The Edo Period--Consequences

An Edo period printshop by Utagawa Kunisada (1786 – 1865).

In the last unit, we discussed the draconian measures the Tokugawa shōgunate put into place to end the constant civil wars of the previous century. In brief, they were:

1: Implement a rigid class-based social hierarchy.

2; Provide Confucian-based education.

3; Suppress daimyō ability to revolt and/or wage war.

4: Isolate Japan from the outside world.

Together, these measures had consequences; some obvious and some not so obvious.

Isolation: The isolation of Japan from the outside world led to cultural evolution without external influence. Japan found its own unique way forward.

Education: The emphasis on education led to the greatly increased production of books. Both text and images were printed from carved wooden blocks, a technology called hanga (xylography). Besides higher literacy rates, there developed a better appreciation for literature and the arts in the general populous.

Population Explosion: When daimyō spent mandatory time in Edo, they came with family, retainers, and troops. It would be beneath the dignity of a daimyō to be unaccompanied by an impressive retinue. It could be politically disadvantageous, too, a very serious concern. The population of Edo swelled. A 1721 census estimated that Edo's province had a population of over 1.9 million people. Males (soldiers, etc.) were a strong majority. In the words of one contemporary writer, Edo had become a "city of bachelors."

Rigid Social Structure: It was expensive for daimyō to maintain those large retinues. Merchants satisfied the need for food, clothing, accommodations, and a host of other things, resulting in a flow of wealth from the upper classes to the lower ones; in particular the merchants on the bottom rung.

The great Edo fire of 1657 didn't help. As much as 60% of the city was destroyed, and an estimated more than 100,000 people were killed. Many daimyō had to go into debt in order to recover from their losses, further enriching the merchant class. This was the beginning of Japan's transition from a rice-based economy to something resembling a modern one.

It didn't help the lower classes to be wealthy if they couldn't spend their wealth. Sumptuary laws assured that people on the lower social rungs could not appear to be better off than their social superiors in any way without getting into serious trouble.

Uses for that wealth were found.

The Floating World

Hiding wealth

One way that merchants and artisans used their wealth was to spend some of it on luxury items that could be hidden. Home interiors, for example, could contain fine furnishings while home exteriors remained ordinary, even shabby. Servants could be hired. Costly fabrics could be worn in homes. When venturing outdoors, wearing fine clothing was safe as long it was covered by an outer layer of plain material.

There were instances when wealthy families were stripped of all their possessions and exiled from Edo when viewed as being disrespectful, merely because they were seen dressed above their station.

The Yoshiwara (Moor of Rushes) District

Spending money on recreation and other diversions was usually safe. The most important outlets were theater and prostitutes. Prostitutes had always been available from street walkers and unorganized brothels, but in 1618, a group of entrepreneurs gained permission to build a special district in Edo devoted to the practice. Named after the marsh it replaced, the Yoshiwara district grew to be a city within a city, containing hundreds of brothels with thousands of resident courtesans, attendants, and service providers.

This print from Utagawa Hiroshige's (1797 – 1858) Famous Places in Edo series shows a Yoshiwara street scene during spring, with teahouses and shops lining the street and a large cherry tree in bloom. Note the pedestrian groups and the predominance of female figures.

This night scene in the Yoshiwara district was done by Katsushika Ōi (1800 – 1866), daughter of the much more famous Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849).

Courtesans had their own social structure. The highest level was called tayu. Tayu were reserved for the wealthiest clients and highest government officials. Their talents, besides their primary function, included the ability to sing, dance, play the samisen (a 3-stringed musical instrument), and engage in intelligent, well informed conversation about all manner of subjects.

This is one of Kitagawa Utamaro's (1753 – 1806) Flowers of Edo: Girl Ballad Singers. There is reason to think that she is not a tayu, but the picture gives the idea.

Tayu were treated almost like royalty. They were highly admired, allowed to wear the most expensive clothing made with the newest fabrics and patterns, and adopt the latest styles. Everywhere they went, tayu were accompanied by at least two attendants and were subject to intense public curiosity.

Tayu of the Yoshiwara district were the original inspiration for ukiyo-e.

There is a mistaken belief that geisha were prostitutes. Introduced in brothels around 1750, they took over some of the entertainment duties of tayu, but under normal circumstances in their professional capacity, geisha were never intimate with men.

