Leyasu's Influence On Japanese Culture

Before the great emperor Leyasu, in the starkly arranged feudal society held under Hideyoshi’s reign, creativity didn’t come from it’s leaders, or even the conservative military class, but creativity came merely from the two lowest classes you could possibly think of; the merchants and the artisans. Although they were very belittled and surpassed by many in the Confucian society, they still had free reign with social benefits. Little did the Royal hierarchy know that the lower, underprivileged citizens would help recreate an era where everything became beautiful and peace was near just through their hands and a printing press rather than wars, persecutions, and prosperity. Throughout the years, artistic traditions transformed and revived through the prosperous age of prohibitions, the tea ceremony, the isolated government and many other feudal societal differences. After the almighty callous Emperor Hideyoshi had died, Tokugawa Leyasu took over and was the most powerful and accomplishing man to ever rule Japan. Eventually the Edo society (created by Leyasu) became a very well known and stylistic development in Japanese art. Edo was known as Tokyo in the late eighteenth century and it was

A Japanese art form developed in the Edo period called the Ukiyo-e style. This was a Buddhist concept that came from the word ukiyo, which suggested sadness of life. During the peace that arose in the 17th century, instead of ukiyo meaning sadness, people began to associate the word with the experienced desires of Japan’s rising middle class. They finally had worth and so they went out to spend time at Kabuki theatres, they became handsome actors, and beautiful courtesans known for their wittiness. These merchants were intelligent poets, and aspiring artist that emerged from nothing into worth. Painting of these people from this world became its own type of genre in the art culture of Japan, now known as Ukiyo-e