Provincializing Empire: Omi Merchants in the Japanese Transpacific Diaspora

by Jun Uchida

Overview

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

Provincializing Empire explores the global history of Japanese expansion through a regional lens. It rethinks the nation-centered geography and chronology of empire by uncovering the pivotal role of expeditionary merchants from Ōmi (present-day Shiga Prefecture) and their modern successors. Tracing their lives from the early modern era, and writing them into the global histories of empire, diaspora, and capitalism, Jun Uchida offers an innovative analysis of expansion through a story previously untold: how the nation's provincials built on their traditions to create a transpacific diaspora that stretched from Seoul to Vancouver, while helping shape the modern world of transoceanic exchange.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520390119
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/21/2023
Series:	Asia Pacific Modern , #18
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	378
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Jun Uchida is Professor of History at Stanford University and author of Brokers of Empire: Japanese Settler Colonialism in Korea, 1876–1945.

Table of Contents

Contents

List of Illustrations 
Acknowledgments 
Map of Japan and the Pacific World 

Introduction 

Part One. Ōmi Merchants in the Early Modern Era
1. The Rise of Ōmi Shōnin as Diasporic Traders 
2. At the Nexus of Colonialism and Capitalism in Hokkaido 

Part Two. Ōmi Merchants as a Model of Expansion
3. A Vision of Transpacific Expansion from the Periphery 
4. The Production of Global Ōmi Shōnin 

Part Three. Ōmi Merchants across the Transpacific Diaspora
5. The “Gōshū Zaibatsu” in Japan’s Cotton Empire 
6. Ōmi Merchants in the Colonial World of Retail 
7. A Shiga Immigrant Diaspora in Canada 

Conclusion

Notes 
Bibliography 
Glossary-Index