Difference and Similarity in Culture
『 Difference And Similarity In Culture ~Edo and Meiji, in terms of cultural history~ 』
Do you like your own culture? People often say “culture is a symbol of our country.” I agree with this opinion, for I think culture helps the people learning about foreign country to understand what the country is. Then, how has our own culture been formed? Needless to say, culture has the long-term history, which gives the office to us to understand how it was formed. Today, I plan to talk about Japanese ancient culture by verifying the cultural difference and similarity between Edo and Meiji era. Figure1 | Figure2 |
Edo era, the longest period in Japanese history, was said to be a turbulent period. However, people in the old days lived strongly and formed their original culture. One of them is clothes. Please look at figure 1. This is a picture of a person living in Edo era. We usually call the people like him samurai. They always wore kimonos, the Japanese traditional clothes, with wearing two swords. It is called “Taitou”. Edo was also a hellishly dangerous period, so samurai had to carry swords for self-defense, whenever they went out. Samurai’s hairstyle is also so unique. The person in figure 1 ties his hair in a topknot. In Japan, samurai sometimes cut the topknot of the opposite commanding general instead of taking his head, when they win the war.
Please look at figure 2. This is a Japanese traditional transportation, and we call it “Kago”. When lords go out, they use “Kago” by making two people shoulder it. It was said to be so useful that many people were willing to use it. However, it was also said to take a long time to arrive at their destinations. Figure3 | Figure4 | Meiji era, the most progressive period in Japanese history, was said to be the best period, in terms of culture. Those days, the Edo shogunate was perished, and the new government decided to take in Western cultures as a part of modernization policy. I will introduce
Do you like your own culture? People often say “culture is a symbol of our country.” I agree with this opinion, for I think culture helps the people learning about foreign country to understand what the country is. Then, how has our own culture been formed? Needless to say, culture has the long-term history, which gives the office to us to understand how it was formed. Today, I plan to talk about Japanese ancient culture by verifying the cultural difference and similarity between Edo and Meiji era. Figure1 | Figure2 |
Edo era, the longest period in Japanese history, was said to be a turbulent period. However, people in the old days lived strongly and formed their original culture. One of them is clothes. Please look at figure 1. This is a picture of a person living in Edo era. We usually call the people like him samurai. They always wore kimonos, the Japanese traditional clothes, with wearing two swords. It is called “Taitou”. Edo was also a hellishly dangerous period, so samurai had to carry swords for self-defense, whenever they went out. Samurai’s hairstyle is also so unique. The person in figure 1 ties his hair in a topknot. In Japan, samurai sometimes cut the topknot of the opposite commanding general instead of taking his head, when they win the war.
Please look at figure 2. This is a Japanese traditional transportation, and we call it “Kago”. When lords go out, they use “Kago” by making two people shoulder it. It was said to be so useful that many people were willing to use it. However, it was also said to take a long time to arrive at their destinations. Figure3 | Figure4 | Meiji era, the most progressive period in Japanese history, was said to be the best period, in terms of culture. Those days, the Edo shogunate was perished, and the new government decided to take in Western cultures as a part of modernization policy. I will introduce