A Social History of Literacy in Japan

Richard Rubinger has a PhD in Japanese studies from Columbia University and is a full professor at Indiana University. He has published numerous articles and chapters in books on his specialty: the history of Japanese literacy and education. He is also an experienced translator having translated the work of Motoyama Yukihiko with Jurgis Elisonas and others and Siebold’s Daughter, a translation of Yoshimura Akira’s Fuon Shiihoruto no musume.

List of Contributors; Preface to the English Edition; Chapter 1: Estimating Literacy in Pre-Modern Japan, by Kimura Masanobu (translated by Richard Rubinger); Chapter 2: “'Illiteracy”' Among Heian Period Aristocrats, by Suzuki Rie (translated by Richard Rubinger); Chapter 3: Learning and Literacy Among Ikkō Ikki Adherents, by Ohto Yasuhiro (translated by Richard Rubinger); Chapter 4: Literacy and Orality in Support of Christian Beliefs in Early Modern Japan, by Kimura Masanobu (translated by Richard Rubinger); Chapter 5: Personal Marks and Literacy Among Early-Modern Japanese Farmers, by Umemura Kayo (translated by Richard Rubinger); Chapter 6: Literacy in Early Modern Wakasa and Echizen Regions, by Yakuwa Tomohiro (translated by David Nelson); Chapter 7: Education of Provincial Merchants in Early Modern Aizu: Evidence from the Keiseikan Diary, by Ohta Motoko (translated by Charles Andrews); Chapter 8: Literacy in Ozenji Village in the Early Nineteenth Century, by Ohto Yasuhiro (translated by Gregory Johnson); Chapter 9: Early Meiji Literacy: The Case of Wakayama Prefecture, by Kawamura Hajime (translated by Terence Jackson).