viii, 248 pages : illustrations (black and white, and colour) ; 26 cm
Bibliographic Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-235) and index
Contents:
Prologue: The Order of Things -- The World of Things Past and Kokikyūbutsu -- "The Past and the Present" and "The New and the Old" -- The Season of Exhibitions -- Active Antiquarians -- Antiquarians in Nineteenth Century Japan -- Epilogue
Summary:
"This volume explores the changing process of evaluating objects during the period of Japan's rapid modernization"-- Provided by publisher and "Looks at the approach toward object-based research across the late Tokugawa and early Meiji periods, which were typically kept separate, and elucidates the intellectual continuities between these eras. Focusing on the top-down effects of the professionalizing of academia in the political landscape of Meiji Japan, which had advanced by attacking earlier modes of scholarship by antiquarians, Suzuki shows how those outside the government responded, retracted, or challenged new public rules and values. He explores the changing process of evaluating objects from the past in tandem with the attitudes and practices of antiquarians during the period of Japan's rapid modernization. He shows their roots in the intellectual sphere of the late Tokugawa period while also detailing how they adapted to the new era. Suzuki also demonstrates that Japan's antiquarians had much in common with those from Europe and the United States"-- Provided by publisher