Tsutsui W.M. A Companion to japanese histоry

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

of the warrior class and even the aristocrats and nobles (1615); to close Japan’s ports,

leaving only Nagasaki open to Dutch and Chinese trade (1616, 1623, 1639, 1641),

to limit foreign travel by Japanese and their return from residence abroad (1621,

1633); to restrict the activities of peasants (1625); to establish a system of required

residence in Edo for daimyo

, thereby hampering their ability to gain power in their

provinces (1635); and to ban the practice of Christianity (1639). The opulence of

Momoyama culture gradually changed into something reflective of the new age of

peace and stability.

Scholars, both in Japan and abroad, have tended to view early modern Japan as

consisting of two parts, ‘‘early Edo’’ and ‘‘late Edo,’’ the former characterized by the

cultural dominance of the Kamigata, or Kyoto–Osaka region to the west, and the

latter characterized by the rise of Edo culture in the east. This configuration makes a

division around the year 177 0, highlighting the Genroku era (1688–1704) as the

peak of the earlier Kamigata culture, with the Bunka-Bunsei (or Kasei) eras (1804–

30) serving as the a pex of the later Edo culture. However, scholars such as Nakano

Mitsutoshi have come to reject this periodization, arguing instead for a three-part

division, in which the eighteenth century, climaxing with the Tenmei era (1781–9),

not only provides a transition and link between the earlier and later periods, but in

fact surpasses them in the variety and quality of the literary and other forms of culture

produced.

Nakano and others have identified the Japanese terms ga and zoku as useful pol es

on an axis for measuring cultural production during this time. Ga, written with the

character for ‘‘courtly’’ (miyabiyaka), refers to the elevated, the refined, the elegant,

the aristocratic, the classical, or the Sinified. At the other end of the axis, zoku, written

with the character for ‘‘coarse’’ (iyashi), connotes the base, the common, the popular

or plebeian, the vulgar, the contemporary vernacular, or the domestic. Cultural

practices in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries tended to be conducted

or commissioned by elite individuals and groups, including power ful military houses,

large shrine and temple complexes, the imperial court and aristocracy, and wealthy

merchants, especially those operat ing in Kyoto, Osaka, and the port of Sakai. For the

most part these classes patronized ga activities. Classical waka and linked-verse renga

poetry collections continued to be compiled; the Heian court classics and medieval

war epics were copied in sumptuous manuscript editions; paintings in the classical

Tosa lineage, as well as in the more Sinified Kano

school, were commissioned in ever

greater numbers; noh dramas were performed on new stages in castle residences; and

the nouveau riche elites came to develop a taste for tea, tea hou se designs, and the

collection of rare and expensive tea utensils, both imported and domestic. While

many of these pastimes may have originated from humble, rustic (or zoku) origins, by

the early seventeenth century they clearl y fell within the ga rubric.

It is tempting to view early modern Japanese cultural developments as reflecting

the triumph of popul ar (zoku) culture over elite (ga) culture. Such a view, however,

ignores the desire of the new consumers, and increasingly producers, of cultural

capital (to apply sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s concept) to emulate the elite classes

and their cultural ideals. It might be more helpful to consider the convergence of

several factors that led to the rise of popular culture in Jap an, while at the same time

generating a new network of relationshi ps between the heretofore separate realms of

elite and popular culture.

118 LAWRENCE E. MARCEAU

The first of these factors is the ‘‘Great Peace’’ of the Tokugawa sociopolitical

system. With peace and social stability, daimyo

no longer needed to divert

human and material resources to a war effort. While castle construction and fortifi-

cation continued through the seventeenth century, after the fall of Osaka Castle

in 1615, no more castles needed to be attacked or defended from siege. The

bushi, or samurai class, some 7 percent of the total population, found itself

relieved of the task of defending the lord or attacking a rival and, in its place,

charged with the job of administering the myriad details involved in ordering

the domain. As a result, the warrior–administrative class found itself increa-

singly encouraged to engage in ‘‘civil’’ (bun, encompassing the cultural realm)

pursuits, and less encouraged to follow ‘‘martial’’ (bu, military) pursuits. With

such stimuli, even mid- to lower-ranking samurai began to undergo training in

such arts as reading the Chinese classics, singing noh libretti, practicing calligraphy,

and preparing powdered tea. Befor e long they would be engaging in more zoku

activities as well.

