Book contents
- The New Cambridge History of Japan
- The New Cambridge History of Japan
- The New Cambridge History of Japan
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- Preface
- Frontispiece
- Introduction
- Part I The Character of the Early Modern State
- PART II Economy, Environment, and Technology
- Part III Social Practices and Cultures of Early Modern Japan
- 13 Religion in the Tokugawa Period
- 14 The Medical Revolution in Early Modern Japan
- 15 Flows of People and Things in Early Modern Japan
- 16 Labor and Migration in Tokugawa Japan
- 17 The Tokugawa Status Order
- 18 On the Peripheries of the Japanese Archipelago
- 19 The Early Modern City in Japan
- 20 Popular Movements in Early Modern Japan
- 21 Civilization and Enlightenment in Early Meiji Japan
- Index
- References
19 - The Early Modern City in Japan
from Part III - Social Practices and Cultures of Early Modern Japan
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2024
- The New Cambridge History of Japan
- The New Cambridge History of Japan
- The New Cambridge History of Japan
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- Preface
- Frontispiece
- Introduction
- Part I The Character of the Early Modern State
- PART II Economy, Environment, and Technology
- Part III Social Practices and Cultures of Early Modern Japan
- 13 Religion in the Tokugawa Period
- 14 The Medical Revolution in Early Modern Japan
- 15 Flows of People and Things in Early Modern Japan
- 16 Labor and Migration in Tokugawa Japan
- 17 The Tokugawa Status Order
- 18 On the Peripheries of the Japanese Archipelago
- 19 The Early Modern City in Japan
- 20 Popular Movements in Early Modern Japan
- 21 Civilization and Enlightenment in Early Meiji Japan
- Index
- References
Summary
The early modern Japanese city, in the paradigmatic form of the castle town (jōkamachi), gave spatial form to the social distinctions of status group (mibun), and it evolved through complex negotiations between multiple status communities, each with its own social logics and visions of urban life. This chapter sketches these spatial structures and social processes through a study of the shogunal capital of Edo, focusing on the triangular negotiation between three sets of agents: the shogunal administration, the propertied townspeople, and the diffuse occupational collectives of the unpropertied urban margins. This triangular negotiation is illuminated through a historical survey of the Edo firefighting system, revealing the ways in which the early modern city was shaped by competing interests and claims over space. Particular attention is given to the diverse forms of social agency that interacted in the urban process, complicating a binary model of governmental authority and popular subversion.
- Type
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- Information
- The New Cambridge History of Japan , pp. 629 - 658Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023