Categorie archieven: Japanse geschiedenis

Geschiedenisboeken, Japan, Japanse geschiedenis

Japanse geschiedenis boeken

Japanse geschiedenis boeken nieuwe boeken over de geschiedenis van Japan recensie, review en informatie. Welke nieuwe boeken over de geschiedenis van Japan verschijnen er? Waarover gaan de inhoud van de boeken? Wat zijn de beste boeken over de Japanse geschiedenis?

Japanse geschiedenis boeken

De geschiedenis van het Australië is voor velen boeiend en interessant. Niet vreemd dus dat er regelmatig boeiende boeken over de Australische geschiedenis verschijnen.

Wat zijn goede nieuwe boeken over de geschiedenis van Japan?

Hieronder is een overzicht samengesteld van nieuwe geschiedenisboeken over Japan. De indeling is op de datum van publicatie. Zowel Nederlandstalige als Engelse boeken zijn opgenomen.

Peter Mauch Tojo reviewTojo

The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Most Controversial World War II General

  • Auteur: Peter Rauch (Australië)
  • Soort boek: biografie, oorlogsgeschiedenis
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Belknap Press
  • Verschijnt: 3 maart 2026
  • Omvang: 496 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol
  • Inhoud boek: Over a career of some forty years, Tojo successfully launched himself into the highest echelons of political power. He was not only a tactical genius, Mauch shows, but also a savvy administrator, a fierce imperialist, and a deeply loyal advisor to the emperor. Tojo’s career took off with the notorious Kwantung Army in Manchuria, where he played a key role in escalating the Sino-Japanese War during the 1930s. As he rose through the ranks, becoming minister of war and then army chief of staff, he honed the efficiency of the Imperial Army and enhanced its influence within the emperor’s court…lees verder >

Gregory Smits The Ryukyu Islands reviewThe Ryukyu Islands

A New History from the Stone Age to the Present

  • Auteur: Gregory Smits (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek; geschiedenis van Okinawa en de Japanse Riukiu-eilanden
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: The University of Chicago Press
  • Verschijnt: 24 november 2025
  • Omvang: 464 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 35,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris
  • Inhoud boek: The first comprehensive history of the Ryukyu Islands region in English. The Ryukyu Islands between Japan and Taiwan consist of around 160 islands and are home to about 1.5 million inhabitants. Across the islands’ history, sea-lanes and trade patterns have connected them to the East China Sea region, giving them a unique vantage point on the region’s changes and making them a useful lens through which to view and understand those transformations…lees verder >

Eric C. Rath Kampai The History of Sake reviewKampai

The History of Sake

  • Auteur: Eric C. Rath (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: culinaire geschiedenis, Japanse geschiedenis
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Reaktion Books
  • Verschijnt: 1 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 352 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: £ 17,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris
  • Inhoud boek: Kanpai is the first history of sake in English, exploring its evolution from homebrew to flavoured varieties, its cultural significance and global rise, including its growing popularity and production in North America and Europe. The book also shows how sake has shaped Japanese food, society and traditions…lees verder >

Andrew W. Bernstein Fuji reviewFuji

A Mountain in the Making

  • Auteur: Andrew W. Berstein (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: geschiedenis van de berg Fuji in Japan
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Princeton University Press
  • Verschijnt: 23 september 2025
  • Omvang: 352 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 35.00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol
  • Inhoud boek: Mount Fuji is everywhere recognized as a wonder of nature and enduring symbol of Japan. Yet behind the picture-postcard image is a history filled with conflict and upheaval. Violent eruptions across the centuries wrought havoc and instilled fear. Long an object of worship, Fuji has been inhabited by deities that changed radically over time. It has been both a totem of national unity and a flashpoint for economic and political disputes. And while its soaring majesty has inspired countless works of literature and art, the foot of the mountain is home to military training grounds and polluting industries…lees verder >

Frederik Cryns In the Service of the Shogun reviewIn the Service of the Shogun

The Real Story of William Adams

  • Auteur: Frederik Cryns (België)
  • Soort boek: Japanse geschiedenis
  • Taal: Engesl
  • Uitgever: Reaktion Books
  • Verschijnt: 1 augustus 2025
  • Omvang: 232 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback / ebook
  • Prijs: £ 10,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris
  • Inhoud boek: In 1600 English helmsman William Adams washed ashore in Japan and was interrogated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan’s most powerful warlord and soon-to-be shogun. Far from executing Adams as a pirate, Ieyasu made him one of his most trusted advisers. This biography traces Adams’s rise from humble pilot to a position of immense influence in Japan’s foreign relations. It unravels the subsequent diplomatic manoeuvres of the Western powers in the shogun’s empire, and Adams’s eventual downfall…lees verder >