The second factor is the growth of urban areas, and the increased opportunities for

the expansion of cultural markets. By the early eighteenth century, the population of

Edo had exploded to probably over a million inhabitants, with a samurai population

alone of some 500,000; Osaka could boast a population of some 360,000; Kyoto

350,000; Kanazawa 120,000; Nagoya 64,000 (commoners only); and Hiroshima

70,000–80,000.

The prominence of urban spaces along the main To

kaido

thor-

oughfare linking Edo with Kyoto as well as in each of the provinces provided a fertile

environment for increased entertainment, social intercourse, si ghtseeing, and other

possibilities for cultural interaction. Both elite and popular culture could easily

cohabit and intermingle within such urban spaces.

Related to the growth of cities is the network that developed to link them. With

the system of enforced attendance in Edo over alternate years (sankin ko

tai)

for daimyo

, their families (required to remain in Edo as insurance against any

possible uprisings from the provinces), and their reti nues, the various thoroughfares

linking Edo with provinces throughout the country grew in importance. Inns,

hostels, fords, bridges, and the roads themselves required constant upkeep, and,

of course, not only did daimyo

and their retinues utilize them, but peop le of

all classes and backgrounds came to include travel as an option in their lives.

Within the restrictions posed by an elaborate system of passes, permits, and check-

points, people were able to travel to and from various provinces for religious pilgrim-

ages, to hot spring spas for health reasons, for purposes of trade and commerce, on

‘‘poetic pilgrimages’’ to spots made famous in waka and haikai poetry, and

for purposes of entertainment. The growth of thes e transportation networks (includ-

ing river and sea routes) allowed for the exchange of information, news, and

stories between the provinces and the urban centers, thus prom oting cultural aware-

ness as well.

With the increased complexity of society and the growth of markets and trade

networks, it became necessary for samurai, merchants, artisans, and women of all

social classes to gain at least basic literacy in the phonetic kana syllabaries, to write

letters following the conventions of seasonal change, and to make calculations and

balance books using a soroba n or abacus. A literate readership creates a market for

reading materials of all types, and publishing houses in Kyot o and Osaka, and later,

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN TOKUGAWA JAPAN 119

Edo, rose to the challenge of prov iding readers with something to read. Access to

education, while by no means universal, allowed for at least some commoners to gain

access to elite culture, and for elites to transmit their knowledge to broader groups of

students.

The most important cultural development in early modern Japan, made possible

by the atmosphere of peace and relative social stability, was the spread of printing

and publishing, both official and especially commercial. Henry D. Smith II

may actually be understating the power and vitality of Japanese publishing

when he writes, ‘‘in scale, early modern Japan had a culture of print in every way

comparable to that of many European countries of the time, working through the

power of reproduction to circulate Edo culture far more broadly than ever before,

stimulating a rapid increase in literacy, and moving in the inexorable direction of a

mass culture.’’

Since print culture provided the underpinnings for the vast majority

of cultural developments in early modern Japan, it is important to focus here on

publishing.

Japan was long said to have been the home of the world’s oldest printed artifacts,

the Hyakumanto

daran, or ‘‘dha

ran



(Buddhist invoc ations) in one million pagodas,’’

printed between 764 and 770. However in 1966 a printed dha

ranı

was discovered in a

stone pagoda in Korea, and most likely dates from some time before 751. Given that

much of early Japanese technology derives from the Korean peninsula, it is not

surprising that printing in Korea should predate that in Japan.

