contributor
26,975
edits
Changes
From SamuraiWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search→Popular Culture
Textiles were perhaps at the center of Japan's proto-industrial economic growth over the course of the Edo period. Cotton came to replace ramie (hemp cloth) as the predominant fabric worn by commoners, and weaving and dyeing, among other stages of the textile production process, came to be among the most prominent instances of cottage industry - what has also been termed the "putting out system" - bringing proto-industrial production work to many rural areas and linking growers, weavers, dyers, wholesalers, and retailers in trade networks spanning the entire archipelago. In 1736, the amount of textiles coming into [[Osaka]] from these various rural production areas included 44.6% cotton, 14.2% [[Nishijin]] (Kyoto) silks, 12.1% other silks, 9.5% imported Chinese cloth, and 9.4% hemp/ramie, altogether totalling 12,000 ''kan'' of silver worth of goods.<ref>Ikegami, 284.</ref>
Textiles were perhaps at the center of Japan's proto-industrial economic growth over the course of the Edo period. Cotton came to replace ramie (hemp cloth) as the predominant fabric worn by commoners, and weaving and dyeing, among other stages of the textile production process, came to be among the most prominent instances of cottage industry - what has also been termed the "putting out system" - bringing proto-industrial production work to many rural areas and linking growers, weavers, dyers, wholesalers, and retailers in trade networks spanning the entire archipelago. In 1736, the amount of textiles coming into [[Osaka]] from these various rural production areas included 44.6% cotton, 14.2% [[Nishijin]] (Kyoto) silks, 12.1% other silks, 9.5% imported Chinese cloth, and 9.4% hemp/ramie, altogether totalling 12,000 ''kan'' of silver worth of goods.<ref>Ikegami, 284.</ref>
===Popular Culture===
===Arts & Popular Culture===
Many aspects of Japanese culture which are today stereotypically considered to be quite "traditional" in fact had their start in the Edo period. [[Kabuki]] and ''[[joruri|jôruri]]'' puppet theatre (also known as ''bunraku'') developed over the course of the 17th century, reaching their climax around 1690-1750. ''[[Ukiyo-e]]'', or "pictures of the floating world", developed over the course of the 17th century, emerging in earnest in the Genroku period<ref>Lane, Richard. ''Images from the Floating World.'' Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky, 1978. pp11-34ff.</ref>; but full-color prints did not appear until [[1765]]<ref>Lane. pp308-9</ref>.
Many aspects of Japanese culture which are today stereotypically considered to be quite "traditional" in fact had their start in the Edo period. [[Kabuki]] and ''[[joruri|jôruri]]'' puppet theatre (also known as ''bunraku'') developed over the course of the 17th century, reaching their climax around 1690-1750. ''[[Ukiyo-e]]'', or "pictures of the floating world", developed over the course of the 17th century, emerging in earnest in the Genroku period<ref>Lane, Richard. ''Images from the Floating World.'' Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky, 1978. pp11-34ff.</ref>; but full-color prints did not appear until [[1765]]<ref>Lane. pp308-9</ref>. Whereas non-religious printing was extremely minimal prior to the Edo period, over the course of the period [[printing and publishing]] quickly became a massive and prominent element of everyday life, at least in the urban areas, with thousands upon thousands of different books and prints being produced, often in print runs in the thousands of copies, and widely circulated not only in the urban areas but throughout the archipelago.
The [[Yoshiwara]] and other realms of the courtesans likewise did not appear until the Edo period, and developed over the course of the period from a simple place for prostitution into the highly romanticized and ritualized subject of countless works of art and literature, both contemporary and modern.
The [[Yoshiwara]] and other realms of the courtesans likewise did not appear until the Edo period, and developed over the course of the period from a simple place for prostitution into the highly romanticized and ritualized subject of countless works of art and literature, both contemporary and modern. Similarly, the [[geisha]] only first emerged in the Edo period, and female geisha only first outnumbered male geisha sometime after 1750. Numerous schools and styles of dance, as well as aspects of Japanese fashion, owe their origins to the "floating world" of the courtesans and the geisha.
The samurai, meanwhile, patronized and pursued a number of "elite" artistic forms which matured or blossomed in this period. Samurai retained their swords, which became a prime marker of their samurai status, and various martial ideals remained core elements of the ideology of samurai identity. However, the samurai were no longer true warriors, and their martial identity became a more abstract, conceptual one; within a few generations, a samurai's training in martial arts, for example, was no longer truly a matter of practical skills applicable to an actual encounter, but was more a matter of art, correct form, discipline, and spiritual focus, or, as one scholar has written, "a matter of formal gymnastics and disciplined choreography."<ref>Schirokauer, et al., 136.</ref> ''[[Bushido|Bushidô]]'', or the "Way of the Warrior", was likewise codified and established in the Edo period. Though it certainly drew upon earlier notions of honor, loyalty, and a particular code of ethics, the concept only truly coalesced in this period. [[Tsuramoto Tashiro]], the compiler of the ''[[Hagakure]]'', along with [[Miyamoto Musashi]], [[Yagyu Jubei|Yagyû Jûbei]], and many other great philosophers of the warrior code lived during this period. In securing, or honing, their position as the elite class, the samurai embraced a variety of arts, including painting, calligraphy, certain forms of pottery arts, [[tea ceremony]], and [[Noh]] theatre, as well as ideologies of refinement, including [[Neo-Confucianism|Confucianism]] and the notion of pursuing or perfecting a balance between ''bun'' (the literary) and ''bu'' (the martial).
While some of the most major schools of painting, such as the [[Kano school|Kanô school]], [[Tosa school]], and [[Rinpa]], had their start in the late Sengoku, all of these developed much further into their "mature" "traditional" forms in the Edo period. The vast majority of famous Japanese painters and paintings date to the Edo period. [[Pottery]], similarly, had major infusions of new styles and techniques in the 1590s as Hideyoshi's armies brought kidnapped artisans from Korea, but numerous regional styles which trace their origins to those Korean potters only developed into their more "mature" "traditional" forms over the course of the Edo period. [[Shamisen]] music, too, was first introduced in the mid-to-late 16th century, but the various styles and schools of ''[[kouta]]'', ''[[nagauta]]'', ''[[jiuta]]'', ''gidayû bushi'', ''kiyomoto bushi'', ''tokiwazu bushi'', and ''[[tsugaru jamisen]]'' which accompany geisha dances, bunraku and kabuki theatre, and so forth, or which are played alone, only developed in the Edo period.
The wide circulation of books, along with the increased accessibility of travel, density of urban spaces, increased economic prosperity (for some), and other developments combined also to create a very lively cultural life for many in both the larger cities and elsewhere in the realm. In the large cities of Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka in particular, social circles organized around cultural pursuits became a major site not only of socialization and the kind of interpersonal networking that Eiko Ikegami emphasizes as playing the important socio-political role of "publics," but were also sites of cultural development and spread. Poetry, dance, shamisen and [[koto]] music, [[ikebana]], [[tea ceremony]], amateur [[Noh]] chanting, and many other arts became much more popularly (i.e. among commoners) widespread during this period, where previously they had been restricted to the realms of elite patronage. Teachers traveled and offered lessons, running large workshops on a weekly or monthly basis and seeing students regularly for private lessons, just as teachers of such traditional arts might do today; relatively affordable woodblock-printed books also circulated which allowed people to teach themselves, or to at least be aware of these arts. Countless schools of traditional arts surely owe their survival, if not their origins, to this popular explosion of interest in cultural pursuits.<ref>Ikegami, ''Bonds of Civility''.</ref>
The samurai, meanwhile, patronized and pursued a number of "elite" artistic forms which matured or blossomed in this period. Samurai retained their swords, which became a prime marker of their samurai status, and various martial ideals remained core elements of the ideology of samurai identity. However, the samurai were no longer true warriors, and their martial identity became a more abstract, conceptual one; within a few generations, a samurai's training in martial arts, for example, was no longer truly a matter of practical skills applicable to an actual encounter, but was more a matter of art, correct form, discipline, and spiritual focus, or, as one scholar has written, "a matter of formal gymnastics and disciplined choreography."<ref>Schirokauer, et al., 136.</ref> Certain notions of the "Way of the Warrior" were likewise codified and established in the Edo period. Though it certainly drew upon earlier notions of honor, loyalty, and a particular code of ethics, the concept only truly coalesced in this period. [[Tsuramoto Tashiro]], the compiler of the ''[[Hagakure]]'', along with [[Miyamoto Musashi]], [[Yagyu Jubei|Yagyû Jûbei]], and many other great philosophers of the warrior code lived during this period. In securing, or honing, their position as the elite class, the samurai embraced a variety of arts, including painting, calligraphy, certain forms of pottery arts, [[tea ceremony]], and [[Noh]] theatre, as well as ideologies of refinement, including [[Neo-Confucianism|Confucianism]] and the notion of pursuing or perfecting a balance between ''bun'' (the literary) and ''bu'' (the martial). Still, the concept remained vague enough, not too widespread or well-established in any single agreed-upon version, that [[Nitobe Inazo|Nitobe Inazô]] was able to believe he was coining the word "''[[bushido|bushidô]]''" in [[1900]].
*ukiyo-e, urbanization, kabuki & bunraku, kibyoshi/sharebon, pleasure quarters (Yoshiwara)
*ukiyo-e, urbanization, kabuki & bunraku, kibyoshi/sharebon, pleasure quarters (Yoshiwara)
