Part II (Part II of III)
1700s and the Rise of the Merchant Class (Society)
We
can assume that given the period and the staunch leadership of the time
that evolution of this period would be slow and carefully watched.
Ironically this can often be witnessed even in modern day Japan, that is
a turtle crawl approach to change and new thinking (comparatively to
the western democratic countries). We are discussing another full
century and really it was a long winding movement towards the rise of
the Merchant class. This period while deep in the shogunate rule also
created the first Metropolis arguably in the world, that being Edo aka
Tokyo, with Kyoto and Osaka also coming into their own. One key thing to
understand is while the Shogunate continued a tight grip on the
mobility (outside of communities) and social order, the population
reached a very high literacy rate as the creation of regional economies
led to a surge in education for the masses. The Shogunate turned to
Shintoism vs Buddhism as the Shinto ‘ways’ were more favorable to the
ruling class. The Shinto religion being developed in Japan was a
nationalistic way of ‘thought’ and became preferred to the imported ways
of China and India.
A quick summary:
- Significant Rise of the Merchant class
- Highly educated and large city populations
- Shinto based nationalism develops and is allowed as portions serve the Shogunate’s leadership
1700s and the Rise of the Merchant Class (Arts)
Arts/Entertainment:
With this rise in an urban lifestyle and incomes that reflect more
abundance for pleasure a culture grew to meet these demands.The
entertainment industry flourished with the ‘kabuki’ plays with
trapdoors, revolving stages and simplified plots with colorful sets and
costumes. The live theater scene was alive and booming and with this
came all types of performances. Many kabuki actresses were barely
distinguishable from prostitutes and often shows would conclude with
what could be considered to be orgies on stage. With this new
‘entertainment’ and lack of a strict religious moral code and the
printing press the other arts scenes also blossomed with new literature,
poetry and painting. The popular books of the time were ‘
choninmono’;
stories of successful merchants or inspiring stories reflecting the
rise in the new hidden power of tycoons, this laid the seeds for future
industrial conglomerates such as Sumitomo and Mitsui. Other story
categories were '
sharebon', with a lighthearted wit for the masses, romantic stories of the age known as '
yomihon'
and the ever famous 'uikyo-zoshi' the r-rated versions which the main
topic for consumption was lust and the exploits of the sexual world.
With this last category mirrored in woodblock print as '
shunga'
or pornography of the 1700s Japan. For the painting and calligraphy
genre, this urban culture from Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto were the seeds for
the most infamous art form known in international art circles from
outside of Japan what is called ‘ukiyo-e’ or 'images of the floating
world'. These images came to life in this period as the title may
mislead the western concept of what a ‘floating world’ would look like.
As westerners might think that this floating world would be depictions
of heaven and living in the clouds as per the renaissance art of the
same period would suggest.
Actually
the ukiyo-e art depicted was a escape from the mundane life of the
average citizen. It showed the ‘evanescent world, impermanent, fleeting
beauty and a rhealm of entertainments…Asai Ryoi from his novel Tales of
the Floating World would summarize it best.
…
living only for
the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the
snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking
wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; …refusing to be
disheartend, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is
what we call the floating world.’
Interestingly as it fell
out of favor with the Japanese at the end of the Meiji restoration many
European artists found it to be of great inspiration including Vincent
Van Gogh and Claude Monet.
- Wikipedia,
ukiyo-e
For
the painted art genre, three schools should be noted for this period.
First as mentioned in the previous section on the 1600s, the Rimpa
school, which can be identified by it’s extensive use of gold leaf
backgrounds and bold imagery. Often these images were of traditional
stories and tales from the previous periods including the
Tales of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu.
Another
style of note was ‘namban’, which was heavily influenced by the western
methods and the depiction of the foreigner as the theme. Often this was
limited to what the locals of Nagasaki actually had access to, as
Nagasaki was the only place in the country that was open to foreign
vessels.
- Sample of Nanga Art
The
third style that we need to mention here is Bunjinga, or Nanga
(Southern Painting School), literati, noted for utilizing Chinese
Scholar paintings, imagery and as inspiration and mentoring for it’s own
Japanese themed productions. This style was for aspiring artists who
aimed to elevate their art and achieve a higher meaning through studies
and meaning, often by adding poems and calligraphy from another
contributor. Contrary to the Chinese literati nanba styles paintings
which were typically done by scholars who wished to express their
knowledge through paint, the opposite was true for the Japanese.
Examples of this style typically would include the small rounded
mountains with rivers and waterfalls, or smaller perspectives of birds
and flowers.
Quick Summary of Japan Arts of the 1700s (as per our article)
- many new artforms blossomed under the new merchant class
- the propagation of the ‘ukiyoe-e’ floating world arts (the simple pleasures)
- three key schools of painted art, Rimpa (classic Japan), Namban (Foreign Influence), and Nanga or Bunjinga (Chinese Influence)
Our next look we will be at the 1800s and the Eventual Fall of the Shogunate.
Sources: Discovering the Arts of Japan by Tsuneko S. Sadao, Stephanie Wada
A History of Japan by Kenneth Henshall
Wikipedia;
Ukiyo-e, Nanga,
Bunjinga
