Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan | National Humanities Center

Work of the Fellows: Edited Volumes

Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan

Edited by Stephen Vlastos (NHC Fellow, 1996–97)

Japanese History; Cultural Identity

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998

From the publisher’s description:

This collection of essays challenges the notion that Japan's present cultural identity is the simple legacy of Japan's premodern and insular past. Building on the pathbreaking historical analysis of British traditions, The Invention of Tradition, sixteen American and Japanese scholars examine "age-old" Japanese cultural practices, ranging from judo to labor management, and show these to be largely creations of the modern era.

Subjects
History / Japanese History / Cultural Identity /

Vlastos, Stephen (NHC Fellow, 1996–97), ed. Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan. Twentieth-Century Japan: The Emergence of a World Power. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.