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 Japan - Culture and Art of the Edo Period (1603-1867)
A flourishing time under the Shogun |
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Introduction – the fascination of a time of cultural blossoming
In the Edo period (1603-1867) the Japanese experienced lasting peace, prosperity and a cultural golden age. This exhibition opens up the opportunity for a rare insight into traditions that are an essential part of modern Japan.
For centuries the West has seen Japan as a distant and strange country. Its fascination involves images ranging from heroic samurai in battle to dreams of geishas and other beautiful women.
As an major economic power Japan has awakened both fear and admiration in the West. Modern Japan is seen as a country where advanced high technology exists side by side with traditional craftsmanship. When one speaks about the “Japanese spirit” and tradition, it is most frequently the Edo period that is being referred to. The period is seen as the heyday of Japanese culture and art, during which the new capital city, Edo (Tokyo) grew to have millions of inhabitants. In step with increased prosperity, the elite's interest in culture and art spread, and the population of the large towns became trend-setters, both economically and culturally.
The exhibition provides an insight into an epoch that is considered fundamental to modern Japan. In the Edo period the country could boast a complex and sophisticated society that was in dialogue with the rest of the world, even though the restrictive foreign policy of the shogun only allowed the country's treasures to be glimpsed through a few small cracks. The links of that time to the present are included in the exhibition in the form of examples of current inspiration from Japan in today's globalised world.
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The time of the Samurai To top
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 The Edo period (1603-1867) is also known as the Tokugawa period, and it began when the Tokugawa clan took power and established a shogunate – a political reign with a military figure as effective overlord of the country. The emperor in the old capital city of Kyoto was still the formal ruler of Japan, but had only symbolic power. The new capital was Edo (Tokyo), which is called the town of the samurai.
The first shogun was Tokugawa Ieyasu. He had been allied with Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, two generals who attempted, at the end of the 16th century, to unite with force the many warring overlords (daimyô) who were fighting each other with armies of samurai warriors. Ieyasu continued these efforts to unite the country, and in 1600 he won a decisive battle at Sekigahara; this gave him the power to redistribute land and thus to reward his allies. In 1603 Ieyasu persuaded the emperor to appoint him shogun, and in 1615 he captured the castle in Osaka after a siege lasting many months. This gave him victory over Hideyori, his last serious enemy. Hideyori was the son of Hideyoshi and had expected to inherit his father's power.
Ieyasu died in 1616, and has acquired the historical reputation of being a very talented military strategist who maintained a good overview of the battlefield and who possessed, even more importantly, immense political patience, enabling him to wait for the right moment, while others would have acted too hastily.
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Edo society To top
When Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed shogun in 1603, it was important for him to hold onto power. There were still many dissatisfied and rebellious overlords (daimyô). Control and stability were essential as the means of retaining power, so the shogun introduced a series of rules for how society was to function. People were divided into four categories, depending on their work, and these categories were ranked hierarchically:
- Samurai and officials – about 5% of the total population.
- Farmers, who had high status because they provided essential foodstuffs, although they often had a hard life.
- Craftsmen who produced things with their hands, and who were to be found in a wide range of fields – from the famous swordsmith to the hardworking brick-maker.
- Merchants and tradesmen, who lived in large towns and who made a living buying and selling goods. This was considered an unproductive and dishonest occupation, and merchants were therefore the lowest in the hierarchy.
Some people were outside the system – e.g. the emperor and his court, priests, entertainers and beggars and “unclean” persons. There was no possibility of social mobility, so one could not move from one category to another, for instance by changing work. It was forbidden to move house or travel without the permission of the authorities. |
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The Samurai class – status, power and privileges To top
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 “Samurai” means “the one who serves”, in the sense of serving a master, and it refers to a complex hierarchy of professional warriors between whom there were intricate ties of loyalty. The shogun was at the top of this hierarchy, and below him were a number of daimyô, local overlords, some of whom, for historical reasons, were more closely linked to the shogun than others. Each overlord had a large or small number of samurai of different ranks under him. After Ieyasu's redistribution of land following the battle of Sekigahara (in 1600), many samurai had lost their employment because their masters had been driven away. The category of rônin came into being: samurai without masters who travelled around the country looking for new employment.
Tokugawa Ieyasu's uniting of the many warring provinces also meant the end of centuries of civil war. There were relatively peaceful conditions in the country, and the rônin phenomenon reflected a general trend towards unemployment among professional warriors. At the same time the samurai class felt a greater need to legitimise its existence, e.g. by means of projecting an increasingly flamboyant image. The impressive samurai armour, weapons and other equipment that was made in the Edo period bears witness to the scale of superior craftwork and precious materials that were brought into play in order to maintain status and power.
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Samurai myths To top
Admiration of samurai as courageous heroes and magnificent warriors grew during the Edo period in step with the decrease in actual waging of war. Historic warriors and their feats were highlighted, including tales of female warriors from earlier epochs of history.
