The Tokugawa Floating World and the Ukiyo-E Culture - Essay Example

The Tokugawa floating world The ‘floating world also known as the ‘ukiyo was a culture developed between 1600 and 1867 that described the urban lifestyle, this description included the pleasures seeking aspects of the Tokugawa period or the Edo period. The floating world culture began in the red light district of the Tokugawa known as Yoshiwara, the middle class of japan frequently visited Yoshiwara as it was home to many kabuki theaters, brothels and chashitsu. Ihara shaikaku was the author of the ukiyo genre, a genre that resulted in the famous Japanese prints called the ‘pictures of the floating world or the ukiyo-e. The ukiyo-e paintings and prints originated from the Japan districts characterized by the scenes of the floating world itself, which included sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors, samurai, and prostitutes (Reeve, 2006). The Tokugawa floating world expression defined all the social ambitions and the new urban economy of the common townspeople of the Edo era or the Tokugawa period. The world specifically revolved around entertainment in Japans biggest cities currently known as Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. The activities and the occupations within the floating world period varied greatly, however the participants within the world focused mainly on entertainment and pleasure. Some historians argue that the ‘Tokugawa floating world was just a state of mind, a major characteristic of the people within these towns (Reeve, 2006). The floating world offered a chance for the citizens to escape mentally from the constraints that the samurai estate forced upon them; that is to the increasingly and growing economically powerful merchants. The ukiyo constituted to the everyday life of the people within Edo, it celebrated the world of the kabuki and the puppet theatres, courtesan, accessory shops and specialty clothing, and festivals. The new urban cultures called ‘the floating world resulted from urbanization and the constant rise of the wealthy; the new urban culture brought and placed great value on sensual luxury, luxurious arts, and entertainment (Kadohata, 2004). With the birth of the floating world came the need for conspicuous consumption that included pleasure quarters, brothels, and theatres. The need for conspicuous consumption saw the rise of the ukiyo-e culture that defined the life then but artistically. During the floating world era, styles in clothes became lavish, romance literature began spreading, and a cult of sexual indulgence began. These new cultures also saw an improvement of the roles played by courtesans (sex for money) with the merchant class. All this saw new development that focused on the Tokugawa arts and literature, among which was the woodblock print (Many of the artists within the floating world era focused on capturing the spirit of the new culture of the merchant class). With this floating world came the historical Kabuki and Noh theatre and the ukiyo-e cultures. The kabuki theatre featured live action, colorful costumes, sensational plots and stage makeup, the Noh was a form of stage play just like the kabuki. The plays from the Noh theatre had both serious and simple plots, intense symbolism and focused interactions between the actors. The Noh Theater focused on the happenings on the Tokugawa dynasty. The kabuki theatre, on the other hand, was musical, fun, and raucous, it started at the beginning of the Tokugawa era, the Tokugawa shogunate banned the female dancers from performing in the kabuki theaters. The kabuki theatre was among the new cultures that came with the birth of the floating world (Kadohata, 2004). The traditional woodblock prints or the ukiyo-e depicted the floating world, the traditional woodblock prints were artistic expressions of the plebeian tastes and the new found wealth of the merchant class in the towns. The world grew famous during the Tokugawa period (1868-1912) becoming the subject matter of the ukiyo-e paintings and prints. The ukiyo-e paintings and the prints are the historical basis of the ukiyo period or the floating world. The Tokugawa period marked the governance of the Tokugawa shogunate officially established in 1603 by the first Edo. This Tokugawa period ended after the restoration of the Meiji; that is the restoration of the imperial rule by the last and the fifteenth shogun Tokugawa yoshinubu. The remembrance of the period falls in the fact that the period gave birth to the ukiyo period and the ukiyo-e paintings and prints. This period marks the birth of the modern Japan, the leaders of the period succeeded in unifying Japan that in turn resulted in a single government used to date (Reeve, 2006). The ukiyo prints flourished in Japan within the 17th and the 19th century; most of these prints and paintings had themes depicted by beautiful women, sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors, flora and fauna, and erotic images. The term ukiyo-e has three Japanese characters, combining the characters result to the true definition of ‘the floating world.’ From the ukiyo-e word, the e means a print; this brings in the name ‘pictures of the floating world’ this in turn means the pictures that describe the urban lifestyle during the Tokugawa period. In its usual meaning, the ‘ukiyo meant a world of transition characterized by the wealthy persons during the edo period. Also, the ukiyo meant an everyday world characterized by the new adapted lifestyle by the wealthy which rotated on a daily basis. The ukiyo-e paintings and printings contained special reality that combined stylistic artistic convention shared by the personal reality of the individual artists and by most of the artists. The term Edo that is currently the Tokyo city referred to the early modern period of the Japanese art, which was the ukiyo or the floating world. The Tokugawa floating world contained illustrations that portrayed the fantastic thoughts through the ukiyo-e paintings and the prints and the social practices (Reeve, 2006). The edo philosophy survived up to the current world via manifestations of the contemporary Japanese anime and manga. Manga describes the current contemporary cartoons while the anime refers to the current Japanese animations. Both the anime and the manga originate from the ukiyo-e artistic works and the kabuki theatres. This artistic and philosophic movement of the Tokugawa period promoted fantastic thoughts that acted as catalysts for both cultural and social changes. It features a time in Japan that isolation and stability created a concentrated culture of the Japanese people. Between 1615 and 1868, the Tokugawa Shogun unified the decentralized feudal systems in Japan through their own unification, the Tokugawa was a ruling dynasty that unified and ruled Japan during the edo period (the edo period also refers to the Tokugawa period). Back then, there was a ban on the people prohibiting them from travelling outside Japan; the Tokugawa government had strict rules that had stratified feudalistic society with extreme class boundaries and a strict code of laws. To escape this, the edo people embraced the hedonistic pleasures through the floating world, the ukiyo (floating world) was a matrix of intellect, erotica, and materialism that later resulted in the ukiyo-e arts (Schreech, 2006). As the merchant class raised so did, the demand for fantastic images of the contemporary life increased. The intellectual pursuits of the samurai, which mainly governed the people under pressure, resulted in the peoples life transforming from ordinary to extraordinary (the people adapted to the life of the floating world). The development of the ukiyo arts came hand in hand with the use of the bijin or beautiful women, back then fantasies of pleasure, up to date clothing, erotica, and entertainment ruled the artistic aesthetics. The ukiyo-e printing was a very special artistic tool and skill made from woodblock printing process, during the Tokugawa floating world era there was a mass production of the ukiyo-e arts that was mainly for the wealthy members of the edo society. The technology resulted in single prints of various sizes and many ukiyo-e books, the books, however, did not carry much status as compared to the prints and the paintings (Kadohata, 2004). The ukiyo-e arts mainly fell into the merchant class who had enough wealth enabling them afford the paintings and the prints. During the 1670s, monochromatic prints of beautiful women and the moronobu paintings were the first ukiyo-e successes. This kept advertising and through the years, color paintings later came into the ukiyo market, by the year 1740 artists such as Masanobu started using woodblocks for their artistic works, this were mainly coloured paintings. In the 1670s only a few artists specialized in making paintings, many of them specialized in making ukiyo prints, also few artists carved their own woodblocks for printing, on contrary the work was divided between the artist, which is the designer of the print, the carver specialized in carving the blocks, the printer and the publisher. Historically the ukiyo-e prints and paintings gave birth to the perception people have about the Japanese art. Demand for the ukiyo-e paintings and prints increased all through the Tokugawas period which resulted to moronobu producing the first woodblock painting, many artists followed the footsteps of the moronobu. The ukiyo-e arts defined the floating world period. The determining factor for one to fit in the Tokugawa floating world was money (wealth), how much money one had determined the pleasures one could have. If one had enough money, he or she would then pay for them fitting into the ‘floating world, with enough money an individual would pay for the pleasures that included the ukiyo-e arts, pay for theatres and prostitution houses. Usually, the women who practiced prostitution had Genji names that gave the merchants an illusion that they spent their money on women defined in the ‘Tale of Genji. These women were the main subjects of the ukiyo-e paintings and prints (the paintings and pictures of the floating world); the pictures mainly began as advertisements for the women, in that one could find the location of a certain woman in a certain place. The floating world gave a sense of a world full of changes and a desirable world, a world that acted as the escape from the oppressions by the Tokugawa government, an escape into a fun world. Back in the Tokugawas period the rise of the merchant class came hand in hand with the need for expansion of entertainment districts, with the expansion of the entertainment district came the birth of the floating world. These pleasure quarters were also known as the ukiyo, this world gave birth to a whole new source of the Japanese popular arts and popular culture, it came with