Nearly a century has passed in peace and stability under the Tokugawa shoguns, whose policy of concentrating samurai in castle towns has resulted naturally in the growth of Japanese cities.

Japan from 1688 has experienced a rapidly expanding commercial economy and the development of a vibrant urban culture centered in the cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Edo, which will one day be called Tokyo.

This era, Genroku (meaning "Original happiness"), is generally considered to be the Golden Age of the Edo Period.

The Tokugawa Shogunate, which began in 1603, has seen scant creativity among its sculptors until now, when the exceptionally talented Shoun Genkei ('Pine Cloud') flourishes in Edo.

Inspired by Chinese sculpture imported by Obaku Zen monks at Manpuku Temple to the south of Kyoto, Shoun has spent the past seven years producing a renowned set of fibe hundred and thirty-six carved wooden arhats (disciples of the Buddha, in seated positions) for the city’s Gohyaku Rakan Temple.

Many reforms have been instituted in the past seven years, including major revisions to the code of conduct for funerals.

The building of temples had been banned in Edo in 1692, and the first kennel for stray dogs established here in 1695, sparking a new nickname for Tokugawa Tsunayoshi: "the Dog Shogun."

Edo had in 1590 become the administrative capital of the Tokugawa shogunate, but ...