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Product Identifiers

PublisherColumbia University Press

ISBN-100231158548

ISBN-139780231158541

eBay Product ID (ePID)117312797

Product Key Features

Number of Pages280 Pages

Publication NameImperial Concubine's Tale : Scandal, Shipwreck, and Salvation in Seventeenth-Century Japan

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2012

SubjectAsia / Japan, Religious, Women's Studies, Modern / 17th Century

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaSocial Science, Biography & Autobiography, History

AuthorG. G. Rowley

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.9 in

Item Weight18.1 Oz

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width6.5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2012-006493

Dewey Edition23

Reviews...A fresh, detailed engagement--simultaneously biographical, historical, and literary--with the lives of a court family that survived a tumultous age of war and exile., Impressive and highly readable... Rowley's achievement is to produce a brilliantly realized depiction of the world around Nakako and as such the book should be of interest to anyone interested in the early Tokugawa period, the nature of court culture in Japan or Japanese literary culture., An exciting account... does not disappoint... The rich content of this book will appeal to a wide range of readers. This is simply history at its best, rigorously researched and engagingly told., Ambitious... As an accessible and pleasurable read, this book is recommended to scholars, across disciplines and periods, grappling with the problem of constructing a narrative out of limited historical sources., Even without the advantage of a single word written by the subject herself, Rowley has depicted about as full a portrait as anyone could of this remarkable life. The result is a valuable contribution to the history of women at the turn of the seventeenth century in Japan., An Imperial Concubine's Tale is a most welcome contribution to our understanding of the lives of women in early modern Japan., A lyrical portrayal of a concubine whose life resonates with Japan's cultural heritage as well as its historical background.

TitleLeadingAn

Grade FromCollege Graduate Student

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal952/.025092 B

Table Of ContentList of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction 1. A Courtier's Life, in and out of the World 2. The Year 1600: A World Again at War 3. At the Court of the Dragon 4. Scandal 5. The Tale of Kazan 6. Shipwreck 7. The Long Reprieve 8. Salvation Epilogue Principal Characters Glossary Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

SynopsisJapan in the early seventeenth century was a wild place. Serial killers stalked the streets of Kyoto at night, while noblemen and women mingled freely at the imperial palace, drinking sak and watching kabuki dancing in the presence of the emperor's principal consort. Among these noblewomen was an imperial concubine named Nakanoin Nakako, who in 1609 became embroiled in a sex scandal involving both courtiers and young women in the emperor's service. As punishment, Nakako was banished to an island in the Pacific Ocean, but she never reached her destination. Instead, she was shipwrecked and spent fourteen years in a remote village on the Izu Peninsula before she was finally allowed to return to Kyoto. In 1641, Nakako began a new adventure: she entered a convent and became a Buddhist nun. Recounting the remarkable story of this resilient woman and her war-torn world, G. G. Rowley investigates aristocratic family archives, village storehouses, and the records of imperial convents. She follows the banished concubine as she endures rural exile, receives an unexpected reprieve, and rediscovers herself as the abbess of a nunnery. While unraveling Nakako's unusual tale, Rowley also reveals the little-known lives of samurai women who sacrificed themselves on the fringes of the great battles that brought an end to more than a century of civil war. Written with keen insight and genuine affection, An Imperial Concubine's Tale tells the true story of a woman's extraordinary life in seventeenth-century Japan., Japan in the early seventeenth century was a wild place. Serial killers stalked the streets of Kyoto at night, while noblemen and women mingled freely at the imperial palace, drinking saké and watching kabuki dancing in the presence of the emperor's principal consort. Among these noblewomen was an imperial concubine named Nakanoin Nakako, who in 1609 became embroiled in a sex scandal involving both courtiers and young women in the emperor's service. As punishment, Nakako was banished to an island in the Pacific Ocean, but she never reached her destination. Instead, she was shipwrecked and spent fourteen years in a remote village on the Izu Peninsula before she was finally allowed to return to Kyoto. In 1641, Nakako began a new adventure: she entered a convent and became a Buddhist nun. Recounting the remarkable story of this resilient woman and her war-torn world, G. G. Rowley investigates aristocratic family archives, village storehouses, and the records of imperial convents. She follows the banished concubine as she endures rural exile, receives an unexpected reprieve, and rediscovers herself as the abbess of a nunnery. While unraveling Nakako's unusual tale, Rowley also reveals the little-known lives of samurai women who sacrificed themselves on the fringes of the great battles that brought an end to more than a century of civil war. Written with keen insight and genuine affection, An Imperial Concubine's Tale tells the true story of a woman's extraordinary life in seventeenth-century Japan.

LC Classification NumberDS872.N35R68 2012