JAPAN

THE SHAPING OF
DAIMYO CULTURE
1185-1868
JAPAN
THE SHAPING OF
DAIMYO CULTURE
1185-1868

edited by
YOSHIAKI SHIMIZU

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON

The exhibition was organized by The exhibition was made possible
the National Gallery of Art, by R.}. Reynolds Tobacco Company,
the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo, The Yomiuri Shimbun, and
and The Japan Foundation. The Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.,
with additional support from
An indemnity for the exhibition has been
granted by the Federal Council on the The Tokyo Marine and Fire Insurance Company
Arts and the Humanities Matsushita Electric Industrial Corporation
Nippon Life Insurance Company
The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc.
Exhibition dates:
National Gallery of Art, Washington The Federation of Bankers Associations of Japan
30 October 1988-23 January 1989 and its members:
Bank of Tokyo, Ltd.
Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank, Ltd.
Photography courtesy of the Agency for
Daiwa Bank, Ltd.
Cultural Affairs, except as noted
Fuji Bank, Ltd.
Copyright © 1988. Board of Trustees, Na- Hokkaido Takushoku Bank, Ltd.
Industrial Bank of Japan, Ltd.
tional Gallery of Art. All rights reserved.
Kyowa Bank, Ltd.
This book may not be reproduced, in
whole or in part, in any form (beyond that Long Term Credit Bank of Japan, Ltd.
copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 Mitsubishi Bank, Ltd.
Mitsui Bank, Ltd.
of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by
Nippon Credit Bank, Ltd.
reviewers for the public press), without
written permission from the publishers. Saitama bank, Ltd.
Sanwa Bank, Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sumitomo Bank, Ltd.
Taiyo Kobe Bank, Ltd.
Japan : the shaping of Daimyo culture, Tokai Bank, Ltd.
1185-1868 / edited by Yoshiaki Shimizu. Japan Air Lines provided transportation.
p. cm.
Bibliography: p. Additional support for the catalogue has
i. Daimyo—Exhibitions. 2. Japan—Civilization—1185-1600 been provided by The Japan-United States
—Exhibitions. 3. Japan—Civilization—1600-1868—Exhibitions. Friendship Commission and the Com-
4. Art, Japanese—Kamakura-Momoyama periods, 1185-1600—Exhibitions. memorative Association for the Japan
5. Art, Japanese—Edo period, 1600-1868—Exhibitions. 6. Material World Exposition.
culture—Japan—Exhibitions. I. Shimizu, Yoshiaki, 1936- All Nippon Airways assisted in trans-
II. National Gallery of Art (U.S.) porting the catalogues from Japan to
DS827.D34J37 1988 Washington.
952'.00740143—OC1Ç 88-23604
CIP The Trustees of the National Gallery of
ISBN 0-8076-1214-6 hardcover Art also wish to thank the donors to two
ISBN 0-8946-8122-2 softcover projects that greatly enriched the under-
First printing.
standing of this exhibition.
For the No drama, The Yomiuri Shimbun.

For the Art of the Tea Ceremony, The Asahi Shim-

bun, the Yabunouchi School of Tea, The Nomura
Securities Co., Ltd., and All Nippon Airways.

Cover: Cat. 7, Mounted Warrior, Agency

for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo, Important
Cultural Property
Back cover: Cat. 265, Jinbaori, Sendai City
Museum, Miyagi Prefecture
Frontispiece: Cat. 116, Amusements at
Higashiyama, Kozü Kobunka Kaikan,
Kyoto
 Contents

vi Lenders to the exhibition

vu Foreword
i Daimyo and daimyo culture by Martin Collcutt
47 Daimyo and art by Yoshiaki Shimizu
53 Note to the reader
Catalogue
54 Portraiture (cat. nos. 1-53)
106 Calligraphy (cat. nos. 54-69)
120 Religious sculpture (cat. nos. 70-78)
134 Painting (cat. nos. 79-145)
228 Arms and armor (cat. nos. 146-220)
284 Lacquer (cat. nos. 221-239)
302 Ceramics (cat. nos. 240-261)
326 Textiles (cat. nos. 262-276)
348 Tea ceremony utensils (cat. nos. 277-291)
362 Nô-related works (cat. nos. 292-555)
391 Literature
397 Bibliography
Lenders to the exhibition

Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo Kyoto City, Kyoto Toyosaka Jinja, Yamaguchi Prefecture
Akana Hachimangü, Shimane Prefecture Kyoto Furitsu Sôgô Shiryôkan Ueda Municipal Museum, Nagano
Chishóin, Kyoto Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto Prefecture
Chômoji, Aichi Prefecture Manshôji, Kanagawa Prefecture Ueyama Ikuichi Collection, Nara Prefecture
Chôrakuji, Kyoto Masaki Art Museum, Osaka Umezawa Kinenkan, Tokyo
Chôreiji, Ishikawa Prefecture Miyazaki Kazue Collection, Kanagawa Unryüin, Kyoto
Chôshôin, Kyoto Prefecture Watanabe Kunio Collection, Tokyo
Egawa Art Museum, Hyógo Prefecture Myôchiin, Kyoto Watanabe Yoshio Collection, Tokyo
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo Myôhôin, Kyoto Yamada Hitoshi Collection, Tokyo
Engakuji, Kanagawa Prefecture Myôkôji, Aichi Prefecture Yamatane Art Museum, Tokyo
Enichiin, Shiga Prefecture Myôrenji, Kyoto
Fujii Akira Collection, Tokyo Nagoji, Chiba Prefecture
Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture
Prefecture Nanban Bunkakan, Osaka
Fukushi Shigeo Collection, Tokyo Nanzen'in, Kyoto
Ganjôjuin, Shizuoka Prefecture Nanzenji, Kyoto
Goto Museum, Tokyo Nara National Museum, Nara Prefecture
Gunma Prefectural Museum of Modern National Museum of Japanese History,
Art, Gunma Prefecture Chiba Prefecture
Gyokuhóin, Kyoto Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo
Hiroi Akihisa Collection, Tokyo Niutsuhime Jinja, Wakayama Prefecture
Hófu Móri Hókókai, Yamaguchi Okayama Prefectural Art Museum,
Prefecture Okayama Prefecture
Hokkeji, Gifu Prefecture Okayama Prefectural Museum, Okayama
Honda Takayuki Collection, Tokyo Prefecture
Honzan Jionji, Yamagata Prefecture Osaka City, Osaka
Hôsenji, Kyoto Osaka Municipal Museum, Osaka
Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo Private collections
li Naoyoshi Collection, Shiga Prefecture Reiun'in, Kyoto
Imperial Household Collection Rinkain, Kyoto
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art Rinnoji, Tochigi Prefecture
Jimyóin, Wakayama Prefecture Rokuôin, Kyoto
Jingoji, Kyoto Saikyôji, Shiga Prefecture
Jôdoji, Hyôgo Prefecture Seikado Bunko, Tokyo
Jotokuji, Fukui Prefecture Seikeiin, Wakayama Prefecture
Jôzanji (Shisendô), Kyoto Sekai Kyüseikyo (MOA Art Museum),
Jufukuji, Kanagawa Prefecture Shizuoka Prefecture
Jukóin, Kyoto Sekkeiji, Kôchi Prefecture
Jushôin, Kyoto Sen Sôsa Collection, Kyoto
Kagoshima Jingü, Kagoshima Prefecture Sendai City Museum, Miyagi Prefecture
Kaihó Hiroshi Collection, Kyoto Sennyúji, Kyoto
Kawabata Terutaka Collection, Kanagawa Shingetsuji, Fukui Prefecture
Prefecture Shinjuan, Kyoto
Kenchôji, Kanagawa Prefecture Shomyoji, Kanagawa Prefecture
Kishida Eisaku Collection, Gunma Shuon'an, Kyoto
Prefecture Sôjiji (Nishiarai Daishi), Tokyo
Kitamura Bunka Zaidan, Kyoto Sôunji, Kanagawa Prefecture
Kitano Tenmangu, Kyoto Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo
Kobe City Museum of Nanban Art, Hyôgo Sword Museum, Tokyo
Prefecture Taga Taisha, Shiga Prefecture
Kôdenji, Saga Prefecture Takahashi Toshio Collection, Tokyo
Kosaka Zentarô Collection, Tokyo Takamori Shigeru Collection, Kumamoto
Kôtokuji, Tochigi Prefecture Prefecture
Kozu Kobunka Kaikan, Kyoto Tenjuan, Kyoto
Kunozan Tóshogü, Shizuoka Prefecture Tokiwayama Bunko, Kanagawa Prefecture
Kushibiki Hachimangü, Aomori Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo
Prefecture Tokyo University of Arts, Tokyo

VI
 Foreword

Japan: The Shaping

ofDaimyo Culture,
1185-1868

I N 1875, SEVEN YEARS AFTER THE ABOLITION OF THE TOKUGAWA

shogunate, a distinguished American student of Japanese
culture named Professor William Elliot Griffis published
in a popular magazine an article entitled "A Daimio's Life." His article
dealt with the feudal lords who controlled the provinces of Japan for
much of the medieval and early modern ages. The recent toppling of the
Japanese warrior power hierarchy—shogun, daimyo, samurai—and the
restoration to power of the Meiji emperor were being widely discussed
by those who followed current world events, so Griffis did not have to
bother to define his subject. Since that time, the word "daimyo" has
fallen from currency.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as Japan
increasingly looked to the West for models of government and education,
the Western appreciation of daimyo culture also was eclipsed. As a result
a romanticized, often fictitious view of Japan evolved, in which fierce
samurai and shogun figured prominently, and the daimyo were
neglected. Despite a proliferation of popular books and films about Ja-
pan, neither the term daimyo nor their extraordinary contributions as
both patrons and practitioners of the arts have become familiar to West-
ern audiences. Nor has any effort been made, until now, to present an
exhibition that takes as its theme the art of the daimyo. Daimyo culture,
as described by one of our distinguished catalogue authors, reflects "a
synergy of warrior traditions (bu) and civilian arts (bun)!' By bringing to
Washington a resplendent array of daimyo-related art, we are breaking
new ground and at the same time beginning to redress a longstanding
oversight.
This exhibition is, we believe, the first attempt anywhere, includ-
ing Japan, to explore the artistic legacy of the daimyo from the beginning

vn
 of the Kamakura period in 1185 to the end of the Edo period in 1868. The
scope of the project has been greatly expanded since 1983, when we had
explored an exhibition examining the contribution of a single daimyo
family to the history of collecting. For agreeing to a broader exhibition
on the art of the daimyo, and for assisting us in every phase of the
project, we are deeply indebted to our partners in this joint venture, the
Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government and The Japan
Foundation, especially to Nobuyoshi Yamamoto, Akiyoshi Watanabe,
and Yüichi Hiroi at the former, and to Sadao Ikeya, Toshihisa Tanaka,
Yôichi Shimizu, and Hayato Ogo at the latter.
The works of art exhibited here come from more than one hun-
dred public and private collections, and we are immensely grateful to our
lenders, who have allowed us to borrow works of unprecedented beauty
and significance. Professor Yoshiaki Shimizu of Princeton University,
curator of the exhibition and principal author and editor of the scholarly
catalogue, deserves our deepest thanks for having worked tirelessly over
the course of many years to help us realize this exhibition. Andrew M.
Watsky ably assisted him over the past year, much of which they devoted
to the catalogue, in which are published more than 330 works of art.
Professor Martin Collcutt, also of Princeton University, contributed the
incisive historical introduction to the catalogue and frequently served as
advisor during the course of the project. Countless individuals at the
Agency for Cultural Affairs, among them many of our catalogue authors,
and at The Japan Foundation deserve our special thanks for carrying out
myriad essential tasks, from securing loans to arranging photography.
Their devotion to scholarship and to the cause of preserving Japan's
cultural heritage has made possible this extraordinary achievement.
Thanks are also due to the staff of the National Gallery of Art, in
particular the team who worked on this project. Gaillard Ravenel and
Mark Leithauser designed the installation, with production management
by Gordon Anson. D. Dodge Thompson, and his staff in the department
of exhibition programs, including Cameran Castiel, Ellen Marks, and
Deborah Shepherd, provided organizational expertise. Mary Suzor, regis-
trar, supervised the shipping of the works of art, and Mervin Richard,
exhibitions conservator, coordinated the packing and the conservation
measures necessary to safeguard the objects. Susan Arensberg and her
colleagues in the education department have implemented a number of
programs for the interested visitor. The elaborate funding package that
has made this exhibition possible has been the particular concern of the
Gallery's corporate relations officer, Elizabeth A. C. Weil. Joseph Krakora
was particularly helpful with the coordination of the No theater and the
film on daimyo culture, while Genevra Higginson planned and guided all
events related to the opening of the exhibition. Ruth Kaplan ably inter-
preted the content of the exhibition and its adjuncts to the media.
Frances Smyth and Mary Yakush supervised the complex task of editing
and producing the catalogue with skill and grace, with the essential
collaboration of several people: Naomi Noble Richard, who served as an
expert reader and editor; Virginia Wageman, who scrupulously edited a
large portion of the manuscript; Kyoko Selden, who translated the Japa-
nese authors' contributions; and Dana Levy, who designed the catalogue
despite very pressing deadlines.
Many people associated with our numerous lenders shared their
knowledge and time, allowing us to see their treasures and discuss the
works of art in their collections. Special thanks are due to Hosokawa

Vlll
Morisada, a descendant of one of the great daimyo families, and Okura
Ryüji, curator of the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, for their
enthusiastic support in the earliest stages of the project. Thomas Law-
ton, former director of the Freer Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, also
offered encouragement and support. We would like to thank William
Childs, former chairman of the department of Art and Archaeology at
Princeton University, for his indulgence during the course of the
preparations, and Professor Shimizu's students, both graduate and
undergraduate.
In conjunction with this exhibition, our visitors are privileged to
learn in greater depth about two aspects of daimyo culture that were, as
this catalogue brings out, of great significance. One, the art of the tea
ceremony, is exemplified by the reconstruction of the Ennan teahouse in
its garden setting and the demonstrations of the ceremony, illustrated by
precious objects associated with it. This part of the undertaking was
supported by The Asahi Shimbun, the Yabunouchi School of Tea, The
Nomura Securities Co., Ltd., and All Nippon Airways.
A second aspect of daimyo culture was its patronage of No
drama. The construction of a traditional No stage and performances by
the renowned Kanze troupe of No players have been supported by The
Yomiuri Shimbun.
We would like to express our great appreciation to our American
sponsor, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, for its support. To the Japa-
nese supporters of the exhibition goes our deepest gratitude for their
generosity and leadership. We would like to thank especially The Yomiuri
Shimbun for its help with the project since its inception, and in particu-
lar Yosoji Kobayashi, president, Akihiro Nanjo, and the Yomiuri's able
staff. We are most appreciative of the support of The Nomura Securities
Co., Ltd., along with The Tokyo Marine and Fire Insurance Company,
Nippon Life Insurance Company, Matsushita Electric Industrial Corpo-
ration, The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc., and the
Federation of Bankers Associations of Japan and its members. Japan Air
Lines provided transport for the works of art. In addition, we are grateful
to The Japan-United States Friendship Commission and the Commemo-
rative Association for the Japan World Exposition for their support of this
exhibition catalogue. We thank All Nippon Airways for its assistance in
transporting many of the catalogues from Japan to Washington. The
exhibition was publicly announced in 1983 at the Tokyo Summit by
Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and President Ronald Reagan. Since
then the project has received the support of both governments at the
highest level. We are particularly grateful to the National Gallery's
former Trustee, Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III, for his timely
assistance. The Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities granted
an indemnity for the exhibition. Special thanks are due to Kôichi Hara-
guchi, Toshiyuki Takano, and Makoto Hinei in the Embassy of Japan in
Washington.
Finally to the former Ambassador Nobuo Matsunaga, as well as
to the United States Ambassador in Japan, Mike Mansfield, go our spe-
cial thanks for helping this complex but enormously rewarding effort in
international understanding.

J. Carter Brown
Director

IX
 S INCE THE 1950S, THE AGENCY FOR CULTURAL AFFAIRS HAS
endeavored to further the understanding of Japanese
culture and history, through art exhibitions held at mu-
seums throughout the United States. The first such exhibition, in 1951,
was held in San Francisco; in 1953 another exhibition traveled to several
cities, including New York and Boston. Exhibitions of Japanese art orga-
nized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs have included painting, sculp-
ture, applied arts, calligraphy, and archaeology.
Japan: The Shaping ofDaimyo Culture 1185-1868, initiated at the
1983 summit meeting between our two countries and co-organized with
the Japan Foundation, explores through art the culture created by the
warriors of medieval and early modern Japan. From the end of the
twelfth century, the warrior class, newly risen holders of political author-
ity, developed cultural traditions inherited from the court, absorbing
influences from China, including Zen Buddhism, resulting in the cul-
tural legacy of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. Later, the evolu-
tion of early modern culture in the Edo period resulted from the
participation of both the daimyo and the merchant class.
The works of art gathered here reflect the active role of the
warriors in the development of an important part of Japanese cultural
history. The Agency for Cultural Affairs has planned and coordinated
the realization of this complex project, and negotiated the loans that
have made the exhibition possible. Although many exhibitions of Japa-
nese art have traveled to the United States, none parallels Japan: The
Shaping of Daimyo Culture 1185-1868 in terms of quality and quantity,
and in its distinctive theme.
We hope that American visitors to the exhibition will gain a bet-
ter understanding of the cultural traditions of Japan, and of the physical
and spiritual qualities that distinguish Japanese art. We believe that this
exhibition will contribute to the future growth of cultural relations be-
tween our two countries.
In conclusion, I would like to express my appreciation to J. Carter
Brown, director of the National Gallery, and the entire staff of the Gal-
lery, as well as the many other people in the United States and Japan, for
the great efforts made in realizing the exhibition. Special thanks are due
to many generous lenders in Japan who agreed to part with their trea-
sures for the duration of the exhibition, as well as to the Japanese Minis-
try for Foreign Affairs and the Japanese Embassy.

Hiroshi Ueki
Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan

X
 S INCE ITS FOUNDING IN 1972, THE JAPAN FOUNDATION HAS
fostered cultural exchange in diverse fields between
Japan and many countries throughout the world. In
recent years, art exhibitions that played a particularly important role in
our activities have included The Great Japan Exhibition in London in
1981, Japan des Avant-Gardes in Paris in 1986, and Paris in Japan, Japan in
Paris, which traveled to St. Louis, New York, and Los Angeles during
1987-1988.
Japan: The Shaping ofDaimyo Culture 1185-18681$ an exhibition
of the art related to the warrior class, important contributors to the
cultural and political development of Japan from the medieval through
the early modern eras. The daimyo-related art exhibited here will show,
we believe, a side of Japanese culture not yet well known to the Ameri-
can public. We expect that this exhibition will be the first step in a new
phase of Japanese-American cultural exchange.
We would like to express our gratitude to the many people who
worked so hard and so long for this exhibition, and especially to J. Carter
Brown who energetically traveled between the United States and Japan
to make the exhibition possible. We would also like to thank all of the
individuals and organizations who have kindly lent us their treasures. We
are indebted to the Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs for its assis-
tance since the 1983 summit meeting.

Yasue Katori
President
The Japan Foundation

XI
 Daimyo and daimyo culture

MARTIN COLLCUTT

D -«^•^^___^^^
AIMYO WERE FEUDAL LORDS OR BAR-
_ ons who, as leaders of powerful
f warrior bands, controlled the prov-
inces of Japan for much of the medi-
eval (chùsei), and early modern ages
(kinsei), from 1185 to 1868. The term daimyo combines the two characters
dai ("great") and myd ("name;" from myôden, "name fields," referring to
privately owned land). In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the term
was used to refer to absentee landholders such as nobles and temples
who held rights in privatized provincial estates within the public land
system administered by the central court government in the city of
Heian (Kyoto). By the fourteenth century the word daimyo was being
used to describe warrior leaders who had built up extensive military
power and landed wealth in the provinces. The daimyo thus emerged
from among warriors, known as samurai or bushi, who had come to
exercise increasing political and economic as well as military power with
the decline of the centralized imperial court government in the tenth
and eleventh centuries.
During the seventh and eighth centuries Japan saw the establish-
ment of a centralized imperial government modeled on those of Sui and
Tang China. For several centuries the imperial court, headed by emper-
ors (tennô), claiming direct descent from the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu,
held unchallenged sway. By the tenth century, however, the imperial
court was beginning to lose control over the provinces. Private estates
(shden) held by temples and nobles living as absentee proprietors in the
capital proliferated, and local warrior bands sprang up as central military
influence waned. By the eleventh century the court was becoming reli-

1
Himeji Castle. Photograph by Mike ant on provincial warriors to enforce its authority and protect the capital.
Yamashita. Copyright © 1988, National The leaders of powerful warrior bands, especially the chieftains of the
Geographic Society.
Taira and Minamoto clans, were drawn into court politics. A watershed
in the shifting balance of political power was reached in the later twelfth
century when the Taira, led by Kiyomori (1118-1181), asserted control over
the court, only to be ousted and crushed by the Minamoto, led by
Yoritomo (1147-1199) and his half-brother Yoshitsune (1159-1189).
The establishment by Yoritomo of a separate warrior govern-
ment, bakufu, in Kamakura in eastern Japan and his acceptance from the
imperial court of the title of Seiitaishogun (Great General Who Quells
the Barbarians) following the destruction of the Taira at the Battle of
Dannoura in 1185 marked a turning point in the shifting balance of
courtly and warrior power. Hitherto the title of shogun had been held by
imperial princes. The conferment of the title of shogun was a recogni-
tion by the imperial court that Yoritomo, as leader of the warrior order,
exercised a legitimate delegated authority. Thus began a political ar-
rangement that was to endure for the almost seven-hundred-year period
covered by this exhibition, in which emperors heading the imperial court
in Kyoto continued to embody a sacerdotal sovereignty while powerful
warriors (as shoguns or military hegemons) were delegated with authority
to rule. The emperors retained their legitimating function, and at times
individual emperors sought to retrieve the powers granted to warriors,
but until the mid-nineteenth century warriors controlled the movement
of Japanese history, appropriating political, economic, and even cultural
leadership. Within the warrior order those powerful feudal lords known
as the daimyo were local rulers and leading contenders for power.
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Ashikaga sho-
guns gained the support of powerful provincial warrior houses by ap-
pointing them as constables, shugo, with military, administrative, and
fiscal authority over one or more provinces. Historians have named them
shugo daimyo. Strong shoguns like Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the

2
third shogun, were able to assert shogunal authority over the shugo. Himeji Castle, interior view. Photograph
Under weaker mid-fifteenth-century shoguns like Ashikaga Yoshimasa by Mike Yamashita. Copyright © 1988,
National Geographic Society.
(1436-1490), however, these constables, or shugo daimyo, extended their
local power at the expense of the shogunate, tightening their feudal
control over their provinces of assignment and enrolling local warriors as
their vassals.
A second stage of daimyo evolution was set in motion_when, in
the fierce provincial warfare following the outbreak of the Onin War
(1467-1477) the shogun-s/zugo coalition disintegrated in civil war and
many of the shugo-daimyo, who were militarily overextended or entan-
gled in politics in the capital, were toppled by their own deputies and
retainers, who emerged as the rulers of smaller but more tightly-knit
domains. These 250 or so warrior families were known as the daimyo of
the Warring Provinces, sengoku daimyo. Fiercely independent, they
sought to ensure survival in an age of privincial warfare by extending
their feudal control over all the warriors, merchants, and peasants within
their territories, and by mobilizing all the human and economic re-
sources of the domain for attack and defense. The Ashikaga shogunate
and the imperial court both survived, but shogunal power did not extend
far beyond Kyoto. The imperial court was too impoverished and politi-
cally impotent to assert any authority. This period of sengoku daimyo
development, between the mid-fifteenth and mid-sixteenth centuries,
marked the extreme of political decentralization in Japan. This decen-
tralization was hastened by the weakness of the shogunal leadership and
by the rivalry of warring daimyo. Shugo- and sengoku daimyo houses rose
and fell with bewildering rapidity. Very few of the medieval daimyo
families survived into the late sixteenth century, the beginning of the
early modern age, kinsei, in Japan. Among the survivors were the Shi-
mazu family of Satsuma (Kagoshima), the Mori of Chóshü (Yamaguchi
Prefecture), and the Hosokawa, whose fortunes were revived in the six-
teenth century by members of a collateral line.

3
 By the mid-sixteenth century the pendulum of feudal decentral-
ization had swung about as far as it could go without total political
fragmentation of the country. Among the contending daimyo were some
who dreamed of crushing their rivals and conquering and reuniting the
country. During the later sixteenth century a process of military unifica-
tion was set in motion by the young daimyo Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582),
carried forward by his leading general Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598),
and brought to completion by their former ally Tokugawa leyasu (1543-
1616), a powerful daimyo from eastern Japan, after his victory at the
Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. All three unifiers relied on daimyo vassals to
crush other daimyo who blocked the path to power. Thus the daimyo,
who intrinsically represented decentralizing tendencies and frequently
impeded unification, were used in the process of recentralization of
power and were included in the political structure eventually hammered
out by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and revised by Tokugawa leyasu. The daimyo
who served Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi and were rewarded
by them with generous fiefs are known as shokuhô daimyo (the word
shokuhô is made up out alternative readings for the first characters of the
names Oda and Toyotomi).
The full maturation, and fourth stage, of daimyo evolution oc-
curred in the Edo period (1615-1868) when the daimyo, as heads of war-
rior houses (buke) and vassals of the Tokugawa shoguns, governed 250 or
so provincial fiefs (han). The Edo period is also commonly referred to by
Japanese historians as kinsei, which most western historians of Japan
translate as "early modern." Thus these Edo-period daimyo are known as
the "early modern" or kinsei daimyo. The political system established by
Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616) after his assumption of the title of shogun
was one in which the Tokugawa shogunal government (bakufu) ruled the
heartland of central Japan and controlled the great cities and mines,
while vassal daimyo were appointed to administer some two hundred
and fifty domains (han). This centralized feudal system of rule in which
shoguns heading the bakufu shared power with daimyo as the adminis-
trators of domains has been called the baku-han system.
Tokugawa leyasu and his shogunal successors went furthest in
regulating and institutionalizing the role of daimyo. By definition Edo
period daimyo governed domains yielding at least the equivalent of
10,000 koku in rice (one koku equalled about five bushels). This was
merely the minimum income for recognition as a daimyo. Some daimyo
administered domains assessed at over 500,000 koku and headed bands
(kashindan) of several hundred samurai retainers. The Tokugawa bakufu
issued regulations for daimyo, spied on them, and interfered with mar-
riage and succession in order to preempt the formation of threatening
alliances. Under the Tokugawa control system, daimyo were ranked on
the basis of the closeness of their relationship to the Tokugawa and
required to divide their time between attendance upon the shoguns in
Edo and the administration of their domains. The daimyo survived until
1871 when the Meiji (1868-1912) regime abolished the feudal fiefs in
creating a modern prefectual system and pensioned the daimyo off as
members of a new nobility resident in Tokyo.
The daimyo belonged not under the imperial court hierarchy but
in the upper echelons of the hierarchy of warrior power. Tokugawa ley-
asu was a daimyo who rose to become shogun and establish a shogunal
dynasty. Other daimyo had similar ambitions. Most daimyo, however,
remained shogunal vassals, allies, or rivals for power. They in turn had
their own vassals and rear vassals to whom they awarded fiefs in land or
stipends in rice in return for military service. Like shoguns, daimyo were
granted nominal rank in the imperial court hierarchy. They were not,
however, vassals of the imperial court. Indeed, shoguns sought to pre-

4
vent alliances between daimyo and the court, because through such ties
daimyo might secure the political legitimation that would allow them to
subvert or usurp the shogunal office. While many daimyo were hardly
more than petty provincial upstarts with little to spare for cultural pat-
ronage, others commanded domains covering one or more provinces,
lived luxuriously, and were contenders for power on a national scale.
Daimyo culture, then, is the culture of the upper echelon of the
warrior order. But since daimyo were associated with shoguns, and in
some cases rose to become shoguns, daimyo culture also embraced sho-
gunal culture. At the same time, because many prominent daimyo
houses began as lowly provincial samurai, daimyo culture absorbed and
refined traditional samurai culture, and in its turn reshaped samurai
cultural style. Moreover, elite warrior culture drew heavily on the classi-
cal Japanese traditions of the imperial court and on Chinese culture,
especially through Zen Buddhist monks who derived their distinctive
religious and cultural traditions from China and became cultural advisors
for warrior chieftains. But in the final analysis daimyo culture was rooted
in the Japanese samurai tradition.
The art and culture of the daimyo was created by and for a class
whose existence depended on military power, but whose social function
and self-image called increasingly for mastery of the arts of peace. The
interests, artifacts, and activities that embody daimyo culture thus repre-
sent a synergy of warrior traditions (bu) and civilian arts (bun). Daimyo
united in their persons military power, landholding, administrative and
judicial functions, and social prestige. This meant that while military
values were becoming prevalent and predominant in Japanese society,
civilian arts were becoming indispensable to the military men. As war-
riors acceded to the powers of the civilian government, they required the
civilian arts of governance; and as they acceded to the prestige of the
courtly nobility, they required the cultural attributes and abilities that
distinguished those civilian aristocrats.
Daimyo were warriors by training and vocation. War was their
metier. To succeed they had to be ruthless, cunning, callous, and aggres-
sive. Even when, in the early seventeenth century, conditions of peace
and order replaced endemic warfare and the daimyo turned their atten-
tion from fighting to governing, they continued to think of their lineages
as military houses (buke). But few daimyo could survive and prosper
simply as illiterate, boorish ruffians. As early as the twelfth century,
warrior leaders like Taira Kiyomori (1118-1181) or Minamoto Yoritomo
were finding that their newfound political power and the territories they
had acquired called for the exercise of administration, and that the social
distinction and political power conferred by victory in war, attainment of
office, and possession of territory had to be legitimated—not least in
their own eyes—by the acquisition and exercise of the arts of peace
(bun), which included administration, scholarship, poetry, painting, and
the study of the Chinese and Japanese classics. And what may first have
been assumed as a convenient veneer, or borrowed cultural credential, to
dignify naked military power, soon became a consuming interest in its
own right—so much so that in much of Japanese warrior culture we can
detect both complementarity and tension between the demands of bu
and the appeal of bun.
Among daimyo from medieval to early modern times, there is
commonality as well as considerable diversity. Although most rose from
rural samurai origins, a few, such as Saitô Dôsan (d. 1556), got their start
as provision merchants for other daimyo. While many daimyo were
hardly more than petty provincial chieftains with limited resources and
little to spare for cultural patronage, others commanded domains cover-
ing one or more provinces, lived luxuriously, and were contenders for

5
 power on a national scale. Tokugawa leyasu emerged from the ranks of
the daimyo to establish the Tokugawa shogunal dynasty. Oda Nobunaga,
who began life as a small-scale daimyo, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the son
of a peasant, imposed their wills on other daimyo and achieved a military
hegemony that any shogun would have envied, though they did not take
that title. In the century or more of warfare prior to the seventeenth
century, instability was the norm, and daimyo families rose and fell with
almost bewildering rapidity. Very few families—the Shimazu of Kyushu
were among the rare exceptions—survived as daimyo from the twelfth
through the sixteenth centuries and beyond.

Warriors and The four main types of daimyo, then, are: the shugo
daimyo in the daimyo (constable daimyo) of the late fourteenth and
early medieval fifteenth centuries; the smaller but more effectively
age organized daimyo of the Age of Wars (Sengoku jidai);
the Shokuhô daimyo of the Momoyama period; and
the kinsei (early modern) daimyo of the Edo period.
(Though the kinsei period encompasses both the Momoyama and Edo
periods, only the daimyo of the Edo period are customarily referred to as
kinsei daimyo.) The closing decades of the twelfth century and the open-
ing years of the thirteenth mark the emergence of local warrior power in
the early medieval period, and one of the great shifts in Japanese history:
from a society ruled exclusively by a court aristocracy (huge) to a society
increasingly dominated by warriors (bushi). By the eleventh century the
hegemony of the centralized government of the imperial court that had
been established in the eighth century was being undermined by provin-
cial disturbances and warrior incursions. Warrior bands from the prov-
inces were increasingly drawn into court politics in the Heian capital in
the tenth and eleventh centuries. In the mid-twelfth century one such
band, the Taira, led by Taira Kiyomori (1118-1181), seized control of the
court. In the process they eliminated most of their principal warrior
rivals, the Minamoto (also known as Genji) clan. After Kiyomori's death
the Minamoto rallied under a young General Yoritomo (1147-1199). In
1185 Yoritomo's half brother Yoshitsune (1159-1189) and other Minamoto
leaders drove the Taira from the capital and crushed them at a great
battle at Dannoura in the inland sea. Later, Yoshitsune was hounded by
his brother Yoritomo, who was suspicious of his intentions and jealous of
his victories. He fled to northeastern Japan, where he was captured and
forced to take his own life.
For his services to the court Yoritomo received the title of
Seiitaishôgun (Great General Who Quells the Barbarians) and estab-
lished a warrior government, known as a shogunate or bakufu, well away
from the court at the small coastal town of Kamakura in eastern Japan.
Although this catalogue and exhibition begin with Yoritomo's portrait, it
is important to note that Yoritomo is never regarded as a daimyo, because
the notion of the daimyo as feudal lord had not yet developed in the late
twelfth century. Yoritomo was the chieftain (tôryo) of the Minamoto
warrior band. He assumed the military title of shogun and the imperial
court title Utaishoy Great Commander of the Right, by which he was
remembered. Yoritomo's combination of warrior virtues (bu) and civilian
skills (bun) established a pattern that later warrior chieftains, including
the Ashikaga and Tokugawa shoguns, the unifiers Oda Nobunaga and
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and most daimyo, were to emulate.
The rout of the Taira by the Minamoto, Yoritomo's establishment
of a separate, warrior government in eastern Japan, his assumption of the
title of shogun, and the crushing defeat by the Kamakura bakufu of an ill-
planned attempt at a recovery of power by the imperial court in 1221 all

6
signaled the effective acquisition of political as well as military leadership
in Japan by warriors. The authority of the court was not completely
undermined by the formation of Yoritomo's bakufu nor by the defeat in
the ill-fated Jókyü War of 1221. While the political functions of the court
were dwindling, its cultural influence was more enduring. In fact, these
years were the critical phase of a momentous shift from a society ruled
by the imperial court and the court nobility (huge) to a society increas-
ingly dominated by warriors (bushï). The Taira had been warriors, too.
Rather than establish new organs of government, however, they had
tried to rule the court and the country much as the Fujiwara nobles had
done, through offices of the civilian government and by the manipula-
tion of the imperial office. The Kamakura bakufu was the first in a series
of warrior regimes that until the nineteenth century governed Japan
through institutions outside the structure of the ancient court bureauc-
racy. The imperial court government survived, tennd maintained their
sovereignty, and nobles maintained their cultural influence, but the
court steadily declined in wealth and political leadership as power stead-
ily shifted into warrior hands.
Yoritomo had dreamed of establishing a Minamoto shogunal dy-
nasty, but that ambition was thwarted by the assassination of his second
son, the shogun Sanetomo, in 1219. Thereafter, until its overthrow in
1333, the Kamakura bakufu was dominated by the Hójó warrior family of
eastern Japan, who brought imperial princes and nobles from Kyoto to
serve as figurehead shoguns while they actually ruled as shogunal re-
gents. The early Hójó were effective warrior administrators and earned a
reputation for strong government. Hójó Tokimune organized the defense
of the country against the attempted Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281.
Although the term daimyo was in use by this time to describe
local powerholders and was taking on an increasingly martial connota-
tion, it had not yet become part of the political nomenclature of the age.
Yoritomo's vassals were called housemen (gokenin). To police the country
he established the offices of provincial constable (shugo), and estate stew-
ard (jito). Shugo were selected from among his principal vassals and
appointed as military overseers of the various provinces. Jitd were vassals
placed within the provincial estates of the nobility to ensure local order.
Hôjô power rested heavily on the appointment and control of these
warriors. As shugo and jitô built up their local control, extended their
land holdings, and brought other warriors under their influence by oaths
of allegiance, they can be described as the forerunners of the daimyo as
territorial hegemons. By the early fourteenth century some of these
shugo vassals of the Kamakura bakufu were becoming disaffected. In 1333
a coalition of forces led by Emperor Go-Daigo and the eastern warrior
Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358) toppled the Kamakura bakufu. After a brief
resumption of imperial rule, known as the Kenmu Restoration, Go-
Daigo was ousted from the capital by his former ally, who set up a rival
emperor and established a shogunate in the Muromachi district of Kyoto
under Ashikaga warrior control.

The origins of In terms of the later development of the Japanese

daimyo warrior ideal in general and daimyo culture in particu-
culture: the lar> the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were crucial.
tradition of These centuries saw the full emergence of warriors,
i ii their involvement in court politics with the Taira, and
bu and bun ., rformation
the ,. andj jdevelopment
i j. orr warrior govern-
ment by Minamoto Yoritomo and the Hójó. More-
over, it was in the early medieval centuries that the basic integration into
warrior culture of bu and bun took place. This interplay of bu and bun

7
 was not discovered by warriors, nor was it unique to Japan. The ideal of
the ruler who combines civilian and military arts had been established in
ancient China and enshrined in Confucian texts, which had shaped
Japanese thinking from as early as the sixth century. The early political
reformer Prince Shótoku, author of the Seventeen article constitution in
the early seventh century, might be regarded as one of its first conscious
Japanese exemplars. An early emperor is known posthumously simply as
"Bun and Bu," or"Monmu" termo (683-707). Imperial princes and nobles
serving the court in the Nara and Heian periods also sought to embody
the ideal of bu and bun, although the court nobility in Heian times
quickly lost their martial tradition and ceased to bear arms. Daimyo
culture thus encompasses the absorption, transformation, and applica-
tion of an ancient civilian ideal by a newly emergent warrior elite.
In the cultural arena, a sense of the emerging military ideal and
the conflict between the old aristocratic order and the new military elite
may be gleaned from the war tales of the medieval age. The Heiji mono-
gatari (Tale of the Heiji Wars), for instance, a contemporary chronicle that
tells of the struggles between the Taira and Minamoto warrior bands
during Taira Kiyomori's rise to power, is one of the first war tales to
recognize the impending conflict between the old aristocratic and the
new military elite. It warns members of the imperial court that, in a
troubled age, both learning (the bun of aristocratic bureaucrats) and
military skill (the bu of warrior generals) are essential to survival:
If we look at precedents followed in both China and Japan, we will find that when
rewarding subjects and ministers, rulers have always assigned high priority to both
learning and military might. Learning is helpful in various areas of administration;
and military power enables rulers to suppress disturbances. So in his plans to pre-
serve the empire and rule the land, a ruler seems to place learning at his left and
military strength at his right—making them like a person's two hands. Neither can
be dispensed with (Brown and Ishida 1979, 392).
Unfortunately, members of the imperial court proved unable to recover
military skills that might have restored their power, while the warrior
leaders were increasingly able to master, or hire, the civilian arts they
needed to rule. Warrior chieftains proved best able to command the mix
of military and civilian skills that were essential to survival and success in
an unstable age.
Warriors (bushi) saw themselves as distinct from the courtiers,
while courtiers were fascinated with the valor and martial tradition of
bushi. The martial aspect (bu) of the emerging warrior ideal is shown very
clearly in the many war tales of the early medieval age. The Mutsu waki
(Tale of Mutsu) was written by a courtier in the eleventh century and
chronicles the victories of Minamoto Yoriyoshi (999-1075) and his son
Yoshiie (1039-1106), ancestors of Yoritomo, in the wars of pacification of
the northern provinces. The long campaigns in the north provided many
opportunities for the display of warrior courage. Yoriyoshi's victories
established his reputation as a great chieftain and, through the granting
of spoils, allowed him to forge strong vassal bonds with the eastern bushi
who joined his armies. The Mutsu waki already contains many of the
facets of the warrior ideal more fully developed in later war tales. Yori-
yoshi is presented as the seasoned leader and master of the way of the bow
and horse:
At that juncture the court nobles met in council determined to appoint a general to
punish [Abe] Yoritoki, and settled unanimously upon Minamoto-no-ason Yoriyoshi, a
son of Yorinobu-no-ason, the governor of Kawachi province. Yoriyoshi was a cool,
resourceful man, well suited to command. Numbers of eastern warriors had long ago
joined their fortunes to his, won by his courage and enterprise as a soldier under his
father during the Chôgen era [1028-1037], when Yorinobu-no-ason went on behalf of
the court to subdue Taira Tadatsune and his sons—rebels who were perpetrating

8
 shocking outrages in eastern Japan. For a time Yoriyoshi had served as a third-
ranking official in Koichijoin's household. Koichijoin was a prince who delighted in
the hunt. Whenever one of his parties came upon a deer, fox, or hare in the field, it
was invariably Yoriyoshi who took the game, for although he carried a weak bow by
preference, his aim was so deadly that every arrow buried itself to the feathers in his
prey, and even the fiercest animal perished before his bowstring (McCullough 1964-
1965,187).
But Yoriyoshi is also the ideal type of warrior chieftain who wins the
loyalty of his followers by his generous concern for them as well as by
sheer force of arms:
Yoriyoshi provided a filling meal for his men, saw that their weapons were put to
rights, and personally visited the injured to care for their wounds. The warriors were
deeply touched. 'Our bodies shall repay our debts; our lives shall count as nothing
where honor is at stake. We are ready to die for our general now' (McCullough 1964-
1965,197).

Minamoto Yoshiie, who like Yoriyoshi played an important role in

the consolidation of Minamoto power in the eastern provinces, is pre-
sented as being cut from the same heroic mold as his father. For his valor
Yoshiie earned the title of Hachiman Taró, eldest son of Hachiman, the
god of war and patron divinity of the Minamoto warriors:
Nevertheless, the great hero of the battle was Yoriyoshi's eldest son, Yoshiie. He shot
arrows from horseback like a god; undeterred by gleaming blades, he lunged through
the rebels' encirclements to emerge on their left and right. With his great arrow
heads he transfixed one enemy chieftain after another, never shooting at random
but always inflicting a mortal wound. He galloped like the wind and fought with a
skill that was more than human. The barbarians fled rather than face him, calling
him the firstborn son of Hachiman, the god of war (McCullough 1964-1965,191).
The distinctive martial values of the bushi, so clearly delineated
by the anonymous courtier who compiled the Mutsu waki, were vaunted
and embellished in the war tales of succeeding centuries, culminating in
the Heike monogatari, in the thirteenth century. Strength, courage, cun-
ning, loyalty to one's lord, concern for personal and family honor were
lauded; cowardice and treachery castigated. By the time of the diffusion
of the Heike monogatari the ultimate test of courage, loyalty, and warrior
virtue was the willingness to die for one's lord, or one's honor, to disem-
bowel oneself if necessary to avoid the ignominy of capture and disgrace.
The martial character and lifestyle of the medieval bushi are
richly illustrated in the art of the thirteenth century included in this
exhibition. Attention was lavished on finely made swords, richly deco-
rated armor and helmets, and on horses and their equipment. Paintings
from the medieval period show bands of mounted warriors setting off on
campaigns and honing their fighting skills in martial recreations. Befit-
ting warrior society, the horses that carried warriors into battle were
especially prized and pampered. Sometimes, as in scenes from the biog-
raphies of the monks Hónen and Ippen, stables are shown close to the
warrior residence, or yakata. In the Seikdji engi emaki (Illustrated
handscroll of the founding of Seikôji), however, the horses are shown
stabled in the retainers' quarters of the yakata. While one warrior sweeps
the floor another brings a tub of mash to the waiting horses. Horses were
so important that they were given magical protection. Monkeys were
believed to provide that protection. In one scene in the Ippen biography
a monkey is tethered near the stables.
Several Kamakura-period scroll paintings clearly illustrate and
idealize the martial aspect of the warrior profession of arms. Mofeo shürai
ekotoba (Illustrated scrolls of the Mongol invasions), for instance, depict
the heroic exploits of the warrior Takezaki Suenaga of Higo in the de-
fense of the country during the Mongol invasion attempts of 1274 and

9
 1281. Suenaga had the scrolls painted to glorify himself and his exploits
for posterity and to lay claim to spoils for his contribution to the salvation
of the country. The two scrolls express Suenaga's leadership, his fearless-
ness, and his ferociousness in hand-to-hand combat with the invaders.
They may exaggerate his individual contribution to the rout of the Mon-
gols but they do give a vigorous impression of the martial ideal of the
bushi as it existed in the late thirteenth century.
Another illustration of the life of the Kamakura warrior and his
disdain for the ways of the courtier is provided by the Obusuma Saburo
ekotoba ( Tale of Obusuma Sdburo, cat. 79). Painted around the year 1300,
this scroll contrasts, we might almost say caricatures, the lives of two
eastern warriors from Musashi Province, Obusuma Saburó and his elder
brother Yoshimi Jiro. Yoshimi Jiro is presented as an aesthete who has
admiration only for the ways of Kyoto and its courtiers. His residence,
completely out of place in the frontier territory of the eastern provinces,
is a copy of a nobleman's palace. He takes as his wife a noblewoman from
the imperial court, who bears him a daughter. He shows no interest in
the cultivation of martial skills but instead devotes his days and nights to
composing poetry and playing the flute.
Obusuma Saburó, by contrast, is a dedicated warrior who thinks
of nothing but the cultivation of martial arts. The text of the scroll sums
up his attitude in this way:
Because I was born in a warrior house, [yumiya no ie], what could be more natural for
me than to practice the skills of the warrior. What is the use of filling one's heart
with thoughts of the moon or flowers, or composing verse, or plucking a lute? The
ability of strum a zither or blow a flute doesn't count for much on the battlefield.
Everybody in my household—women and children included—will learn to ride wild
horses and train daily with the longbow.
Saburo takes as his wife an ill-favored but stalwart woman from the
eastern provinces. She gives him three sons and two daughters, all of
whom are obliged by Saburó to devote their days to martial pursuits.
One autumn the two brothers are called to Kyoto to perform
military service as guards at the imperial palace. Saburó sets out first,
with his retinue. On the way he encounters a band of brigands in the
mountains but the mere reputation of his martial ability frightens them
off. Some days later Jiro and his men encounter the same bunch of
brigands. The bandits are less intimidated by the courtly Jiro and his
band. They kill him and rout his retinue. When Saburó returns from the
capital, in spite of the fact that he has sworn to take care of his elder
brother's interests, he steals Jiró's lands, makes his wife and daughter his
servants, breaks off a marriage arrangement between Jirô's daughter and
the local provincial governor, and tries to interest the governor in marry-
ing his own ugly daughter. The last section of the handscroll has been
lost, but stories like this were generally provided with happy endings,
often through the intervention of a compassionate Buddhist deity.
Whatever the original intent of the scroll, it reveals a tension
between bu and bun in thirteenth-century warrior society and an aware-
ness that over-indulgence in courtly or literary arts could undermine the
warrior spirit and bring disaster to warrior families. The behavior of
Saburó, ready at every turn to advance his own, and his family's, interests
was perhaps intended as a caricature of the martial spirit and realism of
eastern warriors.
Warrior leaders like Yoritomo and the Hójó regents frequently
warned their vassals against excessive indulgence in scholarly and literary
pursuits and preached the virtues of spartan living, battle readiness, and
cultivation of the martial arts. Early medieval warriors, especially the
warrior elite, those who would later be described as daimyo, also culti-
vated the civilian arts, due to necessity and personal interest. As they

10
achieved political power they found, as many warriors rulers have found
at other times, that while they might conquer territory on horseback they
could not rule it from horseback. They needed literacy, legal training,
governing skills, and skill in calligraphy, facility in the drafting of docu-
ments, and prestige conferred by participation in the courtly traditions of
the kuge, the courtly elite they were displacing. These administrative
and literary skills (bun) were acquired by associating with nobles and
Buddhist monks, especially Zen Buddhist monks. With little of their own
to contribute in the way of political philosophy, administrative expertise,
and artistic and literary creativity, and lacking traditions of literacy and
scholarship, the warrior elite in medieval Japan, eager to embellish their
growing political power and social influence with trappings of cultural
legitimacy, had to look to the Kyoto court, Buddhist monasteries, and
Chinese culture to supply their cultural and intellectual deficiencies.
Like contemporary European clerics, Japanese Buddhist monks were
custodians of literary and high culture in a world of warriors. Zen teach-
ings in particular proved congenial to the bushi, and the Zen Buddhist
monks became favored educators, advisors, and companions to the war-
rior elite.
In many ways the warrior's pattern of acquisition of civilian arts
was set by Yoritomo himself. In later periods daimyo, and shoguns like
leyasu, read about Yoritomo, the founder of the first bdkufu, in the pages
of the Azuma kagami (Mirror of the East), a thirteenth-century account of
the Minamoto rise to power and the Kamakura bakufu. They modeled
themselves on those aspects of Yoritomo's life they particularly admired.
Before his exile to a remote peninsula in eastern Japan, Yoritomo had
been reared in the capital. Quite apart from his administrative and mar-
tial skills, one intangible but important asset in winning the adherence of
eastern provincial warriors in his campaigns against the Taira was the
aura of courtly lineage or pedigree (kishu) that surrounded him. Yoritomo
had been brought up in Kyoto and traced his Minamoto ancestry back to
emperor Seiwa. Despite his exile in Izu, his warrior training and family
connections, his determination to base his government in eastern Japan,
and his preference for the title of shogun over high court rank as a basis
for his authority, Yoritomo was always respectful toward the court and
receptive to its culture. He made several visits to the capital, cultivated a
pro-bakufu faction within the court, and invited lower-ranking courtiers
to serve as his political advisers and bureaucrats in Kamakura.
Yoritomo legitimated a warrior interest in poetry and the arts. He
received instruction in the rules of Japanese verse (wakd) and composi-
tion from the monk Jien, who was a member of the noble Fujiwara family
and an accomplished poet and scholar. The Shùgyokushû (Collection of
gathered jewels), compiled by Jien, contains more than thirty waka po-
ems attributed to Yoritomo. Yoritomo's poetic talents and, of course, his
political power were also accorded recognition by the inclusion of two of
his poems in the prestigious anthology Shinkokinshù, commissioned by
imperial order in 1201. Appropriately for a warrior, his verse tended to be
straightforward and descriptive, technically proficient and sometimes
witty, but not marked by deep emotion. This verse, number 975 in the
Shinkokinshù, for example, describes his feelings on seeing Mt. Fuji
during his first triumphal visit to the capital after the destruction of the
Taira:

Michisugara Along the road

Fuji no kemuri mo Smoke from Mt. Fuji
Wakazariki Could not be distinguished
Haruru mamonaki In a sky
Sora no keshiki ni Of unbroken cloud.

