I found this lecture hugely useful in providing social and economic context for the environment that allowed the woodblock artist to flourish, and record the changing society around them. The lecture really helps put other lectures that focus on the art into context of what was occurring in Japanese society. If you want to understand some of the background to what the woodblock artists were capturing, this is a fantastic lecture to watch.

Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Best I've ever heard. Write the book. I'll buy it. Also, I would like to acquire a good English bibliography. Thank you.

This was definitely an awesome, fiercely detailed, incredibly fascinating lecture!

Amazing lecture, this connected so many dots from previous readings and classes. Thank you.

What a systematic and infirmative lecture！Thank you so much to giveus an introduction of the immense and complicated background of the emerging of the Ukiyoe. I have learned a lot！

bravo! It was pure pleasure to listen to your lecture!

A truly fantastic and compelling lecture

What an awesome lecture! :)

Fascinating lecture. Thank you!

Amazing lecture, thank you very much!

This will really help me with my writing. Thanks!

Incredible Incredible Incredible! Thank you for generously sharing !

amazing. thanks

I enjoyed the content, I am actually learning about edo Japan specifically.

One thing which seemed to be missing from the hierarchy of people in Edo was where the priests fitted. The number of temples was huge, and though most of the temples were tiny, some were large. This was a significant portion of the population. Also, he was asked about what aspects of Edo culture still exist. One aspect is management hierarchy which is still very top-down and stifles creativity because a subordinate is always expected to obey their senior's instructions. Another hang over is connected with the "untouchable" people in Edo culture like those who dealt with the dead. People who happen to live in areas associated with the untouchables may suffer discrimination even today. Aspects of this can be seen in the movie "Departures" (Okuribito).

Great information! I had little knowledge of Japanese history. The man did a great job. Wish I could be in his classes!

マクシ教授万歳!

I will explain Ukiyoe in an easy-to-understand manner.

Ieyasu was incredibly wise. He built Edo out of an uninhabitable swamp. We could learn from him.

How thorough. The method of regulating the Dutch influence on Japan by limiting how often and where they come to the country reminds me of how the Koreans limited the Japanese to certain ports to counter the pirate attacks.

It was an interesting lecture, but not concerning in any way shape or form Late Tokugawa period as the title would indicate.

Omg coool

Someone asks about the environmental issues that led Japan to collapse near the 1600. "Infanticide" is the only answer. The whole process of Japan's losing its woods and the process of recovery are completely ignored. Yet that recovery was Japan´s greatest achievement as an well structured and healthy culture. In a century they stopped deforestation, and started growing back their forest with plantation techniques. Today, Japan is covered by forests, like Germany. The only problem was forestry concentrated on two species: Hinoki cypress and Sugi cedar. Birth control was part of the measures taken by the population. Infanticide was not unusual, but there were also other methods to have less children and space them, like prolonged lactation. Japan was a civilized country, even if people like commodore Perry came with steel ships and guns to change by force that "paper civilization". Don´t underestimate Japan. It has fallen and risen from its ashes like a phoenix once and again. Learn from its history. It's not just a culture of Manga and anime.

Very entertaining and informative lecture. But as a woman, I cannot help but feel uncomfortable about the effusive romantic praise of yoshiwara with almost zero discussion of what yoshiwara was like from the women's perspective. Academia and history has a problem of things being written and disseminated from a male perspective, specifically men in power. I think it would have been incredibly helpful to see a more well rounded view of Japanese history and culture, not merely from the perspective of a well-to-do man, but from the women. In particular of the women sold into sexual servitude in yoshiwara. Would they have described the floating world the way it was described here? I am almost 100% certain they would have had a very different view of that world that would be a lot less rosey.

Class size of 15/20 = better education standards

Commerce wasn't about growth but stability

Curious as to why he begins his search of cultural awareness with the seediest segment of Japanese life: prostitution, risque entertainment, pleasure quarters, etc.

It was a very informative lecture but I am surprised that the debate surrounding the pleasure districts nearly took twenty minutes to explain compared with the rest of the period. Someone liked researching it a bit too much

Great and informative lecture but it's a bit jarring seeing him praise the highly oppressive and bureaucratic society the Tokugawa Shogunate created.

Of course Japan was stagnant during its period of isolation. The fact that the arts flourished in that period is not any sort of contradiction of that fact.