Gregory Smits
Biographic Data
| ID | 275285 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gregory Smits |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gregory |
| FAMILY NAME | Smits |
| SIGNATURE | SMITS G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pennsylvania State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0436-9273 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Kings in All but Name
Maritime Ryukyu, 1050–1650
Why do Ryukyu's official histories locate the origins of its early dynastic founders in Iheya and Izena, small islands located northwest of Okinawa? Why did the Ming court extend favorable trade terms to Ryukyuan rulers? What was the nature of Okinawa's enigmatic principalities, Sannan, Chūzan, and Hokuzan? When and how did the Ryukyu islands become united under a single ruler? Was this Ryukyuan state an empire, why did it go to war with the powe…
Rethinking Early Ryukyuan History
My recent book, Maritime Ryukyu, 1050-1650, is a revisionist history of the Ryukyu islands. Adopting the interdisciplinary approaches of recent Japanese scholarship, Maritime Ryukyu presents a new history of the region, treating the Ryukyu islands not as a unitary, natural political community but as locations within a maritime network that extended northward as far as the southern coastal regions of Korea. This article briefly explains my traject…
Visions of Ryukyu
Between 1609 and 1879, the geographical, political, and ideological status of the Kingdom of Ryukyu (modern Okinawa) was characterized by its ambiguity. It was subordinate to its larger neighbors, China and Japan, yet an integral part of neither. In this innovative and provocative study, Gregory Smits explores early-modern perceptions of Ryukyu and their effect on its political culture and institutions. He describes the major historical circumsta…
Heritage Politics
Reviewed by: Heritage Politics: Shuri Castle and Okinawa’s Incorporation into Modern Japan, 1879–2000 by Tze May Loo Gregory Smits (bio) Heritage Politics: Shuri Castle and Okinawa’s Incorporation into Modern Japan, 1879–2000. By Tze May Loo. Lexington Books, Lanham, Md., 2014. xii, 209 pages. $90.00, cloth; $89.99, E-book. Broadly speaking, this is a book about the politics of culture in Okinawa. Tze May Loo’s main argument is, “The Japanese sta…
Volcanic Hazards as Components of Complex Systems
The past year or so has been a time of particularly vigorous volcanic activity in Japan, or at least activity that has intruded into public awareness. Perhaps most dramatic was the deadly eruption of Mt. Ontake on September 27, 2014, whose 57 fatalities were the first volcano-related deaths in Japan since 1991. On May 29, 2015, Mt. Shindake, off the southern tip of Kyushu, erupted violently, forcing the evacuation of the island of Kuchinoerabu. T…
Examining the Myth of Ryukyuan Pacifism
History is, in many ways, a product of the present, meaning that contemporary myths and circumstances have a way of shaping how we understand the past. As Gregory Smits makes clear, this is no less true of contemporary Okinawa than it is elsewhere. Both at home and abroad, a widely held image of Okinawa presents it as possessing a timeless "peace culture" that contrasts with the warrior culture-infused history of mainland Japan. Smits demonstrate…
The Past Matters
This four part article introduces geophysicist Lori Dengler's assessment of Japan's March 11 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, and its lessons for Japan and the world. It includes: an introduction by Gregory Smits, an interview with Yale Environment 360, a note by Dengler summarizing her ten day site visit to Japan beginning April 30, and an interview with The Asia-Pacific Journal
Danger in the Lowground
The March 11, 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and the tsunami it generated was a classic case of natural hazards such as severe ground motion and seismic sea waves coming into contact with human society to produce a multi-dimensional natural disaster. Throughout Japanese history, writers often initially referred to such events as "unprecedented." As time passed, other commentators would point out that in fact such events were "normal" in that they occurre…
Economic Thought in Early Modern Japan
This volume explores early-modern formations of economic thought and policy in a country widely regarded as having followed a unique, non-Western path to capitalism. In discussing such topics as money and the state, freedom and control, national interest ideology, shogunal politics and networks, case studies of the Saga Domain and Ryukyu Kingdom, Confucian banking, early Meiji entrepreneurship, and relationships between macroeconomic fluctuations…
Warding off Calamity in Japan
Warding off Calamity in Japan: A Comparison of the 1855 Catfish Prints and the 1862 Measles Prints
Earthquake Nation
Reviewed by: Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868-1930 Gregory Smits (bio) Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868-1930. By Gregory Clancey. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2006. xiii, 331 pages. $49.95. The history of modern Japanese architecture frames Gregory Clancey's Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868–1930. The book features a close re…
Prisoners from Nambu
Visions of Ryukyu
Ambiguous Boundaries
Visions of Ryukyu
Visions of Ryukyu
Interpreting Amida
Unspeakable things
This article examines Sai On y s understanding of language and its corre spondence with reality within the context of Confucianism, Buddhism, and the politics of eighteenth-century Ryukyu. Well aware of the limita tions of language in conveying profound metaphysical truths, Sai On crit icized Buddhists for their alleged erudition while displaying considerable rhetorical skill and erudition himself. Though a critic of Buddhism, Sai O n s writings …
The Intersection of Politics and Thought in Ryukyuan Confucianism
Interpreting Amida
