Les Japonais et la mer - article ; n°2 ; vol.50, pg 235-258

Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales - Année 1995 - Volume 50 - Numéro 2 - Pages 235-258
The Japanese and the Sea. AMINO. The dominant representation of Japanese identity since the origin the nation up until the 19th century has been that an agrarian state founded upon the cultivation of inundated rice paddies. Thusly, they have ignored the importance of the sea and of the populations which lived off of it. However, the sea people constitute an element central to the social life of the archipelago. They have constantly been underestimated historically and dominated politically because they did not fit with the structure of seigneurial domination which considered agriculture the essential element. The supremacy of the sedentary peasant over the nomadic merchant functioned as one of the main elements of social control in the framework of confucian society. Under these circumstances written sources have deliberately favored the land to the detriment of other non-agricultural activities. These sea people often in rebellion against the agrarian states, are nevertheless at the origin of the development of commerce and industry. They played direct role in the process of modernisation of the country.
24 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.