292 Book Reviewss

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Minako/Komazawa University*
SATO

Nihon Shis
oshi Handobukku (A Handbook of Japanese Intellectual History), edited by Karube

Tadashi and Kataoka Ryu. Tokyo: Shinshokan, 2008, 238 pp., U2,100 (ISBN 978-4-403-25094-1)

doi:10.1093/ssjj/jyp021 Published online July 28, 2009

What is a handbook? It is a book that allows one to easily obtain information on a specialized field. It is
a book that allows the neophyte to easily read and understand general outlines of specialized know-
ledge. This kind of convenient manual is what people refer to as a handbook.
A quick glance at the work, Nihon Shis
oshi Handobukku (A Handbook of Japanese Intellectual
History) gives the impression that this volume fits the above definition perfectly. First of all, the book
is slim and light. The reader can take this book comfortably anywhere to read at his/her leisure. Fur-
thermore, its internal structure is such that the reader can easily make use of it. For example, the book
is composed of various topics dealing with Japanese intellectual history, but the topics are covered in
short segments of two to four pages. Thus, it is no great difficulty to read through any particular ar-
ticle. Moreover, it is set up to follow the reader’s interest, so that it does not matter where one begins
or ends their reading. Even readers who are afraid of thick, heavy, expensive specialist tomes will want
to turn the pages of this book.
However, although one can pick up this book lightheartedly, that is not to say that it is easy to com-
prehend. The editorial aim of the book is explained as follows by Karube Tadashi, one of the editors:
‘We hope to entice a large number of people to enter a rich and complex world, where general readers
approach the cutting edge of research on intellectual history, and there is an interplay of a variety of
thought, pre-modern and modern’ (p. 7). In other words, this volume is not simply a summary of
Japanese thought and a listing of basic notions. Its goal is to apprise people other than specialists
of the leading edge of research in intellectual history. The writers of the various articles sweat blood

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*Translated from the Japanese by Robert J.J. Wargo.

 Book Reviews 293

to accomplish this difficult task. As a result, specialized knowledge and leading edge scholarship are
condensed in a highly compacted form within the limited number of words allowed for each article.
In assembling this condensed knowledge, this book gains as much richness as the ‘thick, heavy, expen-
sive specialty books’ contain.
Accordingly, this book appears to be more suitable for readers with a certain degree of basic knowl-
edge in the field of Japanese intellectual history, rather than for the absolute neophyte.1 One feels this
most keenly when the authors present their arguments in the style of ‘Generally, it is thought ‘‘A’’,
but in fact it is ‘‘B’’’. The authors use this style to explain ‘B’, e.g. the cutting edge of research in in-
tellectual history, to the reader in a way that is easy to understand. However, because of space limi-
tations, the authors cannot speak at length about ‘A’ or ‘generally accepted knowledge’. For this
reason, beginners who pick up this book to gain a grasp of generally accepted knowledge will be ex-
posed to a higher level of information than he or she expected and may thus become confused.
Moreover, even readers with a certain level of basic knowledge may be confused by this lack of ex-

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planation of ‘A’. Also, the statements ‘In general it is thought to be ‘‘A’’’ are often based upon each
individual author’s personal assumptions. In fact, such statements can be seen as demonstrating what
each author assumes to be the answers to the questions: ‘What kinds of interest do ordinary people
have in Japanese intellectual history?’ and ‘What kinds of knowledge and understanding do they
have?’ However, quite naturally, these assumptions differ by author. Reading through the chapters,
some readers will inevitably be confused in one way or another because of the gaps that are not stated
explicitly, but clearly exist. Moreover, when the assumptions of the writer differ from those of the
reader, the same kind of confusion can occur. In other words, the writer might think that society
in general thinks one way, but the reader may not agree or even strongly doubt the point in conten-
tion. Because the authors’ assumptions are not explicitly explained, the reader experiences confusion
of a kind where he/she cannot identify the causes of the sense of dissonance he/she feels.
However, I feel that these differences make the book more interesting. The authors’ assumptions
about ordinary people’s interest in, and knowledge and understanding of, Japanese intellectual his-
tory, along with their beliefs of how society in general thinks, clearly demonstrate how each author
approaches the field. Moreover, the postscript to the book explains that most of the authors in this
volume were born in or around the 1960s. This being the case, this book shows how young scholars
of Japanese intellectual history think and their positions on various problems in the field of Japanese
intellectual history research, as well as the kinds of solutions they offer. This is a slight departure from
the original intent of the editors, one which gives rise to a display of fresh insights into the cutting
edge of research in intellectual history. This is one of the most interesting characteristics of this
book.
The book is broadly divided into two major parts: the first five chapters, in which the subjects are
chronologically arranged, and the rest of the book. The first chapter is ‘Approaches to Japanese In-
tellectual History’, followed by Chapter 2, ‘The Ancient Period and the Middle Ages’, Chapter 3
‘From the Warring States to the Age of Peace’, Chapter 4 ‘The Nineteenth Century Period of
Change’ and Chapter 5 ‘The Twentieth Century’. The latter half of the book contains information
about Japanese intellectual history that cannot easily be covered chronologically, including ‘Profiles
of Intellectual Historians’, ‘For People Who Want to Know More’ and ‘Book Guide’.

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1. A more appropriate book for beginners would be one that is mentioned in this volume, Gaisetsu Nihon Shis

oshi (A General
Outline of Japanese Intellectual History) edited by Sat

o Hir

o (2005).
294 Book Reviewss

I read the ‘Profiles of Intellectual Historians’ and the ‘Book Guide’ with particular interest. The
former contains articles on Tsuda S
okichi, Muraoka Tsunetsugu, Watsuji Tetsur
o, Kobayashi Hideo,
Ienaga Sabur
o, Shimada Kenji and Maruyama Masao. There are a great number of publications on
Japanese intellectuals, but not much that focuses directly on ‘research on Japanese intellectual history
as a discipline’. This book takes up these seven intellectuals, who exercised both implicit and explicit
influence on the field after World War II and contributed to the construction of a framework of anal-
ysis and its perspective. The space devoted to each is limited, but by taking up these individuals, the
book provides an overview into the development of postwar research on Japanese intellectual history
overall. This should be appreciated as an important contribution in itself.
In the ‘Book Guide’, the two editors divide up the selected books into five sections: ‘General’, ‘An-
cient Times’, ‘Middle Ages’, ‘Early Modern Times’ and ‘The Modern Era’. Their selection of books is
useful not only for basic and specialized research but they are also selected as being the favorites of the
two editors. Readers will surely discover the possibilities and the richness of Japanese intellectual his-

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tory in this guide because of the joy with which these two excellent scholars, who are genuine book
fanatics, discuss the books.
Finally, it is to be noted that some of the readers are posited as being ‘people overseas or those who
have come to Japan to study Japanese culture’ (p. 7) and ‘foreigners in Japan’ (p. 226). Kataoka Ryu,
one of the editors, says ‘Just as from our point of view ‘‘Japan’’ is an unknown world, the complicated,
fantastic experience of thought up to the present day in Japan is rarely seen outside of Japan. After
thinking together with us about its allure, we would like you to sometime communicate it to your
home country’ (pp. 225–226). How do you respond to this request? I hope you will read this book
and carefully consider it.

Reference
Hir
o ed. 2005. Gaisetsu Nihon Shis

o, Sat
oshi (A General Outline of Japanese Intellectual History). Kyoto: Minerva Shob

o.