A History of Japan: From Mythology to Nationhood/Bibliography

Books on Japan

If just want to read up on some more Japanese history there are some good books here. For further reading there are some good articles on Wikipedia, which might just be worth a look. If you are serious about Japanese History, or simply want to learn another language, there are some good Japanese lessons here. It may just be worth knowing what the Kanji mean so you can get some literal meaning out of place names etc. For further reading I also recommend you visit some other books on Wikibooks which overlap with this book slightly, such as the book on World War II which has more context on Japan's place within History as a wider topic.

Yamato

Allen, C 2003, 'The Empress Jingu', Japan Forum 15 3 81-98
Aoki, M. Y. 1971, Izumo Fudoki,(Tokyo : Sophia University)
Gardiner, K 1964, The Origin and rise of the Korean kingdom of Koguryo from the first century BC to 313 AD London University doctoral dissertation
Gardiner, K 1969, The Early History of Korea (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press)
Han, W K 1970, The History of Korea (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press)
Hatada, Takahashi 1969, A History of Korea (Santa Barbara: Clio Press
Kiley, C. J. 1969, 'A note on the surnames of immigrant officials in Nara Japan', Harvard Journal of Asian Studies 29:177-189
Kiley, C. J. 1973, 'State and dynasty in archaic Yamato', Journal of Asian Studies 33:25-49
Kiley, C. J. 1977, 'Uji and kabane in ancient Japan', Monumenta Nipponica 32:365-376
Kim, Song­ho 1985, 'Origins of the Japanese polity: a textual reconsideration of the horse­rider theory', Korea Journal 25.12:4-23
Kirkland, J. R. 1981, 'The horseriders in Korea: a critical evaluation of a historical theory', Korean Studies 5:109-128
Kito, K. 1995, 'Some questions concerning ancient Japanese history: with reference to state theory', Acta Asiatica 69: 1-13

Murayama, S & Miller, R. A. 1979, 'The Inariyama Tumulus sword inscription', Journal of Japanese Studies 5:405 438
Tsude, H. 1992, 'The Kofun period and state formation', Acta Asiatica 63:64­86
Tsude, H. 1990, 'Chiefly lineages in Kofun period Japan: political relations between centre and region, Antiquity 64:923-31
Tsunoda, R. &Goodrich, L. C. 1951, Japan in the Chinese dynastic histories (Perkins, South Pasadena)
Vargo, Lars 1982, Social and Economic Conditions for the Formation of the Early Japanese State (Stockholm: Stockholm University Japanological Studies 1)

Anselmo, Valerio 1974, "http://www.corea.it/kudara_1.htm" The Etymology of Kudara

