Life in the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Prints and the Rise of the Merchant Class in Edo Period Japan
Introduction
The Edo Period (1603-1868) in Japan was a time of great change. The merchant
class was growing in size, wealth, and power, and artists and craftsmen mobilized
to answer the demands and desires of this growing segment of society. Much of
the art of this period reflects both the tastes and the circumstances of this
increasingly powerful class. Perhaps the most well known art form that gained
popularity during this period was the woodblock print, which is often referred
to as ukiyo-e prints, after one of the most common themes—the
entertainment districts of Edo and Kyoto—presented in the medium. This
lesson will help teachers and students to investigate Edo Period Japan through
the window provided by these images of the landscape, life, and interests of
the rising townspeople. Students will use the famous woodblock prints of artists
such as Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Hokusai (1760-1849) as primary documents to
help them gain insight on Japanese history.
Guiding Question
What do ukiyo-e prints tell us about Edo Period Japan?
Learning Objectives
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
Identify the audience for ukiyo-e prints
Discuss how this art form addresses the interests and tastes of this group
Identify ways in which ukiyo-e prints reflect life in Edo
Japan, particularly for members of the merchant class
Discuss the ways in which the rise in popularity of the ukiyo-e
print parallels and reflects the growing power and wealth of the merchant
class
Preparing to Teach this Lesson
Background
The Edo Period (1603-1868) in Japan is also known as the Tokugawa Period. It
was during this period that the country was ruled by the Tokugawa shoguns who
established the city of Edo (now called Tokyo) as their capital. The 250 year
period during which the Tokugawa ruled was relatively peaceful, if secluded.
After decades of interaction with merchants, travelers, and missionaries from
around the world, the end of the sixteenth century saw the repression of the
Christianity that had come with Portuguese and Spanish missionaries and stricter
controls over European and other foreign traders in Japan. By 1635 foreigners
were restricted to the port city of Nagasaki, and Japanese citizens residing
outside of Japan were banned from returning. Four years later, almost all foreigners
were forbidden from landing on Japanese soil. With the completion of several
national seclusion edicts, Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate was almost closed
to the world. It would remain so until the arrival of the American Admiral Matthew
Perry in 1853. With the commencement of the Meiji Period in 1868, Japan opened
up and interacted enthusiastically with other countries of the world.
During the Edo Period the social hierarchy in Japan became segmented and Japanese
society was divided into four categories or classes. At the top were the samurai
warriors, who were the most respected because they supported their daimyo
lords through loyalty and in battle. Most daimyo lords and samurai
warriors received stipends from the government which enabled them to live, often
without other means of support. The daimyo lords were required to leave
their families as hostages in the capital city of Edo, under the watchful eye
of the shogunate as they traveled to and from their domains, located in provinces
throughout Japan. They were required to visit Edo once every three years. This
was a major expedition for them, and kept them not only busy, but often drained
their financial resources, leaving them with only limited funds for additional
pursuits. The samurai warrior class also carried prohibitions on the
accumulation of personal wealth, as well as other obligations to the shogun
or military ruler.
Farmers were ranked second because they produced food for the people. Tied
to the land that they worked, farmers were not free to move about the country.
Artisans were ranked third because they made goods or offered services used
by the people in daily life activities. They lived and worked mostly in castle
towns that were built by the daimyo lords and samurai warriors,
and in the cities that developed.
Merchants were considered to be at the bottom of society because they did not
produce anything, but instead only traded in goods and money. In many ways,
however, merchants were the class with the fewest restrictions on accumulating
personal wealth. And, unlike farmers, merchants were able to move freely about
the country, from town to town, in order to pursue their destinies.
This social structure, with prohibitions and obligations for every class, created
a system of checks on the power of all classes. This was particularly so of
the merchant class, which had power from wealth but not from station, and the
samurai warrior class, which had power from station but not from wealth. It
was hoped that this social structure would prevent either of these classes from
consolidating its power and amassing its fortunes for use in overthrowing the
military shogunal ruler.
One of the ways in which the merchant class attempted to assert itself was
in the arena of the arts. While merchants were considered to be at the bottom
of the social scale, their burgeoning wealth allowed them to patronize all types
of arts, from theater to music to the visual arts.
