This week, we cover the second and third of Edo’s three great riots in 1787 and 1866. How did samurai and commoners talk about these acts of mass violence? How was all this a manifestation of a sense of “street justice” among the masses? And what’s with the handsome young guy everyone keeps swearing was secretly behind the whole thing?
Sources
Takeuchi, Makoto, “Festivals and Fights: The Law and the People of Edo” and Anne Walthall, “Edo Riots” in Edo and Paris: Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era. Eds. James L. McClain, John M. Merriman, and Ugawa Kaoru.
Walthall, Anne. “Devoted Wives/Unruly Women: Invisible Presence in the History of Japanese Social Protest.” Signs 20, no. 1 (1994)
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