HIST 0312 WEEKS 5/6

tokyo prefecture (1868-1943)

tokyo prefecture (1868-1943)

• territory of Tokyo was expanded beyond just the shogunate capital Edo

• 1868: 6 wards
  1871: 11 Wards
  1878: 15 wards

  • These were attempts to organize the city on administrative terms

15 wards

# wards from 1878-1932

tokyo metropolis (1943-now)

• Merge into a single unit (during WWII)

• Consolidation as a result of war-time

  • 23 special wards

• "Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture"

23 special wards

• system in place today (tokyo metropolis 1943-now)

• special form of municipalities in Japan established in 1947

• city-level wards: primary subdivisions of a prefecture with municipal autonomy largely comparable to other forms of municipalities

  • normal wards (39 others) are apart of westward exansion

asukayama park

• edo/tokyo’s “first park”

  • ward is the old low city

• Planted cherry blossoms for commoners in the early 18th century

  • Designated as a place for commoners to enjoy the outdoors

• Becomes one of the “famous sites” of edo (part of travel culture)

  • Emperor Meiji Visits 1888

hibiya park

• Located adjacent to the Imperial Palace

• originally a field for Military Drills

  • Plot of empty land

• 1893

  • The government bought it from the army and began park planning

• Opened in 1904 then riots

• Protests congregate here (since it's close to palace, the public made demands, and expressed anger)

hibiya riots (sept 5-7 1905)

• protest against the terms of the Portsmouth treaty (citizens were led to believe they were winning the war russo-japaense war so they were outraged when the portsmouth treaty was signed and was not in their favor; lack of rewards bc the Sino-Japanese war had many rewards and this was such a costly war)

  • Tried to infiltrate the palace

• escalated into a violent 3-day citywide riot when the police attempted to suppress the protests

russo-japanese war (1905-1905)

• After Japan beat China, Russia stepped into the vacuum in the Korean Peninsula, and became an influencer in Korean affairs.

• Unlike earlier wars with China, this war was extremely deadly and costly.

  • The American gov't helped negotiate the end via Portsmouth Treaty.

portsmouth treaty

• formally ended the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War

  • few rewards for Japan after a costly war

ueno park

• Opens 1876

  • Often miscredited as the first park of Tokyo (title belongs to Auskayama)

• Decided to turn historical sites of interest into parks

  • Battle of Ueno (July 4th, 1868)

• “mnemonic sites”

  • Memorial to Shogitai; Saigo Takamori Statue, 1898

• The park was a location of exhibitions, museums, and a zoo.

  • zoo = mark of modernity. Lets urbanites see exotic animals, famous elephants

saigo takamori

• was a Japanese samurai and nobleman

  • one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration

• fought in the battle of ueno (1868)

• led the rebells in the satsuma rebellion as well

  • Saigō established a private academy known as the Shi-gakkō in Kagoshima (an artillery school)

• dubbed the ‘last true samurai’

• statue now stands in ueno park (commissioned by govnt)

  • Eyes facing imperial palace = always remained loyal.

satsuma rebellion (1877)

• revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government of Japan, nine years into the Meiji era

  • the last and most serious of a series of armed uprisings against the new government of the Empire of Japan

• modernization of the country meant the abolition of the privileged social status of the samurai class, and had undermined their financial position

• rebellion also effectively ended the samurai class, as the new Imperial Japanese Army built had proven itself in battle

marunouchi

• business district

• “london town”

  • Hibiya

  • Situated between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace

marunouchi building

• first developed in 1923

• designed by Kingo Tatsuno (the father of modern Japanese architecture)

  • remains as a historical building, representing the style of western buildings in the Meiji

lumiere bros

• first cinematic technologies

• cinematographe

  • French manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their Cinématographe motion picture system and the short films they produced (actualities), which places them among the earliest filmmakers.