new fresh trends of drama and artistic works that served as social drivers within the Japanese culture. The floating world did not favor anyone if a samurai went into these joints of pleasure; the services he would get were not any different from those a samurai would get. This period of the floating world came with great changes within Japan, the craftsmen, and artists while this period mobilized to meet the desires of the merchants. Historically the ukiyo-e reflects the culture of the Japanese within the Tokugawa floating world era, the arts in this era reflect culture more than the woodblock images. The arts focus on the new urban cultures by bringing in the themes of sensual and romantic life during the Tokugawa era. Images of women circulated greatly during this era, images that portrayed the new urban erotic life adapted by the merchants within the urban centers. Ultimately, the spirit of these urban cultures influenced the direction of Japans immediate future. The artistic works depicted the actions of the new urban cultures as they were; the artists depicted the courtesans fashions and hairstyles in a way that allowed the dating of the prints and paintings with some reliability. The rich merchants of the Tokugawa era became the main patrons of the artists of the ukiyo-e, courtesans, and actors (Reeve, 2006). The floating world in the Tokugawa era referred to the different attitudes the urbanized cultures possessed; it was a response to the transitory natures of the people in that era. The term symbolized the life in those entertainment districts that were houses to the pleasure quarters. The main themes of the Tokugawa floating world were money, art, beauty love and sex, first for one to fit in the floating world, and then one had to have enough money. Secondly, many of the actions around the urban society revolved around pleasure bringing in the themes of art, beauty, love, and sex (Hibbett, 1999). The women during the era bring the theme of beauty love and sex; the courtesans satisfied the wealthy by giving them love and sex. The demand for this life brought about the demand for the artistic works forcing the artists to start the ukiyo-e cultures which symbolized the cultures of the floating world from beauty, of the women and the general environment of love and sex. Histographical study The scholarly books for the Histographical study in this paper are the ‘sex and the floating world by Timon Screech, floating world: Japan in the edo period by John Reeve and the floating world in Japanese fiction by Howard Hibbet.’ All the three books talk about the Tokugawa/ Edo period and how it forms a part of the Japanese history. The books also focus on the happenings of the edo era that includes the ‘floating world itself that is the new Japanese urban era, and the ukiyo-e prints and paintings. Timon Schreech in his book focuses on the edo period in relation to the ukiyo-e paintings that brought about the themes of beauty love and sex. He also focuses on how the themes portray the different social classes at the time and bring in the context of gender. Timon also focuses on how the past Japanese cultures from the historical parts of the current Japanese culture and how the paintings of the ukiyo-e era used to date. In the book the author tries to explain how the images were historically made and what they portrayed (they portrayed the floating world pleasures); he describes the floating world as a state of mind that was separate from the realities of the daily life. The book by John Reeve also focuses of how Tokugawa floating world resulted in art history of Japan; in this book, the author brings in all the concepts about the floating world, from how the merchant class lives and how they resulted in the new urban cultures of the era to the development of the ukiyo-e paintings and prints. John explains how the floating world revolved around pleasures and fantasies; how the oppression from the government led to the development of the floating world. He also states that the floating world was an escape world from the oppressions of the samurais. The third scholarly book is the ‘aesthetic strategies of the floating world by mitate and yatsushi, this book also focuses on the art cultures that came from the Tokugawa floating world era. The authors talk about the way the new urban cultures of the period shaped the edo cultures and the way the floating cultures came to be. The book also talks about the ukiyo-e culture that revolved around paintings that told the story of the floating world and how they contribute to Japanese current cultures (Hibbett, 1999). Conclusion From the information, it is evident that the Tokugawa floating world and the ukiyo-e culture forms a great part of the Japanese culture. The artistic works of the ukiyo-e paintings, prints, and image tell the story of Japan during the Tokugawa era and the story of how people used to live (mainly the wealthy). The floating world has greatly contributed to the history of the Japanese world and Japanese art world. Work cited Hibbett, Howard. The Floating World in Japanese Fiction. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Print. Kadohata, Cynthia. The Floating World. New York, N.Y.: Viking, 2004. Print. Reeve, John. Floating World: Japan in the Edo Period. London: British Museum, 2006. Print. Schreech, Tom. Sex & the Floating World Erotic Images in Japan 1700-1820. London: Reaktion, 2000. Print. Read More