"Outcasts Before the Law: Pollution and Purification in Medieval Japan"

The summary for Currents in Medieval Japanese History: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey P. Mass, featuring Professor Keirstead's essay "Outcasts Before the Law: Pollution and Purification in Medieval Japan," is featured below. Both the summary and the book cover's image on the right are courtesy of Figueroa Press.

Collected to memorialize the career and teachings of a leading authority on medieval Japanese history, these essays contribute cutting edge historical analysis of a multifaceted array of topics. These eleven illuminating essays focus on the social, economic, regional and institutional dynamics of Japan’s medieval era, and subject existing understandings and conceptualizations of this period to penetrating scrutiny. The essays individually and collectively advance historical inquiry about medieval times to new levels of perception, and provide new points of departure for the field and for those interested in comparative studies more broadly.