Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgements vii
4. Foreword ix
5. Introduction xiii
6. Part One: Japanese Politics, Religion and Society
7. 1. Politics and Religion in Japan 1
8. 2. The Kojiki as Japan’s National Narrative 20
9. 3. Prince Shōtoku and Japan’s ‘China Complex’ 33
10. 4. Japan’s Perennial New Man: The Liberal and Fascist Incarnations of Masamichi Rōyama 44
11. 5. From Mishima to Aum: Religiopolitical Violence in Late Twentieth-Century Japan 63
12. Part Two: Japanese Literature and Art
13. 6. Japanese Poetry and the Aesthetics of Disaster 101
14. 7. In Search of the Great Meiji Novel: From Ukigumo to Yoake mae 115
15. 8. Nation and Region in the Work of Dazai Osamu 142
16. 9. Ink Traces of the Dancing Calligraphers: Zen-ei Sho in Japan Today 152
17. 10. Mishima, Bowie and the Anti-Metaphysics of the Mask 174
18. 11. D.T. Suzuki’s Theory of Inspiration and the Challenges of Cross-Cultural Transmission 193
19. Part Three: Selected Reviews
20. 12. Ninomiya Masayuki, La pensée de Kobayashi Hideo: Un intellectuel japonais au tournant de l’histoire 217
21. 13. Doug Slaymaker, Confluences: Postwar France and Japan 221
22. 14. Alex Bates, The Culture of the Quake: The Great Kantō Earthquake and Taishō Japan 228
23. 15. Alan Tansman, The Aesthetics of Japanese Fascism 233
24. 16. Japanese Literature as a Modern Invention: a review of Haruo Shirane and Tomi Suzuki (eds.), Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Literature 239
25. 17. Haruo Shirane, Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts 247
26. 18. Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (eds.), Zen Masters 250
27. Bibliography of Roy Starrs Publications 257
28. Notes 267
29. Index 285