Post-Grant Reports

Title

Sabbatical Leave Report

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

10-23-2015

Disciplines

Asian Studies | Chinese Studies | East Asian Languages and Societies | Economic History | Japanese Studies | Korean Studies

Abstract

My sabbatical in the spring semester 2015 was devoted to two projects. First, I completed revisions of an edited anthology of historical documents related to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean history for use in East Asian Civilization courses. This work, entitled East Asia: A Documentary History, is forthcoming from Cognella Academic Publishing.

The second project is entitled Eiichi Shibusawa and the Confucianization of Industrial Capitalism in Modern Japan, 1870-1930. It is a book-length biography of one of the most important financiers and industrialists in Japan's modern economic transformation and a key figure in the development of the intellectual foundations of Japanese capitalism. As the head of the First National Bank, Eiichi Shibusawa financed and launched new enterprises in many industries including banking, insurance, textiles, railroads, and paper. He also promoted a more positive image of merchants in Japanese society. With frequent references to Confucian classics, Shibusawa redirected older values, of loyalty and public service, toward the development of a modern industrial economy. Although he is mentioned in most histories of Japan's Meiji era, there has yet to be published a full academic biography of Shibusawa in English. This project is designed to fill that gap in the historical literature.

Comments

This research was conducted as part of a sabbatical leave in 2015.

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