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Seismic Japan is an exciting work of social history. What distinguished the Ansei Edo Earthquake from its many predecessors in Japan were the accidental circumstances of time (a spiritually charged period of social and political instability) and place (Edo was Japan's largest city and the headquarters of the Tokugawa shogun's government). Smits argues that the 1855 quake prompted a rethinking of politics and religion in Japan. It opened new avenues for the scientific study of earthquakes and new ways of mitigating their consequences. It also exposed the incompetence of the Tokugawa rulers, who had failed to deal effectively with Commodore Perry's Black Ships in 1853 and 1854 and were similarly unable to combat the forces of nature in 1855.--M. William Steele, International Christian University Monumenta Nipponica, 70:2 (2015)

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Gregory Smits is professor of history and Asian studies at Pennsylvania State University.

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