Makeup was considered as a part of grooming and etiquette. Tokugawa family was in control of all military, administrative, and judicial which were necessary to run the country. There was a relationship of master and servant between the people and the Tokugawa family. Furthermore, Japan has experienced feudal society in the process of its development, which is called feudalism(幕藩体制). While the authority refused to have relationships with other countries, Japan created its own unique culture in this period. In this period, the samurai rose their status, and the standard of living improved significantly. The Edo period is defined as the period from 1867, when the Tokugawa family positioned itself at the center of politics, to 1878, when Yoshinobu Tokugawa returned the power to the emperor. History The Edo Period(1603-1868): feudal society 1.4.1 Before and during the World War II (1926-1944).

1.3 The Taisho Period(1912-1926): Great War and special demand.The Longfellow family used other detached elements of Japanese items as decorative pieces in their home as well. The Japanese screen was made during the last decades of the Tokugawa period which might explain the use of the clan’s crest, and that date along with evidence of missing elements that align with the pieces now on the pole screen suggest their origin. The fittings may have come from another piece of furniture in the Longfellow House collections, a Japanese room screen dating to the mid-19th century, obtained by Charles Longfellow during his extended trip to Japan in 1871-1873. Whether they were attached to the pole screen as reinforcing measure or simply to further decorate the piece is unknown. Members of the Tokugawa clan ruled Japan as shoguns from the early 17th to mid-19th centuries. Made of bronze, they feature the crest, or “mon”, of the Tokugawa clan from Japan. The metal fittings attached to either side of the mahogany frame are a peculiar feature of the pole screen.

She later rented rooms on the second floor of the house to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Perhaps the screen was used by Elizabeth Craigie who married Andrew Craigie in 1793 shortly after he purchased and expanded the home at 105 Brattle Street. Screens were attached to poles with adjustable brackets, allowing them to move up and down their mounting pole to shield persons of differing heights more effectively, or to be swapped out entirely with different screens. The screen’s peacock design may be a nod to this function, as the bird’s image was often used to symbolize skin-deep beauty and vanity. During an era when many people wore heavy makeup, pole screens helped to protect the wax and other elements of cosmetics from melting on the face due to the wearer’s proximity to the fire. The purpose of a pole screen was to shield a person from overly intense heat emanating from an open fireplace. The pole screen’s date of manufacture raises several questions – Was it originally one of the Craigie family’s furnishings retained by Henry and Fanny Longfellow after their 1843 acquisition of the home? Was it a piece chosen by another Longfellow family member to furnish the mostly Victorian style parlor as a nod to earlier American tastes? Why does the screen’s frame feature two metal fittings with the symbol of a Japanese clan? Although this pole screen is not currently exhibited in the Longfellow House’s historic interior spaces, it is just one of several examples of Federal-era furnishings still in the house, including a set of Adam Hains–designed chairs in the parlor, and a girandole mirror with carved wooden eagle hanging over the fireplace in Henry Longfellow’s study. Consisting of an oval mahogany frame (and pole stand, not pictured) with an image of a peacock embroidered in silk on a silk background, the pole screen was in the Longfellow House parlor when the National Park Service assumed stewardship of the site in 1972. 1805, roughly the middle of the Federal period of architecture and furniture design in the then-recently created United States.

Shown here is the panel from a pole screen, dating to c.

Heavy mackup