Japanese Confucianism

For more than 1500 years Confucianism has played a major role in shaping Japan''s history - from the formation of the first Japanese states during the first millennium AD to Japan''s modernization in the nineteenth century to World War II and its still unresolved legacies across East Asia today. In an illuminating and provocative new study Kiri Paramore analyses the dynamic history of Japanese Confucianism revealing its many cultural manifestations as religion and as a political tool as social capital and public discourse as well as its role in international relations and statecraft. The book demonstrates the processes through which Confucianism was historically linked to other phenomenon such as the rise of modern science and East Asian liberalism. In doing so it offers new perspectives on the sociology of Confucianism and its impact on society culture and politics across East Asia past and present.