edo/Tokyo especially."
- Mark Metzler, in The Journal of Japanese Studies 49.1, pp. 162-167 (2023)
"Roderick Wilson's Turbulent Streams makes another fine contribution to this growing
body of literature on Japanese environmental history, exploring the early modern
Tokugawa era to well into the twentieth century. The book draws on a considerable
volume of Japanese-language secondary sources that focus exclusively on Japan and
also takes inspiration from well-known theoreticians and practitioners who make up
the core of English-language environmental historical studies."
- Philip C. Brown, in Monumenta Nipponica 77.1, pp. 140-145 (2022)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 157 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
214 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-43301-4 (9789004433014)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Roderick I. Wilson, Ph.D., Stanford University, is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he teaches and writes about topics in Japanese and environmental history.
Content
Acknowledgments
List of Figures and Tables
Note to Readers
Introduction
?1?A Riparian History of Ogura Lake
?2?Crossing the River between Nature and Society
?3?Riparian Relations: An Expanded Understanding of Rivers
?4?Chapter Organization
Part 1: Regional River Regimes in the Tokugawa Period
1 Riparian Relations in the Kanto Region
?1?Producing the Kanto Region and Its Riverscapes during the Seventeenth Century
?2?Water Worlds of Farmers, Fishers, and Boat Pilots
?3?Conclusion
2 Regional River Regime under the Tokugawa Government
?1?Establishing Tokugawa Governance over the Waters of the Kanto Region, 1590-1700
?2?Maintaining Riparian Governance in the Kanto Region, 1700-1783
?3?Losing Ground against Continued Flooding, 1783-1868
?4?Conclusion
Part 2: Techno-Politics of River Engineering in Imperial Japan
3 Engineering and River Engineers in the Age of Imperialism
?1?The Home Ministry's Early Riparian Policies
?2?The Fudo River Worksite
?3?Dutch Engineers in Japan
?4?Educating Japanese Engineers: The French Connection
?5?Conclusion
4 Confluence along the Yodo River
?1?The Yodo River
?2?Home Ministry Engineers
?3?Local Communities
?4?Conclusion
5 Constructing the Modern River Regime in Japan
?1?Making Modern River Regimes
?2?Techno-Politics of Flood Control
?3?The 1910 Flooding of Tokyo and Paris
?4?The Effects of Building Japan's Modern River Regime
?5?Conclusion
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
List of Figures and Tables
Note to Readers
Introduction
?1?A Riparian History of Ogura Lake
?2?Crossing the River between Nature and Society
?3?Riparian Relations: An Expanded Understanding of Rivers
?4?Chapter Organization
Part 1: Regional River Regimes in the Tokugawa Period
1 Riparian Relations in the Kanto Region
?1?Producing the Kanto Region and Its Riverscapes during the Seventeenth Century
?2?Water Worlds of Farmers, Fishers, and Boat Pilots
?3?Conclusion
2 Regional River Regime under the Tokugawa Government
?1?Establishing Tokugawa Governance over the Waters of the Kanto Region, 1590-1700
?2?Maintaining Riparian Governance in the Kanto Region, 1700-1783
?3?Losing Ground against Continued Flooding, 1783-1868
?4?Conclusion
Part 2: Techno-Politics of River Engineering in Imperial Japan
3 Engineering and River Engineers in the Age of Imperialism
?1?The Home Ministry's Early Riparian Policies
?2?The Fudo River Worksite
?3?Dutch Engineers in Japan
?4?Educating Japanese Engineers: The French Connection
?5?Conclusion
4 Confluence along the Yodo River
?1?The Yodo River
?2?Home Ministry Engineers
?3?Local Communities
?4?Conclusion
5 Constructing the Modern River Regime in Japan
?1?Making Modern River Regimes
?2?Techno-Politics of Flood Control
?3?The 1910 Flooding of Tokyo and Paris
?4?The Effects of Building Japan's Modern River Regime
?5?Conclusion
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index