TY - BOOK
T1 - Turbulent Streams: An Environmental History of Japan’s Rivers, 1600–1930
AU - Wilson, Roderick I.
N1 - Funding Information:
Often a short and straight-forward period spent in the archives, my dissertation research in Japan became another meander from which this book and my broader knowledge about Japan have benefited immensely. Thanks to his characteristic kindness and generosity, Jinnai Hidenobu at Hōsei University ensured that I had both a place to work and a community with which to share my research. While a visiting researcher in the Laboratory of Regional Design with Ecology (Eco-ken) that Professor Jinnai founded, I had the unique opportunity to participate in the organization’s many research and outreach activities including helping to curate museum exhibits about Tokyo’s water history for the International Architectural Biennale in Rotterdam, Netherlands and the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Tokyo. I also owe much to Takamura Masahiko at Hōsei University who turned out be both a trusted mentor and good friend. I learned a great deal from my fellow Jinnai-ken graduate students and good friends Iwaki Yasunobu and Onda Shigenao with whom I spent countless hours talking about our various separate and joint research projects. I also owe a deep debt of gratitude to Yoshida Nobuyuki at Tokyo University who first invited me to participate in his kuzushiji course and thereafter in research activities with Itō Takeshi at Tokyo University and the Center for Urban History (Toshi-shi Kenkyū Sentā) that they established and administered together. Special thanks also to Matsuyama Megumi and Takenouchi Masato who have always been generous in sharing their knowledge about Edo-Tokyo history and their friendship continues beyond our many conversations and meals together at Tokyo University’s Hongō campus. Finally, I also want to thank Miyamura Tadashi and Nanba Kyōsuke for letting me participate in meetings of the Kasen-gaku (River School) as well as Patricia G. Sippel and her husband Bill Steele for their encouragement and kindness during my years in Tokyo and on visits after I returned to the United States. I was fortunate to be able to stay in Japan for as long as did thanks to the generous support of a Fulbright Graduate Research Fellowship, a Mellon Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, and the Hōsei University International Fellowship.
Funding Information:
At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I have also been lucky to be part of a thriving and caring academic community where most of this book was written. With my appointment in both the Department of History and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures as well as my affiliation with the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, I cannot possibly mention everyone at Illinois whose collegiality and encouragement have played a role in this book’s publication, but I would like give special thanks to Ronald Toby for his careful reading of chapters and continuous support and to Craig Koslofsky, who as my faculty mentor, has guided me through the publication process. My deepest gratitude also goes to Clare Crowston, Dana Rabin, and Bob Tierney, who as the leaders of my respective departments at different points in time, for their compassion and understanding when I needed to pause my tenure clock in order to take care of first my mom and then my dad before they passed away. I also appreciate the assistance of Bailey Albrecht at an early stage in the writing and to Wataru Morioka for making the maps used throughout the book. Steven Witt, a Japanese Studies specialist and Head of the International and Area Studies Library, ensured that I had access to many of the books and other sources that are cited in following pages. Finally, I cannot say thank you enough for the friendship and healthy distraction offered by Tariq Ali, Ikuko Asaka, Marc Hertzman, Jeff Martin, Mauro Nobili, Gian Piero Persiani, and John Randolph as we shared meals, drinks, gardening tips, and the ever-unpredictable performance of the Portland Timbers. At Illinois, I also benefited immensely from a semester release from teaching duties thanks to a Faculty Fellowship from the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities and a NEAC Japan Studies Travel Grant from the Association of Asian Studies.
PY - 2021/6/3
Y1 - 2021/6/3
N2 - In Turbulent Streams: An Environmental History of Japan’s Rivers, 1600–1930, Roderick I. Wilson describes how the rivers of Japan are both hydrologically and historically dynamic. Today, these waterways are slowed, channeled, diverted, and dammed by a myriad of levees, multiton concrete tetrapods, and massive multipurpose dams. In part, this intensive engineering arises from the waterways falling great elevations over short distances, flowing over unstable rock and soil, and receiving large quantities of precipitation during monsoons and typhoons. But this modern river regime is also the product of a history that narrowed both these waterways and people’s diverse interactions with them in the name of flood control. Neither a story of technological progress nor environmental decline, this history introduces the concept of environmental relations as a category of historical analysis both to explore these fluvial interactions and reveal underappreciated dimensions of Japanese history.
AB - In Turbulent Streams: An Environmental History of Japan’s Rivers, 1600–1930, Roderick I. Wilson describes how the rivers of Japan are both hydrologically and historically dynamic. Today, these waterways are slowed, channeled, diverted, and dammed by a myriad of levees, multiton concrete tetrapods, and massive multipurpose dams. In part, this intensive engineering arises from the waterways falling great elevations over short distances, flowing over unstable rock and soil, and receiving large quantities of precipitation during monsoons and typhoons. But this modern river regime is also the product of a history that narrowed both these waterways and people’s diverse interactions with them in the name of flood control. Neither a story of technological progress nor environmental decline, this history introduces the concept of environmental relations as a category of historical analysis both to explore these fluvial interactions and reveal underappreciated dimensions of Japanese history.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108658070&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85108658070&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/9789004438231
DO - 10.1163/9789004438231
M3 - Book
AN - SCOPUS:85108658070
SN - 9789004433014
T3 - Brill's Japanese Studies Library
BT - Turbulent Streams: An Environmental History of Japan’s Rivers, 1600–1930
PB - Brill
ER -