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Defining Engagement: Japan and Global Contexts, 1640–1868

u. Here, though, I wondered how a fuller consideration of the ‘scurrilous limericks’ (269) mentioned in passing might inflect further or trouble the book’s arguments about diverse styles of inscription. My impression was that compared to the swords and mirrors exhumed in part one of the book, the ‘ephemeral everyday materials’ (267) upon which vernacular phonographs were scribbled proved infelicitously literary for the schema of this penultimate chapter, as idiosyncrasies of practice, pleasure, and play unnerved the fixities of hard fact. In its forceful repudiation of phonographically oriented and kana-centric accounts of the development of Japanese, Realms expands considerably our understanding of writing’s cultural function in pre-modern Asia. While I can’t speak to the disciplines of linguistics, archaeology, or the comparative history of writing, there is to my mind no doubt that Realms will exert a powerful influence within the field of pre-modern Japanese studies. It represents a substantial, stimulating addition to the relative paucity of monographs in English dealing with pre-Heian Japan. Realms will become required reading for literature and history students of the Nara and Heian periods, in particular, and will likely also appeal to scholars in Chinese studies, archaeology, epigraphy, and linguistics. Through its thorough exploration of early Japanese inscription, Realms sets out to transform current understandings of writing’s history both within and beyond the domain of Japanese studies. Given the quality of scholarship the book demonstrates, it seems poised to fulfill this promise.