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we might expect a discussion of taxation policy to be dry, Rausch and Koji’s chapter analyzes policies that allow Japanese taxpayers to choose which municipality they pay a share of their taxes to, a creative, fascinating effort to stem urban/rural inequalities that has had mixed results. Although the varied topics and methods of each chapter could be seen by some readers as a shortcoming, we feel that this is one of the book’s key strengths. If anything, we can think of several other chapter topics we would have liked to have seen – perhaps Ainu communities, domestic tourism, Okinawan cultural revivals, resistance to high speed rail, the rise of populist parties in Osaka and Tokyo, and more. As the editors would no doubt agree, the volume scratches the surface of locality in Japan. That readers may be left reflecting on still more varied localities is hardly a critique, but instead an indicator of the collection’s success. More substantively, the book’s micro-level perspective might be complemented by some more quantitative measures, noting broader patterns of small-scale phenomena and their aggregate importance. As the book moves from micro-level to macro-level perspectives, the concluding chapters on decentralization and mergers provide information that might be useful earlier on. Earlier chapters mention administrative mergers in passing, and it
is only with later chapters that the reader is provided with a clear sense of the scale, timing, and logic of the reforms. It is also notable that the later chapters focus on mergers in tandem with decentralization. The book focuses a great deal on changing municipal boundaries, but less is said about decentralization and how enhanced subnational government power might also impact locality. Next, the collection would probably have benefitted from more diverse perspectives. The contributors are mostly talented outsiders, with only a few Japanese scholars featured in this project. Especially for topics so localized and intimate, it seems that Japanese authors would have especially valuable insights. Linked to this, it would be useful to feature more sustained discussion of varied Japanese terms for ‘locality,’ such as jimoto, furusato, and chiho, each of which has slightly different connotations. Jimoto refers to places around one’s residence; furusato is a place where a person has resided for a long time (implying nostalgia); and chiho is a neutral term that most resembles ‘local’ in English. Given the primacy of locality in the book, it would be useful to return to these different meanings beyond some brief, early mentions. “What is (the) local” in Japan (p. 2) is clearly an unanswerable question, but Rethinking Locality in Japan goes a long way towards answering it. Minimally, the answer is that ‘it depends,’ with the chapters showing how, where, and for whom ideas of locality vary. It is worthwhile to state emphatically that, even in a relatively uniform country, the meaning of local spaces varies immensely across persons and places. The book succeeds in exposing nuanced, heterogeneous localities that are often masked by the top-down, administrative divisions as well as by dominant narratives about Japan. This fun, informative volume will appeal to specialists of Japan, but it is also approachable for non-specialists. It will be a valuable collection for those studying place-making, anthropology, urbanization, aging, care, decentralization, diversity, and much more. The reader walks away with a better appreciation of Japan’s dynamic grassroots, as the book succeeds in its goal of rethinking locality in Japan.
(1) Mamallapuram, which also discuss the possibility of this city being the port for Kanchi; and on (2) the Buddhist art of the region, mainly by focussing on the Buddha images found in and around Kanchi. Buddhism may have had a much longer history in Tamil Nadu, as recent research has revealed. It lasted until the 13th century (and possibly even longer), as borne out by a variety of Buddha images found in Kanchi over the past 100 years. Kanchi’s Kamakshi Amman temple may have been one of the sites that had Buddhist and Jain origins. The final chapter shifts the perspective to the colonial period, when a Kanchi in decline was portrayed through its ruins and relics of the past. Whilst travellers and other visitors produced the view of a city of ‘infinite temples,’ scholars like Mackenzie were collecting manuscripts, and James Fergusson and others were studying the monuments
in a systematic and chronologically sound manner. They all used the term “decline” for the city with great frequency, while at the same time their work demonstrated that Kanchi showed a stubborn will to persist and develop. It all turned the city into the place of religious innovation and persistence that still marks it today. There is little to criticize about the book. It is clearly structured, proceeding from a narrow and focused art historical study of the Pallava capital, through a discussion of a provincial headquarters from the 9th century, and finally to 19th-century perceptions of the new colonial masters. The analysis of the temples and their art are precise, detailed, and evidence-based. Even if scholars do not accept some of Stein’s stylistic findings or datings, the book will be an important reference for future research. Ample illustrations – some (though unfortunately very few) in color – underscore the text and illustrate the findings. And the writing is extremely easy: I read the book in less than two days without getting tired or confused. One could mention the maps, which are hard to decipher or recognize in their varying shades of grey. At the very least, they should have been printed on full pages instead of the half-page format chosen. Another point of criticism could be that Stein sets her research in the context of urbanism around the Bay of Bengal, but then restricts her thoughts on this matter to less than two pages at the end of Chapter 3. Those quibbles apart, it has to be repeated that this is a well-organized, clearly argued, and easy-to-read study of Kanchi that enriches our knowledge of the city and will make its way onto the reading lists of South Indian art, history, and anthropology seminars.
