MODERN JAPANESE
GEOGRAPHY:
an intellectual history
| Author: | Keiichi Takeuchi |
| Price: | ￥5,600 (inside Japan) |
| ISBN: | 4-7722-1414-3 |
| Size: | 245mm*162mm |
| Page: | 250p. |
| Publisher: | Kokon Shoin, Tokyo |
[CONTENTS]
PART 1: GEOGRAPHY RELATING TO PLACE, NATURE AND IDENTITY
1. The Origins of Human Geography in Japan
2. Regional Description and the Tradition of Regionalism in Modern Japan
3. The First Sixty Years of Academism in Human Geography
4. Fragments from the Japanese View of the Outside World
5. Publications in the Early Stages of Academic Geography
6. Nationalism and Geography
PART 2: GEOGRAPHERS AND SOCIAL HISTORY
7. Two Academic Outsiders
8. Heterodox Researchers and Shifting Paradigms
9. Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Buddhism
10. Geography and Imperialism, Japanese and Western
11. Geographers: The Dream and the Reality
12. Yaichiro Yamaguchi and Folklore
13. A Tentative Sociology of Japanese Geography
PART 3: THEORY AND PRACTICE
14. Water Resources: The Failures of an Applied Geography
15. Recent Achievements in the History and Methodology of Geography
16. Sustainable Development and the Traditional View of Nature: Natural Resources Management and Geographical Thought
Bibliography
Glossary
Index of Names
Keiichi Takeuchi is currently professor of geography at Komazawa University, Tokyo. From 1966 he taught geography at Hitotsubashi University where he is now professor emeritus. Since the 1950s he has been dedicated to the study of Mediterranean countries, especially Southern Italy, and has published numerous papers and books on these topics in several languages. He is also an authority on the history of geographical thought and was Chair of the Commission on the History of Geographical Thought of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science.
Modern Japanese geography as an academic discipline was not formally established until the years spanning the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. In the author's understanding, however, geographical thought is to be interpreted in a broader sense encompassing not only the ideas and thinking of geographical academics but the ideas and perception of the physical environment and spatial dimensions and also of human practices of different classes and social groups--ruling classes, the people-at-large, minority groups and so on. In this sense, indigenous geographical thought, fostered by political leaders and opinion leaders in the process of the nation-building of Meiji Japan, existed in Japan even before the establishment of academic geography. The author focuses on these earlier aspects of geographical thought and geographical practices and analyses the formation and development of academic geography always in the social context of modern and contemporary Japan. The book does not contain chronological descriptions but presents a number of important topics of the 150-year history of Japanese geographical thought and geographical practice.
Anne Buttimer, University College Dublin
Authoritative in style, comprehensive in scope, this book offers a unique panorama of insight into 150 years of Japanese intellectual history, and weaves this record within the larger context of disciplinary developments worldwide. Who better than Keiichi Takeuchi to author such an oeuvre? Internationally renowned for his work on history of geographical thought, Takeuchi has also conducted original empirical work on regional development in Southern Italy and has continued to reflect on issues of sustainable development. Modern Japanese Geography reflects this breadth of analytical vision. It covers not only major paradigm shifts in disciplinary thought but also touches on questions of geography and imperialism, the dream and reality of applied geography, varieties of "folk" and "professional" geographical knowledges, and especially the social contexts in which scholarly practices were shaped and conducted. For the entire English-speaking world, as well as for all Japanese geographers, this work is a timely treasure.
Hideki Nozawa, Kyusyu University, Fukuoka
Where Japanese geographical circles are concerned, Keiichi Takeuchi's new book, which illuminates various aspects of modern Japanese geography with a clear new light, is of enormous importance, appearing as it does at a moment in which we are faced with post-modern intellectual challenges, some of which seem all but insuperable. Here, in his capacity of historian of geographical thought, Takeuchi convincingly depicts the origins that engender our intellectual efforts towards the creation of a valid contemporary geography. In the course of doing so, he also analyses the formation process of modern Japanese geographical thought over the past one-and-a-quarter centuries. In the context of both the stimulus of Western geography and the development of the nation-state along with the formation of the national consciousness, and based, moreover, on the achievements of Japanese geography, this book also constitutes an excellent and timely message addressed to our foreign colleagues from a representative Japanese geographer.