The reign of the Tokugawa shoguns was a time of statebuilding and cultural transformation, but it was also a period of ikki: peasant rebellion. James W. White reconstructs the pattern of social conflict in early modern Japan, both among common people and between the populace and the government.Ikkiis the first book to cover popular protest in all regions of Japan and to encompass nearly three centuries of history, from the beginnings of the Tokugawa shogunate in the 1590s to the Meiji restoration.
White applies contemporary sociological theory to evidence previously unavailable in English. He draws on the long historical record of peasant uprisings, using narrative interpretation and sophisticated quantitative analysis. By linking the texture of conflict to the political and economic regime the shoguns created, he casts doubt on competing interpretations of a contained, orderly society.
Author(s): James W. White
Edition: Hardcover
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Year: 1995
Language: English
Pages: 368
IKKI......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
List of Figures......Page 8
List of Tables......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 12
Note on Orthography......Page 14
Introduction......Page 18
Part I: The Context of Contention......Page 42
1. The Political Context......Page 44
2. The Economic Context......Page 80
3. The Social and Demographic Context......Page 100
4. The Ideological and Philosophical Context......Page 124
Part II: The Texture and Content of Contention......Page 140
5. Frequency and Magnitude......Page 142
6. Repertoires......Page 156
7. Process and Cycle......Page 180
8. Protagonists and Antagonists......Page 200
9. Twilight of the Ikki......Page 210
Part III: The Correlates and Causes of Contention......Page 218
10. Correlation and Causation......Page 220
11. A Multivariate Analysis......Page 238
12. The Inception of Conflict......Page 256
Part IV: Consequences and Conclusions......Page 286
13. Implications and Interpretations......Page 288
14. Conclusion......Page 310
Appendix 1: The Aoki Kōji Data......Page 330
Appendix 2: Magnitude and Type of Contention......Page 332
Bibliography......Page 342
Index......Page 362
