Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility

This latest work from Japanese-born anthropologist Takie Sugiyama Lebra is the first ethnographic study of the modern Japanese aristocracy. Established as a class at the beginning of the Meiji period, the kazoku ranked directly below the emperor and his family. Officially dissolved in 1947, this group of social elites is still generally perceived as nobility. Lebra gained entry into this tightly knit circle and conducted more than one hundred interviews with its members. She has woven together a reconstructive ethnography from their life histories to create an intimate portrait of a remote and archaic world.As Lebra explores the culture of the kazoku, she places each subject in its historical context. She analyzes the evolution of status boundaries and the indispensable role played by outsiders.But this book is not simply about the elite. It is also about commoners and how each stratum mirrors the other. Revealing previously unobserved complexities in Japanese society, it also sheds light on the universal problem of social stratification.

History

Lebra, Takie Sugiyama Sugiyama

Asia

University of California Press

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Books by Lebra, Takie Sugiyama Sugiyama

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lebra, Takie Sugiyama Sugiyama. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility