The Study of Women in Early Modern Japan: An Introduction with Bibliography

Back Issues and Publication Schedule: When Early Modern Japan resumed publication last year, two issues arose that we did not fully anticipate. The first was a large number of requests for back issues. As editors we were very pleased with the level of interest in EMJ that these requests revealed. At the moment, however, we have very few copies of back issues left. Other than file copies, most are completely gone. To ameliorate this situation, we plan to place earlier issues of Oboegaki (EMJ’s predecessor) and EMJ on our web site in the near future. Please check: http://emjnet.history.ohio-state.edu/. On a different note, we found that a number of subscribers (especially libraries) were confused by our use of a new volume number. Where, they wondered, was Volume VI, Number 2? The answer was that VI:2 was never published. We also made a decision that for the moment, we would publish only one issue per year, but that all subscribers would continue to get two issues for their standard subscription. However, in addition to this misunderstanding, we found that our record-keeping software was also geared to subscriptions based on a two-issue volume. Consequently, in order to minimize our potential confusion over when subscriptions expire, we have numbered our last issue Volume VII:2 and this issue Volume VIII:1. The editors would very much like to publish on a semi-annual basis. That, however, depends on the volume of suitable material that is submitted to us. EMJ provides a flexible forum in which to publish a variety of professionally oriented material that goes beyond standard scholarly articles and book reviews. Two examples appear in this issue: The review of early modern Japanese women’s history that begins in the next column, and the commentary on the NHK historical drama of the Akō rōnin. We encourage readers to submit manuscripts on current developments in the field in Japan, teaching and pedagogy, notices of books of interest, exhibitions and other fare that does not typically fall within the scope of other professional journals in the field. Editors’ e-mail and postal address are noted on the inside of the front cover of the journal.