11
 Among Yoritomo's generals at least one, Kajiwara Kagetoki (d. 1200),
shared his interest in poetry. Yoritomo's second son, the third Minamoto
shogun, Sanetomo (1190-1219), became so enthusiastic about the study of
poetry and such other courtly pastimes as kickball (kemari) that he was
criticized by warrior leaders in the bakufu, and used as an example not to
be followed, for over-indulgence in frivolous activities. But Sanetomo
was not alone among warriors in his interest in poetry and scholarship.
An entry in the Azuma kagami for 1213 records that
A gathering for the composition of Japanese verse [wdfcd] was held in the bakufu. As
a title Tlum Blossoms, Myriad Springs' was set. The lords of Musashi, Iga, Wada and
others were in attendance. Ladies were also present. After the waka composition
linked verse [renga] was composed.
It is, of course, quite possible that the stimulus for such literary
gatherings came from Sanetomo and that the Hôjô and other powerful
vassals merely humored his passion for poetry. The important point here,
however, is that such gatherings were being held in the residences of
courtier-bureaucrats and warrior chieftains in Kamakura and that all the
participants were expected to be able to compose creditable waka or join
in a renga sequence. It was becoming accepted that warriors, or at least
warrior leaders, should have some command of bun as well as bu. Sane-
tomo was criticized by Oe no Hiromoto, Jien, Hôjô Yasutoki, and lesser
retainers not because he was interested in literary activities, kemari, and
court titles, but because he indulged those passions to the neglect of that
other vital legacy of Yoritomo: attention to the arts of politics and war.
Intermittent warnings from the bakufu, urging warriors to spend
more time on military training and less on courtly arts, seem to have
done little to stifle warrior interest in literary and cultural activities or
court culture. And during the thirteenth century this interest was ex-
tended to Chinese learning and culture as direct communication with
China increased; the Hójó and their vassals began to study Zen with
Chinese and Japanese Zen masters and to acquire Chinese art objects
(karamono). Through the latter part of the Kamakura period many mem-
bers of the bakufu shared an interest in the composition of waka, the
enjoyment of narrative tales (monogatari), diaries and histories, the study
of Confucian ideas of good government and Chinese literary classics,
and the discussion of Zen and other forms of Buddhism.
Whereas in Sanetomo's day the writing of waka and devotion to
scholarship would have seemed an effete distraction to most warriors, by
the close of the thirteenth century it was becoming quite common for
Kamakura warriors to write poetry, and to copy and study Buddhist
sutras and Chinese literary texts. An analysis of the Sonpi bunmyaku, a
comprehensive genealogy compiled early in the fourteenth century, re-
veals that Yasutoki (1183-1242), third of the Hôjô regents, and more than
one-third of the men of the Hôjô family are designated as "poets" (kajin)
or recorded as contributors to the Shinsen wakashù (New collection of
Japanese poetry) and other anthologies. The Azuma kagami and other
documents of the period mention poetry gatherings and tea meetings
(cha yoriai) at the residences of the Hôjô and their retainers. An entry in
the Azuma kagami for 1263 records a poetry gathering attended by seven-
teen bakufu officials at which one thousand verses were composed. Such
gatherings became common and brought together a variety of cultured
participants. One such meeting at the Nikaidô residence late in the
Kamakura period included not only warriors but the Kyoto nobles Fuji-
wara Tamesuke and Tamemori (members of a family of famous poets),
and the Zen monk Musô Soseki (1275-1351). Although these warrior liter-
ary salons were most active in Kamakura, site of the bakufu, literary
enthusiasm was also evident in some provincial warrior families. The

12
Utsunomiya and Katsumata warrior houses, for instance, both developed
strong literary traditions and produced talented waka poets.
Minamoto Yoritomo and other warrior leaders urged their vassals
to promote military arts and martial recreation—skill with a bow, swords-
manship, horsemanship, and hawking—and to be wary of excessive in-
dulgence in courtly accomplishments. The Kamakura warrior legal code,
the Goseibai shikimoku, and instructions by influential bakufu officials
like Hojo Shigetoki, all sought to impress on medieval warriors the need
for a distinctively spartan, rigorous lifestyle appropriate to their calling as
warriors. In a set of instructions left to guide his son, Hojo Shigetoki, the
bakufiïs representative with the court in Kyoto, warned against the
flaunting of literary and cultural abilities. At the same time, it is clear that
he was less wary of the acquisition of cultural accomplishments than of
their foolish display:
[When asked to show your] skill in the polite arts, even if it is something you can do
easily, it is best to say that you cannot because you lack such skill, and to comply only
when they insist. Even then, never allow yourself to be puffed up with success, so
that you come to angle for applause and expressions of personal popularity. You, a
warrior, should [on the contrary] excel in the skillful handling of public affairs, in
possessing sound judgment, and above all in specializing and excelling in the way of
the bow and arrow. What lies beyond these fields is of secondary importance. Never
immerse yourself unduly in the pursuit of polite accomplishments! Yet, when you
are at a party with good friends and they are in the mood for having some relaxed
fun together, you should not refuse too steadfastly [their pleas that you, too, contrib-
ute to the common pleasure by performing], or they will come to dislike you as a
stand-offish person. Remember that you must on every occasion strive to be well
thought of by others (Steenstrup 1979,148).
In addition to the courtly traditions, other influences that were to
shape warrior culture in general, and medieval daimyo culture in particu-
lar, were also evident by the close of the Kamakura period. These were
religious influences derived from Buddhism and Shinto. Whenever me-
dieval Japanese warrior culture, or the Way of the Warrior, is mentioned
an association is usually made with Zen Buddhism. Certainly the associa-
tion between Zen Buddhism and medieval warrior life was very close.
Rinzai and Sôtô Zen teachings were introduced to Japan in the late
twelfth and thirteenth centuries and spread rapidly and widely under the
patronage of warriors in Kamakura and the provinces. Zen monks were
not only instructors in meditation, but they were also bearers of culture
and knowledge from China; and for the warrior elite that kind of knowl-
edge was an enhancement of their power. Several of the Hôjô regents
invited Zen monks to come from China, sponsored the building of Zen
monasteries, practiced meditation, and became lay followers. Their ex-
ample was followed by warrior chieftains throughout the provinces. Zen
monasteries, especially those of the Rinzai tradition, proliferated. Zen
monks and monasteries were not simply channels for the transmission of
Zen meditation or Buddhist texts. Zen monks had associated with Chi-
nese literati and frequently were accomplished ink painters, calligra-
phers, poets, garden designers, and architects. All of these interests were
communicated to and eagerly adopted by their warrior patrons. The
drinking of tea, the designing of dry landscape gardens, the vogue for ink
painting, the study and printing of Confucian texts and Chinese poetry,
the formal shoin style of architecture, the art of flower arrangement—all
to become facets of daimyo culture—were all acquired by warriors
through contact with Zen monks.
But Zen was not the only Buddhist spiritual practice to influence
medieval warriors, or to help shape daimyo culture. Zen was simply one
part of a wider religious transformation gathering force in the thirteenth
century in which popular preachers and reformers were taking old and

13
 newer versions of Buddhism to the provinces and to the common peo-
ple. Like Zen, and at about the same time, Pure Land Buddhism devel-
oped into an independent and enormously popular school: its simple
teaching that faith in Amida (expressed by repetition of the formula
"Praise to Amida Buddha") appealed to warriors as well as farmers. For
warriors, who were constantly faced with the likelihood of sudden death,
the compassionate promise of salvation by a simple expression of devo-
tion to Amida had a profound attraction. Many warriors retained a devo-
tion to such Esoteric Buddhist deities as the fierce Fudó Myóó. Warriors
could, and did, patronize Zen and Pure Land, or Zen and esoteric Bud-
dhism together. In addition, most warrior houses had ancestral founding
deities they worshipped as kami. They set up shrines to ancestral or
protective kami. The syncretic Shinto-Buddhist deity Hachiman, for in-
stance, was venerated by many warriors, especially the Minamoto, ac-
quiring over time the role of a god of war. The most important shrine in
Kamakura, the center of Minamoto power and site of the bakufu, was
dedicated to Hachiman and there were many local shrines in his honor
patronized by warrior families.
In later centuries, the range of daimyo culture widened consider-
ably. Even so, it is fair to suggest that by the close of the Kamakura
period the basic paradigm had been established in terms of a tension
between bu and bun. The ideal warrior was, by the close of the Kama-
kura period, neither the rough, ruthless Saburô nor the courtly Jiro of the
Obusuma Saburô scroll. He was, rather, a composite of these and more.
The ideal type would perhaps be closer to Minamoto Yorimasa as de-
picted in the Tale of the Heike, where Yorimasa urges Prince Mochihito
to raise a revolt against the Taira in 1180. When the revolt is crushed he
takes his own life with all the unflinching bravery expected of a warrior,
after composing a verse that would have done credit to a courtier:

Yorimasa summoned Watanabe Chojitsu Tonau and ordered: Strike off my head.
Tonau could not bring himself to do this while his master was still alive. He wept
bitterly. How can I do that, my lord? he replied. I can do so only after you have
committed suicide. I understand, said Yorimasa. He turned to the West, joined his
palms, and chanted Hail Amida Buddha ten times in a loud voice. Then he com-
posed this poem:
Like a fossil tree
Which has borne not one blossom
Sad has been my life
Sadder still to end my days
Leaving no fruit behind me.
Having spoken these lines, he thrust the point of his sword into his belly, bowed his
face to the ground as the blade pierced him through, and died. No ordinary man
could compose a poem at such a moment. For Yorimasa, however, the writing of
poems had been a constant pleasure since his youth. And so, even at the moment of
death, he did not forget. Tonau took up his master's head and, weeping, fastened it
to a stone. Then evading the enemy, he made his way to the river and sank it in a
deep place (Kitagawa and Tsuchida 1975, vol. i, 271).

Obviously, not all warriors could demonstrate such valor or such

facility in verse. But there were many who by the close of the Kamakura
period aspired to such standards, and others who added to them a grow-
ing familiarity with Zen and other forms of Buddhism and with the arts
and culture of China. This blending of bu and bun in the warrior ideal of
the thirteenth century did not end there. It provided a model for the
samurai elite in later centuries: ruthless in warfare, ready to die for
honor, adept in administration and practical affairs but able and eager, in
times of peace, to enjoy literary and cultural pursuits.

14
Ashikaga In 1333 the Kamakura bakufu was toppled by a coali-
shoguns and tion of imperial princes, warriors, and monk-soldiers
shugo daimyo kd by emperor Go-Daigo. Go-Daigo's attempts to re-
store direct imperial rule quickly alienated Ashikaga
Takauji, his leading warrior supporter, who in 1336
forced Go-Daigo from Kyoto. The emperor with his supporters took
refuge in the Yoshino Hills, south of Kyoto, where they set up the South-
ern Court and maintained the emperor's claim to the throne. Ashikaga
Takauji installed a rival "Northern" emperor in Kyoto, took the title of
shogun, and established a bakufu (shogunate) in the Muromachi district
of Kyoto. Culturally, the return of the bakufu to Kyoto was significant,
for it brought the Ashikaga shoguns, and later the daimyo on whose
support they depended, back into close contact with members of the
imperial court, the great Kyoto temples, and the burgeoning merchant
and artistic communities of the capital.
The early decades of Ashikaga rule were marked by civil war. But
even in the midst of war some daimyo, like Imagawa Ryóshun, found
time for literary pursuits as well as conquest. Ryóshun, born into the
Imagawa daimyo family in about 1326, served the Ashikaga bakufu and in
1371 was appointed governor general of Kyushu, charged with establish-
ing the authority of the bakufu in western Japan. Ryóshun loved waka
and renga and his skill was widely acclaimed. His writings were used as
literary copy books by later generations of young warriors. One of these
copy books begins with the line, "He who does not know the way of bun
can never ultimately gain victory in the way of bu" (Dore 1965,16).
Compared with the earlier Kamakura bakufu, the Muromachi
bakufu did not have a strong political reach. The Ashikaga shoguns ruled
as heads of an unstable warrior coalition of shogun and shugo, or provin-
cial constables. The shugo included some of the earlier Kamakura-period
shugo, members of Ashikaga cadet families or shogunal vassals. The
shoguns treated shugo as vassals and gave them military and administra-
tive responsibility for one or more provinces. The shugo took advantage
of their administrative authority from the bakufu to build up their per-
sonal territorial control and to enfeoff local warriors (kokujin). They en-
joyed the right to collect taxes on cultivated land (tansen) and to levy
taxes on public and private lands to raise troops (hanzei). They were
charged with keeping the peace, apprehending criminals, and settling
local disputes. They also sequestered the private holdings of absentee
proprietors, and divided spoils after war. As they added to their spheres
of influence, increased their fief lands, and added local warriors to their
vassal bands, they became territorial magnates on a grand scale; they
have been given the name shugo daimyo, or constable daimyo, by mod-
ern historians. Some, like the Yamana and Hosokawa, came to exert
nominal authority over half a dozen provinces. At the same time that the
shugo controlled the provinces, they also held offices in the shogunal
government. This simultaneously increased their influence, divided their
attention, and brought them out of the provinces to live in Kyoto. Three
influential shugo daimyo, the Shiba, Hatakeyama, and Hosokawa, held
the powerful bakufu office of Kanrei, or shogunal deputy.
Strong shoguns like Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third shogun, and
Yoshinori, the autocratic sixth shogun, were able to impose their author-
ity on the shogun -shugo coalition by mobilizing alliances to crush unruly
members, taking hostages, requiring shugo to live in Kyoto, and com-
manding expensive gifts and favors. The assassination of Yoshinori by a
resentful shugo in 1441 and the protracted civil war (Onin War) of 1467-
1477 seriously weakened shogunal finances and military power. The sho-
gunate was reduced to bare control over Kyoto and the few nearby
provinces. In the Onin War shugo daimyo banded together in rival mili-

15
 tary confederations led by Yamana Sozen and Hosokawa Katsumoto.
They laid waste to much of Kyoto and carried sporadic warfare into the
provinces. Many shugo daimyo now found themselves in a very vulnera-
ble position. Their large domains often exceeded the extent of their
enforceable authority, and from the beginning of the Onin War their
control was further diminished by frequent absences to fight in the field
or play politics in Kyoto. Their deputies and other local warriors carved
up the great shugo daimyo territories, building smaller but more tightly
knit domains. In what has been called a process of "inferiors toppling
superiors," gekokujd, these smaller warrior chieftains overthrew many
shugo and claimed territorial control and daimyo status for themselves.
These "upstarts" are known as the daimyo of the Age of Wars, the
sengoku daimyo.

The cultural Leading shugo daimyo of the fourteenth and fifteenth

interests of centuries embodied a fusion of military and civilian
the shugo interests and ideals. They were in effect, a new war-
r or ar s
daimvo * i tocracy modeled in part on the old courtly
aristocracy and formed in part under its tutelage. The
shugo daimyo included the Hosokawa_, Kyôgqku, Is-
shiki, Uesugi, Takeda, Toki, Shiba, Hatakeyama, Yamana, Ouchi, Otomo,
and Shimazu families. In an uncertain age much of their energy was
inevitably given to preparation for warfare and the honing of martial
skills. The general instability meant that daimyo, to survive, had to keep
their swords sharp and their armor and horses in constant readiness.
They had to maintain a tight rein on their vassals and look to their
alliances and their defenses. Those daimyo who neglected these basic
requirements of survival, or who preferred cultured life in Kyoto to the
management of their domains, put their domains at risk and were easily
overthrown.
On the other hand, daimyo were not constantly at war. The
decision by Ashikaga Takauji to establish his bakufu in Kyoto close tQ the
imperial court focused daimyo as well as shogunal interest on the court
and the capital. The stronger Ashikaga shoguns required their shugo to
maintain residences in Kyoto and to provide hostages and gifts.
Yoshimitsu, the third Ashikaga shogun (1358-1408), set an example of
cultural style and largesse. He exchanged envoys with the Ming Chinese
court, representing himself to the court as King of Japan, or Nihon
kokuô; consorted with emperors, sponsored lavish poetry gatherings,
founded Zen monasteries, and built himself a magnificent retreat, the
Golden Pavilion, in the northern hills of Kyoto. Cultural activities there
and in the city itself brought shugo daimyo into contact with courtiers
and with influential and highly cultivated Zen monks. Through mixing
with shoguns, courtiers, monks, actors, and men of culture in Kyoto,
many shugo daimyo were introduced to ink painting, the newly emerging
No drama, Zen-inspired trends in domestic architecture and garden de-
sign, interior decoration and flower arrangement, waka (Japanese poems)
and renga (linked verse) poetry, tea drinking, and the elaborate etiquette
of the Ogasawara school, which trained warriors in the kinds of comport-
ment needed in their social interaction with nobles, prelates, and
shoguns.
Among educated warriors there was a passion for renga. Daimyo
throughout the provinces were eager to keep abreast of the latest poetic
styles in vogue in the capital. They sought the guidance of acknowledged
masters. The courtier and poet Nijô Yoshimoto (1320-1388), for instance,
who advised the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in matters of poetic com-
position, wrote a treatise on renga in 1376, the Kyùshû mondó (Dialogues

16
with the governor of Kyushu) for Imagawa Ryôshun, the tandai of
Kyushu and a noted poet himself. In 1383 Yoshimoto presented another
treatise on renga, Jùmon saihi shó (Ten questions: A most secret selection)
to the daimyo poet Ouchi Yoshihiro. Yoshimoto's famous anthology of
renga, the Tsukubashù (1356) contained sequences by shoguns and dai-
myo as well as courtiers. Among the daimyo represented was Sasaki
Dôyo (1306-1373), a high-ranking military adviser to the Ashikaga shogun-
ate, and an enthusiastic amateur poet. Renga was the preferred poetry of
the Muromachi period, intricate in its form, intensely social in its setting.
To compose renga a gathering of poets was necessary, each contributing
verses in sequence, each carefully maintaining the overall mood of the
sequence at the same time that he responded to the subtle nuance of the
immediately preceding verse. It was an activity that required social as
well as poetic finesse. The daimyo's passion for renga indicates the value
that these ruthless warriors set in both kinds of skill.
Although the Onin War was destructive, and many daimyo and
their warriors were killed, some provincial daimyo benefitted culturally
as monks and nobles fled the burning capital and took refuge in the
provinces. The court noble Ichijô Norifusa quit the capital and moved to
his landholdings in Tosa where he lived as a daimyo. Renga poets were in
demand in the provinces. The renga poet lio Sôgi (1421-1502), a_sometime
Zen priest who had studied at Shôkokuji in Kyoto, spent the Onin years
wandering from village to village and castle to castle composing linked
verse sequences. During his lifetime Sôgi made many long journeys. He
traveled seven times to the province of Echigo as a guest of the daimyo
Uesugi Funasada. He went twice to Yamaguchi and compiled a major
anthology of renga, the Shinsen Tsukubashù, under the sponsorship of
Ouchi Masahiro. This collection had many contributions by daimyo and
commoners. Sôchô (1448-1532), a Shingon Buddhist priest and renga
poet, traveled the provinces during the Onin War, perhaps as an intelli-
gence agent and certainly as a negotiator for his patrons Imagawa Yoshi-
tada and his son Ujichika. Socho's diaries contain many references to
military fortifications and strategy. In 1517 he helped Ujichika negotiate
for peace when his fortress was surrounded. He participated in renga
sequences with Sôgi and Shóhaku, as well as with numerous daimyo.
The Zen monk and poet Shôtetsu (1381-1459) is said to have maintained
literary contacts with more than a score of daimyo between 1394 and
1455. All of these renga masters lived well, frequently on the generous
stipends and gifts they received from provincial warrior lords.
Provincial military lords were also acquiring a taste for the devel-
oping dramatic art of No and Kyôgen. Kan'ami (1333-1384), and his son
Zeami (c. 1364-^ 1143), synthesized, standardized, and elevated a number
of ancient dancing and mimetic forms such as sarugaku and dengaku to
create the masked dance dramas that we know as No. Zeami and his
successors who headed the Kanze school of No were patronized by the
Ashikaga shoguns. Kyôgen, literally "wild words," developed alongside
No as an earthier, more active, humorous dramatic form, rooted not in
some spiritual otherworld but firmly in the present. In sometimes farcical
or ironical terms Kyôgen mocked contemporary conventions, including
the authority of daimyo who appeared in some Kyôgen pieces. Both No
and Kyôgen were further developed and formalized in later centuries.
Their association with daimyo culture, however, was firmly established
in the medieval period. From the shogunal court the enthusiasm for No
spread into warrior society. Daimyo, too, became eager spectators and
patrons of the numerous No troupes. Moreover, the Ashikaga shoguns
frequently visited daimyo, either in their residences in Kyoto or in their
domains. When they did so they demanded to be entertained by actors
and poets in the proper setting and with the right costumes. This im-

17
 posed upon daimyo a virtual obligation to provide the best possible renga
parties and No and Kyógen performances if they were to stay in favor—
culture was very much an instrument of politics.
Many daimyo patronized Zen monks, practiced meditation, im-
ported Chinese objects (karamono) and cultivated the arts associated
with Zen. Back in their castle towns they built Zen temples, designed
gardens, invited Zen monks and men of culture from the capital, and
practiced the monastic, courtly, and literary arts to which they had been
introduced in Kyoto. These years saw a proliferation of Rinzai and Sotó
Zen monasteries throughout the provinces. The monks Muso Soseki
(1275-1351), Gidó Shüshin (1325-1388), and the eccentric Ikkyü Sôjun
(1394-1481) were particularly influential in fourteenth- and fifteenth-
century warrior society. Zen monks were constantly moving through the
provinces. The Zen monk Keian Genju (1427-1508), for instance, who
had studied in Ming China between 1467 and 1473, traveled westward
from patron to patron, teaching Zen meditation and Confucianism to
the Kikuchi, Shimazu, and other daimyo families in Kyushu. Genju
revered Confucius and urged the Kikuchi to build a Confucian hall and
revive the Confucian ceremony known as sekiten in the sage's honor. As
a result of such activity by Zen monks Confucian moral and ethical
teachings became increasingly prominent in the house codes of
sixteenth-century daimyo. In the seventeen-article injunction of the dai-
myo Asakura Toshikage (1428-1481), we find the influence of the Confu-
cian Analects blended with that of Buddhism in the training of warriors:

A famous monk once said that a master of men must be like the two Buddhist deities
Fudó and Aizen. Although Fudô carries a sword, and Aizen carries a bow and
arrows, these weapons are not intended for slashing and shooting, but for the
purpose of subjugating devils. In their hearts they are compassionate and circum-
spect. Like them, a master of samurai must first rectify his own way, and then
reward his loyal subjects and soldiers and eliminate those who are disloyal and
treacherous. If you can discern between reason and unreason and between good and
evil and act accordingly, your system of rewards and punishments can be considered
as compassionately administered. On the other hand, if your heart is prejudiced, no
matter how much you know the words of the sages and study the texts they all come
to naught. You may observe that the Analects [1.8] contains a passage saying that a
gentleman who lacks steadfastness cannot command respect. Do not consider that
the term steadfastness represents only heavy-handedness. It is essential that you
conduct yourself in such a way that both heavy-handedness and leniency can be
applied flexibly as the occasion demands (Lu 1974, vol. i, 173).

One interest the medieval daimyo acquired from Zen monks was
the custom of drinking tea. Like the practice of Zen meditation, the use
of tea had been introduced to Japan in the eighth or ninth century.
Neither had taken deep hold, however. From the late twelfth century tea
drinking was reintroduced as one facet of Zen monastic life. Tea was
used in monasteries as a medicament and stimulant to help keep monks
awake during long sessions of meditation. It was also served ceremoni-
ously to important visitors to the monastery. In this new tea style boiling
water was poured over powdered green tea (matcha) in an open bowl, and
a bamboo whisk used to whip the mixture.
Courtiers and warriors were quickly introduced to the custom
through their contacts with Zen monks. Among the first daimyo to
devote himself to tea was Sasaki Dôyo. Dôyo helped Ashikaga Takauji in
establishing the Muromachi bakufu and served as an advisor to the sec-
ond shogun Yoshiakira. A poet and patron of No, he loved tea competi-
tions, or tocha, and displayed the finest Chinese utensils and the taste for
lavish gatherings that was known in the early Muromachi period as ba-
sara, or flamboyance. Tea-drinking gatherings quickly became social oc-
casions at which shoguns, monks, and warriors mingled to recite poetry,

18
compete in the identification of rare incense or tea, appreciate fine
imported Chinese utensils and paintings, and enjoy refreshments and
conversation. Tea gatherings were gradually taken out of the monastic
setting and held in specially built large chambers (kaisho) of shogunal and
daimyo residences. In order to display prized imported Chinese objects
in a properly reverent manner, these kaisho gradually assumed features
that we now think of as characteristic of traditional Japanese domestic
architecture: staggered shelves (chigai-dana), the single alcove (io-
konoma), and fitted desk (tsukeshoin), all probably derived from the Zen
monastic style of shoin architecture. Thus the drinking of tea began to
give rise to a kind of aesthetic revolution that was to reshape almost
every area of Japanese cultural life and to transform daimyo taste, as well
as that of shoguns, courtiers, townsmen, and villagers.

The Typical of the medieval shugo daimyo were the medi-

Ouchi and eval Ouchi and Hosokawa families. The Ouchi, as
Hosokawa as leading vassals of the Ashikaga shoguns, steadily ex-
medieval tended control over Suó, Nagato and neighboring
provinces along the Inland Sea and into northern
daimyo.
Kyushu. Vassals of the Kamakura bakufu in the thir-
teenth century, they grew in influence during the
fourteenth _and fifteenth centuries under a succession of able daimyo
including Ouchi Yoshihiro (1356-1399), Morimi (1377-1431), Masahiro
(1446-1495), Yoshioki (1477-1528), and Yoshitaka (1507-1551). Ouchi Yoshi-
hiro became shugo of the six provinces of Nagato, Iwami, Bingo, Chiku-
zen, and Buzen in western Honshu and northern Kyushu. Ouchi Morimi
earned a reputation as a powerful warrior but also as a poet and student
of Zen Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism. He patronized Shinto and
rebuilt the Usa_ Hachimangü, a shrine. Politically astute and militarily
powerful, the Ouchi made considerable profits from trade with China
and Korea and imported cultural objects including ceramics, tea utensils,
Confucian texts, and a Korean edition of the Buddhist canon. The
Ouchi made Yamaguchi into a miniature Kyoto. They patronized Zen
monks and artists, including the painter Sesshü (1420-1506), who stayed
in Yamaguchi on his journey to and from China. The renga poets Sôgi
and Sogin also stayed in Yamaguchi, and the monk Keian Genju and
scholar Minamimura Baiken came from Yamaguchi. The Ouchi issued a
house code dealing with domain administration, a handbook for the
proper entertainment of visiting courtiers and daimyo, and printed the
Confucian Analects and other texts. The Ouchi survived well into the
sixteenth century as daimyo of the Age of Wars but they were eventually
overthrown by the Môri, a neighboring daimyo house. The Mori were
patrons of the Hagi pottery kilns. On the whole, however, they were less
given to cultural interests than the Ouchi and some historians have
suggested that their victory over the Ouchi was due not only to better
military organization but also to less distraction in cultural pursuits.
The medieval Hosokawa, a branch of the Ashikaga family, traced
their ancestry through the Minamoto leader Yoshiie to emperor Seiwa.
They took their name from an ancestral village called Hosokawa in east-
ern Japan. When Ashikaga Takauji rose to power in the 1330$ he was
aided by Hosokawa Yoriharu (1299-1352). For his services to Takauji, Yori-
haru was granted the title of shugo of the provinces of Awa and Bingo.
Yoriyuki (1329-1392), his successor as daimyo, extended Hosokawa control
over much of central Honshu and Shikoku. In 1367 he was granted the
title of Kanrei, or shogunal deputy, and served as advisor for the young
shogun Yoshimitsu. The Hosokawa were well on their way to achieving
the prominence of daimyo.

19
 The medieval Hosokawa reached their peak of political power
under Hosokawa Masamoto (1466-1507) who as Kanrei treated the elev-
enth Ashikaga shogun as a nonentity and virtually ruled the country on
his own. Like their rivals the Ouchi, the Hosokawa were active in trade
with China and Korea and sponsored merchants from the port of Sakai.
Like many other shugo daimyo the Hosokawa were also patrons and
practitioners of the arts. Yoriharu and Yoriyuki were both regarded as
fine poets and had their verses included in a number of court antholo-
gies. Yoriyuki studied Zen with one of the most influential Rinzai monks
of the fourteenth century, Muso _Soseki. Hosokawa Katsumoto, who led
one of the warrior leagues in the Onin War, frequently held renga and tea
gatherings. He too was an enthusiastic patron of Zen and established the
Ryôanji, a Zen temple in Kyoto, with its magnificent dry landscape
garden. Hosokawa Shigeyuki, shugo of Awa, had multifaceted cultural
interests. In addition to renga and waka he was proficient in painting and
kickball (kemari), and a patron of No. Divided by a bitter succession
dispute after Katsumoto's death, the main branch of the medieval Hoso-
kawa daimyo family declined after the Onin War. The family fortunes
were revived in the sixteenth century by Hosokawa Yüsai (Fujitaka, 1534-
1610) and Sansai (Tadaoki, 1563-1646), members of a branch family. Yüsai
and Sansai were among the survivors in the cut and thrust of the military
campaigns of the sixteenth century. They were also among the most
cultured of the daimyo who showed an interest in the way of bun. We
will look at them in a little more detail when we come to consider some
of their peers as daimyo in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries. Other daimyo who practiced the twofold path of literary and
martial arts in this period were the Hatakeyama, Asakura, Takeda,
Uesugi, and Hôjô. Hôjô Ujiyasu, for instance, was a vigorous patron of
scholarship who supported the Ashikaga school for samurai, the nearest
medieval Japan came to having a university. According to Francisco
Xavier it was the largest school in Japan in the sixteenth century, with
more than three thousand students.

The daimyo Sporadic provincial warfare in the late fifteenth and

in an age of early sixteenth centuries gave way after 1560 to large-
war and scale campaigns by Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hide-
unification yoshi, and Tokugawa leyasu. All aimed at reunifying
the country. The escalating pace and scale of warfare
brought greater unpredictability and change to dai-
myo. The process of unification demanded the reduction of daimyo
autonomy. A weakening of the domain or a mistake in choosing an ally
could lead to destruction in a single battle. A few families, including the
Shimazu of Satsuma, survived all the warfare and continued as daimyo
until the nineteenth century. Most of the medieval shugo daimyo, how-
ever, were overthrown. In some cases the smaller daimyo houses with
more closely controlled domains who replaced them in the late fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries were able to consolidate their positions and ally
themselves with one of the unifiers to survive and flourish in the late
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In many cases, however, those
daimyo who toppled shugo were crushed in their turn when they stood in
the way of unification. In many parts of the country three or four daimyo
families achieved local hegemony and lost it again in the course of the
sixteenth century. This period of intense social upheaval is known as the
age ofgekokujô, "inferiors toppling superiors/'
Underlying these almost bewildering surface phenomena ofgeko-
kujô were significant changes in the institutional character of daimyo. In
the crucible of warfare and unification new types of daimyo were being

20
forged. Over a century or so, from 1550 to 1650, the daimyo of the Age of
Wars, sengoku daimyo, became the daimyo of the age of unification
under Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Shokuhô daimyo) and
then the daimyo of the early modern era (kinsei daimyo). Before turning
to consider daimyo culture from the sixteenth century, let us look briefly
at some of the political and institutional changes that were taking place
in the character of the daimyo as Japan was brought back under central-
ized feudal control.
In the early sixteenth century more than 250 sengoku daimyo
domains existed in Japan, several to a single province. The political map
was constantly changing as these feudal lords enlarged their territories or
were swallowed up by their neighbors. Most of these sengoku daimyo
domains were created when one or more local warrior bands overthrew
the regional shugo. Their domains were not only smaller than those of
the shugo, but more tightly consolidated and rigidly controlled. Territory
had been acquired in battle and the area of territorial control generally
coincided with the daimyo's claim of political authority. The gap be-
tween legal and actual control was being reduced and it was becoming
impossible to lay claim to local authority unsupported by military power.
In the process the feudal lines of authority downward from the daimyo to
his vassals and the peasantry were tightened. Sengoku daimyo were inde-
pendent of central authority and had little respect for the Muromachi
shogunate and little contact with Kyoto. They thought of their territories
as "states" (kokka) and of themselves as the public authority (kôgï). Many
of them issued codes of regulations for their domains. Some, borrowing
an imperial prerogative, used their own private era names. Their princi-
pal justification for rule was that they brought law and order to their
domains. They rejected external sources of authority and absentee pro-
prietary rights in land, further impoverishing the bakufu as well as the
imperial court and the nobles.
The sengoku daimyo devoted himself to the total mobilization of
the domain for attack and defense. For most daimyo this meant fortify-
ing garrisons and castles, strengthening armies by forcing local warrior
families to accept vassalage and provide military service, moving vassals
from place to place to weaken local ties that might conflict with the
obedience of vassal to overlord, and taking hostages. To draw on the full
agrarian and commercial resources of the domain, daimyo dammed riv-
ers, built irrigation channels, surveyed land, established uniform weights
and measures, licensed merchants, set village quotas for taxes and mili-
tary services, and made villages responsible for self-administration. Land
was held either as direct domain or granted as fiefs to vassals in return for
service. Sengoku daimyo built castles and castle towns from which to
control their vassals and the villages that made up their landed base.
For these sengoku daimyo martial concerns were uppermost.
Many of them issued house codes or domain laws to remind themselves
and their successors of how to survive in an age of war. These codes
stressed constant readiness, the cultivation of a martial spirit, and atten-
tion to arms. Asakura Takakage (1428-1481) became shugo of Echizen in
1471. Like many other sengoku daimyo he devoted considerable attention
to the government of his domain and drafted a code of injunctions for
his son Ujikage to observe. In the seventeen articles of the code he
stressed centralized control by the daimyo, constant preparedness for
war, promotion of warriors on the basis of merit, frugality, impartial
enforcement of laws, an emphasis on rationality, and the encouragement
of indigenous domain culture:

Do not give a command post or an administrative position to anyone who lacks

ability, even if his family has served the Asakura family for generations

21
 Do not excessively covet swords and daggers made by famous masters. Even if you
own a sword or dagger worth 10,000 pieces [hiki] it can be overcome by 100 spears
each worth one hundred pieces. Therefore use the 10,000 pieces to procure 100
spears, and arm 100 men with them. You can in this manner defend yourself in time
of war....
Refrain from frequently bringing from Kyoto actors of the four schools of No for
performances. Instead use the money needed for that purpose to select talented
local actors of sarugaku, and train them in the basic elements of No for the perpetual
enjoyment of this province . . . (Lu 1974, vol. i, 172).
These careful injunctions helped preserve the Asakura family for nearly
a century. However, in 1573 they threw their weight against Oda No-
bunaga, were defeated, and destroyed. Yoshikage, the last of the Asakura
daimyo, committed suicide.
By the mid-sixteenth century political decentralization and war-
fare had reached an extreme. Among the sengoku daimyo were some
who dreamed of marching on Kyoto and reuniting the country. The
daimyo who actually started the process of reunification was Oda No-
bunaga, a young daimyo from a small domain on the Pacific coast of
Japan. In 1560 Nobunaga overcame the vastly superior forces of Imagawa
Yoshimoto, the shugo of the three provinces of Suruga, Tótómi, and
Mikawa, at the Battle of Okehazama and captured Yoshimoto. On the
pretext of restoring the Ashikaga Yoshiaki to the shogunate, Nobunaga
moved on Kyoto in 1568. By 1573 he had discarded Yoshiaki and claimed
for himself control over the realm, the tenka, literally "all under heaven."
To confirm his authority to rule the realm Nobunaga made alliances with
some daimyo and crushed others who stood in his way. At the Battle of
Nagashino in 1575, Nobunaga, in alliance with Tokugawa leyasu, another
powerful daimyo from eastern Japan, defeated the forces of Takeda Ka-
tsuyori. Nobunaga's victory owed much to his readiness to adapt new
technology to warfare. The major reason for his victory at Nagashino was
his skillful use of the recently-imported muskets (teppd). Nobunaga orga-
nized his three thousand musketeers in three ranks, with one rank firing
while the others reloaded. This allowed him to deliver a volley every ten
seconds, devastating the mounted warriors of the Takeda. While he was
bringing daimyo of central Japan to heel, Nobunaga also engaged in
bitter campaigns against militant Buddhist groups, especially the monas-
tic armies of Enryakuji on Mount Hiei, which he razed in 1571, and the
supporters of the True Pure Land school of Buddhism organized around
the Honganji who controlled the provinces of Echizen and Kaga and
were as powerful as many daimyo.
Perhaps to spite Buddhist clerics, Nobunaga showed favor to the
Christian missionaries who were beginning to make converts among the
daimyo and commoners of western Japan. Luis Frois, a Jesuit missionary,
was frequently entertained by Nobunaga and has left this vivid portrait
of the ruthless daimyo who rose to be master of the realm of Japan. Frois,
like other European visitors to Japan in the sixteenth century, referred to
the various daimyo as kings or princes:
This king of Owari would be about thirty-seven years old, tall, thin, sparsely bearded,
extremely warlike and much given to military exercises, inclined to works of justice
and mercy, sensitive about his honor, reticent about his plans, an expert in military
strategy, unwilling to receive advice from subordinates, highly esteemed and vener-
ated by everyone, does not drink wine and rarely offers it to others, brusque in his
manner, despises all the other Japanese kings and princes and speaks to them over
his shoulder in a loud voice as if they were lowly servants, obeyed by all as the
absolute lord, has good understanding and good judgment. He despises the kami and
hotoke [Buddhas] and all other pagan superstitions. Nominally belonging to the
Hokke [Lotus] sect, he openly denies the existence of a creator of the universe, the
immortality of the soul, and life after death. He is upright and prudent in all his
dealings and intensely dislikes any delays or long speeches. Not even a prince may
appear before him with a sword. He is always accompanied by at least two thousand

22
 men on horseback, yet converses quite familiarly with the lowest and most miserable
servant. His father was merely the lord of Owari, but by his immense energy over
the past four years Nobunaga has seized control of seventeen to eighteen provinces,
including the eight principal provinces of Gokinai [the region around the capital]
and its neighbor fiefs, overcoming them in a very short time (Cooper 1965, 93).

Before Nobunaga could consolidate his conquest of the realm he

was assassinated in the summer of 1582 by a disgruntled vassal, the dai-
myo Akechi Mitsuhide ^.1582). Mitsuhide was promptly hunted
down by another of Nobunaga's generals, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Like
many self-made daimyo of the medieval period, Hideyoshi began life in
lowly circumstances as the son of a peasant farmer in Owari. Taking
service under Oda Nobunaga, he quickly won Nobunaga's respect as a
precocious strategist and rose to become one of his favored lieutenants.
In 1578, for example, Nobunaga granted Hideyoshi the rare privilege of
holding formal tea ceremonies.
After seizing the succession, Hideyoshi continued to extend No-
bunaga's conquests. At his death Nobunaga had conquered one-third of
the country, twenty-nine of sixty-six provinces. But since this area in-
cluded the major cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Sakai, it would be more
accurate to say that he controlled practically half the country, including
its heartland. Hideyoshi proceeded to capture the western provinces of
Japan and by 1587 had forced the Chosokabe daimyo family of Shikoku
and the Shimazu of Kyushu to yield to his vastly superior forces. Accord-
ing to one record Hideyoshi enlisted seventy-seven daimyo to lead a total
of 250,000 samurai in the Kyushu campaign (Berry 1982, 89). Having
subdued Kyushu, Hideyoshi announced a plan to invade the Korean
peninsula, and turned to the conquest of eastern Japan. In 1590 Hide-
yoshi turned east, subdued the Hôjô of Odawara, and confiscated their
domain. He then arranged a truce with the Date and other northern
daimyo. As a reward for his help in the campaign against the Hôjô,
Hideyoshi awarded Tokugawa leyasu, potentially his most dangerous
opponent, lands yielding 2,500,000 koku of rice (a koku equals about five
bushels) and ordered him to move his base farther east to Edo. All of
Japan now belonged to Hideyoshi or to his sworn vassals.
With Japan now wholly pacified, Hideyoshi returned to his
dreams of foreign conquest and imperial grandeur. In 1592 he declared
war on China and launched an invading army into the Korean peninsula.
Again the daimyo, especially the western daimyo, were ordered to raise
huge troop levies. Thirty-two daimyo led more than 150,000 samurai in
the main force. Under other daimyo 100,000 samurai brought up the
reserves, and they were supported by a navy of 9,000 sailors raised by
four daimyo. By the summer of 1593 it was clear that the invasion was
failing and Hideyoshi was forced to find some way to extricate his armies
without loss of face. In 1597, angered by the Chinese emperor's rejection
of his peace terms, Hideyoshi launched a second invasion but with no
greater success. The ill-fated and bloody campaigns cost thousands of
Korean, Chinese, and Japanese lives and helped poison future relations
between Japanese and Koreans. Out of the misery, however, came one
cultural benefit for the Japanese. Daimyo fighting in Korea captured
many Korean craftspeople and shipped them back to Japan. Among
them were groups of Korean potters who built kilns in northern and
southern Kyushu and raised the aesthetic and technical level of Japanese
pottery.
While Hideyoshi was extending his military control he was also
pushing through a social transformation that affected the daimyo and
every other group in Japanese society. Enlarging on the example set by
Nobunaga and some of the sengoku daimyo, Hideyoshi (beginning in
1584) ordered his officers to conduct land surveys of the provinces using

23
 standardized measures, so that the ruler, as well as the daimyo, would
know the resources of the domains and the country. Land was assessed
for tax purposes on the basis of its estimated annual yield measured in
koku. This practice provided a basic module for grasping the worth of
land, amounts due in taxation or levies, military obligations, and the
stipends of daimyo and their samurai. Daimyo would in future be ranked
in terms of the total anticipated yield (kokudakd) of the territory they
held. Assignments of domain were made not in terms of specific villages
or pieces of territory but in units of 10,000 koku, drawn from however
many villages in the locality it took to provide that income. This made it
easy for Hideyoshi to regulate daimyo income or move daimyo and pro-
vide them with an appropriate koku income elsewhere. After Hideyoshi's
land surveys it was calculated that the total kokudakd for the country was
approximately 18,000,000 koku. Hideyoshi and some 200 daimyo drew
upon this tax base, with a small share going to the imperial court and
Buddhist temples. Of this total kokudaka, Hideyoshi claimed 2,000,000
koku, 36 daimyo held domains assessed at 100,000 koku or more, and 68
daimyo were assessed at the minimum for a daimyo of 10,000 koku. The
largest assessments among Hideyoshi's vassal daimyo included Tokugawa
leyasu at 2,400,000 koku, Mori Terumoto 1,205,000, Uesugi Kagekatsu
1,200,000, Maeda Toshiie 835,000, Date Masamune 589,000, and Ukita
Hideie 574,000 koku. Hideyoshi also transformed society by disarming
villagers and forcing samurai, who until then had lived in the villages, to
choose between staying in the villages as farmers or keeping their swords
and their hereditary profession of arms but moving into garrison towns
as stipended vassals. Daimyo were ordered to collect swords, bows,
spears, muskets, and other weapons from farmers and deliver them to
Hideyoshi. The enforcement of this policy went a long way toward the
implementation of the four-part status hierarchy of samurai, farmers,
artisans, and merchants that was to characterize Japanese society in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Even before the last of his daimyo and their armies had returned
from Korea to Japan, Hideyoshi was dying. In a final desperate attempt
to establish a warrior dynasty he set up a council of five powerful daimyo
to serve as regents for his five-year-old son Hideyori. In spite of their
oaths of loyalty to Hideyoshi, they, and other daimyo throughout the
country, immediately began to intrigue and vie for supremacy. Daimyo
were again forced into fateful choices. While one faction continued to
support the Toyotomi cause, others clustered around the patient and
powerful eastern daimyo Tokugawa leyasu. The issue was decided on the
Plain of Sekigahara in 1600 when supporters of the Toyotomi were
routed in a great battle involving 160,000 samurai. Three years later
Tokugawa leyasu received the title of Seiitaishôgun and consolidated his
bakufu, and in 1614-1615 destroyed the remnant of the Toyotomi faction
after the siege of Osaka Castle. After centuries of instability, war, and
conquest, Japan settled into two centuries of peace, the Pax Tokugawa,
under the carefully balanced system of shogunal and daimyo rule known
as the baku-han system.
The century of transition from civil war through conquest and
national reunification to peace wrought significant institutional changes
in the character of the Japanese daimyo. This unification did not in any
sense involve the eradication of the daimyo. Although individual daimyo
houses were eliminated, the daimyo as a whole survived the process of
political reunification and were entrenched by it. It was the daimyo Oda
Nobunaga and Tokugawa leyasu who started and finished the sixteenth-
century unification. All three unifiers relied on daimyo allies to marshall
military forces, lead campaigns, and rule the provinces. Each of the
unifiers, to one degree or another, shared power with daimyo in what-

24
ever political settlement they achieved. In this sense, the process of
national unification in the sixteenth century ultimately remained incom-
plete. Two and a half centuries later, in the upheaval of the Meiji trans-
formation, the daimyo were more harshly treated. They, too, were swept
aside along with the shogunate they had sustained.
During the sixteenth century, while many older daimyo families
were crushed, other daimyo were successful in building large and power-
ful domains as the scale of warfare and the opportunities for receipt of
huge spoils and generous patronage increased. Responding to military
necessity and the examples of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, they consoli-
dated their domains by centralizing their military organizations, control-
ling satellite castles, converting their samurai from landed vassals living
on their own small fiefs to stipended officials attached to the lord's
garrison, surveying land, disarming of the peasantry, and maximizing tax
yield. Many daimyo maintained grandiose castles and mobilized thou-
sands of samurai.
At the same time the independence of the daimyo was being
steadily circumscribed as decentralized political authority was recentra-
lized under three increasingly powerful hegemons. While daimyo were
asserting their authority over their own domains they now had to seek
their legitimacy from higher authority. They could only feel secure if
they had been confirmed in their territories by Nobunaga or Hideyoshi.
Moreover, heirs in their turn had to secure confirmation to the headship
of the domain. Nobunaga and Hideyoshi exerted increasingly tighter
control over daimyo, crushing some, and by such shows of power intimi-
dating others into vassalage or alliances. After 1590 all the daimyo of
Japan acknowledged Hideyoshi as their overlord. Vassal daimyo who re-
sisted stood to lose all or part of their domains. The hegemons sought to
regulate adoptions, marriage ties, and other alliances among daimyo.
Item [i]: In marriage relationships, the daimyo should obtain the approval of the
ruler [Hideyoshi] before settling the matter
Item [2]: Greater and lesser lords [daimyo and shdmyo] are strictly prohibited from
entering deliberately into contracts [with each other] and from signing oaths and the
like
(Berry 1982,144).
The hegemons moved daimyo from one domain to another, either as
punishment or to prevent the formation of local daimyo alliances and the
tendency for lands held in grant to become hereditary property. And
they constantly drew on them for military service, castle building, guard
duty, and for gifts, hostages, concubines, wives, and entertainment.

Daimyo During the wars of the late fifteenth and early six-
culture in the teenth centuries, as we have seen, men of culture had
sixteenth abandoned the devastated capital region for refuge in
century: the the provinces and the focus of daimyo culture had
been the residences of those provincial daimyo whose
castle in war
cultural enthusiasm made them hospitable to such
and peace refugees. From the mid-sixteenth century, as No-
bunaga and Hideyoshi secured control over the coun-
try, the Kyoto region (Kyoto, Sakai, and Osaka) again became the center
of cultural leadership. This epoch is frequently known as the Azuchi-
Momoyama era after Nobunaga's great castle at Azuchi and Hideyoshi's
citadel at Momoyama. These towering castles were symbols of the power
and ambition not only of the unifiers but of the daimyo who followed
them in warfare and cultural style. Daimyo took their cue from No-
bunaga and Hideyoshi who reveled in ostentatious self-glorification to
exalt and legitimize their newly won political and military supremacy.

