Japan Culture

by Christopher Harding (Author)
"Lucid and lyrical…a vivid history of Japan's turbocharged (and painful) modernization." —The Daily Telegraph

Alternate attendance (sankin kotai) was one of the central institutions of Edo-period (1603-1868) Japan and one of the most unusual examples of a system of enforced elite mobility in world history. It required the daimyo to divide their time between their domains and the city of Edo, where they waited upon the Tokugawa shogun. Based on a prodigious amount of research in both published and archival primary sources, Tour of Duty renders alternate attendance as a lived experience, for not only the daimyo but also the samurai retainers who accompanied them. Beyond exploring the nature of travel to and from the capital as well as the period of enforced bachelorhood there, Constantine Vaporis elucidates–for the first time–the significance of alternate attendance as an engine of cultural, intellectual, material, and technological exchange.

Be More Japan is a celebration of all things Japanese. You can take a look through popular sights and pick and choose what interests you to plan your perfect trip. Or take a trip through everything to get the full experience of Japan.

Learn Japanese in an incredibly simple, quick, and fun way while level upping your cultural knowhow of Japan (2 of 3)

Learn Japanese in an incredibly simple, quick, and fun way while level upping your cultural knowhow of Japan (3 of 3)