The Floating World and Genroku Culture Keywords + other notes Flashcards
Tokugawa Print Culture
Expansion of domain schools for samurai and elementary schools for commoners
By Mid-1600s, almost all samurai
could read, as well as upper levels
of PAM
Private Academies for rich townsman
Print culture important for disseminating information/teachings
Censorship — works that touched on Tokugawa family and any
contemporary events were banned
Confucian Classics used for education
Income for samurai family fixed –
second/third sons in precarious situation
Many early leading writers were Samurai
Warrior values reinforced by Neo-Confucian ethics such as loyalty and filial piety
Neo-Confucianism promoted a kind of humanism – humans as the embodiment of principle and therefore the central most important object in the universe
Tokugawa Early Confucianism
Mainly esoteric in nature but became relatively open knowledge in the Tokugawa period
Chu Hsi school’s teachings useful for legitimizing the Tokugawa structure
Focuses on the five primary human relationships that can be imagined into the hierarchical structure of Tokugawa society
Samurai re-imagined as warrior-scholar – Confucian classics formed the core of samurai (and wealthy merchant’s) education.
Confucian scholars themselves were an uncertain social class during the 17th C
Exerted influence on literature and arts
Genroku Period - Ihara Saikaku
(1642-1693)
Hailed as one of the best literary writers in Japanese Literature
Books of the Floating World
Born into a merchant family / Educated in both Confucian and Courtly Classics
Composed Haikai during his younger years
Only began writing prose fiction after 40 years old
Genroku Period - Chikamatsu Monzaemon
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724)
Samurai + Confucian values infiltrated townsman life
(Merchant/Artisan)
Chikamatsu concerned himself
chiefly with the lives of lower-class townsmen — Giri義理(duty/social obligations) VS Ninjō人情(human emotions/personal desires)
Lover’s Suicide as resolution of tension between giri and ninjō
Typical Plot:
* Man falls in love with a courtesan
* Either goes into debt or is already married
* Wants to run away but worry about family
* Decides that dying will resolve everything = double
suicide.
Floating World (Ukiyo)
Major lit genre from the mid-17th C to the mid-18th C
the fiction of Saikaku formed a high point for this genre
Hedonism: pursuit of pleasure; self-indulgence
Zoku parodying Ga (in-line with Haikai poetry)
Popular with emerging townsman readership
Two reasons: (1) access to trends dominated by courtesans/actors and patrons of the urban theaters and pleasure quarters; (2) affirmed economic power of merchant class
Focus on ninjō (human emotions) of characters
Akusho - Pleasure Quarters
Accessing Trends by
Courtesans/Actors
Books about Manners in
the Pleasure Quarters
Catalogues of Courtesans
Creation of Aesthetics: How to be “refined” (tsu) in the pleasure
quarters / How to be
suave (sui)
Akusho - Theaters
Theaters were major centers for prostitution
Ga-Zoku
Two distinctive spheres for literature: ga (high/elegant) and zoku (vulgar/mundane)
Ga = “Chinese”; Traditional/Courtly
Aristocratic; Neo-Confucianism
Zoku = Lower Class; Mundane; Bodily; Erotic; popular culture; Ninjō-ish
Genroku Period (overview)
1688-1704
Flourishing of Literature, Poetry (Haikai and NOT Haiku), Ukiyo painting, Kabuki/Puppet Theater
Cultural flowering centered in Osaka/Kyoto (AKA Kamigata) region
A “golden age” of economic growth
Townsman indulging in elite culture such as noh, tea ceremony, music and flower arrangement
Townsman Popular Culture
Akusho (overview)
“evil places”
Famous for being “floating worlds”
ukiyo 浮き世as places where one
escapes the responsibilities of
their everyday life.
Controlled “indulgence”
Gathering places for
artists/performers/intellectuals
