Overview

This third volume in The Cambridge History of Japan is devoted to the three and a half centuries spanning the final decades of the twelfth century when the Kamakura bakufu was founded, to the mid-sixteenth century when civil wars raged following the effective demise of the Muromachi bakufu. Volume 3 contains thirteen specially commissioned essays written by leading Japanese and American scholars that survey the historical events and developments in medieval Japan's polity, economy, society, and culture, as well as its relations with its Asian neighbors. The essays reflect the most recent scholarly research on the history of this period. The volume creates a rich tapestry of the events that took place during these colorful centuries, when the warrior class ruled Japan, institutions underwent fundamental transformations, the economy grew steadily, and Japanese culture and society evolved with surprising vitality to leave legacies that still characterize and affect contemporary Japan.