Class and Contradiction: Merchants and Expression of Wealth in the Tokugawa Period
Kate Carey
About the Author
Kate Carey is a senior history major at the University of Washington, planning to graduate in June 2011. Her historical interests span across all time periods and countries, but she most enjoys trying to glean information about past societies from their works of fiction.
Abstract
Class and Contradiction explores the society of the merchant class in Tokugawa Period Japan, focusing mainly on the evolution of the merchant class from a lowly social rank, marginalized by the government, to a wealthy, developed group. Despite their wealth, the merchant class was denied power during the Tokugawa Period because of their low status in the social hierarchy. Meanwhile, the samurai, members of the elite warrior class, became increasingly poor and indebted to the merchants in order to keep up with the extravagant lifestyle encouraged by the shogunate. A glaring and unintentional contradiction developed where the samurai had governmental power but little money, and the merchants were wealthy but had no power. In order to cope with the restrictions placed on them, the merchants created their own culture and art form where they could express themselves freely. The paper aims to expose the merchant class’ frustration with the Tokugawa system as it was depicted in the art of woodblock printing, otherwise known as ukiyo-e. Why was ukiyo-e so popular? How did the merchants represent themselves and their social situation? How did they portray the samurai? The answers to these questions create an understanding for the mindset of the merchant during this frustrating time in history.
During the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868), promotion of Confucianism emphasized Japanese society was full of contradictions. respect for authority and power in On the one hand, the strict social hierarchy as interpersonal relationships. 1 This stabilized dictated by Confucian ideology placed the Japan’s feudalistic society by solidifying a samurai of the warrior class at the top and the hierarchical social structure. The hierarchy, unproductive merchants at the bottom. On the known as “shinokosho,” ranked members of other hand, the rapidly accelerating economy, society by usefulness and productivity. “Shi” driven by the advances of the Tokugawa stood for the highest class, the samurai, who Period, fed into the increasing wealth of the fought loyally for their lord and protected the lowly merchants. Class tensions rose as the land, “no” are the farmers who come in period progressed due to this paradox in the second because they produced the food for Tokugawa system. Although the merchant the country, “ko” stood for the artisans who class became increasingly wealthy during the created everything from artwork to every day Tokugawa Period, they were continuously tools, and finally the “sho” represented the denied a social status equal to their wealth. merchant class who did not create anything Instead, the merchants found freedom in the and therefore did not earn their status in theater and brothel districts of large cities like society.2 In the Confucian way of thinking, Edo, and lived a lavish lifestyle which was merchants were simply parasites in a society reflected in their popular art known as ukiyo- full of productive citizens, and this greatly e. This lifestyle made them the targets of affected government policy and public resentment from the technically more elite opinion with regards to the merchant class. samurai class whose members were losing Discrimination against merchants on money to merchants in the fiscally draining the part of the shogunate began early and Tokugawa government practice of alternate severely limited the power and influence of attendance. Through ukiyo-e, the merchant the merchants. Even before the official class expressed their social aspirations – beginning of the Tokugawa Period, despite the limitations of their class – with Hideyoshi’s Sword Hunt of 1588 drew a references to the court culture in which they clear line between the samurai and the lower would never belong. At the same time, the classes. The Sword Hunt was mandated by merchants released their frustration while Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a warlord who came to poking fun at their restrictive society by power toward the end of the Warring States parodying themselves and the samurai elite. Period and began the process of unifying The merchant class was placed at the Japan. Hideyoshi sought to stabilize Japan, bottom of Tokugawa society early on in the 1 shogunate’s reign. At the beginning of the Kenneth B. Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan, 2 ed. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Tokugawa Period, the shogunate established Company, 1996, 19. power by placing several controls over the 2 The Floating World of Ukiyo-E: Shadows, people, including ideological controls. The Dreams, and Substance, Iris Newsom, New York: Henry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001, 28.