25
 Moreover, the unifiers exploited the gold and silver mines of Japan and
drew on the profits of foreign trade as well as the spoils of military
conquest. Thus a second characteristic of Momoyama-period daimyo
cultural style was its lavish and gilded grandiosity. The massive walls, vast
audience chambers, and soaring donjons of great castles became one of
the central cultural symbols of the age. Third, as Nobunaga, Hideyoshi,
and the daimyo contributed, through their patronage of tea masters like
Sen no Rikyü, to the articulation of an aesthetic of cultivated restraint,
quasi-rusticity, and assumed poverty, wabi, the small, rustic-style tea
room became another powerful cultural symbol. Fourth, daimyo culture
in the late sixteenth century was open to the influence of Europe as
many daimyo accepted Christianity or tolerated its acceptance by their
vassals and villagers. At the same time, the sixteenth-century daimyo
were the inheritors and promoters of medieval culture in that they con-
tinued to patronize No and Kyôgen, and to study waka and renga. In all
of these aspects daimyo, like the unifiers, treated culture not merely as a
personal vocation but as an expression and legitimation of their political
and military power. Daimyo recognized that the complete ruler's cultural
superiority was as important as military or political hegemony; that it was
in fact an expression of that hegemony.
In 1576, a year after his victories over the Takeda in the Battle of
Nagashino and the ikkô followers in Echizen and Kaga, Nobunaga set in
motion the building of a magnificent new seven-story castle at Azuchi,
overlooking Lake Biwa. Unlike most previous Japanese castles, which
were spartan military fortifications, Azuchi Castle was designed to be at
once a vast fortress resistant to gunfire, a princely residence, and an
impressive stage for the public display of political power. In this Azuchi
was among the predecessors of the many castles built for political pur-
poses in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Befitting the resi-
dence of the lord of the realm, Azuchi was the physical symbol of
Nobunaga's control over the realm, his tenka. Here he could hold lavish
ceremonies and entertainments—the castle contained a No stage, tea
ceremony rooms, and a Buddhist chapel—and display his power and
majesty to courtiers, daimyo, Buddhist monks, and Christian mission-
aries who filled its audience chambers. Nobunaga commissioned Kano
Eitoku to decorate walls, sliding partitions with large-scale paintings and
folding screens. Some were in ink monochrome but many involved lavish
use of gold pigment, gold leaf, lacquer, and vermilion, and other vivid
colors. The huge scale of the paintings and their themes of giant pines,
vast landscapes, birds and flowers, sages and immortals, were intended to
overwhelm the viewer and to assert Nobunaga's political authority and
domination of the tenka. Paintings on Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist
themes were related to the public or private functions of the rooms. A
private study on the seventh floor, at the very pinnacle of the castle, was
painted in gold pigment and vivid colors with Chinese founding emper-
ors and Confucian sages symbolizing Nobunaga's claim to legitimate
authority over the tenka (Wheelwright 19813).
Hideyoshi, too, used his castles as political and cultural state-
ments of power; as fortresses and princely residences. In Hideyoshi's
great castle-residences of Jurakutei in Kyoto, Osaka Castle, and Momo-
yama in Fushimi, just south of Kyoto, he too had Kano Eitoku and other
painters produce great screens and strongly colored wall paintings. The
Jurakutei in particular was the nerve center for his patronage and control
of emperors, courtiers, and daimyo. In 1588 Hideyoshi entertained Em-
peror Go-Yozei, ex-Emperor Ogimachi, and their courtiers for five days
at the Jurakutei. There they mingled with Hideyoshi and his vassals,
were given precious gifts, and joined with daimyo in lively, and some-
times drunken, renga sessions. Hideyoshi also used the Jurakutei to enter-

26
tain his vassals at tea ceremonies and No performances and granted land
around the palace to favored vassals as sites for their own elaborate
mansions.
Nobunaga and Hideyoshi were not the only builders of great
castles. During the 15805 and 15905 there was a spate of castle destruction
and reconstruction as daimyo fell and others rose to power and favor. In
1581 Toyotomi Hideyoshi, still a retainer of Nobunaga, was granted a
castle at Himeji, which he fashioned into one of the most perfect exam-
ples of Japanese castle architecture. In 1600 Himeji Castle passed to the
Ikeda daimyo family for their services to Tokugawa leyasu. The Hôjô
castle at Odawara, until then the greatest in the Kanto, fell to Hideyoshi
after a seven-month siege in 1590, but in the same year Tokugawa leyasu,
still a daimyo, began the expansion of a castle at Edo that was to become
the core of the most populous city in Japan. Katô Kiyomasa, one of
Hideyoshi's leading daimyo, built the great castles of Nagoya and Kuma-
moto. Fine surviving castles were built at Matsumoto in 1597, and by the
li family in Hikone in 1606. Each of these castles was at once a fortress,
center of local rule, palatial residence, and node of cultural activity.
Hideyoshi and Nobunaga were both inveterate patrons of the arts
and skillful exploiters of art as an assertion of power. With many daimyo,
and a growing number of Sakai merchants, they shared a passion for the
tea ceremony (chanoyu). Nobunaga studied tea with Sakai tea masters
including Imai Sókyü (1520-1593), Tsuda Sogyu (d. 1591), and Sen no
Rikyü. He gave tea utensils as rewards for meritorious service in battle
and granted to certain few daimyo, as a mark of outstanding favor, the
right to give formal tea ceremonies. Hideyoshi, a hard-bitten individual,
professed himself moved to tears at the favor. Nobunaga also obliged his
daimyo to surrender to him famous tea bowls or other utensils that he
particularly liked. Not renowned for his literary accomplishments, No-
bunaga exchanged congratulatory verses with Satomura Joha (1524-1602),
one of the leading renga poets of the age, when he marched into Kyoto in
1568.
Hideyoshi took chanoyu to unparalleled limits. He lavishly
patronized Sen no Rikyü, and no doubt appreciated Rikyü's aesthetic of
the small tea room, humble utensils, and spirit of cultivated poverty
(wabi,) which Rikyü brought to the appreciation of tea. But Hideyoshi
also provided himself with a golden tearoom and the most flamboyant
utensils. And when Rikyü displeased him, he ordered his suicide. To his
Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony of 1587 Hideyoshi invited the whole popu-
lation of Kyoto to stroll in the glades, admire his finest tea vessels, and be
served tea by himself and the leading tea masters of the day. Inaugurated
as a ten-day festival of tea, Hideyoshi himself served tea to more than
eight hundred people on the first day, then called the festivities off,
feeling, perhaps, that his magnificence had been sufficiently demon-
strated.
Although crude in some respects, Hideyoshi seems to have had
more time and taste for cultural pursuits than Nobunaga. He realized
that among the accoutrements of the ruler, especially a ruler who chose
to assume the old court office of Imperial Regent (Kanpaku) to buttress
his authority, should be the patronage of such courtly arts as tea, waka,
renga, and No. As early as 1578 he joined with Jôha in a hundred-link
renga sequence to pray for victory over the Mori family—renga being
credited with the capacity to move the gods.
The No had declined in Kyoto during the Age of Wars but had
been kept alive in the residences of those provincial daimyo who saw
themselves as patrons of culture. After Nobunaga's entry into Kyoto and
the city's recovery, No again began to thrive. Hideyoshi became a pas-
sionate enthusiast. He patronized the four traditional schools of Yamato

27
 Nô (Kanze, Hôshô, Konparu, and Kongo), sponsored plays, and gave gifts
to actors. While the Korean campaigns were in progress he actually
began to study and perform No, taking the lead in a dozen plays in the
imperial palace. Obviously believing that practice of the dances, chants,
and movements of No provided a valuable cultural discipline, he obliged
his leading daimyo, including Tokugawa leyasu and Maeda Toshiie, to
perform alongside the actors. Hideyoshi himself liked to play leading
roles in plays especially written to record his conquests and other activi-
ties. In 1594, f°r example, Hideyoshi and a retinue that included Sato-
mura Jôha journeyed to Yoshino to view cherry blossoms. The outing
later was commemorated in a new No play.
Vassal daimyo learned from Nobunaga and Hideyoshi that the
scale of their castle walls and chambers, the luxury of interior decoration,
and the patronage of artists could contribute to a valuable ambience of
power and prestige. They found it expedient and enjoyable to patronize
the same men of culture, like Jôha, Kano Eitoku, and Sen no Rikyü, who
were patronized by the hegemons. They also shared the hegemons' pas-
sion for the culture of tea. Among the great daimyo patrons of tea,
known as suki daimyo, in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,
were Furuta Oribe (1544-1615), Oda Uraku, Nobunaga's younger brother,
and Hosokawa Sansai. Oribe was a daimyo with an income of 35,000
koku who studied tea with Rikyü and after Rikyü's death came to be
regarded as a tea master in his own right. Oribe helped shape a distinc-
tive daimyo style of tea by commissioning large, irregular bowls to suit
his own taste and by building tea pavilions—like the famous Ennan tea
room—to accommodate daimyo and their attendants. Suspected by To-
kugawa leyasu of plotting against him at the time of the siege of Osaka
Castle, Oribe disemboweled himself. Oda Uraku served Hideyoshi at a
stipend of 2,000 koku. At the Battle of Sekigahara he shifted his alle-
giance to Tokugawa leyasu and was awarded daimyo status and a domain
of 30,000 koku. He had studied tea with Rikyü and after the Osaka
campaign withdrew to Kyoto and devoted himself to tea. Hosokawa
Sansai was the eldest son of Hosokawa Yüsai, a daimyo and one of the
major literary figures of the age. With his father, Sansai served No-
bunaga. He took as his wife the daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide, a young
woman who was baptized and took the name Gracia. When Mitsuhide
pressed Sansai to join him in assassinating Nobunaga, Sansai refused and
instead gave his allegiance to Hideyoshi, temporarily repudiating his
wife. He was rewarded with the headship of Miyatsu Castle. After Hide-
yoshi's death, Sansai went over to the Tokugawa at the Battle of Sekiga-
hara and was granted Kokura Castle in Kyushu, reestablishing the
fortunes of the Hosokawa family. Like his father Yüsai, he was a waka
poet and painter and a devotee of chanoyu. He studied with Rikyü, built
tearooms, and collected many famous utensils. Gracia's fate was less
happy. Taken hostage by Ishida Mitsunari prior to the Battle of Sekiga-
hara, she took her own life.
The composition of renga remained a fashion among sixteenth-
century daimyo. Akechi Mitsuhide enjoyed a reputation as a tea man,
poet, and man of culture. A few days before he assassinated Nobunaga,
Mitsuhide is said to have participated in a renga session with Jôha in
which he opened the sequence with a daring verse that could be read as
an expression of his intention to seize the realm for himself:
toki was ima Now is the time
ame ga shita shiru To rule all under heaven—
satsuki ka na It's the fifth month! (Keene 1981,126).

But the most admired literary daimyo of the age was undoubtedly
Hosokawa Yüsai. After early service to the last of the Ashikaga shoguns

28
he served as advisor first to Nobunaga, then Hideyoshi, and finally Toku-
gawa leyasu, who made him lord of Tanabe Castle. He practiced the tea
ceremony and calligraphy but was best known for his poetry and criti-
cism. He inherited and passed on a body of aesthetic lore concerning the
poetry of the Kokinshù, the tenth-century anthology of waka poetry,
compiled his own collection of waka, and wrote a travel diary and several
poetic commentaries. Devoted to poetry, he participated in renga ses-
sions with Jóha and others. Yüsai was unusual in being a warrior whom
courtiers, as well as other warriors, could admire for his literary abilities
and excellence in the ways of bun.
No discussion of daimyo culture in the sixteenth century would
be complete without at least some reference to Christianity. Between
1549 and 1551 Francisco Xavier was received favorably by the Shi-
mazu, Ouchi, and Otomo. Other early missionaries found equal favor
among the western daimyo. The Jesuits' policy was to win over the rulers
and assume that the ruled would follow. For their part many daimyo
responded favorably in the hope that the Portuguese merchant ships
that brought guns and other precious commodities from the West would
visit their ports. Whatever their reasons, some daimyo were converted,
and others at least allowed proselytization in their domains. When dai-
myo were sympathetic their wives, family members, samurai, and even
the farmers in the domain quickly followed suit, as the Jesuits had antici-
pated. Nobunaga set an example by entertaining Christian missionaries
and allowing the building of a seminary at Azuchi. Christian daimyo
sponsored the building of churches, colleges, and seminaries. They en-
tertained missionaries and imported books, paintings, and religious ob-
jects from Europe. They commissioned screens and paintings showing
scenes of the "southern barbarians." By mid-century there was a fad for
things Portuguese, including the costumes of the padres. Daimyo and
young blades, most of whom had made no spiritual commitment to
Christianity, decked themselves out in Portuguese styles and sported
rosaries and crucifixes as fashionable accessories. But if some daimyo
accepted Christianity easily, most abjured it quickly when Hideyoshi and
leyasu proscribed it and ordered the eradication of the alien teaching. An
exception was Takayama Ukon (1553-1614), who was exiled for refusing to
relinquish his faith.

The transition Hideyoshi had dreamed of establishing an enduring

from war dynasty. Shortly before his death he set up a council
to peace: °f powerful daimyo to serve as regents for his heir, the
daimyo in the &&& Hideyori. Not surprisingly, these daimyo had po-
rp i litical ambitions of their own. The council quickly
o ugawa broke up into rival factions that drew other daimyo
political into the con flj ct One group led by Ishida Mitsunari,
system Mori Terumoto, and Uesugi Kagekatsu supported the
cause of the Toyotomi. Another faction, including
Maeda Toshiie and Date Masamune, supported the powerful and wily
Tokugawa leyasu. The battle took place at Sekigahara, near Kyoto, in
October 1600. Many daimyo, expecting a Tokugawa victory, made their
peace with leyasu before the battle, or refrained from active participa-
tion. The Toyotomi supporters were routed and fell back on Osaka Cas-
tle, where they were finally eliminated in the siege of 1614-1615.
By his victories at Sekigahara and Osaka, leyasu had achieved an
even more extensive control over the country than Nobunaga or Hide-
yoshi. He was, in the fullest sense, the master of the realm. Unification
was complete. But it was a unification that had been achieved by military
conquest based upon the utilization of the feudal loyalties of the daimyo

29
 who became leyasu's vassals. leyasu, a daimyo himself, was therefore not
in a position to eliminate the daimyo, even had that notion ever entered
his head. His problem was to bend them to Tokugawa authority and
integrate them into a "centralized feudal system" of rule. He immedi-
ately set about enlarging his great fortress garrison town at Edo, articulat-
ing enduring institutions of warrior government, and reordering the
structure of feudal society. In 1603 he had himself appointed Seiitai-
shogun by the court, thus formalizing the establishment of a new bakufu.
Although leyasu could not know it, his victory and the hegemony he
established was to endure. The Tokugawa shogunate would survive
through fifteen generations until 1868 and provide Japan with two and a
half centuries of stability. There were intermittent disturbances by mas-
terless samurai (rdnin), sporadic peasant uprisings, and urban riots, but
on the whole Japan under Tokugawa rule enjoyed what has been called
Great peace throughout the realm (Tenka taihei).
The enduring stability was not fortuitous. In large part it derived
from policies deliberately adopted by leyasu and his immediate succes-
sors in the Tokugawa bakufu toward the daimyo and other sectors of
society. Some of these policies, such as the taking of hostages or the
separation of status groups, had been initiated by Nobunaga or Hide-
yoshi but were extended and systematized by the Tokugawa. Other poli-
cies, including the drastic reduction of external contacts and the require-
ment of periodic residence by all daimyo in the shogunal capital, were, if
not entirely new, at least adopted as new by the Tokugawa. Behind all of
the major policies enforced by the early Tokugawa shoguns we can
clearly see a paramount interest in stability and order, and a concern with
the control of volatile factors that might upset a carefully structured
political system and contribute to its downfall.
The long period of peace was to bring other benefits. Although in
the interests of security and domestic stability trade with the outside
world was virtually restricted to Dutch and Chinese trade through Naga-
saki, Korean trade via Tsushima, and Satsuma's trade with the Ryukyu
Islands, domestic trade and commerce flourished. The rebuilding of Edo,
Osaka, and Kyoto and the construction of the several hundred daimyo
castle towns created a national demand for materials and financial serv-
ices. Population increased and urban centers flourished. The population
of Edo reached one million by the eighteenth century, while Osaka, the
great commodity market, and Kyoto, a city of palaces, temples, and
townspeople, each had populations of nearly half a million. In the Toku-
gawa social hierarchy, artisans and merchants ranked beneath the samu-
rai rulers and the peasants whose labor fed the country, but the
merchant's role as broker, provisioner, banker, and moneylender became
increasingly central and a wealthy merchant class developed. Although
looked down upon, the merchant was indispensable to shogun and dai-
myo alike.
The long Pax Tokugawa had another important consequence. As
the prospect of warfare faded from the political consciousness, shoguns,
daimyo, and samurai were imperceptibly but steadily transformed from
warriors into civil officials and patrons of learning and the arts. The
separation of samurai from their village roots and the legal limitations of
mobility among the four classes reinforced the conversion of the warrior
class into civilian administrators based in castle towns. These salaried or
stipended samurai became more dependent on their superiors for their
livelihood than their ancestors had been, and therefore their freedom of
action was more circumscribed. The Tokugawa regime, fully aware of the
dangers posed by unemployed warriors in peacetime, redirected samurai
ideals and energies toward loyal administrative service and the arts of
peace. The right to bear arms remained the defining characteristic of the

30
buke, but the administration of the state became their function.
In dealing with the daimyo, Tokugawa leyasu extended Hide-
yoshi's policy of indirect rule through a daimyo system. The daimyo were
more or less autonomous in the internal administration of their own
domains and served also as appointed senior advisors and administrators
in the central government. However, where Hideyoshi had been content
to operate as the head of a small confederation of daimyo advisors,
leyasu imposed a tighter vassalage hierarchy and a more systematic bu-
reaucratic structure on the daimyo. The Tokugawa shoguns regulated
castle repair and construction, controlled intermarriage among daimyo
houses, and made use of spies and inspectors. Thus, it was in the Edo
period that the role of the daimyo was most fully institutionalized.
The Edo-period definition of a daimyo comprised several vital
elements. First, a daimyo was generally the lord of a domain (han), re-
sponsible for effective rule over the lands and people in that domain. As
a symbol of this responsibility a daimyo took an oath of loyalty to the
shogun on appointment and was entrusted with the registers of lands
and people in the domain. Second, a daimyo in the Edo period, by
definition, had to have a nominal stipend of at least 10,000 koku, derived
from the domain. From the sixteenth century the koku became the basic
module for measuring income from land, feudal stipends, and the rela-
tive standing of samurai, daimyo, temples, and shrines. Third, a daimyo
was a direct vassal of the shogun. But not all shogunal vassals with
incomes over 10,000 koku were daimyo. Some shogunal retainers known
as bannermen (hatamoto) had incomes of more than 10,000 koku but
were not ranked as daimyo because they did not head a domain. More-
over, senior retainers of some powerful daimyo such as the Mori and
Maeda had stipends of more than 10,000 koku but were not regarded as
daimyo. In the Edo scheme of things, sheer military prowess no longer
made a warlord a daimyo, and in fact was almost irrelevant to daimyo
status. The daimyo houses may have come to power through warfare and
military service, but they were increasingly defined in administrative and
institutional terms.
Although headship of a domain, direct vassalage ties with the
Tokugawa, and a minimum fief of 10,000 koku were common features to
all Edo-period daimyo, there were considerable differences among the
250 or so daimyo. Ranks and gradations sprang from relative closeness to
the ruling Tokugawa house or from the type or scale of the domain.
Depending on closeness to the Tokugawa family, daimyo were catego-
rized as collateral or blood-related houses (shinpan daimyo) who had
become Tokugawa vassals before the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, vassal
daimyo (fudai daimyo), and outside daimyo (tozama daimyo) who had not
sworn allegiance to the Tokugawa until Sekigahara or after. Depending
on the scale and coherence of the domain, daimyo were also categorized
as holders of whole provinces, parts of provinces, or castles. Most types
of Edo-period daimyo are represented in the exhibition.
Closest by blood to the Tokugawa were the collateral daimyo,
known as kamon or shinpan. All of these claimed some blood connection
with the main house of the Tokugawa. There were some twenty in this
category but the most prominent members of this group were the so-
called "three houses" of Kii (555,000 koku), Owari (619,000 koku), and
Mito (350,000 koku), all of which had been established by younger sons of
Tokugawa leyasu. These families provided heirs, if necessary, for the
shogunal house. They were powerful and respected and provided advi-
sors to the Tokugawa shoguns. Their large domains were strategically
placed to guard the approaches to Edo and Kyoto. At the same time,
they were held at a distance as potential rivals and not employed in the
exercise of bakufu rule.

31
 For officials to staff their huge bureaucracy the Tokugawa sho-
guns relied on a group of trusted hereditary vassal daimyo known as
fudai. These were generally relatively small in scale, ranging from 10,000
koku to 150,000 koku. Informally they were ranked according to the
length of their service to the Tokugawa family. At leyasu's death there
were go fudai daimyo. There were some 130 by the end of the Tokugawa
period. The core of the fudai were families like the Sakai, Okubo, and
Honda who had served the Tokugawa from its early days in Mikawa
Province in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. Other fudai,
including the Ogasawara and li, had sworn allegiance to the Tokugawa
during leyasu's lifetime. Fudai daimyo and the non-daimyo retainers of
the bakufu known as bannermen ran the bakufu on a day-to-day basis.
The senior fudai were appointed to the bakufu s senior council of elders
(roju) while lesser fudai served on the junior council that concerned itself
with matters affecting the Tokugawa house. Throughout Japan fudai
domains were interspersed among those of the less trusted tozama dai-
myo with the duty of reporting to the bakufu anything untoward in the
actions of the tozama daimyo. The larger fudai were placed on the perim-
eters of the Tokugawa domains while smaller fudai were generally lo-
cated closer to Edo.
One very prominent fudai family represented in this exhibition
was the li family of Hikone. Through their history we can see something
of the rise of a fudai daimyo. They traced their ancestry to a branch of
the Fujiwara noble family that was paramount during the late Heian
period. Through the medieval period they were local magnates in the
village of linoya, from which they took the name li, in Tôtômi near the
Pacific coast. They were vassals of the Imagawa in the sixteenth century.
With the defeat of the Imagawa, li Naomasa gave his allegiance to Toku-
gawa leyasu in 1575. When leyasu entered the Kanto (eastern Japan) in
1590 Naomasa was rewarded with the largest fief, 120,000 koku, in the
Kanto. After Sekigahara, where li Naomasa was a leader of the Tokugawa
forces, the li were appointed castellans of Sawayama Castle (180,000
koku). li Naotaka served in the siege of Osaka Castle. For their services
they were raised to 300,000 koku and appointed to a new castle at Hi-
kone, which was built by forced contributions on a site selected by
Tokugawa leyasu overlooking Lake Biwa and close to the imperial court
in Kyoto. The li were placed to serve as a bulwark of bakufu influence in
western and central Japan. Throughout the Edo period the family was
always active in bakufu councils; five li daimyo served the bakufu in the
office of Great Councillor. The last of them, li Naosuke, was assassinated
in 1860 by antiforeign daimyo for trying to reach an accommodation with
the encroaching western powers. During the Meiji Restoration the li fief
was reduced to 100,000 koku before the abolition of the feudal domains
in 1871.
The daimyo with the weakest ties to the Tokugawa shoguns were
known as outside daimyo, or tozama daimyo. The tozama had not been
vassals of the Tokugawa prior to Sekigahara. They were independent
lords, large and small, who had sometimes allied with the Tokugawa, and
sometimes opposed them. Some fought with leyasu at Sekigahara, oth-
ers remained aloof or fought against him. Many were loyal to the Toyo-
tomi until that cause was crushed. While those tozama, like the Hoso-
kawa, that joined leyasu at Sekigahara or gave their allegiance were well
rewarded in the Tokugawa political scheme, others like the Shimazu and
Mori who had fought against the Tokugawa were regarded with suspi-
cion. They were treated with deference, but excluded from political
decision-making and assigned reduced domains on the periphery of the
country. Nevertheless, the more than one hundred tozama domains in-
cluded some of the largest and most populous fiefs in Japan. Those like

32
Satsuma of the Shimazu family and Choshü of the Mori family that had
been defeated in battle and had been stripped of some of their earlier
holdings had relatively large numbers of samurai in their populations.
The mid-nineteenth-century challenge to Tokugawa rule that led to the
collapse of the bakufu and the Meiji Restoration was mounted by samu-
rai from these powerful tozama domains that had been excluded from
power by the Tokugawa.
Of the great tozama, the Maeda (Kaga domain, Honshu), Shi-
mazu (Satsuma domain, Kyushu), Hosokawa (Higo domain, Kyushu),
and Date (Sendai domain, Honshu) are all represented by objects in the
exhibition. The Maeda were second only to the Tokugawa in scale of fief
(102,000,000 koku). Their castle town of Kanazawa was renowned for
Kutani pottery, fine lacquer, and the painted silk fabrics known as kaga
yüzen. Their great wealth enabled them to be major patrons of the arts,
especially the tea ceremony and No, and it is said that they sponsored
craft workshops within Kanazawa Castle itself. The Shimazu were a
long-established warrior family from Satsuma in southern Kyushu. While
many domain economies languished under heavy debts in the Edo pe-
riod, Satsuma enjoyed profitable control of the Ryukyu Islands, which
gave it a monopoly of the precious commodity sugar. Satsuma was fa-
mous for its ceramics, a tradition developed by Korean craftsmen cap-
tured during Hideyoshi's invasions. Several Shimazu daimyo were noted
administrators, scholars, and patrons of the arts. Shimazu Shigehide
(1745-1833) was interested in Dutch studies and botany. Nariakira (1809-
1858) developed this interest in Western learning into naval and industrial
innovations.
The Hosokawa also flourished during the Edo period. For his
services on the Tokugawa side at Sekigahara, Hosokawa Sansai was
awarded the ^7ooo-koku fief of Kokura. In 1632 his son was appointed
castellan daimyo of Higo (Kumamoto) Castle, a larger fief with an as-
sessed yield of 540,000 koku. Placed in a position to block any threat from
Satsuma to the south, the Hosokawa, although tozama, enjoyed the trust
of the Tokugawa. Hosokawa Shigekata (1720-1785) was an administrator
and scholar who reformed domain finances, instituted land surveys, en-
couraged local craft industries, and established a domain school for the
education of samurai. Date Masamune (1567-1636), known as the "one-
eyed dragon," also fought with the Tokugawa at Sekigahara, where he
defeated Uesugi Kagekatsu, and in the Osaka campaign. The Date had
built up their power in northeastern Japan, and during the sixteenth
century Masamune was awarded a fief of 605,000 koku by leyasu and
from 1603 began building a new castle in Sendai. The northeast pro-
duced some of the finest horses and swords in Japan. Masamune was a
flamboyant figure, famous for his military prowess and elaborately
worked armor. Sendai quickly became a northern outpost of cultural
style derived from Kyoto and Edo. In 1868 the Date led an alliance of
northern daimyo in support of the Tokugawa against the anti-bakufu
forces led by samurai from Satsuma and Choshü. Like the Tokugawa, the
northern alliance was crushed and the Sendai han reduced to 280,000
koku before its abolition in 1871.
Having won a clear-cut victory on a national scale, leyasu was in a
position to reward or punish every daimyo in the realm. In the interests
of Tokugawa hegemony and long-term political stability he and his imme-
diate successors completely transformed the political map of Japan. The
Tokugawa held as their direct domain (tenryô), a huge block of territory
(with one quarter of the assessed yield of the whole country) centering on
Edo and the Kanto region. They also directly controlled the great cities
of Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagasaki and held the major gold and silver mines.
Other parts of the country were allocated to daimyo in a carefully gradu-

33
 ated and elaborated system. In assigning domains care was taken to
reward the Tokugawa vassals and allies, and to ensure the docility and
loyalty of the tozama lords. Tozama daimyo like the Shimazu and Mori
who had fought against the Tokugawa at Sekigahara and Osaka were
physically separated from potential allies by loyal fudai. The bakufu re-
tained the power of confiscating domains, expropriating daimyo, or reas-
signing them. It used this power of attainder fiercely in the first fifty
years of the seventeenth century, in the process promoting Tokugawa
vassals within the system and displacing daimyo whose loyalty or admin-
istrative ability was questionable. The daimyo were bound by precedent
and regulation and surveillance over them was maintained through a
system of inspectors (metsuke). Daimyo families were forbidden to con-
sort with the imperial court or to arrange marriages with other daimyo
without approval of the bakufu. Major tozama daimyo houses were en-
couraged to take wives from the Tokugawa family or its loyal vassals.
From 1634 a system of leaving family members as hostages in Edo was
established and this was quickly expanded into a system of compulsory
alternate-year residence in Edo (sankin kótai).
The sankin kdtai system was one of the most characteristic fea-
tures of the joint bakufu-daimyo system. It had profound economic,
social, and cultural implications for the daimyo, their families, and their
domains. All daimyo were required to spend alternate years in Edo in
attendance upon the shogun. Even when they returned to their domains
they had to leave wives and other family members as hostages in Edo.
On a complicated schedule daimyo processions slowly wended their way
to and from Edo along the major roads of Japan. They were a frequent
sight, especially along the Tôkaidô, and provided the subjects of many
Edo-period prints, such as those depicting the Fifty-three stages of the
Tdkaido by Ando Hiroshige. Guards on the lookout for any sign of rebel-
liousness at the checkpoints along the routes were warned to watch for
"guns heading for Edo and women leaving." Bakufu regulations laid
down precisely, on the basis of the koku yield of each domain, how many
samurai and what kinds of accoutrements were to accompany each
daimyo procession.
The implications of this elaborate, ceremonial hostage system
were profound. In addition to their castles and administrative headquar-
ters in their han, each daimyo had to build, maintain, and staff several
residences (yashiki) in Edo. Since the daimyo's function in Edo was to
attend upon the shogun, or serve in the shogunal government, rigid
standards of dress and protocol had to be met, and domains, however
poor, had to keep up appearances or risk official displeasure. The enor-
mous costs of this system, with residences in the domain and in Edo and
the expense of a large entourage traveling ceremoniously between the
two—it took nearly two months for the Shimazu retinue to reach Edo—
all fell on the domains, and most heavily on the peasantry whose job it
was to produce the tax rice that supported the whole baku-han power
structure. In order to meet the huge ceremonial expenses of sankin kdtai,
domain administrations heavily taxed their peasants and even pared
down the stipends of their samurai. In many cases they went heavily into
debt with Osaka merchants, pledging future crops against loans to pay
for the expenses of sankin kôtai. Intentionally, or by design, the Toku-
gawa had developed an elaborate hostage system that also added dignity
to shogunal rule, drained many domains of resources that might other-
wise have been turned against the Tokugawa, and—by bringing daimyo
households into close proximity with one another in Edo—fostered so-
cial competition among daimyo that kept their attention away from
thoughts of war.
Sankin kdtai also contributed to the massive growth and to the

34
centrality of Edo in the Tokugawa political and cultural world. With more
than 250 daimyo retinues coming and going and with hundreds of dai-
myo yashiki carefully arranged around the shogun's castle, Edo became a
hub of economic and cultural as well as political life. The vast castle-city
demanded a huge service population to meet its needs: temples and
shrines were built, and the finest artists and craftsmen throughout the
land were commissioned to work in Edo Castle or the residences of the
daimyo. The city drew hungrily on the whole Kanto region for produce
to feed its population and depended on the two great cities of Osaka and
Kyoto to keep it supplied with rice, and other commodities and financial
services. And whereas the most vital cultural centers in the seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries were Kyoto and Osaka, by the mid-
eighteenth century Edo, with its Kabuki theaters, print shops, booksel-
lers, and entertainment quarters, was setting the cultural pace. While
sankin kôtai and the focus on Edo contributed to centralization, the
continued existence of the han, which numbered some 290 at the begin-
ning of the Edo period and gradually sank to 240 or so, meant a continu-
ance of local diversity. This contributed to cultural vitality. But the han
were closely linked with Edo by the daimyo and his retinue constantly
coming and going. Local culture was carried along the highways to Edo,
while metropolitan culture was diffused throughout the domains.
As the sankin kôtai system took hold, daimyo heirs were born
and brought up with their mothers in Edo. In some cases they might not
visit the domain until they were young men and had inherited the title of
daimyo. They thus grew up sharing the common experience and cultural
values of the daimyo residences and the shogunal court in Edo. The
domain, which in any case could be rescinded by the Tokugawa, ceased
to be home for them and became instead a place of periodic administra-
tive responsibility. Daimyo quickly began to vie culturally in the decora-
tion of their Edo yashiki, in bringing local products and craftsmen to
Edo, and in employing artists and craftsmen from Kyoto or Edo in their
home castles. The frugality and toughness that had been the mark of
warrior leaders in the sixteenth century soon began to give way to refine-
ment and ostentation. They also came to share certain Confucian intel-
lectual and cultural values, long maintained by the nobility and Buddhist
priesthood but newly relevant to a nation at peace and requiring princi-
ples of social conduct and civil administration. The hereditary descen-
dants of the warrior leaders who had fought on the battlefields of
Nagashino, Nagashima, Korea, and Sekigahara were thus transformed
into an urbanized feudal aristocracy who ruled not by force of arms or
demonstrated personal ability but at the pleasure of the shoguns and by
an institutionalized, inherited authority. Domains tended to undergo a
process of pacification and bureaucratization. Daimyo, as well as their
samurai, were transformed from warlords into rulers and administrators,
men of culture and local patrons of the arts. Local domain loyalty was
shown less to the daimyo for his unique personal qualities of military
leadership than to the institutionalized office of daimyo as head of the
fief (hanshu).
As long as they pleased the bakufu, daimyo were entrusted to rule
the territories assigned to them. With the approval of the bakufu, their
heirs might inherit and, after the first fifty years or so, daimyo status
tended to become hereditary. In their domains, they maintained govern-
ments that were smaller versions of the Tokugawa bakufu. The daimyo,
as head of the domain (hanshu), used his senior samurai officials to
govern the domain from a central castle town. Daimyo governance was
directed at maintaining peace and drawing tax (nengu) from the farmers.
Daimyo generally left villages and urban wards to govern themselves
under the periodic supervision of samurai retainers. Historians generally

35
 describe this joint system ofbakufu and han rule as the baku-han system,
pointing at once to its centralized and decentralized aspects. While the
bakufu represented the centralized power of the Tokugawa the han rep-
resented the local feudal and bureaucratic authority of daimyo. Although
subject to oversight and occasional interference from the bakufu, the
han tended to become semi-autonomous local units. Although daimyo
were forced to bear the burdens of attendance and residence in Edo and
were subject to levies, at the pleasure of the shogun, for the building and
repair of castles, roads, and bridges, the bakufu lived off the taxes from its
own domain and did not tax the fiefs. In return it was relieved of the
burdens of local government outside its own direct domain (tenryo).
Within the han, daimyo and han governments were relatively free to rule
as they thought fit. A few large han had natural resources or were able to
develop monopolies that kept them out of debt. Most were financially
hard-pressed by a rising population and standard of living and by an
increasingly monetized economy, and found it difficult to provide ade-
quate stipends for their samurai. Some han governments were lax and
quickly ran into debt, some were harsh and provoked peasant uprisings
and insurrections. Some daimyo were indolent and given only to leisure.
Others, however, acquired reputations as diligent, concerned administra-
tors of their domains (meikun).
Among these model daimyo were Ikeda Mitsumasa (1609-1682) of
Okayama, Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628-1700) of Mito, Hosokawa Shige-
kata of Kumamoto, Uesugi Harunori (1751-1822) of Yonezawa (150,000
koku), Matsudaira Sadanobu (1758-1829) of Shirakawa (100,000 koku) in
northeastern Japan, and Shimazu Nariakira (1809-1858) of Satsuma.
Common to all of them was devotion to scholarship and Confucian
moral standards of rule, to the building of schools and the encourage-
ment of education for samurai, and to efforts to restore han finances,
bring new lands under cultivation, promote local craft industries, and
alleviate some of the suffering created by natural disasters. Matsudaira
Sadanobu, for instance, gained a reputation for solicitous government
when it was said that nobody in his domain died of starvation during the
bitter Tenmei famine that struck northeastern Japan between 1781-1787.
As a result, he was called upon by the bakufu to serve as councillor of
State (rdju) and led a reform of bakufu finances and administration.
These men could be harsh in their judgments and bear down heavily on
the peasantry but they also represented the Edo-period tradition of ethi-
cal Confucian-inspired feudal rule at its best.

Daimyo Throughout the Edo period shoguns and daimyo par-

culture under ticipated in an elite cultural milieu that expressed the
the Pax political power realities of the age. This high feudal
Tokugawa culture maintained and refined the traditional elite
samurai virtues of bu and bun, with the emphasis
shifting increasingly in the direction of bun, as ex-
pressed in bureaucratization, scholarly activity, and the cultivation of the
arts. As the daimyo settled down under the Pax Tokugawa, and the rash
of attainders of the early decades ended, they came to enjoy a relatively
sheltered and comfortable existence within the Tokugawa power struc-
ture. The poorer among them may have found it hard to keep up appear-
ances, with the result that they grievously exploited their domains or
went heavily into debt. Those with larger disposable incomes, however,
had both the leisure and the wherewithal to enjoy peace and the perfor-
mance of the cultural rituals demanded by their status. Lords of their
domains, bureaucrats, and men of culture, they moved in comfortable
state, cossetted and guarded, from their Edo residences to their castle
towns, and back to Edo. The palanquins in which they were carried were

36
in many ways fitting symbols for the Edo-period daimyo, ferried between
Edo and his domain, whose twin raisons d'être were attendance upon the
shogun and management of his Edo yashiki, and administering his local
domain. Many daimyo gradually became detached from the social and
political realities about them, from the problems of their poorer samurai
living on meager stipends, as well as from the hardships faced by the
peasantry of their domains. With daimyo periodically in attendance in
Edo, actual administration was left in many domains to samurai officials.
In a society based on hereditary privilege, daimyo and higher-ranking
samurai in the domains were worlds apart from lesser samurai and fre-
quently lorded it over them. They had more in common with shoguns
and courtiers and their fellow daimyo than with the mass of samurai or
commoners in their domains. A feudal elite, they intermarried with other
daimyo families or branches of the shogunal family, whose cultural val-
ues they shared, rather than with merchants or lower samurai.
Daimyo culture in the Edo period naturally reflected the political
position of the daimyo themselves under the umbrella of Tokugawa
power. The manifestations of culture were frequently resplendent and
powerful, refined and cultivated. They were also conservative in charac-
ter, traditional and somehow wanting in the energy and creativity that
had been so evident in the Muromachi and Momoyama periods. Al-
though powerfully expressive of the Edo age, daimyo culture was not the
most vibrant aspect of Edo-period culture. That accolade belongs to the
popular culture of the merchants, craftsmen, entertainers, and ordinary
townspeople of the great cities. Daimyo were certainly aware of the
vitality of popular culture around them and drawn to the world of the
Kabuki theatre, popular literature, and woodblock prints. They were not
active contributors to the popular realm, however. Their principal cul-
tural role was that of inheritors and patrons of a traditional and classical
Chinese and Japanese aesthetic.
We might suggest that just as the imperial court clung to the
cultural style of its halcyon days in the Heian period, so the daimyo
tended to idealize aesthetic modes of the Muromachi era. The cultural
tone for Edo-period daimyo was set by the Tokugawa shoguns in their
edicts and directions to the warrior order. We can distinguish a creative
tension. One vital requirement was to preserve that military tradition on
which the whole edifice of Tokugawa power rested, to reiterate con-
stantly the samurai traditions of valor, honor, loyalty, and military pre-
paredness. Another requirement was to modulate the military tradition,
to tame it, to turn the daimyo and their samurai from the ways of war to
those of peace. The path of bu was never relinquished in the Tokugawa
period but under the Pax Tokugawa the inclination to promote the ways
of bun tended to gain the upper hand.

Preservation The Buke shohatto (Regulations for military houses),

of the martial the basic Tokugawa bakufu code for the warrior order,
tradition opens by urging daimyo to cultivate both the ways of
bun and bu. But it clearly gives primacy to the martial
arts, even in an age of peace:
The arts of peace and war, including archery and horsemanship, should be pursued
singlemindedly. From of old the rule has been to practice the 'arts of peace on the left
hand and the arts of war on the right'; both must be mastered. Archery and horseman-
ship are indispensable to military men. Though arms are called instruments of evil, there
are times when they must be resorted to. In peacetime we should not be oblivious to the
danger of war. Should we not then prepare ourselves for it? (Tsunoda, de Bary, and
Keene 1964, vol. i, 326)
The ideal standard for members of the samurai class was to excel
in both the literary and military arts, and the shogun and daimyo strove

37
 to live up to this ideal. As leaders of the warrior class, they were still
required to train in military arts. leyasu and his successors could not
advocate the complete abandonment of military skills by warriors. There
was no knowing when these skills might be needed in support of the
Tokugawa or in defense of the nation, the primary responsibility of the
bakufu. Daimyo and their samurai were encouraged to maintain the
samurai tradition of spartan outdoor living, with training in the military
skills of archery, musketry, horsemanship, swordsmanship, falconry, and
hunting. They were required to keep their castles in repair, and their
weapons ready.
The cult of Bushidô, the Way of the warrior, emphasizing loyalty
and honor, was strengthened by the injection of Confucian notions of
proper reverence for superiors and single-minded dedication to the serv-
ice of one's lord. One of the clearest statements of the Edo period
samurai ideal was made by Yamaga Sokô (1682-1685), a teacher of Confu-
cianism and military science, in his moral exhortation for samurai, Shidô,
in 1665:
The business of the samurai consists in reflecting on his own station in life, in
discharging loyal service to his master if he has one, in deepening his fidelity in
association with friends, and, with due consideration to his own position, in devoting
himself to duty above all. However, in one's own life one becomes unavoidably
involved in obligations between father and child, older and younger brother, and
husband and wife. Though these are also the fundamental moral obligations of
everyone in the land, the farmers, artisans, and merchants have no leisure from their
occupations, and so they cannot constantly act in accordance with them and fully
exemplify the Way. The samurai dispenses with the business of the farmer, artisan,
and merchant and confines himself to practicing the Way; should there be someone
in the three classes of the common people who transgresses against these moral
principles, the samurai summarily punishes him and thus upholds proper moral
principles in the land. It would not do for the samurai to know the martial [bu] and
civil [bun] without manifesting them. Since this is the case, outwardly he stands in
physical readiness for any call to service and inwardly he strives to fulfill the Way of
the lord and subject, friend and friend, father and son, older and younger brother,
and husband and wife. Within his heart he keeps to the ways of peace, but without
he keeps his weapons ready for use. The three classes of the common people make
him their teacher and respect him. By following his teachings, they were enabled to
understand what is fundamental and what is secondary.
Herein lies the Way of the samurai, the means by which he earns his
clothing, food, and shelter; and by which his heart is put at ease, and he is enabled to
pay back at length his obligations to his lord and the kindness of his parents
(Tsunoda, de Bary, and Keene 1964, vol. i, 390).
For some, though not all, samurai advocates of Confucianism, a
true samurai, if faced with the excrutiating choice between demonstrat-
ing filial piety toward a father and loyalty to a lord, would give primacy to
loyalty over filial piety. And that classic of Edo-period Bushidd, the Haga-
kure, compiled by a samurai from the Nabeshima domain in Hizen in
1716, states repeatedly that the true samurai should think only of dying in
service to his lord, and live constantly with the thought of death:
Wherever we may be, deep in mountain recesses or buried under the ground, any
time or anywhere, our duty is to guard the interest of our Lord. This is the duty of
every Nabeshima man. This is the backbone of our faith, unchanging and eternally
true.
Every morning make up thy mind how to die. Every evening freshen thy
mind in the thought of death . . .
Bushido, the way of the warrior, means death' (Bellah 1970, 91-92).
Bushidô thus became a cult of loyalty, a one-way ethic of loyalty based on
an enhanced sense of moral obligation to one's lord. That obligation
could be fulfilled on the battlefield or, in the peaceful world of
eighteenth-century Japan, by self-denying service and devotion to the
most petty details of administration or ceremonial performance.

38
 Although largely untested for two centuries, the samurai martial
tradition survived and resurfaced in the mid-nineteenth century when
young samurai from tozama fiefs, angered at the bakufu's inability to
expel the Western intruders, took up their swords and turned them
against their enemies, whether supporters of the bakufu, foreign resi-
dents in Japan, or punitive expeditions sent by the Western powers.

Promotion of While the Tokugawa were stressing the martial ideal

the arts of for the whole samurai class, they clearly needed to
peace tame the daimyo and their samurai, and to wean them
from attitudes and behavior appropriate to a state of
war toward a more controlled and institutionalized
exercise of power and loyalty. To this end, the number of castles was
controlled and the military forces that any daimyo could maintain were
strictly limited in proportion to the scale of his domain. Moreover, the
building or repair of castles, the making of marriage alliances, and the
adoption of heirs were all closely supervised.
Even loyalty to feudal lords, which was officially emphasized on
the one hand as the greatest samurai virtue, was increasingly circum-
scribed. During the early seventeenth century many samurai committed
ritual disembowelment (seppuku) on the death of their lords, to follow
them in death (junshi). Many of these acts of junshi were sincere expres-
sions of devoted loyalty. Some, however, may well have been performed
under considerable peer pressure. Whatever the motivation, the bakufu
frowned on such expressions of extreme personal loyalty to daimyo and
put an end to the practice by threatening to punish the families of any
samurai who resorted to junshi. The bakufu was also troubled by another
expression of intense feudal loyalty—the vendetta. The most famous
vendetta, as the undiluted expression of the samurai ideal, was the re-
venge of the forty-seven rônin, rendered masterless by the suicide of
their lord, who stormed the residence of the man who had engineered
that suicide and killed him. Bakufu officials were faced with a dilemma.
The rônin had behaved as exemplary samurai in killing the man who had
wronged their lord, but the vendetta was a rejection of bakufu authority
and a threat to public order. The matter was settled by sentencing the
rônin to death, but permitting them an honorable death according to the
code of Bushidô by seppuku. This incident found dramatic expression in
the Kabuki play Chùshingura.
In the interests of stability and order, the Tokugawa encouraged
daimyo to devote themselves to the efficient administration of their
domains and to arts of peace (bun). Tokugawa leyasu set the example.
Like some of his warrior predecessors, he realized that successful govern-
ment required equal attention to civilian as well as military arts. He also
saw that daimyo absorption in civilian affairs reduced the risk of war and
consequent threats to Tokugawa hegemony. According to the Tokugawa
jikki (Records of the Tokugawa shoguns), leyasu was brought up sur-
rounded by battle:

And he naturally had no time to read and study. He took the empire on horseback,
but his natural brilliance and his superhuman character were such that he early
recognized that the empire could not be ruled on horseback. He always had great
respect for the Way of the Sages and knew that it alone could teach how to rule the
kingdom and fulfill the highest duties of man. Consequently, from the beginning of
his reign he gave great encouragement to learning (Dore 1965,16).

leyasu seems to have realized that if his regime was to endure,

the martial spirit had to be controlled though not extinguished, and the
arts of peace, especially scholarship, government, and administration,

39
 had to be promoted as appropriate to the samurai. leyasu and the Toku-
gawa had no desire to encourage their vassals in frivolity—daimyo and
samurai were officially discouraged, not always successfully, from fre-
quenting popular entertainments and from consorting with actors, enter-
tainers, and courtiers—but they did wish them to devote time to serious
scholarly pursuits. leyasu himself became late in life an assiduous
scholar, or patron of scholarship, who collected books, gathered scholars
to lecture to the shogunal court, studied the biography of Yoritomo, and
had the Azuma kagami reprinted. Just as Yoritomo had gathered scholars
from the Kyoto court, leyasu employed the Zen monk Ishin Suden and
the Tendai monk Tenkai and the Confucian scholar Hayashi Razan
(1583-1657) as his advisors.
As the clamor of battle receded it was natural that samurai should
devote themselves not only to the military arts, but also to learning and
the fine arts. The shogun and daimyo assimilated and embodied several
cultural traditions. From the point of view of heightening the authority
of the shogunate it was essential to adopt elements of the aristocratic
culture of the Kyoto court, Chinese scholarship, and the teachings of
Confucianism as well as traditional Japanese samurai culture. leyasu
recognized that a new system of values, order, and morality was neces-
sary for the consolidation of the nation under the shogunate. For this, he
and his successors encouraged the promotion of scholarship and educa-
tion for samurai and the cultivation of men of talent. They turned espe-
cially to Neo-Confucian teachings, which posited a moral order above
the shogun that at the same time legitimated the shogun's position as the
just ruler carrying out the will of heaven; it sanctified the Tokugawa
hierarchy of classes as being "according to nature," and it offered a code
of conduct appropriate to each class. Most daimyo followed suit and
patronized Neo-Confucianism, while maintaining a personal interest in
Buddhism in the family temple, or in Shinto and National Learning, an
intellectual movement developing in the eighteenth century that revived
interest in the Japanese classics as the purest expression of Japanese
identity. In keeping with leyasu's admonition to excel in literary as well
as martial arts, the shoguns and daimyo studied painting and calligraphy,
as well as the Confucian classics and ancient Japanese literature and
history. leyasu studied the calligraphic style of the Heian court noble
Fujiwara Teika (1162-1241)and painting styles under Kano masters. A few
daimyo showed some talent as painters and calligraphers, though most
were content to remain patrons and collectors, rather than practitioners
of the arts. One of the important contributions of Edo-period daimyo
was the cultivation and categorization of a cultural legacy that had been
developing in Japan since the medieval period. Enthusiastic daimyo
sponsorship of chanoyu, No, Confucian studies, poetry, and calligraphy,
led to the refining of traditions or art and scholarship, and the stabiliza-
tion of a shared cultural vocabulary.
Peace and relative prosperity in some domains, combined with
this encouragement of bun by the bakufu and daimyo, and stimulated by
the coming and going of sankin kotai and the influence of merchant
prosperity and urban culture, encouraged many different manifestations
of daimyo culture in the Edo period. Nor did daimyo confine their
cultural interests simply to Confucian scholarship. Aside from Confu-
cian studies, other fields of study included Chinese and classical Japa-
nese literature including the Kokinshù, and the Tale of Genji. Daimyo
were still expected to be able to compose poetry and to quote with
authority from the Chinese and Japanese literary classics.
The daimyo's pattern of life in the Edo period contributed to the
patronage of and participation in a variety of traditional arts and cultural
activities. Within the castle precincts, the residence of the daimyo was

40
built in the shoin domestic style of residential architecture. Here the
daimyo held council with his retainers, gave banquets, and entertained
guests. Castles and yashiki required large numbers of paintings on fold-
ing screens and sliding partitions, metalwork, furniture, lacquer and ce-
ramic utensils, and accoutrements. Artists of the Kano, Tosa, and other
schools of Japanese painting were kept busy with daimyo commissions.
Some daimyo had a particular fondness for expansive screens depicting
battles, or such martial accomplishments as falconry, riding, or eques-
trian dog-shooting. Others collected prized Chinese art objects (kara-
mono), especially those that had belonged to the Ashikaga shogunal
collection, including celadons, lacquer, incense utensils, books, ink-
stones, water droppers, brushes, and calligraphy. Others were particu-
larly attached to Muromachi-style suibokuga or illustrated handscrolls in
the revived yamato-e tradition. Genre paintings and scenes of everyday
life in and around Kyoto were much in demand in provincial castle
towns. Zen painting and calligraphy were still prized, but in general
traditional Buddhist iconographie painting and sculpture languished in
the Edo period when compared with the medieval period. Daimyo
tastes, like those of the country at large, were shifting in more secular
directions.
Although daimyo had no opportunities to appear on the battle-
field, they still needed swords, armor, muskets, and other military equip-
ment for drills, ceremonial occasions, and as symbols of personal status.
In the Edo period only samurai were permitted to bear arms, and the
sword, in particular, remained the symbol of the samurai. Daimyo com-
missioned swords and armor from the finest makers to reflect their rank,
status, and artistic taste.
Daimyo were participants in an elite cultural world in which No
and the tea ceremony were the highest expressions of political as well as
cultural preeminence. In this respect they continued to cloak themselves
in the cultural trappings that had earlier added prestige to the Ashikaga
shoguns. Culture and politics mingled in the tearooms and the No per-
formances held in Edo Castle or the daimyo residences, or in the provin-
cial castle towns. Although the Kabuki and the puppet theaters were
flourishing among the townspeople of Edo and Osaka and were attrac-
tive to many samurai, No and its comic counterpart Kyôgen remained
the official dramatic form patronized by shoguns and daimyo. leyasu
adopted it, carrying on the enthusiastic patronage of Hideyoshi, No-
bunaga, and the Ashikaga shoguns. Just as bugaku had served for centu-
ries as the formal music of the imperial court, No filled this role for
shogun and daimyo. Daimyo were expected to be able to chant No.
leyasu and Tsunayoshi (the fifth shogun), for instance, performed No
dances and urged the daimyo to do the same. Annual competitions of
chanting and dancing (utai-hajime) were held. Every daimyo household
was required to maintain a full set of robes, masks, and musical instru-
ments for the performance of No. The Hosokawa family had a particu-
larly fine collection, from which many robes and accessories have been
lent to the exhibition. Frequent ceremonial performances of No were
held in Edo and the provincial castle towns. Daimyo vied in sponsoring
No actors, building stages, and acquiring robes and masks.
During the Edo period the passion for tea (chanoyu) spread
through all sectors of society. Descendants and students of Sen no Rikyü
established the major schools of tea, including the Ura Senke, Omote
Senke, and Mushanokôji Senke that are still popular today. Professional
tea masters made their livings instructing shoguns, daimyo, samurai,
townspeople, and even wealthy farmers in the intricacies of tea and the
subtleties of the tea aesthetic. For everybody, the enjoyment of tea was a
participatory aesthetic in which some of the more rigid social barriers

41
 were temporarily set aside in the small world of the tearoom and all the
guests could share in the appreciation of a welcoming tearoom or the
host's thoughtfulness in choosing utensils.
For shoguns and daimyo, tea had added associations. Because of
its enthusiastic patronage by the Ashikaga shoguns, Nobunaga, and
Hideyoshi, chanoyu had also become an expression of wealth and power,
a vehicle of elite interaction, and one of the central social rituals of
warrior society. While shoguns and daimyo in the Edo period patronized
tea masters of the various lineages descended from Sen no Rikyü, they
also maintained their own traditions of tea, appropriate for the imposing
chambers of castles and yashiki. leyasu himself was a passionate enthusi-
ast of tea and collector of fine utensils. He received instruction from the
tea master and man of culture Kobori Enshü, who also instructed Hide-
yoshi as well as the second and third Tokugawa shoguns. Formal and
informal tea gatherings were held in Edo Castle,in the Edo residences of
the daimyo, and in their provincial castles. No daimyo could afford to be
ignorant of the niceties of correct etiquette or be unable to entertain his
fellow daimyo in his own tearoom. Shoguns and daimyo competed in the
elegant simplicity of their tearooms and gardens, in their collection of
precious utensils, and in calligraphy, to display the tokonoma of the
tearoom. Most prized were those that had belonged to the Ashikaga
shoguns, or to the sixteenth-century tea masters Takeno Joo (1502-1555),
Murata Shukô (1421-1502), and Sen no Rikyü. The daimyo passion for tea
also provided a vigorous stimulus for the artists and craftsmen of their
own day. The work of the finest carpenters, garden designers, potters,
metalworkers, bamboo craftsmen, and papermakers was all in high
demand.
The traditions of daimyo tea were established by daimyo like
Furuta Oribe (1544-1615), Kanamori Sówa (1584-1656), and Katagiri Se-
kishü (1605-1673). The daimyo tea master Furuta Oribe, a 30,000 koku
daimyo and disciple of Rikyü, is said to have instructed Tokugawa Hide-
tada, the second shogun, in the art of tea. He was suspected of treason by
leyasu at the siege of Osaka Castle and forced to take his own life. His
students in the art of tea included Kobori Enshü, Hon'ami Kôetsu (1558-
1637), and many daimyo. Oribe had innovative tastes in ceramics, garden,
and teahouse design, which he transmitted to the daimyo who studied
within him. Kanamori Sôwa, the daimyo of Takayama Castle in Hida,was
a connoisseur of tea utensils who studied tea and Zen at Daitokuji in
Kyoto. In the capital he became familiar with court nobles as well as Zen
monks. His tastes in tea aesthetics combined Zen simplicity with courtly
elegance and refinement. Katagiri Sekishü, daimyo of the Koizumi do-
main in Yamato Province, served as tea master to the fourth Tokugawa
shogun, letsuna. He practiced the more studied, plain, and rustic Rikyü
tradition of wabicha but was on close terms with Sówa, Enshü, and other
daimyo tea devotees. Sekishü had many daimyo as his students and was
particularly influential in shaping daimyo taste.
Some later daimyo devoted such interest to chanoyu that they
came to be known as sukiya daimyo, or literati daimyo. Among these
were Matsudaira Fumai (1751-1818) of the Matsue domain, Sakai Sôga
(1755-1790), of the Himeji domain, as well as Matsudaira Sadanobu and li
Naosuke, already mentioned. The enthusiasm for tea was particularly
strong in certain daimyo houses such as the Owari branch of the Toku-
gawa family, the Maeda of Kaga, the Hosokawa of Kumamoto, the Ma-
tsudaira of Takamatsu,and the Date of Sendai. As in other fields, daimyo
patronage of tea encouraged the refinement and categorization of cul-
tural traditions related to tea. These daimyo patrons were serious stu-
dents who recorded their tea gatherings, utensils, and aesthetic ideals in
tea diaries (o cha kaiki). This was part of a much larger phenomenon of

42
daimyo contribution to the elaboration of the cultural vocabulary of the
Edo period.
Chanoyu was a major stimulus for the development of daimyo-
sponsored kilns as well as for interior design and the codification of
flower arrangements for tearooms and for formal arrangements on cer-
emonial occasions. While Chinese- and Korean-inspired high-fired,
glazed porcelain and stoneware remained highly prized throughout the
Edo period, the tastes of Sen no Rikyü and other tea masters ran to
rougher, humbler Japanese or Korean ware. Rikyü patronized the potter
Chôjirô, who made hand-formed, thick-walled bowls. Many daimyo took
pride in the kilns and potters within their domains and, in an effort to
develop local products, introduced their work to Edo and Osaka. The
Ikeda family of Okayama, for instance, took an active interest in the
Bizen kilns within their domain. Among the daimyo of western Japan the
Shimazu, Kuroda, Nabeshima, Goto, Matsuura, and Mori all controlled
kilns headed by Korean potters brought back forcibly during Hideyoshi's
invasions of Korea. The Nabeshima family of Hizen province in Kyushu,
for instance, was engaged in foreign trade, with their own licensed ships
plying between Japan and southeast Asia. Nabeshima Naoshige (1538-
1618) and his son Katsushige (1580-1657) both participated in the Korean
invasions and brought back Korean artisans. Establishing their kilns
around Arita, they produced blue and white underglaze and brilliantly
colored overglaze wares that won fame throughout Japan and were car-
ried to Europe by Dutch traders. The technological skills of these groups
of Korean potters contributed to the great variety and fine aesthetic
quality of Edo-period ceramics.
The tradition of flower arrangement was an ancient one in Japan
and China but it was given new impetus under Rikyü's instruction that
"flowers should be as they are in nature." In the early seventeenth cen-
tury, Ikenobó Senkô revived the fortunes of the Ikenobô school and
other schools quickly developed as the Way of flowers appealed to towns-
people, samurai, and daimyo alike. Many of the schools and family tradi-
tions in the contemporary arts of tea, flowers, music, and traditional
dance owe much to daimyo patronage in the Edo period.
Throughout the exhibition are reminders that a daimyo's life had
its private, family side as well as its public and ceremonial aspects. The
wives and children of samurai and daimyo did not have easy lives in a
feudal society. In the medieval centuries, a samurai woman learned not
only to keep house but to use a halberd and exercise a horse. A woman
would also be taught how to take her life, if necessary, by stabbing herself
in the jugular vein. Women were subject to all the hazards of an unstable
age of war. Married in childhood to a youth she might never have met
before her betrothal, a wife became the charge of her husband's family
and was expected to produce strong sons to carry on the house. In the
best of circumstances she might be a partner to her husband in the face
of shared dangers. More commonly she would be abused, widowed early,
cast adrift, or treated with scant respect by her in-laws. The property
rights and political influence enjoyed by noblewomen and the women of
influential warrior families in the Heian and Kamakura periods were
whittled away under the pressures of war and the spreading of feudal
values.
The Pax Tokugawa did not bring substantial improvements to the
status of women. If anything, their situation worsened. Like the samurai
bound more tightly in a Confucianized ethic of single-minded loyalty to
a lord, women of all classes were bound by Confucian admonitions of
threefold submission: to her husband's parents, to her husband, and to
her adult male offspring. This ideal of a Bushidd for women found its
most vigorous assertion in the Onna daigaku (Great learning for women)

43
 written by Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714), or by some accounts by his wife:
However many servants she may have in her employ it is a woman's duty not to shirk
the trouble of attending to everything herself. She must sew her father-in-law's and
mother-in-law's garments and make ready their food. Ever attentive to the require-
ments of her husband, she must fold his clothes and dust his rug, rear his children,
wash what is dirty, be constantly in the midst of her household, and never go abroad
but of necessity... (Chamberlain 1905, 506).

