Portraits Of Edo And Early Modern Japan

This volume presents a series of five portraits of Edo, the central region of urban space today known as Tokyo, from the great fire of 1657 to the devastating earthquake of 1855. This book endeavors to allow Edo, or at least some of the voices that constituted Edo, to do most of the speaking. These voices become audible in the work of five Japanese eye-witness observers, who notated what they saw, heard, felt, tasted, experienced, and remembered. “An Eastern Stirrup,” presents a vivid portrait of the great conflagration of 1657 that nearly wiped out the city. “Tales of Long Long Ago,” details seventeenth-century warrior-class ways as depicted by a particularly conservative samurai. “The River of Time,” describes the city and its flourishing cultural and economic development during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. “The Spider’s Reel” looks back at both the attainments and calamities of Edo in the 1780s. Finally, “Disaster Days,” offers a meticulous account of Edo life among the ruins of the catastrophic 1855 tremor. Read in sequence, these five pieces offer a unique “insider’s perspective” on the city of Edo and early modern Japan.

Magnificent art and architecture created for the emperor with the financial support of powerful warlords at the beginning of Japan’s early modern era (1580s-1680s) testify to the continued cultural and ideological significance of the imperial family. Works created in this context are discussed in this groundbreaking study, with over 100 illustrations in color.

A lush portrait introducing one of the most important Japanese artists of the Edo period Best known for his paintings Irises and Red and White Plum Blossoms, Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716) was a highly successful artist who worked in many genres and media--including hanging scrolls, screen paintings, fan paintings, lacquer, textiles, and ceramics. Combining archival research, social history, and visual analysis, Frank Feltens situates Kōrin within the broader art culture of early modern Japan. He shows how financial pressures, client preferences, and the impulse toward personal branding in a competitive field shaped Kōrin's approach to art-making throughout his career. Feltens also offers a keen visual reading of the artist's work, highlighting the ways Kōrin's artistic innovations succeeded across media, such as his introduction of painterly techniques into lacquer design and his creation of ceramics that mimicked the appearance of ink paintings. This book, the first major study of Kōrin in English, provides an intimate and thought-provoking portrait of one of Japan's most significant artists.

Books and book illustrations in early modern Japan / Ekkehard May -- The illustrated household encyclopedias that once civilized Japan / Yokoyama Toshio -- The 'spectacle' of womanhood: new types in texts and pictures on pictorial Sugoroku games of the late Edo period / Susanne Formanek -- The Tokaido woodblock print series as an example of intertextuality in the fine arts / Franziska Ehmcke -- Culinary culture and its transmission in the late Edo period / Harada Nobua -- The hidden heritage : books, prints, printed toys and other publications for young people in Tokugawa Japan / Ann Herring -- The printing of illustrated travelogues in 18th-century Japan / Shirahata Yozaburo -- Illustrated Kabuki texts / Martina Schoenbein -- Kawaraban : enjoying the news when news was forbidden / Sepp Linhart -- Illness illustrated. Socio-historical dimensions of late Edo measles pictures (Hashika-e) / Hartmut O. Rotermund -- Between fiction and non-fiction : documentary literature in the late Edo period / Stephan Kohn -- Publishing Ejanaika : popular religion as media event / Reinhard Zollner -- Shinbun nishiki-e, Nishiki-e shinbut: news and new sensations in old garb at the beginning of a new era / Sepp Linhart.

Based on fresh translations of historical documents, this volume offers a revealing look at Japan during the time of the Tokugawa shoguns from 1600–1868, focusing on the day-to-day lives of both the rich and powerful and ordinary citizens. Voices of Early Modern Japan: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life during the Age of the Shoguns spans an extraordinary period of Japanese history, ranging from the unification of the warring states under Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early 17th century to the overthrow of the shogunate just prior to the mid-19th century opening of Japan by the West. Through close examinations of sources from a time known as "The Great Peace," this fascinating volume offers fresh insights into the Tokugawa era—its political institutions, rigid class hierarchy, artistic and material culture, religious life, and more. Sources come from all levels of Japanese society, everything from government documents and household records to personal correspondence and diaries, all carefully translated and examined in light of the latest scholarship.

Based on fresh translations of historical documents, this volume offers a revealing look at Japan during the time of the Tokugawa shoguns from 1600–1868, focusing on the day-to-day lives of both the rich and powerful and ordinary citizens. Voices of Early Modern Japan: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life during the Age of the Shoguns spans an extraordinary period of Japanese history, ranging from the unification of the warring states under Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early 17th century to the overthrow of the shogunate just prior to the mid-19th century opening of Japan by the West. Through close examinations of sources from a time known as "The Great Peace," this fascinating volume offers fresh insights into the Tokugawa era—its political institutions, rigid class hierarchy, artistic and material culture, religious life, and more. Sources come from all levels of Japanese society, everything from government documents and household records to personal correspondence and diaries, all carefully translated and examined in light of the latest scholarship.

Accompanies an exhibition of the same name held at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 14-July 26, 2020.