The reproduction and transmission of texts and visual materials in Japan continued

in large part through the practice of manuscript copying. With the notable exception

of the Gozan-ban, or ‘‘Five Mountain (Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhist monasteries)

editions’’ of texts in Chinese published between the thirteenth and the sixteenth

centuries, medieval Japanese text and visual culture was nearly exclusively one of

manuscripts and drawings. Given the amount of labor and time required to copy a

manuscript of a long text, we can assume that only elites enjoyed the resources to

function as producers and consum ers of manuscript culture.

This changed dramatically in the late-sixteenth-century Momoyama period. Im-

ports of expertise and technology from two overseas sources combined to stimulate

the development of domestic printing technology. First, the Jesuit mission press

established movable-type printing facilities at its academy in Kyu

shu

in 1590, printing

Christian, Chinese, and Japanese works, as well as dictionaries and grammars, in both

romanized Japanese and the Sino-Japanese script, using metal type. Of some 100

titles printed over this period, fewer than forty are extant, many of these in a unique

surviving copy. Another ‘‘import’’ was the looting of large numbers of Korean

printed books and movable type from the Yi dynasty’s Printing Office in Seoul by

Hideyoshi’s armies during the Bunroku (1592) invasi on of the Korean peninsula. It is

possible, that, as was the case with Korean ceramic artists, Korean typesetters and

printers themselves may have been taken to Japan by force in order to print books and

to teach the Japanese techniques of casting bronze type and printing using both

bronze and wooden movable type. The existence of Korean movable type in Japan

stimulated the production of Japanese type, and native publishers began printing

works from both the looted and domestically produced typefaces. The Japanese

imperial court as well as the first Tokugawa sho

gun, Ieyasu, were actively involved

in printing official Confucian and other non-Buddhist Chinese texts (in contrast to

120 LAWRENCE E. MARCEAU

the earlier Gozan-ban texts, which had mainly been of Buddhist works), and soon

private amateur, commercial, and even religious publishers were publishing their own

titles using movable type.

The practice of printing from engraved woodblocks continued as well. Joa

o Rodri-

gues (1561–1633), a Portuguese Jesuit missionary and interpreter who lived in Japan

between 1585 and 1610, wrote regarding printing in Japan:

The Japanese have three methods of printing. . . . The first method, and the one

most used in China, is done with wooden blocks. The block is made the same size

as the desired folio or page and they skilfully carve on its surface the letters of the page,

set out and written with all the paragraphs, chapters, commas, full stops, and everything

else. . . . They are so dextrous in this art that they can cut a block in about the same

time as we can compose a page. . . . There are as many blocks as there are folios or pages

of the book. These blocks belong to the person who ordered the engraving and they

last him a long time, so he can print as often as he pleases and any number of copies.

When a book is sold out he can print it again because he always keeps the pages made

up and ready. And if there should be a mistake on the block, it can be corrected or

changed very easily according to his wishes. . . . The second method of printing uses

movable type, each one made individually of wood or cast from metal. They make up

the page just as we do and then print it. . . . Afterwards they dismantle the page, wash

the letters and put them back in their places so that they can use them again whenever

necessary. In this way they can dispense with the large number of blocks, which are

made from a certain type of wood not easily obtainable. The third method . . . is

the opposite of the technique employed in the first method. . . . In this third method,

the surface of the block stands out and the letters are sunken. . . . The letters are

left white and the background black. This method is not used for printing books

but for printing inscriptions, epitaphs and pictures of men, flowers, plants, trees,

animals and other similar things, which are carved on these blocks, sheets (of metal)

or stones.

The third method, referred to in Japane se as the takuhan or ‘‘stone rubbing’’

technique, is relatively rare, and made little effect on the history of printing in

