Eiko Ikegami, "Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic Networks and the Political Origins of Japanese Culture," (Cambridge University Press, 2005)

In this path breaking book, Eiko Ikegami uncovers a complex history of social life in which aesthetic images became central to Japan's cultural identities. The people of premodern Japan built on earlier aesthetic traditions in part for their own sake, but also to find space for self-expression in the increasingly rigid and tightly controlled Tokugawa political system. In so doing, they incorporated the world of the beautiful within their social life which led to new modes of civility. They explored horizontal and voluntary ways of associating while immersing themselves in aesthetic group activities. Combining sociological insights in organizations with prodigious scholarship on cultural history, this book explores such wide-ranging topics as networks of performing arts, tea ceremony and haiku, the politics of kimono aesthetics, the rise of commercial publishing, the popularization of etiquette and manners, the vogue for androgyny in kabuki performance, and the rise of tacit modes of communication. Social life and aesthetics in Japan Tokugawa political system and self-expression Premodern Japanese cultural identities Aesthetic traditions in Japan Horizontal associations and voluntary groups Networks in performing arts Japan Tea ceremony and haiku in social life Kimono aesthetics and politics Commercial publishing in Tokugawa era Popularization of etiquette and manners Androgyny in kabuki performance Tacit communication in Japanese culture Sociological insights on cultural history Japanese civility and social organization Intersection of art and social structures East Asian Studies Podcast East Asia Japanese History Podcast Japanese History Modern Japanese Studies Social History Japanese Social History