Introduction

The introduction demonstrates how the volume intervenes in the scholarship on the history and study of children and childhood by challenging Western-centric approaches and broadening the disciplinary frame of the debate over childhood in Japan by assembling the views of scholars in diverse fields. It discusses the limitations of sources when dealing with children, questions when is a child a child, promotes the utility of observing children at play, and explains how the authors engage with the affective education, management, and exploitation of children across different centuries and institutions. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of taking the history of emotions into account in understanding the character of existence for children and adults.