Japan. However, the fact that Rodrigues mentions block printing ahead of the

European style of movable-type printing indicates that, prior to 1610 at least,

movable-type printing was still a secondary technology. Over the course of the next

four decades, though, until about 1650, movable-type printing became the standard

in Japan, and for the first time works ranging from the Heian literary classics, such as

the Tales of Ise and the Tale of Genji, to noh libretti, primers on arithmetic, gazetteers,

and contem porary fiction appeared in movable-type editions, published by commer-

cial firms in Kyoto and Osaka. These works, while originally expensive, and probably

published in small lots as gifts to patrons or clients, became increasingly in high

demand, and publishers found it difficult to keep up with the requests for reprints,

especially after the first run had been published and the type dismantled and put away

for use with the next title. Another reason for the decline of books published in

movable-type editions after their initial popular ity was that illustrations, especially

those combining text and image freely on the same page, were much more easily

produced using a block printing technique than they were in combination with

movable type. Rodrigues’s concern over the difficulty of obtaining the ‘‘certain

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN TOKUGAWA JAPAN 121

type of wood’’ (the yamazakura variety of cherry, in fact) for engraving seems to have

become much less of an issue by the mid seventeenth century, perhaps through the

establishment of arrangements with peasants to provide an adequate supply of suit-

able cherry to publishers.

In short, movable-type printing became a victim of its own success. While ideal

for printing small batches of several hundred copies of a particular work in a

single edition, this technique proved inadequate for meeting the demand of multiple

printings, or works that combined images and text together on the same page.

Also, with the continued expansion of basic literacy to broader sectors of the

population, including women and children, the need for phonetic glosses next to

Chinese characters to serve as reading aids increa sed. Providing such glosses was

cumbersome and time-consuming with movable type, while block printing easily

allowed for these modifications to a text. By the second half of the seventeenth

century, nearly all printing in Japan had reverted to the earlier woodblock-engraving

method.

As Peter Kornicki states, ‘‘Print culture in the Tokugawa period matured rapidly

into a phenonemon with all the complexity and variety that is cus tomarily associated

with only the most advanced Western countries before modern times.’’ At least 3,000

titles appeared annually on average throughout the early modern period, not includ-

ing reprints of Chinese and Buddhist works, which were also in great demand.

Publishing continued to expand, also in the types of materials being published, and

in the locations of publishers. Over the course of the early modern period, the

number of publishers active at one time or another grew to at least 6,747, according

to Inoue Takaaki’s compendium of publisher-booksellers.

Geographically, publishers

spread from the Kamigata region eastward to Edo, and then outward to several other

provincial castle seats, such as Nagoya, Sendai, and Kanazawa. Finally, in terms of

types of publications produced, the early Budd hist texts, Confucian classics, and

Japanese histories came to be joined by noh libretti, jo

ruri and kabuki playscripts,

contemporary fiction, primers for reading and writing letters, gazetteers, poetry

collections (both historical and contempo rary), painting manuals, sketchbooks,

how-to manuals, jokebooks, and a myriad of other subjects. This list does not include

single-sheet prints; current events broads ides (kawaraban); rankings of sumo

wrest-

lers, actors, and courtesans; calendars; or other more ephemeral materials that were

produced in great quantities and on a regular basis. In this manner print media

permeated early modern Japanese society, and supported cultural developments

from the elite through the populace as a whole.

The Arts: Pluralism in an Urban Environment

Even though the military had controlled Japan for over 400 years, it was not until the

establishment of the Tokugawa order and a reduced need for forces on constant ready

alert that the notion of ‘‘martial arts’’ (bugei) became codified. Such works as the

Gorin no sho (Book of Five Rings, 1645), by the talented if eccentric Miyamoto

Musashi (1584–1645), and the Hagakure (before 1716), transmitted to a disciple

by Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1658–1719), are both relatively well known today, but

throughout the early modern period circulated only in manuscript form. Each of the

122 LAWRENCE E. MARCEAU

military households kept written codes of conduct for samurai, though, and part of

the education of a war rior was to read the Chinese and Japanese classics of strategy,

and historical tales of great military exploits. One book, Budo

shoshinshu

, by Daido

zan (1639–1730) was completed shortly before Yu

zan’s death, but with its pub-

lication in Edo in 1834, became a widely read treatise on samurai attitudes toward life

and death. The codification of martial arts helped sustain the samurai when their

daily lives had become focused more on paperwork and other clerical duties than on

military defense or strategy. Yu

zan begins his work with: ‘‘One who is supposed to be

a warrior considers it his foremost concern to keep death in mind at all times,

every day and every night, from the morning of New Year’s Day through the night

of New Year’s Eve.’’

