Project MUSE®: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies.daily12026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 69 (2009) through current issueLatest Articles: Harvard Journal of Asiatic StudiesTWOProject MUSE®Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies1944-64540073-0548Latest articles in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Editorial Preface
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981145
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The three articles in this issue of HJAS each engage with the extent and limitations of state, or kingly, power and authority: the way literature has been used to fashion a powerful vision of kingship in Tibet; the power of the state to mandate the use of merchant ships in China; and the Korean court’s use of a certain type of printing technology as a tool for legitimation. In the first article, Yangmotso explores the significance of the king of the Yarlung dynasty and founder of the Tibetan Empire (618–842) Songtsen Gampo’s (601–683 CE) life story, as posthumously chronicled in the Tibetan “treasure” (gter ma) text bka’ chems ka khol ma (or Kachems), in shaping the Buddhist discourse on emanated kingship in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallEditorial Preface2026-02-03text/htmlen-USEditorial Preface2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®55852026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03About the Cover
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981146
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details: Chinese Junk [Late Edo period, circa 1840], Nagasaki woodblock print in aiban format; ink and color on paper, H. 32.0 cm x W. 22.0 cm; Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of William S. Lieberman, 2007.214.82, https://hvrd.art/o/316423. Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College.The colorful woodblock print of a Chinese trading ship that graces the cover of this issue of HJAS is an example of a popular form of mass-produced images known as Nagasaki prints (Nagasaki hanga 長崎版画 or Nagasaki-e 長崎絵). This print came to the Harvard Art Museums collection as part of a bequest by William Slattery Lieberman (1924–2005). Lieberman took graduate courses in museum studies at Harvard University
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallAbout the Cover2026-02-03text/htmlen-USAbout the Cover2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®157752026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Zang zing and Chos: A Dualism in Tibetan Discourse on Emanated Buddhist Kingship
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981147
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After the demise of the Tibetan Empire (618–842 CE) in the mid-ninth century, the representation of kingship in Tibet flourished in tandem with the growing prominence of the cult of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara and Tantric Buddhism. This flourishing gave rise to the politico-theological concept of emanated kingship, wherein enlightened beings such as celestial bodhisattvas were said to have consciously manifested as local rulers to propagate the Buddhist faith. In this article, I aim to further our understanding of the central concepts of emanated Buddhist kingship in Tibetan discourse, focusing on post-dynastic representations of the eminent king of the Yarlung dynasty (127 BCE–842 CE) and founder of the Tibetan
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallZang zing and Chos: A Dualism in Tibetan Discourse on Emanated Buddhist Kingship2026-02-03text/htmlen-USZang zing and Chos: A Dualism in Tibetan Discourse on Emanated Buddhist Kingship2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®1334032026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Ship Requisition, Changes in Trade, and the Rise of Piracy During the Southern Song
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981148
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Various social phenomena such as the offshoring of Chinese merchants, the rise of robust pirate activities in coastal regions, and the outflow of copper coins from China emerged during the Southern Song era (1127–1279) as direct consequences of the country’s defense policies. The Song state, whose territory had been pushed south beyond the Huai 淮 River due to the growing influence of the Jin 金 dynasty, mobilized civilian ships used for fishing and trade, along with warships, for sea defense. The mobilization of civilian ships for maritime defense hindered the business activities of trade vessels, leading some shipowners to relocate their bases overseas. Moreover, this resulted in the creation of a certain
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallShip Requisition, Changes in Trade, and the Rise of Piracy During the Southern Song2026-02-03text/htmlen-USShip Requisition, Changes in Trade, and the Rise of Piracy During the Southern Song2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®887772026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03The Royal Typographic Sublime: Discourse on Movable Type in Early Modern Korea (1392–1910)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981149
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In 1782, the Chosŏn court (1392–1910) under King Chŏngjo 正祖 (r. 1776–1800) used movable type to print the third major installment of the Precious Mirror of Our Dynasty (Kukcho pogam 國朝寶鑑; hereafter Precious Mirror), a state-sanctioned history of Chosŏn, before having the typographic prints pasted onto woodblocks and recarved (pŏn’gak 飜刻) to print xylographic copies. The rationale for the concurrent use of typography and xylography was that while movable type—here hwalcha 活字 but frequently recorded in Korean sources as chuja 鑄字, or “cast type”—“followed the enterprise of the ruler’s forefathers,” it also was “immediately disassembled after barely printing out a few pieces of paper and in the end was not a method for