Warding off Calamity in Japan
Warding off Calamity in Japan: A Comparison of the 1855 Catfish Prints and the 1862 Measles Prints
Ambiguous Boundaries
Visions of Ryukyu
The Intersection of Politics and Thought in Ryukyuan Confucianism
The Intersection of Politics and Thought in Ryukyuan Confucianism
Unspeakable things
This article examines Sai On y s understanding of language and its corre spondence with reality within the context of Confucianism, Buddhism, and the politics of eighteenth-century Ryukyu. Well aware of the limita tions of language in conveying profound metaphysical truths, Sai On crit icized Buddhists for their alleged erudition while displaying considerable rhetorical skill and erudition himself. Though a critic of Buddhism, Sai O n s writings …
Visions of Ryukyu
Interpreting Amida
Visions of Ryukyu
Ambiguous Boundaries
Visions of Ryukyu
Prisoners from Nambu
Earthquake Nation
Reviewed by: Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868-1930 Gregory Smits (bio) Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868-1930. By Gregory Clancey. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2006. xiii, 331 pages. $49.95. The history of modern Japanese architecture frames Gregory Clancey's Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868–1930. The book features a close re…
Warding off Calamity in Japan
Warding off Calamity in Japan: A Comparison of the 1855 Catfish Prints and the 1862 Measles Prints
Economic Thought in Early Modern Japan
This volume explores early-modern formations of economic thought and policy in a country widely regarded as having followed a unique, non-Western path to capitalism. In discussing such topics as money and the state, freedom and control, national interest ideology, shogunal politics and networks, case studies of the Saga Domain and Ryukyu Kingdom, Confucian banking, early Meiji entrepreneurship, and relationships between macroeconomic fluctuations…
The Past Matters
This four part article introduces geophysicist Lori Dengler's assessment of Japan's March 11 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, and its lessons for Japan and the world. It includes: an introduction by Gregory Smits, an interview with Yale Environment 360, a note by Dengler summarizing her ten day site visit to Japan beginning April 30, and an interview with The Asia-Pacific Journal
Danger in the Lowground
The March 11, 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and the tsunami it generated was a classic case of natural hazards such as severe ground motion and seismic sea waves coming into contact with human society to produce a multi-dimensional natural disaster. Throughout Japanese history, writers often initially referred to such events as "unprecedented." As time passed, other commentators would point out that in fact such events were "normal" in that they occurre…
Examining the Myth of Ryukyuan Pacifism
History is, in many ways, a product of the present, meaning that contemporary myths and circumstances have a way of shaping how we understand the past. As Gregory Smits makes clear, this is no less true of contemporary Okinawa than it is elsewhere. Both at home and abroad, a widely held image of Okinawa presents it as possessing a timeless "peace culture" that contrasts with the warrior culture-infused history of mainland Japan. Smits demonstrate…
Volcanic Hazards as Components of Complex Systems
The past year or so has been a time of particularly vigorous volcanic activity in Japan, or at least activity that has intruded into public awareness. Perhaps most dramatic was the deadly eruption of Mt. Ontake on September 27, 2014, whose 57 fatalities were the first volcano-related deaths in Japan since 1991. On May 29, 2015, Mt. Shindake, off the southern tip of Kyushu, erupted violently, forcing the evacuation of the island of Kuchinoerabu. T…
Heritage Politics
Reviewed by: Heritage Politics: Shuri Castle and Okinawa’s Incorporation into Modern Japan, 1879–2000 by Tze May Loo Gregory Smits (bio) Heritage Politics: Shuri Castle and Okinawa’s Incorporation into Modern Japan, 1879–2000. By Tze May Loo. Lexington Books, Lanham, Md., 2014. xii, 209 pages. $90.00, cloth; $89.99, E-book. Broadly speaking, this is a book about the politics of culture in Okinawa. Tze May Loo’s main argument is, “The Japanese sta…
Visions of Ryukyu
Between 1609 and 1879, the geographical, political, and ideological status of the Kingdom of Ryukyu (modern Okinawa) was characterized by its ambiguity. It was subordinate to its larger neighbors, China and Japan, yet an integral part of neither. In this innovative and provocative study, Gregory Smits explores early-modern perceptions of Ryukyu and their effect on its political culture and institutions. He describes the major historical circumsta…
Maritime Ryukyu, 1050–1650
Why do Ryukyu's official histories locate the origins of its early dynastic founders in Iheya and Izena, small islands located northwest of Okinawa? Why did the Ming court extend favorable trade terms to Ryukyuan rulers? What was the nature of Okinawa's enigmatic principalities, Sannan, Chūzan, and Hokuzan? When and how did the Ryukyu islands become united under a single ruler? Was this Ryukyuan state an empire, why did it go to war with the powe…
Rethinking Early Ryukyuan History
My recent book, Maritime Ryukyu, 1050-1650, is a revisionist history of the Ryukyu islands. Adopting the interdisciplinary approaches of recent Japanese scholarship, Maritime Ryukyu presents a new history of the region, treating the Ryukyu islands not as a unitary, natural political community but as locations within a maritime network that extended northward as far as the southern coastal regions of Korea. This article briefly explains my traject…
Kings in All but Name
Japanese History and Culture (16 works) · History (12 works) · Political science (9 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Aesthetics (5 works) · Anthropology (5 works)