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- the Industrial Revolution as well as the accompanying scientific, technological and political advances, and as a result fell drastically behind much of the rest of the world. However, this prolonged national isolation (sakoku seisaku) over more than two centuries was not without benefits, as the resulting unprecedented domestic peace and stability led to a thriving culture with great advances in arts and letters. Pax Tokugawa was a time of great cultural creativity that helped define Japans national identity and culture. The Edo period produced some of Japans greatest writers and poets, including Ihara Saikoku (1642-1693) for genre novels and haikai (linked verse) poetry, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) for puppet play dramas and Matsuo Basho (1644-94) who helped develop haiku (short poems of seventeen syllables).
As mentioned earlier, the four social classes during the Edo period were, in descending order, the samurai or warrior class, peasant farmers, artisans and merchants, (the latter�s contribution to society was the least valued). The Tokugawa government decreed that the samurai could carry two swords (one long, the other
16 Hokusai Katsushika
(1760-1869)
Fuji from Shimo Meguro /
Mont Fuji depuis Shimo Meguro Woodblock print
This scene, which shows peasants, a village and terraced fields, wonderfully captures the atmosphere of the countryside using a minimum number of colours.
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