Volume One w 2011 13 Carey much like the later Tokugawa shogunate, by merchants.5 As one Japanese scholar, Ogyu creating a system in which everyone knew Sorai, wrote in the 1720s, samurai and their place and purpose. By confiscating all farmers are productive and important weapons from the non-warrior classes, members of society and should be protected Hideyoshi created a clear distinction between by the government, while “merchants, on the the samurai and the lower classes.3 This was other hand, carry on an insignificant the first step in denying merchants power in occupation….it should be of no concern of society, because although the Sword Hunt government if they ruin themselves.”6 By the denied all lower class citizens the ability to time this was written, Japanese merchants fight and the power that comes with owning a had increased their wealth and power despite weapon, merchants were some of the few – and possibly because of – the neglect of the people wealthy enough to pose a threat. The shogunate. While the government spent its shogunate also denied merchants power by time protecting the samurai and the farmers, effectively ending international trade, which merchant industry went unchecked, which limited their level of influence. At the same allowed them to come up with new ways to time in other parts of the world such as consolidate their wealth and attract the Europe where there were no bans on business of others. international trade, merchants became some A great deal of the wealth of the of the most influential members of society merchant class can be attributed to the rapid with tremendous wealth which gave them urbanization of Japan following the Warring power.4 In Japan, merchants were restricted States Period. Daimyo lords began moving to a small sphere of control where their the warriors out of the countryside and into wealth could only grow so much and their consolidated settlements known as castle power would not be recognized by the towns in the 1580s in an effort to control government. their samurai. 7 These castle towns created The government also ignored the new demands such as the demand for merchant class with regards to protecting workers to build their houses and markets their livelihood, and instead focused on the from which to buy their goods, and this needs of the productive classes, mainly the attracted people from the countryside to samurai and farmers. Japan’s economy was move into castle towns and fulfill these needs. based solidly in agriculture at the beginning Some castle towns, like the center of the of the Tokugawa Period, so the shogunate Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, quickly grew saw no reason to protect the business of into cities teeming with activity. Many merchants saw an opportunity in these
3 Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan, 8. 5 Sheldon, “Merchants and Society,” 478. 4 Charles D. Sheldon, "Merchants and Society in 6 Ogyu Sorai, Seidan, III, Tokyo, Japan: Nihon Tokugawa Japan,"Modern Asian Studies, v. 3, no. Keizan Sosho, 1914-17, 427. 17 (1983), 479. 7 Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan, 3.
Volume One w 2011 14 Class and Contradiction rapidly growing castle towns and established and shared among Japanese farmers. lucrative businesses, feeding off of samurai According to the Cambridge History of Japan, spending promoted by the castle town system, between 1550 and 1650 agricultural characterized by the Tokugawa shogun’s productivity doubled.9 Naturally, an increase requirement of alternate attendance. in food production led to population growth, Alternate attendance was a method creating more people to produce goods and used by the Tokugawa shogunate to monitor spend money. the daimyo and maintain their loyalty, but it With a strengthened agricultural force also worked to contain daimyo wealth and a growing population, Japanese society through the promotion of heavy spending became more reliant on trade and the services which benefitted the merchants. In the system of merchants. As agricultural techniques of alternate attendance, daimyo would live were perfected, different regions began to half the time in their domain and the other specialize in certain areas, creating a need for half in Edo. The families of daimyo lived in trade in order to redistribute goods.10 This Edo and large numbers of people were made the job of the merchant necessary to required to take up residence there as survival and, in general, commerce increased servants. Artisans and merchants flocked to over this period. Trade soon became a Edo to provide the goods and services needed necessity in Japanese life and daimyo by the daimyo, samurai, and their families. invested in infrastructure like roads, better The merchants took advantage of this ports, and new channels to ease travel and opportunity of high demand, “making their trade between areas in their domain.11 The services indispensable…organizing complex road between Kyoto and Edo became distribution and financial systems which especially important to the alternate proved to be largely beyond the attendance system as daimyo and their understanding of the samurai.” 8 Merchants samurai traveled back and forth. 12 The filled an important niche in Tokugawa specialization of production in different society which the government unknowingly domains created a dependence on trade that made indispensable with the alternate benefitted the merchants, and the alternate attendance system. attendance system established the necessary Rising merchant wealth and the lavish spending of the daimyo can be attributed to the general economic growth of the early 9 Donald H. Shively, The Cambridge History of Tokugawa Period. An increase in agricultural Japan, 4, Early Modern Japan, Cambridge productivity began toward the end of the University Press, 1991, Warring States Period, perhaps stimulated by
