Journey in time. Review of the book “Japan. Chasing the Wind of Centuries” by Alexander N. Mescheryakov

Abstract

The article reviews the book by Alexander Mescheryakov “Japan. Chasing the Wind of centuries” (Moscow: Lingvistika, 2022, 512 p. ISBN 978-5-91922-098-5). The monograph is a collection of the author’s recent articles. The range of topics and the chronological coverage are extraordinarily wide, with many phenomena of Japanese history and culture considered throughout centuries and portrayed in enormous diversity and variability. At the same time, the fates of individual people are not lost in the context of large-scale historical and cultural changes, and the author carefully brings us their voices. This makes the book a real journey in time.

Keywords

• ancient and medieval japan
• historical demography
• perception of japan in the ussr and russia
• medieval japanese gardens
• tokugawa period
• meiji period
• totalitarianism in japan
• problems of national identity