Edo and its flâneurs: in search of an early-modern Japanese urban literature

During the eighteenth century, a relevant number of heterogeneous texts, sharing some common features on different levels, such as detailed descriptions of the nightlife in the pleasure quarters or a focus on soundscape depiction and realistic rendition of dialogues, were published in Edo, mainly in the kohon ‘little book’ format. Edo’s identity as seen through its commercial literature is still an uninvestigated area of the mutual encounter of text and urban space that should be covered by new research. The city appears in several kohon as a physical space, perceived through the eyes and the ears of the characters, but the various urban areas of Edo are also described as a space of human relations, where different people live and struggle, revealing the phantasmagoria of everyday life. By investigating the characterisation of city space, intended as a space for human relationships and urban lifestyle, in some “little books” from the An’ei (1772-1781) and the Tenmei (1781-1789) periods, this paper aims to cast light on the urban identity of Edo, as seen through the eyes of its flâneurs, and to evaluate the possibility of assessing kohon as an ante litteram expression of urban literature.