Japan's Castles

'An exciting history of Japan from the Tokugawa period to the present, as seen through the lens of its castles. The book explores their shifting meaning within the context of Japan's drive to modernize, its militarism, construction of empire, wartime devastation, postwar recovery, and search for meaning in a postmodern world.' Constantine N. Vaporis, University of Maryland, Baltimore County 'In describing the life of Japanese castles, Benesch and Zwigenberg have taken an inherently interesting topic left unexplored by academics and given us a model of how to launch a new field of study with grace and aplomb. There is much here to satisfy students, scholars, and the interested public.' Michael Wert, Marquette University, Wisconsin 'Oleg Benesch and Ran Zwigenberg's Japan's Castles is a timely addition to the growing body of literature on historical memory and heritage in modern Japan ... this groundbreaking work will change the ways readers will look at castles during future visits ... this is a pioneering work that persuasively demonstrates the strengths of memory studies based on a methodological combination of field studies, archival research, and the analysis of a broad range of newspapers and periodicals. The increasing accessibility of such sources allows the contemporary historian to present a much more nuanced analysis than was possible in the past, and Benesch and Zwigenberg deserve the highest praise for having achieved this goal and for weaving the abundant information gathered together to produce a coherent, richly documented, and extremely stimulating volume.' Sven Saaler, The Journal of Asian Studies 'In this well-researched book, Benesch (Univ. of York) and Zwigenberg (Pennsylvania State Univ.) offer an in-depth historical look into the vicissitudes of Japanese castles in modern times ... this is a satisfying read!' Q. E. Wang, Choice