34 AMAM.OBERLIN.EDU URBAN RESIDENCES: SAMURAI The city of Edo was vast, with a population of about 1.3 million people. More than half were samurai and their 200 lords. Townspeople comprised about 44 percent (roughly 570,000), and clerics and others made up the rest. But the city was tightly segregated and the land was not evenly divided, with lords controlling 33 percent, other samurai 30 percent, temples and shrines about 13 percent, and townspeople, despite their numbers, about 18 percent. The lowest ranking samurai lived together in barracks, while those of middle and higher ranks, mostly administrators, lived in spacious compounds in the quiet suburbs. Part of their space was devoted to vegetable gardens and fruit trees, as samurai were expected to be both frugal and relatively self-sufficient. Women managed the household andmade clothes for the family, and were largely required to stay home, so traveling peddlers were a common sight in the districts, bringing varied goods to these customers. Above: Utagawa Sadahide 歌川貞秀 (Japanese, 1807–1873) LordMashibaHisayoshi Builds theCastle of Himeji inHarimaProvince, 1862 Color woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper Gift of DominiqueH. Vasseur (OC 1973), 2025.1.1A-C The most dramatic and impressive urban residences certainly were castles, massive, fortified structures that were home to regional lords, or daimyo. Most castles featured colossal stone walls at their base, with upper structures that had walls of thick planks filled in with sand and gravel to slow bullets. Heavy plaster and ceramic tile roofs protected from fire. During the long and peaceful Edo period, however, castles were symbols of authority and no longer needed for defense. The largest andmost famous surviving castle in Japan is Himeji Castle. In 1581, during his quest to unify the warring states of Japan, the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi controlled Himeji, and added the famous central tower keep to the castle. This print imagines that project, with Hideyoshi and others supervising the construction. Note the title of the print: due to Edo period regulations that forbade discussing recent history in plays, novels or prints, Hashiba (Toyotomi) Hideyoshi’s name is changed to Mashiba Hisayoshi. The construction scaffolding seen here relates to the theme of sustainability. It is made of bamboo, a versatile material that is fully renewable and used in myriad ways throughout East Asia. This function takes advantage of the strong, yet lightweight, qualities of bamboo. Bottomright: UtagawaHiroshige I 初代目歌川広重 (Japanese, 1797–1858) Act 2, Konami Brings Tea toRikiya asHonzoCuts theBranchof aPine in Front ofWakasanosuke, fromthe series Chūshingura, mid-1840s Color woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper MaryA. AinsworthBequest, 1950.1084 This scene from the play Chūshingura gives us a glimpse into the residential compound of a high-ranking samurai. The buildings include elements often considered standard for traditional architecture in Japan, but which are really characteristics of a specific style, shoin (shoin-zukuri 書院 造), common to the Edo samurai class and wealthier townspeople. Some of these elements may be linked to conservation of timber resources. The woman in the foreground stands on an engawa 縁側, a raised, porch-like space that often surrounds buildings. But note the supporting posts underneath, resting on stone blocks. These became widespread in the period and helped to preserve wood from rot and termites. Sliding screens covered with paper—both the translucent, grid-like shoji and the opaque fusuma (blue) in the background—replaced sliding panels of wood used in earlier centuries. The use of tatami as a floor covering allowed builders to make the floors underneath out of unpolished, irregular boards.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTczNTM=