The Tokugawa Empire began with Tokugawa Ieyasu who took the place of emperor after his predecessors Odo Nobunga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, both of whom help set the foundation of Japan, preparing it for Tokugawa to come in and take over. Odo Nobunga decreased the power of the Buddha, placed the shogunate under his power, and was seen more as a tyrant than a leader. Toyotomi convinced the Japanese to start their own form of currency, which was a major accomplishment of his time. However, he was a f

ailure in his expansionist views. He tried to overtake Korea, but failed horribly when China came to its aid. Not only did Japan end up losing the war, but China ended up gaining a sphere of influence in Korea, which would be a cause of turmoil in later years.

Performed only by the ruling class, these events took place in the amazingly decorated palaces of the Samurai. An account of a particular teahouse by Scott Morton describes one of these pavilions; by praising it¡¯s artistic beauty (Nardo 70),

Usually what would take place would be that the farmers would come into the castle town, bringing their crops with them, in an attempt to trade their crops for various articles of necessities, such as clothes. It served as the ¡°regional administrative center¡± of the territory, and allowed the trades for many various goods (Nakane 214). Farmers accounted for about 80 percent of the population (Nakane, 215), and would usually live amongst one another according to economic and social status. Usually farmers would be expected to farm in time of peace and fight for the country in times of war. Relationships were very seldom made between the samurai and the peasants. In fact and type of individualism was heavily repressed. One may wonder on the justifications of this hierarchy, and the answer is simple. The royalty justified their standards of class division through Confucian concepts.

Japan itself is a feudal society with a strictly defined hierarchy. Where Europe had moved on from Feudalism to Mercantilism, the system of Feudalism remained in Japan, as said by Patrick Smith.

Kabuki is generally performed to please the audience, and one particular playwright, who was very popular at the time, as we know, was Chikamatsu. Usually his plays would be stories about two lovers, whose only option in the end of the play is to commit suicide. These types of ¡°love suicides¡± became popular among the theater, and quickly gained popularity by the people. One particular story of his, The Love Suicides at Amijima, involved a prostitute, also a popular character in Japanese literature, who had fallen in love with a man who was already married and trusted his brother for comfort. This love affair went on to the point in which both lovers were forced to commit suicide in the name of love. This is just one example of Chikamatsu¡¯s works, and many more playwrights follow in these footsteps. So along with this underground money came underground activity, and what emerged was ¡°Tokugawan Society,¡± and then another ¡°hush hush¡± society, that everyone was morally forbidden to be involved with, yet contradictory to what was said to be done, a majority of people were involved. In this ¡°floating world¡± were Storytellers, Jesters, Geishas, and other pleasurable activities for the common merchant, farmer, samurai, or even peasant at times. The merchants, in fact, made the most profits from this advancement of Japan. Even though merchants were constricted to wearing certain garments to show their lower place in hierarchy, a majority of merchants wore their finest clothes under their merchant clothes, as self-assurance of their success (Furgol). Some merchants worked for the daimyo and in return got something large in return, usually money (Hane 152). The development of paper money made it easier for the merchants to trade, and many merchants made fortunes on rice, lumber, and textiles. The merchants were looked down upon by the Samurai, but even though the merchants were under the Samurai in the hierarchy, they had more political and economic influence than the Samurais, which can be seen as a source for the Samurai's jealousy. The arts were a highly focused on trade by the rapidly rising classes of Japan, and one art particularly practiced as an excuse for political leaders to meet, were the teahouse traditions of Japan.

Many people of the upper class would be proud to become part of this formal ceremony, and eventually e

Some topics in this essay:
Tokugawa Empire, West¡± Russian, Odo Nobunga, Edo Japan, Silver Pavilion, Tea Ceremony, Zen Japan, Jesters Geishas, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Milton Meyer, tea ceremony, scientific revolution, zen buddhism, western europe, ¡°floating world¡±, tokugawa empire, smith 52, samurai peasants, flowering arts, japanese culture, peasants artisans merchants, relationship mind nature, seething boiling water, samurai peasants artisans,