Contents -- Preface -- "Met vriendschapelijke groet" -- Introduction: Aspects of intellectual life in Edo Japan -- Intellectual Networks -- Entertainment and education: An antiquarian society in Edo, 1824-25 -- The prince who collected scholars: The network of Myōhō-in no miya Shinnin Hōshinnō (1768-1805) -- Legitimizing Tokugawa Rule -- "Not perfectly good": Some Edo responses to Confucius's characterization of Kings Wen and Wu -- Confucianism versus feudalism: The Shōheizaka academy and late Tokugawa reform -- Minding the gaps: An early Edo history of Sino-Japanese poetry -- The Way of Heaven in 1816: Ideology or rhetoric? -- The history and miraculous efficacy of the Black Amida: Its significance for Zōjōji and its role in the diffusion of Tokugawa myths -- Insincere blessings? Court-Bakufu relations and the creation of engi scrolls in honour of Tokugawa Ieyasu -- Western Connections -- What's in a name? Padre João Rodriguez's discussion of naming practices in his Short grammar of the Japanese language -- The Dūfu Haruma: An explosive dictionary -- The Kurisaki school of sword wound surgery: From Sengoku to Genroku -- Nagasaki to Edo (via Manila) -- List of publications by Prof. Dr. Willem Jan Boot -- List of contributors -- Index.