1997 Chapters (Layout Features)

Five Myths About Early Modern Japan

Smith II, Henry D.

In Ainslee Embree and Carol Gluck, eds., Asia in Western and World History: A Guide for Teaching (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997), pp. 514-522. The title reflects the argument that there are basic continuing misunderstandings of Japan in the early modern Tokugawa era (1600-1868), namely: 1) "Japan is a small country"; 2) "Tokugawa Japan was a feudal society"; 3) "The Tokugawa regime was a police state"; 4) "Tokugawa Japan was divided into sour separate classes"; 5) "Tokugawa Japan isolated itself from the rest of the world for more than two centuries." I argue that these assertions are misleading and simplistic.