Stephanie's Week 2 Journal

Our group split up work this week so each of us could focus on one aspect of the research and we could come together to report our findings. I went to the library website and searched for books about the Edo period and about other forms of art popular during that period in the hope that some similarity or connection could be found between the artistic trends of the time and the art of creating the dolls. Rose took on the art books and I searched through the history section and found several books dedicated to that period of Japanese history. Given that the Edo period lasted more than 200 years, I knew it would be hard to find exactly what I might want to look for in such a large time span, especially things relating to the specific time period or influencing the time period Chikamatsu lived in. I decided that once I did start to look through the books the best plan would be to either find his name or look though the index for references to the arts or specifically Bunraku. 

The Edo Inheritance was one of the books I picked up and began with an intriguing description of the Edo period, namely the fact that the beginning and the end of the peaceful period transitioned seamlessly from one to the next. The author, Tokugawa Tsunenari, notes that the characteristics of many ruling dynasties include the “rise from the chaos that that occurs towards the end of the previous dynasty’s rule. Once having come to power, the ruling dynasty will eventually reach it’s apogee, then start to decline and, in the end, disintegrate in to chaos, from which the next dynasty emerges” (10). It is no surprise then that, as I’ve read in another source, the Edo period is also characterized as a time in which the arts flourished. 

After an admittedly delayed reaction to the realization that a book on the Edo/Tokugawa era was written by a person named Tokugawa, I flipped back to the Preface and discovered that this person was indeed “the eighteenth head of the Tokugawa main lineage and a grandson of Tokugawa Iemasa, seventeenth head of the family, a former diplomat and the last speaker of Japan’s House of Peers,” (viii). Whoa. I read on and discovered that he was an adopted heir to the Tokugawa lineage but I could not find any mention as to the family he came from and whether or not it was another branch of the Tokugawa family he came from or from a distantly related line. Either way, it completely changed the way I read the book. Now I know he may be biased to favor the Tokugawa family and the actions of his ancestors, however, a few of the other readings we had about the Tokugawa era refer to it as a time of great peace and a golden age for the arts, so I know that he’s not alone when others share his sentiments. I also read that this book was written in Japanese and translated by Tokugawa Tsunenari’s son, Tokugawa Iehiro, which would explain the many usage/grammatical errors and awkward wording issues I ran across. By no means did it hinder my understanding of the book, but it did highlight the importance of reading or at least skimming a Preface/Introduction for important information. 

I did find it difficult to put this book down, it was fascinating. I know very little about Japanese history and Tokugawa’s writing just flowed so well and was so filled with emotion that it almost read like a novel. But I had to remind myself to look for the important stuff. I will come back to this book when I have time for leisurely reading. The information I did find that relates to the time period we are focusing on, Chikamatsu’s life span, was brief and not all that different from information we already found. It was a peaceful time, the Tokugawa shogunate was in charge, they had control over all of Japan and it was united at last after a long period of constant war, and the arts in Japan flourished. It was not such a great time for Christian missionaries or foreigners as they banned Christianity and closed their doors to outside trade except to the Dutch, but this closing off, which is sometimes viewed negatively, allowed artists to build upon their own skills and create things without much influence from outside cultures (there would, of course, always be influence from other cultures as theirs is built upon cultures from the mainland, namely China and Korea, but when closing their doors to outside trade the authors argues that the influx of cultural influence ceases and what is already there can be improved upon and a more “Japanese” culture can thrive as it evolves from the inside). 

From this point on I think I need to look for different viewpoints on history as many of my sources come from a more educated and artistic view on history. History, especially in the Tokugawa book, is discussed from a wider social and political perspective of how the government worked and how the arts prospered, but I have yet to read something from the viewpoint of the lower class. The Edo Inheritance discusses peasants and how they were better off under localized governments under the control of the Tokugawa instead of the Samurai warlords, but as I mentioned before, this book approaches history as it developed through the upper/ruling classes and only briefly mentions the lower classes and how they were affected.

Tokugawa, Tsunenari. The Edo Inheritance. Trans. Tokugawa Iehiro. Tokyo: International House of Japan. 2009. Print.