Kyushu: Gateway to Japan

Andrew Cobbing graduated in History from Bristol University, received his Masters degree in Japanese History from Kyushu University in 1993 and completed his PhD at SOAS (University of London) in 1997. After several years as professor at Kyushu University he took up his current appointment as lecturer in history at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain (1998), The Satsuma Students in Britain (2000) and Kawada Ryokichi: Jeanie Eadie’s Samurai (2006). He has also translated one of the volumes of the official record of the Iwakura Embassy’s Travels to the West.

• List of maps; List of plates; Preface; Introduction; 1 Takachiho: The Floating Bridge of Heaven; 2 Himiko's lands: gateway to Wa; 3 Tsukushi: Isle of unknown fires; 4 Dazaifu: The distant court; 5 Hakata: The making of a mercantile centre; 6 Divine Wind: The Mongol invasions; 7 Divided loyalties: Pirates and rival courts; 8 All under Heaven: Missionaries and warlords; 9 Turbulent decades: State control and resistance; 10 The great peace in Kyushu; 11 Kyushu in the Meiji Restoration; 12 The twentieth century; Postscript; Appendix: Major domains in Kyushu circa 1850; Notes; Bibliography; Index