Dear colleagues,

please allow me to draw your attention to my new book on public statuary in modern Japan:

Men in Metal. A Topography of Public Bronze Statuary in Modern Japan (Leiden: Brill, 2020).

https://brill.com/view/title/39541

"In Men in Metal, Sven Saaler examines Japanese public statuary as a central site of historical memory from its beginnings in the Meiji period through the twenty-first century. Saaler shows how the elites of the modern Japanese nation-state went about constructing an iconography of national heroes to serve their agenda of instilling national (and nationalist) thinking into the masses. Based on a wide range of hitherto untapped primary sources, Saaler combines data-driven quantitative analysis and in-depth case studies to identify the categories and historical figures that dominated public space. Men in Metal also explores the agents behind this visualized form of the politics of memory and introduces historiographical controversies surrounding statue-building in modern Japan."

Contents
Introduction
Part I
Chapter 1: Roots
Chapter 2: How Not to Be Seen: The Hidden Statuary of Emperor Meiji
Chapter 3: Beginnings: Statues of Imperial Figures
Chapter 4: Patterns of Social Behavior and Participation
PART II
Chapter 5: A Quantitative Analysis of Public Statuary in Modern Japan
Chapter 6: A Typology of Public Statuary in Modern Japan
PART III
Chapter 7: Mobilizing Japan's "Men in Metal" in the Asia-Pacific War
Chapter 8: Colonial Statues and Their Legacy
Chapter 9: The Resurgence of Public Statuary in Postwar Japan
Chapter 10: Public Statuary since the 1960s
Conclusion
Bibliography

Some of the themes of the book are also addressed in this short article, and in a recent podcast.

Until end of November, a discount is available--the code can be accessed here:

https://www2.brill.com/webmail/319031/282443082/61935f99626c943cd9af3fa50bf5d96349fd683b1fcf41956e0023a5560e534f

Thank you for your attention,
Sven Saaler