Dr. Satana Suzuki
speaker
57 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Nov 2024
Dr. Satana Suzuki’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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And the population, too, between 1600 and 1720, something like that, was estimated to have doubled. But later in the period, the population growth sort of stagnated. So it sort of stopped. It plummeted every time farming hit Japan.
So it's because of this, you know, development of commerce and transportation, it was really kind of really vigorous. And of course, it depends on the region, but some countryside industries really, really flourished, you know, like sake. You like sake? I like sake.
And silk and cotton and ceramics and things like that. So it was really, really vibrant.
Yeah, I mean, the city was really growing and the samurai became mostly city residents and things. And not just Edo, but Osaka, Kyoto were growing as well. But like you said, the biggest of all is Edo, which was originally a really small castle town, but by 1720, early 1700s, had already reached a population of 1 million, apparently. Yeah, this marked the largest city in the world at the time.
By population, Tokyo still is the largest. And Osaka was the biggest commercial hub, of course, you know, with many rich rice merchants and things. There was a shift later in the period to rural industries, which led to the declining economic power of some urban areas.
So Edo culture was really, really thriving, especially those things like theatre, but mainly sort of three major things. So Kabuki, you might know. Yeah.
It's a traditional theatre with a dramatic performance with dance and then bunraku, that's a puppet theatre, involving like two-thirds life-size puppets controlled by three men with musicians and singer actions, you know, chanting and narration, and then noh, Do you know? No? No, I don't. So it's like a musical. Performers wear masks and sings and dance to musical instruments.
And history or patronage of Noh theatre went right back to Hideyoshi, meaning it was closely embedded with the lives of the elites at a time you were often expected to patronise the arts.
Well, it could be two hours, but sometimes it could last for days, you know.
Yeah, so woodblock printing became very popular because it could sort of publish literature and art very cheaply and mass. So this rising commercial printing coincided with the rising literacy rates as well. And in terms of art, the most significant is ukiyo-e. You might have heard of it. Like it's literally translated as floating world pictures.
And culturally, it made it possible to have a vivid glimpse into edo culture. You know, people can see that from fashion to leisure activities like kabuki and sumo wrestling and tea house and all the brothels.
Artistically speaking, you know, Ukiyo-e achieved remarkably sort of detailed and vibrant colours and complex competitions and had a huge impact on Western artists.
Very close, yes. It's very, yeah, it's correct, really. Yeah, so Tokugawa Japan had a very sort of limited diplomatic relation with the Dutch, the Chinese, and the Koreans. So Dutch and the Chinese, they were sort of kind of merchants, basically, were confined to this little man-made sort of fan-shaped island called Dejima near Nagasaki. and the Koreans through the Tsushima domain.
Japan traded with the Portuguese and the Spaniards and allowed missionary activities, but some daimyo in southern parts of Japan were Christians too, and rulers including Hideyoshi and Ieyasu restricted missionary activities in between 1633 and 39. Tokugawa Ieyasu also issued a series of regulations including prohibiting Japanese people from leaving Japan and coming back to Japan, things like that.
He also banned the export of weapons and the teaching of Christianity in Japan. But the massive rebellion in the Christian stronghold of Shimabara in 1637-68 was like the last straw. It was a combination of economic religious factors. But, you know, from 1639 onwards, Japan adopted this national seclusion policy.
Well, yeah, I mean, not entirely, but for one, they had that trading connections, right? Like in the Chinese. But only the bakuhu had the right to trade. The bakuhu means the shogunate. So it's the military government controlled by the shogun.
So you might have this perception that Edo Japan was closed off completely or isolated, but they're actually very much aware of what was going on in the rest of the world.
Commodore Matthew Perry, his black ship arrived at the Edo Bay in 1853. So the main objective is to open Japan to American trade, obviously, you know, the US wanted new markets, access to Japanese core and also secure a safe base for its whaling ships. And also establishing presence in Japan was you know, strategically very important as one of the rising imperial powers, right?
So Perry persuaded the Bakuhus representatives that it would be better for Japan to sign a treaty with America than the British. You know, you know how much damage the British Empire inflicted on China, you know, the open wars and things, right?
Evil.
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