{"product_id":"toshie-a-story-of-village-life-in-twentieth-century-japan-paperback","title":"Toshie: A Story of Village Life in Twentieth-Century Japan - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eSimon Partner\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSakaue Toshié was born on August 14, 1925, into a family of tenant farmers and day laborers in the hamlet of Kosugi. The world she entered was one of hard labor, poverty, dirt, disease, and frequent early death. By the 1970s, that rural world had changed almost beyond recognition. \u003ci\u003eToshié \u003c\/i\u003eis the story of that extraordinary transformation as witnessed and experienced by Toshié herself. A sweeping social history of the Japanese countryside in its twentieth-century transition from \"peasant\" to \"consumer\" society, the book is also a richly textured account of the life of one village woman and her community caught up in the inexorable march of historical events. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrough the lens of Toshié's life, Simon Partner shows us the realities of rural Japanese life during the 1930s depression; daily existence under the wartime regime of \"spiritual mobilization\"; the land reform and its consequences during occupation; and the rapid emergence of a consumer culture against the background of agricultural mechanization during the 1950s and 1960s. In some ways representative and in other ways unique, Toshié's narrative raises questions about conventional frameworks of twentieth-century Japanese history, and about the place of individual agency and choice in an era often seen as dominated by the impersonal forces of modernity: technology, state power, and capitalism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eWithin the lively and often gripping story of Sakaue Toshié and her world, Partner gives us a sweeping and thought-provoking history of social change in rural Japan and sheds new light on key developments such as war mobilization and US occupation reforms. Fresh, personal, and engaging.--Steven Ericson, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Sound of the Whistle: Railroads and the State in Meiji Japan\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Partner beautifully tells the story of the life and times of a farm woman from the 1920s to the present. He traverses seamlessly between the often moving details of her life and the large transformations which it exemplifies.\"--Andrew Gordon, Harvard University\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSimon Partner\u003c\/b\u003e is Associate Professor of Japanese History at Duke University. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eAssembled in Japan: Electrical Goods and the Making of the Japanese Consumer \u003c\/i\u003e(California, 1999).\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 195\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.58 x 9.04 x 6.06 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 25, 2004\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47520783859933,"sku":"9780520240971","price":67.94,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/9867\/8237\/files\/WS1XsaYvig9780520240971.webp?v=1772248623","url":"https:\/\/handfulofbooks.com\/products\/toshie-a-story-of-village-life-in-twentieth-century-japan-paperback","provider":"Handful of Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}