Archives for May, 2004

Edo Perspectives online

In 2003 Tokyo celebrated the four-hundredth anniversary of its designation as Japan’s political capital. Japan Echo magazine began carrying a series of articles by Edo-period specialists outlining interesting and little-known details of life in and one of the world’s greatest cities of that age. They make for interesting reading, and they are all available online. Check them out:

“Mount Fuji in Edo Arts and Minds” (Takashina Shûji)
Though Mount Fuji has long attracted the Japanese imagination, the shift of the political center of power to Edo (today’s Tokyo) at the beginning of the seventeenth century made it much more familiar to the general populace. Easily visible from Edo, the mountain became a favorite subject of ukiyo-e artists, and demand for pictures soared as the cult of Mount Fuji spread among the general populace, along with the custom of making pilgrimages up the mountain. Edoites even built a number of replicas of Fuji within the city.

“ The Shôgun’s Domestic and Foreign Visitors ” (Kasaya Kazuhiko)
The Tokugawa shogunate that ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867 adopted a policy of national seclusion, and domestically the country was divided into jealously guarded feudal domains. But two practices helped maintain the vitality of Japanese society during this period: the requirement that the feudal lords spend alternate years at the shôgun’s court in Edo, which helped break down regional insularity within Japan, and the custom of hosting Dutch and other foreign missions in Edo, which alleviated the country’s international isolation.

“The Hard-Dying Myth of Edo Misrule ” (Mizutani Mitsuhiro)
Westerners who visited Japan in the waning years of the Edo period (1600-1868) took a generally dim view of Tokugawa shogunate and the bureaucrats who served it. Their views subsequently came to be widely shared among Japanese scholars, who saw the Edo masses as oppressed and exploited by a despotic government. In fact, however, these masses seem to have been more prosperous and happier than their European contemporaries. The shogunate’s collapse was caused not by resistance to oppression by it but by the weakness of its tax-gathering powers.

“The Industrious Peasantry of Tokugawa Japan” (Saitô Osamu)
Nineteenth-century visitors to Japan were impressed with the varied skills and diligence of the Japanese peasantry. These traits were partly due to the Edo-period policies of restraining imports and promoting local production. Farming families worked hard and produced a variety of goods, and in the process they developed task-coordination abilities and a sense of self-discipline.

“Marriage and Divorce in the Edo Period” (Takagi Tadashi)
The popular image of Edo-period marriage has it that husbands could divorce their wives easily at their own whim and that wives had basically no rights. This is a gross oversimplification. One major constraint was the requirement that the divorcing husband repay his wife’s dowry. And even in cases where a dowry had not been received, a husband who sought a divorce was normally required to pay a solatium. Furthermore, in practice divorces were sometimes initiated from the wife’s side.

“Development of the Geisha Tradition” (Tanaka Yûko)
The word geisha literally means “an accomplished person.” In the eighteenth century it came to be used to refer to entertainers skilled in singing, playing the shamisen, and dancing. These women, were fashion leaders in Edo, and they were distinct from the courtesans (yûjo) of the Yoshiwara pleasure district. But today few girls are willing and able to undergo the rigorous training, beginning at around age 10, necessary to become guardians of this Japanese tradition.

“Edo, the Original Ecocity” (Jinnai Hidenobu)
Edo, the antecedent of today’s Tokyo, grew into a major city after it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. The rapid development was guided by a master plan, but unlike European cities that followed geometric patterns, Edo followed a design that strongly reflected the topography and natural conditions of its site. It had an extensive system of natural and artificial waterways serving as arteries for distribution. And it developed a remarkably efficient system of recycling, with human waste providing fertilizer for the farms that fed the city.

“Rakugo: Japan’s Talking Art” (Nobuhiro Shinji)
The art of comic storytelling called rakugo originated several centuries ago and continues to be popular to this day. In the Edo tradition, the kimono-clad storytellers typically use no props but a folding fan and a hand towel, and they remain seated on a cushion while acting out the parts of the story’s characters. Within these limitations they have developed a vocabulary of gestures by which they can convey a sense of motion and drama.

05/19/2004 | work | Comments Off

Ain’t complaining

Just wanted to be the first person with a Movable Type blog to post about the new pricing structure with no complaints at all. I’m sticking with this free version and am very happy with the current product.

05/18/2004 | web | Comments Off

One more thing

During the Golden Week vacation I spent a little time on the Enchante website. It’s got a new look now and I like it more than the old version. Check it out at enchante.jp as always.

05/06/2004 | family | Comments Off

All set up.

The new office is more or less in working order. Everyone’s got a desk and a functioning computer and telephone. I have too many computers, or monitors, or something . . . I need to take home this 17″ screen and make some room on my desk for books and, well, work that needs to get done. I knew there was a downside.

The building we’re in now has a basement connected to the basements of a couple other buildings on the block. Plenty of restaurants down there. Today a few of us ate Italian (our pasta was a bit over-oiled but the flavor wasn’t bad at all) and since this was nominally a welcome meal of sorts for a couple of new faces the company picked up the tab. I like free food. Anyhow, thanks to the miracle of “underground passages” and “the roof” we can go eat our lunch without umbrellas on rainy days . . . which is handy, I suppose, although never seeing the sky could get to a person after a while. Might have to start making trips to the Starbucks one building over for coffee and fresh air.

The Starbucks shares a floor in the Shinsei Bank building with a Yahoo Cafe. This looks like it’s free to use (although with 100Mb fiber optic in the company I don’t know why I would want to go nextdoor to surf) but I might have to check it out anyway, in order to support Adam’s company. (Assuming Yahoo owns Yahoo Japan, that is. Adam? You have anything to do with these guys?) Maybe a post in the near future will be written in the Yahoo Cafe . . .

05/06/2004 | work | Comments Off

Sibling Weblogs

I think I have Jessica and Adam online with their own MT installations . . . I hope so, anyway. If these things do actually work then they can be found at jes.durf.org and adam.durf.org. Go check ‘em out and see if those two have anything to say.

05/03/2004 | family | Comments Off