Routledge Handbook of Premodern Japanese History - Paperbackby Karl F. Friday (Editor) Scholarship on premodern Japan has grown spectacularly over the past four decades, in terms of both sophistication and volume. A new approach has developed, marked by a higher reliance on primary documents, a shift away from the history of elites to broader explorations of social structures, and a re examination of many key assumptions. As a result, the picture of the early Japanese past now taught by specialists differs