The wives and daughters of daimyo in the Edo period were

spared some of the worst of the chores, which they could pass on to a
retinue of maidservants and wet nurses, but their lives were still ex-
tremely circumscribed. Married to men chosen for them by their pa-
rents, regarded in many cases as little more than fruitful wombs, they
were held as hostages in the Edo yashiki. Travel beyond the yashiki was
infrequent, uncomfortable, and called for special permission. The system
of sankin kotai, whereby the daimyo alternated between Edo and their
domains, while their women were held in Edo, involved prolonged pe-
riods of separation between the daimyo, his senior retainers, and their
wives. Inevitably, wives had to cope with insecurity, loneliness, and their
husbands' infidelity. Even when a woman enjoyed the devotion of her
husband, the Confucian and samurai traditions forbade open expression
of those feelings. A samurai like Nakae Tójü (1608-1648) could earn
universal respect by expressing his filial piety to his aged mother by
quitting his lord to care for her. Less independent-minded samurai and
daimyo were constrained from expressing such devotion to their moth-
ers, much less to wives who, in Confucian thinking, owed them submis-
sion. Devotion to a woman could only be a distraction from more
important feudal loyalties. There were, of course, samurai as well as
shopkeepers who put human affection (ninjô) ahead of obligation (gin).
Such cases were turned into brilliant fiction by Edo dramatists and story-
tellers like Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724) and Iharu Saikaku (1641-
1693). In real life an<^ in fiction stern duty took a heavy toll on human
affection. The Japanese social anthropologist Nakane Chie has argued
that the demands of feudal loyalty and male bonding were so intense in
Edo-period samurai society that a samurai had "little room left for a wife
or sweetheart. . . . [His emotions should be] completely expended in
devotion to his master" (Nakane 1970, 71). Women in the upper reaches
of Edo-period samurai society therefore had to find what enjoyment they
could in their children, in the companionship of other women in the
household, in self-cultivation, and in occasional trips for pilgrimage or
entertainment beyond the narrow confines of the yashiki. Although self-
indulgence in any form was frowned upon under the samurai code,
sexual dalliance with courtesans was not serious cause for censure and
marital fidelity was not expected of a man. Wives, however, were held to
higher standards of virtue. For a woman to disgrace the honor of her
husband and his family carried the gravest consequences.
The private, or family, aspect of daimyo life also contributed to
the arts. Robes for the daimyo, their wives, and family members fre-
quently flew in the face of bakufu sumptuary prohibitions against exces-
sive luxury. Ceremonies for the birth of an heir, coming of age (genpuku),
or marriage of sons and daughters called for elaborate robes, cosmetic
cases, new armor, swords, writing utensils, and lacquerware. No expense
was spared in commissioning objects from the finest craftsmen, who
were encouraged to produce work of extreme refinement. Many of these
objects incorporated a pervasive and complex symbolism of design that
made them subtle advertisements for their user's level of literary cultiva-
tion. Among objects of this kind displayed in the exhibition is a sumptu-
ous lacquer dressing case belonging to the Mori family. In samurai

44
society, as in Japanese society at large, gift-giving was always an impor-
tant cultural and political ritual. Daimyo were expected to shower lavish
gifts on the shoguns and were rewarded with precious items in return.
Elaborate gifts were given at marriage and on accession to power. For
these gifts daimyo frequently exploited the special skills and products of
artisans in their domains.

The abolition Probing by Western vessels and the arrival of Commo-

of the feudal dore Perry's squadron off the coast of Japan in 1853
order and the presented a major challenge to the Tokugawa bakufu
legacy of and the whole Tokugawa power structure, including
the daimyo. The bakufu's inability to fulfill its mission
daimyo
and expel the foreign menace created a volatile politi-
culture cal situation in which younger samurai activists from
some of the southwestern tozama domains challenged
the Tokugawa bakufu and eventually overthrew it in the name of a
restoration of imperial rule. Within a few years the new leadership, most
of whom were samurai, had embarked on a process of rapid nation
building that was to involve a total dismantling of the old feudal order,
including the daimyo domains. In the race to modernize and strengthen
Japan by introducing institutions, ideas, and technology from the West,
the daimyo and the welter of domains they had headed were seen as part
of a backward, divisive, and repressive ancien régime, too closely associ-
ated with the discredited Tokugawa shogunate. It was suggested that the
daimyo might be incorporated in a great council of state, but in the first
flush of Meiji enthusiasm with calls for rationalization, centralization,
the promotion of talent, and "civilization and enlightenment" from the
West ringing in the air, the daimyo seemed out of place. They were not
subjected to violence and were not eliminated overnight. Some daimyo
were called upon to advise the Tokugawa bakufu, the court, and the new
Restoration government. Gradually, however, between 1868 and 1871
their domains were reduced and their powers shifted to the new govern-
ment. Distinctions between the various categories of han were first re-
duced, together with the many subdivisions in rank within samurai
society. In 1869 the daimyo of those domains that had led the
Restoration—Satsuma, Choshu, Saga, and Tosa—set an example to
other daimyo by petitioning to be permitted to return their domain
registers to the imperial court. This began the process of preempting
daimyo and samurai claims to a land settlement in the Restoration. The
new government would buy them out and coopt them politically, but
with bonds or cash, not with land. No longer daimyo, they were named
"Governors" of their territories and granted one-tenth of the former
domain income for their own use.
Within a few years all court nobles and former daimyo would be
ordered to live in Tokyo. So that they should not be demoted to com-
moner status overnight the government created a new peerage in which
the old court nobility and the former Tokugawa family and daimyo were
given the rank of peer (kazoku), that is to say, they were incorporated into
a new Meiji elite around the emperor, made up of former court nobles,
daimyo, and new peers drawn from the oligarchs who had carried
through the Meiji Restoration. This creation of a new aristocracy in
modernizing Meiji Japan was clearly intended to conform to European
example, but perhaps even more important, to fortify the position of the
imperial house and serve as a bulwark against excessive political change
or undue radicalism. With the abolition of domains and creation of pre-
fectures in 1871 all daimyo were pensioned off with government bonds
scaled as fractions of their former kokudaka income. The bonds were

45
 later commuted into cash. Those daimyo that had enjoyed the largest
incomes in the Tokugawa structure, therefore, tended to fare best under
the new Meiji dispensation. Mori of Choshü and Maeda of Kaga re-
ceived bonds worth over a million yen, which at five percent interest
annually would have given them annual incomes of more than 50,000
yen, a very large income in Meiji Japan. Most daimyo fared much less
well, perhaps enjoying incomes from their bond of between 2,000 and
5,000 yen a year. These were still substantial incomes in the i88os and
18905, especially now that they were freed from the responsibility of
providing for their retainers as well as their families. As peers the former
daimyo had capital and were free to invest in land, railroads, or other
enterprises. Some did so very astutely and became among the wealthiest
members of late Meiji society; others were less successful. On the whole,
however, the former daimyo were very much more favorably treated
than the mass of former samurai who were classed as commoners and
granted meager financial settlements, most of which were quickly de-
pleted. Politically, the former daimyo made less of an impact. A few
entered provincial or national politics. For the most part, however, politi-
cal leadership was taken by lower-ranking figures, many of whom had
connections with Satsuma and Choshü. By the close of the nineteenth
century the early Meiji elite, of which the daimyo were part, was being
bypassed by a new leadership that emerged from former samurai or
commoner backgrounds.
What of daimyo culture in the post-Restoration era? In the full
flush of enthusiasm for things Western in the i86os and 18705, the cul-
tural interests of the Tokugawa elite were largely disregarded or discred-
ited. Like all samurai, daimyo gave up their swords, formal robes, and
palanquins and took to walking sticks, Western dress, and the railway.
Obligatory sankin kôtai and attendance upon the shogun had been re-
placed by freedom of travel and freer social intercourse. In the abolition
of the domains they lost their castles and many of their Tokyo residences.
In many cases they sold off family treasures. Lesser mortals no longer
bowed at their passage and they lost the power to command service from
farmers and craftsmen. Where once the classical learning of Japan and
China had provided their intellectual framework, they now had to come
to terms with new ideas and notions from the West. Prized tea utensils,
Buddhist statues, and other works of art were temporarily devalued as
attention turned to the assimilation of artistic models from the West.
But not everything had been destroyed and with time came a
reassessment of cultural values. Many works of art were acquired cheaply
by Western collectors and museums but others were bought by Japanese
who were finding new value in their own cultural tradition. Some dai-
myo retained substantial collections and added to them during the late
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After the fever for things Western
subsided somewhat in the mid-Meiji period, Japanese and Westerners
alike began to rediscover the qualities of artistic and cultural attainment
that had been enjoyed and prized by the former daimyo. No and chanoyu
began to regain attention, ceramics found export outlets, and painters
began to revive traditional styles. Many of the elements associated with
that elite feudal society that seemed at risk of being completely lost or
discredited in early Meiji have since been recognized as among the finest
examples of Japanese cultural attainment.

46
 Daimyo and art

YOSHIAKI SHIMIZU

O N THE NIGHT OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH

day of the twelfth month of the
fourth year of Jishô, which corres-
ponds to 1180, the sky over Nara, the
ancient capital of Japan and center of
old Buddhism, turned red. Daibutsuden, the Great Buddha Hall of To-
daiji, was burning. Taira Kiyomori (1118-1181), the head of the Taira war-
rior clan (Heike) and Prime Minister who controlled the imperial house
and court, had sent his son Shigehira (1156-1184), to confront the hostile
monks of Tôdaiji and Kófukuji, who were sympathetic to the rival Mina-
moto clan (Genji). Shigehira's men set fire to houses along the roads
approaching the monasteries, and eventually to the buildings within.
Some 1,700 women, children, and elderly who had sought refuge in the
Great Buddha Hall were engulfed by the raging fire and swirling smoke.
The head of the colossal bronze Buddha, thirty-two meters high, and
then the huge wooden hall, crashed to the ground. The nearby monas-
tery of Kôfukuji met the same fate. Miraculously, the Shôsôin, which
housed the imperial art collection amassed by the eighth-century em-
peror Shómu (701-756) and which stood only a few hundred yards behind
the Great Buddha Hall, survived.
Since the founding of Tôdaiji in the mid-eighth century, the
Great Buddha and its hall had been symbols of Japanese Buddhism,
which had been supported by the imperial court. The court was now
devastated by the loss of the great edifices, inestimable Buddhist icons,
and treasures housed within the monasteries. The imperial treasury was
empty and its power eroded. There was little reason to expect the Heike
usurpers to channel resources into rebuilding Tôdaiji and Kôfukuji. Not
until Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), given a mandate by the former

47
 emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127-1192) and freed from a twenty-year banish-
ment in Izu, amassed an army of more than twenty thousand men, were
the Heike routed. The Genji troops, led by Yoritomo's impetuous half
brother Yoshitsune (1159-1189), repulsed the Heike at the decisive Battle
of Dannoura in the spring of 1185.
Yet, even before the Heike had been driven from power, and
within a month after the burning of Tôdaiji and Kôfukuji, the court of
Kyoto had ordered the reconstruction process to begin under the leader-
ship of a monk of Tôdaiji, Shunjôbô Chôgen (1121-1206). Chógen ener-
getically pursued the task, raising much-needed funds and traveling to
China to engage an expert Chinese bronze caster. He also found timbers
in Suó and brought them to Nara. A replica of the bronze colossus was
dedicated in the eighth month of 1184, in the presence of both the
cloistered emperor Go-Shirakawa and Yoritomo, who traveled from Ka-
makura to attend the ceremony. Ten years later, the reconstruction of the
Great Buddha Hall also was completed. It was the first major public
project accomplished by a new coalition that included the court, the
Genji warriors, and the clerics, and a symbol of the new era of steward-
ship of the affairs of the state by the warriors.
When the Genji warrior clan established its government at the
end of the twelfth century, many Japanese artistic traditions already had
been in place for more than two centuries. Buddhist temples and Shinto
shrines had their own workshops of painters called edokoro, the name
based on the earlier and more official body within the imperial palace.
Sculptural traditions had been firmly based in Nara as well as in Kyoto.
Out of the new creative impetus generated by the reconstruction
projects at Tôdaiji and Kôfukuji emerged the Kei school and its new
style. Its stylistic influence extended to the east, centered around Kama-
kura, the seat of the warrior government. The sculptor Unkei (d. 1223),
who along with his father, Kôkei, led the campaign to restore the Bud-
dhist icons at Nara, propagated a style that took root under the patronage
of Hôjô Tokimasa (1138-1215), the warrior chieftain in the east.
Meanwhile, new Buddhist monasteries were being built in Kama-
kura. Zen temples with new architectural features based on Chinese
models were founded during the period of renewed, sustained contact
with mainland China encouraged by the Hôjô regents in Kamakura. In
the fourteenth century, especially, hundreds of Japanese Zen pilgrims
went to China, many for sojourns often to fifteen years. Chinese monks
also visited Japan at the invitation of the patrons of Zen monasteries, the
Hôjô family members (cats. 47, 54, 55). The Chinese emigré monks were
great teachers of sinology as well as religion. The cultural fringe benefits
that Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism brought to Japan were enthusiasti-
cally received by the new warrior elite, who as patrons had found some-
thing new, something that had not been handed down to them by the old
régime.
Renewed contacts between Japan and China led to the adoption
of two Chinese painting traditions: the Song Dynasty portrait tradition,
and an ink painting tradition that incorporated new subject matter and
techniques. Chinese paintings at Butsunichian, a sub-temple Engakuji
and the mortuary chapel of Regent Hôjô Tokimune (1251-1284) included,
according to an inventory made around 1365, two new categories of
painting: portraits of Chinese Chan (Zen) masters, and ink paintings of
Daoist and Buddhist saints, landscapes, and flowers and birds.
When Yoritomo accepted the title Seiitdshdgun in 1192 he proba-
bly was uncomfortable with the idea that he had also inherited the
stewardship of the arts and culture, which had always been the province
of the aristocrats. His painted portrait, perhaps the single most important
painting in this exhibition, presents him in courtly attire (cat. i). The
painting is part of a set of three portraits at Jingoji that survive from an
original set of five: Go-Shirakawa at the center; a courtier; two Taira clan

48
members, one of them Shigemori (1138-1179); and Yoritomo. Yoritomo
appears aristocratic, despite evidence that he was in fact anything but
that. His occasional complacency toward the arts is demonstrated by his
refusal, during the ceremony to dedicate the reconstructed Great Bud-
dha at Nara, to view paintings from Go-Shirakawa's extraordinary per-
sonal collection. Without seeing even a single work, Yoritomo returned
the paintings to Go-Shirakawa.
Yoritomo's response to art contrasts strongly with Kiyomori's atti-
tude toward it. In 1170 Kiyomori and Go-Shirakawa together visited the
Shôsôin collection in Nara to view the art treasures amassed since the
time of the emperor Shômu. The history of the warrior-rulers' relation to
art collecting from the time Yoritomo became shogun to about 1615,
when the Tokugawa shogunate was formed in Edo, in fact reveals a
pattern of emulation by each ruler of earlier precedents. Each daimyo
referred to examples set by his antecedents and superiors, always con-
scious that mastery of both bun and bu were expected of a warrior.
Through the thirteenth century, the shogun did not make official visits
to the Shôsôin, but in the late fourteenth century and throughout the
fifteenth century, when the Ashikaga shoguns established their govern-
ment in Kyoto, the official visit once again became an important event.
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408) and the courtier Regent Nijô Yoshimoto
(1320-1388) viewed the Shôsôin treasures that were especially selected for
a display at a Nara temple in 1385, and it was Yoshimitsu, followed by his
successors, who amassed the Ashikaga shogunal collection of Chinese
paintings and other art objects. Both Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394-1441) and
Yoshimasa, whose portraits are included in this exhibition (cats. 5, 6),
payed homage to the Shôsôin and viewed its treasures in 1429 and 1465
respectively. Later, in 1574, Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), the daimyo of
Owari, made a special visit to the famous collection. Art collecting played
an important role in that it reminded rulers to attend to the arts as well as
to political and military business. From Ashikaga Yoshinori's collection of
Chinese art, some twenty works survive, each stamped with his collec-
tion seal, Zakkashitsuin (cat. 100). Ashikaga Yoshimasa's collection of
Chinese painting at Higashiyama was so prestigious that even after its
dispersal, items from his collection continued to be called gyomotsu or
"honorable objects/' as late as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The upper-class warriors had close connections with the Zen
establishment, and maintained relationships at various levels. For exam-
ple, the Ouchi family of Suô patronized Nanzenji in Kyoto as well as Zen
temples in their home province. Warrior families would also send their
sons to Zen monasteries for sinological education. Some daimyo families
would actively patronize a particular sub-temple, or even found one; the
sub-temple would usually become the family mortuary temple. The Ju-
kôin at Daitokuji for the daimyo family of Miyoshi and the Shinjôin sub-
temple at Tenryüji for the Hosokawa are two such examples.
Their patronage of the Zen establishment naturally led some
daimyo to become accomplished poets and men of letters, worthy of
being commemorated in paintings inscribed by a host of erudite Zen
monks. Inscriptions on an early fifteenth-century painting of a mountain
villa (cat. 85) praised Ouchi Morimi (1377-1431), constable of Suô, for his
wisdom as a ruler and for his talent as an accomplished poet. Another
daimyo, Yamana Tokihiro (1367-1435), was a regular member of a poetry
salon organized by Zen monks of Nanzenji in Kyoto under the patronage
of the Ashikaga shogun Yoshimochi (1386-1428; cat. 83). Yoshimochi him-
self was an inspired amateur painter, and some of his surviving works
show a high artistic level (cat. 80). Among the artistic daimyo of the
fifteenth century some showed an understanding of art surpassing that
of their ecclesiastical counterparts. Hosokawa Shigeyuki (1434-1511), dai-
myo of Sanuki Province, was a collector of Chinese paintings. Upon his
retirement from military and administrative duties he became a Zen

49
 priest. When Osen Keisan (1429-1493), a scholar-monk, visited Shigeyuki,
the aging warrior told the monk that he wished to show him a landscape
that he himself had painted on his recent trip to Kumano and other
scenic spots on the Kii peninsula. When the scroll was opened there was
nothing but a blank sheet of paper. The monk, struck by the emptiness
of the painting, offered these words of praise:
Your brush is as tall as the Mount Sumeru
[cosmic mountain in Buddhism]
Black ink large enough to exhaust the great earth;
The white paper as vast as the void that swallows up all illusions.

For a daimyo to outwit a Zen monk, as Hosokawa Shigeyuki did,

or to join a literary salon, as other Muromachi-period warriors did, was to
partake of a private experience. By the second half of the sixteenth
century, however, the artistic activities of warriors began to take on
public character. Especially when warrior patrons employed painters to
decorate their houses, the paintings were meant to be displayed in a large
room that had a social, public function. From the second half of the
sixteenth century through the early part of the seventeenth, professional
painters' ateliers emerged independent of establishments such as the
Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines; in order to meet effectively the
needs of different clients that included a growing number of warrior
families. Foremost among the ateliers was that of the Kano, who were
employed by military hegemons such as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi
Hideyoshi to decorate the interiors of their mansions and castles, as well
as the Buddhist temples they patronized. This period, called the Momo -
yama, saw a turning point in Japanese history, away from the medieval to
the pre-modern age. The art of the Momoyama period eloquently illus-
trates this transition.
Throughout Japan, the second half of the sixteenth century was
marked by a great surge of construction, as warriors built fortified castles.
Few castles survive from the sixteenth century, known as the Age of the
Wars, and the interior paintings also were destroyed. Castles still extant
are mostly from the Edo period. Sliding door panels from Nijó Castle in
Kyoto (cat. 125) and from Nagoya Castle (cats. 126,127) are included in the
exhibition, but they are about a generation or two later than typical
Momoyama sliding doors.
Two important sixteenth-century castles that were destroyed
were Azuchi Castle on Lake Biwa, to the east of Kyoto, and Fushimi
Castle, to the southeast of Kyoto. Azuchi Castle was built in 1576 for Oda
Nobunaga, and Fushimi Castle in 1594 for Nobunaga's trusted vassal
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598). The two men brought military leader-
ship and political unification to Japan during the second half of the
sixteenth century, and also were the major patrons of painting. In 1576,
Nobunaga ordered his vassal Akechi Mitsuhide (d. 1582), the man who
would kill Nobunaga six years later, to superintend the construction at
Azuchi. A detailed description of the building and decoration campaigns
was recorded by a chronicler who compiled Nobunaga's biography. The
lengthy description of the paintings distributed throughout the castle
includes mention, in the seven-story-high central structure, of numerous
paintings by Kano Eitoku (1543-1590), his son Mitsunobu (c. 1565-1608),
and their assistants.
Kano Eitoku was the fourth-generation head of the Kano family
of professional painters. Since the late fifteenth century the family had
served powerful patrons, including the Ashikaga shoguns. Masanobu,
(1434-1530) the founder, painted for Ashikaga Yoshimasa, and was em-
ployed in exclusive service by the shogunate. The Kano painters special-
ized in what their contemporaries called "Chinese mode" painting.
Motonobu, Eitoku's grandfather and the son of Masanobu, was the
champion of this tradition during the first half of the sixteenth century.

50
A typical example of Kano Motonobu's work is the set of four sliding
door panels from Reiun'in exhibited here (cat. 97). During the Momo-
yama period, the various studios operated by the Kano family members
contracted to execute specific projects, and Eitoku's studio was very
much in demand. In fact Eitoku was so busy with the commissions that
came from Nobunaga and Hideyoshi that the artist could hardly take
care of his own household. At Azuchi, Eitoku, Mitsunobu, and assistants
executed panel paintings in ink and gold. The paintings of Buddhist
subjects and Chinese Confucian, and Daoist narrative themes were on
the upper floors. Landscapes and paintings of flowers and birds and
animals were distributed throughout the lower floors. Although the
Azuchi paintings have been destroyed, the evidence of other surviving
works contemporary with Eitoku, including the set of sliding door panels
from Myôrenji (cat. 121), permits us to speculate that the Azuchi panels
must have been monumental, brilliant due to the lavish use of gold, and
dynamic in design. In 1582 Nobunaga was assassinated, and Hideyoshi
assumed control of military affairs and the government. In 1583 he began
the construction of Osaka Castle and commissioned Eitoku and his ate-
lier to decorate its interior. None of the panels survived the fall of the
castle to the Tokugawa forces in 1614 and 1615, but Eitoku's legacy is
unabashedly reflected in the style of a monumental composition by
Kano Tan'yü (1602-1674), Eitoku's grandson and painter in service to the
Tokugawa shogunate. The Kano style patronized by the shogunate in
turn became a model emulated by the various daimyo who caused artis-
tic styles to be disseminated in the provinces during the Edo period.
The monumental and heroic style of painting associated with
Eitoku cannot be separated from the mood of the age and the personality
of his major patron, Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi's personality and artistic tem-
perament were complex and even contradictory; he aspired to be stoic,
but could not resist epicurean pursuits. On one hand he sought the
rusticity of a humble tearoom, and on the other, he displayed ostenta-
tiously a gold tea house in his castle mansion in Osaka, of which a
description survives: "from the tatami-matted floor to the ceiling, from
pillar to the cross beams, all were covered with gold; teabowls, kettle,
spoon, everything was gold." Yet Hideyoshi was an enthusiastic patron of
indigenous Raku wares, characterized by simplicity and directness of
form and color (cats. 285, 286). In Hideyoshi the timbre and behavior of
the ruthless military hegemon seem to have been conditioned by the
famous art objects he owned.
Particularly during the last quarter of the sixteenth century,
many famous art treasures once in the collections of the fifteenth-
century Ashikaga shoguns had been broken up. Individual paintings and
artworks fell into the hands of daimyo in the provinces or entered the
collections of wealthy merchant-aesthetes and tea adepts in Sakai, Nara,
Kyoto, and Hakata. Written records document the movement and pedi-
grees of some of the most coveted tea ceremony utensils and Chinese
paintings. Both Nobunaga and Hideyoshi had inherited some of the
prized works from the Ashikaga collections. A collection inherited by
Nobunaga was destroyed by fire in 1582, though some artworks were
handed to Hideyoshi who, known for his shrewd and level-headed de-
meanor during fierce battles, also set up a tea room where he served tea
between battles. On the very spot where one's life might vanish like the
morning dew, he used and admired the famous teabowls and Chinese
ink paintings he inherited from Nobunaga.
In the seventeenth century, when the peaceful Tokugawa sho-
gunate was established, the warrior class continued to serve as custodi-
ans, practitioners, and patrons of the arts. Later, following Hideyoshi's
example, the Edo shogunate had tea masters in place for generations.
The tea master Kobori Enshü (1579-1647) developed his own set of rules
of tea aesthetics; he amassed his own collection of art, some of it trace-

51
 able to the Ashikaga collections and therefore extremely valuable. Such
works came to be called meibutsu or "renowned pieces." The daimyo and
collector Matsudaira Fumai (Harusato) (1751-1818) of Izumo Province
built his own art collection. The works that survived from it are called
Unshü meibutsu, or the masterpieces of Izumo Province. This tradition
of recording the pedigree of an object also led collectors to treasure
boxes, inner and outer, for paintings; inscriptions on the boxes, either
exterior or interior, by a known connoisseur; certificates written by con-
noisseurs; letters of appreciation by a famous connoisseur, and so on.
For the warrior, the balancing of bun and bu was easier said than
done. In the Muromachi period the arts of bun were related to religious
devotion or the practice of tea, No, or painting, and were more or less
confined to private life; thus no conflict existed between bun and bu. In
times of unrest, the public image of Muromachi daimyo like Ouchi
Morimi and Hosokawa Shigeyuki (1434-1511) was based almost exclusively
upon their activities as warriors and men of bu. The Edo period was a
time of specialization. Maeda Tsunanori (1643-1724), daimyo of Kaga
Province, gathered samples of handicrafts from throughout Japan, which
resulted in an encyclopedic collection known as Hyakkô hishô, now in
the Maeda Foundation, Tokyo. In times of peace, however, the reconcili-
ation of bu, to maintain the warrior's public responsibility, and bun, to
sustain and embellish the warrior's private world of the spirit, often
resulted in tension. Peace itself undermined the very existence of war-
riorhood and the concept of bu. Eventually, the eighteenth century saw
the emergence of a group of daimyo whose activities were totally in the
realm of bun: Satake Shozan of Akita (1748-1785; cats. 136, 137), Hoso-
kawa Shigekata of Higo (1720-1795; cat. 139), and Masuyama Sessai of Ise
(1734-1819; cat. 138). All three were natural scientist-artists whose path to
their exclusive devotion to bun had been paved in the late seventeenth
century, when peace was at last assured. In that period of transition,
ironic anecdotes surfaced about Hosokawa Sansai (1563-1646), a daimyo
and a man of cultivation, who was both a great collector and an armor
designer. One story describes Sansai's meeting with Hotta Masamori
(1608-1651), who had asked to see the daimyo's collection of tea utensils.
Sansai showed Masamori only arms and armor, however. Later, Sansai
explained that since one warrior had been visited by another, none other
than warrior's utensils could possibly have been shown (Kansai hikki,
196). According to a second story, a daimyo from another province sent a
messenger to ask Sansai to design a crested helmet for him. Sansai speci-
fied that it should be made from paulownia wood in the shape of water
buffalo horns. The messenger was puzzled by the choice of such fragile
materials. Sansai explained that a helmet crest should break easily rather
than distract the wearer, yet the messenger persisted in questioning
Sansai, asking how such a fragile helmet could ever be mended. Sansai
replied that a warrior in battle should not expect to live another day, and
that this was the ultimate law of the military man:
If a warrior is preoccupied with the breaking of his helmet ornament, how can he
handle his own life, which he lives only once? Besides, a crest broken in combat will
be truly magnificent to look at. But once life is lost, it can never be replaced/ Having
heard this, the messenger asked no more questions, and left (Okinagusa, 588-589).

52
Contributors to the catalogue Chronology
AMW Andrew M. Wat sky Early historical period
AY Ariga Yoshitaka Asuka 552-710
HY Hiroi Yüichi Nara 710-794
JIK Janet Ikeda Kohatsu Heian 794-1185
KS Kawakami Shigeki
MK Matsushima Ken Medieval period
MR Miriam Ricketts Kamakura 1185-1333
MS Miyajima Shin'ichi Muromachi 1333-1573
NK Nedachi Kensuke Nanbokuchô (Northern and Southern
NYA Nakamura Yoriaki Courts) 1333-1392
NYS Nakamura Yasushi Sengoku jidai (Age of Wars) 1467-1573
SH Soejima Hiromichi
SN Suzuki Norio
Early modern period
SY Sato Yasuhiro
Momoyama 1573-1615
TY Takahashi Yüji
Edo 1615-1868
WA Watanabe Akiyoshi
YK Yuyama Ken'ichi
YS Yoshiaki Shimizu Modern period
Meiji 1868-1912
Dimensions of all works are in centi- Taishô 1912-1926
meters, followed by inches within Showà 1926-present
parentheses.
All Japanese and Chinese personal names Chinese Dynasties
appear in the catalogue in traditional style, Tang 618-907
Five Dynasties 907-960
with surnames preceding given names.
Northern Song 960-1127
"Left" and "right" mean the viewer's left Southern Song 1127-1279
and right when referring to paintings, Yuan (Mongol) 1279-1368
proper left and right when referring to Ming 1368-1644
sculpture and robes. Qing 1644-1911

The following words are not defined in the text:

kad: cipher or stylized signature
shakudd: alloy of copper and gold,
patinated black
shuji: character symbolizing a deity
(in Esoteric Buddhism).

53
PORTRAITURE

55
 i Minamoto Yoritomo cles portray Yoritomo as a suspicious,
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk brutal, and ruthless warrior, the portrait
139.4 x 111.8 (547/8 x 44) here represents him as a courtly official
Kamakura period, rather than as a mighty military chieftain.
ist quarter of 13th century This painting is part of a set of four
Jingoji, Kyoto surviving portraits at Jingoji; the others are
of the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa; the
National Treasure
courtier Fujiwara Mitsuyoshi (1132-1183);
A courtierlike figure wearing tailed cer- and Taira Shigemori (1138-1179), the eldest
emonial headgear (kdburi), carrying a cer- son of Kiyomori (1118-1181), the warrior
emonial sword, and clad in starched chieftain of the defeated Taira clan. These
formal silk attire (kowasdzoku) is seated on four in turn are believed to correspond to
a three-layered tatami mat. He holds a four paintings from an early set of five that
shaku, a wedge-shaped, thin wooden slat, was once at Sentôin, Jingoji, as recorded in
on which the program for a ceremony an early fourteenth century document of
would be written. His blue sash (obi), orna- Jingoji. The fifth portrait of the set, that of
mented with a gold phoenix design, termi- Taira Narifusa (fl. 1157-1177), a chamberlain
nates in strands of gold and blue. Its outer of Go-Shirakawa, has long been lost.
borders are decorated with parallel bands How the ensemble was formed and
of green, yellow, blue, and red and a zigzag came to be at the Esoteric Buddhist sanc-
pattern in gold. The eyes look sharply to- tuary of Jingoji may be partially explained
ward the right, and the lightly bearded by several interconnected circumstances
face and neck of the sitter are white, of the politics played out around the per-
slightly tinted with thin brown washes, son of the ex-emperor Go-Shirakawa dur-
starkly contrasting with the red of the ing the second half of the twelfth century.
robe's lining. Sentôin was built in 1188 to prepare for an
The black outer robe (/io), which dom- imperial visit by Go-Shirakawa, which
inates the composition, is intricately orna- took place two years later. Go-Shirakawa
mented with floral patterns in lustrous and Yoritomo were both associated with
black paint over a ground of matte black, a the temple through the priest Mongaku
feature that has become more readable (fl. c. 1173-1203), a former warrior who was
from the recent cleaning and remounting responsible for much of the extensive re-
of the scroll. The peony roundels on the building campaign at Jingoji in 1182, and
white silk undergarment (shitagasane) are whose painted portrait also survives at the
rendered in pale ink. The hem of the sit- same temple. Mongaku had angered Go-
ter's silk trousers is ornamented with intri- Shirakawa by plying him with excessive re-
cate floral and checked patterns of silver quests for funds for the rebuilding
leaf, now tarnished. Along the borders of campaign, and was exiled to Izu Province
the tailpiece of the headgear are four (part of present-day Shizuoka Prefecture).
rhomboid patterns. The painting has suf- There he met Yoritomo, who had been ex-
fered damage along the upper border and iled there also, and their close association
in the right half of the tatami mat, includ- began. Later, it was through Yoritomo's
ing its sheathing cloth. The green mala- support and the eventual funding from
chite pigment of the tatami surface has Go-Shirakawa that Jingoji was successfully
flaked off considerably, exposing the silk rebuilt.
support underneath. The courtier Mitsuyoshi played an in-
Executed in the consummate picto- termediate role between Go-Shirakawa
rial technique of the courtly tradition of and Yoritomo when the latter became the
yamato-e indigenous to Japan, this paint- power to be reckoned with and an ally in
ing is one of the earliest extant examples Go-Shirakawa's ploy to be rid of the politi-
of formal secular portraiture. The sitter is cal influence of the Taira clan. Mitsu-
traditionally identified as Minamoto Yori- yoshi's portrait, in composition a mirror
tomo (1147-1199), the first shogun who, af- image of Yoritomo, faces to the left. Taira
ter defeating the rival Heike, or Taira, clan Shigemori, the subject of the fourth por-
at Dannoura in 1185, ruled Japan from Ka- trait, was, unlike his father, favorably
makura as the chieftain of the Minamoto treated by Go-Shirakawa and became the
clan. In 1192, soon after the death of the Inner Minister of the old regime, but he
formidable retired emperor Go-Shirakawa was dismissed by Kiyomori and died
(1127-1192), Yoritomo received from the young, before his father. Shigemori's por-
court the coveted title of Seiitaishdgun trait also faces to the left, counterbalanc-
(Great General Who Quells the Barbari- ing that of Yoritomo. The entire set when
ans). Yoritomo became the supreme com- assembled as a group exudes a strong com-
mander of the warriors and the head of memorative character and can be seen as
the military government, and concurrently an expression of political symbolism.
was appointed to Senior Second Rank, a The surviving four paintings at Jingoji
prestigious court rank from which he are by different hands, although since the
could claim legitimacy and exert influ- early fourteenth century they have been
ence. Although medieval military chroni- attributed to Fujiwara Takanobu (1142-
1205), a low-ranking courtier serving the re-

56
1

57
2 3

tired emperor Go-Shirakawa. A painter Hôjô also included the most highly cul- hama) due to illness, and he died the fol-
with a considerable reputation, Takanobu tured people then in Kamakura. Portraits lowing year. It is not certain when he
is remembered as an expert in the art of of these four clan members have been became a priest, but it seems to have been
nise e (semblance picture), which often handed down at Shômyôji; the portrait of around the time when he retired to his
meant depiction in a small format of peo- Sanetoki, painted around 1275, and that of villa in Kanesawa.
ple in real life. The Takanobu attribution Sadamasa (cat. 3), painted around 1345, are The portrait of Sanetoki is of the type
of the Jingoji portraits, however, is not well included in this exhibition. These por- known as a hottaizd (clerical portrait).
accepted today. The portraits probably traits, divided by approximately seventy Sanetoki has a shaven head, wears a kesa
date from the first quarter of the thir- years, exemplify the changes in portrait (priest's mantle) over a hoi (priest's robe),
teenth century. YS painting of upper-class warriors that oc- holds a fan in his right hand and a rosary
curred during that time. in his left, and sits on a tatami mat. The
2 Hôjô Sanetoki Hôjô Sanetoki was the grandson of sitter's countenance is beautifully cap-
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk Yoshitoki (1163-1224), the second regent of tured with fine flowing lines, while the
74.0 x 53.7 (29 Vfc x 21 Vs) the Kamakura shogunate. Sanetoki served straight lines used for his robes display a
in various important posts of the shogun- dynamic movement of the brush. Judging
Kamakura period, c. 1275
ate and was assistant to Yasutoki (1183- from the lively expressiveness of the por-
Shômyôji, Kanagawa Prefecture 1242), the third regent, and Tokiyori trait, it was most likely painted in Sane-
National Treasure (1227-1263), the fifth regent. Erudite in toki's last years or not long after his death,
Confucianism, he was a strong cultural fig- perhaps for such an occasion as an anni-
Hôjô Sanetoki (1224-1276), Hôjô Kanetoki ure in the Kamakura area. He not only versary of his death. AY
(1248-1301), Kanesawa Sadaaki (1278-1333), founded the Kanesawa Bunko (Kanesawa
and Kanesawa Sadamasa (1302-1333) were Library) and collected books, but also
members of the Hôjô clan, whose leaders founded Shômyôji. In 1275 he retired to
controlled the Kamakura shogunate. The Kanesawa (present-day Kanazawa, Yoko-

58
 5

3 Kanesawa Sadamasa tate eboshi (erect black headgear) on his 4 Ashikaga Yoshimochi
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk head, a kariginu (hunting robe), and hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
77.1 X 53.1 (303/8 X 20 7/8) sashinuki (baggy pants tied at the ankles). 113.6x59.0(443/4x231/4)
Nanbokuchô period, c. 1345 In format this is an idealized portrait of a Muromachi period, no later than 1414
military leader, more stylized than the por-
Shômyôji, Kanagawa Prefecture Jingoji, Kyoto
trait of Sanetoki. The carefully painted
National Treasure Important Cultural Property
face has a thick layer of pigment over
This portrait of Kanesawa Sadamasa which light vermilion lines are drawn and Ashikaga Yoshimochi (1386-1428) was the
(1302-1333) is one of four portraits at Shô- vermilion shadows added. Stylistically, this fourth shogun of the Muromachi shogun-
myôji representing four members of the is a transitional work anticipating warrior ate. Yoshimochi is seated on a raised ta-
powerful Hôjô family (cat. 2). The young- portraits of the Muromachi period. It was tami mat wearing a headgear known as a
est of the four depicted, Sadamasa was the probably painted around 1345, the thir- kdburi and a courtier's robe. This portrait
son of Kanesawa Sadaaki (1278-1333). After teenth anniversary of his death, long after depicts him as the Naidaijin, a high official
serving as shogunal deputy in Kyoto and the Kanesawa family line had come to an of the imperial court who assisted the min-
as governor of Musashi Province, he end and when Shômyôji had regained its isters of the Right and the Left, rather
moved to Kamakura and headed the sho- former influence. than as the Seiitaishogun (Great General
gunate's office of justice in charge of terri- The inscription in the lower right Who Quells the Barbarians), the head of
torial disputes. In 1333, together with his corner reads, Sadamasa, former ruler of the military class.
father, he fought against Nitta Yoshisada's Musashi. AY His depiction here strongly resembles
(1301-1338) forces and was killed at Yama- that of Minamoto Yoritomo (cat. i),
nouchi in Kamakura. painted two centuries earlier: both men
In this portrait Sadamasa sits on a ta- wear the formal regalia of an imperial aris-
tami mat. Formally dressed, he wears a tocrat, and the designs on their robes are
Chinese-inspired. Both have their faces set

59
off by the touch of red at the collar. The Suruga Province (part of present-day Shi- either side by banks on which pine trees
comparison of Yoshimochi, in the eulogy, zuoka Prefecture), and visited Seikenji. grow. Tiny figures appear, one on a bridge
to a "golden phoenix and jade dragon" When Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436- at the right and another in a fishing boat
also reflects the ardent sinophilia of the 1490) succeeded to the shogunate in 1443, on the left. In the distance across the wa-
Ashikaga shoguns and of their times. The shôen (private manors) formerly belonging ter, hills and buildings—perhaps a temple
eulogy above the figure is dated to 1414, to temples were restored to their owners complex—are faintly visible. The style of
when Yoshimochi was twenty-eight: in compliance with Yoshinori's orders. Ac- the painting is after the Chinese Song Dy-
cording to the inscription, this portrait of nasty academic mode. Its theme is
Portrait of the Seiitaishdgun, Junior First
Yoshinori was painted in commemoration thought to be the famous Eight Views of
Rank, Administrative Position of Inner
of that event, a fact supported by docu- the Xiao and Xiang Rivers. Kano Ma-
Minister, painted from life:
ments at Myôkôji. Also, beneath Shûhô's sanobu (1434-1530) was known to have
An accomplished man who responds to this
signature (on the extreme right), Yoshi- painted this theme for Yoshimasa's Hi-
world, a golden phoenix, a jade dragon;
masa himself added a short inscription and gashiyama villa in 1483. In addition, Ma-
Neither common nor saintly; at once a man
his kaô saying that the painting is a trea- sanobu was thought to have made
of the world and a man of the spirit. The
sure of Myôkôji. sketches of Yoshimasa during his lifetime,
brush-tip [of this writing] makes an
In the portrait Yoshinori is formally one of which he used as the basis for a
ardent vow for the Diamond Eyes—for a
dressed; he wears an eboshi (black head- posthumous portrait employed in Yoshi-
revelation of the Body of the Victory
gear) and a warrior's robe with a koshiga- masa's funeral service. Although the paint-
Bodhisattva [Jizó Bosatsu].
tana (short sword) tucked into his sash, ing exhibited here has not been identified
Sixth day, ninth month, twenty-first year of
holds a chükei (a type of folding fan), and with that posthumous portrait, its style, es-
Oei [1414]
sits barefooted on a two-tiered tatami pecially in the landscape, suggest that it
Respectfully inscribed by Taiun mat. MS could be a Kano school work, if not by Ma-
[Jakujgm of Butsunichisan.
sanobu himself. MR
[illegible square relief seal]
Taiun [square relief seal] 6 Ashikaga Yoshimasa
hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold leaf 7 Mounted warrior
Taiun Jakugin, who inscribed this eulogy, on silk hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
presumably was a priest of the temple But- 44.2 x 56.0 (173/8 x 22) 100.3x53.3(391/2x21)
sunichisan. Neither the priest nor the tem- Muromachi period, i5th century Nanbokuchô period, i4th century
ple has been identified. This portrait is
at Jingoji, the temple that Yoshimochi Tokyo National Museum Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo
patronized. Important Cultural Property
Unusual in its detailed description of a
A small circle surrounded by red ap- room's interior, this portrait is believed to In the fourteenth century, Japanese paint-
pears above the inscription, a symbol, per- be of the eighth Ashikaga shogun, Yoshi- ing reflected reality by depicting the elite
haps, of the sun. The circle recurs in masa (1436-1490). The figure is shown in their military capacity. Here we see a
another version of Yoshimochi's portrait at seated on a mat on a raised tatami mat in high-ranking warrior on a fine horse, his
Jisaiin, which is dated to 1412. Similar sym- full ceremonial court dress, his feet bare. tachi sword unsheathed for action but the
bols are found also in portrait paintings of White, green, red, and blue pigments are broken arrow in his quiver perhaps sug-
the god Hachiman, the titular deity of war- used to portray the figure and his sur- gesting that he is coming from battle. He
riors, suggesting that Yoshimochi, as the roundings, as well as black ink and gold has traditionally been identified as Ashi-
head of the Ashikaga family and as sho- leaf. Some areas of gold leaf have flaked kaga Takauji (1305-1358), head of his clan
gun, saw himself as vested with military off. and founder of the Muromachi shogunate
authority and even divinity. MS Unlike some of the more famous por- who lived most of his life on the battle-
traits of shoguns and high-ranking war- field.
5 Ashikaga Yoshinori riors, such as cat. i, this portrait is not a The kad above the figure's head both
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk monumental one. The painting dimin- supports and contradicts this identifica-
74.8 x 38.8 (291/2 x 151/4) ishes rather than enlarges the stature and tion. It is by the hand of Yoshiakira (1330-
Muromachi period, c. 1458 bearing of the figure by placing it within 1367), Takauji's son and successor as
specific surroundings. Yoshimasa's sho- shogun, and a portrait of Takauji bearing
Myókóji, Aichi Prefecture Yoshiakira's kad is recorded as having once
gunate (1443-1473) was a troubled one, and
Important Cultural Property belonged to the powerful Asakura family
he was not known_as a great warrior or
Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394-1441) left the ab- ruler. During the Onin Revolt (1467-1477), of the Muromachi period. But it has also
bacy at Shôren'in in 1428 to return to the a struggle between rival factions for suc- been argued that for a son to place his kad
lay world and became the sixth shogun. cession of the shogunate, Yoshimasa abdi- prominently above his father's image
On the tenth day of the ninth month, cated his position. He preferred a life of would have been a grave breach of deco-
1432, Yoshinori left Kyoto for a visit to retirement, practicing and patronizing the rum, and that this must therefore be a por-
Mount Fuji. The inscription on this work, arts, including No drama, painting, callig- trait of one of Yoshiakira's vassals, perhaps
by Zuikei Shühó (1391-1473), the abbot of raphy, and tea. The active cultural life es- Hosokawa Yoriyuki (1329-1392). Based on
Rokuon'in, recounts this trip. Yoshinori poused at his villa in the Higashiyama area the family crest engraved on the horse's
stopped on the twelfth day at Myôkôji, of Kyoto (later to become Jishôji, popularly fittings, it has also been proposed that this
Aichi Prefecture, a major regional Zen known as Ginkakuji) gave rise to one of is a portrait of Ko Moronao (d. 1351), a war-
monastery, founded in 1348, where he the most productive artistic eras in Japa- rior who once served Takauji. MS
stayed half a day. The temple, in prepara- nese history.
tion for the shogun's visit, reportedly re- It is probably because of this unique
landscaped its humble garden and pond. aspect of Yoshimasa's retirement that he is
On the eighteenth day he reached Mount depicted in such an artistic interior set-
Fuji, where he stayed at the estate of Im- ting. In front of him and to his side is a lac-
agawa Norimasa, the shugo (constable) of quered mirror stand. Behind him are four
panels of a fusuma (sliding door) painting,
which shows a body of water flanked on

60
6

8 Hosokawa Sumimoto scholar-monk Keijo Shurin (1444-1518) in with a large kuwagata (hornlike projec-
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk the tenth month of 1507, when Sumimoto tion). A tachi hangs from his belt, and a
119.7x59.7(471/8x231/2) was at the peak of his career. Half a year koshigatana (short sword) is tucked into his
later, on the ninth day of the fourth belt. He holds a halberd and a whip in his
Muromachi period, no later than 1507
month of 1508, Sumimoto was driven away right hand and, in his left, the reins. Typi-
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo by Hosokawa Takakuni and fled once cal of portraits of mounted warriors, the
Important Cultural Property again to Omi; he continued to fight horse is shown from the side, lifting its
Hosokawa Sumimoto (1489-1520), born to against Takakuni until his death in 1520, front right and rear left legs. The depic-
a branch of the Hosokawa family, was though he never regained his position. tion of the horse suggests that this portrait
adopted by Masamoto. In the sixth month According to the Hosokawa family was painted by an artist of the Kano
of 1507, when his stepfather, Masamoto, history and lineage record, Sumimoto had school.
was killed by his vassal Kosai Mataroku a certain Kano artist with the Buddhist Keijo Shürin's inscription, which is in-
Motonaga, Sumimoto escaped to Omi rank Hdgen (Eye of the Law) paint this cluded in his collected literary works,
(present-day Shiga Prefecture). Kosai Mo- portrait after the example of a 'Victorious reads, in part:
tonaga supported Hosokawa Sumiyuki, portrait" of Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358), . . . Long ago the Genji clan subjugated the
Masamoto's other adopted son who had founder of the Muromachi shogunate; east of the capital Military leaders rose in
come from the Kujô family, but in the Keijo Shürin added an inscription, and the the eastern provinces. From Hosokawa Yon-
eighth month of the same year, Hosokawa painting was handed down in Shinjôin, a haru to his son Yoriyuki, they were first
Takakuni, Miyoshi Yukinaga, and others subtemple of Tenryüji, the Zen temple called Kanrei [deputy shogun]....
came to Kyoto with their forces and killed founded in Kyoto by Ashikaga Takauji. Hosokawa Sumimoto, a great archer
Hosokawa Sumiyuki and Kosai Motonaga. Shinjôin, the mortuary temple of the Ho- and horseman, is far above other humans.
Sumimoto then succeeded to the leader- sokawa clan, was also Sumimoto's Bud- He is also versed in waka [Japanese poetry]
ship of the Hosokawa family. The inscrip- dhist title; the temple no longer exists. and appreciates the moon and the wind....
tion on this portrait was added by the Sumimoto wears a type of armor Outside the citadel he takes bows and ar-
called haramaki (cats. 150,151) and a helmet

61
 7

62
8

63
9 10

rows; in meditation and reading of sacred 9 Ando En'e Zen priests), he sits on a clerical chair, his
books he protects Buddhism. Inside and out- hanging scroll; ink and color on silk shoes on the footstool. He rests his folded
side, pledging to the mountains and rivers 120.0 X 58.0 (47 V4 X 227/8) hands in his lap, unlike Zen priests who in
for the sake of the rulers and vassals, always Kamakura period, no later than 1330 their portraits usually hold a hossu (Zen
with propriety and benevolence, he attains monk's whisk) or shippei (bamboo staff).
Nara National Museum
saintly wisdom. The painting portrays a robust phy-
Important Cultural Property
An auspicious day in the tenth month sique, capturing the sturdy and dignified
of the fourth year ofEisei [1507], Keijo This portrait of the lay Zen Buddhist appearance of the warrior with even lines
Shùrin was ordered to and respectfully Ando En'e was painted during his lifetime. in light ink. The drapery, too, is depicted
added an inscription. En'e is the Buddhist name of Andô Suke- with an economy and directness of brush
Keijo [tripod-shaped relief seal] yasu, son of Ando Renshó (1240-1330), who line.
Shùrin [square intaglio seal] MS was a military leader of the late Kamakura Above the figure are three square
period and a patron of Kumedadera, a seals and an inscription written by the
temple that belonged to the Esoteric Chinese Zen monk Ming-ji Chu-jun (1262-
Shingon school of Buddhism in Izumi 1336) on the first day of the second month
Province (part of present-day Osaka Pre- of 1330.
fecture). Little is known about the sitter. His eyebrows long like a tree trunk, and his
In this portrait, formerly in Kumeda- nose straight like a zhong [bell].
dera, En'e is tonsured and wears a kesa
(priest's mantle). As in chinsd (portraits of

64
11 12

His appearance dignified and majestic, and He is worthy of being a model of all human 10 Muso Soseki
his spirit brilliant and heroic. relationships for myriad ages. Muto Shui (fl. mid-i4th century)
He is incomparably knowledgeable in the hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Ming-ji was a friend of the sitter's father,
martial arts, like the ancient Chinese 120.0 X 64.5 (47 V4 X 253/8)
Renshó, whose portrait painting is also at
military books Liu Tao and San Luo. Nanbokuchô period, i4th century
Kumedadera. At the request of En'e, the
As to his cultivation in arts and scholarship,
Chinese monk added an inscription to Myôchiin, Kyoto
he is peerlessly learned like the ancient
that portrait five days after he had written Important Cultural Property
Chinese books Pa Su and Jiu Qhiu.
this inscription, both of which are impor-
"Western Valley Stream" [Xi-jian Zi-tan Muso Soseki (1275-1351) was born in Ise
tant rare examples of Ming-ji's callig-
(1249-1306), a Chinese monk] created a Province (part of present-day Mie Prefec-
raphy. AY
drop of rough waves and it caused in the ture). His association with monastic estab-
eastern sea a thousand yards of billows. lishments began when he was three years
He is solemn and thoughtful, dignified yet old. He first studied the Tendai and
not fierce. Shingon schools of Buddhism but con-
His retreat is noble, and he enjoys a verted to Zen, and, after studying with the
long-lasting pleasure in the mountains. distinguished Zen master Kóhó Kennichi
In a hundred generations of glory, he stirs a (1241-1316), he became his successor.
[benevolent] breeze upon the sea. Muso was a figure of the greatest
Breaking the bind of the net of religious prominence in his own time. He moved
teaching, he is loyal to Zen Buddhism.

