Child's Play

Multi-Sensory Histories of Children and Childhood in Japan

Anne Walthall editor Sabine Frühstück editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of California Press

Published:24th Nov '17

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Child's Play cover

Few things make Japanese adults feel quite as anxious today as the phenomenon called the "child crisis." Various media teem with intense debates about bullying in schools, child poverty, child suicides, violent crimes committed by children, the rise of socially withdrawn youngsters, and forceful moves by the government to introduce a more conservative educational curriculum. These issues have propelled Japan into the center of a set of global conversations about the nature of children and how to raise them. Engaging both the history of children and childhood and the history of emotions, contributors to this volume track Japanese childhood through a number of historical scenarios. Such explorations-some from Japan's early-modern past-are revealed through letters, diaries, memoirs, family and household records, and religious polemics about promising, rambunctious, sickly, happy, and dutiful youngsters.

"The editors achieve the cited aim of re-orienting discourse about childhood by considering new, worthwhile and important perspectives from Asia." * New Books Asia *
"Taken together, this volume’s essays make a forceful argument for the continued relevance of childhood studies within the fi eld of Japan studies." * Journal of Japanese Studies *

ISBN: 9780520296275

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 23mm

Weight: 454g

314 pages