A Cultural History of Postwar Japan

Rethinking Kasutori Society

Oliviero Frattolillo author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:14th Jul '23

£135.00

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A Cultural History of Postwar Japan cover

This book is a political and cultural history of the early postwar Japan aiming at exploring how the perception and cultural values of everyday life in the country changed along with the rise of the kasutori culture. Such a process was closely tied with both a refusal of the samurai culture and the interwar debate on modernity, and it resulted in a decadent way of life, exemplified by intellectuals such as Sakaguchi Ango.

It depicts a short-lived radical cultural and social alternative, one that forced people to rethink their relationship to the kokutai, modernity, social roles, daily practices, and the production of knowledge. The subjectivity and daily practices in those years were more important in shaping the cultural identities of the Japanese than the new public ideology of the nation. This challenges some Euro-American historical notions that the new private sphere has emerged in Japan as an effect of the country’s Americanization, rather than from within it. This work not only looks at the immediate aftermath of WWII from the perspective of Japan, but also tries to rethink Westernization in the light of its global appropriation.

This volume is addressed to specialists of Japanese or Asian history, but it will also attract historians of the United States and readers from political and intellectual history, cultural studies, and historiography in general.

Professor Frattolillo has written a "must read" book on postwar Japanese history. He challenges dominant narratives of Americanization and the success story of democratization to reveal how Japanese people in the postwar period engaged in kasutori culture as a form of resistance. One of the most creative, original histories of postwar Japan I have seen.

  • Kevin M. Doak

Professor of Japanese Studies

Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

Georgetown University, Washington, DC

Oliviero Frattolillo looks at the immediate aftermath of WWII from the perspective of Japan and argues that a new private sphere emerged from within the society rather than as the result of the country’s Americanization. A brilliant pioneering work on Japan’s kasutori culture.

  • Goto-Shibata Harumi

Professor of International History

Department of Advanced Social and International Studies

The University of Tokyo

Oliviero Frattolillo superbly explores the external and internal processes of changes culminating in the kasutori culture, taking readers on a fascinating journey into the world of defeated Japan. This book surprisingly offers an enlightening and compelling contribution on one of the most controversial period of modern Japanese history.

  • Florentino Rodao

Professor of Japanese history

Department of International Relations and Global History

Complutense University of Madrid

ISBN: 9781032532059

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 453g

198 pages