65
easily among the powerful of both the im- the emperor Go-Komatsu (1377-1433), at ful merchant who made his money in the
perial court and the shogunate, serving age six Ikkyü became a child attendant of China trade and gave financial support to
both as spiritual adviser, political adviser Shógai Zenkan at Ankokuji in Kyoto. the rebuilding of Daitokuji. Thus the por-
and go-between, and scholarly eminence. Later he mastered Zen of the Rinzai trait can be dated after 1474 and before
That Emperor Go-Daigo and Shogun Ta- school under the distinguished master 1481, the year of Ikkyn's death. AY
kauji were enemies did not prevent Muso Kasô Sôdon (1352-1428), who lived at the
from accepting the patronage of both. In hermitage Zenkóan in Katada, Omi Prov- 12 Sakugen Shüryó
1325, supported enthusiastically by the em- ince (present-day Shiga Prefecture). Ikkyü hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
peror Go-Daigo (1288-1339), he became ab- led a peripatetic life, training a handful of
126.0 x 49.4 (49 5/8 x 19J/2)
bot of Nanzenji in Kyoto. He also was the disciples without regard to their class ori-
Ming, no later than 1541
founding abbot of Rinsenji, a Rinzai Zen gins. Finally in 1474, in response to an im-
temple in Kyoto. After the death of Go- perial summons, he became the Myóchiin, Kyoto
Daigo, he founded Tenryùji through the forty-seventh abbot of Daitokuji and led Important Cultural Property
patronage of Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358) the rebuilding of the temple, much of
which had been destroyed in the Onin Sakugen Shüryó (1501-1579), an erudite
and his brother, Tadayoshi (1306-1352), and Zen priest of the Rinzai school in the late
revived Saihóji, thus fostering the golden War (1467-1477). In the following year he
erected a tomb for himself, which he Muromachi period, was the third-
age of the Rinzai school of Zen in Japan. generation abbot of Myóchiin, a subtem-
Many prominent priests were disciples of named Jiyótó, in Kokyü, Takigi village of
southern Yamashiro Province (part of ple of Tenryüji. He was also an important
Muso Soseki, including Shun'oku Myôha figure in the history of Ming-Japanese rela-
(1311-1388), Mugoku Shigen (1282-1355), present-day Kyoto Prefecture), and lived
in a hermitage that he built by its side. tions. He visited Ming Dynasty China
Zekkai Chüshin (1336-1405), and Gidó twice, not as a Buddhist pilgrim or student
Shüshin (1325-1388). Together they con- The hermitage, Shüon'an, still stands in
Takigi, known by its more popular name but as a government envoy, first as the
tributed to the peak of the literary move- vice-envoy from 1539 to 1541 and later as
ment known as Gozan Bungaku Ikkyüji (Ikkyü's temple). A notable poet
and calligraphier as well as a priest, Ikkyü the chief envoy. He wrote excellent prose
(Literature of the Five Mountains, compo- and poetry in Chinese, and during these
sitions in classical Chinese by Japanese criticized and vehemently despised the
contemporary Zen hiearchy. trips he associated with Ming scholars and
Zen priests). Muso was also a significant painters.
calligraphier, poet, and designer of gardens. In this portrait Ikkyü sits in a chair
holding a bamboo staff in his right hand, In this painting Sakugen, wearing a
The inscription on this painting, in Confucian scholar's cap and a Buddhist
Soseki's hand, reads from left to right: as in a traditional chinsd (portrait of a Zen
priest). Even in this conventional clerical monk's robe and kesa, is seated on a
The lower extremities from hips to heels portrait, however, his unconventional and bench, books by his side. He holds a book
cannot expound a theme, rebellious personality is expressed by his and seems to be reciting from it, convey-
So only half a torso is visible within the unshaved head, the mustache, and the in- ing the image of Sakugen the literary man.
Kenka gate. formal way he sits, his right foot on his left The inscription above the figure was
knee with his shoes still on. The haunting written in the first month of 1541 (the
(translated in Boston 1970, 60) twentieth year of the Jiajing reign-period
face is drawn with simple brush lines;
There is a signature at the lower right in Ikkyü looks at the viewer from the corner of the Ming Dynasty) by Ke Yuchuang, a
small calligraphy: Painted by Mutô Shùi. literary man in Ningbo, at the request of
of his eyes while his face is turned slightly
This portrait probably corresponds to the away. San'ei, a priest who accompanied Sakugen
one recorded in 1678 in Honchd Gashi The inscription is in Ikkyü's hand: to China. Sakugen would have just re-
(History of Japanese Painting) as a painting turned to Ningbo after completing his first
by Mutô Shüi for Mugoku Shigen, Musó's Lin Ji's posterity does not know Zen mission in the north. The inscription testi-
disciple and the second abbot of Tenryüji, Facing Mad Clouds, who can teach Zen? fies to the affection between Sakugen and
with an inscription by Muso Kokushi For the past thirty years it's been heavy on Ke Yuchuang, a friendship also recorded
(Muso, the National Teacher). Mutó Shüi, the shoulders in Shodoshü (Collected works: the first
also Musó's disciple, was a painter who Alone bearing the Songyuan school of Zen. mission), one of Sakugen's Ming journals
specialized in portraiture. (entries of 1/30/1541, 8/21/1539, and io/io/
Soben, the Zen practitioner and great
Descriptively rendered, Musó's face is 1539). Ke Yuchuang's inscription, written
patron, after getting my vulgar portrait
outlined with thin lines, and light ver- in formal (or regular) script, signed by him
painted, asked me to write an inscription,
milion shading is added. The contours and and followed by five square seals, reads:
so I complied with his request.
folds of the drapery are drawn with great Formerly at Daitokuji ofMurasakino [area Encomium for the Portrait oflsai Sakugen,
economy of line. AY north of Kyoto], Jun Ikkyù [over Ikkyü's the Zen Master
seal], Old Priest under heaven.
11 Ikkyû Sójun The master is a lofty priest from Japan. Sent
Lin Ji is Linji Yixuan (d. 867), the Chinese as an envoy to China, he lives
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
monk who founded the Linji (J: Rinzai) temporarily in the district ofMingzhou.
98.0 x 43.0 (385/8 x 167/8) school of Zen. "Mad Clouds" is a refer- He has a sense of decorum; he is versed in
Muromachi period, no later than 1481 ence to Ikkyü's sobriquet, "Kyôunshi," literature and scholarship, and I am
Shüon'an, Kyoto Child of Mad Clouds." Songyuan is the fortunate to know him. His junior
Important Cultural Property school of Zen taught by the Chinese priest companion San'ei, the prelate, happened
Songyuan Chongyue (1132-1202). Ikkyü to take out this small portrait of the
Ikkyü Sójun (1394-1481), known for his signed formerly at Daitokuji, referring to
penetrating mind and wildly unconven- his involvement in 1474 with the rebuild-
tional behavior, was an exceptional Zen ing of the monastery followed by his brief
priest of the Muromachi period. Son of abbacy there. The inscription says that the
portrait was painted for Sôben, a success-

66
13 14

master, and showed it to me. I composed 13 Asakura Toshikage cellent archer and horseman, he was also
an inscription for this portrait: hanging scroll; ink and color on silk something of a scholar, poet, and patron of
81.5x44.0(32x173/8) the arts, as well as a pious Buddhist. He
His appearance is peaceful; his forehead was acquainted with the Zen priest Ikkyu
contains jewels inside Muromachi period, i5th century
and donated wood at Ikkyu's request for
In a scholar's hat and a priest's robe, he sits Shingetsuji, Fukui Prefecture
the rebuilding of Daitokuji. Toshikage be-
solemnly with legs crossed Important Cultural Property came a priest in his later years under the
His letters are richly written; his religious Buddhist name Eirin Soyu.
mind is refreshing Asakura Toshikage (1428-1481) was a pow-
erful daimyo of the mid-Muromachi pe- Toshikage is shown here seated on a
Though his appearance can be beheld, his raised tatami mat, wearing a warrior's
erudition is unfathomable riod. During the Onin War (1467-1477), he
ousted Shiba Yoshitake as shugo (consta- robe, a hôi (priest's robe), and a kesa (Zen
His brush flows beautifully, whether in priest's stole), indicative of both his secular
Japanese or Chinese poetry ble) of Echizen Province (present-day Fu-
kui Prefecture), routed all challengers, and his religious aspirations. He holds a
A diplomatic envoy to the emperor, in old chùkei (a type of folding fan) in his right
temples and guest halls and, based in Ichijôdani, laid a firm foun-
dation for the fortune of the Asakura fam- hand and prayer beads in his left. The
His clear voice reverberates; he receives great pose is formal and generic, but the fea-
imperial favor ily. The principles of his ruthless but
competent management of the province tures are specific and individualized and
After journeying through beautiful places, the personality of the sitter is subtly and
he tires and rests in Japan are reflected in the seventeen-article
house laws of the Asakura family. An ex- penetratingly revealed, much as in con-
His body will be ever healthier, and he will temporary portraits of Zen ecclesiastics.
live a long life. AY

67
15 16

Judging by the degree of realism, this por- On becoming a Buddhist monk, he took an able administrator as well as fighter,
trait is likely to have been painted during the name Sóun'an Sotan. His career and the house laws known as 'Twenty-one
Toshikage's lifetime or soon after his closely paralleled that of his contemporary, Articles of Sôunjidono" reflect his deter-
death. Asakura Toshikage (cat. 13): beginning as a mination to preserve his descendants from
The portrait has been at Shingetsuji, daimyo's retainer, he proceeded to seize the kind of overthrow that had made him
a temple founded by Toshikage in Ichijó- land and usurp power wherever the occa- a daimyo. (Sôunjidono is a posthumous
dani, which later became the mortuary sion permitted, controlling Izu and Sagami title taken from Hójó Sóun's mortuary
temple of the Asakura family. provinces (Shizuoka and Kanagawa prefec- temple.)
tures) from Odawara before he died. His In this powerful portrayal, Hójó Sóun
14 Hójó Sóun son and grandson continued the work, and sits barefooted on a raised tatami mat,
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk the Later Hójó (to distinguish them from wearing a hoi (priest's robe) and kern (Zen
93.5x50.7(367/8x20) the Hójó regents of the Kamakura period) priest's stole) over a warrier's robe, holding
Muromachi period, early loth century ruled the Kantó region until their over- a chùkei (a type of folding fan) in his right
throw by Hideyoshi in 1590. hand and clenching his left. The facial ex-
Sôunji, Kanagawa Prefecture Like Asakura Toshikage, Hójó Sóun pression reveals the resolute nature of the
Important Cultural Property was a ruthless and treacherous man, but sitter. This portrait was probably painted
The warrior Hójó Sóun (1432-1519) first in Sôun's lifetime, after he became a
went by the name Ise Shinkuró Nagauji. priest, or else soon after his death. AY

68
17

15 Miyoshi Nagayoshi murai eboshi (black headgear worn by 16 Mori Motonari

hanging scroll; ink and color on silk warriors), a blue robe with his family crest, hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
107.0 x 50.0 (42 */8 x 193/4) and an underrobe of contrasting blocks or 97.0 x 50.0 (381/s x 195/3)
Muromachi period, no later than 1566 stripes of bright color. A koshigatana (short Muromachi period, no later than 1562
sword) is tucked in his sash, and he holds a
Jukôin, Kyoto fan in his right hand and clenches his left Toyosakajinja, Yamaguchi Prefecture
Important Cultural Property fist. In place of the chilling determination Important Cultural Property
At the height of his power Miyoshi Naga- in the expressions of the two earlier war- Mori Motonari (1497-1571), a high-ranking
yoshi (1523-1564) ruled eight provinces, lords, Nagayoshi reveals a smooth urban- military leader and daimyo in the Age of
stretching from Kyoto to Shikoku. Like ity. Wars (Sengoku Jidai), first served Amako
Asakura Toshikage and Hójó Sóun, he be- The inscription above the figure, by Haruhisa (1514-1560), and then Ouchi
gan as retainer of a great lord whose power Shórei Sokin (1490-1568) of Daitokuji, is Yoshitaka (1507-1551), both daimyo of west-
he seized, but did not succeed in founding dated to 1566, the third anniversary of Na- ern Honshu. After Yoshitaka was killed by
a daimyo family. He was himself over- gayoshi's death. The portrait was there- his retainer Sue Harutaka (1521-1555), Mori
thrown by a retainer and died at the age of fore a commemorative one. Two seals Motonari defeated Harutaka at Itsu-
forty-one; the process ofgekokujd (low follow Sôkin's signature. The inscription kushima and brought Suó, Nagato, and
overthrowing the high) was a double- reads, in part, from left to right: Aki Provinces under his rule. He went on
edged sword. Portrait of the late Jukdin to subjugate Bingo, Iwami, Izumo, Inba,
Nagayoshi was a cultivated leader, es- and Hóki Provinces, eventually possessing
pecially skilled in renga (linked verse). Late Thoroughly trained in the Southern school ten provinces in San'yó (present-day Yama-
in his life he was ordained a priest and of Zen, Zen is his topic guchi, Hiroshima, and Okayama Prefec-
given the Buddhist name Jukóin. His com- His day-to-day disposition is likened to that tures) and San'in (present-day Shimane
memorative tomb is at the subtemple Ju- of Pang and Fei [ideal laymen Zen and Tottori Prefectures] as well as portions
kóin of Daitokuji, the family mortuary adherents in Tang China] of Buzen (present-day Oita Prefecture)
temple erected by Nagayoshi's son, Yoshi- With a single sword, he subjugated the land and lyo (present-day Ehime Prefecture).
tsugu, in 1566. He acquired today's dignified stature at a In this portrait Motonari sits on a ta-
Nagayoshi's depiction contrasts in ev- steady pace. AY tami mat wearing a samurai eboshi (black
ery point with'those of Toshikage and headgear worn by warriors) and a warrior's
Sôun. Seated on a tatami mat, he is in sec- robe bearing the Mori crest. A koshigatana
ular and quite colorful dress, wearing a sa- (short sword) is tucked in the sash. He is
holding a folding fan in his right hand and

69
clenching his left fist. A long tachi sword is them. He has close contacts with all peo- Shingen had a monumental build, as
placed at his left. With slender face, wide- ple and selects talents to administer his can be seen in this work, an unusual por-
open eyes, and well-trimmed beard, Mo- territory.... trait with an outdoor setting. The painting
tonari is depicted without the idealization When he holds the Mori family sword is accompanied by a letter written by
evidenced in later portrait paintings of mil- and subjugates the enemy, his wisdom tem- Shingen's son, Katsuyori, which says that
itary leaders. pers the best of swords, such as the famous it was painted in Shingen's lifetime and
According to the inscription above pair forged by the Chinese smiths Ganjian that it was to be offered to Seikeiin. The
the sitter, the portrait was painted during and his wife, Moxie [of the 3rd century seal Nobuharu, stamped at the lower left,
Motonari's lifetime at the order of his first A.D.]. When he waves a fan and commands identifies the painter as Hasegawa Tô-
son, Takamoto. The inscription, dated garrisons, it is as if he consults with Sun Wu haku, who was then known as Nobuharu.
1562, was written by Ninnyo Shügyó (d. and Wu Qi [ancient Chinese military strat- The painting was done when Tôhaku was
1574, the ninety-first abbot of Shôkokuji egists of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. in his early thirties.
and forty-second abbot of Rokuon'in) at respectively].... The warlord and his highly decorative
the request of a certain Jiku'un Eshin, pre- He loves to praise courageous men of garments are delineated in precise and col-
sumably a monk of Nanzenji, the monas- loyalty and valor. His brave tiger face recalls orful detail, following the yamato-e tradi-
tery that Motonari patronized. the ambition of Ban Chao [famous Chi- tion considered appropriate for depictions
The long inscription lauds the ances- nese general of 1st century A.D.]. His por- of great men. In the suggestion of land-
tral lineage of the Mori family, tracing it cupine hair resembles the beautiful beard of scape the painter reveals his interest in the
back to the Oe family, descendants of the Commander Huan Wen [fl. 2nd half of 4th freer ink-painting style derived from
emperor Kanmu (737-806), and mention- century A.D.]. The triple stars [the Mori China. MS
ing the virtues and merits of one Oe Masa- family crest] add brightness to his beautiful
fusa (1041-1111), a distinguished scholar, abode. The family crests of the generations 18 The emperor Go-Yozei
poet, and civil administrator, from whom of the powerful and rich decorate his mili- Kano Takanobu (1571-1618)
Motonari was directly descended. Replete tary tent hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
with allusions to Chinese history and liter- He recites and composes Japanese 107.0 X 6o.l (42*/8 X 235/8)
ature, and embellished, in the best sense poems. As a connoisseur of old books, he Momoyama period, early ryth century
of the word, with purple prose, this in- enjoys many different editions of poetry an-
scription accords Motonari the stature of a thologies to visit the ancient steps of early Sennyüji, Kyoto
sage-warrior. The inscription reads in part Japanese poetry. With devotion, he makes The emperor Go-Yozei (1571-1617) sits on a
(starting with the second half of the elev- the reading of Indian Buddhist scriptures mat placed over a large tatami. He wears
enth line from the right): his daily task, a sign of sincere faith in the
an eboshi (black headgear) and an informal
Buddha. courtier's robe. As the io7th emperor, Go-
Now, Morí Motonari, the ruler ofAki, Cour-
His allies always believe in his words.Yôzei reigned from 1586 to 1611, during the
tier Ûe, and Honorary Ruler ofMutsu prov-
"Being good to neighbors is a precious vir- period when Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-
ince, converted early to the Three Jewels tue, a man of virtue will never be alone" are
[i.e., Buddhism]. His Buddhist name is Ni- 1598) subjugated the entire country and
indeed the right words for him. He has Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616) gradually es-
chirai, and his title is Ddshun. As to his
given the family headship to Takamoto and tablished political power, a time when aris-
power, he rules over a dozen provinces and lives in retirement on Juzan. I cheer loudly
controls over ten thousand troops. In the tocratic society was regaining relative
for his long life. stability. Go-Yôzei not only made efforts
past, Courtier Oe Masafusa ruled nine prov-
Written in the fall of the fifth year of
to revive public events and ceremonies,
inces, two islands, and western regions un- Eiroku [1562], humble priest, formerly of
der Dazaifu [regional capital in Kyushu], but was committed to learning: he studied
Rokuon'in, Nanzenji. classical literature, including The Tale of
where he lived for five years. To think, Mo-
Ninnyo [square relief seal] Genji, and enjoyed Japanese poetry, callig-
tonari's lineage must also be Masafusa's [illegible tripod-shaped relief seal] AY
posterity. Slowly but steadily progressing for raphy, and painting. He was instrumental
five hundred years, how right it is—the root in persuading the scholar-poet and daimyo
is big with thriving foliage; the source is 17 Takeda Shingen Hosokawa Yüsai (1534-1610;), when Yüsai
high and full of water. Indeed they are well Hasegawa Tôhaku (1539-1610) faced a siege by enemy troops in 1600, to
called the Oe [Big River] family, and he is hanging scroll; ink and color on silk pass on his knowledge of the poetics of the
well called Jdshun [Perpetual Spring]. Ah, 42.0 x 63.0 (i6l/2 x 243/4) Kokinshù to the imperial prince Hachijô
what prosperity! (1579-1617), Go-Yozei's younger brother.
Momoyama period, late i6th century
Zen Master Jiku'un, formerly of Nan- Through Go-Yozei's interest in the art of
zenji, because Motonari is the monastery's Seikeiin, Wakayama Prefecture printing, movable wooden type was used
patron, conveyed the order of Takamoto, Important Cultural Property to publish many Chinese and Japanese
Motonari s heir, to have a portrait of Warrior classics.
Takeda Shingen (1521-1573), a daimyo dur- Two seals are stamped at the left of
Motonari painted during his lifetime. Mas- ing the Age of the Wars, began his career
ter Jiku'un asked this rustic to write a word Go-Yôzei's portrait, an oblong relief seal,
by supplanting his father as lord of Kai Kano, and a tripod-shaped relief seal, Ta-
above the portrait. Although I have not met Province (present-day Yamanashi Prefec-
Warrior Motonari, because I know the Zen kanobu, identifying the artist. Kano Ta-
ture). He brought Shinano and Suruga kanobu was the second son of Kano
master I dare not decline. Thus I give a few Provinces under his control and captured
words of praise: Eitoku (1543-1590). Following the death of
portions of Kôzuke, Tôtômi, and Mikawa his elder brother, Mitsunobu, in 1608, he
His power expanding over the sea, his Provinces. Advancing on Kyoto, the ulti-
fame reaching the clouds, in full solemnity became the central figure in the Kano
mate goal in his military strategy, he died. school and painted a wide variety of Bud-
he attends the present emperor's royal cere- As a youth he was a passionate student of
monies. He assists his emperor to rule like dhist and literary subjects. When the im-
Chinese and Japanese poetry. He was also
Emperors Yao and Shun [rulers of ancient perial palace was built in 1613, he presided
deeply religious, with special devotion to
China]. He fathoms his master's teachings over its decorations, executing sliding door
the Tendai school of Buddhism and to Zen panels and wall paintings, some of which
and penetrates the profound thoughts in priests of the Myôshinji school. Shingen's are preserved in Ninnaji in Kyoto. The
wife, Tenhórin Sanjó, was the daughter of
a courtier.

70
18 19

surviving panels, originally installed be- poetry), calligraphy, tea, incense apprecia- lifelong devout Buddhist and avid student
hind the emperor's seat, represent thirty- tion, and flower arrangement. Striving for of Zen, in 1651 he took the tonsure and
two Chinese historical luminaries, a renaissance of cultural activities, he set adopted the Buddhist name Enjô. He be-
including famous ministers up to and dur- for the members of the court special days came a patron and student of many cul-
ing the Tang Dynasty. SY for scholarly pursuits and published, in tured Zen monks, most particularly
1621, Kôchô Ruien, a Japanese edition of Takuan Sôhô (cat. 20), who shared his an-
19 The emperor Go-Mizunoo the mid-twelfth-century Chinese Huang- ger at shogunal interference with imperial
Gen'yó Shónin (1634-1727) chao Leiyuan (Classified quotations of and clerical prerogatives.
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk works by courtly scholars). Endowed with Two portraits of the emperor Go-
100.6 x 55.8 (395/8 x 22) artistic talent, he painted and also de- Mizunoo were painted during his lifetime.
Edo period, no earlier than 1680 signed the garden for the Shugakuin De- One, in Hanjuin, Kyoto, painted by Kano
tached Palace in northeastern Kyoto. Tan'yu (1602-1674), bears an inscribed
Unryuin, Kyoto Though he was an intelligent and ca- waka composed by the emperor himself.
The emperor Go-Mizunoo (1596-1680), pable man Go-Mizunoo as emperor en- The other, in Sennyüji, also in Kyoto, has
the third son of the emperor Go-Yozei dured repeated frustrations and two Japanese poems inscribed and dated
(cat. 18), acceded to the throne in 1611 and humiliations at the hands of Tokugawa to the nineteenth day of the second
in 1620 married a daughter of Tokugawa leyasu and Hidetada (particularly Hide- month, 1673. The portrait exhibited here,
Hidetada (1578-1631), the second shogun. tada), who were determined to assert their painted after Go-Mizunoo's death, is
Go-MizunoQ had a penchant for scholar- authority over all spheres of Japanese life. based on these precedents.
ship and was versed in waka (Japanese po- After one too many heavy-handed sho- This portrait was painted by Go-
etry), renga (linked verse), kanshi (Chinese gunal interventions, Go-Mizunoo regis- Mizunoo's granddaughter, Gen'yô, a Zen
tered his disgust by abdicating in 1629. A

71
Buddhist nun, also known as Ringüji no
Miya. Two of the artist's seals can be seen
at the lower left. Genyô, who was named
Ake no Miya at her birth, was a daughter
of H5shunmon-in, the seventh daughter
of Go-Mizunoo. After the death of the em-
peror, she took the tonsure and became a
nun, changing her name to Gen'yô and
adopting the Buddhist title Shdzan. Like
her grandfather, she was a strong advocate
of Zen. She learned painting from Kano
Yasunobu (1613-1685), son of Kano Ta-
kanobu (cat. 18).
The two poems, written on shikishi
(square poetry sheets) and attached to the
scroll, were copied from the inscriptions
on the Hanjuin and Sennyúji portraits of
the emperor, one from each. Deep melan-
choly and world-weariness is expressed in
these poems:
Painful, this
withered tree fence hidden
in the deep mountain;
would that at least my heart's
flowers were fragrantly abloom.
My life being thus,
in this world that I will never revisit
the thought of leaving a trace
of my calligraphy for a moment-
even that is sad. WA

20 Takuan Sóhó
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
99.0x46.3(39x181/4)
Edo period, no later than 1644
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
Takuan Sôhô (1573-1645) was a Zen priest
of Daitokuji during the early Edo period,
celebrated in his own time and after, as a
scholar, painter, calligraphier, and tea
adept. Through tea he came to be associ-
ated with the shogun and various daimyo,
and he taught Zen to Miyamoto Musashi 20
(1582-1645; cat. 128) and Yagyü Munenori
(1571-1646), two formidable swordsmen. In
1629, because he objected to the shogun- There is vacuity, concealing nothing. 21 Toyotomi Hideyoshi
ate's policy of control over Buddhist estab- Inside his eyes is no longer any shade, hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
lishments, he was banished to the north to Vacuity shows no illusory flowers; 109.0 x 51.0 (427/8 x 20)
Dewa province, but was pardoned in 1632. The bamboo staff still in his hand, Momoyama period, no later than 1600
During the 16305 he was friend and spiri- The hossu brush only seeks idiocy. Ah.
tual adviser not only to Emperor Go- Saikyoji, Shiga Prefecture
Mizunoo, but also to lemitsu (1604-1651), Sixteenth day, sixth month, the twenty-first Important Cultural Property
the third Tokugawa shogun, and in 1639 he yearofKan'ei [1644]
Takuan, formerly of Daitokuji, in mock Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) died at the
became the founding abbot of Tôkaiji in age of sixty-one. In accordance with his
Shinagawa, whose patron was lemitsu. self-accusation.
Sdhô [seal] Takuan [seal] will, a mortuary shrine was built atop Ami-
This portrait, executed in the chinsd damine in Higashiyama, Kyoto. The court
(Zen priest's portrait) mode, bears an in- Takuan studied poetry (waka) with bestowed the title Toyokuni Daimydjin
scription by Takuan himself dated to the Hosokawa Yüsai (1534-1610) around 1603. (Great Deity of the Rich Country) on Hi-
sixteenth day of the sixth month, 1644: Yüsai's son, Hosokawa Sansai (1563-1646), deyoshi as deity of this sanctuary and post-
This world of desire, form, and formlessness became daimyo of the Kumamoto do- humously granted him Senior First Rank.
is like a house on fire; main, Higo Province, and his grandson A memorial ceremony was held annually
Inside a bag is an old crow, Mitsunao became an ardent patron of Zen at the shrine on the anniversary of his
It tries to get out but can't. under Takuan's influence and tutelage. death.
A child, skinny, worries about his father; These circumstances explain why this por- Many portraits of the deified Hide-
To this stubborn fellow both right and trait was handed down in the Hosokawa yoshi were painted. The earliest known ex-
wrong are lost. family. SY

72
21

73
22 23

ample, dated to 1598, the year of his death, lies before taking service with the Toyo- appear whenever and wherever
and inscribed by the monk Nanka Genkó, tomi. At Sekigahara he neither aided nor He shines all over India, China, and Japan
is at Kôdaiin, the mortuary temple of Hi- opposed leyasu, remaining instead in His steadfast eyes catch even the smallest
deyoshi's wife. Portraits of Hideyoshi ap- Osaka with the Toyotomi. leyasu deprived speck of dust.
parently continued to be painted until the him of the rank of daimyo but granted him
Toyotomi family was exterminated by ley- a small fief. Tachibana Nagatoshi, the ruler
asu in 1615. However, no portrait dated In this portrait Hideyoshi sits on a ta- Yamanaka of Yamashiro Province, asked
later than the fourth month of 1601 is tami mat, wearing the court headgear us to write an inscription for the
known. called kdburi, a white courtier's informal honorable portrait of Toyokuni. We firmly
This portrait was painted for robe, and bluish black sashinuki (baggy declined but he was not satisfied, so I
Yamanaka Nagatoshi (Chóshun; 1547- pants tied at the ankles). Like his fellow respectfully wrote this short poem.
1607), a daimyo and retainer of Hideyoshi. warlords Hôjô Sôun (cat. 14), Miyoshi Na- Eighteenth day of eighth month, the
The Zen priests Genpo Reisan and Ikyó gayoshi (cat. 15), and Mori Motonari (cat. third year ofKeichd [1598].
Eitetsu added the inscriptions, both dated 16), he is shown with his right hand hold- Old Genpo, Reisan ofNanzenji
to the fifth month of 1600. This date indi- ing a folding fan and his left clenched in a Genpo [tripod-shaped relief seal]
cates that the painting was made during fist. Behind him is an ink landscape. Hi-
the uneasy period shortly before the Battle deyoshi is portrayed here as seated in a The second inscription is by Ikyó Eitetsu:
of Sekigahara (cat. 104), which confirmed shrine. On a stylistic basis, the painting
By nature neither a devil nor a human
the hegemony of the Tokugawa. Yamanaka can be assigned to the Kano school.
A reincarnation, a god under heaven
Nagatoshi was originally a retainer of Sa- The first inscription, by Genpo
In his thoughts, Japan and Korea are as
saki Yoshikata of Omi Province, but served Reisan, reads: small as mustard seeds
under the Oda, Shibata, and Tanba fami-
We lift our eyes to Toyokuni the Great Deity India and China are dust in his eyes.
When called upon a free being which can

74
24 25

Fifth month of the fifth year ofKeichd gamasa was first an ally of Oda Nobunaga, wrap). She holds a Buddhist sutra scroll in
[1600] but later turned against him and was de- her right hand, indicating that the portrait
Humble monk Ikyd burns incense and feated by Nobunaga's forces at the Battle commemorates her death. The painting is
respectfully adds this inscription. of Anekawa in 1570. Three years later Na- an idealized portrayal of one who was re-
Ikyô [square relief seal] gamasa stood siege in Otani Castle in puted to be "the most beautiful woman
This inscription is for Tachibana Nagatoshi,Omi, his garrison headquarters, and he under heaven."
ruler ofYamanaka Castle, Junior Fifth died in action at twenty-eight. Oichi no This painting joins two others—a por-
Rank, Toyotomi's vassal and a member of Kata escaped death, having been sent to trait of Oichi no Kata's first husband, Na-
the court. Nobunaga's encampment. She then mar- gamasa, and a portrait of Nagamasa's
MS
ried Shibata Katsuie (1522-1583). When father, Hisamasa—at Jimyóin, the Asano
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) attacked mortuary temple on Mount Kôya. The
22 OichinoKata Katsuie at Kitanoshô Castle in Echizen in portraits of Nagamasa and Oichi no Kata
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk 1583, she entrusted her three daughters to are assumed to have been painted in 1589
96.0 x 40.9 (373/4 x i6Vs) Hideyoshi and, when Katsuie committed to commemorate the seventeenth anniver-
Momoyama period, 1589 suicide, took her own life as an expression sary of Nagamasa's death and the seventh
of loyalty to her husband. She was then anniversary of Oichi no Kata's. They were
Jimyóin, Wakayama Prefecture
thirty-six. Her daughters became wards of probably then offered to Jimyóin to join
Important Cultural Property
Hideyoshi, and one of them, Yodogimi, be- the portrait of Hisamasa, which was
Oichi no Kata (1547-1583), a younger sister came his favorite consort. Another mar- painted in 1569. AY
of Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), married Asai ried Hidetada, the second Tokugawa
Nagamasa (1545-1573), a ranking warrior shogun.
from Omi Province (present-day Shiga In this portrait Oichi no Kata sits on a
Prefecture) when she was seventeen. Na- tatami mat wearing a white kosode and
over it a patterned red koshimaki (waist

75
23 Maeda Toshiharu
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
78-8x39.4(31x151/2)
Momoyama period, late loth century
Chóreiji, Ishikawa Prefecture
Important Cultural Property
Maeda Toshiharu, the head of a group of
wealthy farmers in Owari Province
(present-day Aichi Prefecture), was the fa-
ther of Toshiie (1538-1599), the first-
generation head of the Maeda clan, which
ruled Kaga Province (present-day Ishikawa
Prefecture). This portrait was reportedly
offered by Toshiie to Chóreiji (in Nanao
City, Ishikawa Prefecture) at the time of
its founding in commemoration of his fa-
ther. A later portrait of Toshiie's mother
(cat. 24) is also at Chóreiji.
The painting presents Toshiharu at
the moment of a religious experience. His
head shaven, he is portrayed as a Buddhist
priest seated on a tatami mat and wearing
a Zen priest's stole over a priest's robe,
which partially covers a sword lying on the
tatami. His right arm resting on his knee,
Toshiharu holds a fan in his right hand and
rests his left hand on the tatami as he looks
up at the stylized purple clouds on which
Amida Buddha will descend to receive his
soul at the moment of death. In front of
him is a tenmoku teacup on a lacquer
stand. On the floor in front are a page,
who sits ceremoniously, and a servant
holding a ewer. The style of the painting is
provincial, and the composition is unique
for a commemorative portrait.
AY

24 The wife of Maeda Toshiharu

hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
69.2 x 40.7 (27^4 x 16)
Momoyama period, late loth century
Chóreiji, Ishikawa Prefecture
Important Art Object
Very little is known about the life of
Maeda Toshiharu's wife, whose portrait,
though painted somewhat later, forms a 27
pair with that of her husband. Wearing a
white nun's robe, she holds prayer beads
in her hands. She was from the Takeno
1594 Daito returned to the temple in Na- the Nishikawa family of Otsu, near Kyoto,
family and had one son, Toshiie. She died
in 1573. Her posthumous Buddhist title is nao and renamed it Chóreiji after the post- and was later adopted by Toyotomi Hide-
humous Buddhist name of Toshiie's yoshi (1537-1598). She died in 1584 at the
Chóreiin Myókyú Daishi.
Chóreiji in Nanao City, Ishikawa Pre- mother. AY age of seven and was buried in Saikyóji.
In this portrait she sits on a tatami
fecture, where these portraits come from,
25 Maeda Kikuhime mat wearing a kosode, holding chrysanthe-
is a temple that belongs to the Sotó school
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk mums in her right hand, a reference to her
of Zen. In 1581, with the area under his
70.6x34.5(273/4x135/8) name, Kiku, which means chrysanthe-
control, Maeda Toshiie built the temple,
mum. Toys are by her side, including a
named Hóenji at the time of its founding, Momoyama period, 1584
papier-mâche dog, a top, and dolls, as well
and invited the monk Daitó Keijo from a Saikyóji, Shiga Prefecture as an incense container. This commemora-
temple with the same name at Takase, Important Art Object tive portrait was painted soon after her
Echizen Province (part of present-day Fu-
kui Prefecture), to be its abbot. In 1583, Maeda Kikuhime (1578-1584) was the sixth death.
At the top of the painting in two
when Toshiie moved to Kanazawa, Daitó daughter of Maeda Toshiie, the first ruler
squares intended to resemble shikishi
went also to head a new Hóenji there. In of Kaga province. Her mother was
(square poetry sheets), is an inscription
Toshiie's consort, Ryúkóin (daughter of
dated to 1584, the year of her death. It was
Kasama Yoshichi). Kikuhime lived with

76
26 28

written by the priest Shinchi, the eighth Hang the portrait painting for now serve Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582). No-
abbot of Saikyóji. Saikyóji, devastated by a And recite the sutras to honor her soul bunaga later awarded Yüsai the Province
battle waged by Oda Nobunaga, was re- of Tango (the northern part of present-day
stored through Hideyoshi's contributions. Twenty-first day, eighth month of the
Kyoto Prefecture). After Nobunaga's
It is probably because of this relationship twelfth year of Tenshd [1584]
death during the Honnóji Incident, an un-
that his adopted daughter, Kikuhime, was Shinchi, the High Priest [kaó] AY
successful coup instigated by his vassal
buried in Saikyóji and her portrait placed Akechi Mitsuhide, Yüsai took the tonsure
at that temple. Another version, presumed 26 Hosokawa Yüsai and became a priest, leaving the leader-
to be a copy of this portrait, is at Saihoji in hanging scroll; ink and color on silk ship of the family to his son Tadaoki (San-
Kanazawa. 104.0 x 51.0 (41 x 20) sai, 1563-1646). After the Battle of
The inscription, a poem in Chinese, is Momoyama period, no later than 1612 Yamazaki, in which Hideyoshi defeated
read from left to right: and killed Mitsuhide, Yüsai became a
Tenjuan, Kyoto
Portrait ofKinkei Kùgyoku Ddjo [Golden close confidant of Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Important Cultural Property (1537-1598). In 1600, he sided with Toku-
Cascade Heavenly Jewel Young Girl, the
posthumous Buddhist title of Kikuhime] Hosokawa Fujitaka (1534-1610), better gawa leyasu (1543-1616) at the Battle of Se-
known by his Buddhist name Yüsai, was a kigahara (cat. 104) against the Toyotomi.
Fall wind b/ows over grass and flowers
retainer of the fifteenth Ashikaga shogun An astute military leader, Yüsai was also a
Death is inevitable still
Yoshiaki (1537-1597), but left him in 1573 to

77
gifted poet and scholar of poetry: he re-
ceived the Kokin denju (secret teachings
on the poetics of the early-tenth-century
Kokinshù poetry anthology) from the San-
jónishi family (cat. 66). He also became an
important figure among the literary men
around Hideyoshi who pursued the art of
renga (linked verse).
In this portrait the seated Yüsai ap-
pears relaxed, with a Chinese-style fan in
his right hand. Another portrait with an
identical composition was transmitted in
the Hosokawa family and is now in the
Eisei Bunko. A clan document indicates
that it was painted by a certain Tashiro
Tóyü, commissioned by Yüsai's widow
(cat. 27) on the third anniversary of his
death. Tashiro Tóyü may in fact be a mis-
interpretation of the name of Tashiro
Tôho, a painter who served the Hosokawa
clan. Since the Tenjuan portrait is exe-
cuted in the same style as the Eisei Bunko
version, the two may have both been
painted by Tóho. The inscription on the
painting exhibited here, read from left to
right, was written by the Zen priest Ishin
Suden (cat. 53), abbot of Nanzenji, in the
fifth month of 1612. His inscription is fol-
lowed by an illegible tripod-shaped relief
seal. Yusai, in 1602, restored Tenjuan,
which was the hôjô (abbot's quarters) in
Nanzenji. Excerpts from the inscription
read as follows:
. . . Renowned for his elegant pursuits, he is
a complete man combining arts [bun] and
arms [bu]. A man of nobility, a descendant
of the sixth grandson of the emperor Seiwa,
he was a ruler endowed with awesome dig-
nity and inspiring decorum.... He built a
splendid castle, which was majestic, beauti-
ful and high.... When he lectured on The
Tale ofGenji, the big river and the ocean
took in small rivers, like the River Min en-
tering Chu [name of an ancient country in
China]. He could argue right and left and 29
up and down.... He discussed Chinese po-
etic styles and recited by heart the secret
teachings of Japanese poetry, that is, Kokin-
shù, Man'ydshù [Anthology of myriad
27 Kójuin nature is followed by his square relief seal.
leaves], and the Tale of he. He recited sit-
ting down or walking.... The round fan in hanging scroll; ink and color on silk The painting now forms a pair with that of
his hand sweeps away the muggy heat. The 104.0 x 51.0 (41 x 20) her then-deceased husband, painted a few
Edo period, 1618 years earlier. The sitter faces her husband,
sharp sword he wears on his waist cut off
human passions and ties. Try to paint him; her palms joined in prayer and one knee
Tenjuan, Kyoto
it can't be done. Try to draw him; it can't be raised. This work, like cat. 26, also has a
Important Cultural Property
achieved. The more one looks up, the higher counterpart in the Eisei Bunko. The Eisei
Kójuin (1544-1618) is the posthumous Bud- Bunko version has an inscription written
he is; the more one tries to delve, the harder
he is to penetrate . . . . The late Hosokawa dhist title of the wife of Hosokawa Yüsai in the eighth month of the same year by
Yùsai passed away suddenly on the twenti- (1534-1610); she was a daughter of Numata Yúsetsu Zuihó, which says that Hosokawa
eth day of the eighth month of the fifteenth Mitsukane, ruler of Kumagawa Castle in Tadaoki (Sansai, 1563-1646) had commis-
year ofKeichd [1610] at age seventy-seven. Wakasa Province (part of present-day Fu- sioned it.
His bereaved wife, Kdjuin, commissioned kui Prefecture). For a while she had fol- The inscription on this portrait eulo-
lowed the Christian faith, with the name gizes Kójuin for her Buddhist faith and
an artist to paint a portrait of his benign
face, and asked me to write an inscription. of Maria, having been baptized early in her knowledge of Chinese literature, quali-
the Keichó era (1596-1615). ties that would have made her particularly
My refusal was unheeded, so I have written
useless words and wasted statements.... MS The inscription on this portrait, writ- compatible with her husband. It reads, in
ten by Reikei Ungaku in the eleventh part:
month of 1618, says that it was requested . . . Her grace is bountiful, her courteousness
by Takayuki, one of her sons. Ungaku's sig-

78
30 31

knows no bounds.... Her late father con- twenty-five stringed zither.... She loved guished warrior and tea practitioner of the
tinued the Numata family, and served as a books by [the Chinese Tang-dynasty poet] late Momoyama and early Edo periods.
retainer at the shogun's camps [where he Du Fu, and would write down [the Chinese The oldest son of Hosokawa Yüsai (Fuji-
found her] a perfect match, marrying her to Tang-dynasty poet] Hanshan's poem Maple taka, 1534-1610), Sansai was an astute and
a Hosokawa. [She] retired to a splendid Grove when she heard the theme of the Tat- loyal vassal who served three military heg-
mansion with colorful beams, and her eldest suta River in a Japanese poem.... Her emons in their relentless quest to unify
son succeeded to the headship of the family. memory will benefit from all her goodness, the nation: Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582),
... Once she saw the cherry blossoms in the and lovely leaves and branches [her descen- Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and, at the
capital and realized how Buddhism viewed dants] will be countless.... MS Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 (cat. 104), To-
all myriad things as ephemeral. Another kugawa leyasu (1543-1616). In this portrait,
time she stopped at cascades and understood Sansai wears a robe with the paulownia
28 Hosokawa Sansai
how the pines ... kept their color with un- mon, the family crest of the Toyotomi.
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk This commemorative portrait was
shaken constancy. When she recited from
the [Chinese] Book of Songs, she would dip 107.5 x Sl-S (42l/4 x 201A) commissioned in 1670 by San, an adopted
Edo period, 1670 daughter of Sansai, around the time of the
the brush in ink, ponder for a while, and
compose a tanka [thirty-one-syllable Japa- Eisei Bunko, Tokyo twenty-fifth anniversary of his death. It
nese poem] on such themes as the rain on was presented to Kôtôin, a subtemple of
Mount Fu and the waves of the Xiang Seated on a tatami mat with a hossu (Zen Daitokuji that was the mortuary temple
River. Again, following Chinese metric po- monk's whisk) in his right hand is Hoso- Sansai had built for his father Yüsai. The
ems, she would spontaneously play the kawa Sansai (Tadaoki; 1563-1646), a distin- long dedicatory inscription, dated to 1670

79
and written by the monk Ken'ei Sotan can be seen in the column at the far right which belongs to the Sotó school of Zen
(1511-1672) of Kótóin, summarizes the of the inscription. It is dated to 1587, when Buddhism. The inscription, whose author
events of Sansai's life. In the inscription, Genpô was abbot of Nanzenji; the portrait remains unknown, gives Naoshige's biog-
Sansai is called Daikoji (Great Buddhist is from Chôshôin, a subtemple of Nan- raphy, highlighting his military and civil
Layman). It makes special mention of the zenji. Genpô was the spiritual mentor of accomplishments. Chief among them are
suicide of Sansai's Christian wife Gracia, Baiin Genchü, Yüsai's younger brother. his valor as a leader of Hideyoshi's expedi-
daughter of Nobunaga's assassin, Akechi According to the inscription, Hasumaru tion forces in Korea, his establishment of a
Mitsuhide. Before the Battle of Sekigahara died at age twelve. He is described as a school and the Buddhist temple Enkôji
(1600), in which her husband supported conscientious student of classical learning, upon his return from Korea, and his
Tokugawa leyasu, Gracia had been taken poetry, and music, as well as of the sword loyalty, and his son's, to the Tokugawa
hostage by the leader of the opposing and the crossbow. shogunate.
forces. To preserve her husband from In the portrait, Hasumaru still wears The last five columns of the inscrip-
wavering in loyalty to leyasu out of con- bangs, indicating that he had yet to per- tion tell of the circumstances in which the
cern for her safety, Gracia committed form the coming-of-age ceremony. Never- portrait came to be painted:
suicide. theless, he is depicted wearing the formal
leyasu rewarded Sansai's loyalty and dress of the Momoyama-and Edo-period . . . in the first year ofjdkyd [1684], when
military support by giving him in fief Bu- samurai; the sleeveless jacket with ex- Abe, Bungo no kami, and Hotta, Shimousa
zen Province (parts of the_present-day Pre- tended shoulders (kataginu) and full trou- no kami, were ordered [by the fifth shogun
fectures of Fukuoka and Oita), which he sers (hakamd) over a kosode. The samurai's Tsunayoshi] to check letters of thanks [from
ruled from the refurbished Kokura Castle, standard long (Katana) and short (waki- the past shoguns] kept in various daimyo
leyasu also presented him with a coveted zashi) swords are thrust through his sash. families, I was in Edo, and took to the castle
Chinese chaire (tea container) named His pose is also that of the adult samurai: those given to our family. I explained [to the
Rikyù shiribukura (Rikyü's fat bottom; cat. right hand holding a folding fan, left hand shogun] orally the honor of the manifold fa-
277), as well as swords and Chinese Zen clenched (see cats. 14,15,16). The pale blue vors [our family had received in the past]
calligraphies. and gold brocade of the kataginu and ha- referring in particular to [Ryüzóji] Ta-
In 1621, Sansai retired to Nakatsu Cas- kama, and the chrysanthemum-and-lattice kanobu and Naoshige. I recalled things
tle in Buzen Province, leaving the position design on the kosode reflect the sumptu- about the latter, our forebear, that are not to
of head of the family to his son Tadatoshi. ous fashions favored in the Momoyama be forgotten. Indeed, bringing peace to the
Tadatoshi became daimyo of Higo period. MS nation through military feats, he became
(present-day Kumamoto Prefecture) in the founder of the Nabeshima clan, which
1632, and Sansai moved to Yatsushiro, also is now being revived. Thus, here is a portrait
30 Nabeshima Naoshige
in Higo. With the nation at peace, Sansai [of Naoshige] clad in armor and I bow
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk deeply to it.
spent the remainder of his life between 84.5 x 41.0 (33J/4 x i6Vs)
Yatsushiro, Kyoto, and Edo (present-day Edo period, no later than 1685 The third day of the sixth month, the sec-
Tokyo), devoting much of his time to the ond year ofjdkyd [1685].
pursuit of tea and the supervision of kilns Kôdenji, Saga Prefecture
that he had established for the production At the bottom of the painting is writ-
Warriors in full battle dress are seldom por- ten Hizen jijù (Chamberlain from Hizen),
of tea wares. He died in 1645 and was bur- trayed in Japanese art. A portrait such as
ied at Kôtôin, where his grave was marked an honorific court title. MS
this is especially rare in that the sitter is
by a stone lantern that he had received captured at the moment just before leav-
from his tea master, Sen no Rikyü 31 Honda Tadakatsu
ing for battle, with his ceremonial robes
(1522-1591). YS hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
and cap removed and laid behind him. His
124.0 X 64.0 (48 3/4 X 25 */4)
helmet is placed beside him on the tatami
29 Hosokawa Hasumaru mat. He firmly grasps a fan in his right Momoyama period, early 17th century
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk hand and a tachi sword in his left. He Honda Takayuki, Tokyo
66.4 X 34.0 (201/8 X 133/8) bends slightly forward, with a determined Important Cultural Property
Momoyama period, 1587 gaze. On the front of the cuirass the char-
acter miyako (capital) is written in archaic Honda Heihachirô Tadakatsu (1548-1610)
Chôshôin, Kyoto was a famous military leader who served
script; its significance remains unknown.
Important Cultural Property Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616). Along with
The sitter is Nabeshima Naoshige
(1538-1618). At one time, he was a retainer Sakakibara Yasumasa (1548-1606) and two
Almost all of the portraits of children from
of Ryuzôji Takanobu of Hizen Province others, he is one of the so-called Shitennd
the Momoyama period were of deceased (Four Deva Kings) of leyasu. He followed
sons or daughters, painted at the request (parts of the present-day Prefectures of
Nagasaki and Saga), a local warlord who leyasu into more than fifty battles and, in
of the grieving parents. Behind every 1601, as a reward for his long service, be-
child's face is the profound sorrow experi- died in action during the 1584 Battle of
Shimabara and fought against the power- came daimyo of a domain in Ise Province
enced by those left behind. The sitter de- (most of Mie Prefecture).
picted here, Hosokawa Hasumaru, was the ful Shimazu forces. Naoshige then sup-
ported Takanobu's son Masaie. In 1590 Tadakatsu sits on a folding chair,
ninth child of Hosokawa Yüsai (1534-1610).
On the eighth day of the seventh month Masaie retired and Naoshige succeeded to wearing black armor; the actual armor
the leadership of the Ryüzóji clan. After worn by the sitter is included in this exhi-
of 1587, the gravely ill Hasumaru arrived in bition, (cat. 160.) A set of prayer beads
Kyoto from Tango for medical treatment the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 (cat. 104),
on the order of Tokugawa leyasu (1543- hangs from Tadakatsu's right shoulder
and curative prayer, to no avail. Yüsai across his chest. He wears a long tachi
learned the sad news of his son's death 1616), he subdued the forces of the Tachi-
bana clan in Chikugo Province (part of sword and a shorter wakizashi and holds a
upon his return from a military venture in saihai (commander's baton). The forms in
Kyushu for Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537- present-day Fukuoka Prefecture), and the
1598). Saga domain was officially recognized as
his.
this portrait—the sitter's face, the hakama
(trousers), even the sandal cords and most
The inscription above the figure was remarkably the armor—are angular and
written by Baikoku Genpô; two of his seals This painting is kept at Kôdenji, the
Nabeshima family's mortuary temple,

