Street Performers and Society in Urban Japan, 1600-1900

For some three hundred years the city of Edo/Tokyo was the centre of arts, both sacred and secular. This book presents a thoroughly researched and documented study of music, theatre, recitation, and dance in Edo/Tokyo. It goes beyond outlining the nature of the performances to explore the vast complexity of social relations which lay behind them, covering topics like the obligation of gift-giving on the part of observers, performers who were often migrants fallen on hard times, and how performance related to social class. The book discusses how performance, and witnessing and rewarding performance, was closely bound up with economy, society, religion and government.