RELIGST 2TT3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Wood Block, Ukiyo, Ukiyo-E

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELIGST 2TT3
• Professor: Nick Rowe

Document Summary

4 distinct classes in order, top to bottom: samurai, farmers/peasants, craftsmen, and merchants: dealing with money seen as a lowly pursuit, rice based economy of course so farmers/peasants up there, untouchables class emerges in this period. So the 4 groups are in society and the: supported by confucianism ideology, explosion of popular culture in this period too. Kabuki and puppet untouchables are not. plays we saw last time. Ukiyo-e: literally translates to pictures of floating world. Means you carve image in a wood block and dip it in ink. Century: not unlike kabuki, the topic of ukiyoe is popular culture, wood block culture not isolated in japan, a lot of french peeps love it too. Van gogh imitating them 2 centuries later: these are mass produced. During the edo period, tokugawa defeats all other warlords and unifies the country. But unifying the country, having central power, doesn"t mean you can keep the whole country in line.