Blog Post #9: Non Western Blog Exhibit
The Edo Period in Japan The Edo Period, also known as the Tokugawa period, ran from 1603 to 1867. These dates represent the establishment of the shogunate, or military dictatorship, in the city of Edo (now Tokyo) by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1603, and the Meiji Restoration in 1867, which returned Japan to imperial rule. (Multiple sources all cite these same dates which I thought was interesting for an 'era,' which is usually loosely defined.) Britannica describes this period as the last traditional period of Japan, and "a time of internal peace, political stability, and economic growth under the shogunate." As we've seen with previous periods in the West, times of economic and social stability evoke different styles and emotion in art than those where times were tough or governments were funneling money into the arts to keep them going. While this remains true through Japan's history, the country's ties to traditional values are much stronger than that
