Ch. 3.3 JapanTokugawa Society and Culture

Edo Period The period was characterized by

economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, a stable population, popular enjoyment of arts and culture, recycling of materials, and sustainable forest management.

Both rich and poor benefited from the flowering of Japanese culture.

Tokugawa coinage 1601-1695

Confucian ideal that society depended on agriculture and not urban commerce influenced ideas about Japanese society. Farmers and not merchants were considered the ideal citizens.E

mperorCourt

NobilityShogun

Daimyo

Samurai

Peasants

Craftsmen

Merchants

Figurehead and nominal ruling court.

Military leader and actual ruling class.

Farmers often abandoned the farms and their miseries for the towns and cities.

These ex-farmers helped shift Japan to an urban society by the mid-1700’s.

Edo had grown to perhaps the largest city in the world by the mid-1700’s with a population of more than one million.

Life in these urban areas proved to provide many opportunities for women. Women found jobs in entertainment, textile manufacturing and publishing.

Japanese Culture Cultural events such as

teraditional, ceremonial noh dramas based on tragic themes were attended by samurai. Noh is a chanted drama which evolved from Shinto rituals. The performers wear masks and chant songs and dance. It has been dubbed the “Japanese opera.”

Kabuki The history of kabuki began in 1603, when Okuni,

a miko (young women in the service of the Shinto shrines) began performing a new style of dance drama in the dry river beds of Kyoto. Female performers played both men and women in the comic playlets about ordinary life. Although women performed in the plays in the beginning, the raucous and often violent atmosphere of kabuki performances attracted the attention of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate, and in 1629 women were banned from the stage for the stated purpose of protecting public morals.

Men now perform both male and female roles in the kabuki theater. Dramatic makeup and elaborate costumes are worn by the actors to add drama. The movements of the kabuki have evolved into jerky, stoic movements which resemble less the dance of the original kabuki. https://www.youtube.com/wa

tch?v=67-bgSFJiKc

Japanese woodblock prints and paintings were produced between the 17th and the 20th century, featuring motifs of landscapes, the theater and pleasure quarters. Often, samurai would hang these paintings which sometimes displayed a sophisticated city life.

 19th Century woodblock painting titled Children playing in

the Snow under Plum Trees in bloom.

Literature Literature of the

time consisted of popular fictional stories about self-made merchants or the hardships of life. Saikaku created this new genre of urban fiction known as “floating world.”

Haiku was a popular type of poetry read by the Japanese. It is a form of poetry which does not express ideas, but presents images. The construction of a haiku poem is a 5-7-5 syllable, 3-line verse. Matsuo Basho is the most famous and greatest of all the Japanese haiku poets.

A Bee by Matsuo Basho

A beeStaggers outOf the peony