Takashi Nagai The Bells of Nagasaki reviewThe Bells of Nagasaki

Auteur: Takashi Nagai (Japan)

  • Soort boek: oorlogsverslag
  • Origineel: 長崎の鐘 (1946)
  • Engelse vertaling; William Johnston
  • Uitgever: Vintage Classics
  • Verschijnt: 31 juli 2025
  • Omvang: 192 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: £ 16,99 / £ 8,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris
  • Inhoud boek: Pulling himself, broken and bloodied, from the wreckage that was once the city’s university hospital, Takashi bundles together a tattered group of survivors. Doctors, nurses, students, each with their own losses, their own fears for the future: they work tirelessly at the impossible task of aiding the countless wounded and easing the deaths of those they cannot save. They remain determined to heal their fallen city, to find solace and hope among the rubble, even as a strange and growing sickness begins to claim them…lees verder >

Bijpassende boeken en informatie

Biografie, Japan, Japanse geschiedenis, Tweede Wereldoorlog

Peter Mauch – Tojo

Peter Mauch Tojo review, recensie en informatie biografie en boek over de opkomst en ondergang van Japans meest controversiële generaal uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Op 3 maart 2026 verschijnt bij Belknap Press de biografie van de berucht Japanse generaal Tojo, geschreven door Peter Mauch de Australische historicus. Een Nederlandse vertaling van het boek is niet verkrijgbaar.

Peter Mauch Tojo review en recensie

  • “A vital, brilliant book. This is sure to be seen as the definitive account of Hideki Tojo, the general who became an archenemy of the Allied forces and was eventually prosecuted as a war criminal on the world stage. Tojo is essential reading for all WWII history buffs, as well as anyone who wants to understand the role of politics and state violence in wartime Japan.” (Alex Kershaw, author of Patton’s Prayer: A True Story of Courage, Faith, and Victory in World War II)

Peter Mauch Tojo

Tojo

The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Most Controversial World War II General

  • Auteur: Peter Rauch (Australië)
  • Soort boek: biografie, oorlogsgeschiedenis
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Belknap Press
  • Verschijnt: 3 maart 2026
  • Omvang: 496 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol

Flaptekst van de biografie van de Japanse oorlogsgeneraal Tojo

The definitive biography of Hideki Tojo, the controversial general who redefined military leadership in Showa-era Japan before his downfall during World War II.

The military general who became Emperor Hirohito’s prime minister, Hideki Tojo is most often remembered as an iron-fisted leader who dragged Japan into World War II and—after spectacular losses—was eventually executed as a war criminal. Yet Tojo was far more than his ignominious end. In fact, as Peter Mauch argues, he was one of the twentieth century’s most accomplished military statesmen.

Over a career of some forty years, Tojo successfully launched himself into the highest echelons of political power. He was not only a tactical genius, Mauch shows, but also a savvy administrator, a fierce imperialist, and a deeply loyal advisor to the emperor. Tojo’s career took off with the notorious Kwantung Army in Manchuria, where he played a key role in escalating the Sino-Japanese War during the 1930s. As he rose through the ranks, becoming minister of war and then army chief of staff, he honed the efficiency of the Imperial Army and enhanced its influence within the emperor’s court. All the while, he deftly negotiated the fractious military rivalries that arose wherever he went. Brilliant, ambitious, and often ruthless, Tojo reached political heights that were perhaps matched only by his precipitous fall in the final months of World War II.

Layered and evocative, Tojo is at once a riveting military history of Showa-era Japan and a nuanced portrait of the relentless personality at its center.

Peter Mauch lectures in Asian History at Western Sydney University in Australia. He is the author of Sailor Diplomat: Nomura Kichisaburō and the Japanese-American War.

Bijpassende boeken en informatie

Amerikaanse historicus, Japan, Japanse geschiedenis

Andrew W. Bernstein – Fuji

Andrew W. Bernstein Fuji review, recensie en informatie boek over de beroemdste berg en vulkaan van Japan. Op 23 september 2025 verschijnt bij Princeton University Press het boek van Andrew W. Bernstein over de berg Fuji. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Andrew W. Bernstein Fuji review en recensie

  • “Andrew Bernstein has written an unusually comprehensive history of Mount Fuji. His scholarly engagement is wide-ranging, treating the reader to a remarkable array of approaches—from earth science and economics to poetry, art, and religion. The fruit of many years’ research, Fuji offers penetrating perspectives on a sacred volcano’s convulsive life.” (Kären Wigen, author of A Malleable Map: Geographies of Restoration in Central Japan, 1600–1912)
  • “A historical tour de force, this biography of Japan’s most famous mountain begins in distant geological times, moves across centuries of change in religious, economic, military, ideological, and environmental factors, and ends its admirably transdisciplinary account at the edge of the future. Kaleidoscopic, informative, beguiling, its essay-like chapters are also a pleasure to read.” (Carol Gluck, author of Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period)

