A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower (35 page)

It was also the age of the
geisha
(‘artistic person’), who was often male. In most cases – male and female alike – the
geisha
were little more than artistically talented prostitutes, for although they played the
shamisen
and could recite verses they also sold their bodies. The sh
gunate managed to exercise at least some degree of control by confining
geisha
and prostitutes to specified ‘pleasure quarters’ in each city, such as Yoshiwara in Edo.
³⁵

While the townspeople generally prospered, this was not always the case with the peasantry, who comprised the majority of the population. There were a number of crop failures and famines due to climatic instability. The tax burden in many domains was high and the cause of a number of uprisings. Poor administration in some domains contributed to their woes. There were also many who could not cope with the economic vagaries of increasing crop specialisation and commercialisation in agriculture, as in cash crops such as silk, cotton, tobacco, sugar, and tea.
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In practice unsuccessful farmers often entrusted their lands to others and became tenants, despite laws to the contrary. The gap between rich and poor grew as a result.

However, overall, the degree of distress of the peasantry has been exaggerated. The levelling out of population growth from around the middle of the period, at some 30 million, has often been attributed to infanticide among poor farming families. This certainly did happen, but it was not always done out of desperate poverty. It was often done simply to improve living standards, just as many modern-day families limit the number of their children. In other words, it was often a form of ‘postnatal contraception’.
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In a similar way, family size was sometimes adjusted upwards by adoption in order to improve economic efficiency, for each family was a unit of production.
³⁸
Just as villages were whole units responsible to the domain lord for crop production and taxes, within villages it was extended families (
ie
) who were the units, and not individuals. Blood ties were not particularly important to these extended families.

Overall, despite cases of failure and hardship, living conditions throughout the period improved for the peasantry as a whole, as for society at large.
³⁹
In fact, the various laws to regulate consumption passed throughout the period are in themselves an indication that wealth was increasing. A decree issued by the sh
gunate in 1788 stated:
⁴⁰

For long it has been the custom among peasants to wear simple clothing and tie their hair with straw. However, of late, they have become accustomed to luxuries and forgetful of their status. They wear clothing befitting those of higher status and use oil and
motoyui
[cord] to tie their hair. They now use umbrellas and
kappa
[raincoats] in the rain instead of straw hats and
mino
[straw covers]. As expenses rise because of all this, villages decline and people leave the villages … The peasants should at no time forget their station in life. For peasants to engage in trade or for villages to have hairdressers is to be disrespectful. Henceforth, all luxuries should be avoided by the peasants. They are to live simply and devote themselves to farming.

Improved living standards indicated a healthy economy. The reasons for this state of health reflected a mixture of astuteness and circumstance:

•
the rate of increase in production was greater than the rate of increase in population – to some extent the result of an awareness of the link between economic efficiency and size of family (the productive/consumptive unit), but also the result of improved agricultural technology;
⁴¹

•
the high rate of literacy and numeracy helped the spread of new technology and the efficiency of commercial activity in general;

•
the alternate attendance system gave rise to the need for
daimy
to obtain liquid assets to meet their huge and varied expenses, leading to sophisticated brokering and exchange mechanisms, and to an advanced monetary economy;
⁴²

•
as a result of increased economic activity there was increased diversity and specialisation (in terms of both region and worker), which boosted efficiency, commercialisation, and monetarisation still further;

•
national stability in terms of peace and political structures provided a helpful environment;

•
owing to the class system merchants were not taken particularly seriously by the sh
gunate, were given a considerable degree of autonomy, and were relatively lightly taxed.
⁴³

The rise of the merchant was particularly important for Japan’s future. It was in this period that certain huge merchant houses such as Mitsui and Sumitomo developed.
⁴⁴
The whole idea of profit-making, which was once scorned by the ruling class as undignified, became gradually more acceptable. Ishida Baigan (1685–1744) even developed a philosophy that extolled profit-making and the role of the merchant.
⁴⁵

The rise of the merchant, however, was also one more factor that ultimately helped undermine Tokugawa policy. Clearly, a class system that placed merchants at the bottom was losing touch with reality. In that reality, it was not uncommon for
daimy
to be greatly in the debt – and in some cases the control – of merchants. Some merchants were allowed samurai privileges, and some samurai engaged in commerce. The frozen class system, a pillar of Tokugawa policy, was inevitably starting to thaw.

3.4   The Return of the Foreign Devils and the Fall of the Sh
gunate

A degree of contact with the west was maintained through the Dutch presence in Nagasaki. There was still an interest in ‘western learning’ (
Y
gaku
or
Rangaku
), especially the sciences, and even considerable admiration.
⁴⁶
Physician-scholars such as Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716) and later Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796–1866) – both actually German, but both employed as physicians to the Dutch colony in Nagasaki – left a particularly strong impression.

From time to time unauthorised westerners did land in the closed country, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. With very few exceptions they were either expelled or executed. From around the end of the eighteenth century, as western powers grew more active in the Pacific and eastern Asia, a number of nations made official attempts to re-open relations – at least to the extent of obtaining re-provisioning rights for their vessels. These too were doomed to failure. Russia tried and failed in 1792 and again in 1804. Britain tried in 1797, 1808, and 1818. America, whose whaling ships were active in waters near Japan, tried in 1791, 1797, and 1837, and particularly seriously in 1846 and 1849.
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