Ikki: Social Conflict and Political Protest in Early Modern Japan

by James W. White

Overview

The reign of the Tokugawa shoguns was a time of statebuilding and cultural transformation, but it was also a period of ikki: peasant rebellion. James W. White reconstructs the pattern of social conflict in early modern Japan, both among common people and between the populace and the government. Ikki is the first book to cover popular protest in all regions of Japan and to encompass nearly three centuries of history, from the beginnings of the Tokugawa shogunate in the 1590s to the Meiji restoration.

White applies contemporary sociological theory to evidence previously unavailable in English. He draws on the long historical record of peasant uprisings, using narrative interpretation and sophisticated quantitative analysis. By linking the texture of conflict to the political and economic regime the shoguns created, he casts doubt on competing interpretations of a contained, orderly society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501704437
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	03/24/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James W. White is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of The Sokagakkai and Mass Society.

Table of Contents

List of Figures vii

List of Tables ix

Acknowledgments xi

Note on Orthography xiii

Introduction 1

Part I The Context of Contention

1 The Political Context 27

2 The Economic Context 63

3 The Social and Demographic Context 83

4 The Ideological and Philosophical Context 107

Part II The Texture and Content of Contention

5 Frequency and Magnitude 125

6 Repertoires 139

7 Process and Cycle 163

8 Protagonists and Antagonists 183

9 Twilight of the Ikki 193

Part III The Correlates and Causes of Contention

10 Correlation and Causation 203

11 A Multivariate Analysis 221

12 The Inception of Conflict 239

Part IV Consequences and Conclusions

13 Implications and Interpretations 271

14 Conclusion 293

Appendix 1 The Aoki Koji Data 313

Appendix 2 Magnitude and Type of Contention 315

Bibliography 325

Index 345

Editorial Reviews

White's book shows how quantitative social science methods can be creatively married to in-depth historical knowledge of a particular country.

American Political Science Review

Ikki is ambitious, comprehensive, rigorous, and sophisticated in its conclusions. It is an accessible and wide-ranging book that should be of broad interest to political scientists and other social scientists interested in the comparative study of popular contention.

Review of Politics

Ikki is ambitious, comprehensive, rigorous, and sophisticated in its conclusions. It is an accessible and wide-ranging book that should be of broad interest to political scientists and other social scientists interested in the comparative study of popular contention.

-- "Review of Politics"

White's book shows how quantitative social science methods can be creatively married to in-depth historical knowledge of a particular country.

-- "American Political Science Review"

From the Publisher