Andrew W. Bernstein Fuji

Fuji

A Mountain in the Making

  • Auteur: Andrew W. Berstein (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: geschiedenis van de berg Fuji in Japan
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Princeton University Press
  • Verschijnt: 23 september 2025
  • Omvang: 352 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 35.00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol

Flaptekst van het boek over de berg Fuji in Japan

Mount Fuji is everywhere recognized as a wonder of nature and enduring symbol of Japan. Yet behind the picture-postcard image is a history filled with conflict and upheaval. Violent eruptions across the centuries wrought havoc and instilled fear. Long an object of worship, Fuji has been inhabited by deities that changed radically over time. It has been both a totem of national unity and a flashpoint for economic and political disputes. And while its soaring majesty has inspired countless works of literature and art, the foot of the mountain is home to military training grounds and polluting industries. Tracing the history of Fuji from its geological origins in the remote past to its recent inscription as a World Heritage Site, Andrew Bernstein explores these and other contradictions in the story of the mountain, inviting us to reflect on the relationships we share with the nonhuman world and one another.

Beautifully illustrated, Fuji presents a rich portrait of one of the world’s most celebrated sites, revealing a mountain forever in the making and offering a meditation on the ability of landscape both to challenge and inspire.

Andrew W. Bernstein is professor of history at Lewis & Clark College and the author of Modern Passings: Death Rites, Politics, and Social Change in Imperial Japan.

Bijpassende boeken

Biografie, Geschiedenisboeken, Japan, Japanse geschiedenis

Frederik Cryns – In the Service of the Shogun

Frederik Cryns In the Service of the Shogun review, recensie en informatie boek en biografie met ware verhaal van William Adams. Op 1 augustus 2025 verschijnt bij Reaktion Books het boek van de Vlaamse historicus, Japankenner hoogleraar Japanse geschiedenis aan het International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar van het boek.

Frederik Cryns In the Service of the Shogun review en recensie

  • “In the Service of the Shogun . . . is an exhaustively researched work based on a wide collection of primary sources, including letters written by Adams, as well as official journals, diaries and documents – among them Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. Students of Japanese history and culture owe Mr. Cryns a debt of gratitude for this impressive achievement.” (Wall Street Journal)
  • “In the Service of the Shogun, a biography by Frederik Cryns subtitled as The Real Story of William Adams. Most readers know Adams as the inspiration for James Clavell’s novel Shogun. Adams’s experiences are such that one wonders why Clavell even bothered fictionalizing them: Five ships set off from Holland in 1598, but after 19 months at sea, only one ship remained and only nine men survived to set foot on Japanese soil. Arrested as pirates and sentenced to death, Adams somehow rose to be a trusted advisor of military leader Tokugawa Ieyasu.” (Japan Times)

Frederik Cryns In the Service of the Shogun

In the Service of the Shogun

The Real Story of William Adams

  • Auteur: Frederik Cryns (België)
  • Soort boek: Japanse geschiedenis
  • Taal: Engesl
  • Uitgever: Reaktion Books
  • Verschijnt: 1 augustus 2025
  • Omvang: 232 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback / ebook
  • Prijs: £ 10,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek over William Adams, een Engelsman in dienst van de Shogun

The extraordinary story of William Adams, the real-life inspiration for the TV series Shōgun.

In 1600 English helmsman William Adams washed ashore in Japan and was interrogated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan’s most powerful warlord and soon-to-be shogun. Far from executing Adams as a pirate, Ieyasu made him one of his most trusted advisers. This biography traces Adams’s rise from humble pilot to a position of immense influence in Japan’s foreign relations. It unravels the subsequent diplomatic manoeuvres of the Western powers in the shogun’s empire, and Adams’s eventual downfall.

This is the first full biography of Adams based on original Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese sources, and includes much previously unknown information. Frederik Cryns tells the authentic story of Adams’s chequered life in its historical context, taking us on a compelling journey into Adams’s complex inner feelings and cosmopolitan heart.

Frederik Cryns was born in Antwerp, Belgium. He is Professor of Japanese History at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan. He is the author of several bestselling books in Japanese on the early interaction of the Western world with Japan. In addition to his academic work, Frederik appears regularly on Japanese television history programmes and supervised the historical aspects of the television series Shōgun (2024).

