午夜剧场

There are many introductory books on history and its methodology. If I were to name a defining feature of this book, it would be that it attempts to explain what historians "actually do" by looking at specific examples of their work.

For example, in a research paper, a historian quotes historical sources and explains the information gleaned from them to a modern reader. At this point, what tense does the historian use? If you look closely, historians surprisingly often use the present tense—phrases like "it is clear that..." or "we can see that..." A historian is not always talking about the past in the past tense; they write in a mode that says, "Here is a source, and here is what we can read from it." In other words, they proceed by sharing a specific text with the reader.

By the way, though there is no direct connection, I started writing tanka poetry around the same time I was writing this book. In the world of tanka, the "utakai" (poetry circle) is a highly valued setting (though not all poets enjoy them). In an utakai, several people spend anywhere from a few minutes to dozens of minutes commenting on a single poem. When I first participated, I immediately noticed that the process was similar to how a historian examines historical sources. Since the language of tanka is poetic, its structure differs from everyday speech, but that doesn't mean one can comment on a poem without regard for the words written in it. In other words, a critique must be grounded in the poem itself. Even if the language is used differently than in daily life, the participants in the circle share that single poem and consider exactly how it differs.

The reason I am writing this is because I thought the work I attempted in this book might be interesting even to those who aren't historians or particularly interested in history. Opportunities to share a set of words and then discuss them exist everywhere in our lives, and doing so properly (and enjoyably) leads to meaningful communication.

Yusaku Matsuzawa

Chikuma Shinsho

288 pages, 1,034 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.