The Art of Seclusion

Vincen Van Gogh Bride in the Rain 1887

The Art of Seclusion: How the Age of Edo Came to Shape Western Art

            Throughout history the production of art has been a means by which history can be understood. The arts often reflect the very evolution of the social and political developments of any historical period as well as being shaped by those very events; one might wonder why the metamorphosis of art isn’t more readily used as a biography of the modern world particularly in regards to the impact of major world cultures coming into contact with one another on the world stage. Such is the case with the development of art in the Edo Period of Japan, with its long period of seclusion, and its impact on the trajectory of the art movement not only in Japan but also in the Western world once contact was re-established in the mid-nineteenth century

By the late sixteenth century the ruling Ashikaga shogunate in Japan was losing its political dominance. As the shogunate crumbled various daimyos and their samurai battled to fill the growing power vacuum left by the weakened Ashikaga rule. Civil war ensued, destabilizing Japan’s advancements in economic and social arenas and returning it to a collection of independent feudal states battling for dominance During this period, Oda Nobunaga , Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and then Tokugawa Ieyasu  began to consolidate power over the various feudal states of Japan including areas left untouched by Ashikaga authority (Murphey, 273).. While Nobunaga and then Hideyoshi begin the drive to expand and centralize power it is Tokugawa Ieyasu who defeats and unifies the numerous “rival factions” by the beginning of the 17^th. Ieyasu then moves the capital form the Ashikaga Kyoto to Edo, what is now Tokyo, ushering in the Edo (Tokugawa) period (Arima, Medieval Culture). Yet however victorious Tokugawa had been in defeating his rivals there was a deep-seated concern about revolt, it was for this purpose a new form of political control was implemented by means of land distribution. As Arima describes it:

Domains were allotted according to whether the Daimyos had supported Ieyasu before his final victory in1600. Those who had supported Ieyasu from the start (fudai) were allowed to serve in the government; those who had surrendered only in the final battle (tozama) were excluded.To try to preempt any revolution a system of control of the samurai families was instituted.Strict rules of conduct, rules governing marriage and construction of castles were also in place. The Daimyos were also often shifted from one domain to another. (Arima, Merchant Culture)

 Reinforcing this rigid social structure was the “alternate attendance system” known as Sankin Kotai which demanded the daimyos alternate annually between a residence in Edo and their own homeland with the stipulation that the families, particularly their wives and heirs, were to remain in Edo permanently. With the expenses that would accrue in travel and living arrangements for the daimyos as well as the overhanging hostage like situation of their families there would be little political or financial resource to revolt against the shogunate. The result of the financial hardship on the feudal lords was their growing dependence on the merchant class for financing which would be achieved through loans or even arranged marriages (Murphey, 275).

The importance of Tokugawa Ieyasu on the development of a unified Japan cannot be overstated. Not only was he adept as a leader in battle, “Ieyasu was a shrewd and calculating politician who changed the social structure of Japan, enabling him and his heirs to control the various factions. He established a dynasty to ensure that the Tokugawa clan continued to rule long after his death. He also supervised early diplomatic relations with Europeans and passed an edict banning Christianity from Japanese shores” (Katsushika Hokusai, What Was Japan Like Then?). Tokugawa instituted a social order that would eventually give rise to an influential merchant class. The stabilization of the political structure would allow for the Japanese to flourish for the next two and a half centuries despite its rigid social order.

            While the blending of daimyos and wealthy merchant classes out of economic necessity and social ambition yielded a kind of cultural unification of Japan the Tokugawa shogunate became more leery of outside influences particularly that of Christian missionaries and foreign traders. Concerned with maintaining the peace and stability they had structured for their society, foreign influence became seen as a threat to the country’s unity and order. By 1638 not only had Christian missionaries been expelled as a state policy but so were all European traders. Western influence would be extremely limited in the Edo period. Yet during this time of seclusion Japan’s growth internally was impressive with increases in production and commerce creating greater wealth for the merchant classes who would then align themselves with cash poor feudal nobles. This accumulation of wealth allowed for the rise of a bourgeoisie and an urban life full of arts and entertainment for those with money (Murphey 277-278).

            While Tokugawa Japan was characterized by a feudal social rigidity its economic growth gave opportunity to the inferior classes in Edo society, the artisans and merchants. It was this increasing “middle class” that drove the cultural revival pursuing and playing off of old traditions to create a flourishing arts culture characterized by kabuki theater, Geisha, literature and poetry, and sumo wrestling (Katsushika Hokusai, The Edo Period). But it is important to remember that

In Japan's self-imposed isolation, traditions of the past were revived and refined, and ultimately parodied and transformed in the flourishing urban societies of Kyoto and Edo. Restricted trade with Chinese and Dutch merchants was permitted in Nagasaki, and it spurred development of Japanese porcelain and provided an opening for Ming literati culture to filter into artistic circles of Kyoto and, later, Edo.( The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Edo Period)

The artistic boom of the Edo period was a reworking of traditional arts along with the exposure to some external influence particularly by Chinese culture.

            As Murphey points out the culture of Edo is dominated by the wealthy middle class who have the money and time to engage in social amusements as well as supporting artistic endeavors. The “Floating World” culture, “an amusement quarter of theaters, restaurants, bathhouses, and geisha houses” become one of the favorite subjects represented in an increasingly popular art form: the woodblock print.(Murphey, 280) . “Ukiyo-e [i.e. woodblock] prints became the symbol of this new culture. With their strong linear forms, complemented by flat areas of colour and strange angles, ukiyo-e was some of the first massed produced art in the world, giving normal people the chance to appreciate what had been until then the domain of the rich and privilege”.( Katsushika Hokusai, The Edo Period) It is the popularity and distinctly Japanese development of this artistic form that will shape the evolution of Western and Modern art.

             Tokugawa rule brought about peace and prosperity and allowed for the production of an artistic golden age with the likes of woodblock printmaker Hokusai producing such masterpieces as the 36 Views of Mount Fuji. The greatest master of this technique, Hokusai, produced aesthetically pleasing prints with clean bold colors and simple lines. Although, Hokusai, died in 1849 prior to the opening of Japan to the West just a few years later, his artistry would make an indelible impression on both European and American artists (Murphey, 281).

Katsushika Hokusai  The Great Wave 1830-1833

            Just as Japan is responding to the show of force by Commodore Perry in 1853 by opening its doors to the Western world, “Western art was, by the 1850’s in the doldrums, unable to find a way forward” and it was just at this time that Japanese arts began to flood into Western Europe, where it was viewed as a whole new way of reflecting the world through a drastically different use of form and space (Checkland, 111). As Lemaire describes it, the introduction of Japanese style into the Western perspective caused a “profound change in the focus of aesthetic, with a taste for things Japanese dominating from the 1860s onward…Europeans marveled at the delicacy and sumptuousness of Japanese crafts and visual arts, and in particular Japanese prints” (Lemaire, 282). This adoration of the arts of Japan became more than just a fleeting interest in something new and exotic by Western imperialists, japonisme became an “artistic movement” that found a following by the likes of Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Whistler, and Cassatt who each found in it a means by which to question the rigidity and complexity of form in Western art (Lemaire, 282). These artists in turn would revolutionize the development of art and the traditional form of aesthetic standards in their Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Expressionist movements.

            The history of the world is often written by the victors and as such we have often viewed the significance of the Western world over those they sought to dominate as the focus of study but as is evident in the rich history of Japanese art and society influence can be found beyond political boundaries when looked at through a cultural lens.