George Sansom (1883–1965)

Sansom's third book in his History of Japan series covers the time from Ieyasu's Shogunate to the Meiji revolution, in which the Tokugawa bakufu was overthrown and the emperor restored to power. The timeframe under discussion involves the slow change from a feudal, militarized society to one which was much more mercantile and agrarian in nature. The role of the warrior diminished and that of the merchant and farmer, and thus of the common man, increases.

Perhaps this is why this book loses some of the vigour of its predecessors. Sansom concentrates much more on the changes in the structure of society than on events and personalities. The price of rice, while admittedly a very important factor in political events in Tokugawa Japan, receives so much attention that we are almost lost in the details of production and pricing. Sansom recovers some of his spirit as the tale draws to a close with the opening of Japan by Perry and the increasing encroachment of the West. Sansom's view of how the opening of Japan led to the restoration of the Emperor is quite revealing.

All told, this book, much shorter than the previous two, is definitely also the weakest. It contains, as do the others excellent maps, charts and pictures as well as tables of rice production and the occasional family tree. There is only one appendix, on rural family structure and the bibliography, while annotated, is very brief. I would still recommend buying the whole set but the first two books are much superior to this as reading material. This excellent series ends with a bit of a whimper.… (plus d'informations)

The second book in Sansom's History of Japan takes the reader from the succession disputes between the Senior and Junior lines of the royal house, through the revolt of Go-Daigo against the Hojo regents and the Kemmu restoration. The story of how the first Ashikaga Shogun, Takauji, gained power and the desultory state of war between the so-called Northern (Kyoto-based) and Southern courts follows. The apparently pointless Onin war is discussed and the reader is relieved when nearly two hundred years of civil war ends under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. Finally, Sansom deals with the establishment of the Tokugawa Shoguns by Ieyasu.

As in the first book in this series, Sansom once again cleverly combines narrative tales of action with analysis. For sheer brutality and callous disregard for human life under pre-modern ethical standards, the tales of Hideyoshi's treatment of his son, Hidetsugu, make chilling reading. The civil war period occasionally makes for a bewildering welter of names but the author generally steers a clear course through the flotsam. There is also considerable discussion of the Western influences that began to be felt in Japan with the advent of the Jesuit missions there under Francis Xavier. Sansom claims that many authors have made too much of the West's influence during this period but still devotes considerable time to Christianity and the Japanese response to it. A lengthy discussion of Japan's Korean invasion is also included.

This second book in the series is just as good or better than the first. It contains a similar selection of maps, charts, timelines and family trees and also has several short appendices expanding details of the text. It contains its own annotated bibliography and an extensive index. If you enjoyed the first book in this set, the second will continue to delight. It should be useful to the casual reader of Japanese history or to the scholar, although, written in 1958, some of its views are likely out of vogue and some facts may be out of date. On the whole, it is a remarkable piece of historical literature.… (plus d'informations)