John Hall

This important study of Japan in premodern times, embracing a span of nearly thirteen centuries, is directed toward the illumination of some important elements of continuity in Japanese history. It is an effort to explain through the detailed analysis of a microcosm--the small province of Bizen--the fundamental institutions of political organization and social and economic structure upon which Japanese government has rested. It seeks historical depth both by limiting the study in terms of its geographical scope and by restricting the number of variables to which it gives attention. This book deals chiefly with the combination of traditions and techniques by which the Japanese organized power and exercised authority and the connections between the holders of power and the sources of wealth, mainly land. Thus, Government and Local Power in Japan deals with such subjects as theories of legitimacy and practices of administration, concepts of social stratification and social rights, and practices of land tenure and taxation. It seeks to gain a sufficient intimacy with Japanese life to find meaning in the historic continuities and changes in the way premodern Japanese governed themselves.

Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times has a heavy emphasis upon the premodern period of Japanese history. No attempt has been made to provide the usual kind of textbook completeness. Hall's fascination with Japanese history lies within the manner in which Japan's political and social institutions have changed and diversified over time and how this fundamentally "Eastern" culture gave rise to a modern world power. Japan is today a modern nation in the full sense of the term. Yet its history is less familiar to us than the histories of those Western powers that it has now outstripped, or of the other countries of Asia that have gained recognition as the birthplaces of ancient civilizations or world religions. Japanese history does not force itself upon the world's attention as does the mainstream of European history or the exotic chronicles of China or India. Its significance has become apparent only in proportion to the recognition Japan has gained as a modern state and as scholars have begun to place Japanese history within a world context.