Such statements must have grabbed the attention of samurai

whose lives were governed more by concerns about personal debt, drink, and

the pleasure quarters than about death. Yu

zan doesn’t expect warriors to be focused

only on martial matters, though; he encourages education and cultural pursuits as

well. ‘‘If strength is all you have you will seem like a peasant turned samurai, and

that will never do. You should acquire education as a matter of course, and it is

desirable to learn things such as poetry and the tea ceremony, little by little, in your

spare time.’’

The performing arts exhibited phenomenal development over the course of

the early modern period. The medieval noh, patronized by daimyo

throughout

the country, continued to be performed at felicitous occasions, and schools of noh

(and the related kyo

gen, or animated skits performed between noh acts) performance

flourished in Kyoto and, later, Edo. However kabuki and jo

ruri (the puppet theater

tradition known as ‘‘bunraku’’ today) develope d from riverbank entertainme nts

in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Th e earliest performers were

itinerent dancers and musicians who performed at festivals in one corner of a shrine

or temple compound, or other open spaces. Both kabuki and the puppet

theater benefitted greatly from the introduction of the shamisen, a three-

stringed musical instr ument with a clear, high tone, from the Ryu

kyu

Islands in

the second half of the sixteenth century. This new instrument brought with it a

revolution in musical performance, and allowed for both the kabuki and the puppet

theater to be performed in large theaters, before audiences of hundred s of paying

spectators.

ruri, or bunraku, became established in Kyoto and Osaka through the seven-

teenth cent ury. The collaboration between the great early tayu

(chanter-singer-nar-

rators), Takemoto Gidayu

I (1651–1714) and the greatest playwright for the puppet

theater, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724), led to a great upsurge in jo

ruri’s

popularity, and Chikamatsu’s playscripts, or sho

hon, were purchased and read (or

chanted) by amateurs for their content and the power of their language. Both

historical pieces, or jidaimono (which focused on the military class), and contempor-

ary domestic pieces, or sewamono (which featured civilian townsfolk, especially rich

merchants, their families, and courtesans), gained immense popul arity, and, with

technical improvements in puppet construction and stage design (the earlier one-

handler puppets, manipulated by a single puppeteer, were replaced after 1734 by

larger and more expressive three-handler puppets, for which the head and right arm

were controlled by the main puppeteer, the legs by a second, and the left arm by a

third), jo

ruri was able to compete successfully with kabuki in the Kamigata area. In

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN TOKUGAWA JAPAN 123

fact, with the increasingly prominent dialogue found in jo

ruri scripts from Chika-

matsu’s time on, jo

ruri came to serve as important sources for some of the most

successful and popular kabuki plays. Jo

ruri never gained popularity in the huge Edo

market, and even in the Kamigata, kabuki con tinued to grow in popularity as jo

ruri

declined from the mid eighteenth century on.

Kabuki as we know it today is believed to have been founded by one Izum o no

Okuni (fl. 1600), a woman who is said to have performed songs and dances to great

acclaim in 1603 at the Kitano Tenjin Shrine and the dry riverbed of the Kamo River at

the eastern end of Shijo

Avenue, both in Kyoto. The word kabuku , used as a verb,

connoted behaving or moving about erratically (the base meaning is ‘‘to tilt,’’ as in

tilting one’s head), especially in an irreverent and attention-getting manner. Thus,

kabukimono, or ‘‘those who kabuku,’’ were persons who spent their time flaunting

the rules, dancing provocatively, dressing in outrageous styles, and otherwise refusing

to conform to the status quo of the emerging Tokugawa state. The ir reverent and

flamboyant dances and skits of these kabukimono came to be called kabuki, and at first

women performed in various locations. However, because their presence generated

social unrest (fights often ensued among male viewers who also vied with one another

for sexual favors from the performers), the Tokugawa authorities banned women

from performing kabuki, replacing them with adolescent youths (wakashu). This led,

however, to similar problems, so in 1652 the wakashu were in turn replaced by male

adults (yaro

), who continue performing kabuki roles, both male and female, to the

present day. Kabuki in the Kamigata was characterized by audience preference for

wagoto, or realistic, delicate performances, especially as portrayed by such actors as

