New Books Network Maren A. Ehlers, "Give and Take: Poverty and the Status Order in Early Modern Japan" (Harvard U Asia Center, 2018)
Aug 31, 2025
Maren A. Ehlers, an expert on Tokugawa Japan, delves into her book examining the role of ordinary subjects in society's regulation. She discusses how marginalized groups, like beggars and outcastes, navigated poverty and their relationships with authorities. Ehlers sheds light on the unique contributions of the Koshiro and blind guilds in maintaining social order. The conversation unveils the complexities of societal dynamics during famine relief efforts and how these interactions shaped the transition from the Tokugawa to Meiji era.
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Marginals Follow Mainstream Governance
- Marginal groups mirrored mainstream governance by forming collectives to secure rights and protections.
- These groups performed public duties to gain recognition and economic stability within the status order.
Choosing Ono For Surviving Archives
- Ehlers chose Ono because local archives preserved unusually rich materials that survived WWII.
- The preserved town-elder journals concentrated mainly between 1740 and 1870 and guided her period selection.
Town-Elder Journals Reveal Local Networks
- The town-elder journals sit at the interface between townspeople and domain government and illuminate intergroup relations.
- Their chronological, fragmentary style demands reconstructing social networks from scattered entries.
