Yonaoshi: Visions of a Better World

Yonaoshi (世直し、よなおし, world renewal/repair/remaking) is a Japanese term that first appeared in the context of peasant uprisings in the mid-nineteenthth century, signifying the restoration and/or recreation of the world in an ideal form. In the years since, it has been used to evoke a variety of ideas for fixing, redirecting, or recreating all human society in part or entirely. Although arising from a specifically Japanese context, the term nonetheless resonates with experiences and thought among settings around the world.

This volume brings together scholars working in such diverse fields as anthropology, art history, literature, history and philosophy, focusing their research on regions across the world to discuss the concept of Yonaoshi in a diverse variety of contexts – temporal, spatial, disciplinary – and the global connections it reveals.