Merchants

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during the edo period the merchants

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became the wealthiest people in the land

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they controlled the distribution of

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products

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they also controlled a lot of monopolies

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so they able to develop a tremendous

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amount of wealth

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even some of the great financial houses

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of today developed during the edo period

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for example in this one print you can

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see the mitsuhi family crest it’s in the

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city of yokohama around 1860. so they

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became very wealthy but they were not

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allowed to show off their wealth they

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often had to keep it hidden

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for example in the clothing often their

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lining would be very nice where the

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outside of the clothing would not be

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they also found that they could uh enjoy

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life a lot during the edo period by

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going to the pleasure quarters in the

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pleasure quarters there were brothels

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bath houses restaurants and what they

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loved most kabuki theater so they’d go

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there to get entertainment

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the samurai were not supposed to be

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going to kabuki theater because it was

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beneath them they’re supposed to go and

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watch no place or no drama which had

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masks but the kabuki theater was very

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colorful it had a lot of sexual innuendo

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a lot of intrigue

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violence and this is what the average

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person seemed to like

Woodblock Prints

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during the edo period the merchants

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loved a particular type of art known as

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ukiyoa these are woodblock prints wood

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bra prints were made by a team effort

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first the artist would make the image

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he would send it to the wood block

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carver the wood ball carver would then

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print the image print one copy and send

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it back to the artist he would fill in

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the colors

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and then send that print back to the

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woodblock harvest for each color a block

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has to be carved so in some cases there

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can be 7 to 17 different blocks these

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all have to be carefully lined up

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so again i will repeat it it’s a team

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effort first you have the artist

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the wood block carver and the printer

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he’s the one who would print each color

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so each time you finished one color

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you’d have to lay them all out and let

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them dry

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and then after they dried take it up and

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put the next color on and so on and so

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on and if you wanted a fourth member to

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the team

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effort you would have the distributor he

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would sell these around or carry them

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around

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and sell them to the ordinary people now

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these usually only cost a few pennies

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and you just put them up for a while and

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then discard them

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now eventually they were used as packing

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material when they were selling uh

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sending ceramics to europe so they’re

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all crumpled up and sent

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around these ceramics now some of the

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sea captains and other people in europe

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began admiring these colorful wood block

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prints and it ended up influencing a lot

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of people like the impressionists and

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the post-impressionists like van gaal de

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gea

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monet people like whistler so they’re

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all influenced by japanese woodwork

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prints and the uh the various angles

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that they they tried to depict and the

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large blocks of color so ukiro prince

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ended up having a tremendous impact on

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western art not so much in japan where a

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lot of the aristocracy felt these were

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vulgar images and they would not collect

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them so it was not considered a great

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art but it was a folk art a popular art

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in which the ordinary people could

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afford

End of the Edo Period

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during the edo period

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basically only two foreigners were

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allowed to trade with the japanese and

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that was the chinese and the dutch

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all the rest were banned this would all

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change in 1853 when the american

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commodore perry would sail in with six

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ships

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he sailed in with these ships and they

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had huge cannons and suddenly the

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samurai found that they had no counter

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measure to stop them they could do

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whatever they want

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kerry left the ultimatum that when he

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returned in one year that the japanese

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would have to open up ports to the

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americans

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which he did he returned in 1854 and the

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japanese had to open up two ports the

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main reason why the americans wanted

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these ports open is they wanted to be

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able to stop and

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resupply their ships often whaling ships

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had been in this area and if they became

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marooned and the japanese would either

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kill the crew members or sent them back

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out to sea

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now they had a chance to put the port

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get food and continue now as soon as the

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americans did this the british

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the

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russians the french and even the dutch

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began making new treaties and forcing

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the japanese to open up more ports to

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them

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before too long the foreigners were set

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up in the city of yokohama and you could

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see them all over the place coming to

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trade with the japanese

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they did very well and a lot of japanese

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companies did very well

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