Week 6b Outline Fall 2017

I. Introduction to Edo period.

A. End of Muromachi (1467-1603): Ashikaga family loses power, civil war until Tokugawa Ieyasu takes control of country

 1. Review: economic/political decline for women

a. Female trade monopolies decline

2. Emergence of Neo-Confucian ideology about proper position of women

II. Tokugawa or Edo period (1603-1868):

A. Class system: what were the four categories?

1.

2.

3.

4.

B. Who was outside the system?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

C. Closing of the country:

D. Economics: emergence of mercantile capitalism

1. Conflict between economic system and class system:

III. Review of Gender/Biological Sex distinction through Bernstein

Bernstein's explanation of the difference between gender and biological sex (p. 2):

Gender, unlike sex, is not a biological given, but is, in the words of Evelyn Fox Keller, "a socially constructed and culturally transmitted organizer of our inner and outer worlds." Whereas sex roles refer merely to the fixed range of capabilities of female and male genitalia, gender roles are sociohistorical conventions of deportment arbitrarily attributed to females or males. "Women" and "men" are culturally created categories. Our goal is to understand continuity and change in Japanese ideals of femininity, in the processes by which women were trained to approximate those ideals, and in the ways that their actual roles diverged from these ideals."

IV. Neo-Confucian ideology about women

A. Review of Tonomura:

1. Chastity:

2. Three obediences:

3. Divorce:

B. Review of Bernstein:  What general factors have affected the position/roles of women in Japanese society?

1. Position within the family and age

2. Social class

3. Religious values

4. Legal, economic and political institutions

V. Effect of Audience and Patronage on Representation of Gender

A. New genres:

 1. Popular fiction (develops 17-18th c.)

2. Kabuki and Bunraku Puppet theater (18-19th c.)

3. Woodblock prints (18-19th c.)

B. Audience

1. Change in patronage:

2. Goals:

a. Merchants:

b. Government:

1) “Reward the good, chastise the evil.”

2) the level of censorship fluctuates over time

V. Onnarashisa and Onnagata

A. Neo-Confucian ideal of onna-rashisa, from Kaibara Ekken's Onna daigaku (Greater Learning for Females, 1672)
[Robertson discusses pp. 91]

1. onna-rashi (female-like) or onna-rashisa (female-likeness, femininity)

2. otoko-rashi (male-like) or otoko-rashisa (male-likeness, masculinity)

B. Inherent qualities of females becaues of their inferior genitalia

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

C. Ideals of onna-rashisa

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

D. How can real women become onna-rashi?

E. Neo-Confucian attitude towards young women as mothers:

F. Why are male intelligentsia so concerned about the “female problem”?

1. Neo-Confucianism was borrowed from China:

2. Ideal versus reality:

a. Ideal:

b. Reality:

1) Economics:

2) Urbanization:

VI. Video: “Portrait of an Onnagata”  (Kabuki female role specialists)

[NOTE: video available online in library catalogue, search for title, click on "Alexander Street"]

(See also Kabuki Kool: Beauty of the Onnagata)

1. Four images of onnagata

2. Names from the video:

NAKAMURA Shibajaku VII (1955- ) Now NAKAMURA Jakuemon V, yago Kyôya: onnagata role specialist; often plays princesses or other refined women, but recently has been expanding his range with experimental theater work. (Jakuemon.com, Kabuki-21)

NAKAMURA Jakuemon IV (1920-2012): father of Shibajaku. Was a child star in the 1920s; began his adult career playing tachiyaku (handsome young man) roles. Was drafted during WWII; upon his return at 27 began specializing in onnagata (an unusual career path for an onnagata). He is known for his exceptional dancing; he also starred in samurai movies as a dashing young samurai in the 1950s. (image from 1954, also obituary)

Okuni (images): Shrine dancer and founder of Kabuki. Her first performance of kabuki is supposed to have been in 1603. She specialized in cross dressing and highly titillating performances about visits to the pleasure quarters.

Onna-Kabuki: female kabuki; outlawed by the government in 1629.

Wakashû Kabuki: boys kabuki; outlawed by the government in 1652. After this young men had to shave their forelock (they later got around this by placing a purplish piece of cloth over their shaved head: see image).

VII. Development of Kabuki (images) [Discussed in movie]

A. Izumi no Okuni and her lover Nagoya Sanzoburo (1603)

1. Crossdressing: Men's roles played by women and women's roles played by men.

2. Style:

a. definition of kabuki:

3. Plot of typical early kabuki play:

B. Troupes of all male and all females

1. 1629: women banned from public performances

2. 1652: boys forced to shave their forelock

3. Result: