Customer Reviews

A Traveller's History of Japan

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By title, this book, indeed this series, may put fear into the reader of being a too-general and non-scholarly vast account of a subject matter too complex for any quality to come from the short format. Tames proves these fears wrong almost from the beginning in this indeed scholarly, engaging, and very well-balanced account of the history of one of the most misunderstood nations among today's world leaders. Tames does write a very general account, but "general" can be better understood as "broad" and "far-reaching" in this narritive. Regardless of the period discussed, his approach is rarely too single-tracked. This is a developmental history, and as such, properly includes development of Japanese government, culture, arts and literature, and the cumulative effects of this development onto the subsequent generations of Japanese. Tames does an excellent though suggestive job of relating the development of the Japanese nation to that of its people, and vice-versa. Throughout, except for the beginning, where it is often difficult to make any pre- and early histories come to life, the narritive flows freely with a purpose, and Tames' clear interest in his subject shines through the pages to take the reader with him on the easy, air-conditioned, and quick monorail tour through the safari of Japanese history, which is exactly what it is meant to be. In addition to the narritive is an excellent bibliography with commentary, as well as an entire reference section on everything Japanese from language to food and drink to holidays and their meanings. Especially for ex-pats living in Japan who don't want to be bogged down with anything dry or without connection to their experience, this is a quick, excellent read. It does a great job of subtly explaining the oft-seemingly unexplainables of Japan today.

This is certainly an ambitious book. It attempts to cover thousands of years of Japanese history, as well as explain various aspects of Japanese culture and religion. It is highly readable however the cast of historic characters can become overwhelming.

I will first list the strengths of the book. The book does a very good job of explaining the centralization of Japan under a single Emperor and then the process by which the royal family was relegated (and overwhelmed) to court formality and ritual. A very curious tradition began whereby the Emperor would abdicate to a son or grandson who would then take on the all the responsibilities of court rituals and ceremonies. The abdicating emperor would then become a monk and live in a reclusive palace beside the main ceremonial palace. However, the former emperor would actually control the government while the 'official' emperor would be stuck with hours upon hours of court formality and ritual. A very wise system was thus developed that divided governing from the rituals of governing. The slow movement of power from Kyoto to Tokyo is also well documented. This period is marked by the rise of military dictators, Shoguns, who shared power with the royal family and frequently intermarried with the royal family so that eventually Shogun families had claims to the throne.

The book does a very good job of explaining the differences and similarities between Shinto and Buddhist religions and their combined influence on Japanese culture and spirituality.

The book has a weakness however that should be mentioned. The book does not discriminate well between landmarks and shrines that no longer exists and landmarks and shrines that are open to the public. The book does not tell the travel how to find significant historic sites or how to navigate within the sites once they are found. In this regard I found I needed a second book to help me. I used the Eyewitness Guide to Japan which offered many photographs and clear directions and between the two books I was able to identify significant sites and then locate them and reach them using the Eyewitness book.

If you wish to learn far more about Samurai, the Pillow Book, the Book of Genji, the rise and expulsion of Christian missionaries, and the bloody internal wars - this is certainly a good book. If you wish to then use some of this knowledge to see actual sites within Japan, you need more information.

Contrary to the popular opinion here, I enjoyed this book. For some one who does not really know much about Japan, or Japanese history, for that matter, the book is great. It starts off with a short prehistory, followed by the first Yamato state in Japan, followed by the Heian era, and the different shogunal dynasties, such as the Tokugawa and the Kamakura Shogunates. Then, it gives information about the Meiji Period, Japan's time as a power, and its defeat in World War II. It ends with a description of Modern Japan politically, socially, and economically.

One person said that Buddhism gets no treatment. Actually, it does. All of the important Buddhist sects (Tendai, Shingon, Nichiren, Pure Land, and Zen) are mentioned and information given about them. I do have to say, however, that Shintoism gets hardly any treatment.

And I do wisht hat the book gave more pictures and more information about the imperial family. But apart from that, I would get it!

This one volume overview of Japan's history is great for my use. I read a lot of books by Japanese authors. I wanted a source to go to for an overview of events referred to in the books I was reading. The inclusion of a timeline, gazetteer, lists of rulers and index make this a very handy book.

Every history book has its critics. There are always items wished for that weren't included and items that we have no interest in. For instance, I've never read a history book that I thought had enough maps. But that keeps the publishers of maps and atlases in business.

This is balanced for its intended audience. I have three in this series and I use them often.

I read this book while travelling around in Japan. It is a very concise, readable history of Japan, but the title is misleading. It actually has nothing whatever to say about linking travel in Japan with Japanese history. I was hoping to find a book which could relate the many sites one visits in Japan with its history. If you want to get a feel for the history behind the tourist traps, you will be disappainted in this book, as I was. If you want a straightforward, easy-to-read general history of Japan, this book is for you.

Any visitor to a foreign country is well advised to get to know its religion, not only because it's practiced by most inhabitants of the country, but also it illuminates many cultural and social parculiarities of the locale. This book claims to be a travellers' book on Japan, yet Buddhism, which informs many of Japan's architectures/temples, art, literature, is relegated to an a few index pages in the back of the book. More distressingly, Christianity is treated with a whole chapter, "The Christian Century", which should be appropriately titled "Encounters with the West". The Christian Century implies somehow that Japan was almost Christianized, when in fact the reader will find that at most 50,000 Japanese converted during that time. Too much emphasis is put on how these converts were persecuted, without putting these incidents into historical context. In 16th century Japan, the Emperors saw Christianity as a threat and meddling to their affairs, due in part to the missionaries' arrogant dismissal of Buddhism as idolatry. In the index, Buddhism is said to be a religion that "conceives salvation as extinction, rather than redemption." This is a serious misunderstanding of Buddhism.