Japanese Culture Essay

Part 2 The Tokugawa is arguably one of the most important periods, which transformed the culture, society, political system and economy of Japan in an unprecedented manner. More importantly, this period ended isolationism Japan suffered for many centuries and internal conflicts that created chaos within the country. The rulers of the Tokugawa period were able to usher peace and prosperity as they established order in the society. This is also a period that Japan established links with the western world, which provided Japan with modern technology. When peace prevailed and order in the society was maintained, people obviously had more time to concentrate on arts and culture. This is because the pleasure quarters (brothels) were a hub for prostitution. One critical prerequisite for an aspect of a society to be considered its culture is that there should be some form of uniformity among a large number of persons within that society (Rathje, Stefanie p35).

The fact that the popularity of the pleasure quarters grew (Teruoka, Yasutaka p8) implies that the society had accepted the culture of men visiting the quarters for pleasure as normal. The Chonin culture was also characterized by the Ukiyo-e (Bell, David p10), which was a form of an art. The art, which was majorly comprised of woodblock prints and paintings, was very popular among the Chōnin group (Bell, David p10). The culture was closely monitored by the government while at the same time being frowned upon by the population which was not Chonin (Bell, David). Notably, some members such as the Bakufu administrators opted to exclude themselves from the Chonin culture which was hedonistic (Toll, Mathew). As a result, they opted to build a wall around the district (Toll, Mathew) to prevent spreading of this culture.