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallThe Royal Typographic Sublime: Discourse on Movable Type in Early Modern Korea (1392–1910)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USThe Royal Typographic Sublime: Discourse on Movable Type in Early Modern Korea (1392–1910)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®1621562026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Recent Studies of the Chuci and Its Literary Afterlives
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981150
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These two books offer new perspectives on the traditionally fraught field of Chuci 楚辭 (Lyrics of Chu) studies. The following is a brief review of their main contents.The edited volume Qu Yuan and Chuci: New Approaches is “the first in any European language that assembles a diverse series of studies on the Chuci” (p. 10). In the words of its editors, its eight chapters “challenge some of the most enduring and cherished views of this second beginning—after the Classic of Poetry [Shijing 詩經]—of Chinese poetry, in particular with respect to China’s first and archetypal poet-hero, Qu Yuan [屈原; ca. 300 BCE]” (p. 15).The central assumption of traditional scholarship on the Chuci is that Qu Yuan authored the “Li sao” 離騷
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallRecent Studies of the Chuci and Its Literary Afterlives2026-02-03text/htmlen-USRecent Studies of the Chuci and Its Literary Afterlives2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®367052026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Democracy Under Neoliberalism in South Korea
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981151
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South Korea’s democracy has been profoundly shaped by the country’s economic transformations. The role of economic development in South Korea’s democratization is well-documented and widely celebrated, yet the path it followed was far from linear. Rapid economic growth under authoritarian rule initially strengthened the regime but eventually facilitated nationwide protests that ultimately brought about democratization. Correspondingly, people’s experiences of authoritarianism, the democracy movement, and economic growth varied considerably across generations, shaping how they perceive the significance of these pivotal events and influencing their political attitudes and behavior over the long term.1 Following
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallDemocracy Under Neoliberalism in South Korea2026-02-03text/htmlen-USDemocracy Under Neoliberalism in South Korea2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®378092026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Writing Violence: The Politics of Form in Early Modern Japanese Literature by David C. Atherton (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981152
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Evincing great erudition on the part of its author, Writing Violence: The Politics of Form in Early Modern Japanese Literature provides insightful and provocative readings of works of both early and late Tokugawa literature. Atherton begins by asking, “How are we to make sense of the relationship between the formal features of literary works and the social world beyond their pages?” (p. 1), making clear that he will seek to resolve what he terms “the tussle” in literary studies “between formalism and historicism” (p. 3). Atherton approaches literature as a medium “proposing models of the world,” an understanding of literary politics that “enables us to move beyond tired models of opposition and complicity” (p.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallWriting Violence: The Politics of Form in Early Modern Japanese Literature by David C. Atherton (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USWriting Violence: The Politics of Form in Early Modern Japanese Literature by David C. Atherton (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®191942026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China by Tristan G. Brown (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981153
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Tristan G. Brown’s Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China explores the complicated relationship between fengshui 風水 and Qing-era (1644–1912) law and governance, focusing on how fengshui was systematically invoked in legal practices in Sichuan in the nineteenth century. The book is based on solid archival research. Brown draws on over three hundred cases related to fengshui from the Nanbu 南部 archives, one of the most important and comprehensive Qing county-level archives extant in China; one hundred cases from other local archives in Sichuan and Taiwan; and ninety cases from the imperial archives and published books such as judicial handbooks and local gazetteers. In addition to legal case
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallLaws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China by Tristan G. Brown (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USLaws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China by Tristan G. Brown (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®106242026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03The Cornucopian Stage: Performing Commerce in Early Modern China by Ariel Fox (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981154