As the merchant class grew, greater numbers of people with larger disposable
income made possible the support of entertainment such as Kabuki drama and Bunraku
puppet theatre. In addition, people began to purchase small paintings and other
kinds of visual art. In response to this patronage by the merchant class, many
artists and artisans began to create works for the tastes and life experiences
of members of that class. In addition, with a larger number of people able to
purchase lower priced works the ability to create many pieces quickly became
important and desirable. One medium in which this is most apparent is the ukiyo-e
woodblock print which gained popularity during the Edo Period.
The reproducibility of woodblock prints in which there may have been twenty,
fifty or even hundreds of copies of an image, led to their being widely disseminated.
The level of quality varied greatly. Some of the complex and rich prints were
printed in short runs of fifteen or twenty, while some of the mass produced
portraits of Kabuki actors were printed in enormous runs and sold as the ephemeral
souvenirs of a night at the theater. In addition, their subject matter, which
looked to life in the towns of Japan that were home to the merchant class, made
the images extremely popular. The pictures are filled with the backdrop of town
life, merchants’ homes, townspeople walking the streets under branches
filled with peach blossoms or umbrellas blanketed with snow, as well as the
roads that merchants often traveled in their work as traders.
The word ukiyo-e means ”the floating world”, and is a
euphemism coined to refer to the world of actors, geisha artist-entertainers,
musicians, and wrestlers in Edo Japan. The term ukiyo-e is a pun in
Japanese and the word can mean either the “sad world” or the “floating
world.” Originally it was meant to refer to the sad aspects of life for
members of this world who were outside of the formal social structure of four
classes as described above. Not surprisingly, many of the ukiyo-e style
prints are portraits of geisha artist-entertainers, however, images
of the numerous forms of entertainment available to people living in cities
and towns were also quite common. Portraits of Kabuki actors in full regalia,
wrestling arenas, and musicians abound, as do images of the restaurants and
tea houses where many town folk whiled away their evenings. Many also show scenes
of daily life in Japan’s growing towns, while some of the medium’s
most famous practitioners, such as Katsushika Hokusai used woodblock prints
to infuse new life into the old tradition of landscape painting.
Note: The word geisha is often mistakenly understood
in English to mean prostitute. While there certainly were prostitutes in Tokugawa
Japan, and there were geishas who had relationships with their clients,
geishas were and are professional entertainers. Geishas train for thousands
of hours over the course of their entire career in the traditional arts of Japan—such
as playing the shamisan (the Japanese lute), flower arranging, the
tea ceremony, and poetry composition. Geishas also continue to wear
the elaborate costume of traditional Japan: the intricate hair styles, stunning
makeup and multi-layered kimono which are so beautifully depicted in many ukiyo-e
prints. You may wish to read about geisha in the exhibition Geisha:
Beyond the Painted Smile at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, which
can be reached through the EDSITEment reviewed web resource Asia
Source .
An excellent source on the historical background of the Edo Period is available
at the EDSITEment reviewed web resource Asia
for Educators . Information on this period can be reached by clicking on
History to 1800, then Japan Teaching Units, and finally Tokugawa Japan. There
you will find a link to an audio/video/text page which provides web video of
scholars in the field of Japanese history discussing various aspects of the
Edo Period. Transcripts of their discussions are also available on this web
site, and will be used throughout this lesson. If your classroom is wired for
the internet you may want to play these video clips in addition to having your
class read the transcripts.
In this activity students will be introduced to the history of the Tokugawa
or Edo Period (1603-1868).
Ask students to look at the political
map of Japan available from the EDSITEment web resource AskAsia
. Students should locate the following places on the map:
Tokyo (Edo)
Kyoto
Osaka
Nagasaki
Ask students to read the transcripts or watch the video explaining why
the Tokugawa Period is of great
historical importance, the
unification of the country during this time and the political
order that characterized the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate. Both
the transcripts and the video are available on the EDSITEment reviewed web
resource Asia for Educators.
What factors do you think contributed to the stability of the Tokugawa
shogunate?
How do you think the century of nearly constant warfare which preceded
the Tokugawa period influenced the new Tokugawa shogunate in their approach
to governing?
