Mark Ravina (born 1961) is a scholar of early modern ( Tokugawa) Japanese history and Japanese Studies at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, where he has taught since 2019. He currently holds the

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...

Chair in Japanese Studies. From 1991 to 2019 he taught at

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

. Outside of academic circles, he is likely most well known for his book ''The Last Samurai: the Life and Battles of

Saigō Takamori was a Japanese samurai and nobleman. He was one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history and one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration. Living during the late Edo and early Meiji periods, he later led the Satsum ...

'', published in 2004. Much of Ravina's scholarly work centers on notions of national identity and state-building in early modern Japan. His book ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan'' (published in 1999) centers on this topic, as do a number of journal articles and talks given by Ravina. He is one of only a few scholars actively working to challenge those who equate the Tokugawa shogunate's authority with the "state" in Japan in this period. Working off of the ideas and terms coined by Takeshi Mizubayashi, Ravina explores the notion of a "compound state" in which the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'' (feudal lords) are not merely governors in the service of the Tokugawa regime, but rulers of semi-independent states within the greater Tokugawa state. This alternative to the traditional view of a monolithic, unified

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

Japanese state invites not only rethinking of a great many aspects of Edo period history, but also engages with a wider ongoing scholarly discourse on the notions of "nation" and "state" in general. Numerous scholars, including Luke S. Roberts,

Ronald Toby Ronald P. Toby (1942 — ) is an American historian, academic, writer and Japanologist. Early life Toby earned a doctorate in Japanese history from Columbia University in 1977. Career As a university professor, Toby's teaching experience ...

and

John Whitney Hall John Whitney Hall (September 13, 1916 – October 21, 1997),"John Whitney Hall papers, 1930–1999", Yale University Library was an American historian of Japan who specialized in premodern Japanese history. His life work was recognized by the Japane ...

have made reference to his work, engaging with it in their own pursuits of a reexamination of notions of statehood and national identity in the Tokugawa period. The influence of this new discourse on statehood is evident in the use of the plural "Japanese States" in the title of the newest book by

Timon Screech Timon Screech (born 28 September 1961 in Birmingham) was professor of the history of art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London from 1991 - 2021, when he left the UK in protest over Brexit. He is now a profess ...

, a specialist on Edo period art history: ''The Shogun's Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760-1829.'' His most recent book ''To Stand with the Nations of the World: Japan's Meiji Restoration in World History'' won the 2018 book prize from the Southeast Conference of the

Association for Asian Studies The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The Association provides members with an Annua ...

''Land and Lordship'' was translated into Japanese and released as ''Meikun no satetsu'' in 2004. Ravina also served as a guest consultant in two documentary films about the samurai and Tokugawa Japan in 2003, following upon the success of the film ''

The Last Samurai ''The Last Samurai'' is a 2003 epic period action drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz from a story devised by Logan. The film stars Ken Watanabe in the t ...

''. The title and subject of his book on Saigō Takamori, upon whom the film's central character Lord Katsumoto was based, was purely coincidence. Having published a number of articles on state-building and national identity within Tokugawa Japan, Ravina is now turning towards addressing the subject as it pertains to Tokugawa Japan in a more global context. He earned his BA from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1983, and his MA and PhD from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1988 and 1991 respectively.

Selected publications

Books

* ''To Stand with the Nations of the World: Japan's Meiji Restoration in World History'' Oxford University Press, 2018. () * ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan.'' Stanford University Press, 1999. () * ''The Last Samurai: the Life and Battles of Saigō Takamori.'' John Wiley & Sons, 2004. ()

Articles

* ''State-building and Political Economy in Early-modern Japan.'' The Journal of Asian studies. 54, no. 4, (1995): 997 * ''Japanese state-making in Global Context: World culture and Meiji Japan.'' in Richard Boyd and Tak-wing Ngo (eds.) ''State Making in Asia'' 2006. () * ''State-making in Global Context:Japan in a World of Nation-States.'' in Joshua Fogel (ed.) ''The Teleology of the Modern Nation-State: Japan and China.'' U Penn Press, 2004. ()

References

External links

Faculty page at Emory University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ravina, Mark 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians of Japan Emory University faculty Living people 1961 births American male non-fiction writers Columbia College (New York) alumni Stanford University alumni