Introduction

Abstract

This introduction to the Special Issue, 'Rethinking the Past, Culture, and Identity in Early Modern Japan' lays out various issues raised by the five articles included and explains what connects them, namely the distinct early modern mode of imagining community. It also proposes a space-oriented analysis as a method for a practice of history. The articles show the ways in which a rigorous spatial investigation can reveal the interrelationships between the local and the broader world by articulating complex social and cultural histories that arise within the structure of place.