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Morgan Pitelka Empire Of Things Analysis

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Morgan Pitelka’s, “The Empire of Things: Tokugawa Ieyasu’s Material Legacy and Cultural Profile”, is a sound, bibliographical portrait of the mainly cultural life of the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu during the Edo period. Through this critical review of Pitelka’s article, I will evaluate the opinions, accuracy and value of this piece as well as discuss the conclusions that I have come to about Ieyasu as a leader and ultimately how his role and influence on the development of Japanese cultural, social and political life was substantial, but also consequential.

Pitelka cleverly depicts Ieyasu’s cultural profile through means of discussing the many practices and social networks that he authorized and preserved through the …show more content…

As the aim of Pitelka was to establish to audiences the considerable influence that the Tokugawa Shogun had on cultural and political aspects of Japanese identity and their overall development that we see today, I would acknowledge that the article does indeed achieve this desired …show more content…

For instance, he mentions that Ieyasu contributed significantly to political problems and issues during the Edo Period, though I believe that he does not support this argument through in-depth means and more so concludes that his real influence and contribution was to the major cultural aspects of Japanese life, of which I do agree with. As such. I do consider this article to be mildly biased towards presenting Ieyasu in an exceedingly positive-light, when it is obvious that his need to live life luxuriously would have interfered with serious political issues that he, as Shogun, should have addressed more adequately.

I would agree that this article sheds light on the histories of Ieyasu and his role in transforming and developing Japanese culture into a more unique entity extremely well, but at times arguments can be oversimplified and dismiss important facts that identify specifically the role of political warfare in the evolution of Japanese culture. Though, I would recommend this article to anyone wanting to expand their knowledge of historical Japanese culture and the way in which it was brought about by Tokugawa Ieyasu during his period as Shogun, as it clearly examines and details useful

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