VOL. 2 OVERVIEW - EARLY MODERN JAPANESE POPULAR LITERATURE

Early Modern Japanese Popular Literature

During the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), Japan transitioned from a late medieval age, characterized by constant civil war, to a peaceful but strictly ordered society.
In this new social order, commoners became an important economic force. Prosperity across social classes led to the emergence of new kinds of popular literature.

The Tokugawa Clan

The Tokugawa shoguns created a rigid social class structure.
The preeminent samurai—the warrior class—took up posts in the government (since there were no wars left to fight) and population began concentrating in urban centers (like Edo, modern-day Tokyo, the Tokugawa capital).
With economic activity increasingly centered in growing urban areas, a new system of currency developed (coined money).
Since under shogun order the ruling elite were required to maintain both a provincial home and a residence in the political capital of Edo, commercial and cultural exchange between the provinces and Edo flourished.
Women and children of the ruling elites enjoyed little to no power and were held more or less hostage as residents in Edo.
As part of their strict social control, the Tokugawa clan regulated such activities as prostitution by setting up "officially licensed pleasure quarters." For obvious reasons, these show up regularly in early modern Japanese popular literature.
Theater districts flourished. Classical Noh drama continued to thrive, but new dramatic forms emerged as well, designed to appeal to commoners, such as kabuki and puppet plays.
These popular dramatic forms often reflected prominent issues of the day.
The period of Tokugawa rule also saw the influence of European explorers and merchants. Portuguese traders had reached Japan by 1543, for example.
In addition to introducing new crops (like corn and tobacco) Europeans also brought fire arms. Later, Catholic missionaries arrived, seeking converts.
The cultural and material traditions that Europeans were introducing to Japan were often so different from East Asian practices that the shoguns decided that foreigners must go.
By 1639, the shoguns had forbidden the practice of Christianity. Also forbidden were overseas travel and the importation of foreign books.
One important development that occurred during the brief time that European Christian missionaries worked in Japan was the introduction of mass printing.
Until the sixteenth century, all but a few specific kinds of books circulated in very limited numbers and were produced by hand. By the 1600s, however, texts of all kinds were being "mass" produced using moveable type.
Thanks to the growing availability of all kinds of works, literacy rates soared in the later sixteenth and seventeenth century.
Writers of this period were particularly sensitive to the dynamic between popular (zoku) literature and refined (ga) literature.
It was during the early modern period in Japan that popular literature gave expression to the everyday lives of commoners: the good, the bad, and everything in between.