Bijpassende boeken

Amerikaanse historicus, Japan, Japanse geschiedenis

Gregory Smits – The Ryukyu Islands

Gregory Smits The Ryukyu Islands review, recensie en informatie boek over de geschiedenis van Okinawa en de Japanse Riukiu-eilanden van de steentijd tot het heden. Op 24 november 2025 verschijnt bij The University of Chicago Press het boek van Gregory Smits de Amerikaanse historicus en professor Aziatische Studies aan de Penn State Universiteit over de geschiedenis van de Riukiu-eilanden. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Gregory Smits The Ryukyu Islands review en recensie

  • “The Ryukyu Islands is well researched, insightful, and informative. With an accessible prose style, it is a perfect book for scholars focused on Okinawan/Ryukyuan history, but it will also be of interest to anyone exploring Japanese history and East Asia.” (Mark McNally, University of Hawaii at Manoa)
  • “The Ryukyu Islands is one of the most outstanding monographs on the history of Okinawa. Smits not only engages with, but also challenges squarely, the canonical texts and established understanding of Ryukyu and Okinawa. Relevant both academically and at the current historical and political juncture, Smits’s book will surely be celebrated as his magnum opus.” “Shinnosuke Takahashi, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)

Gregory Smits The Ryukyu Islands

The Ryukyu Islands

A New History from the Stone Age to the Present

  • Auteur: Gregory Smits (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: geschiedenis van Okinawa en de Japanse Riukiu-eilanden
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: The University of Chicago Press
  • Verschijnt: 24 november 2025
  • Omvang: 464 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 35,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek over de geschiedenis van Okinawa en de Riukiu-eilanden

The first comprehensive history of the Ryukyu Islands region in English.

The Ryukyu Islands between Japan and Taiwan consist of around 160 islands and are home to about 1.5 million inhabitants. Across the islands’ history, sea-lanes and trade patterns have connected them to the East China Sea region, giving them a unique vantage point on the region’s changes and making them a useful lens through which to view and understand those transformations.

In this book, Gregory Smits marshals his expertise to canvass the environmental, political, and social history of this fascinating area, emphasizing the diversity of influences from China, Japan, and Korea that have shaped it. Smits begins by tracing the islands’ early history from the time of the oldest extant human remains, through massive inflows of settlers from Japan, until the emergence of a centralized state in the sixteenth century. He then traces the development of the Ryukyu Kingdom from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, examining its major cultural formations and the interplay of local and external influences driving its evolution. Finally, Smits ushers readers to the modern era, from the end of the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1879 through World War II, the era of American military control, and on to the present. He concludes with their present-day status as a tourist destination affected by ongoing geopolitical, economic, and environmental challenges. Synthesizing decades of research, this book is an indispensable, comprehensive guide to the islands’ history for scholars and nonspecialists alike.

Gregory Smits is professor of history and Asian Studies at Penn State University. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, Early Ryukyuan History: A New Model.

Bijpassende boeken

Culinaire boeken, Japan, Japanse geschiedenis

Eric C. Rath – Kampai The History of Sake

Eric C. Rath Kampai The History of Sake recensie, review en informatie boek over de geschiedenis Japanse drank en de betekenis voor het land. Op 1 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Reaktion Books het boek van de Amerikaanse professor Eric C. Rath over de geschiedenis van de sterke drank uit Japan. Een Nederlandse vertaling van het boek is niet verkrijgbaar.

Eric C. Rath Kampai The History of Sake recensie en review

  • “Japan’s national beverage has achieved global renown, but its origins and practices are still shrouded in mystery. For those who want to learn more about sake, there can be no better guide than Eric C. Rath. This authoritative and entertaining book leads us from the drinking games of medieval samurai to the rope curtains of modern izakaya.” (Jeffrey M. Pilcher, University of Toronto)

Eric C. Rath Kampai The History of Sake

Kampai

The History of Sake

  • Auteur: Eric C. Rath (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: culinaire geschiedenis, Japanse geschiedenis
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Reaktion Books
  • Verschijnt: 1 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 352 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: £ 17,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek over de geschiedenis van Sake, de drank uit Japan

Explores the evolution, history, cultural significance and global rise of Japan’s national drink.

Sake, Japan’s iconic rice-based alcoholic drink, has been central to Japanese culture for over 1,300 years. Traditionally made with rice, water and kōji mould, it was consumed in early brewpubs and was vital to samurai rituals and festivals. Sake’s story includes homebrewers like clan matriarchs, ancient princes and modern political activists who defied laws to keep homebrewing alive. Temples refined sake-making techniques, laying the foundation for a thriving industry that became a major economic force for shoguns and the modern state.

Kanpai is the first history of sake in English, exploring its evolution from homebrew to flavoured varieties, its cultural significance and global rise, including its growing popularity and production in North America and Europe. The book also shows how sake has shaped Japanese food, society and traditions.

Eric C. Rath is Professor of History at the University of Kansas. His books include Oishii: The History of Sushi (Reaktion Books, 2021).

Bijpassende boeken en informatie