David Pilling. Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival (Penguin, 2014)
Sugimoto, Yoshio. An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (4th edition), 2015.
Kato Shuichi & Don Sanderson. A History of Japanese Literature: From the Manyoshu to Modern Times. (Abridged Edition), Routledge, 1997.
Rubin, Jay (ed.). The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. (Penguin, 2018).
For Japanese language, students are expected to know hiragana and katakana before the start of Michaelmas Term. Information will be sent to students directly.
Required reading for East Asian History
Shirokauer, Lurie and Gay. A Brief History of Japanese Civilization. Wadsworth Publishing. 4th edition, 2012.
Ebrey, P., The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge UP.
Kyung Moon Hwang, A History of Korea. Palgrave Macmillan.
Further recommended readings
Friday, Karl F. (ed.). Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850. Westview Press, 2012.
Shirane, Haruo, Suzuki, Tomi and Lurie, David (eds.) The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Shirane, Haruo (ed.), Early modern Japanese literature : An anthology, 1600-1900 (Translations from the Asian classics). New York ; Chichester: Columbia University Press, 2002.
Shirane, Haruo (ed.), Traditional Japanese literature : An anthology, beginnings to 1600 (Translations from the Asian classics). New York ; Chichester: Columbia University Press, 2007.
Hendry, Joy. Understanding Japanese Society. London: Routledge (4th edition), 2012.