What is meant by “centralized feudalism”?
Why do you think the system of centralized feudalism was effective
in preventing daimyo lords from rising against the shogun
ruler?
2. Tokugawa Society
The Tokugawa Period is exemplified not only by the political order and stability
that arose during this period, but also a social order that was dictated and
enforced by the shogunate.
Have students read this short explanation on the class structure in Tokugawa
Japan and an explanation of
Confucian social values during this period available through the EDSITEment
reviewed website Asia for Educators.
The class structure in Japan during this period was hierarchical and this
contributed to the rise in popularity of ukiyo-e woodblock prints
and the scenes they present. You may wish to begin this discussion by having
students fill in this chart, which can be completed in an
online form, or in a PDF
file.
Divide the class into five small groups. Assign each group one of the four
classes and one group to the people—such as members of the entertainment
district—who fell outside of the hierarchical class system discussed
in the reading about the social structure of Tokugawa Japan. Ask each group
to work together to answer the following questions:
What might be the advantages and the disadvantages of being a member
of each of the four classes? What might be the advantages and the disadvantages
of being outside the class system? Each group should concentrate on the
social class they have been assigned.
How do you think the class system attempted to balance the distribution
of power and wealth?
What do you think was the importance of Hideyoshi’s 1586 decree
that farmers must stay on their land, and the 1587 decree that only samurai
warriors can carry the long sword?
If artisans and merchants both sold goods and services, what differentiates
these two classes?
How do you think Confucianism, with its emphasis on ethical behavior,
might have influenced the hierarchy of the social structure? You might
want to pay particular attention to the samurai code, as well
as the view on merchants.
Ask each group to present their answers to the rest of the class. Students
should discuss the points where they have come to differing conclusions, and
should use evidence from the texts to support their assertions.
3. Picture Perfect: Make It Fast
During the Tokugawa Period, woodblock prints that came to be known as ukiyo-e
prints, gained in popularity. What, other than their beauty, contributed to
the explosion in popularity of the ukiyo-e print in Tokugawa Japan?
How did the social hierarchy of the period contribute to the popularity of the
genre during the era? In this activity students will be able to gather information
using our web-based
interactive tool in order to build their own explanation of how the ukiyo-e
print was influenced by the social structure of Tokugawa Japan, and how the
prints are emblematic of the changes in society which typified the period. This
activity is also provided here in PDF
format.
The woodblock printing process represents an innovation in the production
of some kinds of images. This series of questions will help you to think about
the ways in which the woodblock printing process was a departure from the
creation of two dimensional art images in the past.
How many people usually worked together to make a woodblock print? What
were the responsibilities of each of the people who took part in the creation
of a woodblock print?
What do you think was the advantage of having more than one artist
work on making each print?
There may have been twenty, fifty, one hundred or more copies of each
image. How is this different from the creation of a painting by a single
artist? What are the advantages of this method? What are the disadvantages?
The craftsmen who worked together to create woodblock prints were often
organized by a publisher. Considering what you already know about what
publishers do, are you surprised that there were publishers of artworks?
Why was a publisher a necessary part of not only the book making, but
also the printmaking process?
With this team process for making woodblock prints artists and publishers
were able to produce larger numbers of images at a faster rate, which
meant both that there were more images to be purchased and that the price
of each piece was lower than it would have been for unique art works.
Who was the new audience- and market- for these images? How did you come
to this conclusion?
4. Picture Perfect: City Lights, City Life
In the next three activities students will look at some ukiyo-e prints
and investigate the ways in which this art form reflected the lives and world
of the merchant class that was the main audience for these works. All three
of these sections can be found in the web
based interactive, while the questions are all also available in PDF
format. You may wish to lead your students through one, two or all three
of these activities depending on the time constraints of your classroom.
The structure of Tokugawa society was hierarchical, and also provided designated
spaces in which each of the four social classes lived. The highest level of
the shogunate rulers resided in Edo, while each daimyo lords alternated
residence between Edo and his home prefecture. The samurai warriors were ideally
meant to be in the service of their daimyo lords, and their assigned
space overlapped with their master’s. Farmers were legally bound to their
land and to the rural countryside. Artisans peopled the villages and cities
which dotted the Japanese countryside, as did merchants. It was these growing
urban spaces which became synonymous with the image of the merchant class during
the Tokugawa period. This urban space and its population also became the often
depicted subject and backdrop of numerous ukiyo-e prints.
