"When Japan entered the 19th century, it was in the waning stages of the Edo Period. That period is defined by the dominion of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Inaugurated in 1603 when Ieyasu Tokugawa consolidated power under the shogun, or military general, the Edo Period lasted for 250 years. Effectively a military dictatorship, the Tokugawas were able to bring unprecedented stability to a Japan that had, in the previous 100 years, suffered through the Warring States Period and Oda Nobunaga's rise to power.
This stability allowed the Tokugawas to reorganize Japanese society and patronize the arts. The result is the image of feudal Japan with which most Westerners are familiar. In terms of actual power, the pinnacle of authority was the shogun. The emperor still existed through the Edo Period, and given many lavish gifts and castles by the Tokugawas, but was reduced to a mere figurehead… A ceremonial position expected to validate the actions of the shogun. Next were the regional lords, or daimyo. Samurai, formerly the landed gentry, were forced to give up their land and become either peasants or paid vassals of the daimyo. Beneath the samurai were the peasants, and beneath them were the craftsmen. Finally, at the bottom, were the merchants. Two classes resided outside of this system, whose jobs broke the taboo laws of Buddhism and thus rendered them "unclean". These were the eta ("filthy"), who dealt with the corpses involved with butchering, tanning and undertaking, and the hinin ("non-human"), who did the dirty work of guarding the town, cleaning the streets and executing criminals.
This period began mass urbanization in Japan. At the insistence of the Tokugawas, the families of daimyo stayed in the city springing up around Edo Castle. Today this city is known as Tokyo. Edo was "modern" in some ways and "primitive" in others, those quotation marks indicating the subjectivity of the terms. While London was flushing its waste into the Thames, the citizens of Edo were collecting it as fertilizer for the fields. In large parts of Japan, this process continued well into the 1980's, yet the society rarely suffered the same massive outbreaks of disease pocking European cities.
With a stable, urbanized, affluent hereditary hierarchy in place, the arts were able to flourish. This was the age of ukiyo, the "Floating World" of perfection in beauty and leisure. Ukiyo-e woodblock prints depicted this world and reflected it in an idealization of nature and everyday life. The great 19th century stars of the medium were Hokusai, most renowned for his Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji in 1831/1832, and Hiroshige, who produced The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido in 1833/34. Kabuki theatre developed to satisfy the growing middle class with more expressive drama on more familiar subjects than theatrical styles like noh and kagura could produce. Kabuki stars, characters and scenes became favorite subjects of ukiyo-e artists. Likewise, the sport of sumo developed and also became a subject for illustration.
Contrary to Western notions of the "bourgeoisie", the urban middle class of chonin developed high aesthetic ideals. Iki and tsu embodied sophisticated simplicity and an unrefined, uncomplicated, unpretentious ephemeral quality. These could be seen as a more contemporary version of the traditional value of wabi-sabi, a style reflecting the impermanence, incompleteness and imperfection of life and nature. Wabi-sabi is said to be able to inspire "a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing" and is seen most frequently in the pottery utilized in the famous tea ceremony. Perhaps the most unique and iconic expression of all these ideals coalescing during the Edo Period is the geisha. Embodying iki, these artist courtesans specialized in creating a sense of the Floating World within their sequestered districts. Theirs was a complex position not comprehensible in straightforward Western labels like "prostitute", and a sophisticated fantasy made possible through the hard reality of financial affluence…"
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Armand
