Books

Kazue Morisaki is a pioneer of women's history in Japan. Around the same time, Tomoko Yamazaki, who sought Morisaki's advice in researching Karayuki-san, became the darling of the times when she wrote "Sandakan Hachi-ban Shokan" (The Eighth Brothel of Sandakan), as a history of women on the bottom, which was awarded the Oya Soichi Non-Fiction Prize, but it was Kazue Morisaki's work that was overwhelmingly favoured by scholars. What is the difference between the public's and the researcher's evaluation? The following is a reading of a series of Morisaki's works, including "Karayuki-san".

Before the Meiji era, the production of sugar cane, the raw material for sugar, was very low in the Japanese territory. Sugar was traded at a high price and sweets made from sugar were a luxury that ordinary people could not afford to taste. The author, a descendant of the king of Ryukyu, explores the rich finances of the Satsuma Clan, which were created by sugar from the Amami-oshima Islands, and looks at the origins of the Meiji Restoration.

A huge wave of westernisation hit Japan at the end of the Edo period and the Meiji period. Surveying technology, which was also essential for understanding the country's land, had to rely on hired foreigners from the West. This book traces the footsteps of McVean, who was appointed chief surveyor by the Meiji Government, using newly discovered historical documents. The book also provides an insight into McVean's achievements, which have not been revealed until now.

This book introduces in all-colour the 'Wakozukan' in the collection of Historiographical Institute The University of Tokyo and the 'Kouwazukan (Kang wo tu juan)' and 'Taihei kowazu (Taiping kang wo tu' in the collection of the National Museum of China. The results of infrared photography with the latest high definition digital cameras identify the contents depicted. Are the depicted Japanese pirates really true?

During the Age of Discovery, Western ships often visited the seas of Asia. Spain established the galleon trade between Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco in Mexico. A number of Asian goods were brought to the West through the trade. Focusing on ceramics, this book looks at the reality of this trade. What emerges from this?

Suzuki shoten rose to become one of the world's leading trading companies in the Taisho era. Although the company went bankrupt in the early Showa era, but its DNA was inherited by Nissho Iwai (now Sojitz corporation), Kobe Steel, Teijin and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (now IHI) ....... Novelist Saburo Shiroyama unmasks the evil image that was created. This is where the novelist's interviewing skills come into play.

Seicho Matsumoto, Japan's proud master of social mystery novels, depicts a governmental corruption over sugar import quotas. A spectacular corruption case unfolds at a time of rapid economic growth in Japan. How does it all end?

This book reveals the truth about Japanese monks' voyage to China, which is not written in textbooks. Sea traders, who are replacing Kento-shi (missions to Tang China), take the monks to China. What changes in the means of voyage to China brought about in the monks' activities in China? Longer time reveals East Asian exchanges through the East China Sea. And it makes us think about the framework of historical research.

This book is a history of ceramics in Japan from the perspective of art history. An overview of more than 10,000 years, from the Jomon period to the contemporary one, is shown. What does art history discover about the history of ceramics?