One tale that acquired particular significance for the samurai myths comes from the beginning of the 18th century and is about the 47 rônin, samurai without masters: a highly-placed overlord (daimyô) was provoked into drawing his sword in the shogun's palace and he wounded the person who had provoked him; this was an offence that meant that the overlord had to commit seppuku, ritual suicide with disembowelling. The overlord's samurai thus lost their master, but 47 of them joined forces to seek to take revenge on the person who had caused the provocation. After several years of secret conspiring they managed to kill him, and the 47 rônin then gave themselves up to the authorities. There was doubt about how the case should be handled, since it was strictly forbidden to carry out this kind of revenge-killing. But at the same time the 47 rônin had shown great loyalty to their master, and loyalty was highly valued as an important element in the code of conduct of samurai.
In the end the 47 rônin were sentenced to commit seppuku, ritual suicide, which was considered a more worthy death than beheading, the punishment for ordinary criminals. This story was very popular in the Edo period, and it was converted to form the plot of innumerable kabuki plays and provide the theme for many woodcuts. On those one can often recognise the 47 rônin by their jackets with patterns of black and white triangles. Even today this story is known and popular in Japan, and many people go on pilgrimages to the grave of the 47 rônin at the Sengakuji temple in Tokyo. |
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From warrior to civil servant To top
In the Edo period there were many samurai who had nothing to do, since there was peace in the country, and many of them therefore sought other forms of employment. Samurai from the traditional school honoured ideals such as discipline and loyalty, while those who were prepared to take on other functions made the most of their education and abilities to read and write. Many samurai exchanged the sword for the brush-pen and became officials working for the shogun or for local administrative authorities. Others became teachers, for instance Ishikawa Jozan, who was originally a samurai and had taken part in famous battles, but who lost his samurai status and became a teacher instead, before becoming well-known as a bunjin, an educated and learned person, who practised calligraphy and poetry.
Other samurai made a living from passing on their knowledge about warfare to persons outside the samurai class. There were town-dwellers (chônin) in particular, who were formally placed lowest in social rank, but who had wealth and who tried to use it to acquire some of the status and privileges of the samurai. Many of the Japanese martial arts practised today try to trace their historical roots back to the popularising of the ideals of martial arts in the Edo period, but most of them are in fact branches of modern sports from the 20th century.
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Chônin: trade and street life To top
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 In the town of Edo (Tokyo) the shogun lived in the castle, and around it were quarters with large residences for overlords (daimyô) and high-ranking officials. Around this core of powerful people were the different districts of the town, known as chô, and the inhabitants of those districts were called chônin, citizens. Because Edo was a new town most of its inhabitants were either immigrants from the hinterland or people who had followed in the wake of an overlord who was staying in the town. The townspeople were thus craftsmen and tradesmen who in many cases were living in districts with others in the same line of business.
Many of the townspeople had a workshop or shop in the part of their house that faced the street, while the family lived in the rear part of the house. During the day the shop would be open and passers-by could see the wares for sale. Attractive signs were made to catch the attention of customers and advertise the products. Many of the paintings and woodcuts of the period depict busy shopping streets milling with people from many different layers of society.
Shopkeepers were considered to be the lowest class in the social hierarchy, so they did not have high status among samurai and high-ranking people. But the flourishing trade, together with the transition from a barter economy (based on rice) to a money economy, made the tradespeople wealthy. According to the rules of the shogunate they were not allowed to use their money on fine silk materials or on large houses, so instead they bought more discreet types of art and craftwork and became patrons for the entertainment districts.
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Theatre To top
The theatre of the Edo period covered several genres, each with its own type of audience and traditions.
Nô theatre developed in the 14th century; based on classical literature and philosophy, it presupposes a certain level of education. In the Edo period the public was therefore primarily the samurai class and officials, together with the emperor's court and the shogunate. All nô actors are men; they wear masks and large robes that prevent direct bodily and facial expression. The action is explained by a narrator or a choir on the stage, accompanied by music in the form of flutes and small drums.
Bunraku is puppet theatre with a narrator who also provides the dialogue, while one or more puppets are used to mime the action. There is musical accompaniment in the form of shamisen (a string instrument with a brittle sound). Over time the puppets became larger and more advanced, so that for the main figures it took three people to manipulate each puppet. The central puppeteer is completely visible during the performance, while the two others are dressed in black clothes and hats. The puppets can move their arms and legs, and many of them can open and shut their mouth and eyes. The stories used in bunraku were contemporary love stories or classic fairy-tales, and many of the plays were later also performed as kabuki plays.
Kabuki developed at the beginning of the 17th century, with groups of travelling female dancers who performed at marketplaces, and in the course of time actual theatres came to be built for the purpose. In the middle of the 17th century the shogunate forbade women and young men to perform on the stage, however, because there was too much prostitution involved. Even today kabuki is exclusively performed by adult males who are specialised in various types of roles, including female ones. The kabuki plays took their departure point in actual events such as tragic love-stories or heroic samurai, and they were intended for a broad public looking for entertainment and melodrama. Many technical devices were invented to heighten the dramatic effects, e.g. a turning stage and a catwalk running through the auditorium, where the actors could pose and receive the applause of the audience.
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The floating world To top
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