Have students look at the following ukiyo-e prints. Ask them to
take notes about everything they see in the image that seems important. What
is the location? Are there people in the image? Who are they? What are people
doing? What are they wearing and carrying? Have students write out all of
their notes. This can be completed on paper, or it can be completed as part
of our web
based interactive. For larger classes you may wish to divide the class
into smaller groups with each group working together on investigating one
or two of the following prints. All of the images are part of Japan’s
Nagoya Television’s online
ukiyo-e museum, which is available through the EDSITEment reviewed
web resource Teaching
(and Learning) About Japan.
Utagawa Hiroshige’s print April
(The First Bonito Catch from the Nihonbashi Bridge). This
image is one of a series completed by Hiroshige illustrating the months
of the year. The cycle is called Annual Events and Sites of Interest
in Edo.
Once students have taken notes on each of the images to which they have
been assigned, they will use their notes as a starting point for investigating
the world of the merchant class in Tokugawa Japan. Have students work together
to make inferences about the world that is being depicted by two of the most
famous ukiyo-e artists, Hiroshige and Hokusai:
What is the subject of this image? What is the action—what is
taking place—in this image?
What is the setting of this image? Is it urban or rural? What season
is it?
What can you infer about the people pictured in this image? Are they
wealthy or poor? How can you tell? Where in the Japanese social hierarchy
do you think they fit? Who (or what groups of people) seem to be missing
in this image?
Are there buildings? What kind of building materials are they made
from—stone, wood, thatch, or something else? Are they large or small
structures? What might we be able to glean about Japanese society from
the size, material, or the style of these buildings?
What are people doing? Are they working or relaxing, reading or chatting?
What does this tell you about the world that this artist has captured?
5. Picture Perfect: All the World is a Stage
As the name ukiyo-e suggests, many of the images created by artists
such as Hiroshige and Hokusai are portraits of the people who populated ”the
floating world”: the world of pleasure and entertainment. This world includes
actors, musicians, geisha, wrestlers and others. As with the previous
activity, students will be investigating the images of the floating world in
the search for clues about what life was like in Tokugawa Japan.
Have students look at the following ukiyo-e prints. Ask them to
take notes about everything they see in the image that seems important. What
is the location? Are there people in the image? Who are they? What are people
doing? What are they wearing and carrying? Have students write out all of
their notes. This can be completed on paper, or it can be completed as part
of our web
based interactive. For larger classes you may wish to divide the class
into smaller groups with each group working together on investigating one
or two of the following prints. All of the images are part of Japan’s
Nagoya Television’s online
ukiyo-e museum, which is available through the EDSITEment reviewed
web resource Teaching
(and Learning) About Japan, or through The
American Memory Project at the Library of Congress.
Utagawa Hiroshige’s Nighttime
in Saruwakacho from the series One Hundred Views of Sights
in Edo.
Utagawa Kunisada’s Hachiman
Taro Yoshiie, part of a triptych depicting a scene from a
famous Kabuki play.
Once students have taken notes on each of the images to which they have
been assigned they will use their notes as a starting point for investigating
the world of the merchant class in Tokugawa Japan. Have students work together
to make inferences about the world that is being depicted by the ukiyo-e
artists Toyokuni, Kunisada and Hiroshige.
What is the subject of this image? What is the action—what is
taking place—in this image?
What is the setting of the image?
Who are the people in this picture? What are the features of the image
that help you to identify who they are?
What do the subjects of these images have in common?
Each of these images depicts an aspect of ”entertainment”—which
implies two audiences: one audience watches the entertainers performing,
while the second is the audience for the print itself. Are these audiences
the same or different people? Explain your answer.
What can we infer from these images about the audience for whom they
are meant? Can we make any hypotheses about where in the social hierarchy
audience members were stationed? Explain your conclusions.
