Isami's House

Three Centuries of a Japanese Family

Gail Lee Bernstein

$57.95

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

University of California Press
07 October 2005

History; Genealogy, heraldry, names & honours; Family history, tracing ancestors

In this powerful and evocative narrative, Gail Lee Bernstein vividly re-creates the past three centuries of Japanese history by following the fortunes of a prominent Japanese family over fourteen generations. The first of its kind in English, this book focuses on Isami, the eleventh generation patriarch and hereditary village head. Weaving back and forth between Isami's time in the first half of the twentieth century and his ancestors' lives in the Tokugawa and Meiji eras, Bernstein uses family history to convey a broad panoply of social life in Japan since the late 1600s. As the story unfolds, she provides remarkable details and absorbing anecdotes about food, famines, peasant uprisings, agrarian values, marriage customs, child-rearing practices, divorces, and social networks. Isami's House describes the role of rural elites, the architecture of Japanese homes, the grooming of children for middle-class life in Tokyo, the experiences of the Japanese in Japan's wartime empire and on the homefront, the aftermath of the country's defeat, and, finally, the efforts of family members to rebuild their lives after the Occupation. The author's forty-year friendship with members of the family lends a unique intimacy to her portrayal of their history. Readers come away with an inside view of Japanese family life, a vivid picture of early modern and modern times, and a profound understanding of how villagers were transformed into urbanites and what was gained, and lost, in the process.

By: Gail Lee Bernstein
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780520246973
ISBN 10: 0520246977
Pages: 314
Publication Date: 07 October 2005
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures Prologue: History Revealed Acknowledgments Reader's Guide Introduction: An Agrarian Childhood Part One: Ancestors and Descendants 1 The House Isami Built 2 Kissing Cousins 3 Father of the Village 4 Strong Wives Part Two: Going Out Into the World 5 Urban Studies 6 The Marriage Pipeline 7 Frugality and Fancy Schemes Part Three: Empire, War, and Defeat 8 Outposts of Modernity 9 Isami's Children in Harm's Way 10 Hard Times on the Home Front 11 Surviving Hiroshima 12 Missed Fortunes 13 Making History Part Four: Love and Other Forms of Compensation 14 Absent Husband 15 Couples and Uncouplings 16 Mothering Epilogue: Kinwork Notes Credits Index

Gail Lee Bernstein is Professor of History at the University of Arizona. She is the author of Haruko's World: A Japanese Farm Woman and Her Community (1996), editor of Recreating Japanese Women (California, 1991), and coeditor of Public Spheres, Private Lives (2005) and Japan and the World: Essays on Japanese History and Politics (1988).