Japanese Confucianism A Cultural History [Hardcover]

This book charts the history of Confucianism in Japan to offer new perspectives on the sociology of Confucianiam across East Asia.In an illuminating and provocative new study, Kiri Paramore evaluates the dynamics of Japanese Confucianism within a historical context to reveal its many cultural manifestations, as a religion and as a political tool, and as social capital and public discourse, as well as its role in international relations and statecraft.In an illuminating and provocative new study, Kiri Paramore evaluates the dynamics of Japanese Confucianism within a historical context to reveal its many cultural manifestations, as a religion and as a political tool, and as social capital and public discourse, as well as its role in international relations and statecraft.For more than 1500 years, Confucianism has played a major role in shaping Japan's history - from the formation of the first Japanese states during the first millennium AD, to Japan's modernization in the nineteenth century, to World War II and its still unresolved legacies across East Asia today. In an illuminating and provocative new study, Kiri Paramore analyses the dynamic history of Japanese Confucianism, revealing its many cultural manifestations, as religion and as a political tool, as social capital and public discourse, as well as its role in international relations and statecraft. The book demonstrates the processes through which Confucianism was historically linked to other phenomenon, such as the rise of modern science and East Asian liberalism. In doing so, it offers new perspectives on the sociology of Confucianism and its impact on society, culture and politics across East Asia, past and present.Introduction; 1. Confucianism as cultural capital: mid-first millennium AD  late sixteenth century AD; 2. Confucianism as religion, 1580s1720s; 3. Confucianism as public sphere, 1720s1868; 4. Confucianism as knowledge, 1400s1800s; 5. Confucianism as liberalism, 1850s1890s; 6. Confucianism aslc9