J. Kurashige
skepticism regarding its use to explain Japanese history” was building among both Japanese and
Western scholars.^3
Hall and others questioned the paradigm’s appropriateness since such terms often obscure
more than they reveal, and thereby limit their usefulness to readers. Since then, however, Jap-
anese studies has become more self- confident. “Japanologists,” narrowly focused on writing for
one another, have been replaced by “historians of Japan,” engaging the discourse with historians
working on other regions and eras.
Scholarship on medieval European history provides a useful comparative example of a trans-
ition in emphasis. The 1970s and 1980s witnessed a change in focus from institutional to social
history. Similarly, gender history came to the fore in the 1990s. These developments represented
a dramatic shift from the study of elites to research on the lives of ordinary men and women. A
similar trend occurred in the scholarship on Sengoku era Japan, although at a slightly later date.
Institutional and political history dominated period scholarship on the Age of the Country at
War into the 1980s (and arguably never faded from prominence in Japanese- language research on
the period). Studies like Mary Elizabeth Berry’s Hideyoshi kept a close eye on explaining the rise
of the modern state, while economic history also remained a major theme, with translated works
by Japanese historians garnering much attention in the field.^4 These focuses shifted in the 1990s.
The total number of articles and books published remained roughly of the same level as in the
1980s, yet work on political institutions and warrior elites was superseded by an increased focus
on religious groups and gender (see Chapters 18 and 21 of this volume). Cultural and social
history also received new attention. Studies dealing with tea and painting remained common, but
a new interest in the lives of common folk gained momentum as well.
The latter half of the first decade of the twenty- first century saw increased geopolitical tensions
in Asia, which were reflected in a blossoming of scholarship examining the historic dynamics of
the relationship between Japan and the continent. For example, studies dealing with wako
“pirates” (or more appropriately “sea lords,” to borrow Peter Shapinsky’s term) and traders
illustrated both the tensions (in Shapinsky’s case)—or lack thereof (in Amino Yoshihiko’s)—
between “states” like imperial China and daimyō domains.^5 Simultaneously, they also illuminated
the hybrid nature, ethnical or national, of many historic figures who served as bridges between
the two cultural spheres. Most importantly, these kinds of works have forced scholars to look
beyond traditional boundaries, such as state lines or even geographic barriers, and reassess our
ideas of continuity and rupture.
In a parallel trend, the growth of Japan’s soft power in the form of anime and otaku culture has
encouraged historians to reflect upon our own frequent lionization of daimyō. Popular culture
has, to be sure, focused on an idealized image of the Sengoku lord. Nevertheless, as Ikegami
Hiroko acknowledged in an interview for the Tokyo Shinbun in 2013, even scholars too often
glorify warriors who were often morally little better than butchers or thugs.^6
Leading this effort to reshape our understanding of fifteen- and sixteenth- century Japan is a
cadre of junior scholars who have collectively reinvigorated the field. These historians have been
particularly active in investigating the newer strands of research that followed trends in world
historiography and gained popularity in the 1990s. Peter Shapinsky has already been mentioned
above, but another noteworthy figure is David Spafford. His A Sense of Place focuses upon regional
identity and the “persistent medieval” (a term that he defines as “a conservatism and ... inertia
that [were] everywhere in the texts but ... often go unacknowledged”) within the Kantō, thereby
challenging the unifier- centric focus of previous Sengoku research.^7 Of particular interest is his
depiction of the many lords in eastern Japan, who tried to resurrect older practices and institutions,
including the late classical era shōen system. Other important newcomers to the field include
Morgan Pitelka, who has explored the culture of tea, and Lee Butler, who has examined