Seeds of Community Resilience

In Edo—as Tokyo was then known—people lived in close proximity. Ukiyo-e artwork shows them sharing food, socializing and working together to raise children. We also see a curiosity towards other cultures. People bought clothes from other regions, and even visited far-away places themselves. University professor Miyata Hiroaki helps us decipher the clues in these images. We learn how Edo's strong community spirit helped people adapt to the arrival of Western culture.