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Ariel Fox’s book, The Cornucopian Stage, meticulously explores the role of commerce within Chinese drama and theater during the long seventeenth century. She keenly observes the seemingly marginalized status of commerce and merchants within the chuanqi 傳奇 drama of the Ming–Qing period. Central to her thesis is the endeavor to reposition what she terms “commercial cornucopianism” at the core of early modern Chinese theater (p. 4). To achieve this objective, Fox concentrates her analysis on drama scripts, supplemented by performance records, originating from the “Suzhou circle.” She carefully reviews the “Suzhou school” (Suzhou pai 蘇州派), a scholarly designation that has been in place since the 1960s, mostly in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallThe Cornucopian Stage: Performing Commerce in Early Modern China by Ariel Fox (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USThe Cornucopian Stage: Performing Commerce in Early Modern China by Ariel Fox (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®104182026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Navigating Narratives: Tsurayuki’s “Tosa Diary” as History and Fiction by Gustav Heldt (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981155
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Perhaps you share this experience: casting the mind’s eye over the rich vernacular Japanese prose of the Heian period (794–1185), especially that with a female narrator, in the search for class readings, you say to yourself, “Tosa nikki 土佐日記 (Tosa diary) is a must; short, sweet, and lots to discuss.” Then you cast your physical eye over the available English translations, concluding in frustration: “Not so much.” If so, you will welcome the new rendition in the appendix of Gustav Heldt’s extended study of the tenth-century travel classic Tosa nikki. This volume will also provide you an abundance of fresh and stimulating interpretations of a pathbreaking work of fiction, laced throughout one of the deepest
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallNavigating Narratives: Tsurayuki’s “Tosa Diary” as History and Fiction by Gustav Heldt (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USNavigating Narratives: Tsurayuki’s “Tosa Diary” as History and Fiction by Gustav Heldt (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®178922026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03From Genghis Khan to Tamerlane: The Reawakening of Mongol Asia by Peter Jackson (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981156
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Since V. V. Bartol’d (Wilhelm Barthold; 1869–1930) passed away, few people could claim to have such a wide-ranging, deep, and multifaceted knowledge of the primary Arabic, Persian, and Turkic sources related to the history of Eurasia under Mongol (1206–1368) and Timurid (1370–1507) rule.1 Peter Jackson, without a doubt, is a scholar who is greatly expanding the scope of research on Mongol and Timurid Eurasia. He is known from his publications as an extremely multifaceted writer and scholar: his history of the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526), the study of the Mongol relations with the Latin West, and that of their relations with the Islamic world have long become must-reads.2 Jackson’s From Genghis Khan to Tamerlane:
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallFrom Genghis Khan to Tamerlane: The Reawakening of Mongol Asia by Peter Jackson (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USFrom Genghis Khan to Tamerlane: The Reawakening of Mongol Asia by Peter Jackson (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®185182026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia by Sheila Miyoshi Jager (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981157
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In 1860, the Russian Empire (1721–1917) and the Korean Chosŏn kingdom (1392–1897) formally shared a border for the first time in their long histories. Russia’s formal expansion into what would become its Amur and Maritime provinces intensified competition for land, resources, and dominance between Russia, the Chinese Qing empire, and Japan. Sheila Miyoshi Jager labels this competition “the Other Great Game.” Unlike the Russo-British contest over Central Asia that had begun somewhat earlier (the original “Great Game”), this Northeast Asian struggle between great powers centered on Korea and the neighboring region of Manchuria.Jager’s sweeping narrative focuses on events from 1860 to 1910, the year Korea was formally
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallThe Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia by Sheila Miyoshi Jager (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USThe Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia by Sheila Miyoshi Jager (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®202152026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03The Inscription of Things: Writing and Materiality in Early Modern China by Thomas Kelly (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981158
