Summary Of Gregory Smith's Essay 'Picture Prints'

ART 322
Shaking Up Japan: Edo Society and the 1855 Catfish Picture Prints
(A1167731) Haruka Koda
12/10/12

The Shaking of Japan Gregory Smith in his essay, “Shaking up Japan: Edo Society and the 1855 Catfish Picture Prints”, focuses on the state of political consciousness among the Edo commoners in 1855, which is when the Ansei Earthquake struck Japan. The author explains the social and political devastation the Japanese society experiences. The traumatic event led to a Japanese Urban Society politically and socially weakening. Subsequently, within the following twelve years, caused a social awakening and proto-nationalism: the Meiji Restoration. Under the Tokugawa Shogun and Bakufu, social class with principles indistinguishable
In Smiths words, “the anonymous print makers of Edo [referring to namazu-e] pointed out that the earthquake under their city had shaken up all of Japan, and they were right” (1072). Smith writes about the way the people at the time reacted at the devastating natural disaster through numerous reasoning and the prevailing to be Namazu-e. When he describes, “namazu-e constituted a powerful form of political rhetoric for a group theoretically forbidden from engaging in political discourse” (1072). When explaining the characteristics of namazu-e today, he agrees with Abe Yasunari who though that they were handy, cheap, and a disposable tool for helping to create Japan as a nation. At the time, the narrow knowledge of science, and the law of joh disconnected Japan from the rest of the world being impotent of getting new knowledge. Thus, to compensate, the Japanese society ideology evolved around the cosmic forces and the government, “An ‘emperor’ reigned in the traditional capital of Kyoto, functioning mainly as a religious and cultural figurehead.
During the time when the Japanese was under anxiety from the earthquake, as Smith explains, the namazu-e art all portray the conversion of depending from the local power of Kashima deity, to the higher power of the Amaterasu deity. Thus, the portrayal in the picture differed depending on the artist’s interpretation. Kashima deity in supporting roles subordinate to Amaterasu, or in a mildly antagonist relationship with Amaterasu were depicted. This ideal is seen through pictures, which Smith compares between two pieces, “imperial ancestor of great Japan” and another image. In “imperial ancestor of Japan”, the Amaterasu towers a smaller figure of Kashima, thus conveying Kashima deity as being demoted. The other image, however, the Amaterasu, Kashima, and Hachiman rides horses across the sky of a devastated Edo, therefore are in equal ranks. The namazu-e is playful yet portrays the neutralism or dominating figure between Amaterasu and Kashima. The portrayals of the namazu is also conveys the significant dominance of attitude towards the happening. For an example, size of the namazu revealed the measurement in amount of impact it had towards society. In Jishin o-mamori, a talismanic function of namazu-e the namazu is simply the same size as the two deities, Amaterasu and Kashima. The formality of the picture as a “Yakuhari” gives a simple and faultless attitude towards each