Edo Culture and the Coming of the West

Systems of Control a.Rearrangement of domains b.Alternate Attendance System (sankin kōtai) c.Sakoku (“Closed Country”) d.Freezing of the Social Order

Confucian Status System Shi (samurai) Nō (peasants) Kō (artisans) Shō (merchants)

Ukiyo: The Floating World Defined the cultural life of Edo Playful, Fleeting

The Chonin and Genroku Culture Genroku period: Major cities: – Edo, the political capital – Osaka, the merchant center Chonin = “townspeople”

New Urban Art Forms Kabuki theater Bunraku (puppet theater) Literature Ukiyo-e (woodblock prints)

Kabuki Theater

Grand Kabuki Theater in Tokyo today

A contemporary Kabuki performer

Kabuki Onnagata (female role player)

Bunraku

Five Women Who Loved Love, by Saikaku

Woodblock Prints Ukiyo-e: “pictures of the floating world”

Hiroshige’s Wave

Hiroshige’s “Evening Snow at Kanbara”

Hokusai’s “Red Fuji”

Utamaro Okita

Utamaro Ohisa, Okita, and Ohina

Utamaro

Sharaku Otani Onji II

Sharaku Ichizawa Ebizo IV

New Intellectual Trends Kokugaku (National Learning) Rangaku (Dutch Studies) Mito School

Kokugaku: The School of National Learning Nationalist thought, sought to bring foreign Buddhism and Confucianism into a more indigenous Japanese framework Some kokugaku scholars rejected Chinese learning altogether Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters, 7 th C) as principle text for Kokugaku scholars

Kokugaku Motoori Norinaga Shakyamuni and Confucius Are also kami; Hence their ways are branch roads Of the broad Way of Kami Hirata Atsutane – Sun Goddess Amaterasu as national deity

Rangaku: Dutch Studies

Arrival of Dutch ship at Dejima

Dejima

Rangaku: Dutch Studies Studied books brought by Dutch traders at Nagasaki Science and technology

Mito School Tokugawa Mitsukuni sponsors the writing of the “Great History of Japan” Exalts the emperor and imperial family

Review of internal changes: Sankin kotai moves wealth from the samurai class to the merchant class

Review of internal changes: Sankin kotai moves wealth from the samurai class to the merchant class Increasing peasant stratification

Review of internal changes: Sankin kotai moves wealth from the samurai class to the merchant class Increasing peasant stratification Edo culture and commercialism contribute to a mixing of social classes

Review of internal changes: Sankin kotai moves wealth from the samurai class to the merchant class Increasing peasant stratification Edo culture and commercialism contribute to a mixing of social classes New intellectual trends try to make sense of changes, but also offer challenges to bakufu

Foreign Threats Russian Expansionism British Imperialism U.S. Threat

Commodore Perry Two Demands: 1.Guarantee the safety of shipwrecked American sailors 2.Open Japan to trade

U.S. Japan Fleet

Black Ship

Kanagawa Agreement (1854) Japan will open two ports for repair of ships – Shimoda, on the Ise peninsula – Hakodate, on Hokkaido

Kanagawa Agreement (1854) Japan will open two ports for repair of ships – Shimoda, on the Ise peninsula – Hakodate, on Hokkaido Just treatment of shipwrecked American sailors

Kanagawa Agreement (1854) Japan will open two ports for repair of ships – Shimoda, on the Ise peninsula – Hakodate, on Hokkaido Just treatment of shipwrecked American sailors U.S. sends first diplomat, Townsend Harris, to Shimoda to negotiate a formal treaty

Japan’s Response to the West Kaikoku: “open country” – Ii Naosuke, Bakufu chief counselor Jōi: “expel the barbarian” – Tokugawa Nariaki, Lord of Mito Domain

Commercial Treaty with U.S. Edo, Kobe, Nagasaki, Niigata, and Yokohama opened to trade with U.S. Japanese tariffs placed under international control System of Extraterritoriality

Commercial Treaties of First treaty negotiated by Townsend Harris Treaties with Britain, France, Russia and Holland followed Mark the beginning of the “unequal treaties” that placed Japan in a semi-colonial status

Sonnō Jōi Sonnō = “revere the emperor” Jōi = “expel the barbarian”

Sonnō Jōi Sonnō = “revere the emperor” Jōi = “expel the barbarian” Combined Mito School emphasis on reverence for emperor with concern about foreign incursion Hostile to perceived bakufu incompetence