80
abstracted. Although there is no direct re-
lationship, this quality recalls the portrait
of Minamoto Yoritomo (cat. i). SY

32 Kuroda Nagamasa
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
120.0 X 59.5 (49 5/8 X 23 3/8)
Edo period, no later than 1624
Fukuoka Art Museum,
Fukuoka Prefecture
Important Cultural Property

Kuroda Nagamasa (1568-1623), a promi-

nent daimyo, was the ruler of a large do-
main at Fukuoka in Chikuzen Province
(part of present-day Fukuoka Province).
He first served Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-
1598) and then Tokugawa leyasu (1543-
1616). Nagamasa fought in many battles,
including the 1583 Battle of Shizugatake,
the 1584 battles of Komaki and Nagakute,
the Korean expeditions of 1592 and 1597,
and the 1600 Battle of Sekigahara (cat.
104). He was at one time an enthusiastic
supporter of Christianity, and used a seal
written in the roman alphabet.
Nagamasa is shown mounted on a
dappled horse wearing an Ichinotani hel-
met and, under a jinbaori jacket, a set of
black armor (cat. 162). He is prepared to go
to the front, holding a saihai (com-
mander's baton) in his right hand and the
reins of the horse in his left. The upper
half of the painting is filled with two in-
scriptions. The shorter one, in large char-
acters at the left, contains a poem. It was
requested by Nagamasa's vassal Kuroda
Kazunari and was written by the Zen
scholar-monk Kôgetsu Sôgan (1574-1643);
two of Kogetsu's seals follow his signature.
At the right is a long epitaph in smaller
characters dated to 1624, written by Hay-
ashi Razan (1583-1657), a distinguished
Confucian scholar.
Kogetsu's poem, read from left to right,
follows:
With armor and arms the battlefield round
No one ever argues the merit of a sweating
horse.
If overt power is likened to a plant
It is the plum blossom, that which first
tastes the winds of spring. SY

33 Sakakibara Yasumasa
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk.
112.0 x 46.0 (44 x iS^s)
Momoyama period, early ryth century
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo
Important Cultural Property
Sakakibara Yasumasa (1548-1606) was a dis-
tinguished high-ranking warrior who, with
Honda Tadakatsu (1548-1610), was counted
among Tokugawa leyasu's (1543-1616) four
most devoted retainers, his Shitennd (Four
Deva Kings). Since the time of his father,
Nagamasa, the family had served leyasu.
32

81
33 34

The name Yasumasa includes the charac- 34 Inaba Ittetsu nineteenth day of the eleventh month of
ter yasu, which he received from leyasu in hanging scroll; ink and color on silk 1588.
appreciation of his loyalty. He achieved 94.0x54.6(37x211/2) The inscription on this portrait was
fame for his valor in battles, but after ley- Momoyama period, probably 1589 written by Gyokuho Shôsô (1546-1613) of
asu's triumph at the Battle of Sekigahara Daitokuji in the tenth month of 1589; two
Chishôin, Kyoto
in 1600 (cat. 104), he found himself in op- of Shôsô's seals follow his signature. Al-
position to the more bureaucratic group of Important Cultural Property
though Ittetsu is presented as a priest, ton-
military leaders around leyasu. Realizing sured and clad in a dark outer robe, a tachi
that the age of battles was over, Yasumasa Inaba Ittetsu (1516-1588) was the youngest is at his side, reflecting his status as a war-
retired. child of Inaba Michinori, a military leader rior. According to the Lineage of the Inaba
In this portrait Yasumasa sits on bear of Mino Province (part of present-day Gifu Family, Ittetsu's son Sadamichi asked an
fur, wearing black armor, also shown in Prefecture). First he became a priest at Sü- artist from Kyoto to paint this portrait.
this exhibition (cat. 159). He wears a long fukuji, built by Saito Toshiyasu, the shugo- The style of the painting suggests that the
tachi sword and a shorter wakizashi at his dai (acting military governor) of Mino, painter may have been Hasegawa Tôhaku
left waist and holds a saihai (commander's with Dokushü Kansai as the founding (1539-1610); who also painted a chinsd (por-
baton) in his right hand. A banner stands priest. In 1525, when the Asai family of trait of a Zen priest) of Gyokuho Shôsô.
behind him. On it is a circle, symbolic of Omi advanced on Mino, his father and Portions of the inscription read as
the sun, and the character mu (nothing- five brothers died in action. Ittetsu (Single follows:
ness). A banner with the same design ex- Iron) returned to the lay world and as-
ists today, but the sun and the character sumed the position of head of the family. He was a brave soldier in the martial world,
mu are in gold leaf on an indigo ground. He served as a retainer under military a loyal retainer of the family and country.
The portrait, the armor, and the banner chieftains of four different clans—the In him the mortal and the saintly
were all in the Sakakibara family until Toki, Saitô, Oda, and Toyotomi. Ittetsu coexisted. His image combined the
recently. SY died in Shimizu Castle in Mino on the spiritual and the worldly, the two realities
not interfering with each other....

82
35

83
 36

84
37

85
Here is my clumsy eulogy: valiant warrior with a spear... waging a and lemitsu (1604-1651). He also was re-
battle totally under his control, this is like nowned as a tea adept, and had built a tea
In good virtue and fragrant name he had no [the Chinese general] Zhuge Liang, though house named Sunshdan in 1617 within the
peer in a different seat and a different robe.... precinct of Ryûkôin, a subtemple of Daito-
Cutting the sky horizontally, his treasured He swings his poetry fan lightly and dances kuji. He used Sunshdan as his artistic so-
swore/ flashed as if with new snow and in an elegant gathering. In spring he sees briquet and was a great collector of art.
frost cherry blossoms in the capital, and daily re- Among the treasures included in his col-
Sitting grand in this house, what is it that cites poems from the Manyôshù. Through lection at Sunshóan were twelve frag-
he knows? his window is the changing scene of the lake ments from a codex of eleventh-century
Ironwood blossoms [a reference to his under the moonlight, and he looks at the calligraphy transcribing poems from the
name and metaphor for something rare] books by one hundred poets.... He left his Kokinshü anthology. Known as the Sun-
and spring are in heaven and earth. place of living and threw away his office. shdan shikishi (Sunshóan poem sheets),
Ah!... MS Now he tills the Fields of Stones [that is, they are now dispersed among various col-
Ishida, his family n a m e ] . . . . MS lections. The tea house no longer survives.
35 Ishida Masatsugu Kógetsu Sógan (1574-1643), a Zen
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk monk of considerable expertise in arts and
36 Matsui Yohachiró letters who had been instrumental in the
61.0 x 35.8 (24 x 14)
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk restoration of Daitokuji, inscribed this
Momoyama period, no later than 1594
90.0 x 37.0 (353/8 x 14 l/z) scroll as follows:
Jushóin, Kyoto Momoyama period, probably 1594
Important Art Object Inscription beckoned by the portrait of
Hôsenji, Kyoto Tokusôsaishu San'in Sdka Koji [Sakuma
Ishida Masatsugu (d. 1600) was the father Shógen] painted during his lifetime
of the warrior Ishida Mitsunari (1560- Matsui Yohachiró (d. 1593) was the first-
born son of Matsui Yasuyuki (1550-1612). A breeze of fresh wind sweeps away the
1600), who led a coalition of daimyo worldly dust
against Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616) at the Yasuyuki was a kard (elder) who served Ho-
sokawa Yüsai (1534-1610) and his son San- Hiding in the thicket is a man growing old
decisive Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 (cat. Around his waist he still has a house and
104). Mitsunari had gained power as an im- sai (1563-1646). Yohachiró served with
distinction during the 1592 Korean expedi- rare treasures
portant retainer of Hideyoshi, and Masa- Polishing them with a three-foot hossu
tsugu's skills as a warrior and administrator tion. He returned home with an illness,
however, and died on the fifteenth day of [Zen monk's whisk] won't make them
also came to be in demand. He served as clean.
daikan (deputy governor) of Sakai (near the eighth month of the following year.
His grief-stricken parents commissioned Written by Yawning Man
present-day Osaka), the area under the Kdgetsu [tripod-shaped relief seal]
Toyotomi's direct rule. After Mitsunari's this posthumous portrait. The inscription,
focusing on Yohachiró's military feats in Sdgan [square relief seal]
defeat at the Battle of Sekigahara and the
Korea, is dated the day before the first an- Sakuma Shógen sits in front of a
fall of his garrison castle at Sawayama in
niversary of Yohachiró's death and was screen painting of a dragon in a bamboo
Omi (present-day Shiga Prefecture), Ma-
satsugu and the rest of his family commit- written by Genpo Reisan of Nanzenji; two grove, opposite a boy attendant with a
ted suicide. Mitsunari was beheaded on seals are impressed below his signature. Chinese hair style. He himself is wearing
Yohachiró is sumptuously dressed in a the informal loose gown and soft cap of
the banks of the Kamo River in Kyoto.
green Kosode with gold and dark green the Chinese gentleman-scholar in retire-
In this painting, the tonsured Masa-
tsugu is presented as a Buddhist cleric; his flower and leaf designs, and over it the for- ment or at leisure. Both the painting and
warrior status, though, is represented by mal dress of a samurai (sleeveless jacket the inscription compare Shógen to a high-
and full trousers) with a design of scattered minded Chinese recluse. This portrait is
the short koshigatana sword at his waist.
His outer robe is richly patterned with white pine needles. He is seated on a ta- similar to another work depicting Shógen,
paulownia blossoms. The artist has cap- tami mat and wears two swords. His right painted by Kano Tan'yú (1602-1674; cat.
tured Masatsugu's imposing presence and hand holds a fan and the left is clenched, 42) and also inscribed by Kógetsu, in 1641.
his sharp, determined expression, con- as in so many warrior portraits of the time. A note written on the back of the Shin-
veyed through the eyes and furrowed The composition is close to that of the juan painting says that on the original
brow. portrait of Hosokawa Hasumaru (cat. 29). wooden roller of the scroll, now lost, was a
The inscription was written by Ha- The oval face, delicate eyes and nose ren- date corresponding to 1636. It is assumed
dered with sinuous lines, and small, thin that the painting dates from around
kuho Eryo, one-time abbot of Myôshinji.
It is dated to 1594, indicating that the por- lips contribute to an overall gentle facial 1636. SY
trait was painted during Masatsugu's life- expression not unlike those seen in con-
time. Two of Eryó's seals follow his temporary genre paintings. SY 38 Sen no Rikyú
signature. The inscription says that it was attributed to Hasegawa Tóhaku
written at the request of Masatsugu him- 37 Sakuma Shógen (1539-1610)
self, and that Masatsugu had come under Kano Tan'yü (1602-1674) hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Eryó's spiritual influence. The portrait hanging scroll; ink and color on silk 80.6 x 36.7 (313/4 x 143/8)
comes from Jushôin, a subtemple within 63.8 x 28.4 (z51/8 x iiv's) Momoyama period, no later than 1595
Myôshinji founded by Eryô and named af- Edo period, c. 1636 Sen Sosa collection, Kyoto
ter Masatsugu's Buddhist title.
The inscription reads in part: Shinjuan, Kyoto Sen no Rikyü (1522-1591) was born into a
merchant family in Sakai, a bustling port
. . . Talented both in arts [bun] and arms Sakuma Shógen Sanekatsu (1570-1642) was
[bu], his heart nourishes saintliness and wis- a warrior who first served Toyotomi Hide- city south of Osaka. After studying tea
dom. . . . His body grand and robust; his de- with Kitamuki Dóchin (1504-1562) and Ta-
yoshi (1537-1598), and then three succes-
corum awesome and full of dignity.... A sive generations of Tokugawa shoguns: keno Jóó (1502-1555), he became the lead-
ing exponent of wabi (simple, or rustic)
leyasu (1543-1616), Hidetada (1578-1631),

86
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87
 style tea in his own time, and perhaps the While still in his teens, Seika entered Shô-
most important (certainly the best known) kokuji, one of the five major Zen monas-
figure in the whole history of tea. He teries of Kyoto, where he studied Zen as
served as personal tea instructor to Oda well as classical Chinese literature and
Nobunaga (1534-1582) and then Toyotomi Song Neo-Confucianism. Seika eventually
Hideyoshi (1537-1598). This position en- returned to lay life and led a renaissance in
abled him to become a close confidant of Song Confucian scholarship.
Hideyoshi and to acquire the substantial In the Edo period, Confucianism be-
political influence inherent in such a rela- came the official teaching of the govern-
tionship. In 1591, however, for reasons now ing samurai class, and daimyo employed
unclear, Hideyoshi ordered him to commit prominent scholars to assist them in gov-
suicide. erning. Hayashi Razan (1583-1657), Seika's
Tanaka Sókei, thought to be related to student and one of the inscribers of this
Rikyû and one of the founders of the Raku painting, served the shogunate, but Seika
kiln (cats. 285, 286), commissioned this por- himself refused official engagement, and
trait. The Raku wares were developed un- in his later years retired to a mountain re-
der Rikyü's close aesthetic supervision. treat at Ichiharano north of Kyoto. That
The inscription was written by Shun'oku retreat is the setting for this painting. Al-
Sóen (1529-1611) of Daitokuji, the spiritual though the retreat no longer stands, an old
successor to Shôryô Sókin; both priests in- well remains.
structed Rikyü in Zen. The painter of the portrait, Kano
Rikyü is portrayed in this painting as a Sansetsu, was the leading student and
lay Buddhist, wearing a black robe and adopted heir of Kano Sanraku (1559-1635),
holding a fan. The style of the painting, es- whom he succeeded as head of the Kano
pecially in the face, recalls that of Hase- studio; he was also an admirer of Seika.
gawa Tohaku who frequently painted for The regular geometric composition is both
Rikyü and Sôen. Tôhaku was commis- characteristic of Sansetsu's work and
sioned by "Rikyü to execute the ceiling idiosyncratic within the Kano school. San-
painting of the gate of Daitokuji. He also setsu's signature can be seen at the lower
painted sliding door panels in Sangen'in, a right, followed by his seal.
subtemple that was Sôen's residential Razan wrote the lower inscription,
quarters. There is, thus, a strong possibil- read from left to right, with a seal follow-
ity that Tohaku painted this portrait. ing his signature; in his collected works,
The inscription reads, from left to this poem is dated to 1639. Hori Kyôan
right: (1585-1642), another close disciple of Seika,
wrote the upper inscription, read from left
Hat on his head and fan in his hand
to right and with two seals underlying his
The solemn image he left behind captures
signature at the right. Both inscriptions
what he always was
eulogize Seika's retreat and his studies of
Like Zhao Zhou [a Chinese Zen priest
Confucianism. WA
famous for his intuitive approach] he sits
awhile and drinks tea
This old man seems to gain knowledge 40 Ishikawa Józan
without struggle. Kano Tan'yü (1602-1674)
Sdkei showed me Layman Rikyu's portrait hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
and asked me to write an inscription, so I 100.6 x 38.3 (395/8 x 15)
have written a four-line verse and offer Edo period, mid-i7th century
this with incense. Jôzanji (Shisendô), Kyoto
Fourteenth day, ninth month, fourth year of
Bunroku [1595] Although Ishikawa Jôzan (1583-1672)
Sangen, Old Shun'oku Sôen fought with distinction in many military
Sôen [square intaglio seal] engagements for Tokugawa leyasu (1543-
MS 1616), in 1615, during the summer battle of
Osaka, he disobeyed his commanders out
39 Fujiwara Seika living in leisure of excessive zeal and was severely repri-
Kano Sansetsu (1589-1651) manded. Jôzan relinquished his domain
hanging scroll; ink on paper and went to Kyoto where he took the ton-
sure and became a monk at Myóshinji.
119.5 x V-3 (47 x 123/8) Later, in order to support his mother when
Edo period, early iyth century she became seriously ill, Jôzan entered the
Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo service of the daimyo Asano Nagaakira,
lord of Kii and later of Aki domains; upon
Fujiwara Seika (1561-1619) was a Confu- his mother's death, he returned to Kyoto.
cian scholar whose teachings were of great At the age of fifty-eight, he built a retreat
significance in the early Edo period; Seika in Ichijôji village, in northeastern Kyoto,
was the name of his residence. He was de- and asked Kano Tan'yü, the foremost
scended from the aristocratic Reizei fam- painter of that time, to paint portraits of
ily, guardians and perpetuators of one of thirty-six Tang and Song Chinese poets.
the traditions of classical Japanese poetry. Hanging them on the walls, Jôzan called
his retreat Shisendô (Hall of Immortal

88
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 42

Poets), and lived there in retirement. He reclines on the armrest at ease, wearing a yama period. In this posthumous, com-
Shisendó, also known as Józanji, still dark brown cap memorative portrait, Yúshó and his wife
stands today. His face quiet and eminent, his spirit bright Myôtei look at a painting of the Tang Chi-
Jôzan studied Confucianism from Fu- and lofty nese poet Li Bo viewing a waterfall.
jiwara Seika (1561-1619). He was accom- He communes with nature, nourishes his The greater part of the inscription at
plished in Chinese poetry and reisho (C: li inner spirit the top of the portrait, written by Yushô's
shu), the archaic, clerical style of calligra- His thoughts stubborn at age eighty, a grandson Yüchiku in 1724, gives an ac-
phy, and also painted in the Chinese hermit of three spirits count of Yushô's life. In the shorter sec-
mode. He was a friend of Hayashi Razan Who is this hermit but Rokuroku Sanjin tion at the right, Yüchiku has transcribed
(1583-1657) and Hori Kyôan (1585-1642), [Jozan's artistic pseudonym]. a letter written in 1608 by a Korean gov-
both also students of Seika. WA ernment official named Pak Tae-gün who
In this portrait, signed and sealed by sought a painting by Yüshó, whom he
Tan'yu at the lower left, Jôzan leans on an called "number one under heaven."
armrest in a relaxed manner. The pose is 41 Kaihó Yúshó and his wife Because the painting is stamped with
reminiscent of imaginary portraits of such attributed to Kaihô Yüchiku the seals Kaihô and Ddki at the lower
famous literary figures as the Tang Chi- (1654-1728) right, the seals of Yushô's son Yusetsu
nese poet Li Bo and the Nara-period Japa- hanging scroll; ink and color on paper (1598-1677), it has long been attributed to
nese poet Hitomaro. The brushwork and 114.7 x 44-° (451/8 x 1T^} Yusetsu. Recent scholarship has deter-
use of colors are refined, and the sitter is Edo period, early i8th century mined that these seals were added later,
presented as a man of lofty thoughts and Kaihô Hiroshi Collection, Kyoto however, and the painting is now believed
of purity of mind. The inscription, written Important Cultural Property to have been painted by Yüchiku.
in clerical-style script by Jôzan himself, is Myôtei wears a kosode robe and an
followed by his seal: Kaihô Yüshó (1533-1615) was one of the uchikake (outer kosode worn without a
most prominent painters of the Momo-

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sash). According to the history of the 42 Kano Tan'yü his face is deeply wrinkled. The sharp
Kaihó family written in Yüchiku's time, Momota Ryüei (1647-1698) eyes, prominent hooked nose, tightly
this kosode and uchikake were gifts from hanging scroll; ink and color on paper closed lips, and square jaw nevertheless
lemitsu (1604-1651), the third Tokugawa 66.4 x 47.9 (26*78 x 187/3) convey the strength of the aging artist,
shogun, whom Myótei and Yüsetsu met Edo period, late i7th century who was to painting what Tokugawa
after Yüshó's death. The meeting was ar- leyasu was to politics.
Kyoto National Museum
ranged by lemitsu's wetnurse Kasuga no Although there is no seal on the
Tsubone, the youngest daughter of Saitô Important Cultural Property
painting, an inscription, Painted by Ryüei,
Toshimitsu, a military leader and close The painter Kano Tan'yü (1602-1674), the identifying the artist, is written on top of
friend of Yüshó. In this painting, Myótei is eldest son of Takanobu (cat. 18), not only the lid of the box that contains the scroll.
portrayed with her back to the viewer, giv- cemented the prestigious reputation of Momota Ryüei was one of four close disci-
ing prominence to the kosode and the the Kano school of painting, but also es- ples of Tan'yü. He served the Shimazu
uchikake decorated with the Tokugawa tablished the official painting style of the family of Satsuma Province (part of
mon of three hollyhock leaves, thus re- Edo period. This work is thought to be a present-day Kagoshima Prefecture) as a
cording for posterity the honor bestowed preparatory sketch for a finished painting, painter, and also practiced medicine. AY
on the Kaihô family. SY now lost, which was in the Kajibashi Kano
family of Edo, founded by Tan'yü and one
of the four Kano families that served the
shogunate.
With concentrated gaze, Tan'yü holds
a paintbrush in his right hand. He was
probably in his last years when this por-
trait was painted; he has lost much of his
hair, he is flabby around the mouth, and

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43 Minamoto Yoritomo Perhaps for this reason the statue of Yori- 44 Hojo Tokiyori
polychromed wood tomo was placed in a building inside the polychromed wood
h. 70.6(273/4) shrine complex. Shirahatasha was de- h. 68.9 (271/8)
Kamakura period, 2nd half of i3th stroyed by fire in 1280 and reconstructed Kamakura period, late i3th century
century soon after. This statue dates to the period
Kenchôji, Kanagawa Prefecture
of Shirahatasha's reconstruction.
Tokyo National Museum The figure holds a shaku (wooden cer- Important Cultural Property
Important Cultural Property emonial slat) in his right hand, and he This statue of a fully dressed warrior is
Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), a late wears the informal court dress of the said to be of Hojo Tokiyori (1227-1263),
Heian warrior, rose to political power by Heian aristocrat: an eboshi (black head- who as shikken (regent for the shogun) be-
destroying the rival Taira clan, and all po- gear), a kariginu (hunting robe) on the up- tween 1246 and 1256 exercised supreme
tential competitors within his own lineage. per body, and sashinuki (baggy pants tied power in the Kamakura shogunate. The
In 1192 he was appointed by the emperor around the ankles) on the lower body. This construction of Kenchôji, where this work
seiitaishdgun (Great General Who Quells apparel, also found on the statue of Hojo is enshrined, began in 1249 at Tokiyori's
the Barbarians) and, as the first shogun of Tokiyori in Kenchôji (cat. 44), is typical of initiative and was completed in 1253. Its
the Kamakura shogunate, initiated a warriors' statues in the Kamakura period. first chief priest was Lanqi Daolong (J:
warrior-class regime. The head and torso were carved from sep- Rankei Doryú; 1213-1278), a Chinese Chan
This statue of Yoritomo purportedly arate pieces of wood, front and back, with (Zen) priest of the Rinzai school. The tem-
was enshrined at Shirahatasha in the additional pieces for the face and knees. ple has been destroyed by fire several
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura. In The interior of the statue is hollow, and times; hence no contemporary written
1180 the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu was the eyes are inlaid crystal. Much of the documents concerning this statue are ex-
moved by Yoritomo from Yuigahama to its original polychromy has been lost. NK tant.
present location, and it thrived under gov- Numerous works based on close ob-
ernment support in the following years. servation of the subject were made during

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45

the Kamakura period. This trend toward ing the brown sabi lacquer. The wooden The figure wears the formal attire of a
realism resulted in many fine portraits of ceremonial slat (shaku) in the right hand is high aristocrat of the Heian period: a kan-
well-known personalities from the last half a later addition. SH muri (formal hat indicating court rank), a
of the thirteenth century on. Like the fig- tachi (slung sword), and in his right hand a
ure in cat. 43, Tokiyori wears an eboshi wooden ceremonial slat (shaku). The face
45 Miura Yoshiaki is old and wrinkled, but the concentrated,
(black court headgear), a kariginu (hunting
robe), and sashinuki (baggy pants tied polychromed wood severe gaze and the tightly closed lips con-
around the ankles). The small eyes, which h. 99.5 (391/8) vey inner power.
gaze into the distance, mouth turned Kamakura period, i3th-i4th century The head and body were made from
slightly down at the outer corners, arid up- Manshôji, Kanagawa Prefecture two separate pieces of wood, front and
turned nose capture the individuality of back, and the head was separated from the
The warrior Miura Yoshiaki (Osuke, 1092- body at the neck for further hollowing-out
the artist's model. The technical execu-
1180) wielded great power in the Miura Pe- and then reattached. The eyes are crystal.
tion seems to place this work in the later
ninsula (Kanagawa Prefecture) and Though the interior was hollowed out, the
half of the thirteenth century.
surrounding areas in the late Heian pe- walls remain thick, making the statue very
The head and body are made of two
pieces of Japanese cypress (hinoki), one riod. When Minamoto Yoritomo (1147- heavy.
1199) rose to attack the Taira clan, Yoshiaki This portrait statue occupies a shrine
each for front and back; separate pieces
led the Miura clan in support of Yoritomo. called Gory ó My 5 j in in the Manshôji com-
are attached for the sides of the body, legs,
He was defeated by the Taira, and he died plex. Goryô Myôjin was purportedly built
and the robe, and the eyes are inlaid crys-
in battle. Yoritomo, having become sho- in 1212. The striking degree of stylization
tal. Cloth was glued onto the surface of
gun in 1192, built Manshôji in honor of of the body suggests that the portrait was
the statue, then coated with sabi urushi
Yoshiaki near the site of his death in 1194. made much later, toward the end of the
(thick raw lacquer mixed with pulverized
An inscription inside the head of the Kamakura period. Inside the body are
stone) and over this undercoating black
statue states that Minamoto Yoritomo three wooden tablets documenting,
lacquer was applied followed by white pig-
built Manshôji for Yoshiaki. among other things, the restoration of the
ment, and finally colored pigments. The
surface has deteriorated, however, expos- statue in 1719. NK

93
 46,

46 Itchin bot of Konkoji, and the founder of Shô- Details about the artist Kóshun are
Kóshun (fl. 1334) jôkôji in Kanagawa Prefecture, the head- unknown. However, like Kóshu, the sculp-
polychromed wood quarters of the Jiji sect. However, in the tor of a 1420 portrait of Ippen, also for-
h. 79.0(31^/8) course of the recent restoration, writing merly at Konkôji, Kôshun is thought to be
Nanbokuchô period, 1334 was found inside the statue, stating that a Kei-school sculptor and later follower of
Chôrakuji, Kyoto Koshun sculpted this portrait of the fifty- the famous Unkei (d. 1223). NK
Important Cultural Property seven-year-old Yo Amidabutsu (the Bud-
dhist name of Itchin). Itchin (1278-1355),
the sixth patriarch of the Jiji sect, was 47 Yishan Yining
This is one of seven portrait sculptures of
the abbot of Shôjôkôji and also later be- polychromed wood
Jishü-school patriarchs from Konkôji, the
came the first abbot of the training temple h. 76.0(297/3)
Jishü training temple on Shichijo Street in
Kôshôji, on Ichijó Street in Kyoto. Kamakura period, c. 1317
Kyoto. When Konkôji was closed in 1908,
all seven statues were moved to Chôrakuji The statue wears a simple kesa Nanzen'in, Kyoto
in Kyoto. Jishü is a populist branch of the (priest's mantle) over a priestly robe. The
devotional Jódo (Pure Land, or Amidist) palms, joined in front of the chest, are Yishan Yining (1247-1317), known in Japan
sect of Buddhism. It was founded by the common to seated portraits of Jishü as Issan Kokushi (National Teacher), was
monk Ippen (1239-1289) in the mid- priests. The face, with crystal eyes, is de- an erudite priest of Chinese Rinzai Zen
Kamakura period and remained a consid- scriptively rendered. This portrait is the Buddhism who came to Japan in 1299 car-
erable force in Japanese religious life finest and oldest of the group of seven rying a diplomatic letter from Emperor
through the fifteenth century, patronized Chôrakuji sculptures, and it is significant Chengzong of the Yuan dynasty of China.
especially by common people and by the as a rare ;uzo, that is, a portrait made dur- Although suspected by the Kamakura sho-
tough and unsophisticated warriors from ing the subject's lifetime. (Most Japanese gunate of being a Yuan spy, this deeply
eastern Japan. "portraits" were posthumous, sometimes cultured man had a strong spiritual impact
According to temple tradition, this by many generations.) on many people, including Hôjô Sadatoki
statue depicts Donkai (1265-1327), the (1271-1311), the shogunal regent from 1284
fourth patriarch of the Ji sect, the first ab- to 1301. Yishan became the abbot of Ken-
chôji, Engakuji, and Jôchiji, renowned

94
Zen monasteries of Kamakura. His fame with chinsó sculpture (portraits of Zen returned to Kyoto with the backing of the
reached finally to Kyoto where he was in- priests), he holds a hossu (whisk with long shogunate and there, under the auspices
vited by the retired emperor Go-Uda white hairs, symbolic of priestly office and of the shogun Yoriie, converted Kenninji
(1267-1324), and was appointed the third the brushing away of worldly thoughts) in to the practice of Rinzai Zen. The affinity
abbot of Nanzenji. Go-Uda, devoted to his right hand and sits on a chair (not ex- of the warrior class for Zen, and the close
Yishan's faith, posthumously bestowed on hibited). Chinsd sculpture typically cap- relationships between members of the ba-
the priest the title Kokushi and built a tures the realistic appearance of the kufu and Zen prelates, which character-
mausoleum for him beside that of the em- model, including such details as the large ized the following several centuries, had
peror Kameyama (1249-1305), Go-Uda's fa- mole on the left eyelid. The result is that their beginnings in the work of Eisai. NK
ther. Yishan is known as the father of the person's spirit also is conveyed. The
Gozan Bungaku (Literature of the Five mild expression, the relaxed pose, and the
50 Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Mountains), the literary movement es- clothing, which is more or less symmetri-
polychromed wood
poused by the scholar-monks of Japanese
Zen in the fourteenth and fifteenth centu-
cal, capture the unruffled state of mind of
the model. This fine chinsd was probably h. 73.8 (29)
ries. He was also instrumental in transmit- made around the time of Mujú's death in Momoyama period, c. 1598-1615
ting from China to Japan the Zhu Xi 1312. Osaka City
school of Confucianism. The head and body are made of two Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), the sec-
An excellent example of chinsd sculp- hollow pieces of wood, joined front to ond "great unifier" of Japan, began his ca-
ture (portraits of Zen priests), this statue, back. The Hdkydin dharani, a set of Eso- reer in the service of the first, Oda
probably made soon after Yishan's death teric Buddhist incantations, is written in- Nobunga (1534-1582), whose military ge-
in 1317, is enshrined at Nanzen'in, a sub- side, in Sanskrit. Most of the polychromy nius carried him from a minor domain in
temple of Nanzenji and the site of the that originally covered the entire surface is
Owari Province to the mastery of most of
mausoleums of Kameyama and Yishan. now lost, exposing the underlayers of sabi
Japan. Hideyoshi's rise was even more dra-
Made of Japanese cypress (hinoki), the urushi (raw lacquer mixed with pulverized
matic: this son of a peasant farmer was
main part of the head and torso are made stone) and black lacquer. SH Nobunaga's equal as a strategist and his
of two hollow pieces joined front to back.
superior as a diplomat. By 1590 he had re-
The eyes are crystal. Yishan holds a stick 49 Myóan Eisai duced all of Japan to peace and fealty, had
called a keisaku (a disciplinary stick used
polychromed wood taken the title of Imperial Regent, and
on monks whose attention wandered dur-
h. 60.3 (233/4) could turn his attention to legitimating
ing meditation) in his right hand, and his
Kamakura period, i3th-i4th century and controlling what he had won. Though
robe and kesa (priest's mantle) draped over
his notion of civil administration was a
the chair (not exhibited). NK Jufukuji, Kanagawa Prefecture
simple and quite sketchy extension of the
Myôan Eisai (1141-1215) owes his eminence domainal administration of a daimyo, his
48 Mujü Ichien in Japanese history to two accomplish- land survey (begun in 1585) transformed
polychromed wood ments: the propagation of Rinzai Zen as Japanese social and cadastral organization
h. 79.4 (31^/4) an independent school of Buddhism, and to the forms that prevailed throughout the
Kamakura period, c. 1312 the reintroduction (from China) of tea Edo period. His territorial ambitions ex-
drinking and tea cultivation after several tended to the (unachieved) conquest of
Chômoji, Aichi Prefecture
centuries of disuse. Born in present-day China; he understood the value of manu-
Important Cultural Property Okayama Prefecture, he began religious facturing and commerce and controlled
Mujü Ichien, born in 1226 in Kamakura, life as a student of Esoteric doctrines, es- them for his benefit; and his patronage of
was probably a member of the Kajiwara pecially Tendai. But in the course of two the arts was, by contemporary accounts,
family, which served the Kamakura sho- trips to China to study Buddhist doctrine both grandiose and knowing.
gunate. After taking the tonsure in Hitachi he became persuaded of the greater valid- As this sculpture suggests, he was ap-
Province (present-day Ibaraki Prefecture), ity of Rinzai Zen teachings. Zen doctrines parently an exceedingly homely man. No-
he studied the doctrines of the older had been known in Japan since the sev- bunaga, who greatly valued his abilities,
schools of Buddhism. He also studied Zen enth century, but only as elements in the called him "Monkey" (saru). Much of the
as a disciple of Enni Ben'en (1202-1280) at teachings of other Buddhist schools; it was extant portrait sculpture of Hideyoshi, like
Tôfukuji, a major Zen monastery in Eisai who established Rinzai Zen as an in- the painted portraits of him, was produced
Kyoto. He thus acquired a wide range of dependent school, which soon acquired a for the shrines built after his death. When
Buddhist learning. In 1262 Mujú became great and influential following. the Toyotomi family was destroyed by To-
the founding abbot of Chômoji, where he On his return in 1191 from the second kugawa leyasu (1543-1616) in 1615, these
lived for fifty years, during which time he of his two trips to China, Eisai preached shrines, which deified Hideyoshi, were de-
wrote many books, including Sasekishù (A for a time in Kyushu, where he founded stroyed or closed. Thus this sculpture can
Collection of Sand and Pebbles), a famous Shôfukuji (near Hakata, present-day Fu- be dated to the period between 1598 and
anthology of Buddhist stories in ten vol- kuoka) and cultivated the tea seeds he had 1615.
umes. In 1282 he declined an invitation to brought with him. He expressed his con- Although its history is not known, this
become the second abbot of Tôfukuji. He viction of the life- and health-giving prop- work is one of the most idiosyncratic ex-
died in 1312 at the age of eighty-six at erties of tea in Kissa ydjdki (On Drinking amples of sculpted portraits of Hideyoshi.
Rengeji in Ise (Mie Prefecture), which he Tea and Maintaining Health). His Zen While the face reflects the stylized expres-
also headed. He left the following parting teachings met with opposition from the es- sion of the No mask of an old man, it still
verse: tablished schools, and the court in Kyoto retains a sense of realism and individuality.
A seagull floats over the sea enjoined Eisai to silence on the subject of The work is made with the yosegi zukuri
Seven and eighty years Zen. But in 1199 he was in Kamakura, technique (hollow joined woodblock), and
The wind rests, the waves are still where his converts among the shogunate the coloring and pedestal are later addi-
Calm as in the days of yore. and the warriors included Hôjô Masako tions. NYS
Muju's portrait is enshrined in the and Minamoto Yoriie, widow and son of
Founder's Hall at Chômoji. As is common Yoritomo. In Kamakura in 1200 he became
founding abbot of Jufukuji, and in 1202 he

96
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97
 48

98
49

99
 50

5i Toyotomi Sutemaru stroyed, and Sutemaru's portrait was 52 Jigen Daishi

polychromed wood moved to Rinkain, a subtemple of polychromed wood
h. 56.0 (22) Myôshinji, a large Zen monastery in 11.75.1(291/2)
Momoyama period, c. 1591 Kyoto. The portrait was probably moved Edo period, c. 1644
there because this was the place where
Rinkain, Kyoto Enichiin, Shiga Prefecture
Nange Genkô, the first abbot of Shôunji,
Important Cultural Property Important Cultural Property
lived in retirement.
Sutemaru sits on a pedestal wearing a The monk Tenkai (1536-1643), or Jigen
Toy boat long-sleeved kimono, tied in back with a Daishi, was a distinguished priest of Ten-
polychromed wood sash. The surface is richly polychromed in dai Buddhism who was active from the
1. 200 (783/4); w. 69.7 (27^2) white, vermilion, and gold. Perhaps be- Momoyama to the early Edo period. Born
Momoyama period, c. 1591 cause Hideyoshi loved his son very deeply, in Aizu Province (part of present-day Fu-
it is strikingly idealized and stylized, al- kushima Prefecture), Tenkai trained at
Gyokuhôin, Kyoto most doll-like. Enryakuji, Onjôji, Kôfukuji, and other
Important Cultural Property The boat is said to have been one of Buddhist temples. He enjoyed the confi-
Sutemaru's toys. It was offered by Hide- dence and favor of the first three Toku-
Toyotomi Sutemaru (Tsurumatsu, 1589- yoshi to Myôshinji, where Sutemaru's
1591), the first son of the hegemon Toyo- gawa shoguns—leyasu, Hidetada, and
funeral took place. It is now in the posses- lemitsu—and, like many Zen monks of
tomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), and Yodogimi, sion of Gyokuhôin, another subtemple of
died when he was just two years old. The the Momoyama period, was often their ad-
Myôshinji. Resembling a real boat, it has a visor in secular as well as religious matters.
grieving father, Hideyoshi, built Shôunji in small cabin at the helm and another at the
eastern Kyoto as the child's memorial tem- In 1624, by order of the shogun family, he
stern. A board with wheels is attached to constructed Kan'eiji, the headquarters of
ple. This portrait was enshrined there. the bottom of the boat so that it can be
When the Toyotomi family fell and the To- Tendai Buddhism in the east, and became
pulled. The hull of the boat is gilded, and its founding abbot. Tenkai is also famous
kugawa ruled the nation, Shôunji was de- the rest is polychromed. NK

100
SI

as the person responsible for the great cul-

tural enterprise of block-printing the is-
saikyd (complete collection of Buddhist
scriptures). Having lived to the old age of
one hundred seven years, he received
from the emperor the posthumous title
Jigen Daishi.
Tenkai was instrumental in recon-
structing many buildings at Enryakuji, the
headquarters of the Tendai school outside
Kyoto. This portrait of Tenkai is the main
icon of Enichiin, built in 1644 as a subtem-
ple of Enryakuji, and probably dates from
that time—that is, one year after his
death.
The head and torso are made of sev-
eral pieces of Japanese cypress (hinoki),
with crystal eyes. The figure wears a cloth
draped over its head, a vermilion priestly
robe, and over it a kesa (priest's mantle)
decorated with polychromy and cut gold
leaf. Tenkai is seated, holding prayer beads
in both hands and a gokosho (five-pronged
ritual instrument symbolizing a thunder-
bolt) in the left hand. NK

101
 h

53 Ishin Suden shohatto (Rules for the Military Houses, joined-wood (yosegi) structure of the head
polychromed wood that is laws governing the daimyo and sam- and body is no different from typical ex-
h. 32.7 (127/8) urai) and the laws prohibiting Christianity. amples. The eyes are crystal. The coloring
Edo period, iyth century Also wielding tremendous influence with of the hat, the chair, and the staff is well
leyasu's successor, Hidetada, he was called preserved. Although the face is somewhat
Nanzenji, Kyoto
Kokue no Saishd, or the premier who wore lacking in liveliness and the body is gener-
Ishin Suden (1569-1632) was an early Edo the black robes of a priest. He lost power alized, this sculpture demonstrates the
Zen Buddhist priest of the Rinzai school. during the reign of lemitsu (1604-1651), the technical mastery of the era. NYS
He was born to a retainer of the Muro- third Tokugawa shogun.
machi shogunate, which collapsed when This small portrait sculpture is placed
he was a child, and he entered the Zen in the upper floor of the gate of Nanzenji,
monastery of Nanzenji and became a which was rebuilt by Suden in 1628. Su-
priest. He became abbot in 1605, reinvigo- den, seated on a chair, wears a hat, a
rated the monastery, and lived at Kon- priestly robe, and, over it, a kesa (priest's
chiin, a subtemple. Serving Tokugawa mantle). His left hand is palm down, while
leyasu (1543-1616) from 1608 on, he drafted the right hand originally held either a ship-
the shogunate's diplomatic correspon- pel (bamboo whip used for Zen training) or
dence. Eventually he supervised a wide a hossu (whisk with long white hairs sym-
range of diplomatic and religious activi- bolically used to brush away worldly
ties, and he participated in the drafting of thoughts), now lost. The sleeves and the
laws for the shogunate, including the Buke hem of the robe hang deeply in front, and
a staff is placed at the side.
Although this hollow statue is small
for a chinsd (Zen priest's portrait), the

102
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103
CALLIGRAPHY

105
 54 Letter (1274), is a recollection of the Chinese
Wuxue Zeyuan (1226-1286) priest's friendship with his Japanese disci-
hanging scroll; ink on paper ple Muzo Jóshó (1234-1306), a relative of
35.8x69.4(14x273/8) the regent Hojo Tokiyori (1227-1263).
Kamakura period, 1283 Muzo, originally from Sagami province,
went to China as a Zen student-pilgrim in
Engakuji, Kanagawa Prefecture
1252, and there in 1254, while studying at
Important Cultural Property Wanshouchan Si, on Mount Jing near
Wuxue Zeyuan (Mugaku Sogen in Japa- Hangzhou, he met Daxiu Zhengnian in
nese), also known as Zeyuan (Shigen in 1254. Muzo returned to Japan after four-
Japanese), was a Chinese monk of the Rin- teen years of traveling in China, and was
zai (Linji) school of Zen (Chan). A native followed not long after by Daxiu
of Mingzhou on the southeastern coast of Zhengnian.
China, he came to Japan in 1279, the year The text recounts their first meeting
the Chinese Southern Song Dynasty was at the place of their master Shiji Xinyue
overthrown by the Mongols, at the invita- (d. 1254), their ensuing friendship, and
tion of HÔjô Tokimune (1251-1284), regent their reunion after Zhengnian's arrival in
of the Kamakura shogunate. Appointed Japan. It also relates Muzô's visit in 1274 to
abbot of Kenchôji in Kamakura, Zeyuan Hôgenji in Sagami Province, where
taught Zen to Tokimune and many other Zhengnian was abbot: Muzo asked
warriors. When Tokimune founded Enga- Zhengnian to add a preface to a scroll of
kuji in 1282, Zeyuan was appointed its poems by Chinese monks on the theme of
founding abbot. the Stone Bridge at Mount Tiantai, the
This letter from Wuxue Zeyuan to great Buddhist center in Zhejiang Prov-
Hôjô Tokimune was written in 1283, the ince that Muzo had visited. The poem
year after the founding of Engakuji, scroll itself is lost, though the first half of
though dated only to the eighteenth day the poems are known through a later copy.
of the seventh month. Demonstrating the Zhengnian's calligraphy is an elegant ver-
friendship between the regent and the sion of the kaisho (regular, or standard)
Chinese monk, the letter thanks Toki- mode. The taut but dynamic structure of
mune for the shden (manors) offered to individual characters reflects the tradition
the temple, including the Tomita manor of of the great Northern Song Chinese callig-
Owari Province, and for the migydsho rapher Huang Tingjian (1045-1105). In the
(writ) that designated the temple as the quality of the brushstrokes, however,
shogunate's place of worship. Zhengnian, like Wuxue Zeyuan, was influ-
Zeyuan, who had a large number of enced by the style of Yan Zhenqing (709-
followers among Kamakura warriors, 784) of the Tang Dynasty. NYA
played an important role in transmitting to
Japan the contemporary Chinese calli- 56 The sobriquet Shun'oku
graphic style of the Song Dynasty, which and a dedicatory poem
was strongly influenced by the great callig-
Muso Soseki (1275-1351)
rapher of the Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing
hanging scrolls; ink on paper
(709-784). NYA
sobriquet, 34.0 x 77.7 (133/8 x 305/8);
55 Preface to poems poem, 35.2 x 74.4 (13 7/8,x 29^4)
Nanbokucho period, 1346
Daxiu Zhengnian (1214-1288)
hanging scroll; ink on paper Rokuôin, Kyoto
32.4 x 110.0 (12 3/4 x 43 vy Important Cultural Property
Kamakura period, 1274 Muso Soseki (cat. 10) from Ise Province
Goto Museum, Tokyo was famous as a Zen priest, adviser to the
Important Cultural Property great and powerful of the shogunal and
imperial courts, calligraphier, painter, poet,
A Linji Chan (Rinzai Zen) priest from the scholar, and garden designer. He first stud-
Zhejiang province in southeastern China, ied the Tendai and Shingon schools of
Daxiu Zhengnian (J:Daikyu Shônen) came Buddhism, and later converted to the Rin-
to Japan in 1269 at the invitation of the re- zai school of Zen. As a young Zen novice,
gent Hojo Tokimune (1251-1284), as had his he was briefly a student of the Chinese
countryman Wuxue Zeyuan (cat. 54). scholar-monk Yishan Yining (1247-1317), an
Zhengnian lived at the monasteries of association that was instrumental in Mu-
Zenkôji, Kenchôji, Jufukuji, and Engakuji, so's later scholarly and literary eminence
and became the founding abbot of Jôchiji, and leadership of the Gozan Bungaku, the
all in or around Kamakura. For nearly Sinophile literary movement centered
twenty years he promoted the Chinese around the Zen monasteries. He lived in
Song dynasty style of Zen among Kama- the major monasteries of Nanzenji in
kura warriors. His cultural as well as reli- Kyoto and Engakuji in Kamakura, but also
gious influence on Hojo Tbkimune and founded many temples and retreats in re-
Sadatoki (1271-1311) was profound. mote areas. In addition to establishing a
This document, dated to the fourth
month of the eleventh year of Bun'ei

106
54

55

lineage of disciples who dominated Rinzai arrangement, is a dedicatory poem that 57 Fugen, Shukuryù, Keishô
Zen and its cultural tradition for many accompanies the first: Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408)
generations, Muso enjoyed the confidence hanging scrolls; ink on paper
A hundred flowers are originally flowers of
of the political leaders of his time. His con- one branch Fugen, 33.4 x 80.2 (13 l/s x 315/3);
verts included such luminaries as the em- Shukuryù, 33.5 x 80.2 (13 Vs x 315/8);
In the end I see that all fragrant flowers are
peror Go-Daigo (1288-1339), the regents Keishô, 33.5 x 80.3 (i^Vs x 315/3)
connected to my house
Hojo Sadatoki (1271-1311) and Takatoki Muromachi period, late 14th century
Suddenly opening the door, the peaceful air
(1303-1333), and the shogun Ashikaga Ta-
spreads Engakuji, Kanagawa Prefecture
kauji (1305-1358) and his brother, Tadayoshi Spring scene from here reaches all over the Important Cultural Property
(1306-1352). With Musó's encouragement, river and sand.
Ashikaga Takauji, who had first been Go- Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third shogun of
Daigo's ally and then his bitter enemy, The name Shun'oku means "spring the Muromachi shogunate, was the grand-
built Tenryüji in Kyoto for the welfare of house," and the poem, written at Nishi- son of Takauji (1305-1358) and the son of
the deceased emperor's soul, and he made yama, is dated to the spring of 1346. In the Yoshiakira (1330-1367), the first and second
Muso its founding abbot. A master of gar- third month of that year, Muso retired shogun, respectively. Succeeding his fa-
den design, Muso created the gardens of from the abbacy of Tenryüji to live in its ther as shogun in 1366, Yoshimitsu built a
several Kyoto temples, including Saihoji subtemple Ungoan. Muso was seventy-one residence called Hana no Gosho (Palace of
and Tenryüji. then and Shun'oku thirty-five. Musó's sig- Flowers) in 1378 in the area of Kyoto called
The calligraphy with the two semi- nature, Bokutotsusd (simple and artless old Muromachi, thus giving rise to the name
cursive (gydsho) characters shun and oku is man), and his seal appear between the two Muromachi shogunate. In 1392, after fifty-
the sobriquet given to Muso's disciple large characters; two seals and his signa- six years of bitter division within the impe-
Shun'oku Myôha (1311-1388); the callig- ture are at the left of the poem. NYA rial family, Yoshimitsu succeeded in
raphy with smaller characters, also in unifying the Southern and Northern
semicursive script and in columnar courts. He became Dajd Daijin (prime

