Viaggiare per conoscere: odeporici nella letteratura licenziosa di periodo Edo

During the Edo period (1603–1867), Japan experienced the birth and rapid growth of a flourishing and unique travel culture, as well as of a diffused web of pleasure districts and teahouses. In the licentious fiction produced in Kamigata in the 17th century a peculiar relation is restored between travel and knowledge of the way of love, following the classical examples of azuma kudari (journey to the East). This article aims to analyse the transformations of the idea of travel in connection with ars amatoria in the latter part of the 18th century: in these years, in fact, the idea that this particular knowledge can be acquired through journeys to several pleasure quarters is obliterated by a new conception of the way of love, strictly linked with Yoshiwara and its customs. I suggest that this change is deeply related to the birth of a strong urban identity within the culture of Edo.