Provincial Merchants and Japanese Imperial Expansion

FAIN: FO-262028-19

Jun Uchida
Stanford University (Stanford, CA 94305-2004)

Research and writing leading to publication of a book on the global activities of entrepreneurs from the Japanese province of Omi (present-day Shiga) and their role in Japanese imperial expansion.  

I seek support to write a global history of the so-called Omi merchants, entrepreneurial peddlers from the province of Omi (present-day Shiga) whose wholesale activities once spanned the early modern Japanese archipelago. In the course of prior research on colonial Korea, I was surprised to discover that Omi merchants and their descendants played a disproportionate role in Japan’s empire, creating a transpacific diaspora that stretched from Seoul to Vancouver. My forthcoming book shows how Omi-Shiga natives capitalized on the commercial legacies of their forebears to expand into new domains during the modern era—from foreign trade and emigration to work, study, and travel abroad. By comparing this little-known merchant diaspora with its Chinese and European counterparts, the project brings into productive dialogue the seldom-paired histories of region and empire, even as it bridges the disciplinary divides between early modern and modern, local and global, colonialism and migration.

Associated Products

Provincializing Empire: Omi Merchants in the Japanese Transpacific Diaspora (Book)
Title: Provincializing Empire: Omi Merchants in the Japanese Transpacific Diaspora
Author: Jun Uchida
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=9780520390119
Primary URL Description: WorldCat entry (9780520390119)
Publisher: University of California Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780520390119

Provincializing Empire: Omi Merchants in the Japanese Transpacific Diaspora (Book)
Title: Provincializing Empire: Omi Merchants in the Japanese Transpacific Diaspora
Author: Jun Uchida
Abstract: Provincializing Empire explores the global history of Japanese expansion through a regional lens. It rethinks the nation-centered geography and chronology of empire by uncovering the pivotal role of expeditionary merchants from Ōmi (present-day Shiga Prefecture) and their modern successors. Tracing their lives from the early modern era, and writing them into the global histories of empire, diaspora, and capitalism, Jun Uchida offers an innovative analysis of expansion through a story previously untold: how the nation's provincials built on their traditions to create a transpacific diaspora that stretched from Seoul to Vancouver, while helping shape the modern world of transoceanic exchange.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520390119/provincializing-empire
Primary URL Description: Provincializing Empire explores the global history of Japanese expansion through a regional lens. It rethinks the nation-centered geography and chronology of empire by uncovering the pivotal role of expeditionary merchants from Ōmi (present-day Shiga Prefecture) and their modern successors. Tracing their lives from the early modern era, and writing them into the global histories of empire, diaspora, and capitalism, Jun Uchida offers an innovative analysis of expansion through a story previously untold: how the nation’s provincials built on their traditions to create a transpacific diaspora that stretched from Seoul to Vancouver, while helping shape the modern world of transoceanic exchange.
Secondary URL: https://luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1525/luminos.144/
Secondary URL Description: Provincializing Empire explores the global history of Japanese expansion through a regional lens. It rethinks the nation-centered geography and chronology of empire by uncovering the pivotal role of expeditionary merchants from Ōmi (present-day Shiga Prefecture) and their modern successors. Tracing their lives from the early modern era, and writing them into the global histories of empire, diaspora, and capitalism, Jun Uchida offers an innovative analysis of expansion through a story previously untold: how the nation’s provincials built on their traditions to create a transpacific diaspora that stretched from Seoul to Vancouver, while helping shape the modern world of transoceanic exchange.
Access Model: open access
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 9780520390119
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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