History 150a
 
 
Commoner Cultures of the Tokugawa Period Overview Tokugawa Class System Ideological underpinnings Tokugawa Rural Commoners Views from above Views from below Tokugawa Urban Commoners Samurai-merchant relations Urban popular culture Tokugawa Period Class System Shogunate established 4 classes as stable, hereditary & bounded legal entities Samurai (士), Peasants (農), Artisans (工), Merchants (商) Classes expressed as occupations Outside of the class system: clergy, aristocracy, hinin Tokugawa Period Class System Neo-Confucian “proper place” as antithesis of Warring States mobility Body Metaphor Productivity and Proximity to Nature Four-tier class system as product of record- keeping, an ideological map Orthodox numbers: 7-8% samurai, 80% villagers, 10-12% artisans and merchants, 1% other Basic division 1: samurai and commoners Basic division 2: urban and rural commoners Tokugawa Rural Commoners Regulating Rural Commoners View from above: “Sesame seeds and peasants are very much alike: the more you squeeze them, the more you can extract from them.” All rural residents = “villagers” (百姓) Could not leave villages without permission Registered in a temple as proof that not Christian Not formally allowed to buy or sell land Supposed to only grow 5 crops Pay land taxes Enforcement of distinctions Loopholes in Taxation System Declining shogunal rice tax revenues Taxes fixed at volume of rice, not percentage This volume had been fixed by land surveys in early 17th century, rarely performed again Tremendous increase in agricultural productivity Rice replaced by silver as measure of value Daimyô/shogunate eventually raised tax rates but not enough to reestablish former position Commercial activity not taxed, thus “invisible” Many villages were actually urban settlements Many “impoverished” landless villagers were actually merchants & artisans Many wealthy villagers invested in commerce Over time, even agriculture became specialized for commercial markets Village Self-Administration Village contract system for taxes Villages as corporate entities for owning, buying, selling land/water rights, borrowing/loaning money, agreements with other villages Villages kept their own records Villages maintained their own justice Appeal to authorities outside village discouraged Villages and Commerce Commercial Crops, By-Employments, Wage Labor Tokugawa Urban Commoners Tokugawa Urban Populations Population growth in 1600s Early 1600s: roughly 18 million Early 1700s: roughly 26 million Shogunal policies contribute to growth of Post stations & harbor towns Castle towns Major cities Edo Population Figures 1590: 1,000 1600: 30,000 1657: 500,000 1720: 1,000,000+ Samurai-Merchant (Tense) Interdependence Impact of enforced urbanization on samurai class Dependent on merchants and financiers for converting rice to cash and “banking” Merchants derived profit at various stages of these transactions Commerce generally not taxed (as “immoral”) However, to increase income, shogunate and daimyô licensed merchant monopolies for a fee Periodic forced loans and annulling of debts Urban Elites Daimyô: from regional warlords to urbanized elite proprietors Daimyô retainers: from warriors to office workers Close surveillance Urban Commoners Castle Towns and Cities Legal categories: registered homeowners and tenant dwellers Wide range of economic status & lifestyles Urban Commoner Identity Valorization of the “Merchant Way” Hard work and frugality Generosity and benevolence Calculation and skill Entertainment and pleasure Different social customs from those of samurai Marriage & divorce Gendered divisions of labor Public Spaces Streets, bridges, fire breaks, wells, markets Neighborhood associations Urban Commoner Entertainments Pleasure Quarters Theater Publishing Misemono and kaichô Street performers Festivals Where was the “Floating World”? Firebreaks River banks and coasts Bridges Roads Commoner sectors Outskirts of town Containing Commoner Culture Class-based restrictions on appearance Gender restrictions on theater Discouragement of samurai patronage Checks on mass media Urban zoning to protect morals Yoshiwara: Licensed Pleasure Quarters Licensed Prostitution From the Kamakura period, prostitution became more organized with the growth of post towns and harbors Tokugawa licensing of Yoshiwara in Edo, Shimabara in Kyoto, and Shinmachi in Osaka Yoshiwara Ethos All status markers left outside the gate Glorification of the senses and pleasure Instability and impermanence are good Money cannot buy love, but the poor will not get any Demonstrations of sincerity Refinement and skill Originality and flair Boundaries to be toyed with/transgressed Kabuki Term derived from “katamuku” or slanted, eccentric, new Originated with “drag” performances by women Seen and in part was a front for prostitution Shogunate banned Female kabuki in 1629 Young men’s kabuki in 1652 Performances restricted to grown men with shaved forelocks From burlesque to theater Printing and Urban Culture Edo & Kyôto: publishing centers Books, ads, theater handbills, guidebooks, news sheets, etc. Subjects: from philosophy and medical treatises to trash fiction, gossip and pornography Abandonment of moveable type for woodblock printing Wide readership with varying degrees of literacy Appearance of bestsellers and professional authors Shikitei Sanba (Celebrating Edo life) Ueda Akinari (Tales of mystery & horror) Ihara Saikaku (Tales of love & money) Misemono: Cheap, Fast and Out of Control  Freaks and Scandals  New Knowledge Productive Tensions: Samurai v. Commoner Values?
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Lecture 18: Tokugawa Commoner Cultures