Volume One w 2011 15 Carey infrastructure for widespread trade in many different ways; before the 1680s, throughout Japan. when this lifestyle emerged in a time known While the alternate attendance system as the Genroku Period, “ukiyo” was a benefitted the merchant class and filled their Japanese word meaning “the here and now,” pockets, the daimyo and samurai were losing but was later attached to the society of the money to the now wealthy merchants, which merchants of Edo who recognized that the created class tension. Within the alternate here and now was constantly changing.15 The attendance system it was a matter of pride for ukiyo lifestyle is associated with the the daimyo to display their wealth in the merchant class and completely separate from extravagant procession to and from Edo, in the society of the upper classes. This is where their living quarters in Edo, and in their the merchants could reign free of the lifestyle. The high demand for products of Tokugawa society’s restrictive hierarchy, status in Edo, Sorai argued, allowed spend lavishly, and live in the moment.16 merchants to raise prices however high they Ukiyo has been described as a floating world, pleased. 13 Sorai especially criticized perhaps because it was a place where merchants for robbing honest samurai of their merchants could live outside Tokugawa stipends, writing that the majority of their society, floating between the world they lived pay “granted them by their lords in return for in and a fantastical world they created. It is their loyal and devoted service” fell to the within this culture that Japanese woodblock merchants of Edo.14 The sense of injustice prints, also known as ukiyo-e, were originally felt by the samurai elite due to the conceived. contradictions of the system created tension Ukiyo-e was art made for the masses which between the samurai and merchant classes. depicted the lifestyle of the Genroku Period. The alternate attendance system at once The prints often illustrated scenes in brothels drained the daimyo of their money, leading to or the famous actors of kabuki theater which lower samurai stipends, and filled the pockets were both heavily patronized by the merchant of the merchants. The same society that class. Woodblock prints by nature can be placed merchants at the bottom of the social mass produced as opposed to a single artist hierarchy promoted their success by working for a small group of clients to create encouraging high spending rates. individual pieces.17 Merchants who aspired to Merchants enjoyed their newfound a higher social rank enjoyed the privilege of wealth, but because no authority came with it having their own art form, especially when it they created their own way of life, known as so closely resembled and may have been ukiyo, filled with the pleasure of the brothel based on yamato-e, the popular art of the 17th and theater districts in Edo where they could exhibit their power. Ukiyo can be translated 15 Newsom, 50-1. 13 Sorai, Seidan, 37-8. 16 Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan, 38. 14 Sorai, Seidan, 51. 17 Newsom, 29.
Volume One w 2011 16 Class and Contradiction century Japanese court. 18 Ukiyo-e differed that instead of following the righteous path from yamato-e in the fact that yamato-e were this man can “throw his weight around by one-of-a-kind painted works of art, while keeping money to bribe others in his ukiyo-e was mass-produced with woodblocks. sleeves.”21 Nevertheless, ukiyo-e closely resembles the style of yamato-e. This might explain why famous printers of the Genroku Period signed their work with the title “painter of Japan;” even though their work was not painted, the title gave them a sense of importance and infused the prints with credibility and worth.19 This attracted merchants who were frustrated with their inability to raise their social status and searching for a way to experience court culture while they were unable to obtain it. The man did not follow the honorable path, As an art form of the merchant class, or perhaps was not allowed to, like the ukiyo-e reflects more than their desire to live merchants of the Tokugawa Period, so he the courtly life, but also reveals their attitude used his riches to achieve his goals. While toward their social situation. Throughout the affluence of the merchant class may have depictions of themselves and of samurai, the increased, their social standing did not merchant class released their frustration with change and this frustrated these men who Tokugawa society by parodying it. At the pushed up against the glass ceiling created by beginning of the Tokugawa Period, when the Tokugawa shogunate for people like them. they were solidly placed with the lower At the same time, the elite samurai classes, merchants attempted to see humor in class felt left behind by the Tokugawa system their situation and used self-deprecating because they were no longer more prosperous humor to make light of their low social than many people who supposedly belonged standing and lack of power.20 Later on, once to a lower social rank. It was the samurai the merchant class rose in wealth but not belief, as Sorai wrote, that merchants stole traditional status, they poked fun at their the wealth of the samurai class. The ability to use their money to buy respect. In merchants felt this animosity, so many ukiyo- the print, “Proverbs: The Navel’s Change of e depict samurai defending their social Address,” a merchant pushes his way through standing. In most cases the wealth of the a busy crowd while the text above him reads merchants surpassed that of the socially superior samurai, which put the power in the 18 Newsom, 39. 19 Newsom, 40. 20 Newsom, 72. 21 Newsom, 92.
