Japan's Russia: Challenging the East-West Paradigm

"Japan’s Russia is a formidable force in comparative literature and transnational intellectual history. Olga Solovieva and Sho Konishi bring together literary scholars, film experts, historians, and anthropologists from all over the world to brew this truly exceptional interdisciplinary volume on Japanese-Russian cultural interaction. If one is looking for a well-structured collection of historical investigations and textual analyses of Japanese reception of Russian culture, this book is certainly a must-read. However, Japan’s Russia is more ambitious than this. Besides the fascinating stories behind Japanese Tolstoyism, Tarkovsky-inspired Japanese music, and the Japanese resonance with Alexievich’s nuclear trauma narrative, this volume of fourteen case studies spanning from late nineteenth-century tanka to contemporary cinema timely reconsiders an array of fundamental methodological issues in the comparative study of culture and history. The contributors to this volume collectively rewrite the narrative of Japan’s modernization by restoring the critical role Russian culture played in this process [...and] effectively destabilize the Westcentrism that is deeply rooted in the critical paradigm for area studies, comparative literature, and global history." —Russian Review

"Japan’s Russia is a valuable resource in the field of modern Japanese history because it provides a critical narrative that challenges the dominant 'East-West-binary-based paradigm,' which sees only Western Europe and the United States as the determinant 'Other' of Japanese modernity. The authors present a wide range of case studies that bring forth the longue durée of interaction between Russia and Japan, particularly via the profound influence of the Narodniks, the late nineteenth-century Russian intelligentsia who promoted progressive cosmopolitanism and search for democracy. A major underlying theme of many chapters is the Japanese deep appreciation for and adaptation of Tolstoy's anti-statist anarchist cosmopolitanism, which inspired the rediscovery/invention of the Japanese turn to the countryside to establish the modern culture of mutual help and cooperative organizations. This book is a significant contribution to the new trend in the study of modern Japanese history that brings together geographies, peoples, and cultures and in so doing constructs a transnational and global historical narrative for modern Japan." —Selcuk Esenbel, Professor of History and Director of the Asian Studies Center, Bogazici University

"Japan’s Russia presents a reinterpretation of modern Japanese culture and society by focusing on the Russia-Japan relationship. Building on Sho Konishi’s earlier and important rethinking of visions of modernity in the early twentieth-century Russia-Japan relationship, this book expands the horizons by exploring a range of literary, artistic, intellectual, and political encounters. It also extends the timeframe from the late nineteenth century to the present day, offering fascinating and important insights." —Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Professor Emerita of Japanese History, Australian National University

"Premised on the multidirectionality of influence, Japan's Russia introduces readers to myriad currents in intellectual and cultural interactions between Japan and Russia, from literature to religion, ethnography to anti-nuclear activism. Solovieva and Konishi have made a space for topics and issues that have no home in fields defined by states and traditional disciplines. Their proposition of 'Japan's Russia' as not just a theme but a method will be provocative for anyone investigating culture and thought across borders. The chapters are impressive in their range and together create a multilayered, fine-grained history of interactions between artists, intellectuals, religious leaders, and other figures from Russia, Japan, China, and several more countries in the twentieth century, extending briefly into the twenty-first." —Christopher Hill, Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan