Browse in a bookshop in Tokugawa Japan

by fulltimestudent 12 Replies latest social current

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  fulltimestudent

  During the 268 years (approx) of rule by a military dictatorship in Japan (approx.1600 to 1868) Japan developed a growing, prosperous middle class and a proto-modernity that enabled the quick conversion to western modernity in the late 19th century. A feature of the era was a growing book publishing industry. People could make a living as authors, artists/illustrators, printers and selling books. Erotica was particularly popular (naturally!).

  What was it like to browse an Edo booksho? The Smithsonian has an exhibition that provides an opportunity to imagine the experience:

  http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/hand-held.asp

  and

  http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2013/04/would-you-like-to-browse-an-edo-period-japanese-bookstore/
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  fulltimestudent

  

  A scene Katsushika Hokusai's play, " Toto Shokei ichiran (circa 1800)

  In the bookshop you may have browsed a book with this woodcut print. (Illustrated books were very popular) It portrays a performance at a Kabuki theatre. We can see enough of the audience to appreciate they are enjoying themselves. Many are likely watching the yellow clad actor on the left. As you see, this performer is young and slender, and since women were not permitted to perform in theatres, this would have been a young man known as onnagata, who were trained to perform female roles. The popular ones performed with great skill, and their performances were discussed in the tea-houses and inns. The owners of the theatre would also make these young actors available at night for parties, (if you could afford to pay for them).
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  fulltimestudent

  Finished with that book, he next one you pick up may have scenes of Japan. United under the military dictatorship and at peace, the emerging Japanese middle class developed a taste for travel, and with that travelogues of Japan.

  Perhaps, this image may have caught your eye.

  

  Kitao masayoshi, "Kyoto meisho Ehon Miyako no nishiki," circa 1787.
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  fulltimestudent

  Another book that may attract your attention was one publishing some of Hiroshige's wonderful woodcut prints:

  This is his representation of the Pleasure quarter near Edo (modern Tokyo) There are 3 Kabuki theaters by the right of the street. The area was named "Saruwaka-machi", from "Saruwaka Kanzaburo (Nakamura Kanzaburo?)". He was the founder of Edo Kabuki. The sketch provides a great impression of the sophisticated life of the Tokugawan middle classes
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  zeb

  Fabulous. But I am ever distressed that such a society could later be also so hideously brutal.
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  Hortensia

  I've seen hiroshige prints before, lovely lovely work
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  fulltimestudent

  So just for you, Hortensia, this nice print of a sudden rainstorm, catching some travellers out in the open.

  Hiroshige did a series of woodcuts illustrating the 53 staging stations on the Tokaido, the road that connected the old capital of Kyoto to Edo. This illustration must have represented the road just outside the staging post named Shono, the 45th post. The wonderful thing about his work is in the detail. Here, he catches that moment when the storm breaks. The travellers, concentrating on their journey and hoping that they can arrive somewhere before the thunderstorm breaks, realise they're in trouble. Two give up and run back down hill. Note their straw raincoats and umbrella. See the characters on the umbrella, they spell the name Hoeido, the publisher of Hiroshige's art work. Was that a little simple advertising for his book publisher?

  The two porters with the sedan chair have no choice - without straw raincoats they just have to cop the storm. The lioncloth of one has ridden up and exposes his bare bum to the storm. They can't run, without risking tipping the passenger out into the mud. The passenger is uncomfortable too, see his hand trying to hold downhthe cloth covering that protects him.

  Hiroshige's dynamic composition, with the angled driving rain juxtaposed at almost 90 degrees to the bending/waving bamboo forest captures the tension and confusion of the sudden onset of the storm.

  We learn a lot about Tokugawan society from the work. Some had enough money to employ others to overcome the discomforts. Other prints demonstrate the huge convoy of the Daimyo's (Lords) on the move. These and their chief retainers were at the top of society. And, bare essentials of the porters illustrates that the lowest rung of society had simple lives. Gary Leupp, a Professor at Tufts University has written extensively (from extant records) of the lives of this lowest level. See his book, Servants, Shophands, and Laborers in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan (1992)

  You see Hortensia, I can't resist these books, I have three quite expensive books and I know if I saw another one - I'd give in and buy it.
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  fulltimestudent

  Zeb, I find a similar tensions in my thinking about the Japanese.

  There is so much to admire about them (in my studies), and yet !!!

  I'm old enough to remember the return to Australia of ex-prisoners of war that had been imprisoned in Japanese prison camps. My father's best friend was one, and I remember vividly the day he came back to his home. My father went to see him and came home with a grim expression on his face, muttering over and over , "the Bastards, the bastards."
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  Aussie Oz

  Do not make the mistake of condeming the Japanese without looking at the western worlds track record.

  i find little in caucasian history that is noble and admirable.

  Oz
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  fulltimestudent

  You're right Aussie! It would be a mistake to see the perceived cruelty of the Japanese military administrations during WW2 in isolation. The record is quite clear, that Japanese cruelty was real and reasonable well attested. The post-war Japanese governments that have down played that cruelty, have not served their nation well. But, the Japanese are not alone. The British program of vicious cruelty toward Kenyans during their struggle of independence was recently exposed. And, that is only one example.