Comments on: Productive Procrastination http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2009/05/productive-procrastination/ The Japan History Group Blog Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:45:05 -0800 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: David Eason http://www.froginawell.net/japan/2009/05/productive-procrastination/comment-page-1/#comment-197510 David Eason Wed, 13 May 2009 23:34:47 +0000 http://www.froginawell.net/japan/?p=634#comment-197510 Wow, reading over that essay is like being back in Herman Ooms' graduate seminars again, as all the works mentioned are ones we had to discuss in class and which were later included among the many items on the reading list for my exams. In fact, if I remember correctly I even went in and discussed these same issues, and provided my own two-cents concerning these various state-of-the-field articles he mentions, right at the time that this essay was apparently taking form. Notes at the end of the article point out that this piece was originally given in the form of a talk at Tokyo University in the summer of 2003, which probably accounts for the somewhat more casual style than what is seen in most of Herman Ooms' published work. Still, I think it's a good summary of where the field currently stands, as there seem to be only a handful of books to have been published in the past few years in what was once the booming field of "Tokugawa intellectual history." Maybe the field is due for a comeback? Wow, reading over that essay is like being back in Herman Ooms’ graduate seminars again, as all the works mentioned are ones we had to discuss in class and which were later included among the many items on the reading list for my exams. In fact, if I remember correctly I even went in and discussed these same issues, and provided my own two-cents concerning these various state-of-the-field articles he mentions, right at the time that this essay was apparently taking form.

Notes at the end of the article point out that this piece was originally given in the form of a talk at Tokyo University in the summer of 2003, which probably accounts for the somewhat more casual style than what is seen in most of Herman Ooms’ published work. Still, I think it’s a good summary of where the field currently stands, as there seem to be only a handful of books to have been published in the past few years in what was once the booming field of “Tokugawa intellectual history.”

Maybe the field is due for a comeback?

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