Japan Term Exam Flashcards
Define bakufu
When Minamoto Yoritomo gained military dominance in 1185, he established the 1st shogunate or bakufu (tent government). It became Japan’s military government between 1192 and 1868, headed by the shogun. The bakufu was responsible for warfare, policing, and it was a firm follower of the imperial court. Over centuries, its power expanded and ruled Japan for almost 700 years. When Commodore Perry arrived in Tokyo in 1853, it caused a chain of events that led to Japan’s rise as a modern imperial power and fall of the bakufu. As a result, in 1868 the Meiji Restoration replaced the bakufu and its authority came to an end. OR Tokugawa house government.
Define ukiyo zoshi
It was the first major genre of popular Japanese fiction . It describes the hedonistic lifestyle of Japan’s middle and lower class. This amorous fiction was created by Ihara Saikaku, whose books heavily featured themes of love and romance among ordinary Japanese people. This was a new bourgeois literature written mainly for the amusement and instruction of townsmen in the large commercial centers and describing them and the world that they inhabited. They were not restricted to the Floating World. They were concerned with the conditions and customary ways of thought and action of the contemporary merchants and samurai. An example would be Life of an Amorous Man
Define tozama
A class of daimyo that meant ‘outsiders.’ These men were the least-trusted allies of the shogun. Despite their lack of hereditary ties to the shogun, they were allowed to retain their domains. As potential rivals, they were excluded from participation in the government, and many of their estates were reduced in size.
Define Fudai
- A class of daimyo that were hereditary vassals.
-their ancestors would have proven their loyalty to the Tokugawa - providing military strength of the Tokugawa shogunate -staffing for the bakufu
- wielded great power through their bureaucratic position
- they were dependent on the shogun.
Define Shinpan
A class of daimyo that were certain relatives of the shogun.
Define Sankin-kotai
→daimyo posted to other parts of Japan, not in their hometown
Their families held hostage in Edo
If they try anything, their family gets killed
Daimyo spent half of time in wherever they get posted and half back in Edo
Daimyo walked all the way back, long distance
Daimyo don’t have time to rebellions, although some attempted
Same thing in China (chen houmou Politics)
It led to the improvement of a commercial economy, as merchants gathered in the provincial and metropolitan capitals to supply the needs of these lords. The daimyo also became divorced from the government of their fiefs, and their debts piled up. It was abolished in 1862. “Alternate residence.”
Define iki
-Iki is a Japanese aesthetical concept
-Refined spontaneity
-“coolness” or “chic”
-behaviors that are stylish and/or sexy, but in a simple, low-key, –implicit but crisp way – it’s almost the opposite of being tacky
Define chonin
“Townspeople”, craftsmen and merchants who lived in the urban area during the Edo period. With the class system (warrior, farmer, craftsmen, and merchant classes) established in the early Edo period, they held the lowest social position.
Define kana-zoshi
“Kana-booklets
-various types, short, works of fiction and semi-fiction,
-written in kana (phonetic) script and could be read by the ordinary townspeople more easily than difficult Chinese characters
-stories about popular actors, critiques of the leading courtesans, frivolous romances
- practical books of advice or instruction
- mainly written by, for and about members of the merchant class, who until then had played so negligible a part in Japanese culture.
Define renga
genre of Japanese linked-verse poetry in which 2 or more poets supplied alternating sections of a poem
Joruri
Puppet drama (the genre in which Chikamatsu made his great name)
Ikebana
The art of flower arrangement
What was the Eternal Storehouse of Japan about? Who was it’s author?
Ihara Saikaku
-practical economic life of the townsmen and how they lived and how they should live
- 30 stories describing ways in which men can accumulate money or how they could lose it
- practical advice on money-making
Shows the positive, optimistic aspects of the rise of new commercial groups, while at the same time warning his readers how easily improvidence or laziness can deprive men of the wealth that they or their fathers have accumulated
What was Life of an Amorous Woman about?
Life of an Amorous Woman
The protagonist of The Life of an Amorous Woman is a nymphomaniac and the book describes the steady degradation that results from her efforts to find a constant variety of sexual enjoyment, while at the same time surviving economically as a single woman in a harsh feudal society. The courtesan’s life however, is no longer pictured in rosy colors of the earlier works, but is revealed with full realism as a place where money rules the day and where sensual desire is rarely relieved by tenderness. As the heroine’s beauty begins to desert her with advancing age, she becomes a common streetwalker. Saikaku evokes the dark, gloomy aspect of sex and shows us the reverse side of the medal.
Who was Matsuo Basho?
Matsuo Basho was a 17th century poet who created hakai and haibun. His most famous work is The Narrow Road to the North. Basho’s poetry dealt with the lives of farmers and fishermen, stimulating the reader’s imagination using playful and lively dialogue. His own origins were reflected in his poems when talking about figures like the beggar, the old man, the outcast, and the traveler. He focused on the image of the travelling monk and the fate of tragic heroes of the “warrior plays” compared to Noh and “women plays.” Other things his poems contained were a sense of naturalness, animals, nature, and the description of mundane things.
