Get Free Shipping on orders over $0
Tokyo Before Tokyo : Power and Magic in the Shogun's City of Edo - Timon Screech

Tokyo Before Tokyo

Power and Magic in the Shogun's City of Edo

By: Timon Screech

Hardcover | 1 December 2020

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $54.99

$48.75

11%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $12.19 with

 or 

Available for Backorder. We will order this from our supplier however there isn't a current ETA.

Tokyo today is one of the world's mega-cities and the center of a scintillating, hyper-modern culture but not everyone is aware of its past

Founded in 1590 as the seat of the warlord Tokugawa family, Tokyo, then called Edo, was the locus of Japanese trade, economics, and urban civilisation until 1868, when it mutated into Tokyo and became Japan's modern capital. This beautifully illustrated book presents important sites and features from the rich history of Edo, taken from contemporary sources such as diaries, guidebooks, and woodblock prints.

These include the huge bridge on which the city was centred; the vast castle of the Shogun; sumptuous Buddhist temples, bars, kabuki theatres, and Yoshiwara the famous red-light district.

About the Author

Timon Screech is Professor in the History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and, concurrently, Permanent Visiting Professor at Tama Art University, Tokyo. He is the author of many books including Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan, 1700-1820 (2nd Edition Reaktion, 2009).
Industry Reviews
"In this beguiling and splendidly illustrated volume, Screech brings to the page an array of fascinating narrative insights that not only tell the story of the shogun's capital but also set it in the broader context of Japanese cultural history, with its extensive ties to the Chinese world, and even beyond, to Europe."
Paul Waley University of Leeds, coeditor of Japanese Capitals in Historical Perspective: Place, Power and Memory in Kyoto, Edo and Tokyo

More in Asian History

Japanese Haiku for Cat Lovers - William Scott Wilson

RRP $29.99

$25.75

14%
OFF
The Book of Secrets : A Personal History of Betrayal in Red China - Xinran Xue
A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict - Ilan Pappe
Men in the Sun : And Other Palestinian Stories - Keira Lykourentzos

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
The Golden Road : How Ancient India Transformed the World - William Dalrymple
The Shortest History of Japan - Lesley Downer

RRP $27.99

$23.75

15%
OFF
The Anarchy : The Relentless Rise of the East India Company - William Dalrymple
Persepolis : The Story of an Iranian Childhood - Marjane Satrapi

RRP $39.99

$26.75

33%
OFF
The Golden Road : How Ancient India Transformed the World - William Dalrymple
Jerusalem : The Biography   A History of the Middle East - Simon Sebag Montefiore
Fly, Wild Swans : My Mother, Myself and China - Jung Chang

RRP $37.99

$30.75

19%
OFF
Borneo : The History of an Enigma - Olivier Hein
Archiving Gaza in the Present : Memory, Culture and Erasure - Dina Matar
Raven Mother : War, family and inheritance: a memoir - Jane Messer
Gaza : The Dream and the Nightmare - Julie M. Norman
Cactus Pear For My Beloved : Shortlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize - Samah Sabawi