The Kuroshio Frontier

Jonas Rüegg teaches Global History at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

• Preface and acknowledgement; Introduction: Japan, the Kuroshio, and the creation of a Pacific world; 1. The geophysics of Japan's terraqueous metabolism; 2. Maritime practice and virtual geography; 3. The Invention of Japan's Pacific; 4. Harbingers of empire; 5. Naval technology and the geopolitics of the Kuroshio Highway; 6. Tokugawa colonialism and the symbolism of modern statehood; 7. Science, state, and piracy in the making of an imperial frontier; 8. South Sea romanticism and the emergence of frontier tycoons; Epilogue: the unending Kuroshio frontier; Appendix I.

'The Kuroshio Frontier boldly traverses established geographic, intellectual, and historiographical categories and conventions about early modern and modern Japan. Adroitly interweaving individual, local, and national narratives – while simultaneously expounding on relevant global economic and environmental trends – Rüegg convincingly shows the importance of viewing the Japanese past through not only an oceanic gaze but also as part of larger currents of Pacific history.' Robert Hellyer, Wake Forest University