Seeing Japan from the Bottom Up Shane Barter and Kenichi Ebisutani
Reviewed title
Rethinking Locality in Japan
J
apan is typically understood as an especially homogenous country, one featuring a uniform, hierarchical administrative system. It is also typically seen as urban, with rural areas associated with depopulation, aging, and decline. Rethinking Locality in Japan, a new edited volumed helmed by Sonja Ganesforth and Hanno Jentzsch, challenges these conventional understandings. Part of the Nissan Institute and Routledge series on Japanese Studies, the volume interrogates ‘local’ spheres across the country, discovering immense variety, complexity, and contestation. Rethinking Locality in Japan shatters top-down views of a uniform Japan, providing a readable, fun perspective from the bottom up. The book is set in the context of municipal ‘Heisei’ mergers and rural depopulation, seeking to understand changing conceptions of locality given these trends. Ganesforth and Jentzsch have assembled an array of experts, combining various disciplinary and methodological approaches to better understand Japan’s micro-level dynamics. The book is mostly sociological and anthropological, complemented by chapters on history, geography, politics, and economics. Its 16 chapters are organized into four sections: Lived spaces, social worlds at risk, contestation, and local-national linkages. After some conceptual discussion, the chapters move from local, micro-level studies to more macro-level research on economic and political decentralization. Most chapters grapple with rural decline and municipal mergers in the early 2000s, analyzing how shifting administrative boundaries exist uneasily with localized identities and self-understandings.
Sonja Ganesforth and Hanno Jentzsch (eds.), 2022. Routledge ISBN 9780367469481
Rethinking Locality in Japan invites readers to reflect on locality in a great variety of contexts. This includes, in order of chapters, localized education and accents, urban-to-rural migrations and investment, cosmopolitan communities in Hokkaido, contrasting insider and outsider views of community, competing local views of nuclear power plants, innovative senior care and health care policies, welfare associations and urban renewal, opposition to mergers, transport and rideshare policies, fishery cooperatives, wine certification, redistributive taxation, political motivations for mergers, and local democracy. Readers will find that the chapters are engaging, often quirky, and above all highly informative. For instance, Aaron Kingsbury’s contribution analyzes Japan’s inchoate wine industry, focusing on efforts to implement local branding certification based on fuzzy, changing place and grape names. Isaac Gagné’s chapter focuses on rural areas with shrinking, aging populations and dwindling budgets. In one town in Nagano, he documents innovative policies to provide care to seniors, with coordinators navigating, and then setting an example for, national policies. Hansen’s study in central Hokkaido was conducted through his own household and community, reflecting on local gatherings and tastes. And although
A History of Kanchi Tilman Frasch
D
espite Kanchipuram’s – or Kanchi, as the city is referred to throughout – crucial importance in South Indian history, art, and politics, which included being the capital of the Pallava dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries, no comprehensive study of the city has been published so far. Nor have scholars of Indian art or history attempted to trace the changes that affected the city and its temples from its ‘imperial’ heyday to its rediscovery in the 19th century, including the changes in religious practice. This book by the art historian Emma Stein is a major step forward in these efforts. Chapter 1 sets the scene with a reconstruction of the capital under the Pallavas. Two developments stand out here. The first one is the change from brick to sandstone as the main building material of the temples. This began with the sponsoring of the rock-cut monuments in the outskirts of the city and continued, in the 8th century, with quarrying stone for the construction of temples inside the city. The efforts culminated in the Kailashanath temple, Kanchi’s largest Pallava temple and one of the largest monuments built in India at the time (p. 68). The second development that stands out occurred in the 9th century, when new masters of the city, the Cholas, came to
Reviewed title
Constructing Kanchi: City of Infinite Temples Emma Natalya Stein, 2021. Amsterdam University Press/IIAS ISBN 9789463729123
power. Construction in Kanchi came to an almost complete standstill at that time, and when it recommenced, it was aimed at creating a new city farther to the east of the previous Pallava capital. It centred on a new palace site with two main roads running from there to the north and to the south (Map 38, p. 121). Along with this came a host of new temples built along the southern road, but also new rituals, processions, and other religious practices. Another new feature that arrived with Chola rule was the installation and sometimes procession of bronze statues of gods. The third chapter extends the network of Kanchi’s temples into its hinterland and especially along the Palar River to the seacoast. It presents temples and other religious monuments, pieces of art, and religious practices that made use of these. There are also two briefer sections on
