Nishiyama Matsunosuke. Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan, 1600–1868 / Translated and edited by Gerald Groemer. — Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1997.

Title-page: EDO CULTURE | Daily Life and Diversions in Urban | Japan, 1600–1868 | Nishiyama Matsunosuke | Translated and edited by Gerald Groemer | {publisher’s device} | University of Hawai‘i Press | Honolulu

Hardcover, print-on-demand, glossy pictorial boards; size 241 × 161 mm.
Pagination: pp. [i–iv] v–vii [viii] 1–309 [310 blank] [311] [4].
Illustrated throughout with black-and-white images.
Includes notes (pp. 253–268), glossary (pp. 269–280), selected references (pp. 281–296), sources to chapters (pp. 297–298), and index (pp. 299–309).

Contents:

Historical Periods vii
Translator’s Introduction 1
Introduction: The Study of Edo-Period Culture 7

Part I. Edo: The City and Its Culture

1. Edo: The Warrior’s City 23
2. Edokko: The Townsperson 41
3. Iki: The Aesthetic of Edo 53
4. Edo Publishing and Ukiyo-e 64
5. Edo Temples and Shrines 76

Part II. The Town and the Country

1. Provincial Culture of the Kasei Period (1804–1830) 95
2. Itinerants, Actors, Pilgrims 113
3. Edo-Period Cuisine 144

Part III. Theater and Music: From the Bakufu to the Beggar

1. The Social Context of Nō 181
2. Social Strata and Music 198
3. The Aesthetics of Kabuki 212
4. Popular Performing Arts: From Edo to Meiji 228

Afterword 251 Notes 253 Glossary 269 Selected References 281 Sources to Chapters 297 Index 299

ISBN: 978-0-8248-1736-7.

Note:
Originally published in Japanese as 『江戸の文化』 (Edo no bunka). This edition translated and adapted for English-speaking readers by Gerald Groemer.

Author: Nishiyama Matsunosuke [西山松之助] (Japanese, 1912–1998)

Translator and editor: Gerald Groemer (born 1957) is an American musicologist, historian, and translator specialising in the cultural and performing arts history of early modern Japan.
He holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology and has spent much of his academic career researching Japanese popular culture, particularly music, performance traditions, and everyday urban life during the Edo and Meiji periods.

Groemer is a professor at the University of Yamanashi (Yamanashi Gakuin University) in Japan and is known for publishing extensively in both English and Japanese. His work often bridges ethnomusicology and historical cultural studies.

Key contributions include:

• Studies on street performers (kōshōgai) and other non-elite performance cultures.

• Research into the history of Japanese music and instruments such as the shamisen and biwa.

• Translations of important Japanese scholarly works into English, including Nishiyama Matsunosuke’s Edo Culture.

• Original monographs, such as Street Performers and Society in Urban Japan, 1600–1900 (2016), which analyze the social functions of entertainment in historical Japan.

Groemer is known for his meticulous scholarship, combining archival research, fieldwork, and historical analysis to deepen understanding of how ordinary Japanese lived, entertained themselves, and created culture outside elite circles.