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Edo Period History - Part 2
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A History of Edo Period Painting
Joe D Price
IN
EARLY TIMES THE EYES OF JAPAN SEEMED always to be directed beyond its oceans.
Its educated and ruling classes forced the Japanese to submerge
their own inherent tendencies to tha
t of their huge neighbors.
Indeed they emulated China's customs and art to such an extent, that even
today, many think Japanese art merely a copy of the Chinese. But this is
not so. The Japanese are not a people to be content forever with someone
else's culture. And those rulers of Japan who had imported the Chinese way
of life slowly began to lose their power. The Imperial court and their sophisticated
advisors were being replaced by the fighting soldier, the Samurai.
The Samurai lacked the education of the previous ruling familys
and the historic learnings of the church, both steeped in the knowledge
of China. He was a mounted knight, versed in the military arts of the sword
and the horse, and as his power grew, so grew his influence on the arts.
The great leaders of the warrior clans rejected the symbolistic
art of ancient Buddhism and the severe canons of Zen aesthetics, 
for these
were too somber for their crude tastes. They decorated the interiors of
their gloomy castles with glittering gold. Gold to reflect the bit of light
that filtered through the heavy shutters. Gold to reflect the shimmer of
the candle.
They built their capitol where Tokyo now stands and called it Edo; and believing society could be kept from changing, closed the ports of Japan to the outside world. In this seclusion Japan was able to recover from its devastating civil wars and began a 250 year period of unprecedented peace and interior prosperity known as the Edo Period.