107
 56

minister, the highest post in the imperial Yoshimitsu is noted for his enthusiastic kuji as the mortuary temple of Wuxue
bureaucracy) in 1394, and the following and discriminating patronage of art and Zeyuan (1226-1286), who was the latter's
year entered the Buddhist priesthood, as- scholarship. founding abbot. In keeping with their
suming the Buddhist name Doyu; he also These three calligraphic works of two function, the characters are written in the
used another Buddhist name, Tenzan. Tak- characters each bear Ashikaga Yoshimi- regular, or standard mode (kaisho), with
ing the tonsure, however, was not an abdi- tsu's seals. Each work is stamped with a great attention to balance and legibility.
cation of power but a means to wieldjt vermilion square seal, Doyu, and a vermil- They are dignified and monumental.
more effectively. He suppressed the Ouchi ion tripod-shaped seal, Tenzan, referring to According to the historical document
family and other powerful shugo daimyo in Yoshimitsu's Buddhist names. Kamakura Gozanki (Record of the Kama-
the provinces and opened diplomatic rela- Calligraphies of this type are known kura Zen temples), Fugen, meaning "uni-
tions with China under the Ming Dynasty, as gakuji, or "forehead characters." Incised versal revelation," refers to the Tochido, or
calling himself Nihon kokud (King of Ja- wooden plaques based on them were hung Hall of the Local Deity; Shukuryù, mean-
pan). He also built a residential villa at Ki- above the central entrances of temple ing "lodging dragon," refers to the guest
tayama in northwestern Kyoto, which is buildings. These three—Fugen, Shukuryû, hall; and Keishd, meaning "cassia tree and
now Rokuonji, famous for its pondside and Keishd—identify three buildings in sunlight" refers to the Soshidô, or found-
Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku). In addition to Shozokuin, originally a subtemple of Ken- er's hall. NYA
his political and military abilities, chóji, which was moved in 1335 to Enga-

108
57

109
58

58 Wakagaishi follower of the Zen priest Muso Soseki kyô Ydhon—copied by Takauji; his young-
Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358) (1275-1351). For the soul of the deceased er brother, Tadayoshi (cat. 60); and Muso
hanging scroll; ink on decorated paper emperor Go-Daigo (1288-1339), Takauji Soseki—was offered to Kongo Zanmaiin, a
31.2 X 52.0 (l21/4 X 2Ol/z) founded Tenryuji at Musô's urging and subtemple of Kôyasan. Attached to the
Nanbokucho period, 1344 with Muso as its founding abbot. In his ef- backs of the pages of the text are 120 po-
forts to unify the country, he built in each ems, each written on tanzaku (narrow
Sekai Kyüseikyó (MOA Art Museum), province a temple as a place of prayer for
Shizuoka Prefecture strips of poetry paper), including twelve by
national peace and for the souls of the war Takauji.
Kaishi is folded paper on which poems are dead (whether they had fought with him The paper in this example, known as
written at formal occasions, such as a ban- or against him). This wakagaishi was re- kumogami (paper decorated with cloud
quet. The term literally means paper kept portedly offered to Kongôbuji, the Eso- patterns), creates an illusion of space suit-
in the breast of the kimono ready to be teric Shingon headquarters temple atop able to the spirit of the poem. The poem
used when prompted. When waka (Japa- Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture. itself, occupying the three right-hand
nese poems) are written, they are called Takauji was also a poet. Eighty-five columns, is fluidly written in the Japanese
wakagaishi; when renga (linked verses) are tanka (short poems) by him are included in kana syllabary. The colophon occupies the
written, they are called rengagaishi. the poetry anthology Zoku Goshùi Wd- two lines at the right and is written in
This wakagaishi was composed and kashü and other imperial anthologies. The semicursive (gydsho) characters. The poem
written by Ashikaga Takauji, the clan Tsukubashù of 1357, an anthology of linked expresses Takauji's devotion to Koyasan:
chieftain and successful warlord, who in verses, contains sixty-seven of his renga. In
this example of wakagaishi, Takauji praises Atop Mount Takano [that is, at Koyasan]
1338 was appointed Seiitaishdgun (Great the religious candle
General Who Quells the Barbarians), the the long tradition of the Buddhist faith on
Mount Kôya. A colophon following the mil never be extinguished',
first shogun of the Muromachi shogunate in the future world, whoever the ruler,
in Kyoto. poem reads, tenth day, tenth month, third
year ofKdei [corresponding to 1344], Mina- it will shine as brightly. TY
Though his entire adult life was spent
in battle, intrigue, and the pursuit of moto no Ason Takauji, Senior Second
power, Takauji was also deeply religious, a Grade followed by Takauji's kad. Two days
before this date, the Buddhist text Hdjaku-

110
59

59 Letter placement, Takauji asks that Yoshiakira ar- (popular name for Kyôô Gokokuji) in
Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358) range it quickly if he has an appropriate Kyoto. From the time the shogunate was
hanging scroll; ink on paper piece of land. The spontaneous calligra- established in 1338, there was a division of
31.0 X 44.0 (12 !/4 X iy 3/8) phy (sôsho) and the subject of the letter re- authority between Ashikaga Takauji (1305-
flect the affable and evenhanded side of 1358), who took military leadership, and his
Nanbokuchô period, mid-i4th century
Takauji's character. The letter was proba- younger brother, Tadayoshi, who super-
Tokyo National Museum bly written in 1353 while Takauji remained vised daily political affairs, including law-
in Kamakura, entrusting Kyoto to Yoshi- suits. This writ was issued to convey a
As the emperor Go-Daigo's chief military akira. It is addressed to Bômondono, a fa- court decision based on Tadayoshi's
supporter, Ashikaga Takauji overthrew the miliar name of Yoshiakira, after the name authority.
shogunate and was instrumental in exter- of his residence at Bómon. TY The management of some privately
minating the Hôjô family, which had con- owned manorial land in Harima province
trolled the shogunate for over a century. had been turned over to Tôji by the em-
But the two allies soon fell out, as each dis- 60 Writ
Ashikaga Tadayoshi (1306-1352) peror Go-Uda (1267-1324) in the twelfth
covered the other's determination to be month of 1313, as were other similar prop-
master of the realm. Not without much hanging scroll; ink on paper
35.0 x 57.0 (133/4 x 22^/2) erties in 1317. However, in 1349 the temple
hard fighting, Takauji drove Go-Daigo appealed to the shogunate against the jitd
from Kyoto and set up in his stead an em- Nanbokuchô period, 1349
(estate stewards) of the original owners,
peror of the rival line, who obligingly ap- Kyoto FuritsuSógo Shiryókan who since 1340 had occupied the land and
pointed Takauji shogun. Important Cultural Property diverted the temple's lawful revenues. De-
Takauji wrote this letter to his son and spite the government's summons, the
heir, Yoshiakira (1330-1367), the second This document, one of over twenty-four stewards had not come to Kyoto to justify
shogun. He has unwittingly given away, thousand known as the Tôji documents, is their actions. Therefore, Ashikaga Tada-
the letter says, a portion of the land once a gechijd (warrior's order given to his re- yoshi ordered in this writ that their illegal
owned by Akamatsu Norisuke (d. 1351), a tainers) by Ashikaga Tadayoshi in response
powerful daimyo of Harima and Bizen to the complaint of a certain Kôshin, the
provinces who supported the Ashikaga. zdss/zo (temple representative) of Tôji
Since Norisuke had demanded land for re-

111
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61

112
62

occupation be stopped, one-fifth of their tempted to reassure the court and the ince to Gifu in Mino Province; it signals
land be taken away, and the management townsmen by preventing pillage and gen- his intention to unify Japan under his own
of the areas returned to Toji. The writ is eral lawlessness on the part of his troops. rule through military power. Nobunaga
dated to the twenty-seventh day of the in- To this end he issued under his seal spe- used this seal until the first month of 1570;
tercalary sixth month of the fifth year of cific orders of protection and prohibitions thereafter he used the same characters in
Jôwa (1349). Although the document may against violence to persons or property. a horseshoe-shaped vermilion seal. YK
have been written by a scribe serving Ta- The document illustrated here was is-
dayoshi, the writ is official, since Tada- sued for the protection of Tóji, and con-
sists of three articles of prohibition: 62 Letter
yoshi added his kad at the end. TY
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598)
Prohibited in the Tdji complex - hanging scroll; ink on paper
61 Prohibitions Item: Violence and disturbance by our 28.6 48.5 (11 1/4 X 151/8)
Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) forces
hanging scroll; ink on paper Momoyama period, 1590
Item: Unlawful taking of land and arson
35.5x53.0(14x207/8) Item: Cutting down bamboo and trees Myohoin, Kyoto
Muromachi period, 1568 Those who violate these rules will be swiftly Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of Japan's most
Kyoto FuritsuSógóShiryókan and strictly punished. This is ordained powerful military leaders, was the son of
Important Cultural Property from above. an unknown peasant. He served Oda No-
The ninth month of the eleventh year of bunaga (1534-1582), and after Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga is remembered in Japanese Eiroku [1568], Danjô no Jo [Judge of the was assassinated in 1582 by his vassal
history for his attempts in the latter part of Office of Justice] Akechi Mitsuhide (1528-1582), Hideyoshi
the sixteenth century to unify under his defeated and killed Mitsuhide in just nine
Toji was the Kyoto headquarters of
aegis a nation torn by civil strife among days. In the following year Hideyoshi de-
Esoteric Buddhism, and the document is
many contending barons. Having first uni- stroyed his rivals Oda Nobutaka (1562-
among the twenty-four thousand and
fied Owari and Mino provinces, he en- 1583), the third son of Nobunaga, and
more historical documents that constitute
tered Kyoto on the twenty-sixth day of the Shibata Katsuie (1522-1583). Between 1585
the 'Toji documents." The oval vermilion
ninth month of 1568, as a supporter of and 1590 he conquered or brought to
seal, Tenka Fubu (military rule throughout
Ashikaga Yoshiaki (1537-1597), who became terms the following powerful rivals: the
the nation), at the bottom of the left
shogun under his auspices. Upon taking Chosokabe family of Shikoku, the Shi-
column is a seal Nobunaga began to use
control of the capital, Nobunaga at-
around the eleventh month of 1567, when
he moved his garrison from Owari Prov-

113
 63

mazu family of the Satsuma domain in Now that I have at last had Odawara tightly down. At a later date the letter was cut in
Kyushu, and the Later Hôjô family, who besieged, I control eighty percent of what half along the crease and rejoined so that
controlled the Kanto from their garrison goes on in the provinces, and even sum- both parts are right side up. YK
town of Odawara. After these tremendous moned peasants so that they would follow
victories, he subjugated the other daimyo my strict orders. Since Odawara is the key to 63 Letter
without a fight, thus achieving national the Kanto and to the entire nation, I have to
Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616)
unification and laying the foundation for starve them out, so it will have to take time.
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Japan's early modern society. However, as for myself, I will return to
3O.2 X 51.5 (ll7/8 X 20J/4)
This personal letter, written in a Kyoto before the year is over, partly to in-
loose, informal cursive (sdsho) by Hide- quire after you and the young prince, so I Edo period, 1615
yoshi, is dated to the first day of the fifth will see you. Please feel at ease. Farewell. Tokyo National Museum
month of 1590, during Hideyoshi's siege of First day of the fifth month. Important Art Object
Odawara Castle, the headquarters of Hôjô
Ujimasa (1538-1590) and his son Ujinao "Dainanko," a dialectical variant of daina- After the death of the military leader To-
(1562-1591), the leaders in the east. Ad- gon (Grand Councilor), refers to Hidenaga, yotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), Tokugawa
Hideyoshi's half brother. Hidenaga was ill leyasu and his allies defeated a great coali-
dressing his mother, Tenzuiin (referred to
in Kyoto that spring but seems to have re- tion of daimyo led by Ishida Mitsunari
in the letter by her title Omandokoro, or
gained his health and returned to his cas- (1560-1600) at Sekigahara in 1600 (cat. 104),
mother of the Sesshd (regent, that is Hide-
tle at Yamashiro in Yamato Province (part and in 1603 he was appointed by the em-
yoshi's mother), Hideyoshi inquires after
of present-day Nara Prefecture). The peror Seiitaishdgun (Great General Who
her health and reports the military
"young prince" refers to Hideyoshi's first Quells the Barbarians), thus formally es-
situation:
son, Toyotomi Sutemaru (cat. 51), who was tablishing the Edo shogunate. Passing on
Please, please do not worry about me. I am born in the fifth month of the previous the charge of the shogunate to his son, Hi-
very healthy and am fed well, so I would year. In this one letter two sides of Hidey- detada (1579-1632), in 1605, Tokugawa
like you to feel at ease. I beg you to take a oshi's character are revealed: the inexora- leyasu came to be called Ogosho, an hon-
trip and divert yourself so you will feel ble conquerer, and the affectionate son. orable title for a former shogun or sho-
young. Also, more than anything else I am The paper was originally folded in gun's father. He destroyed Toyotomi
happy to hear that Dainanko is healthy. half along the crease that runs across it. Hideyori (1593-1615), the son of Hideyoshi,
Please tell him to concentrate on his health The letter was begun with the fold under- in the battles at Osaka in the winter of
all the more. neath, then the paper was flipped to con- 1614 and the summer of 1615, and laid the
I am delighted to hear from you again tinue the text on the other side, the fold foundations for the two hundred and fifty
and again. Please do not worry about me. still at the bottom; when the paper was un- years of the Edo shogunate.
folded, one side of the letter was upside

114
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65

115
 66

This letter, in leyasu's informal cur- or Chobo are known, each of them reflect- This wakagaishi (paper of poems'; cat.
sive (sdsho) writing style, is addressed to ing his tender affection for his grand- 58), brushed by Yüsai, contains two poems
Chobo, maid of his granddaughter daughter. YK he composed on cherry blossoms, each
Senhime, and inquires after Senhime's poem based on one line of a Chinese
health. He says that he is sending a certain couplet: Í face flowers all day long / Re-
Tôkurô as a messenger to bring him news 64 Wakagaishi
Hosokawa Yusai (1534-1610) maining flowers are fragrant in the wind.
of his granddaughter: The poems convey the peaceful thoughts
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Í am truly concerned about her illness, and on a spring day of an old poet who has
Zy.l X 41.0 (1O5/8 X 10 Vs)
caringly I write the following. lived through the vicissitudes of a world
Momoyama period, late loth-early
Since Ï worry about how she is feeling torn by incessant warfare:
iyth century
in her illness, Ï am sending Tôkurô. How is Two Compositions
she doing? I want to know the particulars. Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
Hôin [Seal of the Law; the highest
Tôkurô should report back in detail. Hosokawa Fujitaka, or Yüsai, his better- Buddhist rank given by the court]
To Chobo Daifu known Buddhist name, was a high-ranking Genshi [alternative Buddhist name of
Senhime, the daughter of the second warrior and daimyo whose life spanned Yúsai]
shogun, Hidetada, lived at Osaka Castle as the late Muromachi and Momoyama pe-
riods. The second son of Mibuchi Haru- Í face flowers all day long [in Chinese]
the wife of Toyotomi Hideyori until the
castle fell in the fifth month of 1615. She kazu, he was adopted in 1540, at the age of Here since the morning sun—
then married Honda Tadatoki. After Tada- six, by Hosokawa Mototsune. He served when at all
toki died in 1626, she lived in Edo under Ashikaga Yoshiharu (1511-1550), the twelfth did the light shift?
the name Tenjuin. The maid Chobo shogun, and after his death became an ally I have not even looked aside
served Senhime, changed her name to of Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), supporting being with flowers all day till dusk.
Matsuzaka Tsubone, and lived until the Yoshiaki (1537-1597), the fifteenth shogun.
Remaining flowers are fragrant in the wind
age of ninety. The letter is signed Daifu Later he served Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-
[in Chinese]
(Inner Minister), referring to leyasu. Sev- 1598) and became the daimyo of Miyazu
eral other letters from leyasu to Senhime Castle in Tango Province, with a fief of
120,000 koku.

116
67 68

\ it has already bunaga (1534-1582) as the daimyo of Sansai was not the author of this
scattered them Miyazu Castle in Tango Province. When poem, which appears in one of the pref-
perhaps it regrets today; Akechi Mitsuhide (d. 1582) assassinated aces to the tenth-century Kokinshù (An-
sending flowers' fragrance Nobunaga, he tried to persuade Sansai, thology of ancient and modern Japanese
spring -wind blows. who was his son-in-law, to join his cause. poems). Sansai copied out the text of this
In spite of the marriage alliance, Sansai well-known poem partly as a prayer, partly
Yûsai is a very model of the cultivated threw his support to Toyotomi Hideyoshi
daimyo: competent in warfare and admin- as an exercise in calligraphy.
(1537-1598), Nobunaga's trusted vassal, The note attached to the left edge ad-
istration-, a famous poet of the arts and lit-
who defeated and killed Mitsuhide. Later dresses this copy of the poem to Nentoku
erature of antiquity. He left many works
Sansai served Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616) Daimyój in (Great God of the Year), be-
on classical literature, including Hyakunin and became the daimyo of Kokura Castle
isshushd (Annotations on A Poem Each by cause it was written on the New Year's
in Buzen, northern Kyushu. Sansai was a Day as a prayer to the guardian god of the
One Hundred Poets) and he monogatari cultured man well versed in Japanese po-
ketsugisho (Annotations on Tales coming year. It is signed Sansai Soryu,
etry and painting. He is remembered as an Soryu being Sansai's Buddhist name. YK
oflse) as well as an anthology of poems, important disciple of the tea master Sen
Shùmyôshù. YK
no Rikyü (1522-1591).
Sansai wrote this wakagaishi (paper of 66 Concerning Kokinshù
65 Wakagaishi poems; cat. 58) in the semicursive (gydsho) Hosokawa Yüsai (1534-1610)
Hosokawa Sansai (1563-1646) mode, arranging the characters on the pa- hanging scroll; ink on paper
hanging scroll; ink on paper per in the style called chirashigaki (scat- 29.0 x 38.0(113/8 x 15)
3i.ox47.o(i2 1 / 4 xi8 1 / 2 ) tered writing): Momoyama period, 1600
Edo period, early iyth century Flowers on the trees Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo in bloom at Naniwazu Much knowledge of all kinds, including
say, 'Now the winter that in the realm of bun (arts) and bu
Hosokawa Sansai (Tadaoki), son of Hoso- yields its place to the springtime!' (arms), was in Japan considered secret, or
kawa Yüsai (1534-1610), served Oda No- Flowers blooming on the trees. privileged, and was transmitted orally from
(Translated in McCullough 1985^ 319.) a master to a worthy pupil—a process

117
known in traditional Japan as denju (liter- "brush traces of men of antiquity." (By ern Japanese poems). The twenty-volume
ally, "to transmit and impart"). Knowledge contrast, the Chinese or Chinese-inspired Kokinshu, in which the emperor Daigo
of how to read and understand poems of calligraphy produced by Zen monks was (885-930) had contemporary and recent
antiquity, too, was handed down that way. known as bokuseki, or "ink traces") poets' waka (31-syllable Japanese poems)
This document is about Kokin denju, the This is a fragment from an early- collected by imperial edict, is the oldest
transmission of criticisms and interpreta- twelfth-century transcription of the late- anthology of such poems of Japan. Along
tions of the poems in Kokin wakashù (Ko- tenth-century Shuishd (Selected with Shin Kokinshu (New anthology of an-
kinshù for short; Anthology of ancient and gleanings), a private (as opposed to impe- cient and modern Japanese poems), it is
modern Japanese poems), an early-tenth- rial) anthology in ten volumes said to have the most famous imperial anthology.
century compilation. Knowledge of the been compiled by Fujiwara Kintô (966- This fragment is from a kohitsugire
Kokin denju tradition, which was begun by 1041), a courtier and poet of the mid-Heian called Minbugire—supposedly so called af-
the poet Sôgi (1421-1502) of the Muro- period. The fragment is called a shita-e ter an owner who bore the title Minbu
machi period and passed on within the (underdrawing) because there is a delicate (Officer of the Department of Finances).
Nijô school of poetry, was considered a su- drawing on the paper, in silver paint, of Originally the Minbugire was in book
preme achievement in the Japanese po- plants and birds. form. The poems were written in two
etry tradition of the middle ages. Originally from the first of a set of columns each, with eight to ten columns
Hosokawa Yúsai, the calligraphier of scrolls, this fragment presents seven lines on a page. The fragment here, a single
this document, was a member of the Nijô on the theme of spring. The first three page, contains two poems and half of a
school and learned in the art of Kokin columns from the right are a headnote to third copied from the Kokinshu, one poem
denju. The document is a certificate of Ko- the poem, which composes the next two by Oshikôchi Mitsune (fl. c. 900), a com-
kin denju from Yüsai to the imperial columns. The remaining two columns are piler of the Kokinshu, and two by anony-
prince Hachijô (Prince Toshihito, 1579- the headnote to the next poem, which is mous poets. The transcribed poems are
1629), the younger brother of the emperor not transcribed here. The text reads: numbered 793,794, and 795 in the fif-
Go-Yozei (1571-1617). On the eighteenth teenth volume of the Kokinshu, entitled
day of the seventh month of 1600, just be- Priest Ekei, on cherry blossoms in bloom in
"Love":
a dilapidated house which nobody was
fore the Battle of Sekigahara (cat. 104), the
expected to visit: Anonymous
forces of Ishida Mitsunari (1560-1600) laid
siege to Yüsai at Tanabe Castle in Tango On a field of wild grass If there were never
Province (part of present-day Kyoto Pre- in an uninhabited house the slightest flow of water
fecture). On the twenty-seventh day, Go- cherry blossoms are in bloom; in the dry river
Yôzei, gravely concerned that the Kokin will they perhaps peacefully of our love, then I would think
denju tradition might_end with Yüsai, had scatter in the wind? the channel doomed to vanish.
Prince Hachijô send Oishi Jinsuke, his Mitsune
councilor, to persuade Yüsai to make Composed while regretting the falling
peace. As a military man, Yüsai declined. cherry blossoms at the house of Has your love then cooled?
This certificate, dated the twenty-ninth Yoshichika, Junior Middle Councilor. Well and good as Yoshino,
day of the seventh month, 1600, indicates The beautiful, fluent kana calligraphy River of Good Fields:
that Yüsai, facing the possibility of death, I will still bear in memory
is ascribed to Minamoto Toshiyori (1055-
had decided to make Prince Hachijô his 1129), an attribution that cannot be ac- the words we spoke at the start.
successor in the Kokin denju tradition. cepted with certainty. Several calligraphic Anonymous
Signed at the end Yùsai and Genshi, both works by the same hand are known, in-
of them Buddhist names, the document In this world of ours,
cluding Gen'eibon Kokinshu (the Gen'ei-
records three generations of Yüsai's line of era edition of the Kokinshù), Gosenshù- what is it that resembles
transmission of Kokin denju: first Sankôin, gire (Fragments of the later anthology of the human heart?
a courtier also known as Sanjônishi Saneki ancient and modern Japanese poems), and Dyestuffs from the day flower
(1511-1579), who transmitted Kokin denju (all too quick to fade away).
Sujigire (Fragments of the Kokinshu) all of (Translated in McCullough 19853,174.)
to Yüsai; second, Yüsai himself; and third, the early twelfth century. YK
Prince Hachijô, to whom Yüsai passed on The flowing calligraphy suggests a
the tradition. YK slow movement of the brush, with atten-
68 Minbugire tion to even spacing between characters
hanging scroll; ink on decorated paper and some characters linked with a consis-
67 Shitae Shuishdgire 25.4 x 17.0(10 x 63/4) tent leftward tilt. The imported Chinese
hanging scroll; ink on decorated paper Heian period, early i2th century paper is decorated with a design of ara-
26.3 X 18.5 (l03/8 X 7^4) besques, roundels, and phoenixes printed
Sekai Kyüseikyo (MOA Art Museum),
Heian period, early i2th century in mica. Although the calligraphy is com-
Shizuoka prefecture
Tokyo National Museum Important Art Object monly ascribed to Minamoto Toshiyori
(1055-1129), a poet of the late Heian period,
Beginning in the late sixteenth century, Besides being cut up into fragments to there is no evidence for this attribution.
the connoisseurship and collecting of old adorn the tokonoma during the tea cere- Judging from the calligraphic style, the po-
Japanese calligraphies, particularly to mony, fine old calligraphies might also be ems appear to have been copied in the
adorn the tokonoma of the tea hut during dismembered to be pasted into albums twelfth century. YK
tea ceremonies, led to the systematic dis- known as tekagami, or "mirrors of [skilled]
membering of old Japanese books and hands." These albums of kohitsugire (cat.
scrolls, particularly those of thirteenth- 67) were collectors' items, or copyists'
century date or earlier. These fragments models, or both together. They became
(kire or -gire, literally, "cut pieces") are popular during the seventeenth century.
known as kohitsugire, kohitsu being a The piece shown here is a fragment
shortened form of kojin no hisseki, or of a transcription from the early-tenth-
century compilation Kokin Wakashù (or
Kokinshu, Anthology of ancient and mod-

118
 6ç Precepts of the Seven Buddhas sive (gydsho) modes, executed in bold,
Ikkyú Sójun (1394-1481) rough, and swift brushwork that conveys
hanging scroll; ink on paper something of the tempestuous nature of
125.3 x 3 2 - 2 (493/8 x 125/8) the calligrapher. The brush was apparently
Muromachi period, i5th century made of a piece of bamboo, finely split at
one end. The brush movement was so
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
quick that Ikkyú inadvertently omitted the
A single line of bold calligraphy fills the character "good" from the second verse.
narrow paper: This character was added later in small,
precise calligraphy, to the right of Ikkyú's
Do not commit evil deeds; text. On the lower left is stamped a square
Strive to do good deeds. relief seal, Ikkyu. YS
These are the first two of four verses
known as Shichibutsu tsùkai no ge, or
Verses of Precepts of the Seven Buddhas,
from the early Buddhist sutra Zdichi-agon-
kyd (Ekottara-agama-sutra in Sanskrit;
translated into Chinese during the Eastern
Jin Dynasty, AD 317-420), which summa-
rizes the essential teachings of the Bud-
dhas. The remaining verses, not
transcribed here by Ikkyu, read:
Purify your thoughts—
This is what the Buddhas teach.
The calligraphy is by the famous Zen
monk Ikkyu Sojun (cat. 11). A work like
this, written in a single column, is known
as ichigydsho, or a single line of calligraphy
that often transcribes revered names or
epithets or extracts from sacred texts—a
kind of written icon. This form is distinctly
Japanese, being unknown in China. A cal-
ligraphy with four large characters, Sha Ka
Nyo Rai (the Buddha Sakyamuni), written
by Tettô Gikô (1295-1369), the second ab-
bot of Daitokuji, is an early Japanese ex-
ample of ichigydsho. It is possible that
Ikkyu, in his deep veneration of this mas-
ter, followed the same format. Another
well-known work in this format by Ikkyu is
an epithet, The First Patriarch, Great Mas-
ter Bodhidharma, in a private collection in
this country.
Ikkyu was born on New Year's Day,
1394, the son of the emperor Go-Komatsu
(r. 1392-1411); because he was born outside
the palace he was never acknowledged as
an imperial son. Ikkyu was a passionate
and outspoken iconoclast—a harsh critic
of received pieties, ceremonious practices,
and the contemporary Zen establishment,
which thrived through the patronage of
the Ashikaga government and powerful
daimyo. His fulminations against most of
the Zen hierarchy were vitriolic, and he
refused all clerical appointments, choosing
instead to move from one small hermitage
to the next, training only a handful of dis-
ciples. Ikkyú finally became abbot of
Daitokuji, in 1474, at the age of eighty-
four, but only in response to an imperial
summons to rebuild the devastated Daito-
kuji, and he retained the post for less than
a year.
The calligraphy here is somewhere
between the regular (kaisho) and semicur-

69

119
RELIGIOUS
SCULPTURE/

121
 yo Fudo Myôô with two attendants
Unkei (d. 1223)
polychromed wood
h. Fudô Myôô, 136.8 (537/8); Kongara
Dôji, 77.9 (305/8); Seitaka Dôji, 81.8
(3^A)
Kamakura period, 1186
Ganjôjuin, Shizuoka Prefecture
Important Cultural Property

Unkei, the foremost Japanese sculptor of

Buddhist images during the early Kama-
kura period, had a wide and long-lived in-
fluence. Along with his father, Kókei, and
his father's other leading disciple, Kaikei
(fl. c. 1185-1223), Unkei led the Buddhist
sculptors of Nara in the work of recon-
structing the ancient Nara temples, which
were burned in the course of civil war in
1180. The work included the restoration of
the great Buddha of Tôdaiji and the many
Buddhist images that surrounded him.
When this task was completed in 1203, the
court granted Unkei the title hdin (Seal of
the Law), the highest rank accorded to art-
ists.
In 1186, before beginning work at
Nara, Unkei made the three Buddhist im-
ages shown here for the Ganjôjuin; the pa-
tron who commissioned them as an act of
piety was Hôjô Tokimasa (1138-1215), a war-
rior cheftain of Izu Province in the north-
east and father-in-law and ally of the newly
made shogun, Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-
1199).
Traditional Buddhist iconography
gives Fudô eight youthful attendants, of
whom the pair seen here are the two most
commonly shown: the mild and devout
Kongara and the more brutish and violent
Seitaka. NYS

70

122
 ji Senju Kannon 72 Anteira Taishó and Santeira Taishó
gilt bronze polychromed wood
h. 104.5 (4ia/8) h. Anteira Taishó, 91.5 (36);
Kamakura period, c. 1237-1247 Santeira Taishó, 81.7 ($2l/s)
Nagoji, Chiba Prefecture Kamakura period, i3th century
Important Cultural Property Honzan Jionji, Yamagata Prefecture

This gilt bronze Buddhist image, with Anteira Taishó (Divine General Anteira)
forty-two arms cast separately and at- and Santeira Taishó (Divine General San-
tached to its body, represents the typical teira) are two of the Twelve Divine Gen-
form of Senju Kannon (literally thousand- erals (Jüni Shinshó), attendants of Yakushi,
armed Kannon, though most images were Buddha of Healing. The twelve divine
made with "many" arms representing the generals, presented as armored warriors,
canonical thousand). The thousand arms are said to protect devotees of the Yakushi
stand for the infinite number of means Buddha. In the Yakushi Hall at Honzan
that Kannon, Bodhisattva of Compassion, Jionji, the twelve generals flank the princi-
employs to save suffering creatures. Origi- pal images, the triad of Yakushi and his bo-
nally this image also represented Eleven- dhisattvas Nikkó (Solar Radiance) and
Headed Kannon, each head symbolizing a Gakkó (Lunar Radiance).
vow to save the world. But the eleven Each general represents one of Yaku-
small heads and the image of Amida, Bud- shi's vows to save humankind. In addition,
dha of Compassion, to whom the bodhi- the twelve generals correspond to the
sattva Kannon pertains, have been lost. twelve horary animals who represent the
Portions of fingers and accessories are also twelve divisions of heaven in ancient Chi-
missing. nese astronomy: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit,
A kao carved in the joint of one of the dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey,
hands indicates that this image was made rooster, dog, and boar. Each animal repre-
for Chiba Tanetoki, a descendant of Chiba sents one year of a twelve-year cycle; it
Tsunetane who was a supporter of Mina- also represents a day in a twelve-day cycle,
moto Yoritomo (1147-1199). Tanetoki was a a two-hour period in each day, and a com-
minor ruler in the northeast section of pass direction. Each general would protect
present-day Chiba Prefecture. Following the time periods and direction ruled by his
the custom of warriors of eastern Japan, corresponding animal. Anteira Taishó cor-
who typically built a place of worship in- responds to the rabbit, Santeira Taishó to
side their residences to enshrine a Bud- the snake.
dhist image, Tanetoki probably placed this Among the twelve pieces, the statue
Senju Kannon in a corner of his dwelling. of Santeira Taishó is particularly fine. He
This piece probably was made between strikes a vigorous pose, with his left arm
1237 and 1247, when Tanetoki served the raised, and wind-blown hair and sash. His
Kamakura shogun, before the Kamakura upturned face expresses anger through
area became the center of sculpture in the the knitted brows and the down-turned
Eastern provinces. mouth. The image is made of Japanese
The protruding abdomen adds a note cypress (hinoki) in the joined woodblock
of realism to the otherwise columnar form. technique (yosegi zukuri), in which the
The style of this powerful figure derives main part of the figure—head and torso—
from Unkei's (d. 1223; cat. 70), which set is assembled from more than two pieces of
the standard for sculpture in the eastern separately carved and hollowed-out wood.
provinces. A delicate expression in the Cloth is pasted on the surface of the sculp-
slanting eyes under long arching eye- ture, which is then coated with sabi urushi
brows, the narrow hips, and the elabo- (a paste of raw lacquer and pulverized
rately draped garment, though, are less stone), black lacquer, and white pigment.
characteristic of Unkei, and suggest the in- Over this, flower designs and dragons are
fluence of Higo Jôkei, a sculptor of Bud- carefully drawn with shaded colored pig-
dhist images who was then active in Kyoto ments. For the hair and the cuirass, cut
and who adopted the style of Song dynasty gold leaf is applied.
Buddhist paintings. NYS Sagaeshó, where Jionji is located, was
a manor famous from the Heian period for
its fine horses, which were sent to Kyoto
for the use of the courtiers. In the main
hall of Jionji are a number of statues, in-
cluding the five aspects of the Bodhisattva
of Wisdom and Intellect (Monju Goson),
which were made in Kyoto in the late
twelfth century. This indicates the exis-
tence of an early and strong tie between
the temple and Kyoto. The statues of the
Twelve Divine Generals were probably
made by a Buddhist sculptor in Kyoto.
SH

124
71

125
 72

126
73 Aizen Myóó in shrine
Join and Shükichi (fl. 1297)
gilt bronze
h. figure, 7.9 (31/8); shrine, 30.0 (ii3/4)
Kamakura period, 1297
Shômyôji, Kanagawa Prefecture
Important Cultural Property
Aizen Myóó (Lord of Passions), like Fudó,
is one of the Kings of Bright Wisdom,
guardians of Buddist truth. He symbolizes
the transformation of the human passions,
particularly lust and greed, into Enlighten-
ment. He is customarily shown, as here,
wearing a lion crown, with a third eye of
wisdom in the center of his forehead, with
six arms, and with an Esoteric Buddhist
symbol in each hand. Since the myoo are
fierce aspects of the Buddha, his hair
stands up in anger. Behind him is a sun
halo, and he sits, like most Buddhist dei-
ties, on a lotus throne. Beneath the lotus
blossom seat is a vase, traditionally con-
taining treasures; these are depicted on
the base of the lotus throne, closely follow-
ing the iconographie prescriptions of Eso-
teric Buddhist sutras. Much care has been
lavished on the realistic modeling of the
angry face and the exaggerated folds of
the hem of the garment.
The lion crown, hair, arms, and acces-
sories were each made separately. Each of 73
the many tiers of the pedestal is made of
cast bronze, hammered bronze plate, and
cast silver, and decorated with gold and sil-
ver gilt and inlay. The wooden zushi (min-
iature shrine) may have been made at the
same time as the image, or shortly after.
An inscription on the back of the pedestal
indicates that this small, elaborately cast
image was made at Shômyôji in 1297.
The names of the sculptors, Join and
Shükichi, father and son, are recorded in
the inscription. Calligraphy on other ex-
tant items in Shômyôji reveals that Join
and Shükichi were metalworkers from the
Eastern provinces and were active at Shô-
myôji and at Gokurakuji in Kamakura, an-
other Esoteric Buddhist temple. This
image has a simplicity and directness that
bespeaks the style of provincial artisans.
NYS

127
74 JizóBosatsu
polychromed wood
h. 167.5 (66)
Kamakura period, late i3th century
Jufukuji, Kanagawa Prefecture
Important Cultural Property

Jizó Bosatsu (bosatsu is the Japanese for

bodhisattva), which was introduced into
Japan in the eighth century, became to-
ward the end of the Heian period an ob-
ject of popular faith as the particular deity
who intervenes for the sake of those suf-
fering in Hell. As in most extant images of
Jizô, he is depicted here as a monk,
shaven-headed and clad in monastic robes.
He holds a "wish-granting" jewel in his left
hand, and in his right the characteristic
monk's staff, not pictured, topped by loose
rings whose jingling announced his
approach.
Jufukuji was built in 1200 by Mina-
moto Yoriie, the second shogun of Kama-
kura, and Hôjô Masako, the widow of
Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), the first
shogun. Eisai (or Myóan Yósai, 1141-1215;
cat. 49) was its founding priest.
The well-focused oval face and pro-
portion between the head and body indi-
cate that this piece was probably made by
an accomplished sculptor toward the end
of the thirteenth century. The front and
back of the head were carved in two parts
and joined behind the ears. The crystal
eyes enhance the realism of the figure. Al-
though life-size wooden sculpture from
the late Heian period and later typically
employed the yosegi zukuri technique (hol-
low joined blocks), using material from dif-
ferent trees, here the body, excluding the
hands but including the upper half of the
pedestal, was made from a single block of
Japanese cypress (hinoki). Over the pasted
cloth and sabi urushi (thick raw lacquer
mixed with pulverized stone), which still
remain, black lacquer and pigment seem
to have been applied to the entire surface.
The staff in the right hand and the bottom
section of the pedestal are later additions.
SH

74

128
75

75 Dainichi Nyorai in shrine nies performed by learned Esoteric monks. image is said originally to have been en-
lacquer and gold leaf on wood Dainichi is shown seated cross-legged shrined in Hokkaiji, built in the late
h. figure, 32.1 (i25/s); shrine, 83.7 (33) on a lotus throne in the standard posture twelfth century by Ashikaga Yoshikane
Kamakura period, late izth century of Buddhist meditation. His hand gesture (d. 1199), an important figure in the Kama-
Kôtokuji, Tochigi Prefecture (S: mudra) is specific to Esoteric Bud- kura shogunate in the northern part of
dhism: the right fist clasps the index finger Ashikaga. Yoshikane's wife was a younger
Dainichi Nyorai (or Dainichi Buddha) was of the left hand, symbolizing all- sister of Hôjô Masako, wife of Minamoto
the principal deity of the Esoteric Tendai encompassing and cosmic wisdom. The Yoritomo (1147-1199), the founder of the
and Shingon schools of Buddhism, which hand gesture and the golden Wheel of the shogunate. Around that time, the Hojo
exalted him as the source of all existence. Buddhist Law identify him as Ichiji family placed Buddhist images by Unkei in
Esoteric Buddhism, which originated in Kinrin—ichiji being the magical "single Ganjôjuin, Shizuoka Prefecture. Consider-
India, reached Japan via China in the syllable" that expresses Dainichi's power, ing the close kinship of the Ashikaga to
ninth century. This new form of Bud- kinrin being the "golden wheel" symbolic the Hôjô, it is possible that this statue of
dhism, into which elements of Hinduism of Buddhism's universality. The pedestal, Dainichi was indeed made by Unkei (d.
had been merged, emphasized magical made of lacquered and gilded wood, forms 1223, cat. 108), who worked for the Hôjô
cult practices, mystical formulas, an enor- a lotus throne, supported by eight wooden family. SH
mous pantheon of vastly empowered and gold-painted lions, of which four are ex-
intricately related deities, religious ecstasy, tant. Crystal pendants hang from the tips
and the conviction that only the initiate of the lotus petals. X-ray examination of
could participate actively in the faith. As the figure of Dainichi has revealed that on
often happened with Buddhist deities the inside are a round jewel (shingetsurin,
translated to Japan, in the late Heian and ring of the moon-clear heart), probably of
Kamakura periods Dainichi the cosmic crystal, and a miniature five-tier stupa, a
principal acquired also the role of protec- pagoda of a type specific to Esoteric Bud-
tor and provider of such secular benefits as dhism (gorintd), probably of wood. Part of
health and various forms of worldly suc- the surface of the miniature shrine has re-
cess, though as an Esoteric deity he could cently been restored.
be appealed to by the lay devotee only Although the statue of Dainichi is
through the mediation of exotic ceremo- small, details of the face are precisely ren-
dered and the body is well balanced. This

129
 76

yo Hachiman with two attendant deities exemplifies the latter. The association of
Kyókaku (fl. 1326) Shinto deities with Buddhist temples, and
wood indeed their conflation with Buddhist dei-
h. Hachiman, 72.3 (2872); Okinaga ties, was a characteristic phenomenon of
Tarashihime, 44.3 (lyVz); Himegami, the Heian period.
45.2 (173/4) The Iwashimizu Hachimangü had
Kamakura period, 1326 been built by Minamoto Yoriyoshi (999-
Akana Hachimangü, 1075). Following his ancestor's example,
Shimane Prefecture Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) estab-
lished a Hachimangú at Tsurugaoka in Ka-
Important Cultural Property
makura, site of his newly created warrior
government. Because of Yoritomo's
The triad is composed of Hachiman (the veneration of the god, Hachiman became
god of war) in the center wearing a courtly widely revered as the patron deity of the
robe (ho) and holding a wooden ceremo- Minamoto lineage as well as the guardian
nial slat (shaku), with Okinaga Tarashihime of the military class and hence "god of
(Empress Jingü) to his right and the god- war."
dess Himegami (often identified as Hachi- Akana Hachimangü is located in the
man's consort) to his left. The style of mountainous area of Shimane Prefecture
their clothing is modeled after that of the near the border of Hiroshima Prefecture.
court of the Heian period. As a branch of Iwashimizu Hachimangü, it
Hachiman has been worshiped at has been in existence since at least the
least since the Nara period. His oldest ex- twelfth century. In 1965, when this triad of
tant shrine is located in Usa (present-day Hachiman with two attendants was re-
Oita Prefecture, Kyushu), where he seems stored, inscribed wooden tablets were dis-
to have been a local and relatively minor covered inside the image of Hachiman.
Shinto deity. In the mid-eighth century The tablets greatly clarified the circum-
Hachiman was dramatically elevated to stances of its creation. According to the in-
Shinto tutelary deity of Tôdaiji, the impe- scription, in 1326 the jitô (estate steward)
rially commissioned Buddhist temple in of the area, joined by several others, com-
Nara. This set a precedent for the building missioned the triad from Kyokaku of
of Hachiman shrines, both independently Yamashiro Province (present-day Kyoto),
and within the precincts of Buddhist tem- a great sculptor of Buddhist images.
ples; the Hachimangü, built at Iwashimizu Hachiman is made of Japanese nut-
south of Kyoto, exemplifies the former sta- meg (kaya, Torreya nucifera); while Japa-
tus, the Hachiman shrine at Tôji in Kyoto nese cypress (hinoki) is used for the other

130
 able by the miniature pagoda that Bisha- 1201 for a raigde ceremony. Also extant at
monten characteristically holds on his Jódoji, founded by the priest Shunjóbó
upturned left palm while brandishing a Chógen (1121-1206), who restored Tôdaiji
weapon in his right hand. of Nara in the Kamakura period, are
Pursuant to their protective function, twenty-five of the original twenty-seven
images of the Four Heavenly Kings were bodhisattva masks made at the same time
usually placed at the corners of a temple for the same ceremony. In Jódoji's Amida
altar whose center was occupied by Bud- Hall is a colossal wooden Amida triad, also
dhas and bodhisattvas. In a central altar by Kaikei. Jódoji was an Amidist temple
triad, Bishamonten would often flank an founded by the enormously influential
image of Sakyamuni Buddha, with the monk Shunjóbó Chógen, who supervised
goddess Kichijóten, also of Hindu origin, the restoration of Tôdaiji in Nara after its
on Sakyamuni's other side. In time Kichi- destruction during the civil war of 1180-
jóten came to be regarded as Bishamon- 1185, and who became both patron and re-
ten's wife. As a principal image, ligious mentor of the sculptor Kaikei.
Bishamonten would himself be flanked, as Raigd-e is a ritual that reenacts the de-
here, by Kichijóten and Zennishi Dôji, a scent of Amida Buddha from his Pure
young boy regarded as the divine couple's Land (Jôdo; popularly called Western Para-
child (and sometimes as an incarnation of dise because it was believed to be in the
Bishamonten himself). The best-known western part of the cosmos), accompanied
example of the Bishamonten triad, dating by the bodhisattvas Seishi and Kannon
from the late Heian period, is at Kurama- and often by a heavenly host of lesser dei-
dera in Kyoto. ties, to take the soul of a dying devotee to
An inscription on the tenon connect- the Pure Land of immeasurable bliss,
ing the left foot of Bishamonten with the where it awaits rebirth to a high state of
base records that this triad was made by being. This Amida image was probably
the great priest Tankei, with the rank of dressed in an actual costume and placed
hdin (Seal of the Law). Tankei, the first son on a wagon leading a procession of people
of Unkei (d. 1223), was born in 1173 and par- wearing the bodhisattva masks to repre-
ticipated with his father around 1212 in sent the heavenly host. An armature
sculpting the Buddhist images for the Ho- would have been inserted inside the image
kuendó of Kôfukuji in Nara. In 1213 he was to support it during the procession. The
given the rank hdin, the highest honor deity's hands form the gestures icono-
two figures. The main part of each image awarded to sculptors of Buddhist images. graphically specific to the "welcoming de-
is made of two separate pieces, one for the In 1254 he made his best-known work, the scent." The names of the contributors are
front and one for the back; the hair and wooden Senju Kannon (Thousand Armed written inside the image, as well as An
eyebrows are painted. SH Kannon) for Myóhóin in Kyoto. (Sanskit), followed by Amidabutsu, the
Each of the figures in this triad is nat- Buddhist name of Kaikei.
urally posed and has small, well-modeled Kaikei was active in the early Kama-
77 Bishamonten with two attendants
features. Bishamonten's build is formida- kura period, along with Unkei (d. 1223) and
Tankei (1173-1256) others, in the restoration of the Nara tem-
ble, his stance unyielding, and his expres-
polychromed wood sion adamant, but he is in no respect ples. His earliest extant work is a wooden
h. Bishamonten, 168.0 (66Vs); contorted or grotesque. The expressions statue of Miroku Bosatsu (Bodhisattva of
Kichijóten, 79.2 feíVs); Zen'nishi Dôji, of Kichijóten and Zennishi are calm and the Future), which is dated 1189 (Museum
71.2(28) mild. In all these respects the figures are of Fine Arts, Boston). There are approxi-
Kamakura period, i3th century typical of Tankei's style. Each of the im- mately forty extant works by Kaikei, mak-
Sekkeiji, Kôchi Prefecture ages is made of Japanese cypress (hinoki). ing him especially important for the study
Important Cultural Property The right and left halves of Bishamonten's of the history of Japanese sculpture, since
head and torso were carved from separate it is possible to trace the continuous devel-
Bishamonten is one of the Four Heavenly hollowed-out blocks, as were the back and opment of his style. His most typical work,
Kings (Shitennô) who guard the Buddha's front halves of the other two figures. The known through many versions, is the
Law in the four quarters of the universe, eyes are inlaid crystal. Bishamonten's ped- standing statue of the descending Amida
the north being Bishamonten's special re- estal is a small earth demon whom the de- Nyorai, which is noted for its refinement
sponsibility. The Shitennô originated in ity is often shown subduing. The pedestals and detailed idealization.
India as Hindu deities, were early ab- for Kichijóten and Zennishi Doji are later Made in 1201, the work exhibited here
sorbed into the Buddhist pantheon, and additions. SH dates approximately to the middle stage in
were transmitted with the faith to Central Kaikei's stylistic development. Although a
Asia, China, and Japan. In the course of portion of the surface is damaged, most of
this eastward passage they acquired their the original gilt lacquer remains intact.
military characteristics: armor and weap- 7 8 Amida Nyorai Parts of Amida's halo have been restored.
ons in the style of China's Tang dynasty Kaikei (active c. 1185-1223) SH
(618-907), and expressions and gestures of lacquer and gold leaf on wood
fierce determination or even menace. Of h. 266.5 (!047/8)
the Four Heavenly Kings, Bishamonten Kamakura period, 1201
(also called Tamonten) is the most power-
ful, possibly because East Asian geomancy Jódoji, Hyógo Prefecture
makes the north the direction of greatest Important Cultural Property
danger; he is also the only one worshiped
This is the 8-shaku (approximately 240-
independently. Images of Bishamonten
centimeter, or 8-foot) image of Amida de-
that have not lost their arms are identifi-
scribed in documents as made by Kaikei in

131
 77

132
78

133
PAINTING

135
79

79 Tale of Obusuma Saburô what must have been a longer tale, and
handscroll; ink and color on paper even the scroll shown here is missing one
28.8 x 1123.5 (113/8 x 449*/2) section of painting.
Kamakura period, late 13th century Jiro, the elder brother was an aesthete
Tokyo National Muséum who pursued music and poetry and sought
Important Cultural Property the amenities of a life of artistic accom-
plishment (bun) modeled after the artisto-
This illustrated tale is about two warriors, cratic way of life pursued in Kyoto. He
Yoshimi Jiro and Obusuma Saburô, both took a wife, a former lady-in-waiting at
sons of a powerful daimyo in Musashi court, who bore a daughter, Jihi (Compas-
Province in the east (parts of present-day sion). Jihi grew into a stunningly beautiful
Tokyo, Saitama, and Kanagawa prefec- young woman, and her reputation spread
tures). The alternating sections of text and far and wide, resulting in offers of mar-
pictures that survive tell only a portion of

136
riage from many provinces. A betrothal to attended space for storage of armor (sec- buro's residence, where his retainers prac-
Naniwa no Taró was arranged; their mar- tion one). tice riding and archery, and examine their
riage was to take place after a three-year The younger brother, Saburô, was a weapons. Saburô's wife, recognizable by
period. gruff warrior disciplined in the martial arts her curly hair and large nose, is inside,
The scroll opens with a scene of Jirô's (bu). He married a robust woman de- where a child is held by one of the maids
domestic life. His men play the game of scribed in the text as "seven feet tall [with] (section two).
go; women view a painting and play musi- curly hair, all spirals when tied. There was When the two brothers were called to
cal instruments, all within courtly build- nothing in her face so prominent as the the capital to serve as military guards at
ings, complete with gardens and long nose. Her lips were curved down- the emperor's palace, Saburô set out first
ponds—quite unlike the typical home of a ward. There was no redeeming quality in with his men, passing a group of brigands
rugged eastern warrior. Jiro, wearing a ca- whatever she said or did." She bore three who, aware of Saburô's martial prowess,
sual white robe, converses with his wife in sons and two daughters. The picture that allowed Saburô to pass. Jiro and his reti-
a chamber. Behind the chamber is an un- follows the text depicts the activities at Sa- nue followed; but they were attacked by

