Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A World Apart: The Rise and Fall of Saruwaka-cho
    A World Apart: The Rise and Fall of Saruwaka-cho
    A World Apart: The Rise and Fall of Saruwaka-cho
    Ebook58 pages46 minutes

    A World Apart: The Rise and Fall of Saruwaka-cho

    By Paul Tierney

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Tracing the development of Edo's (pre-modern Tokyo)kabuki district,many behind the scenes dramas - amongst shogunate officials vying for power, between the actors and owners of the theatres, between the owners and investors - are revealed in this detailed history. Even in Tokugawa period Japan, government and big business worked hand in hand to protect their own interests.

    A World Apart contains the complete story of how and why Saruwaka-cho came to be, much of it for the first time in English.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPaul Tierney
    Release dateSep 19, 2011
    ISBN9781465718419
    A World Apart: The Rise and Fall of Saruwaka-cho
    Author

    Paul Tierney

    I am a eleven-year resident of Tokyo and love this amazing city. In addition to my writing, I run a business offering unique History/Art Walks in historic parts of Tokyo.I also work as a researcher for Meiji University's Tokyo Edo Radio project, specializing in the history of Edo/Tokyo. My goal (my passion?) is to shed more light on the daily life and culture of Edo and bring this vibrant back to life for a non-Japanese speaking audience. My small house with a small garden, shared with my lovely wife and son, is six minutes from the station and is in a small neighborhood that is filled with the sounds of laughing children.

    Related to A World Apart

    Related ebooks

    Asian History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Land Of The Rising Stage

      Apr 25, 2019

      Land Of The Rising Stage
      14 min read

    • Article

      Japan’s Art Islands

      May 28, 2020

      Japan’s Art Islands
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tokyo: Art and Photography

      Sep 12, 2021

      Tokyo: Art and Photography
      5 min read

    • Article

      From The Editor

      Oct 23, 2023

      From The Editor
      2 min read

    • Article

      Travels On The Island Of Fire

      Nov 8, 2019

      Travels On The Island Of Fire
      6 min read

    • Article

      Unseeing Leap

      Jan 5, 2023

      The science fictional started making more sense to me amid the reality-bending events of 2022—which at times were like a repeat of 2020, at least for us in Hong Kong. We fell into a time-loop before the Lunar New Year holiday, as the Omicron wave pas

      3 min read

    • Article

      Uncharted Territory

      Jul 9, 2021

      Uncharted Territory
      4 min read

    • Article

      Kodai: A Foot Fetish

      Nov 9, 2022

      Kodai: A Foot Fetish
      9 min read

    • Article

      Embrace Nippon By The Bay

      Jan 3, 2020

      Embrace Nippon By The Bay
      13 min read

    • Article

      Mistakes Can Be Embarrassing

      Jul 20, 2021

      Mistakes Can Be Embarrassing
      3 min read

    • Article

      Taking The High Road

      Dec 17, 2019

      Taking The High Road
      9 min read

    • Article

      Signature Art Prize

      Aug 27, 2018

      Signature Art Prize
      4 min read

    • Article

      Ryoji Koie

      Oct 7, 2020

      Ryoji Koie
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Wetness of Rain

      Aug 13, 2021

      The Wetness of Rain
      7 min read

    • Article

      Getting up close

      Jan 5, 2024

      Compiling this Almanac as the year draws to a close, I find myself struggling to describe all the moments that exist around the margins of our written chronicle of contemporary art. There are manifold joys in watching people realize their creative an

