The Floating World

The illustrated presentation to follow consists of one hundred and forty-four images (with accompanying written narration) displayed over a series of more than seventy linked screen "pages". It should take approximately sixty minutes to complete (depending largely on the speed of your modem connection). 

1. the historical process whereby the leading military - bureaucratic power holders, the Tokugawa family, came to control the centralized state;
2. the means used by the Tokugawa to establish and maintain their control over the centralized military government between 1600 and 1868; 
3. the process of change and devlopment taking place in Japan during this same period (despite Tokugawa efforts to maintain an unchanging status quo orientation); 
4. the various component parts making up Japan's first truely popular cultural style, characterized as "the floating world", which flourished in castletown and city;
5. the ways in which these developments served to undermine Tokugawa power and authority; and ...
6. the legacy left by the Edward Sylvester Morse Collection of Japanese Ethnology illustrating many of the features most closely associated with the Military-Bureaucratic period.

As you proceed, be sure to examine each image for visual information illustrating the point made in the accompanying caption; figure out why that particular picture, diagram or chart was included. 

A written follow-up exercise (on a page that can be printed out for your personal use) concludes the presentation. A comment form for your reactions to the entire experience has also been included. 

Click on the button below to move to the next screen "page" in the presentation.