Culture
Culture runs deep in Nagoya, as it was a major trading city and political seat of the Owari lords, the most important house of the Tokugawa clan. The Owari lords actively encouraged trade and the arts under their patronage, especially Tokugawa Muneharu, the 7th lord of Owari, who took a keen interest in drama and plays and lived a lavish lifestyle. Under his rule, famous actors and actresses began to come to Nagoya, creating a bustling city life. The patronage of the arts and culture was emulated and supported by the wealthy merchants of the city. The cultural life continued to flourish after the end of the feudal Edo period and the beginning of the modern Meiji era. The destruction brought on by World War II however was unprecedented in the history of the city. Many old buildings and artefacts were destroyed during the American bombing raids and subsequent fires, grave losses of Japan's cultural heritage. Nevertheless the economical and thus financial power of the region and the city in the post-war years has reconstructed and rekindled the artistic and cultural scene.
Read more about this topic: Nagoya
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“To assault the total culture totally is to be free to use all the fruits of mankind’s wisdom and experience without the rotten structure in which these glories are encased and encrusted.”
—Judith Malina (b. 1926)
“He was one whose glory was an inner glory, one who placed culture above prosperity, fairness above profit, generosity above possessions, hospitality above comfort, courtesy above triumph, courage above safety, kindness above personal welfare, honor above success.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 1 (1962)
“The aggregate of all knowledge has not yet become culture in us. Rather it would seem as if, with the progressive scientific penetration and dissection of reality, the foundations of our thinking grow ever more precarious and unstable.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)