The Ashio Riot of 1907

“[A] masterwork. . . . The Ashio Riot, the first major history of Japanese mining labour published in English, distills decades of research into a deftly crafted study of the interactions among technological change, the labour process, corporate and state strategy, and labour organisation and activism. Nimura is remarkably successful in recreating the lived experiences of miners and in challenging the dominant paradigms in Japanese labour scholarship.” - W. Donald Smith, Labour History Review

“[T]his is a meticulous piece of empirical research, which is also of major significance to the historiographical context in which it was conceived and produced. . . . We should welcome the appearance of this excellent translation, and the greater accessibility of the work of Japanese historians that it signifies, and hope that it will be appreciated by at least some of the wider audience to which it is now made available.” - Janet Hunter, Royal Asiatic Society

“[T]his social history of mining is simultaneously an intellectual history of disputes among Japanese labor historians. . . . [The Ashio Riot of 1907] makes a major contribution to our understanding of Japanese labor history. Thanks to this translation, Anglophone readers can understand not only how Japanese companies and their workers produced ore, but also how Japanese historians have produced social history.” - , Monumenta Nipponica

“For students of comparative labor history as well as for those interested in the industrialization of Japan this book is a useful new addition that provides many important insights into the way in which premodern forms of labor organization shaped and limited the emergence of a modern labor force in Japan’s leading mining complex. The translation of Nimura’s award winning study has been ably carried out by Terry Boardman and Andrew Gordon. The latter deserves further thanks for editing the work in an effective manner, allowing the essence of Nimura’s arguments to be retained in this abridged version of the original.” - F. G. Notehelfer , Journal of Social History

“The introduction, prologue, conclusions, and epilogue together offer a valuable overview of the Ashio incident and its place in both the narrower context of Japanese labor history and the broader framework of labor studies worldwide, and these components are general enough to be of value even to undergraduates. . . . [A] valuable contribution to labor studies.” - , Choice

“The translators are to be congratulated for rendering Nimura’s vivid description and lucid analysis into highly readable English. . . . [P]ersuasive. . . . This is a fine work of social history.” - , Journal of Asian History

“Using an impressive array of primary sources, maps, prints, and photographs, [Nimura] superbly recreates the scene of the riot, which he himself visited. . . . Nimura’s work is also intriguing because he uses this case study of the Ashio riot to test paradigms and methodologies that long held sway in Japanese studies of labor history. . . . [He] offers fresh perspectives, including international comparisons. . . .” - Stephen S. Large, Journal of Japanese Studies

"Nimura Kazuo’s book is an impressive example of the historian’s craft: rich empirically, inventive methodologically, engaged and provocative interpretively. . . . By any measure, this book stands as a major work of labor history, a model of painstaking research and keen historical analysis that deserves a wide audience." - William M. Tsutsui , American Historical Review

"Nimura is by all measures a leading figure in the field of Japanese labor history. And he has much to tell us about how labor in Japan was transformed in the Meiji period from traditional structures to a newer and more ‘modern’ system." - Fred G. Notehelfer, UCLA Center for Japanese Studies