Hard Times in the Hometown

Examines the story of Kaminoseki, a small town on Japan’s Inland Sea. Once one of the most prosperous ports in the country, Kaminoseki fell into profound economic decline following Japan’s reengagement with the West in the late nineteenth century. Using a recently discovered archive and oral histories, Martin Dusinberre reconstructs the lives of households and townspeople as they tried to make sense of their changing place in the world.