Authorizing the Shogunate: Ritual and Material Symbolism in the Literary Construction of Warrior Order: 44 (Brill's Japanese Studies Library, 44) - Hardcover

Book 32 of 70: Brill's Japanese Studies Library, 1

Selinger, Vyjayanthi R.

 
9789004248106: Authorizing the Shogunate: Ritual and Material Symbolism in the Literary Construction of Warrior Order: 44 (Brill's Japanese Studies Library, 44)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 9004248102 ISBN 13: 9789004248106
Publisher: Brill, 2013

Synopsis

The Genpei War of 1180-1185 signaled a crucial shift in Japanese history because it gave birth to the shogunate, or government run by warriors. How was the emergence of this new polity following a contentious civil war explained in literary texts? This book argues that political authority is made visible in the variant texts of the Heike monogatari corpus through rituals that map the ideal social-cosmic order, overwriting untidy historical realities. Artifacts of material culture likewise provide the social and political codes to authenticate warrior power and manage its violence. Through its focus on ritual and material practices, this book offers a new perspective on how texts from fourteenth century Japan harnessed symbolic understandings of authority to evoke order and contain rupture. Equally significant is its analysis of the Genpei jōsuiki a Heike monogatari variant that played a critical role in the retrospection of medieval Japan through the early modern period.

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About the Author

Vyjayanthi R. Selinger, Ph.D. (2007), Cornell University, is Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at Bowdoin College.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Brill
Publication date
2013
Language
English
ISBN 10 
9004248102
ISBN 13 
9789004248106
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
212