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A History of Tokyo 1867-1989: From EDO to SHOWA: The Emergence of the World's Greatest City (Tuttle Classics) Paperback – April 9, 2019

by Edward Seidensticker (Author), Donald Richie (Preface), Paul Waley (Introduction)

4.2 30 ratings

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A History of Tokyo 1867-1989: From EDO to SHOWA: The Emergence of the World's Greatest City (Tuttle Classics)
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"This is a freaking great book and I highly recommend it…if you are passionate about the history of 'the world's greatest city,' this book is something you must have in your collection." —JapanThis.com

Edward Seidensticker's A History of Tokyo 1867-1989 tells the fascinating story of Tokyo's transformation from the Shogun's capital in an isolated Japan to the largest and the most modern city in the world. With the same scholarship and sparkling style that won him admiration as the foremost translator of great works of Japanese literature, Seidensticker offers the reader his brilliant vision of an entire society suddenly wrenched from an ancient feudal past into the modern world in a few short decades, and the enormous stresses and strains that this brought with it.

Originally published as two volumes, Seidensticker's masterful work is now available in a handy, single paperback volume. Whether you're a history buff or Tokyo-bound traveler looking to learn more, this insightful book offers a fascinating look at how the Tokyo that we know came to be.

This edition contains an introduction by Donald Richie, the acknowledged expert on Japanese culture who was a close personal friend of the author, and a preface by geographer Paul Waley that puts the book into perspective for modern readers.

Print length

640 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Tuttle Publishing
Publication date

April 9, 2019
Dimensions

5.1 x 1.8 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

4805315113
ISBN-13

978-4805315118
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"There can be few cities in the world that live, pulsate, and breathe through their geography as Tokyo does, few cities with a history that shifts through the creases of space as does that of Tokyo. This is particularly ironic in a city whose neighborhoods today hold few distinctive features and whose gentle topography has been all but obscured by batteries of building. But it was not always so, and what better way is there of writing Tokyo's history than by reflecting this shifting geography as neighborhoods prospered and declined while others, more aspirational, climbed up the socio-spacial ladder? This is precisely what Edward Seidensticker does in the pages of [this book]." --Books on Asia

About the Author

Edward Seidensticker (1921-2007) was a distinguished translator and scholar who was responsible for introducing the works of a number of important modern Japanese novelists to the English-speaking world. At the time of the writing of this book, he was spending half of the year in New York where he was Professor of Japanese at Columbia University and half of the year in Tokyo. He is widely known for his translation of The Tale of Genji, which he described as "a labor of love"--it took almost 10 years to complete. He also wrote several nonfiction books about Japan and was awarded a National Book Award for his translation of The Sound of the Mountain in 1971.

Donald Richie (1924-2013) spent nearly sixty years witnessing and reporting on the transformation of Japan from its postwar devastation to a twenty-first century economic and cultural powerhouse.

Paul Waley is a geographer at the University of Leeds. He has written several books on Tokyo's history, social development, and its changing dynamics in contemporary Japan.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tuttle Publishing (April 9, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 640 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 4805315113
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-4805315118
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 1.8 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #542,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #513 in Sociology of Urban Areas
- #698 in Japanese History (Books)
- #1,812 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)

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4.2 30 ratings

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Edward Seidensticker, 1921–2007, was a distinguished translator and scholar who was responsible for introducing the works of a number of important modern Japanese novelists to the English-speaking world. At the time of the writing of this book, he was spending half of the year in New York where he was Professor of Japanese at Columbia University and half of the year in Tokyo.

