A Brief History of Japan

The updated and expanded edition of the book, which has become one of the foundational texts in global Japanese studies since its first publication in English. It covers all the most important aspects of Japan's history - from primitive and archaic periods (early settlements, the beginning of state unification, the creation of a unified state, foreign and internal politics, and culture of the Heian period) and the Middle Ages (rule of the samurai houses, development of Buddhism), to the early modern period (the rise of warlords Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Momoyama period, the Tokugawa shogunate, and the development of the market economy) and modern Japan (the Meiji Restoration, modernization policies, military actions during World War II, and subsequent occupation). The well-structured narrative pays great attention to Japanese culture - religion, literature, painting, architecture, theater. The book, equipped with black-and-white illustrations, as well as maps and genealogical trees, is aimed at everyone interested in the "origins of Japanese modernity." This book is released in the series "Cities and People" in two editions under the same title.