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The gradual introduction of “things” into the way scholars think and write about the social worlds of pre- and early modern China has surely been one of the more profound developments informing Chinese historical and literary studies over the past few decades. While the notion of the sudden, sharp historiographical “turn” has rightly been called into question, we have now reached a point at which objects and materiality are no longer supplementary, but a crucial part of the way we conceptualize the stories we tell.1 Studies that privilege the material, by Wai-yee Li, Craig Clunas, and Dorothy Ko, among others, are indispensable points of reference for scholars and students working across a range of different
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallThe Inscription of Things: Writing and Materiality in Early Modern China by Thomas Kelly (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USThe Inscription of Things: Writing and Materiality in Early Modern China by Thomas Kelly (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®151012026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Moral Authoritarianism: Neighborhood Associations in the Three Koreas, 1931–1972 by Shinyoung Kwon (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981159
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The book under review deals with an issue of key importance for understanding modern and contemporary Korea, which was, however, largely left untouched in the existing academic literature in European languages—namely, the issue of neighborhood associations (aegukpan 愛國班 in colonial-era Korea, inminban 人民班 in North Korea, and pansanghoe 班常會 in South Korea; hereafter NAs) as the main intermediaries between state administration and individual households. There were so far no books and no articles specifically dealing with Korean NAs in English from a historical perspective. The present work, essentially, is a trailblazing attempt to engage with this topic. It stands in remarkable contrast with the significant amount
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallMoral Authoritarianism: Neighborhood Associations in the Three Koreas, 1931–1972 by Shinyoung Kwon (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USMoral Authoritarianism: Neighborhood Associations in the Three Koreas, 1931–1972 by Shinyoung Kwon (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®160562026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Cinematic Guerillas: Propaganda, Projectionists, and Audiences in Socialist China by Jie Li (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981160
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The years from 1949 to 1976 were called the “missing years” and the “missed years” (with nostalgia) in the historiography of socialist cinema in China. However, during the last decade, fruitful research and book-length studies on socialist cinema have emerged that not only revisit our understanding of propaganda but also engage with film theory and world cinema.1 These studies debunk a monolithic understanding of propaganda and reveal its complexity and heterogeneity in production, distribution, and reception. Jie Li’s Cinematic Guerrillas is one of the recent efforts in that research direction, echoing previous research while breaking new ground in broadening our understanding of socialist propaganda in a period
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallCinematic Guerillas: Propaganda, Projectionists, and Audiences in Socialist China by Jie Li (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USCinematic Guerillas: Propaganda, Projectionists, and Audiences in Socialist China by Jie Li (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®189582026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Transpatial Modernity: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia via Japan (1880–1930) by Xiaolu Ma (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981161
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Xiaolu Ma’s Transpatial Modernity adds to the rich scholarship demonstrating the crucial role of translation in the construction of Chinese cultural modernity. Her book focuses on how Russian culture and literature, a prominent presence in China from the late nineteenth century on, was initially introduced through intermediary Japanese translations. The complex process of how Russian culture was mediated through other languages and cultures contributes to what Ma calls “transpatial modernity.” By fleshing out these translinguistic mediations, Ma counters binary accounts of cultural transmission that assume a direct link between source and target. Ma’s monograph resonates strongly with Heekyoung Cho’s Translation’s
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallTranspatial Modernity: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia via Japan (1880–1930) by Xiaolu Ma (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USTranspatial Modernity: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia via Japan (1880–1930) by Xiaolu Ma (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®148282026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Textual Practices of Literary Training in Medieval China: Evidence from Dunhuang Manuscripts by Christopher M. B. Nugent (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981162
