The Japanese Nation Book

Recently I have heard a lot of Japanese scholars challenging the idea that Tokugawa Japan was a constricted feudal society. Eiko Ikegami argues that the Tokugawa aesthetic publics of haiku, flower arranging, and tea ceremony groups, and the spread of "common knowledge" through literacy and the publishing industry, are part of the reason Japan was able to make its rapid transition to "modernity" in Meiji.
As a participant in a haiku circle and a resident of modern Japan, I found myself nodding in recognition through a lot of the book. I also used to think that the iemoto system of arts learning was kind of a racket, but reading this made me realize that becoming a master and teacher of an art was actually one of the few ways that a person could be recognized on his own merit, free of the constraints of feudal society. 納得。