Page 28 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

mirrors of an ideal social order were mounted dozens of times each year along Japan's highways and
17
byways. Over time the paraphernalia marshaled for these occasions, yearly for the daimyo and almost
continuously for anyone living near the highways and in the regions around Edo, came to emphasize
the display element over the military or practical side. For instance, helmets that daimyo might have
worn on such public occasions were often elaborately and ingeniously decorated parade helmets, mili-
tarily useless, save for the psychological effect of commanding awe from the spectators (see cat. 75).
At the other end of the social spectrum the peasant elite, on their own initiative, did their
best to supplement rudimentary shogunal or daimyo legislation in their villages concerning matters

sumptuary ("peasants should only wear cotton"). They regulated intravillage status consumption to
set themselves apart, creating certain exclusive material privileges by specifying, for example, that 27
only titled peasants could use umbrellas, have new-styled houses, gates at their compounds, covered
ceilings in their homes, or pillars of a certain height. 18
Correct relationships among the various offices, ranks, and status holders had to be expressed
through proper etiquette and social decorum by following codes that modulated matters of dress and
address. A rank-sensitive honorific language to be used on official occasions, established in earlier
centuries, was further refined.
Particularly noteworthy is the role that a regular and regulated exchange of appropriate gifts
played in reinforcing social and political interdependencies. Gift giving was an important maintenance
mechanism for social ties, virtually always hierarchical and unequal, that was found at every level of

fig. 2
A procession of Maeda,
daimyo of Kaga,
crossing a mountain pass.
Illustration from
ChudaToshio, Sankin feotai
dôchûki: Kaga-han
shiryó o yomu (Tokyo, 1993)