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Christopher Nugent’s new book is a model of erudite scholarship that should become a core text for those interested in any aspect of China’s medieval intellectual culture. Nugent’s writing style is admirable in its deftness and clarity, even when he deals with very technical issues. In the course of the work, Nugent keeps his focus on the implications of surviving manuscripts for our understanding of literary training, but given the central place of literary composition in medieval Chinese society and institutions, his analysis has much broader significance than the title phrase “literary training” may suggest. He ties together material culture, pedagogy, and the cultural canon to reveal the concrete experience of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallTextual Practices of Literary Training in Medieval China: Evidence from Dunhuang Manuscripts by Christopher M. B. Nugent (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USTextual Practices of Literary Training in Medieval China: Evidence from Dunhuang Manuscripts by Christopher M. B. Nugent (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®115372026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03City of Sediments: A History of Seoul in the Age of Colonialism by Se-Mi Oh (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981163
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To investigate the historiography of Seoul, Se-Mi Oh’s City of Sediments teems with provocative sights, sounds, senses, and stories produced in colonial Seoul. Oh’s study is more than just a history of urban space or a history of Seoul, although the title suggests it is so. It is really, as the author claims in the “Introduction,” a study that “takes Seoul as a method through which history writing can be brought to the surface” (p. 7). Oh insists that understanding Seoul’s coloniality and modernity is achieved not through mapping the physical transformations or chronicling significant events of the city but through the “discursive practices that produced a narrative about Seoul’s past, present, and future” (p.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallCity of Sediments: A History of Seoul in the Age of Colonialism by Se-Mi Oh (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USCity of Sediments: A History of Seoul in the Age of Colonialism by Se-Mi Oh (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®153002026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Life and Afterlife in Ancient China by Jessica Rawson (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981164
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In this engaging book, Jessica Rawson, a renowned art historian, through a careful examination of artifacts and material culture, presents a vibrant picture of ancient Chinese culture from the late Neolithic period to the Qin unification in 221 BCE. The book draws on twelve key archaeological sites in different geographical regions, each with distinct ecological and climatic conditions. The chapters are organized chronologically into four sections, with each focusing on a single archaeological site. Except for the sacrificial pits at Sanxingdui 三星堆 (chap. 4), the remaining eleven sites feature primarily tombs of various scales. Discussions of each tomb often begin with excavated artifacts and their archaeological
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallLife and Afterlife in Ancient China by Jessica Rawson (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USLife and Afterlife in Ancient China by Jessica Rawson (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®116952026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Writing Early China by Edward L. Shaughnessy (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981165
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The reviewed volume offers an impressively rich collection of case studies focused on the role of writing in early China as attested in excavated manuscripts and epigraphy. The author’s explicit polemical stance against the opinions of influential Western scholars (such as Martin Kern and Lothar von Falkenhausen), articulated in the introduction and reverberating multiple times throughout the book, makes it very entertaining for a volume that mainly consists of previously published articles (with the exception of chap. 4). The book consists of three parts: “Inscriptions,” “The Classics,” and “Manuscripts,” with four chapters in each. The first chapter contains an introductory overview of oracle-bone and bronze
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallWriting Early China by Edward L. Shaughnessy (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USWriting Early China by Edward L. Shaughnessy (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®180832026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03Kyoto’s Gion Festival: A Social History by Mark Teeuwen (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/981166
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Mark Teeuwen’s Kyoto’s Gion Festival: A Social History is a historical account of this famous festival from the tenth century to the end of the Allied occupation of Japan in 1952 that is inevitably and closely intertwined with the history of the city of Kyoto. The main source of this book is “the work of many Japanese historians” on the festival, and as such, the book provides a window into this scholarship for an English-speaking audience (p. 13). The book is divided into five chapters organized chronologically and includes an introduction and a conclusion, which summarizes the main changes to the festival’s patterns and provides an interpretation based on Don Handelman’s dual typology of rituals/public events as
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/433/image/coversmallKyoto’s Gion Festival: A Social History by Mark Teeuwen (review)2026-02-03text/htmlen-USKyoto’s Gion Festival: A Social History by Mark Teeuwen (review)2026-02-032026TWOProject MUSE®146122026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-03