ARTH 215 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Kaga Domain, Kamigata, Edo Period
16 Aug 2016
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ARTH 215
Week 3 — Jan 20
Tokyo: The city of Visual and Performing Arts
Edo (Tokyo): the culture of Samurai (worriers)
-Edo period (1603-1868)
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616)
-When he ventured to Tokyo [Tokyo Bay], it was considered barbaric and undeveloped
-Good fishing but bad land
Edo Culture (Reading): “a system of alternative attendance required Daimyo and their retainers
to spend alternative years in the capital and at their domains. Daimyo wives and children
resided permanently in the capital…no matter how distant a Daimyo’s domain law from Edo, he
took part in regular…
-Most powerful domain — Kaga Domain
-Famous for it’s farmland, seafood: had a large economy during the Edo period (still exists)
Daimyo left Kaga for Edo in April and returned to Kaga afterwards
-400 members lived in the Kaga domain (compared to the typical population of 50-100)
-Took the KAGA two weeks to arrive at EDO
Total cost of one trip from KAGA to EDO: $5M US Dollars
-This was a way to keep various other domain weak — protective way to order domain’s to
come to EDO each year
-Effective way to weaken other domains, but contributed to the spread of the EDO culture
-EDO became central for the Japanese culture — people would come to EDO and bring
back various fashion trends to distribute the EDO culture to other domains
Demographic changes in Edo, Osaka and Kyoto [Kamigata]
Edo (1650): 430,000 — (1750): 1,220,000
Kamigata (1650): 650,000 — (1750): 780,000
-Kyoto’s population was declining throughout the Edo period
-Osaka’s population was fluctuating slighting above and below 200,000 people
-Edo was constantly growing
Shift of cultural centre
-Genroku culture (1688-1707): first flowering in Kamigata [Osaka and Kyoto]
-Around the 18th century, Edo gained enough strength to compete
-Chonin: a term referring to craftsmen and merchants who lived in the urban area during the
Edo people
-The centre of culture shifted from the west to the east
Edo Specialities
-Kyoto was famous for — water, mibuna mustard green, beautiful women, sewing needles,
temples, textile manufactures, dolls and pottery
-Edo was famous for — samurai, bonito (during the Edo period, dried sardines were priceless
and were the best fertilizers for farming), daimyo, alleys, raw sardine, cafes and restaurants,
purple (the colour of Edo), fire fighters (Edo was notorious for fire accidents) and coloured
woodblock printing
-Japanese people didn’t eat meat, so fish was a major nutrition source
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Tokyo: the city of visual and performing arts. When he ventured to tokyo [tokyo bay], it was considered barbaric and undeveloped. Edo culture (reading): a system of alternative attendance required daimyo and their retainers to spend alternative years in the capital and at their domains. Daimyo wives and children resided permanently in the capital no matter how distant a daimyo"s domain law from edo, he took part in regular . Famous for it"s farmland, seafood: had a large economy during the edo period (still exists) Daimyo left kaga for edo in april and returned to kaga afterwards. 400 members lived in the kaga domain (compared to the typical population of 50-100) Took the kaga two weeks to arrive at edo. Total cost of one trip from kaga to edo: m us dollars. This was a way to keep various other domain weak protective way to order domain"s to come to edo each year.