6. Picture Perfect: What a view!
Views of beautiful scenery and of the towns and villages that dot the Japanese
countryside were also a very popular woodblock print genre. Many of the most
popular images from this genre were printed as various series of views, such
as Hokusai’s well known Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji. Often the guiding
theme of these series possessed symbolic meaning. For example, Mt. Fuji, a dormant
volcano which last erupted in 1707, is often thought of as symbolic of Japan
itself. However, these prints also capture the views of daily life which would
have been familiar to ukiyo-e audiences. Mt. Fuji, which is Japan’s
tallest peak, was and is visible for many miles in every direction, and can
be seen from Tokyo (Edo). It has been the subject of poetry and song, appearing
in well known haikus and tankas. The mountain’s shifting
seasonal view- its snow covered winters, its bluish summer silhouette- would
have formed the daily backdrop for many of the people who enjoyed Hokusai’s
artistic vision of the mountain.
Other images, such the numerous series of scenes taken from the Tokkaido Highway
by artists including Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Kuniyoshi, include views of the
roads that were traveled by samurai warriors, farmers taking their
crops to market, and the merchants who moved their goods around the country.
For those who could afford it, travel for the sake of experience and religious
pilgrimage became increasingly more common and more popular as the road system
improved in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Have students look at the following ukiyo-e prints. Ask them to
take notes about everything they see in the image that seems important. What
is the location? Are there people in the image? Who are they? What are people
doing? What are they wearing and carrying? Have students write out all of
their notes. This can be completed on paper, or it can be completed as part
of our web
based interactive
or larger classes you may wish to divide the class
into smaller groups with each group working together on investigating one
or two of the following prints. All of the images are part of Japan’s
Nagoya Television’s online
ukiyo-e museum, which is available through the EDSITEment reviewed
web resource Teaching
(and Learning) About Japan.
Katasusika Hokusai’s Narumi
from his series Fifty-three Stations on the Tokkaido Road
Once students have taken notes on each of the images to which they have
been assigned, they will use their notes as a starting point for investigating
the world of the merchant class in Tokugawa Japan. Have students work together
to make inferences about the world that is being depicted by the ukiyo-e
artists Hokusai, Kunisada and Hiroshige.
What is the subject of this image? What is the action—what is
taking place—in this image?
What is the setting of the image?
Who are the people in this picture? What are the features of the image
that help you to identify who they are? Who (or what groups of people)
seem to be missing in this image?
What do the subjects of these images have in common?
Many of the landscape series created by ukiyo-e artists encompass
the “stations” of a road. Series of the Tokkaido Road are
usually grouped as the fifty-three stations of that highway. Why do you
think there are a set number of “stations,” and what do you
think might determine where they are located? (Beginning students may
find it useful to think of a famous location with many sights as a comparative
example. For instance, the “stations” of Washington DC would
surely include the Washington and Lincoln memorials, the White House and
the Capitol building.)
Concentrate on the methods of transportation pictured in these images
of travel. What is present? What is missing? If you find something missing,
why do you think it is missing? (You may wish to direct students to reread
the passage on the merchant class in the reading on the
class system in Tokugawa Japan, which mentions the prohibition
against wheeled vehicles.)
What can you infer about the way that people lived in eighteenth and
nineteenth century Japan?
Assessment
Ask students to write a brief essay about the ways in which ukiyo-e
prints provide a window into the lives of the merchant class in Edo Period Japan.
How do these images reflect their experiences, tastes, pursuits and interests?
Students should cite evidence for their assertions in the images themselves.
They may want to begin the essay by reviewing their answers to the questions
posed in Activities Four, Five and Six. Finally, students should investigate
these images for their limitations. What don’t these images tell
us? What sorts of scenes are not a typical part of these images? What people
seem to be missing? Students may discover that, as much information as these
images do provide, there is also a significant lack of information on the lives
of women other than geisha artists—they do not address domestic
life—where are the wives? Where are the children? They provide only rare
views of farmers and samurai warriors. What do they say about the artisans who
created the images? Ask students to incorporate into their essays an assessment
of ukiyo-e prints: what information can these images provide, and what
information is beyond their scope?
Extending the Lesson
Students can further enhance their knowledge of Ukiyo-e by looking at Japanese Woodblock Prints at the EDSITEment and Marco Polo partner site ArtsEdge.
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