Nara

Aoki M Y 1971, Izumo Fudoki, Monumenta Nipponica Monographs, Tokyo
Aoki M Y 1997, Records of wind and earth: a translation of Fudoki, with introduction and commentaries Association for Asian Studies, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Asakawa K 1903, The early institutional life of Japan: a study in the reform of 645 AD Shueisha, Tokyo
Batten, B. L. 1986, 'Foreign Threat and domestic reform: the emergence of the Ritsuryo state', Monumenta Nipponica 41: 199-219
Batten, B. L. 1993, 'Provincial administration in early Japan: from Ritsuryo kokka to Ocho kokka', Harvard Journal of Asian Studies 53: 103-134
Beasley, W. G. and Pullyblank, E. G. 1961, Historians of China and Japan, Oxford University Press, Oxford
Bender, R. 1979, 'The Hachiman cult and the Dokyo incident', Monumenta Nipponica 34: 125-153
Bentley, J. R. 2002, Historiographical trends in early Japan, Edwin Mellen Press
Brownlee, J. S. 1991, Political thought in Japanese historical writing: from Kojiki (712) to Tokushi Yoron (1712), Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, Ontario
Coaldrake, W. H. 1991, 'City planning and palace architecture in the creation of the Nara political order: the accommodation of place and purpose at Heijo-kyo', EAH : 37:54
Como, M. 2007, 'Horses, dragons, and disease in Nara Japan', JJRS 34: 395-415
Farris, W. W. 1985, Population, disease, and land in early Japan, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massichusetts
Farris, W. W. 1992, Heavenly warriors: the evolution of Japan's military, 500-1300, Council of East Asian Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Farris, W. W. 1998, Sacred texts and buried treasures: issues in the historical archaeology of ancient Japan, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu
Farris, W. W. 2007, 'Pieces in a puzzle: changing approaches to the Shosoin documents', Monumenta Nipponica 62: 397-435
Friday, K. F. 1997, 'Pushing beyond the pale: the Yamato conquest of the Emishi and Northern Japan', Journal of Japanese Studies 23: 1-24
Funke, M. C. 1994, 'Hitachi no kuni fudoki', Monumenta Nipponica 49: 1-29
Hall, John W. 1966, Government and local power in Japan, 500-1700. A study based on Bizen Province, Princeton University Press, Princeton
Holcombe, C. 1997, 'The administrative state in early imperial China and Japan', Studies in Chinese History 5: 7-44
Holcombe, C. 1997 'Ritsuryo Confucianism', Harvard Journal of Asian Studies 57: 543-574
Holcombe, C. 1999, 'Trade-buddhism: maritime trade, immigration, and the Buddhist landfall in early Japan', JAOS 119: 280-292
Inoue Mitsusada 1977 'The Ritsuryo system in Japan', AA 31: 83-112
Ishigami E. 1995 'State and society in ancient Japan', AA 69: 14-38
Ishii R. 1980, A history of political institutions in Japan, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo
Kamstra, J. H. 1967, Encounter of syncretism; the initial growth of Japanese Buddhism, E.J.Brill, Leiden
Kiley, Cornelius J. 1969, 'A note on the surnames of immigrant officials in Nara Japan', Harvard Journal of Asian Studies 29: 177-189
Kiley, Cornelius J. 1973, 'State and dynasty in archaic Yamato', Journal of Asian Studies 33: 25-49
Kiley, Cornelius J. 1977, 'Uji and kabane in ancient Japan', Journal of Japanese Studies 7: 1-21
Kito K. 1995, 'Some questions concerning ancient Japanese history: with reference to state theory', AA 69: 1-13
Kornicki, P. F. and McMullen, I. J. 1996, Religion in Japan: arrows to heaven and earth, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Kuroda T. 1981, 'Shinto in the history of Japanese religion', Journal of Japanese Studies 7: 1-21
Miller, R. J. 1974, Ancient Japanese nobility: the kabane ranking system, University of California Press, Berkeley
Miller, R. J. 1978, Japan's first bureaucracy, East Asian Papers number 19, Cornell University Press
Obayashi T. 1985, 'Uji society and Ie society from prehistory to medieval times', Journal of Japanese Studies 11: 3-27
Okada S. 1983, 'The development of state ritual in ancient Japan', AA 51: 22-41
Pearson, R. J. 1976, 'The contribution of archaeology to Japanese studies', Journal of Japanese Studies 2: 305-333
Piggott, J. R. 1989, 'Sacred kingship and confederacy in early Izumo', Monumenta Nipponica 44: 45-74
Piggott, J. R. 1990, 'Mokkan: wooden documents from the Nara period', Monumenta Nipponica 45: 449-470
Piggott, J. R. 1997, The emergence of Japanese kingship, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto
Piggott, J. R. 2006, Capital and countryside in Japan, 300-1180: Japanese historians interpreted in English, Cornell East Asia Series
Pollack, D. 1986, The fracture of meaning: Japan's synthesis of China from the eighth through the eighteenth centuries, Princeton University Press, Princeton
Sakamoto T. 1991, The six national histories of Japan, translated by J. S. Brownlee, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver
Sato M. 1995, 'The wooden tablets (mokkan) of ancient Japan', AA 69: 84-117
Takeuchi Rizo 1988, 'Documents of local administration in the Nara period. The Household Registers and the Tax Registers', in A. Forte Tang China and beyond: studies on East Asia from the Seventh to the Tenth Century, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Kyoto
Tamura E. 1985, 'Japan and the eastward permeation of Buddhism', AA 47: 1-30
Toby, R. P. 1993, 'Why leave Nara? Kammu and the transfer of the capital, Monumenta Nipponica 40: 331-347
Tsuboi K. 1992, 'The excavation of ancient parlances and capitals', AA 63: 87-98
Tsuboi K. and Tanaka M. 1991, The Historic City of Nara: An Archaeological Approach, The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, Tokyo
Tsurumi E. P. 1982, 'The male present vs the female past: historians and Japan's ancient female emperors', BCAS 14.4: 71-75
Wada A. 1995, 'The origins of Ise shrine', AA 69: 63-83
Yasuda Y. 1976, 'The decline of the Ritsuryo system: hypothesis on economic and institutional change', Journal of Japanese Studies, 1: 3-37

The Early Heian Period

There is a surprising shortage of material on the Heian period in English. Most of the important literary works have been translated and can be used as entry points into the lives of aristocrats. The early Heian period is particularly poorly served, mainly because the sources are sparse, leaving little for the historian to investigate. In the middle Heian and after diaries and other forms of unofficial writing become available, but that only begins to appear near the end of the time covered here. For the early Heian almost everything depends on squeezing information from the surviving official record.

