Question

What is significance of Edo in the urban culture of Japan?

Answer 1

Edo culture was the cultural period of Japanese history corresponding to the Tokugawa period of governance (1603–1867). Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun, chose Edo (present-day Tokyo) as Japan’s new capital, and it became one of the largest cities of its time and was the site of a thriving urban culture. In literature, Basho developed poetic forms later called haiku, and Ihara Saikaku composed virtuoso comic linked-verse and humorous novels; in theatre, both kabuki (with live actors) and bunraku (with puppets) entertained townspeople (samurai, for whom theatregoing was forbidden, often attended in disguise). The development of polychrome woodblock printing techniques made it possible for ordinary people to obtain prints of popular kabuki actors or trendsetting courtesans