  • quickly became specatcle

actualities

• first film in shot japan: lumiere

  • non-fiction film genre that uses footage of real events, places, and things (essentially B-roll), in a similar way to documentary film

• Shoot 10 minutes of people going about there business

• Capturing everyday life (let audiences see foreign things they otherwise couldn't)

  • The Lumière Brothers, were the principal advocates for this genre and also coined the term

period films

• a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan

  • refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868

  • show the lives of the samurai, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants of their time

asakusa

• major entertainment district in Tokyo

  • created when yoshiwara moved north

• Becomes a space of play

  • near yoshiwara

  • As people gradually moved West, Asakusa was left with vestiges of a profession middle class.

  • Low city lost fingerprint of it's unique culture.

    • "Wealth went away and the self-contained culture of the low city went too"

• social hierarchy was unimportant, money was more important

yoshiwara

• relocated after tokugawa moved in 1841

  • In Nihonbashi (1617)

  • Relocated to the North (1657)

    • Shogan did not like its original location in Nihonbashi so they relocated it

  • Tried to regulate both the pleasure quarters and other forms of entertainment

yoshiwara

• Japan’s pleasure quarter

  • known as the “floating world”

• Geisha, tea houses, courtesans

• Moved North to stop commoners from going, but this created Asakusa below it, an area of spectacle and play in Early Meiji area

pleasure quarter

• red light disctrict (yoshiwara)

“the floating world”

• Liminal Space/History

  • Once entered these areas, the social hierarchies of the Edo period no longer mattered; the power structures were dominated by how much money you had

  • Liminal space because it was somewhat detached from the societal rules that governed the city

• Also had to cross a bridge to access

• Yoshiwara

twelve stories (1890)

• The tallest building in all of Japan at the time

  • “cloud scraper”

  • also had first elevator

• was heavily panted and written about

casino follies

• the site of the first erotic reviews performed in the city

• “Erotic Grotesque Nonsense”

  • Not just that women were on display but women were also consumers of the entertainment

• Opens 1929. Sexual, exotic, emblamized principal of urban culture in 1920s around entertainment, namely, Erotic Grotesque Nonsense

erotic grotesque nonsense

• The mood in Asakusa in the late 1920s and early 1930

• reflecting the focus on hedonistic pleasures that attracted visitors to the district

  • Women were on display, but also consumers of entertainment. At a time when women were working, getting own money.

“moga” (modern girl)

• Cultural sign of modernity

  • Hollywood “flapper”

  • Cafes/cafe culture (supposedly stole things from boys at cafes)

  • Lots working in department stores

  • Advertising/mass media

    • The image of them being monetized

    • Came to be identified with modernity but also the anxiety of the threat of it

• Seen as cultural threat by intellectuals (mostly men), who saw them as a sign of breakdown of society

sixth district

• Center of the film industry in Japan

  • hosting Japan's first cinema (denki-kan)

• rokku

• Lots of films, big crowds

denki-kan

• “electric pavilion”

• First film theater in Japan (had electricity)

  • Lots of films being produced at the time because it was a huge form of entertainment

  • quickly became the symbol of the new phenomenon of the motion pictures

kinugasa teinosuke

• Actor with Nikkatsu Studio

  • Onnagata/Oyama (had been an actor who had played female characters)

• a page of madness and crossroads

1926: A Page of Madness

• 1926 Japanese silent experimental horror film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa

“New perception/Sensation School”

• Emerged from literature: Yokomitsu Riichic (1898 - 1947) and Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1927).

• Reacting against naturalism, realism, and proletarian art.

• Triggering sensation in films

“Pure Film Movement”

• Emphasis on film's unique form. Wanted to get rid of static shots and long takes and theatrical nature

  • Wanted to produce films on par with Western films.

• Wanted to irradicate Kabuki's influence, as well as benshi

  • Believed benshi reduced films to a tool.

• Wanted less reliance on inter-titles

  • Film should be visual, not verbal.

Benshi

• Creatively narrated films. Theaters advertised benshi, not films

  • were stars