Sakata To

I (1647–1709) playing young romantic male roles, and Yoshizawa

Ayame I (1673–1729) in the roles of beautiful women. In contrast, the overwhelm-

ingly male audiences in the newer, military city of Edo preferred aragoto, or ‘‘rough

business’’ performances, such as were developed by the great star of Edo kabuki,

Ichikawa Danju

I (1660–1704).

While attendance at performances held in one of the large theaters in Kyoto, Osaka,

or Edo was prohibited for members of the samurai class, they attended in large

numbers, usually incognito. In the theaters themselves, men, women, and children

of all classes of society occupied seating according to what they could afford, and

enjoyed watching the performances, interacting with neighbors, and even eating the

box lunches for sale between acts.

In the nineteenth century, the continued growth of kabuki, and the growing

interest on the part of the audience in the more problematic ‘‘villain’’ (aku,or

‘‘evil’’) characters led to the development of a particular subset of the sewamono

domestic dramas, called kizewamono, or ‘‘raw’’ sewamono. These plays focused on

impoverished townsfolk or other ‘‘down and out’’ characters, and provided an

enhanced sense of realism to a performing art that had developed into a highly

stylized form. Tsuruya Nanboku IV (1755–1829) and Kawatake Mokuami (1816–

83) perfected the kizewamono, and the actors performing these roles enjoyed national

fame.

In the visual and graphic arts, aga in great dynamism is apparent over the course of

the early modern period. As the Tokugawa order took shape in the early seventeenth

century, most paintings and drawings were commissioned by those in control of

Japan’s material resources, namely, the bakufu (Tokugawa administration, also

124 LAWRENCE E. MARCEAU

referred to as the ‘‘shogunate’’), and the daimyo

of the various domains. These works

followed pre scribed forms (Chinese sages; images of power including dragons, Chi-

nese lions, and tigers; Chinese recluses; and images from the Japanese classics), and

were intended to enhance the interior decor of elite residences and reception halls.

The creators of these works hailed from the Kano

school for Chinese-derived images,

and from the Tosa school, for images from Heian literary and other Japanese sources.

The Chinese-style landscapes, bird and flower images, and biographical portraits that

were the province of the Kano

school painters tended to dominate the public areas of

a castle or residence, while Tosa school designs tended to be found on sliding doors

or folding screens of the more private quarters of a residence, especially the spaces

occupied by the women of the household.

While established artists of the Kano

and Tosa schools continued to produce

fine works under official patronage, new and highly innovative forms of design

were being developed by artists more closely related to merchants in Kyoto society.

One such wealthy patron, Suminokura Soan (1571–1632), heir to a shipping for-

tune, collaborated with Hon’ami Ko

etsu (1558–1637), an artist from a line of sword

connoisseurs, who in turn collaborated with a commercial fan painter, Tawaraya

tatsu (d. 1643). Together these and other artists experimented with printing

(the sumptuously decorated books called the ‘‘Saga-bon,’’ after the location west

of Kyoto where Soan had his atelier, are by Ko

etsu and his collaborators), paper

design and decoration, lacquerware, and many other media. While such works were

probably given to important patrons rather than being sold, Soan, Ko

etsu, and

tatsu opened the door to new patterns of production and consumption of art

works, and served as forer unners to what would later be known as Rinpa (or

‘‘Rimpa’’), the delicate and highly stylized works designe d and produced by Ogata

rin (1658–1716), who worked in the medium of painting and design, and his

brother, Kenzan (1663–1743), who worked mainly in ceramics and textiles. (The

term ‘‘Rinpa’’ comes from the second character of Ko

rin’s name; hence, ‘‘school of

rin.’’)