      3 min read

    • Article

      Two views: Japanese Kōgei

      Aug 1, 2017

      Two views: Japanese Kōgei
      3 min read

    • Article

      Japan

      Sep 10, 2020

      Japan
      3 min read

    • Article

      Cancel Culture And The Ballet

      May 17, 2021

      Cancel Culture And The Ballet
      5 min read

    • Article

      Uniquely Japan

      May 23, 2021

      Uniquely Japan
      2 min read

    • Article

      Izumi Kato

      Nov 1, 2018

      Izumi Kato
      5 min read

    • Article

      Out Of The Past

      Sep 1, 2018

      Out Of The Past
      5 min read

    • Article

      Akiko Hirai

      May 12, 2023

      Akiko Hirai
      10 min read

    • Article

      City Life Kyoto

      Apr 6, 2023

      City Life Kyoto
      10 min read

    • Article

      Japan, Jute, Jam And Journalism

      Jan 25, 2024

      ● MANY YEARS AGO, I WAS INVITED to be on the jury to choose an architect to design the museum in Wakefield which became Hepworth Wakefield. From what I remember of this process, we were confronted by a vast number of proposals by architectural practi

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A World Apart

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A World Apart - Paul Tierney

      A World Apart: The Rise and Fall of Saruwaka-cho

      Opening the Curtains on Edo's Theatre District

      By Paul Tierney

      Copyright 2011 Paul Tierney

      Smashwords Edition

      Cover Design Copyright 2011

      by (http://DigitalDonna.com)

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each receipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your own use, then please return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Forward

      Introduction: Setting the Stage

      A bizarre dance

      The San-za: Organization of Kabuki

      Behind the Curtain: Conflict between management and labor

      Creating Opportunity: the investors grab the reins

      Labor Pains: the Tenpo Reforms and the birth of Saruwaka-cho

      Why Asakusa?

      Building a World Apart: the physical composition of Saruwaka-cho

      The Curtains Open on a New Era

      The Saruwaka-cho Kabuki Experience

      The Decline and End of Saruwaka-cho

      Present day Saruwaka-cho

      Curtain Call: Saruwaka-cho as policy device to protect the status quo

      Forward with a word on name & date conventions

      Saruwaka-cho is now an unassuming quiet shita-machi neighborhood located a stone’s throw from the hustle and bustle of Sensoji temple in Asakusa. Most houses, like those of the other small neighborhoods in the area, have planters made of styrofoam boxes originally used for shipping fresh fish and produce set at the doorsteps in front of them. Some of these planters are in better shape than others, but all are lovingly tended by the inhabitants. Also nearby these planters and in front of Tokyo’s omnipresent telephone and electric poles are water filled two liter plastic bottles, set there in the belief that they will keep the neighborhood’s stray cats from using the planters or poles as substitutes for litter boxes.

      Next to the houses, there are a few shops and small restaurants, a dental clinic and even a small recording studio, and the residents of Saruwaka-cho can be seen going back and forth about their daily business or, on hot days, using a bucket and dipper to spread water on the asphalt in front of their house or business in order to keep the heat down and provide a cooling breeze, however slight or brief.

      There is nothing here to let the casual passer-by that this neighborhood was once the heart and soul of kabuki in Edo, a destination for samurai and commoner alike. For more almost three decades, Saruwaka-cho WAS kabuki. Here were the only officially sanctioned theatres, here was where all of Edo’s kabuki actors lived. Saruwaka-cho was cradle to many of Edo’s fashion booms, from clothing to hairstyles, and even to the style of combs that women chose to use.

      That golden era faded during the Meiji period and is gone now. All that remains is Asakusa 6-chome and the memories that the older residents have of the glory days, told to them by their fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers. There are a few other reminders: a monument here and another over there marking the locations of two of the three theatres, signs and store names using Saruwaka-cho.

      This work was born as part of Meiji University’s Tokyo Edo Radio project (http://tokyoedoradio.org), created by Prof. Souichiro Itoda and dedicated to bringing Tokyo’s past and Asakusa’s culture back to life and helping it reach a larger audience, not only outside of Japan, but also here in Tokyo as well. I became part of the project in April of 2011 as a researcher and at the time, the project had been focused on creating an audio tour of the Saruwaka-cho. While I liked to think myself

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1