Adolphson, M., Kamens, E, & Matsumoto, S(eds.) 2007, Heian Japan, centers and peripheries (Honolulu: Hawai’i University Press)

Asakawa, K. 1929, The documents of Iriki (Yale University Press; reprinted by Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1974)

Asakawa, K. 1965, Land and society in medieval Japan (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo)

Batten. B. L. 2005, Gateway to Japan: Hakata in war and peace, 500-1300 (University of Hawai’i Press)

Bialock, D. T. 2007, Eccentric spaces, hidden histories: narrative, ritual, and royal authority from The Chronicles of Japan to The Tale of the Heike (Stanford University Press)

Bock, F. G. 1970-72, The Engi-Shiki: Procedures of the Engi Era, 2 vols, MN Monographs (Sophia University, Tokyo)

Borgen, R. S. 1986, Sugawara no Michizane and the early Heian court (Harvard University Press)

Adolphson, M. S. 2006, The teeth and claws of the Buddha: monastic warriors and Sohei in Japanese history (University of Hawai’i Press)

Brownlee, J. S. 1991, Political thought in Japanese historical writing: from Kojiki (712) to Tokushi yoron (1712) (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press)

Carter, S. D. 1996, Regent redux: a life of the statesman-scholar Ichijo Kaneyoshi (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, the University of Michigan)

Cobbing, A. 2009, Kyushu: Gateway to Japan (Folkestone: Global Oriental)

Farris, W. W. 1985, Population, disease, and land in early Japan (Harvard University Press)

Farris, W. W. 1992, Heavenly warriors: the evolution of Japan's military, 500-1300 (Cambridge, Mass.: Council of East Asian Studies, Harvard University)

Friday, K. 1992, Hired swords: the rise of private warrior power in early Japan (Stanford University Press)

Grapard, A. G. 1992, The protocol of the gods: a study of the Kasuga cult in Japanese history (Berkeley: University of California Press)

Hall, John. Whitney. 1966, Government and local power in Japan, 500-1700. A study based on Bizen Province (Princeton University Press ) Hempel, R. 1983, The Heian civilization of Japan (Oxford: Phaidon)

Hurst, G. Cameron 1976, Insei: abdicated sovereigns in the politics of late Heian Japan, 1086-1185 (New York: Columbia University Press)

Ishii, R. 1980, A history of political institutions in Japan (University of Tokyo Press)

Kornicki, P. F. 1998, The book in Japan: a cultural history from the beginnings to the nineteenth century (Leiden: Brill)

Morris, Ivan 1964, The world of the Shining Prince (Oxford University Press)

Mostow, J. S. 2004, At the house of gathered leaves: Shorter biographical and autobiographical narratives from Japanese court liberature (University of Hawai’i Press)

Piggott, J. R. (ed.) 2006, Capital and countryside in Japan, 300-1180: Japanese historians interpreted in English (Cornell East Asia Series)

Pollack, D. 1986, The fracture of meaning: Japan's synthesis of China from the eighth through the eighteenth centuries (Princeton University Press)

Rabinovitch, J. N.. 1986, Shomonki: the story of Masakado's rebellion, MN Monographs (Sophia University)

Reischauer, Edwin O. 1955a, Ennin's diary, the record of a Pilgrimage to China in search of the law (Ronald Press, NY)

Reischauer, Edwin O. 1955b, Ennin's travels in Tang China (Ronald Press, NY) Sakamoto, T> 1991, The six national histories of Japan, trans. J. S. Brownlee (Vancouver: UBC Press; University of Tokyo Press)

von Verschuer, C. 2006, Across the Perilous Sea: Japanese Trade with China and Korea from the Seventh to the Sixteenth Centuries, trans K. L. Hunter (Cornell East Asia Series)

Wallace, J. R. 2005, Objects of discourse: memoirs by women of Heian Japan (Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan)

Wilson, W. R. 1971, Hôgen monogatari: tale of the disorder in Hogen (Sophia University Press)