ABSTRACT
The city of Edo became a state of mind as well as the physical focus of the Tokugawa state. The architecture of the elite and the art of the ukiyo-e prints exploring themes of the shitamachi, or ‘downtown’ Edo, form both parallel and contrasting metaphors of the identity of that great city. The power this city exerted over the artistic imagination of the populace, rather than the political controls exercised by the sankin kōtai system, are its enduring cultural and psychological legacy.
