UWM Libraries Research and Course Guides: Honors 200: Samurai and Geisha: Understanding Japan: Find Scholarly Sources

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JSTOR
Provides access to journal articles, books, images, and primary sources. Contents include the Artstor image collection, archival and current scholarly journal content, and historical documents.
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Databases for Research in Japanese Studies

NDL (National Diet Library) Zasshi Kiji Sakuin
The NDL Zasshi Kiji Sakuin (雑誌記事索引) is a bibliographic database that provides detailed bibliographic information of many journals published in Japan and received d by the National Diet Library (NDL) from 1948 to present.
CiNii Research
CiNii is a database service for articles, Books, Journals & Dissertations published in academic society journals, university research bulletins or articles included in the National Diet Library's Japanese Periodicals Index Database or held by university libraries in Japan.
Japan Search
Japan Search is a national platform for aggregating metadata of digital resources of various fields and operated by the National Diet Library, Japan, in cooperation with a variety of organizations in Japan under policies established by the Working Group Steering Committee of the Digital Archives Japan Promotion Committee. Japan Search is now linked to 170 databases, and contains 25,327,385 searchable contents.
Kotenski Sogo Database
Provides access to the Waseda University Library’s collection of Japanese and Chinese classics, in the form of bibliographical information, related scholarly materials as well as full-text images. Includes approximately 300,000 items, including two National Treasures and five Important Cultural Properties.
Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB)
IRDB (Academic Institutional Repository Database: Institutional Repositories DataBase) is a database service that collects and provides metadata of contents registered in academic institutional repositories in Japan.
J-STAGE
J-STAGE is a platform for scholarly publications in Japan, developed and managed by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). J-STAGE aims to rapidly circulate research in science, technology, humanities and social sciences in Japan; strengthen the international dissemination of information from Japan to the rest of the world; promote the publication of open access content from Japan's academic societies and research organizations.
International Research Center for Japanese Studies
The International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) was founded in 1987. Devoted to interdisciplinary and comprehensive research on Japanese culture from an international perspective, it is an inter-university research institute supported by government funds.

Select Books from the Collection

Butterfly's Sisters: The Geisha in Western Culture by Yoko Kawaguchi
ISBN: 9780300115215
Publication Date: 2010-11-30
In this fascinating and wide-ranging book, Yoko Kawaguchi explores the Western portrayal of Japanese women-and geishas in particular-from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. She argues that in the West, Japanese women have come to embody certain ideas about feminine sexuality, and she analyzes how these ideas have been expressed in diverse art forms, ranging from fiction and opera to the visual arts and music videos.
The Gei of Geisha: Music, Identity and Meaning by Kelly M. Foreman
ISBN: 9780754658573
Publication Date: 2016-03-22
The Japanese geisha is an international icon, known almost universally as a symbol of traditional Japan. Numerous books exist on the topic, yet this is the first to focus on the 'gei' of geisha - the art that constitutes their title (gei translates as fine art, sha refers to person). The book elaborates how musical art is an essential part of the identity of the Japanese geisha rather than a secondary feature, and locates current practice within a tradition of two and half centuries. The book opens by deconstructing the idea of 'geisha' as it functions in Western societies in order to understand why gei has been, and continues to be, neglected in geisha studies.
Rivalry: A Geisha's Tale by Kafu Nagai; Stephen Snyder (Translator)
ISBN: 9780231141185
Publication Date: 2007-09-21
Originally published in 1918, Rivalry is regarded as the masterpiece of Nagai Kafu, a Japanese novelist known for his brilliant renderings of Tokyo in the early years of modern Japan. Stephen Snyder offers the first English translation of the complete, uncensored text, which has long been celebrated as one of the most convincing and sensually rich portraits of the geisha profession.
Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan by Karl F. Friday
ISBN: 9780415329620
Publication Date: 2003-12-29
his work incorporates nearly twenty years of on-going research and draws on both new readings of primary sources and the most recent secondary scholarship. It overturns many of the stereotypes that have dominated views of the period. Friday analyzes Heian -, Kamakura- and Nambokucho-period warfare from five thematic angles. He examines the principles that justified armed conflict, the mechanisms used to raise and deploy armed forces, the weapons available to early medieval warriors, the means by which they obtained them, and the techniques and customs of battle.A thorough, accessible and informative review, this study highlights the complex casual relationships among the structures and sources of early medieval political power, technology, and the conduct of war.
Religion of the Samurai: A Study of Zen Philosophy & Discipline in China & Japan by Kaiten Nukariya
ISBN: 9781138997233
Publication Date: 2016-01-20
Chapter I History of Zen in China; Chapter II History of Zen in Japan; Chapter III The Universe is the Scripture of Zen; Chapter IV Buddha, the Universal Spirit; Chapter V The Nature of Man; Chapter VI Enlightenment; Chapter VII Life; Chapter VIII The Training of the Mind and the Practice of Meditation;
Samurai Revolution: the dawn of modern Japan seen through the eyes of the shogun's last samurai by Romulus Hillsborough
ISBN: 9784805312353
Publication Date: 2014-03-25
Samurai Revolution tells the fascinating story of Japan's historic transformation at the end of the nineteenth century from a country of shoguns, feudal lords and samurai to a modern industrialized nation. The book covers the turbulent Meiji Period from 1868 to 1912, widely considered "the dawn of modern Japan," a time of Samurai history in which those who choose to cling to their traditional bushido way of life engaged in frequent and often deadly clashes with champions of modernization.
Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan, 1600-1868 by Matsunosuke Nishiyama; Gerald Groemer (Translator); Kazuo Nishiyama
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780824817367
Publication Date: 1997-03-01
Presents a selection of Edo scholar, Nishiyama Matsunosuke's writings that provide an introduction to Tokugawa cultural history and fill, daily life and diversions of the urban populace of the time.
Manga and the Representation of Japanese History by Roman Rosenbaum (Editor)
ISBN: 1136224246
Publication Date: 2012-10-02
This edited collection explores how graphic art and in particular Japanese manga represent Japanese history. The articles explore the representation of history in manga from disciplines that include such diverse fields as literary studies, politics, history, cultural studies, linguistics, narratology, and semiotics. Despite this diversity of approaches all academics from these respective fields of study agree that manga pose a peculiarly contemporary appeal that transcends the limitation imposed by traditional approaches to the study and teaching of history. Each of the articles in this book investigates the authorship of history by looking at various different attempts to render Japanese history through the popular cultural media of the story-manga.
Japanese Fighting Heroes: warriors, samurai and ronins by Jamie Ryder
ISBN: 9781399057066
Publication Date: 2024-04-21
Through a mix of essays, short stories and anecdotes, Japanese Fighting Heroes follows the lives of samurai, warriors, outliers and iconoclasts who forged their own paths. Legendary fighters like the demon-killing Minamoto no Yorimitsu, philosophising samurai;Miyamoto Musashi, and the One-Eyed Dragon, Creative heroes like the father of Japanese short stories, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the immortal poet, Ono no Komachi, the hilarious Sei Shonagon and her insight into human nature. Trailblazers who broke down barriers like the feminist Hiratsuka Raicho, the statesmanFukuzawa Yukichi, the photographic genius Hiroshi Hamaya. These Japanese folk heroes led fascinating lives that provide insight into our own through the principles and practices they lived by. They struggled with universal ideals of honour, duty, courage and kindness, helping them transcend their culture.