Warfare serves as a constant backdrop in historical fiction from the Edo period. This paper considers the agendas and motivations underlying such literary depictions of war in a time of peace. Particular attention is devoted to so-called “tales of the strange” (kidan 奇談) from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Ultimately, it is argued that while late Edo historical fiction possesses a complicated, multivalent relationship with the past, this relationship often reflects authors who were closely attuned to contemporary political concerns.
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