The Politics of Culture and the Art of Dissent in Early Modern Japan

Part of a special issue on art, power, and social change. In the late 17th century and the early 18th century, Japan underwent a period of decline. After 1716, the administration of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi introduced emergency economic measures intended to reduce the disparity between the increasing pow...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Farge, William J. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2006
In: Social justice
Year: 2006, Volume: 33, Issue: 2, Pages: 63-76
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Keywords:
Tsunayoshi, Tokugawa, 1646-1709
Genroku Period, Japan, 1688-1704
Food supply
Shoguns
Social Policy
Economic Policy
Political Culture
Short story (Literary form)
Satirists
Authors
Politics & literature
Satire
Japanese Literature
Tokugawa Period, Japan, 1600-1868
Description
Summary:Part of a special issue on art, power, and social change. In the late 17th century and the early 18th century, Japan underwent a period of decline. After 1716, the administration of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi introduced emergency economic measures intended to reduce the disparity between the increasing power and influence of the merchant class and the social and economic decline of the samurai, but conditions continued to deteriorate. In such environments of social instability, people wish to make their views known in a compelling and cautious manner, and satire emerges as an expression of dissatisfaction. One of the prominent satirists in early modern Japan was Baba Bunk̄o, and it is not hyperbole to suggest that his writings and lectures, which ended with his arrest and execution in 1759, set the stage for the Meiji Restoration that occurred 100 years later. The writer discusses Bunk̄o's work in detail.