I can recommend quite a few on ancient Japan. However I'm not that good with late heian-edo period. So most of what I recommend would be pre-Heian. Depending on where you are they can be hard to obtain. I'll include general history books as well as books/articles on specific topics. Most of what I recommend are articles. If it's a hook I'll put (book) after it. And most of them are also quite academic, and you can definitely use these for dissertations/essays if that's why you are asking.

General history John Whitney Hall, Cornelius Kiley, Robert Karl Reichauer all wrote great books and articles on the general history of Japan. And Cambridge history of Japan is a good read too. (All books)

Articles wise I can think of:

• Obayashi, Taryo. 1985. Uji and ie society from prehistory to medieval times.
• Batten, Bruce. 1989. State and Frontier in early Japan.
• Morris, Dana. Peasant economy in early Japan.

Gina Barnes wrote a lot about ancient japan-korea mainly in the Yayoi period. Bruce Batten focuses more on Nara period. Read Ross Bender for Nara-Heian periods. Michael Como for Shinto and abstract deity related stuff. Robert Ellwood also wrote on shinto a lot.

Specific topics in Ancient Japan

• Bock, Felicia. 1990. The enthronement rites: the text of engishiki, 927.
• Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. 1991. The emperor of Japan as Deity.
• Stockdale, Jonathan. 2004. Imagining Exile in Early Japan.
• Piggott, Joan. 2013. Gender in the Japanese Administrative Code. (And any other of her books/articles)
• Inoue, Hiroshi. 2014. Japan's ritsuryo system and Shinto shrines arose as twins. And more on shinto see mark teeuwen and Helen hardacre (books as well as articles).

Others Donald Philippi's translated version of Kojiki (book) is also an interesting read. Just keep in mind that it's a translation.

Personal Recommendations My favourite has to be Ellen Goethem's Nagaoka: Japan's forgotten capital (book). Definitely read this if you can get your hands on it. Also also Herman Ooms' imperial politics (book). It's a very difficult read but jam packed with details.

Hope this helps. If there's something more specific that you are looking for, feel free to ask! Edit: Formatting.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Japanese history for me is in the food history. Japan has, and still does have a rich history of food culture to the point that it [washoku] is a considered a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Through the food consumed, you can certainly learn a lot of about the day to day life of the commoners, and a lot about the rituals of japanese food preparation!

Here is a well-sourced introductory to the subject:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ancient.eu/amp/2-1082/

It's been some time since I've formally studied it, so I will try to update this post later with a more detailed list of books on the subject if it interests you!

Ivan Morris's "The World of the Shining Prince" is a fine introduction to Heian Japan. More popular than scholarly, with a heavy focus on court life and the arts, it's an easy and engaging read.

Hi there, those interested in recommending things to OP! While you might have a recommendation to make to OP, this is still a thread on AskHistorians, and we still want the replies here to be to an /r/AskHistorians standard - presumably OP would have asked at /r/history or /r/askreddit if they wanted non-specialist opinion. So give us some indication why the thing you're recommending is valuable, trustworthy or applicable! Posts that provide no context for why you're recommending a particular podcast/book/novel/documentary/etc, and which aren't backed up by a historian-level knowledge on the accuracy and stance of the piece, will be removed.