Ryotaro Shiba, Landscape Traveller

Ryotaro Shiba, Landscape Traveller
Hideki Kuwajima

186 mm × 130 mm
240 pages
JPY 2,100
ISBN 9784790717393
Pub date: March 2020

The imagination of travel rushes to the future!
Ryotaro Shiba explored the ancestors of the Japanese in various parts of Japan and on the Korean Peninsula. He asked Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United States about the origin of civilization. The author unraveled the unique sensibility of “Kaido o Yuku” series, that break through the deadlock of modern society. A new historical landscape theory that invites us to a journey of knowledge and imagination beyond time and space.

Points of Appeal
1) Discovery of the appeal of Ryotaro Shiba’s travel literature
2) An approach to historical landscape theory that allows us to understand the land in depth

Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction  Ryotaro Shiba’s sensibility philosophy

Part 1. Europe and America: Questioning the meaning of citizens and civilization 
Chapter 1  Looking at the World from an island country in the far west: “Ireland travel” 
Chapter 2  The birth of business civilization: “Dutch travel”
Chapter 3  American civilization created by immigrants: American Sketch, “A Walk in New York”

Part II.East Asia: The dream of cultural exchange as seen in iron, horses, and ancient tombs 
Chapter 4  History of mutual exchange between peninsulas and islands: “The Road to Kosei” “Journey to Korea” 
Chapter 5  Sea of Japan, Hiroshima prefecture as the Izumo cultural area: “The Road to Geibi”

Supplementary Chapter  Volcanic climate which Shiba couldn’t see: The Road to Shibukawa Kanashima, Gunma Prefecture
Final Chapter  The reason for reading “Kaido o Yuku” series now 

Notes / Afterword

Reviews
“In this book, he tries to highlight the outline of Shiba’s historical narrative from the perspective of  “traveling sensibility” by narrowing down to eight or nine stories in the series. (…) His narrative  sometimes resonates with the writing style of “Kaido o Yuku” series and sometimes deviates from it.”―Norio Akasaka, folklorist 

“What I paid attention to was Supplementary Chapter, Volcanic climate which Shiba couldn’t see. The author depicts Gunma, which is not mentioned in “Kaido o Yuku”series. The author brings back the pulse of the earth that Shiba heard and the memory of this land proper.”―Tetsuro Yoshinaga, literary researcher