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hands of the desperation to the merchant class, which they merchants parodied in this print. Another print from the because of same period shows a ronin, or master-less their fiscal samurai, being inspected with a magnifying control of the glass by an old peasant man while townsmen upper classes leisurely look on in the background.25 This due to the reflects the merchants’ own inspection of the constant cycle Tokugawa hierarchy, especially the rank of of money samurai who were fiscally inferior to the lending and lowly merchant class. The merchants’ debt. 22 discontent with their social status is Samurai had suggested once been the in their warriors and playful protectors of questionin their domain, g of the gaining respect samurai for their loyal service to their daimyo, but as rank in the peace of the Tokugawa Period continued ukiyo-e. the samurai’s warrior status became mostly ceremonial. Ukiyo-e By the 18th century, samurai wore are a armor made of lacquered paper that was as representa symbolic as their social standing during their tion of the processions to and from Edo for alternate affluent attendance. 23 A print from the early 18th merchant century shows a warrior figure with two lifestyle swords holding an oversized gun or cannon of the Tokugawa Period. While representing defensively, as if to keep someone from their discontent with the strict social taking it. 24 Although the samurai role as hierarchy, the merchant class pointed out the warriors became obsolete in the Tokugawa flaws and contradictions in the system. From Period they attempted to hold on to their the beginning of the Tokugawa Period, important social rank while their wealth merchants were considered the lowest social slipped away from them. The need for the class because of the Confucian ideals that the samurai to keep hold of their status read as Tokugawa shogunate promoted to bring social order to Japan. The shogunate also 22 Newsom, 73. restricted merchants’ potential power by 23 Newsom, 73. 24 Newsom, 41. 25 Newsom, 57.
Volume One w 2011 18 Class and Contradiction closing international trade and neglected to enjoyed no higher social ranking. In their protect merchant industries in favor of the discontent, merchants created their own more productive samurai and farming classes. culture known as ukiyo, or the floating world, The Tokugawa government did the where they could exhibit their power through merchants a favor by ignoring them, allowing lavish spending and express their frustration the merchants to expand their industry in their popular art form, ukiyo-e. Ukiyo-e without regulation. At the same time, the often depicted the merchant lifestyle and shogunate implemented the alternate their unfortunate social position in a attendance system, which drained the daimyo humorous light, and illustrated the and samurai of their money for services shortcomings of the samurai elite by provided by Japanese merchants. By the parodying their social paranoia. As the decades leading up to the 18th century, the Tokugawa Period came to an end and gave wealth of the upper classes, especially the way to the Meiji Period, lower samurai who samurai, transferred to the merchant class, felt they had been wronged rose to power and which created a glaring contradiction in the the social hierarchy was, once again, turned Tokugawa system evident in ukiyo-e. While on its head. The Meiji Restoration marked the samurai were traditionally from a higher many changes in Japanese society, including social standing, many of them found the recognition and respect of the hunger for themselves indebted to the wealthy power like that of the lowly merchant class merchants of Edo, and the merchants, who from the Tokugawa Period. had become more affluent than many samurai,
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Bibliography
Newsom, Iris. The Floating World of Ukiyo-E: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance. New York: Henry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001. Pyle, Kenneth B. The Making of Modern Japan. 2 edition. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1996. Sheldon, Charles D. “Merchants and Society in Tokugawa Japan." Modern Asian Studies. v. 3. no. 17. 1983. Shively, Donald H. The Cambridge History of Japan. 4. Early Modern Japan. Cambridge University Press. 1991.
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