Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-276) and index.
Introduction: nativism, exceptionalism, emics, and etics -- Kokugaku, nativism, and "exceptional" Japan -- Sonnō-jō'i : nativism and Bakumatsu Japan -- Proving uniqueness and asserting superiority : the history of exceptionalism -- Seventeenth-century Tokugawa exceptionalism -- From exceptionalism to nativism : Mitogaku and nineteenth-century Japan -- Conclusion : transcending Confucian hierarchy with a logocentric binary