Kenji KODAMA Assistant Professor (Research fellowship-PD)

Kenji KODAMA
Assistant Professor (Research fellowship-PD)

Researchmap

• Institute for Advanced Academic Research / Graduate School of Humanities

• Keywords

  Government of the Shogunate, Village community, Status system

• Professional Memberships

  The Historical Science Society of Japan, Association of Historical Science, Association for the Study of Popular History in Asia

Research Theme

Government of the Shogunate and village community in Tokugawa Japan

Abstract

Modern Japanese society has inherited many of the social systems, lifestyles, culture, and industries that were shaped in the Early Modern period (Tokugawa period). On the other hand, there are many aspects of early modern society that differ greatly from modern society in terms of the structure of the status system. One of the significances of studying Japanese early modern history is to carefully grasp the social changes (continuity and discontinuity) from the early modern period to the present day, and to ascertain the position of those who live in the present.

In particular, I am studying how the nature of shogunate politics, and the cooperativity of villages and local communities changed in relation to each other in the late modern period, when the economy developed, and the status system was considered to be threatened. I will analyze old documents left behind in villages to interpret these changes, using the Kanto region as a case study.