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Patrick Mc Coy

Good Sociological Overview of Tokyo

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2014

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Tokyo from Edo to Showa 1867-1989 (2010) may be the best comprehensive social history of Tokyo from the acclaimed translator of Yasunari Kawabata and Junichiro Tanizaki among others, Edward Seidensnicker. There is a preface by film critic and historian Donald Richie as well as an introduction by Japanese scholar Paul Waley. This volume is essentially a combination of a two volume series on the social history of Tokyo starting with the first volume Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake: How the Shogun's Capital Became a Great Modern City, 1867-1923 (1984). The chapters in the book include: 1) "The End and the Beginning" 2) "Civilization and Enlightenment" 3) "The Double Life" 4) "The Decay of the Decadent" 5) "Low City, High City" 6) "The Taisho Look." Seidensnicker chose to use the Great Earthquake as a dividing point instead of the end of the Taisho era (which ended December 25th 1926) since it created an opportunity to rebuild the city anew and ushered in a new age socially and culturally. This in turn leads to the second volume: Tokyo Rising: The City Since the Great Earthquake (1990). This books has the following chapters: 1) "The Days After" 2) "The Reconstruction Days" 3) "Darker Days" 4) "The Day of the Cod and the Sweet Potato" 5) "Olympian Days" 6) "Balmy Days of Late Showa." I guess the main drawback for this volume is that it ends before "the Bubble" burst in Japan and Tokyo, but I think it was the earlier chapters that were really most interesting. Although I must admit it was interesting to see him correctly identify areas of Tokyo that would develop and become major centers of commerce like Roppongi, Shiodome, and Marunochi. It is clear that Edward Seidensnicker, like Donald Richie had great affection for Tokyo and it's traditions. One of my summer projects is to read Seidensnicker's translation of The Tale of Genji and then his memoir about this project, Genji Days.

2 people found this helpful

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J. Nystrom Persson

A sublime and rare kind of work

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2013

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I've been a fascinated resident of Japan for six years, and of Tokyo for five of those. For a long time, I was on some level puzzled by the apparent discontinuity between the images of Edo-era Japan that we get from, for example, museums, and the Japan and Tokyo of today. For the first time, I get a sense that the discontinuity is being bridged. Seidensticker's remarkable book and excellent storytelling has begun to fuse my disparate images of Japan into a whole.
The city around me is thrown into a new light by Seidensticker's history, and I imagine that this kind of perspective would be very hard for Westerners to come by through other sources, unless your Japanese reading skills are excellent. Seidensticker's approach to Japan goes in no small part through literature, and where he can, he anchors his descriptions of Japanese sensibilities deeply in Japan's literary history, giving a sense of both gravity and lightness.
Today, Japan and Tokyo are undergoing an identity crisis. Reading this book makes me think that maybe the crisis is greater than it seems -- perhaps an identity crisis has been ongoing for a hundred years or longer. Yet that crisis has also spawned so many wonderfully interesting things in "the world's most consistently interesting city", as Seidensticker calls it. Highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

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p315

An expert and idiosyncratic view of Tokyo 1867-1989

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2015

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i had originally given this book a 'rave' review as reliable and readable, but on closer reading, i have second thoughts. by all accounts the author is reliable but his account is exceedingly idiosyncratic in form and content; it meanders and frequently circles back on itself and its focus in some respects pinpoint seems blinkered in others. there is more than a whiff of cringeworthy 'wink wink nod nod' prurience that i suggest speaks more of mid 20th century male American academics than of Tokyo. (i thought that i might be imaging this, until the passage where Seidensticker uses a creepy sexploitation film, 'Flesh Gate', to epitomize post-WWII conditions where he might much better have used Mizoguchi Kinji's quietly relentless, illuminating, and heartbreaking films 'Street of Shame' and 'Women of the Night'.)
Seidenstcker's obsession aside, his expertise in Japanese language and literature are on display here and, as he is a master of the footnote, there are many (600 to be exact) opportunities to follow up on his insights and observations. he also provides a wide selection of interesting and useful illustrations. Another significant strong point is the sense Seidenstcker conveys of Tokyo's physical and social geography over time. Paul Waley's fine introduction sums it up "This is a cultural and social history which for all its quirkiness is peppered with enlightening vignettes that create a wider context for Tokyo's history."

4 people found this helpful

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Wayne Hall

Not for the novice looking for an introductory history of Tokyo.

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2022

Title doesn't really match the content. This book is not so much a "history of Tokyo" as much as a "recounting of the author's impressions" of the various historical periods of the city. The author is obviously an expert on the topic, but this is not the book to read if you have little or no previous knowledge of the subject. Reads like the kind of killer textbook that used to be assigned to first-year university students that would leave them overwhelmed and floundering helplessly. If you are a graduate student or already have a broad knowledge of the history of Tokyo, yes this book is OK. Otherwise, steer clear. It's not very educational.

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P Choi

I could relate to places mentioned and imagined what it was like in the past

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2016

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Anyone interested in the historical Tokyo should read as I found it fascinating.
I could relate to places mentioned and imagined what it was like in the past.
One of the better written books.

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shige

日本人が知らない東京の歴史を教えてくれる

Reviewed in Japan on May 15, 2021

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東京生まれの私にとっても、とても興味深い内容が多い。
内容はとても面白いが、使われている単語がかなりハイレベルだと思う。

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