The Human Tradition in Modern Japan is a collection of short biographies of ordinary Japanese men and women, most of them unknown outside their family and locality, whose lives collectively span the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their stories present a counterweight to the prevailing stereotypes, providing students with depictions of real people through the records they have left-records that detail experiences and aspirations.
The Human Tradition in Modern Japan offers a human-scale perspective that focuses on individuals, reconstitutes the meaning of people's experiences as they lived through them, and puts a human face on history. It skillfully bridges the divides between the sexes, between the local and the national, and between rural and urban, as well as spanning crucial moments in the history of modern Japan.
The Human Tradition in Modern Japan is an excellent resource for courses on Japanese history, East Asian history, and peoples and cultures of Japan.

Chapter 1 Introduction: On the Trail of People in the Past Part 2 I: The World of Shogun, Samurai, and Court, 1600-1868 Chapter 3 Shinanomiya Tsuneko: Portrait of a Court Lady Chapter 4 Mori Yoshiki: Samurai Government Officer Part 5 II: The Meiji Restoration and the Transformation of State and Society Chapter 6 Nishimiya Hide: Turning Palace Arts into Marketable Skills Chapter 7 The Ishizaka of Notsuda: A family in Transition Part 8 III: Building the Modern State Chapter 9 Hatoyama Haruko (1861-1938): Ambitious Woman Chapter 10 Jahana Noboru: Okinawan Activist and Scholar Chapter 11 Kinoshita Yoshio: Revolutionizing Service on Japan's National Railroads Part 12 IV: Twentieth-Century Vicissitudes Chapter 13 Matsuura Isami (1880-1962): A Modern Patriarch in Rural Japan Chapter 14 Yoshiya Nobuko: Out and Outspoken in Practice and Prose Chapter 15 Takahashi Masao (1901-1995): Flexible Marxist Part 16 V: World War II and the Postwar World Chapter 17 Yokoi Shoichi: When a Soldier Finally Returns Home Chapter 18 Misora Hibari: The Postwar Myth of Mournful Tears and Sake Chapter 19 Index

Anne Walthall teaches Japanese history at the University of California, Irvine.