A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower (34 page)

But it was not the only busy centre. Osaka and Ky
to both had around half a million residents. Towns sprang up along the routes taken by the
daimy
and their processions to provide for their many needs. Exchange centres developed where
daimy
representatives could convert their domain’s rice crop into cash. And despite the restrictions on travel, and the harshness of punishments for town dwellers, many peasants flocked to the towns to seek their fortune amidst all this new economic activity.

These various townspeople (
ch
nin
) helped form a new and vibrant culture. Their dynamism helped offset the staid orthodoxy preferred by the sh
gunate.

Wealthy merchants in particular played a part in this new bourgeois culture. Not for them the refined and restrained
n
drama of the aristocrats. They preferred the colour and ostentation of
kabuki
, with its exaggerated movements, simple melodramatic plots, and stage effects such as trapdoors and revolving stages. Or else they flocked to the ‘puppet drama’ of
bunraku
. Not for them the refined sensibility of aristocratic poetry. They preferred shorter and often humorous verses such as
haiku
and
senry
.
³¹
They liked witty books (
sharebon
), popular romances (
yomi-hon
), merchant success stories (
ch
ninmono
), and sexually titillating books (
k
shokubon
or
ukiyo-z
shi
).
³²
They liked colourful woodblock prints, often sexually explicit. These were known as
shunga
(‘pictures of spring’) or
more generally as
ukiyo-e
, ‘pictures of the floating world’. The ‘floating world’ was originally a term used by priests to refer to the transience of life, but in the age of Edo it came to mean the world of human relations, especially sexual relations.

The sexuality of the age was often played down to western visitors of later times, but it was a major part of bourgeois culture in particular.
³³
Early
kabuki
actresses were barely distinguishable from prostitutes, and performances often degenerated into orgies. The sh
gunate, alarmed at the unruliness of it all, banned females from the stage.
³⁴
However, the male actors who replaced them had exactly the same effect. The sh
gunate ordered them to tone down their act, and kept an eye on performances, but for once was really unable to do much about it.