By the eighteenth century, a number of individualistic painters had appeared,

working in a variety of styles. One of the most distinct ive of these styles, which

began in depictions of genre scenes of contemporary individuals, especially courtesans

of the pleasure quarters, actors, sumo

wrestlers, and other intriguing figures, came to

be known as ‘‘ukiyo-e,’’ or ‘‘pictures of the floating world.’’ Ukiyo-e artists worke d

both in painting and also in the medium of print, whereby their works could be

reproduced and distributed to a broader audience. These artists are generally associ-

ated with urban commoner class known as cho

nin, which included both merchants and

artisans. Working in collaboration with publisher-print-vendors, ukiyo-e artists drew

the images that were then transferred to cherry blocks for carving and printing. Images

were exclusively monochrome, or hand-tinted, and, from the 1760s onward, were

produced in vibrant colors, by which a separate woodblock is engraved and inked for

each color used. These polychrome prints became a sensational commodity of Edo, in

eastern Japan, and came to be known by consumers from all over the country as

azuma nishiki-e, or ‘‘brocade pictures of the east .’’ Major ukiyo -e artists of

Edo include Hishikawa Moronobu (c.1618–94), Torii Kiyonobu I (1664–1729),

Kaigetsudo

Ando (fl. 1704–14), Suzuki Harunobu (1725–70), Katsukawa Shunsho

(1726–92), Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815), Kitagawa Utamaro (c.1753–1806),

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN TOKUGAWA JAPAN 125

the enigmatic genius To

shu

sai Sharaku (fl. 1794–5), Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–

1858), Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865), Utagaw a Kuniyoshi (1797–1861), and the

most versatile and productive artist of them all, Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). In

Kyoto, the most prominent ukiyo-e artist was Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671–1751),

while other artists in Osaka focused on actor prints. Not only did ukiyo-e artists work

with single-sheet prin ts, but they also designed print series, such as Ten Examples of

Female Physiognomy (Utamaro, c.1792–3) and Fifty-Three Stages on the To

kaido

High-

way (Hiroshige, 1833–4), illustrated works of fiction and poetry, and designed books

that consisted almost exclusively of pictures (ehon).

With the rise of education and literacy, especially among members of the low to

middle echelons of the samurai class who were otherwise restricted from utilizing

their abilities for the improvement of society, there arose in the mid eighteenth

century a tendency for certain talented individuals to focus on their literary and

artistic skills, and to emulate Chinese scholar-poets, called wenren in Chinese,

about whom they had read. Their Chinese ro le models were often landed gentry

who did not need to earn a living, so they would devote themselves to the ‘‘four

accomplishments’’ of playing the qin, or koto, playing the game of go, enjoying

calligraphy, and drawing pictures. The eighteenth-century Japanese, known as bun-

jin, who found this bohemian-like lifestyle desirable, in most cases did not have the

financial or material resources to allow for a pure amateur devotion to the arts. In

spite of the fact that they were dependent on patrons or sales of their art in order to

support the mselves, Japanese bunjin maintained a state of mind that avoided crass

materialism or commercialism, and in their paintings and other works sought a

detached, elevated consciousness.

The bunjin who are best known today for their achievements in the visual arts

include the ‘‘pioneers’’ Yanagisawa Kien (1706–58) and Gion Nankai (1677–1751),

the former a high-ranking domainal official, and the latter a Confucian scholar.

Another early bunjin on the other hand, Sakaki Hyaku sen (1697–1752), was born

to a family of shopkeepers dealing in Chinese medicines. Ike no Taiga (1723–76) and

Yosa Buson (1716–84) are today renowned as the greatest bunjin artists, and Buson,

especially, is noted for his mastery of haikai (the forerunner of today’s haiku), and

considered second only to the ‘‘sage’’ Matsuo Basho

(1644–94). The bunjin distin-

guished themselves from other artists, writers, and poets by their lofty idealistic

nature, and by the freedom and expressiveness they often communicated in their

works.