Indoor kabuki performances were still elaborate and eccentric, and they became enormously popular. All-day performances would be staged, and the idea of attending kabuki became as much of an attraction as the performances. Top performers attained a status comparable to today's rock stars or movie idols.

This ukiyo-e documents what the interior of a kabuki theater looked like during a performance.

The Tōshūsai Sharaku (fl. 1794 – 1795) print below features kabuki actors Bando Zenji (on the left) and Sawamura Yokogoro II (on the right) portraying characters Benkei and Yoshitsune respectively in the play, Yoshitsune of the Thousand Cherry-Trees (Yoshitsune Sanbon Zakura).

Shunga

Moronobu's first pictures were shunga (pornography) featuring tayu at work with their customers. Multi-sheet sets were sold with the top sheet featuring a suggestive scene like the one below that Moronobu did in the 1680s. The sword identifies the man, but in reality, swords were banned in the Yoshiwara district.

Moronobu's prints were instantly successful and didn't just appeal to prurient interests. The public was intensely curious about everything to do with the Yoshiwara district. Pictures were produced that showed courtesans entertaining clients, courtesans with musical instruments or dancing. Courtesans were shown behind the scenes relaxing, preparing for or coming out of baths; courtesans grooming, etc. Courtesans were shown wearing elegant and fashionable clothing, and almost always, courtesans with superbly coifed hair.

This is another Moronobu print showing an interior scene in the Yoshiwara district.

Bijin-ga

This is one of Harumobu's nishiki-e, Young Man Protecting a Woman from Rain. It is an example of one of the most popular categories of ukiyo-e, bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful people). Women subjects dominated the genre, but men were subjects, too.

Kitagawa Utamaro (his picture of the samisen player was shown above) is considered to be one of the greatest masters of bijin-ga. This print shows female beauties enjoying the outside environment.

Utamaro is most known for backroom scenes of courtesans performing everyday activities like bathing, grooming, feeding infants (the natural way, of course), smoking pipes, etc. Some think of him as Japan's Toulouse-Lautrec

Kabuki-e

Considering the popularity of kabuki, it isn't surprising that ukiyo-e of kabuki scenes and actors became popular, too. But after a century of not very distinguished prints, interest began to fade. Katsukawa Shunshō (1726 – 1792) changed that by depicting actors behind the scenes as well as in character on stage. The level of realism he provided allowed fans to recognize their favorite actors. The little jar at the bottom of the print was how Shunshō signed his work, earning him the nickname, Tsubo (The Jar).

Tōshūsai Sharaku (a kabuki picture of his was shown earlier) wasn't the first ukiyo-e artist, but he was certainly the best. He came out of nowhere, produced over 140 kabuki prints in the 10 months he was active, then disappeared back into obscurity. Scholars speculate on his identity, but nothing certain is known.

The print below is perhaps his most famous. It depicts the actor, Ōtani Oniji III in the role of Eddobei, a samurai's manservant from the play, The Colored Reins of a Loving Wife (Koi nyōbō somewake tazuna). The actor’s leering face, his bristling hair, and his groping outstretched hands capture the ruthless nature of this wicked henchman.

Sharaku also made mica prints, and it is said that Utamaro went with mica himself out of jealously

Sumō

Another popular public entertainment was sumō wrestling. It has roots going back for nearly a thousand years and is Japan's national sport today. Because of fighting in the streets, it was banned in Edo for a time during the Tokugawa shōgunate. In 1864, sumō was allowed in Shinto shrines for charity events, a practice common in Kyōto and Osaka. The sport developed professionally from there.

As with kabuki, fans had their favorite athletes. Ukiyo-e artists and publishers saw another market opportunity, and produced portraits of athletes and pictures of wrestling scenes like the one below. Utagawa Kunisada (1786 – 1865) was one such artist. He specialized in bijin-ga and kabuki prints (he also painted the picture of the printshop at the beginning of this unit), but he produced sumō paintings, too. This print was published in 1854

Kachō-ga

Kachō-ga (pictures of birds and flowers) had been a staple of Japanese art for centuries before the Edo period, so it isn't surprising that kachō-ga were popular ukiyo-e subjects, too. Subjects could include a wide range of living things (excluding people) including flowers and other plants, fish, insects, birds, mammals, amphibians, pets, etc.

Though known mainly for his landscapes, Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849) painted many kachō-ga, too. His Irises and Peonies with Finches was painted in the 1830s.

