Johann Arnason, The Peripheral Centre: Essays on Japanese History and Civilzation (Paperback)

The main theme of this title is the complex relationship between the patterns of Japanese modernity and civilizational legacy on which they continue to draw. The book discusses the East Asian regional context of Japanese civilization, deals with the dynamics of state formation and the attendant cultural transformations in premodern Japan, and suggests ways of comparing the Japanese experience to the West. Presenting Japan as a test case for relating the emerging problematic of multiple modernities to civilizational perspectives, Arnason examines the economic foundations as well as philosophical self-interpretations of Japanese modernity.