Popular Culture

As the arts became popular in Italy so did it in Japan,the ways of life or culture that was popular & up to date in that time began to change as cities became bigger and people in the merchant class became richer.
More people started wanting luxurious stuff and made extra time for things like literature, theatre and art.
Rich merchants spent a lot of money. Samurai started to make poetry and prose by using their creativity.
The Daimyo started to be supporters of art because they wanted to build detailed decorated, astheticaly pleasing ouses gardens.
The Daimyo supported, gardeners, painters, sculptors, architects, artsians, and artists.
At the end of the 17th ecntury the samurai started to be known less for their ranks and more for their accomplishments because the daimyo decided to start educating the samurai under leadership.

This theatre was popular with people in every social class but mostly merchants.
It had lots of action, creative story lines, detailed costumes and lots of makeup.
It related with normal Japanese life and gave life lessons in a fun way.
In 1607, Okini (a woman) performed the first kabuki then the bakufu felt that it was getting corrupted by women so in 1629 they banned any females from the kabuki stage.
Like movie stars of today, the kabuki male actors were treated with great respect.

Another popular theatre was the Banraku theatre, which is a puppet theatre.
These puppet plays were not for children, they were only for adults and it got it's name from one of the first puppet groups called Banraku.
This "Banraku" name was used to describe the type of entertainment.
Only the non-humans (hinin) would perform in both the banraku and kabuki theatres.

The people in the entertainment business known as "Geishas" would be women who were trained in danncing, singing, floral arrangement, the tea ceremony and flirting conversations.
These women are supposed to portray polite behavior and have pleasing appearances.
At that time they reflected the values of the Japanese culture.

These are prints of original paintings.
The artist carved major lines into a flat wooden block after the paintings were done.
Paint is now added to the wooden block, then pressed onto a canvas which leaves a print of the original painting.
Several copies of thie original painting could be made using this method which makes them available to more people.
Many popular and well known woodblock art of the Edo Period was about normal commoners in daily life situations.
Woodblock portraits weren't originally a respected form of art because they were "mass produced" and because the first artists to use this technique were not as skilled.
But still woodblock printing reached its peak in Edo Japan after artists brushed up on their techniques and made it better.
Till now woodblock artists are still greatly respected by historians.

In Kytoto publishing and printing became popular.
Then by the middle of the 17th century publishing places rose up in Osaka.
Then by the 18th century, printing houses were already in castle towns and places like Edo.
The moving printing press was already available by the ending of the 15th century, and in 1626 the old invention of using wooden printing blocks was being used again.
Wooden blocks were more simple to use with Japanese writing characters and better for puting illustration and printing together.
The Bakufu didn't control printing so it was a private industry although printing certain types of subject matter was considered a crime.
There could be no writngs of Christianiy or anything that could disrupt society.
A few books that sold out quickly would be romantic books, social skill/way of life books, proper letter writing books, books of famous places or people, maps of the 3 key cities, and calenders of events.

Normal speaking language gradually became less formal.
Topic of conversation also became far less formal.
Topics were similar to those that were printed out and published.
Ihara Saikaku was the first writer of Japanese fiction. His subjects were very relatable to the Japanese people.
Basho Matsuo made a the poetic form of writing called the haiku then people all over Japan started to take pride in writing thid form of poetic writing.

For more about Basho Matsuo click here...