Publisher's Synopsis
"Japan's oceans demand our attention. Violent, prolific, and changeful, they define life and death on the archipelago: pushing the shore under the rush of tsunami, charging typhoon circulation, feeding millions, and seeding conflicts over territory and resources. And yet, Japan studies remains largely beholden to a terrestrial view of the world that is at odds with the importance of the sea. This "terrestrial bias" also means that on those occasions when oceans are recognized they are most often presented as dividers or connectors-spaces in between rather than rich ecologies and meaningful sites. Oceanic Japan is meant to help readers re-envision Japanese history in order to show how the seas created the country that we know today. The book convenes a diverse, multinational, multidisciplinary group of scholars to expand the scope of Japan studies and the environmental humanities. The chapters draw from the broader turn to the sea-charac