It is a surimono, a very high quality print that was likely privately commissioned and sold more expensively in limited quantities. Sometimes wealthy people would commission surimono to be given away to a select group of people for special occasions.

So much kachō-ga was done by so many artists, including many other very famous ones besides Hokusai, that it is difficult to focus on any particular leader in the field. Keisai Eisen (1790 – 1848) is best known for his bijin-ga, portraying his subjects as more worldly that those of earlier artists. He did kachō-ga, too.

Landscapes

Landscape paintings have been an important part of Japanese art since before Sesshū Tōyō (1420 – 1506). Such paintings didn't become important ukiyo-e subjects, however, until late in the 18th century. With the exception of kachō-ga, the painting subjects of the vast majority of ukiyo-e were people. Some early ukiyo-e artists had produced a few landscapes, but these were inconsequential. Landscape painting was mostly backdrops for people pictures. Hokusai changed that, strongly popularizing a new ukiyo-e genre.

Most of Hokusai's landscape ukiyo-e contained people, but they were often minor elements (tenkei), not the main subjects. Look for people in this 1829 to 1833 print, The Temple Honganji, Asakusa, in the Eastern Capital, number 28 in his series 36-Views of Mt. Fuji.

Another famous series of Hokusai's is A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces. This is number 3 of that series of 8 prints done in the 1833 to 1834 time period titled Kirifuri Waterfall at Kurokami Mountain in Shimotsuke.

Hokusai was defining what a landscape should be as he painted.

It would never do to leave Hokusai behind without showing his most famous work, known all over the world; number 1 in his series 36-Views of Mt. Fuji, The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

The other great landscape painter of the Edo period was Utagawa Hiroshige, sometimes known as Andō Hiroshige. Hiroshige was mostly an ukiyo-e painter of kachō-ga and landscapes. One of his pictures was shown above from his series, Famous Places in Edo, showing a daytime scene in the Yoshiwara district.

Perhaps his most series is The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1833 – 1834). The Tōkaidō (Eastern Sea Road) was a government-maintained road connecting Edo with Kyōto, the Emperor's capitol. It had 53 stations where travelers could refresh themselves on their journey. His Hakone, below, shows a scene from the 10th station. If you look closely, you can see travelers moving through a gorge in the lower-right of the print.

Here is the 15th station, Kanbara (A village in the snow), featuring a different time of year

The End of the Edo Period, and the End of Ukiyo-e

Japan was experiencing political convulsions due to the forced opening of the country when Hiroshige died. A few years later, the Edo period officially ended when the new young Emperor Meiji assumed power and moved to Edo, now renamed Tōkyō. The daimyō and samurai classes, viewed as unneeded remnants of Japan's suddenly obsolete feudal system, were eliminated. Though not official, it was the end of the floating world, too, and ukiyo-e along with it.

Some elements linger on. Kabuki is still around, and sumō wrestling is Japan's national sport, but neither inspires the all-consuming passions they did during the Edo period.

The Yoshiwara district in Tōkyō continued in operation until it was finally shut down in 1958 when prostitution was outlawed. By then, it had become a mere shadow of its former glory. The introduction of geisha began its long slide downward. With geisha taking on high-class entertainment roles, tayu no longer had to be quite the be-all and end-all of male entertainment. Their talents became more focused, narrower in scope. In practice, that part of the profession disappeared long before 1958, while geisha separated from the brothels and are highly respected today.

Counter Influences

A few Japanese artists had managed to get hold of Western art pictures through the Dutch trading colony in Nagasaki harbor. Hokusai and Itō Jakuchū (1716 – 1800) were two of them. But for most Japanese artists, Western painting techniques were a revaluation that opened up whole new worlds of possibilities. Traditional Japanese painting subjects and techniques were abandoned wholesale in favor of Western perspective and other values.

Trading with the West boomed. The hottest items were Japan's highly prized ceramics. In the meantime, Japanese valued the widely available and extremely inexpensive ukiyo-e prints as much as they did last week's newspaper. There was a huge supply available for a new purpose. They were used as wrapping paper to protect ceramics in shipping crates.

The French in particular noticed the wonderful pictures that protected ceramics. French impressionists were especially impressed. While Western art had influenced Japanese art, Japanese art, especially ukiyo-e, influenced Western artists, but the story of what became known as Japonisme is for another time.