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As soon as you start looking into purchasing furniture, you are going to be confronted with a lot of different categories. In this article, we take a look at Edo furnishings.
A Guide to Edo Furnishings
Edo furnishings gets their name from a period of classical Japanese culture that flourished in the area of Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan between 1500 and 1780 AD. Kyoto was a beautiful city with cherry tree lined avenues, and a highly developed appreciation of the arts. The area surrounding Kyoto was heavily wooded, and carpentry was a highly respected craft. Thousands of carpenters from the area were used to build the wooden castles and palaces of the country’s rulers, and they also made furniture that was typical of the art of the area and time.
It was characterized by understatement, simplicity, and restrained elegance. It was very much influenced by Zen and the harmony of nature. Much of the pieces were crafted from fine mahogany and beech. The beech tree made up the majority of the workable wood in the area, and was used frequently.
After the isolated culture of Japan came into contact with Western Culture, some of the western ideas began to find their way into the Edo furniture pieces. It was a remarkable melding of the two cultures. The older pieces tended to have little curvature in their design, but due to the western influence this began to creep into the designs. The basic English chest of drawers that was little known in Japan became a popular piece and a favorite of the Edo craftsmen.
After World War II, it was the Western World that discovered Edo furnishings. It was noticed first by servicemen in the Occupation Forces, who often brought pieces back home with them. In the industrial rebuilding of Japan following the war many of the original craftsman, who had been producing the classical furniture pieces one at a time in their little shops, were replaced by modern factories. The beauty and the elegance of the look were retained in most cases, and the secrets of the craft were transferred to the new designers.
In the West, Edo furnishings are often used as a room theme. Bedrooms are especially popular. The Bedroom was always considered the most important room in Japanese culture, and still plays a more important role in modern Japanese home design than is usual in the West. The result is that Edo beds and bedroom furniture represent some of the most popular and finely crafted examples of the Edo theme. It has been found that Edo pieces do not necessarily have to constitute the entire theme of a room, but rather they blend nicely with other types of furniture.

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