in article 1149721208.917882.266990@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com, TXZZ at
superoutland@aol.com wrote on 6/8/06 8:00 AM:

> 
>> 
>> Funny, the Tokugawa Pax is attributed for the burst in new creativity in
>> Japanese culture, and much of its arts flourished then.
> 
> First, demographic progress was not as great as in the preceding civil
> war period.

There was less social rigidity, but then their was less social, economic, or
artistic wealth.
> Secondly, Tokugawa period was more of a refinement of existing arts
> than of greater creativity.  Japanese style tea ceremonies were devised
> in the civil war period for example.

Most of the great artists and playwrights of Japan were of the Edo period,
not the preceding period of armed conflict.

> Lastly, from a demographic, scientific, organizational, literary, and
> possibly even artistic point of view, craetiviy in the tokugwa was
> dwarfed by the far more (at the time) warlike european powers, even one
> with less people such as england.

The fact that the European powers were progressing faster during that period
can be attributed to the fact that there was a lot of interaction in
commerce, in science, and in industry between those countries. At the same
time, Japan was preventing major interaction with the outside world.