Other artists avoided embracing the ideals of the bunjin per se, but still broke away

from the established schools of painting, and created highly idiosyncratic works that

left them with a reputation as individualists. Ito

Jakuchu

(1716–1800), Soga Sho

haku

(1730–81), and Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–99) are prime examples of the ability of

artists in this period to create works that can be visually eye-catching , emotionally

disturbing, and strangely attractive to the viewer at the same time. Also in Kyoto, a

new school of painting arose inspired by a combination of Western influences, the

bunjin phenonemon, and the trend toward greater individual expression prevalent at

the time. This school, founded by Maruyama O

kyo (1733–95) on Shijo

(Fourth

Avenue), is known today as the Maruyama-Shijo

school. Matsumura Goshun (1752–

1811), the second great master from this school (after O

kyo himself), was a prote

of Buson as well, employing the haikai poetic sobriquet, Gekkei.

126 LAWRENCE E. MARCEAU

In Edo, artists hailing from the military class were active, such as Sakai Ho

itsu

(1761–1828), who led a revival of So

tatsu’s earlier Kamigata Rinpa movement, and

Tani Buncho

(1763–1840), who was in great demand for his paintings in a bunjin-

inspired style. The creative activities of other artists active in Osaka, Kyoto, Edo,

Nagasaki, and other provincial cities in the nineteenth century attest to the vibrancy

and diversity of artistic prod uction in the early modern period.

Space limits us from discussing early modern developments in other important

arts, such as ceramics and lacquerware, both of which not only exhibited dramatic

expansion and differentiation over the course of the period, but were also important

items of export to Korea, China, and Europe. One art that demands our attention,

however, is that of tea. The practice of chanoyu, in which the preparer add s hot water

to powdered green tea in a bowl and then beats the mixture rapidly with a

bamboo whisk, continued from the time of tea master Sen no Rikyu

(1522–91)

throughout the period, especially in the context of Buddhist temples and in teahouses

constructed by daimyo

lords and other powerful figures. Another form of tea taste,

known by the term sencha, or steeped tea, grew in popularity with the arrival in Japan

of a new sect of Zen Buddhism, known as O

baku (Ch., Huangbo) in the 1660s, a

development not unrelated to the fall of the Chinese Ming Dynasty and its replace-

ment by the Qing Dynasty ruled by Manch us from the north. The rise of the

Qing was seen by many Chinese intellectuals and artists as the defeat of civilization

and culture as they knew it, and precipitated the rise among many Ming loyalists of a

profound sense of nostalgia for the past, and withdrawal from a harsh sociopolitical

environment. This resulted in an exodus of Ming-leaning Buddhist monks, scholars,

artists, and merchants from China to neighboring states, including, for some, to

Japan. In the Chinese compound in Nagasaki and elsewhere, the existence of a

new wave of dissatisfied Chinese promoted the growth of bunjin consciousness

among many Japanese who also felt the frustrations of dealing with the Tokugawa

order, especially with regard to international contacts. The most influential of

these Chinese in Japan were immigrant Linji (J., Rinzai) Sect Zen monks from the

temple Wanfusi, on Mt. Huangbo in Fujian province. When the abbot of Wanfusi,

Yinyuan (J., Ingen, 159 2–1673), determined that it was his destiny to spread

the O

baku faith to the Japanese, and, despite the strong resistance of his disciples,

emigrated to Nagasaki in 1654 with a group of some thirty other monks and

artisans, Chinese influence on Japanese bunjin tastes, not only with regard to

tea, but across many artistic genres, increased dramatically. Yinyuan successfull y

founded a center for the new sect in Uji, just south of Kyoto, and, naming his

temple Manpuku-ji (read with the same characters as the original Wanfusi in

China), he brought about an opportunity for e

migre

loyalist notions of criti cal

detachment from the political status quo to gain currency in Japan. As Patr icia

Graham writes, ‘‘During the heyday of O

baku in the eighteenth century, there

were approximately five hundred O

baku temples scattered throughout Japan.’’

Such a spread of contemporary Chinese culture throughout Japan led to new patterns

in tea consumption and connoisseurship among intellectually curious Japanese, who

emulated the O

baku priests and others in their attraction toward things and ideas

Chinese.

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN TOKUGAWA JAPAN 127