Conclusions

In the Conclusions, we revisit the observations and themes of the preceding six chapters, interweaving them in a way that is intended to demonstrate that individuality—understood as an appreciation and acceptance of individual difference—was an integral part of the remarkable societal vitality of early modern Japan. To Confucian ideologues in the service of the Bakufu during its last decades, this vitality represented deteriorating times, but to the non-samurai majority individuality offered the opportunity to live life more fully by learning to think for oneself. This chapter also presents contemporary evidence of changes to society and its values over the century 1710-1810, and interrogates the second-half of the notion of a “good Meiji, bad Tokugawa.”