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Book Review: Geographies of identity in nineteenth-century Japan

This important book examines changes in conceptions of identity at the individual and countrywide level in the nineteenth century during Japan's transition from the early modern to the modern period. In the early modern period (1603-1868), an individual's identity was a function of occupation, which was determined largely by heredity, and served to demarcate one's place in the status system established by the Tokugawa military regime. The status system functioned to allow the small number of samurai to be sustained by the larger population of commoners, most of whom were tax-paying peasants. These status groups, though separated from each other by sumptuary laws, shared customs (fuzoku) such as hairstyle which collectively set them apart as 'civilized' in contrast to the 2-3 per cent of the population of 'outcasts', historically discriminated groups within Japan who engaged in polluting occupations, and 'barbarian' peoples on Japan's geographical periphery including the Ainu of Hokkaido and the Ryukyu Islanders. Howell traces the effects of the dismantling of the status system in the Meiji period (1868-1912), shedding light on the popular violence perpetrated against the newly emancipated outcasts. The Meiji regime redefined civilized behaviour by rigorously enforcing new customs such as short hair, which it derived from its observation of Western society, in its attempts to create a modern, unified citizenry. Japan, which had once premised its relations with the Ainu and Ryukyu Islanders on cultural differences, now sought to expunge those differences as it claimed direct territorial control over Hokkaido and Okinawa. The actions of the Meiji government to try to erase Ainu culture in its efforts to equate Japanese ethnicity with a national identity has as its legacy the mindset of the contemporary state, which recognizes only Japanese ethnicity as having any political meaning, fostering the notion thatJapan is a homogeneous country despite the existence of other ethnic groups within it (p. 203). David Howell presents a compelling argument for the role of institutions in naturalizing customs that become integral to perceptions of one's place within society and the world. Howell introduces several fascinating characters from the Ainu and outcast communities to put his argument in human terms; his analysis is based on primary research and a comprehensive survey of secondary literature, especially on the topics of discriminated groups and the Ainu. This book is certain to be a reference for