Introduction

For a very long time, literacy in Japan was confined to the elite. One of the big shifts that took place during the Edo period when Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa family from 1600 to 1868 was a massive rise in literacy. Today is all about one of the best attempts I've ever seen to take advantage of this change and reconstruct the life of the sort of person who would not traditionally get the attention of professional historians. Dr. Amy Stanley's book, Stranger in the Shoguns City,. If you are at all interested in the Edo Period or Japanese history in general, I can't recommend this book enough.