Peasant protests and uprisings in Tokugawa Japan /

Vlastos (University of Iowa) explores the changing patterns of peasant protest in one area of Japan during the Tokugawa era (16031868) in this important, superbly researched volume. Although not so easily digested as the more general standard work by Hugh Borton, Peasant Uprisings in Japan of the Tokugawa Period (2nd ed., 1968), Vlastos's study offers fresh and challenging interpretations. The author disputes the view that Japanese peasants were passive subjects of the samurai rulers. He skillfully uses an impressive variety of primary and secondary Japanese-language sources to bolster his contention that Japanese villagers participated in numerous disruptive, although usually nonviolent, protests. Vlastos argues convincingly that the purpose of these movements was specific in nature-tax relief for example-and that they were not designed to change the system or destroy the power of their feudal overlords. He concludes that the widespread peasant protests of the Tokugawa era did not signify an intensification of class conflict between the peasantry and the ruling class so much as an attempt by peasants to compete for advantages in an increasingly complex market economy. Colleges and universities with Asian or Japanese study programs should certainly have this book.-J.H. Boyle, California State University, Chico