137
the brigands. At the lower right Jiro, who turns his head away from her (section transmission line of the Zen (C: Chan)
dressed in casual clothes of dappled pat- seven). school. In the most important canon-
terns of blue against white, unarmed and The tale narrated in this scroll is in- ical collection of biographies of Zen
ill-prepared, squats on the ground before a complete. Although it begins with the partriarchs, Transmission of the Lamp (J:
helmet and a box containing the rest of his story of the two different brothers, the Keitoku dentdroku; C: Jingde quandong lu)
armor. His men are getting it out. A bloody heart of the story seems to be Jihi's misfor- (1002 AD), Hotei is included among ten
battle ensues, ending in slaughter of many tune and eventual compensation through "who reached the gate of Zen," that is, en-
men on both sides (section three). her marriage to Naniwa no Taró, and the lightenment. More significantly, Hotei be-
Jiro died in the battle; Saburó had re- intercession of Kannon, the Buddhist de- gan to be regarded generally in Chinese
turned from the capital too late to rescue ity. Although the painter of the scroll is Buddhism as the reincarnation of the Fu-
his brother. Before Jiro died, he asked Sa- unidentified, the painting is stylistically ture Buddha Maitreya, who would appear
buró to make sure that his possessions, in- comparable to another work, Ise shin- in this world as the salvation figure after
cluding lands, be distributed among his meisho utaawase (Poetry contest on the the Laws of the Buddha had lost their ef-
vassals. He asked in particular that his themes of the newly selected places-with- fectiveness. In popular Buddhism Hotei
mansion be left to his wife and daughter names around Ise), dated to c. 1295, now in acquired additional benevolent attributes;
Jihi. letsuna, one of Jirô's faithful men, the collection of the Ise Shrine. YS he was revered as the bestower of wealth
took Jiró's head home, but on his way the and the lovable companion and protector
Buddhist deity Kannon appeared before 80 Hotei of children.
him. The deity told him that, in compas- Ashikaga Yoshimochi (1386-1428) Soon after Hotei's death in 917 A. D.,
sionate response to Jihi's cries of grief, hanging scroll; ink on paper his colorful exploits and enigmatic charac-
Jirô's soul would be assured of rebirth in 31.O X 56.0 (l2 V4 X 22) ter, reinforced by the belief that he had
paradise. The painting depicts the miracle Muromachi period, 1st quarter of been a living Buddha, began to appear as
of the deity Kannon over an ocean. The fifteenth century literary and pictorial motifs in Chinese
rays of divine light emanate from the Buddhist literature and art. By the twelfth
crown of the deity and shine upon the Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka
century, Hotei's image had been carved in
head of Jiro, which, wrapped in the clothes Important Cultural Property stone and modeled in clay; he had been
he wore, lies by letsuna, who dozes on the painted by notable artists and had become
Hotei (C: Budai; cats. 99,101), an eccentric
shore (section four). a subject of distinguished poets and offi-
Chinese figure with a special status among
Meanwhile, at home, Jirô's wife and the Chinese Buddhist saints and sages, is cial scholars such as Su Dongpo (1037-
Jihi anxiously awaited the news. Earlier, 1101). During the reign of Emperor Gao
shown grinning and leaning on a bulging
Jihi dreamed of letsuna, carrying a hawk Zong (r. 1127-1163) the emperor himself
sack. A wisteria wood cane lies on the
perched on his left hand and a helmet in composed a poem on Hotei:
ground nearby. The six-line inscription
his right. The hawk flew toward the west quotes stanzas of aphoristic verse from the
and the helmet fell to the ground—a pre- In the blue sky, a small cloud; high above in
Buddhist philosophical text, the Diamond the sky, a solitary moon,
monition. The hawk was the soul of her
Sutra (S: Vajracchedika prajnaparamita Su- [He] manages to dwell outside this world,
father and the helmet his head. The paint-
tra; J: Kongo hannya haramitsu kyd, or the secretly in a faraway place,
ing depicts letsuna, now back at Jirô's "Perfection of Wisdom which cuts like a
mansion, delivering the head to Jirô's wife thunderbolt"). At the lower right of the Naturally seeking to hide in the market
and daughter (section five). place, strange is this hero.
sack is the square intaglio seal of the artist, Wherever he goes he carries the cane and
The next text relates the fate of Jirô's Kenzan no shd (seal of Kenzan), and a kad
family after his death. Saburó, ignoring cloth bag,
is brushed below it. The cipher is that of To satisfy his hunger, what's wrong with
Jirô's parting request, steals, his lands and the fourth Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimochi
the mansion, evicts Jirô's wife and Jihi, wine or meat fresh with dripping blood?
(1386-1428), and Kenzan (Prominent Farewell to the Jade Palace, farewell to the
and makes them his servants. The next Mountain) is Yoshimochi's Buddhist title
painting in this sequence, now lost, proba- beautiful pavilion,
(dôgô). Where the snow continues to fall.
bly included a scene of the takeover of The name Hotei literally means
Jirô's mansion by the unruly Saburó and Hotei's human eccentricities and his
"cloth bag," a reference to the sack, his
his ugly and ambitious wife, and the oust- only possession aside from the cane. In supernatural attributes were enough to es-
ing of Jirô's wife and Jihi. A fragment be- Chinese and Japanese Zen Buddhist hagi- tablish independent pictorial themes
lieved to be a part of the missing section ology, Hotei is considered an extraordinary within the artistic tradition of Zen monas-
was discovered and published in 1962. It teries.
figure, revered for his eccentric behavior
depicts Jirô's wife and daughter, clad in and cryptic sayings. Hotei's legend can be The verses inscribed on this painting
humble rustic clothes, drawing water from traced to the biography of Qici, an early are not directly related to Hotei's biogra-
a well for Saburó's horses. From this sec- tenth-century Chinese Buddhist (though phy nor to the literary nor artistic tradi-
tion on, then, the tale turns to the fortune not of the Zen school) priest. He is said tions established around the Hotei theme.
of Jihi and her mother. to have walked around city market- Rather Yoshimochi included the verses as
Jihi and her mother have become the places carrying his cloth bag and cane, at a way of eulogizing Hotei as an enlight-
servants of Saburó. The house is visited by times begging for money, and putting just ened being. The verses are transcribed to
the provincial governor, who notices Jihi's about everything he came across into his form three pairs of couplets in an unusual
beauty and proposes marriage to her. bag, including pickled fish. He uttered order: they are read from the third line
Through trickery, Saburó's wife substi- strange, incomprehensible words. Among from the right to the last line on the left
tutes one of his ugly daughters, thwarting his supernatural attributes were the ability and backward from the second line to the
Jihi's marriage to the governor, who de- to forecast the weather and to defy the first on the right. Edward Conze trans-
parts, brokenhearted. The last painting cold and even death—after he died at lated the verses from the Sanskrit as:
shows the governor dressed in courtly Fengchuan he was mysteriously seen in
robe, preparing for a meeting with Jihi. To another province. . . . dharmas should be forsaken, still more
his right, the curly-haired daughter of Sa- so no-dharmas....
By the eleventh century AD Hotei had
buró, excited by her prospect of marriage, become widely recognized as a truly en-
tries to draw the attention of the guest, lightened being outside the traditional

138
80

Self-identical (sama) is that dharma, and Yoshimochi created his own ink paintings, Chan (J: Zen) Buddhism, which survives
nothing is therein at variance several of which survive in public and pri- vigorously ttfihis day. Many different
(vishama).... vate collections, including some outside types of portraits of Daruma exist, all
Those who by my form did see me, Japan. Yoshimochi's paintings, like the imaginary representations of the patriarch
And those who followed me by voice works of most amateurs, vary in quality. based on various narrative accounts. Here
Wrong the efforts they engage in, Stylistically, this Hotei painting fol- Daruma is represented in half-length, cast-
Me those people will not see lows both the Chinese and Japanese prece- ing a concentrated stare with bulging eyes:
. . . Everything has potential Dharma, dents of the fourteenth century. The He is clad as a monk, in a plain cassock,
even as a dream, a faulty vision, dynamic brushstrokes that make up Ho- and his arms are folded in front of him.
a bubble or a shadow; tei's sleeves and cane are reminiscent of The long fingernail of the left thumb
As dew drops or a lightning flash. the style associated with Yintuoluo (c. marks Daruma as an ascetic; the earring
So should one view what is conditioned. 1350$), an Indian (or Central Asian) painter on the left earlobe marks him as a princely
In both public and private life, Yoshi- active in China. Hotei's head shape, his personage. At the lower right are stamped
mochi showed enthusiasm for the Zen grinning face, and large ear recall another a two-character relief seal, Bokkei, and a
school, and he himself was tonsured in painting of Hotei by Mokuan Reien (active circular relief seal, Saiyo, below it. They
13405), a Japanese painter-monk and pil- are the seals of the artist of the Soga clan,
1423. As the Ashikaga shogun he fre-
grim in China. YS Bokkei Saiyo, otherwise known as Hyóbu
quently issued economic policy directives
favorable to the Zen monasteries. His cul- Bokkei.
tural activities in Kyoto, especially after 81 Daruma (S: Bodhidharma) The written history of Zen Buddhism
his father, Yoshimitsu, died in 1408, were Bokkei Saiyo (fl. 1452-1473) starts with the pseudobiography of
closely linked to notable scholar-monks, in- hanging scroll; ink on paper Daruma, the founding patriarch of the
cluding Gyokuen Bonpô (cat. 84). Yoshi- 110.0x58.3 (431/4x23) school, which informs us that the teaching
mochi often sponsored poetry gatherings Muromachi period, no later than 1465 he transmitted to China was fundamen-
for scholarly monks talented in Chinese- tally different from that which had been
Shinjuan, Kyoto taught and practiced by other traditioinal
style poetry. The seventeenth-century Important Cultural Property
biography of painters, Honchd gashi, Buddhists. Daruma taught that the Bud-
mentions that Yoshimochi learned paint- dha's doctrine should be transmitted from
Bodhidharma (J: Daruma) was an Indian
ing from the artist-monk Minchó (1351- mind to mind, by directly pointing at the
prince of the early sixth century AD who
1431), and Minchó's biography in the same heart of a man so that he would see his na-
went to south China to spread the practice ture and attain his own Buddhahood.
source mentions the painter's close con- of meditation. At first unsuccessful, he
tact with Yoshimochi. There is, however, The history of Daruma portraiture
crossed the Yangzi River and went north dates as early as the eighth century AD in
little visual evidence that Minchó directly to Mount Song, where he meditated for
influenced Yoshimochi's painting. In the China. As the commemorative portrait of
nine years facing the cave wall at the the founding patriarch of the Zen school,
close-knit cultural sphere of Kyoto Zen Shaolin monastery. Daruma's teaching
temples, Yoshimochi had opportunities to a Daruma portrait would be displayed by
subsequently evolved into a forceful reli-
see Chinese paintings. A talented ama- the Zen adepts on the fifth day of October
gious movement, which became known as for the memorial ceremony honoring his
teur, like Winston Churchill at his easel,

139
 81

140
82

death. Many different types and styles of and formerly of the Tokuzen[]i subtemple], family name Soga, who served the warrior
Daruma portraits were painted in both Jun Ikkyù respectfully eulogizes [stamped clan Asakura in Echizen Province (now
China and Japan. The half-length type had with a square relief seal Ikkyü] Fukui Prefecture located on the Japan Sea
appeared already before the twelfth cen- The poem is recorded, with slightly coast). The Asakura, in turn, were for gen-
tury in China. different wordings, in Ikkyü's collection of erations vassals of the Shiba family who, as
The inscription above is by the fa- literary works Kydun shü (Mad Cloud a branch family of the Ashikaga, had
mous Zen monk of Daitokuji Ikkyü Sôjun Coll.). The Palace of King Xiangzhi men- been kanrei (deputy shogun) in control of
(1394-1481; see also cat. 11). As Daruma tioned in the last line of Ikkyu's poem is a the Echizen region. At the time this
faces to the left, the inscription is written Chinese name for the palace of the father Bodhidharma painting was executed Echi-
from left to right: of Bodhidharma, thought to have been sit- zen was ruled by Asakura Toshikage (also
uated in South India, corresponding to known as Takakage, 1428-1481; cat. 15), the
Followers in China and India conjure your present-day Madras. Fifth-generation de- powerful warrior and enlightened ruler of
spirit; scendant ofDaitd refers to Ikkyu's position Echizen proper who controlled the area as
Half the figure, a portrait, reveals your in the transmission line of teaching; fifth shugodai (deputy constable). The Asakura
entire body; from Daitd (Great Lamp) Kokushi (Na- family came under the influence of and
What did the grass mat at Shaolin [temple] tional Master) to the monk Shüho Myóchó actively patronized Ikkyü, and Bokkei is re-
accomplish? (1282-1337), the founding abbot of the corded as one of his disciples. At least two
At the Palace of King Xiangzhi, spring of Daitokuji monastery in Kyoto. Tokuzenji portraits of Ikkyü were painted by Bokkei
plums and willows. is a subtemple of Daitokuji, which had Saiyo, one dated 1452 and the other 1453.
The sixth year ofKansei [1465], day of been refurbished by Ikkyu sometime On the basis of the dates of these paint-
spring; [signed] Fifth generation descendant around 1459 when he was appointed its ings, it is assumed that this Bokkei is "Hy-
ofDaitd [Kokushi or the National Master] abbot. ôbu Bokkei" who is mentioned in the
The artist Bokkei Saiyo was the earli- collection of literary works of the scholar-
est of the group of artists known by the

141
monk Kisei Reigen (1403-1488) as a student horse always being fearless at the battle quently represented in narrative
of the painter Shübun, a frequent com- ground, being one with men in spirit, thus handscrolls of the medieval period in Ja-
panion of Ikkyü, and who died in Ise in leading a great victory? One day, Jinzan, pan, often in the stable of a warrior's resi-
1473. Not much else is known about our donning gold armor, seated himself on the dence. By the Muromachi period the
painter. silver saddle and went to the South Gate of subject became independent. The warrior
In this work, the bold brushstrokes the To;i[in] on Nijd Street of Kyoto, where Ogasawara Norinaga, an instructor of
that delineate Daruma's robe are the mark he summoned a painter to paint his portrait. equestrian archery, had a portrait of his be-
of a Soga painter. The half-length type of That painting is known as 'the armored por- loved horse Tanjo (Short Cane) painted in
Daruma portrait, with the robe executed trait', and the horse mounted [by the sitter] 1483, which was inscribed by the Zen
in sketchy brushwork, and with more care- is this very horse. In antiquity, the Emperor monk Osen Keisan (1429-1493). In other
fully described facial features, was trans- Gao Zu of the Han dynasty told Lu Jia instances tethered horses were often
mitted to Japan from China during the [from the state of Chu], 'I acquired my painted on large screens showing horses
Muromachi period. The later Japanese realm on horseback. How can I be bothered and grooms (cat. 105). It is likely that the
versions are distinguished from the Chi- by the Book of Odes and Canon of His- artist of this painting used an existing
nese precedents by the bolder use of dark tory?' Jia replied, 'You may have acquired work as a model (funpon). In fact, the type
ink tones resulting in abstract, patterned your realm on horseback, but how can you of horse, the style of the mane, the man-
forms, especially in the definition of the possibly rule your realm on horseback? [One ner of tying the ropes to the halter and the
robe. The style of Bokkei, his immediate achieves] the skill of government that en- two posts, and the flat, stylized form of
successor Soga Sôjô (cat. 87), and two gen- dures by cultivating both arts (bun) and this horse are similar to features depicted
erations of Soga Chokuan (cat. 129) of the arms (bu).' Thereupon Gao Zu had Jia write in a pair of screens of tethered horses in
sixteenth century consistently show strong the accounts of the rise and fall [of the past the Imperial Household collection. By the
individualistic brushwork and the achieve- rulers], thus laying the foundation for the late fifteenth century and the early dec-
ment of dramatic tonal contrasts, marking Han [dynasty] that lasted for more than ades of the sixteenth, Kano painters such
them as expressionistic artists who had four hundred years. Lord Jinzan['s forces] as Masanobu and his son Motonobu also
emerged in the provinces after the mid- rose in the east, dispersed rebellions that began to depict this theme.
fifteenth century. YS brought chaos to the nation, and restored to Keijo Shürin, the inscriber of this
it the Correct Path. He brought peace to the painting, was one of the most important
82 Excellent Horse realm, establishing himself as the founding scholarly Zen monks in fifteenth-century
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper chief of this [Ashikaga] family. All of this Kyoto. He was born the son of Odate Mo-
66.7x58.0(263/4x227/8) [he] began on the back of this horse. Jin- chifusa, a warrior and waka poet, who
zan's rule delivered benevolent government, served several shoguns closely, but espe-
Muromachi period, c. 1502
benefiting all people. In addition, his heart cially the eighth shogun Yoshimasa (1436-
Kyoto National Museum was devoted to our [Zen] school and he of- 1490) during the Onin civil war
Important Cultural Property fered a vow in writing to [our patriarch] (1467-1477). As a Zen monk Shürin be-
Shôgaku [Musô Soseki], establishing perpet- longed to the influential school of Muso
This stately horse, tethered front and back ual patronage of [our school], to be contin- Soseki (1275-1351), mentioned in the in-
to a pair of square posts, is described in ued by his offspring who passed it on to scription as having had Ashikaga Takauji,
profile with contour lines. The horse's their offspring, which has continued already the first Ashikaga shogun, as his patron.
forelock, mane, tail, and lower legs are for more than a hundred years without in- Shürin's career was intimately linked to
painted in black ink. The body is colored terruption. How felicitous this is! Now, the the Shókokuji monastery, where he at-
with light ocher, the headstall with vermil- current wise Minister, the Barbarian- tained its abbacy eight times between 1495
ion, and the posts with light reddish Subjugating Great Shogun, ordered a and 1508.
brown. A long inscription by the Zen painter to paint [a picture of] this horse, Keijo Shürin's inscription is included
monk Keijo Shürin (1444-1518) in the top which he keeps close to him to look at. This, in his voluminous collected literary works,
third of the scroll consists of a narrative too, is an instance of revering people of the Kanrin koroshù, although without the
concerning the horse, Shürin's short past. [The shogun] asked this old rustic to short poem and colophon. The works in
poem, and a short colophon. Shürin writes compose a eulogy. I am obliged to do this
the book are arranged in chronological or-
that the horse depicted is a famous one, by respectfully composing a short verse: der, and this inscription can be dated to
owned by the first Ashikaga Shogun, Ta-
within three years after 1501. Based upon
kauji (1305-1358), and that the current sho- Victorious battle after battle the horse
neighs loudly, such internal evidence, recent Japanese
gun had the horse portrayed in order to
scholarship has reasonably established that
remind himself constantly of his ancestor's The shogun chastised enemies in the south,
the painting was commissioned by the
deeds. The colophon notes that the scroll conquered rebels in the west.
Peace came to the realm', eleventh Ashikaga shogun, Yoshizumi
was presented by the current shogun as a
The horse, tethered, bows to the emperor, (1480-1511); that the master of the Ren-
gift to the master of the Renkiken (annex
kiken mentioned in the colophon is the
of the Shókokuji Zen monastery in Kyoto). and listens to the daybreak bush warbler.
monk Juzan Eisô (1462-1508), a tonsured
The inscription reads: [Signed] Rustic monk Shùrin
son of the imperial prince Fushiminomiya
The Prime Minister, Lord Jinzan [Sho- [Colophon] Sadatsune; and that the painting was exe-
gun Ashikaga Takauji] [the founder of] the cuted around 1502.
T5;i[in] temple, once owned a famous horse. This hanging scroll was presented to
The artist who painted this work was
The affectionate care [he bestowed on the the master of the Renkiken [an annex of
possibly Kano Masanobu (1434-1530). Ma-
horse] was quite extraordinary. When [the the Jôtokuin subtemple of the Shókokuji
sanobu was in direct service to the shogun-
Lord] mounted the horse in a winning bat- monastery] by the shogun. The purpose is to
ate. He is known to have executed
tle, chastising the enemy, the horse would praise the horse's divine excellence.
paintings of horses for the shogun and he
neigh loudly, leading the officers' and sol- [Signed] [Shu]rm recorded this.
1
could have had ready access to models on
diers victorious cheers. Isn't this precisely The Japanese tradition of depicting which to base this painting. In March 1489
what [the Lord's] vassals said about the tethered horses dates back to at least the
Kamakura period. Tethered horses are fre-

142
83 84 85

he painted a portrait of the ninth shogun, 83 Banana Tree in the night rain The painting was made on behalf of a
Ashikaga Yoshihisa (1465-1489). After the hanging scroll; ink on paper young monk of Nanzenji, Ikka Kenpu (fl.
young shogun died in a battle, a commem- 95.9 X 30.9 (373/4 X 121/8) 1410-1460). Later, poetic inscriptions were
orative portrait of Yoshihisa armed and Muromachi period, no later than 1410 added to the painting, imbuing it with
mounted on a horse was commissioned multiple meanings and making it into a
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo
from Masanobu by Yoshihisa's mother, shigajiku (see cat. 84, 86, 91), or "poetry-
Important Cultural Property painting scroll/' a favored format of the
Tomiko. This latter painting, in full color
on silk, is preserved at the Jizoin in Aichi A humble hut, set in a landscape of hills Muromachi period, particularly among
Prefecture. YS and a lake, is flanked by a pine tree on the Zen monk-litterateurs and their associates.
right and a banana tree on the left. On the Among those who inscribed it were:
opposite shore, water cascades into the twelve prominent Zen poet-monks; the
mist-covered lake, and a grove of willow Korean scholar and government envoy
trees emerges from the mist. It is autumn, Yang Su, who had come to Japan for the
as the bare tree branches indicate. inauguration of Ashikaga Yoshimochi (cat.
Splashes of dark ink around the banana 4) to the shogunal seat succeeding his fa-
tree and the willow trees suggest rainfall. ther Yoshimitsu, who had died two years
Fifteen inscriptions identify the theme. earlier; and Yamana Tokihiro (1367-1435), a

143
powerful military ruler of the Provinces of a horizontal handscroll and only later cut ten used as retirement quarters for the
Tajima (now northern Hyógo Prefecture), up and mounted above the painting to aged Zen monks.
Bingo (eastern Hiroshima Prefecture) and make it into a shigajiku. YS The inscribers of this painting were a
Inaba (eastern Tottori Prefecture), and di- tightly knit group of like-minded souls who
rector of the office of military affairs (sam- 84 Plum Blossom Study shared cultural values and spiritual aspira-
urai dokoro) of the Muromachi govern- hanging scroll; ink and color on paper tions with the person for whom the paint-
ment. Tokihiro, like Ouchi Morimi (cat. 85) ing was made. They are closely related to
119.8 x 35.4 (47 Vs x 137/8)
of Suó Province, was closely associated each other on more than one level:
Muromachi period, no later than 1419
with the literary monks of Kyoto who through their clerical ranks and careers
formed a close-knit literary salon under Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo within the Kyoto metropolitan monas-
Yoshimochi's patronage. Two of the in- teries, the shared benefits under the pa-
A stream flows in front of a scholar's study
scriptions were written in the year corres- tronage of the shogun Ashikaga
whose doors stand open. Boxes that may
ponding to 1410, thus dating the painting Yoshimochi (1386-1428), and the fellowship
contain paintings or calligraphy are
to no later than that year. formed through their literary activities.
stacked in one corner of the room. Two
The summer banana tree in the win- Daishü Shücho's poem reads:
pine trees soar high on the slope in the left
ter snow—first versified by the poet Wang
foreground, and on the opposite side is a The green grass growing atop the tiny peak,
Wei (Chinese, 699-759) is a frequent para-
boulder surmounted by a pair of gnarled spring is just around the corner.
doxical motif in Chinese poetry. Here it
plum trees. A boy sweeps the ground with Trees, still devoid of leaves, stand amidst the
becomes a melancholy symbol of tran-
a long broom in front of the building, and lingering snow.
sience and an embodiment of ephemeral
behind it a white wall with an open door To wait for plum blossoms is akin to
phenomena and volatility. This corres-
encloses a garden. In the distance a range awaiting elegant guests.
ponds to the way it often is described in
of rocky mountains emerges out of the I swept the ground, lit the incense; now I
early Buddhist texts. Translations of the
mist. In the upper section of the painting should turn to my books.
poetic inscriptions follow.
are Chinese poems inscribed by nine
Poem by Yamana Tokihiro (top row, ex- Another poem, the second from the
prominent Zen scholar monks of Kyoto,
treme left): right of the second row, is by monk
all contemporaries. Of these Daishü
Kengan Genchü (d. 1421), whose inscribed
[The night rain] jolts awake the guest from Shüchó, who brushed his poem on the up-
poem also appears in cat. 85:
his sleep; restless: he will be up the rest of per left, was the first to die, making 1419,
the night. Though I know well the sounds the year of his death, the latest possible The chilling gale of spring's first day against
of rain, rain hitting banana leaves makes date of the painting. the February sky;
special sounds indeed. A spurious square relief seal stamped Being at the Plum Blossom Study is what I
at the lower right hand corner claims the enjoy most.
Poem, dated to the eighth month of the painting is by Tenshó Shübun (fl. 1420- Getting on in years, I heed little the news of
year corresponding to 1410, by Yang Su c. 1461), the great ink painter of the first coming spring;
(bottom row, second from right): half of the fifteenth century, but it is more Gladly I pass it on to others, letting the
[Title] On visiting monks' quarters at likely by an unknown painter. So famous young take pleasure in it.
[Auspicious] Dragon Mountain was Shúbun that many anonymous works
from the fifteenth century later came to Finally, monk Gyokuen Bonpó (fl.
[Nanzenji] I add a poem to the painting
be attributed to him. Stylistically, the 1420), the painter of orchids, wrote his
Banana tree. poem at the lower left:
painting is reminiscent of Chinese paint-
Rain drops on the banana leaves, an ings in the academic tradition known in Ja- The spring wind I waited for came and
autumn eve has deepened. pan during the Muromachi period. The went, taking with it the white of my
I maintain decorum, sit properly and listen stately, deliberate forms of the pine trees, beard;
to the lofty poems [of my esteemed the rocks delineated by contour lines and Where should I seek pleasure away from this
colleagues.] texture dabs, and the mountains executed world? I must visit the abode of the
Where has the venerable Huiyuan [Chinese in both line and ink washes are some of immortals.
monk-recluse at Mount Lu, 334-416 A.D.] the stylistic features of the Chinese aca- Near the grove of trees crimson blossoms
gone? demic tradition. The architecture of the dapple the branches,
No one mentions him in his poem. study, the landscape imagery, and the tra- Bursting forth all at once, it seems, for me.
Scholar from a foreign country, I cast my ditional uniting of poetry and painting are YS
thoughts [on Huiyuan] far into the all Chinese-inspired.
distance of myriad miles. A scroll such as this, which combines 85 Mountain villa
Poem by monk Seiin Shunjô (second a picture and contemporary inscriptions hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
poem from left of the bottom row): written by its earliest viewers, is called a 8l.8 X 32.0 (32^4 X 125/8)
shigajiku, or "poetry-painting scroll." Muromachi period, no later than 1415
Awakened from a dream I hear many
When the subject is a scholar's study, real
sounds of rain against banana leaves; Masaki Art Museum, Osaka
or imagined, as in numerous instances
A hall in the autumn night lit by the faint from the early fifteenth century, it is called
light of a solitary lantern—the scene of a shosaizu, or a painting celebrating a A small lakeside pavilion on stilts is par-
purity. tially obscured by a cluster of rocks, a pair
study (cats. 86, 91, 85). In this example, the
Oblivious to all, the rain keeps falling on poems not only express the feelings of the of tall pine trees, and some bushes at the
banana leaves' green, unmindful of my viewers toward the study, but also name it lower left. Behind the pavilion a stream
melancholy thought and of the beard that Taikaken (Awaiting Blossom Study; that is, flows into a lake. The rocky mountains in
is white as the frost. Plum Blossom Study). The suffix ken usu- the central distance are flanked by pale sil-
ally means an apartment or annex of a resi- houettes of still more distant mountains.
It is most likely that the painting was
conceived as an independent hanging dential building of a subtemple within a Touches of light blue on the peaks, the wa-
scroll and the inscriptions were written on monastery. These apartments, which were ter, the tiles of the pavilion, the bamboo
provided with shosai, or studies, were of- leaves, and pine needles, as well as the

144
 87

86

145
faint reddish brown of the rocks in the Morimi was also instrumental in obtaining Another poem, by the monk Keimei (dates
foreground, create subtle coloristic effects a set of the Korean edition of the Buddhist unknown), just above the pine trees, reads:
in this predominantly monochromatic tripitaka, the complete collection of Bud-
Even the plants and trees of China know
painting. dhist scriptures, through his trade with
your name;
Like the Plum Blossom Study (cat. 84), Korea. In 1410, Morimi published a
The sword you raised over Kyushu, deadly
this work is a shosaizu (painting celebrat- woodblock-printed edition of the Chinese
and chilling as the winter's frost, is now
ing a scholar's study), an ink painting Buddhist text Cang-cheng fa-shu (J: Zô/'ô
resting.
genre that flourished in Japan from the hossu), now known as the Ouchi edition.
You swept the Lute Hall, so that you just sit
late fourteenth century throughout the From 1418 until his death Morimi helped
and chant.
Muromachi period. These paintings, de- the shogunate in the building campaign of
The seas are all green; the hills around the
picting an unassuming hut in an imagi- the Shinto shrine Usa Hachimangu in Bu-
realm clear.
nary landscape as a study or scholarly zen (now Oita Prefecture in Kyushu). Af-
retreat, represent an ideal to which the ter 1425, when he returned to Kyushu to Two of the other poems liken the villa in
person for whom they were made would quell an uprising there, Morimi had to the painting to the famous Wang-chuan
have aspired. The significance of the land- concentrate his energy on controlling his Villa of the archetypal Chinese poet-
scape imagery is usually explained by a domain. He died in 1431, at the age of fifty- painter and scholar-official Wang Wei
group of poetic inscriptions added directly five, in battle in Kyushu. He was buried at (699-759), revered as an inventor of land-
on the painting, here by nine contempo- the Zen temple Kokuseiji in his home scape painting in China and Japan. One of
rary Zen monks. This painting and its po- province of Suô. them is by the monk Shüken (dates un-
ems celebrate the cultivated personality of Stylistically, this painting is linked to a known):
the warrior Ouchi Morimi (1377-1431), con- number of similar works from the early Merriment of music and song in the green
stable (shugo) daimyo of Suó Province part of the fifteenth century. The pine field does not eliminate the thoughts of
(now Yamaguchi Prefecture, located on trees, rocks, and pavilion in the fore- fame and fortune;
the western tip of Honshu), who in real ground are carefully described. Like other Too remote to reach are the mists and rain
life actually had built for himself a moun- early ink paintings in which an attempt is at the Wang chuan Villa.
tain villa to which he could retreat and made to depict an all-inclusive landscape, This otherwordly abode is the right place for
pursue his studies. the spatial relationship between the fore- elegant souls;
During the Muromachi period, the ground and the far distance remains am- Unusual plants carpet the green mountains.
political control of the Suô region as well bivalent. The composition is probably
as the island of Kyushu, far away from the based on a lost Chinese prototype, as is a This painting, then, commemorates
seat of the shogunal government in Kyoto, very similar painting in the Konchi-in in the powerful constable daimyo Ouchi
was left to various contending local Kyoto, which is dedicated to a young Zen Morimi for his successful pursuit of the
powers, including the Ouchi family. After Buddhist monk and depicts an idealized arts of both war (bu) and peace (bun), in
s_everal years of factional battles, the study. the best tradition of the Japanese medieval
Ouchi family, chiefly through astute mili- More than half of those who inscribed warrior. YS
tary and political maneuverings by the Masaki painting, which was completed
Morimi, had come to control large blocks no later than 1415 (the earliest known 86 Listening to the Pines Study
of territory, including northern Kyushu, death date of any of the inscribers), are hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
and in 1404 Morimi was officially recog- also authors of similar eulogies added to 103.0 X 31.8 (40*72 X 12 Vz)
nized by the shogunate as the constable contemporary paintings of similar format Muromachi period, no later than 1433
daimyo of the whole region. With the cen- and style. Some of their poems laud
Morimi's essential virtues as a cultivated Seikadô Bunko, Tokyo
tral base of power firmly established
warrior. In one poem at the upper right, by Important Cultural Property
within his domain and the large neighbor-
ing areas coming under his control, the monk Genchü (d. 1421), the speaker is A tall, gnarled pine tree, its roots precari-
Morimi frequently traveled to Kyoto the warrior himself: ously clinging to a rocky bank, rises at the
where he was warmly received by mem- right. A pavilion is framed by the trunk
To serve in the world or to retire as a
bers of the upper-class warrior society, in- and branches of the tree. Behind the pavil-
hermit—Í am yet to seek a resolution',
cluding the shogun, the deputy shogun ion soars a second, equally gnarled pine
So first I built a thatched hut in the
(kanrei), and other ranking warriors. In tree, painted in ink so pale that it appears
mountains',
Kyoto, Morimi befriended erudite monks to be almost a shadow of the first. A
I raise my head high to gaze at the
of the metropolitan Zen monasteries. mountain path leads from the left side of
mountain and ask what I should do;
Morimi's personal contacts with scholar the landscape, across a timber bridge over
The mountain replies: 'A pleasure it will be
monks included the monk Ishô Tokugan a cascading stream on the left, to the pavil-
to serve in the government, but you will
(1360-1437), who was a frequent guest at ion. A jagged mountain towers in the cen-
not be as happy as when you return home
Morimi's villa in Suô, and who wrote a ter, its lower portion obscured by the
to retire!
long eulogy lauding Morimi and his villa. wafting mist.
Ishô also wrote a dedicatory inscription for Another poem, the first from the right in Five inscriptions, written at different
a portrait painting of Morimi. The impor- the second row, by the monk Shôshin times over a twenty-five-year period, are
tance of Ishô's relationship with Morimi (dates unknown) is addressed to Morimi: brushed at the top of the painting in a dis-
and the Ouchi family in Suô may also be orderly fashion. In fact, visible seams be-
You, Sir, wise Governor, built a villa to seek
seen in another painting in this exhibition, tween the inscriptions indicate that they
repose;
the Choshdken (Listening to the Pines have been reorganized. The earliest of
You made this realm your territory, where
Study; cat. 86). these, the one at the upper right, is by the
the mountains are blue and clouds white.
Among Morimi's personal accom- This idyllic place far surpasses the Peach Zen monk Ishô Tokugan (1360-1437; see
plishments were the practice of Zen, tak- Blossom Spring of Yuan Chao and Liu cat. 85). It contains a short preface, Listen-
ing the tonsure in 1405, and the pursuit of ing to the Pines Study (Choshdken), poem
Chen [of China];
sinological studies through the reading of How peaceful is the clear day here when not composed for Attendant (Jisha) Ryukd[]wa
Confucian texts and Chinese poetry. even a bird cries! . . . , and a postscript, On the third day of

146
the second month of the year Kichù [corres-
ponding to 1433]. These relate for whom
and when the poem was written. The
main body of Ishó's poem reads:
I hear there is a man of high virtue in the
realm of the west, who lives at Nanmei;
High above the hut soar tall pine trees,
offering their green canopies;
A lamp casting spots of light behind the
tiny window must indeed make me long
to get there.
Sounds of the wind blend with the reading
voice all night long.
Japanese scholars have recently ar-
gued that the scroll was produced in Kyoto
on behalf of a certain young monk, At-
tendant Ryuko[ ]wa of Nanmeizan monas-
tery, also known as Jófukuji, in Suó (now
Yamaguchi Prefecture), located on the
western tip of Honshu island. This would
explain the reference in the poem to "the
realm of the west." Suó was governed by
the powerful Ouchi family (see cat. 85),
who also patronized the temple. Indeed,
Ishó was closely associated with Ouchi
Morimi, constable daimyo of Suô. Shôgô
Chójü, whose poem is written above the
right shoulder of the mountain, was from
a warrior family closely allied with the
Ouchi family. Ryükó Shinkei, who wrote
the poem just across from Chójü's, en-
joyed the patronage of the Ouchi family
while in Kyoto, and later went to Suó.
While "Attendant Ryuko[]wa" re-
mains unidentified, he is assumed to have
been a young Zen monk at Jófukuji, whose
scholarly ambitions were embodied in his
study-retreat, real or imaginary, which be-
came the theme of this scroll. The title of
the painting, as well as that of the poem
Chdshdken (Listening to the Pines Study)
was appropriately chosen for the scholarly
hermitage in this work, for it refers to the
idea of listening to "whispers of pine
winds and sounds of stream waters," a Chi-
nese phrase well known in Japan. The
term "Chôshô," a recurring literary and
pictorial theme and name in China, be-
came a model for the Japanese.
Originally the scroll had only Isho's
inscription, but through the subsequent
years and presumably as the scroll was
moved back and forth between Kyoto and
Suó, four more inscriptions were added. It
exemplifies the dissemination of the early
fifteenth-century shosaizu (painting of a
scholar's study) to the provinces by the
second quarter of the fifteenth century. Ji-
kuun Tóren (1391-1471) added the final in-
scription, written at the upper left in 1458,
twenty-five years after the first. It reads:
Trek, trek up the precarious path, the road
through the mountains goes on and on;
The hermit's abode between the
moss-covered cliff and the deep green
stream;
Hermitage, after all, is no more than a
trifling way of life; 88

147
Whispers of pine trees may lure you on, but
don't let leisure turn into lethargy.
[signed] Chôkonsô (an alternative liter-
ary sobriquet of Jikuun) Tdren invites those
who aspire to retire by his clumsy verse. The
end of the second year ofChdroku (1458).
The five inscriptions, written at dif-
ferent times over the span of a quarter of a
century, function differently from those of
early fifteenth-century shosaizu (cats. 84,
85) where laudatory poems were written
during a gathering of many like-minded
poet-monks. The inscriptions on this work
form a collection of individual poems,
each a personal response to the scroll and
to the idea of the hermitic practice.
Tôren's poem seems to contain a measure
of irony about the futility of such retire-
ment. Such sentiment reflects a new atti-
tude of reservation toward the practice.
Occurring at the same time, in the mid-
fifteenth century, was the diminution of
patronage of the literary gatherings at Zen
temples, which had been championed by
such men as Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi
(1386-1428), and a corresponding increase
in the bureaucratic nature of the activities
of the temples.
Stylistically, the painting exhibits
some unusual features. The choppy brush-
strokes, each showing marked thinning 89
and thickening, suggest a stylistic model
different from that which is assumed to
have been behind earlier shigajiku exam-
ples. The model may have been a Chinese men, presumably a host and his guest, earthquake of 1923. The name Sekiyô, un-
painting or a Korean work done in the Li converse inside; one of them turns his usual for a painter, is not recorded in con-
Cheng (ciQ-QOyJ-Guo Xi (c. 1020-1090) tra- head to catch a view of the lake. A moun- temporary sources, but two other works
dition. The rocks in the foreground, the tain with spindly trees along its ridges rises with this seal are cited in the nineteenth-
pine trees, and the mountain above are beyond the hut. Behind the mountain's century reference Koga bikd, under the
rendered by contour lines that consist of a left shoulder stands a solitary distant peak. artist Soga Dasoku. Stylistically the Sekiyô
series of twisting brushstrokes that reveal A square relief seal that reads Sekiyd or paintings are comparable to the land-
the choppy, nervous movement of the Akabae (Red Fly), the seal of a painter of scapes on a set of eight large sliding door
hand. Along with monochromatic ink the Soga school, is stamped at the lower panels (fusuma) in the abbot's hdjd (living
washes, reddish browns and blue-greens left hand corner of the painting. quarters) of the Shinjuan, a subtemple of
have been extensively used, though much The painting shares expressive char- the Daitokuji monastery in Kyoto. Built in
of the original pigment has been lost. YS acteristics with the Daruma portrait by 1491 to commemorate a Zen monk of
Bokkei Saiyo (cat. 81), another Soga school Daitokuji, Ikkyü Sójun (1394-1481), the
87 Landscape painter. Dramatic contrasts of ink tones Shinjuan contains three sets of sliding
attributed to Soga Sójó (fl. after c. 1491) and the abstract rendering of the rock and door panels installed in three rooms repre-
hanging scroll; ink on paper tree forms distinguish this painting. The senting Birds and Flowers in a Landscape
00.2 X 29.5 (233/4 X 115/8) jagged rocks are made up of angular forms Setting, Landscapes of the Four Seasons,
rendered by the blunt tip of the brush. and Landscape, all traditionally attributed
Muromachi period, late i5th century The abstract shading and texturing of the to a certain Dasoku. The set Landscapes of
Fujii Akira Collection, Tokyo rocks, as well as the twisting and turning the Four Seasons is stylistically close to the
A large rock surmounted by three bamboo zigzag shapes of the branches and trunks Sekiyô paintings. The third set, Landscape,
trees tilts sharply to the right in the middle of the pine trees, are far removed from the has been reattributed to Soga Sôjô in re-
of the foreground at the water's edge. Be- restrained forms seen in the contempla- cent years. Scholars in Japan all agree on
tween it and a rocky precipice to the left tive landscape paintings from the first half the dates of the Shinjuan panels and ac-
topped with two low pine trees are a path, of the fifteenth century (cats. 84, 85, 86). tive years of Soga Sôjô. But uncertainty
a brushwood fence, and a gate with Two other ink landscapes carrying the continues about the identity of Dasoku,
thatched roof. Behind the foreground seal Sekiyd, now in the collection of the whether more than one painter bore this
rock, spits of land bordered by water Gunma Prefectural Museum of Modern name, his/their dates, whether Soga Da-
Art, depict autumn and winter landscapes. soku and Soga Sôjô were the same person,
plants extend into the lake, where an
These originally belonged to a set of four the identity of the artist who used the seal
empty boat is moored. Behind the boul-
paintings on the theme of the Four Sea- Sekiyd, his dates, and whether he was the
der, steps ascend the mountainside, where
sons, but the spring and summer land- same person as Soga Dasoku and/or Soga
a thatched hut on stilts is situated. Two
scapes were destroyed in the Tokyo Sôjô. YS

148
90

91

149
88 Sugawara Michizane in his deified the robe from the Chinese master. To tained their own diplomatic relations with
form as Tenjin crossing to Song China prove it Tenjin, holding a plum branch, China and Korea. The economically and
Sesshü Tóyó (1420-1506) showed Enni a Zen pilgrim's satchel, say- culturally affluent city of Yamaguchi came
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk ing it contained the robe. The Tenjin im- to be called "Little Kyoto." In 1467 Sesshü
112.3 X 56.5 (441/4 X 22^4) age based on this story is known as Toíó [or traveled to Ming China_with a trade mis-
Muromachi period, 1501 Toso] Tenjin (Tenjin crossing to Tang [or sion dispatched by the Ouchi family. The
Song] China. The association of Tenjin trip, which lasted until 1469, took Sesshü
Okayama Prefectural Art Museum
with China probably owes much to the from the port city of Ningbo to Beijing, af-
A lightly bearded man clad in a Chinese Zen monks' penchant for Chinese poetry, fording numerous opportunities to see not
scholar's robe is seated on the trunk of a especially their familiarity with Su only China's scenic spots, but also many
gnarled pine tree. The tree rises diagonally Dongpo's (1036-1101) poem 'The flight of paintings, some of which he copied. Ses-
from a flat, uncluttered terrain. Pine and the plum blossoms." Many portraits of shü's direct knowledge of the paintings of
plum branches echo the contours of the Tenjin as a scholar, dressed in Chinese contemporary Ming artists unknown in Ja-
man's upper body. He faces toward blos- robes and wearing a cap, carrying a monk's pan set him apart from other Japanese art-
soming plum branches, which twist and satchel and holding a plum branch, were ists of the Muromachi period.
turn and seem about to embrace him. The painted and inscribed by poet monks of After returning to Japan in 1469,
figure looms large against the bare back- the early Muromachi period. Most of the Sesshü led a peripatetic existence, moving
ground. At the lower right is an inscrip- extant Tenjin portraits show a figure between Suó, Bungo (today's Oita Prefec-
tion, Gyônen hachijùni sai Sesshü hitsu standing upright against a neutral back- ture), and Kyoto, as well as traveling to
[Brushed by Sesshü, current age eighty- ground, like a religious icon. In Sesshü's central and northern Japan. In 1486, he
two], followed by the artist's square relief painting, the informally posed Tenjin has was back in Suó where he executed the
seal, Tóyó. The painting was executed in the satchel at waist level (mostly concealed Landscape of the Four Seasons, a master-
1501 by the foremost ink painter of the sec- by his sleeves) on a shoulder strap, but piece in a style that translates the Chinese
ond half of the fifteenth century, Sesshü does not hold the plum branch. Instead he academic style of Xia Gui in a dynamic
Tóyó. looks at the plum tree, which, along with and expressive manner. In 1495 Sesshu
The figure in the painting is Tenjin the pine tree, is a part of a credible natural made a painting in the "broken ink" or ha-
(Heavenly God), the Japanese courtier and space. boku style of the Chinese painter Yujian of
scholar Sugawara Michizane (845-903) The style of the painting is remark- the Southern Song Dynasty, which he
who was deified soon after his tragic death ably close to that of Sesshü's famous pair gave to his pupil Josui Sóen (dates un-
in exile at Dazaifu in northern Kyushu. A of screens of birds and flowers (cat. 96). known) as certification of his having mas-
victim of trumped-up political charges, The crisp, dynamic lines that define tered the style. In or shortly after 1501 he
Michizane was stripped of his high gov- forms, the twisting and turning of the painted a view of Amanohashidate, an im-
ernment rank and deprived of the civilized branches, and the convincing spatial portant scenic spot on the Japan Sea coast,
life he enjoyed as a talented poet in the depth find readily recognizable counter- in a naturalistic style different from his
capital. Before his departure from Kyoto, parts in the monumental screens. previous works. Sesshü died either at Ma-
Michizane composed a poem to a plum The painter Sesshü Tóyó was born in suda in Iwami Province (part of present-
tree in his garden, reminding it not to for- Bitchü Province (part of today's Okayama day Shimane Prefecture) in 1502 or at
get the arrival of spring after he was gone; Prefecture). Very little is known about Ses- Unkokuan in Yamaguchi in 1506, the latter
the plum tree followed Michizane, flying shü's early years. He was a student monk possibility being more widely accepted.
all the way to Dazaifu. The plum blossom at Hófukuji in Bitchü and went to the This Tenjin painting of 1501 is one of Ses-
motif became associated with Michizane, Shókokuji monastery in Kyoto while he shü's late works, painted at age eighty-two.
who came to be revered as the god of was still young. Around 1451, at age thirty- Sesshü left many disciples. His style
plum blossoms. He also was worshipped as two, Sesshü formally became a disciple of spread widely in Japan to Kamakura in the
the god of scholarship, calligraphy, and po- the monk Shunrin Shütó (d. 1463) and east and Satsuma (the western part of to-
etry, especially of renga (linked verse). By eventually became the shika (monk who day's Kagoshima Prefecture in Kyushu) to
the thirteenth century, Tenjin joined the screens guests seeking interviews with the the south. Among the later followers who
ranks of the Buddhist pantheon; he was abbot) of the monastery. It is assumed that closely emulated Sesshü's art was Unkoku
believed to be a reincarnation of Bodhi- at Shókokuji he studied under the painter Tógan (1547-1618), a warrior's son in the
sattva Kannon (C: Guanyin). Tenshó Shübun (fl. c. i42o-c. 1461), who service of the Mori, the militant daimyo
Although the Tenjin cult essentially was the Controller of the monastery, and family of Aki Province (part of today's
was a tradition rooted in Japan's courtly whom Sesshü later acknowledged as his Hiroshima Prefecture) who overthrew
culture, in time it was absorbed by the mentor. the Ouchi and took control of the Suó
sinophile culture of the Zen monastic es- By the midióos, Sesshü left for territory. YS
tablishment. By the end of the fourteenth Yamaguchi in Suó Province (part of
century a fantastic story circulated among present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture), and 89 "Huang Zhuping" after Liang Kai
the Zen monks in Japan about Tenjin, in established his studio. Sesshü's move to Sesshü Tóyó (1420-1506)
which he appeared in a dream of the Suó is indicative of the tendency of artists
hanging scroll; ink on paper
monk Enni Ben'en (Shóichi Kokushi, "Na- and poets in the late fifteenth century, a
30.2 X 30.6 (ll7/8 X 121/6)
tional Master Shóichi," 1202-1280), found- time of civil disturbance, to move away
from metropolitan centers such as Kyoto Muromachi period, late i5th century
ing abbot of the Tófukuji monastery who
had just returned from China. Tenjin to the provinces in search of reliable Kyoto National Museum
asked the monk to suggest a teacher from sources of patronage. The Suó region was Important Cultural Property
whom he could receive instruction in Zen then under the control of the powerful
Ouchi daimyo family, whose control ex- Sesshü Tóyó, an important artistic person-
and be given a robe as certification. Enni ality of the Muromachi period, made
told Tenjin that he should go to his own tended as far west as northern Kyushu and
occasionally east to central Japan. More copies of Chinese paintings from the Song
teacher, the Chinese Zen master Wuzhun and Yuan periods after he returned from a
Shifan at Jingshan. Subsequently, Tenjin important, the Ouchi, exceeding the
power of the Ashikaga bakufu, controlled journey to China between 1467 and 1469.
again appeared in Enni's dream and said The intent was to supplement his recent
he had indeed received instruction and the lucrative China trade and even main-

150
92 92

exposure to the art he had seen in China, A man under a pine tree, pointing part of China). In Shandong Zhuqi saw
by studying the earlier Chinese master- with his outstretched right arm, shouts at nothing but white rocks. Zhuqi went back
pieces that were already in Japan. This a pair of rocklike forms on the ground. to Shandong accompanied by Zhuping,
sketch is one of six original ink sketches The subject is Huang Zhuping, a legend- who, by shouting at rocks, turned thou-
extant today. It is signed Sesshü, to the left ary Daoist of the Han Dynasty, who is sands of them into sheep.
of a pine tree trunk. The name Liang Kai turning rocks into sheep. The story of the At the lower left of the painting is a
is brushed outside the frame at the lower sage is from an early Chinese collection of white sheep just transformed, and next to
right, indicating that the picture is a copy tales of eighty-four Daoist saints and sages it another with its legs emerging from a
based on a Chinese work, now lost, by (Shenxian zhuari), compiled by the Daoist dark rock. Dynamic brushstrokes define
Liang Kai (fl. c. 1195-^ 1224), an accom- scholar and alchemist Ge Hong (known the pine tree trunk, branches, terrain and,
plished painter of the conservative Chi- also as Bao Puzi), who was active 326-334 most expressively, Huang's costume. The
nese Imperial Academy of the Song AD. Huang Zhuping, at age fifteen, was kinesthetic quality of the brushstrokes in
dynasty and a highly expressive ink painter herding sheep when he met a Daoist mas- this work conveys something of both Ses-
as well. Six other related sketches are now ter who took him to Mount Jinhua in Zhe- shù's own artistic style and the spontane-
lost, but are known through seventeenth- jiang Province. After more than forty ity associated with Liang Kai's ink
century copies contained in a single years, Zhuping's older brother Zhuqi paintings. YS
handscroll by Kano Tsunenobu (1636- came looking for him, and asked where his
1713), now in the Tokyo National Museum. sheep were. Zhuping replied that they
were in Shandong Province (northeastern

151
9o Mount Fuji Although unsigned and without seals, near shore under the darkening sky against
attributed to Kenkô Shókei the painting has been attributed to Kenkô which, like a tall white screen, a range of
(fl. 1478-1506/1518) Shôkei a painter-monk of Kenchôji. He snow-covered mountains looms. On the
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper was sometimes called Kei Shoki, or Kei the roof of the study a sheet of snow inches to-
66.0 x 30.0 (26 x ii3/4) Secretary, from his monastic position of ward the eaves. Trees atop the cliff above
Muromachi period, no later than 1490 shoki, whose role it was to keep the official still glisten under the chilling snow.
records of the monastery. The attribution At the lower left corner is a square in-
Tokyo National Museum
is not entirety unreasonable, for the artist taglio seal, which reads Senka, the name of
Mount Fuji stands against a gray sky in the was closely connected with the inscriber an artist active during the first half of the
center of the composition. In the right Shijun who, around 1493, wrote a poem sixteenth century in the Kamakura region,
foreground is an undulating range of hills; for the artist about "Hinrakusai" (Joy in near present-day Tokyo. Very little is
two other ranges recede toward Fuji. Trees Poverty Study). This was the name of the known about the painter Senka. The for-
and vegetation dot the crests and valleys artist's study as well as his artistic pseudo- mat of the painting is archaistic in that it is
of the two closest ranges. A filmy blue nym. Early accounts of the artist's career a shigajiku, a type that by this time had
wash defines the most distant range, at Kenchôji are not verifiable from con- lost its vitality in Kyoto, where innovative,
which floats like a wafting band of mist at temporary sources, but he is traditionally large-scale painting formats were being ex-
the foot of Fuji. Apart from this blue and believed to have been a student of Chüan plored by the Kano artists (cat. 97). This
the faint reddish brown and green on the Shinkó, another painter-monk at Kenchôji painting lacks the atmospheric spatial re-
other two ranges, the painting is mono- who was active around the middle of the cession typical of the earlier Shübun style.
chromatic. The white pigment applied to fifteenth century. Chüan Shinkó exe- Despite the small size of the scroll, the
the stylized, three-pinnacled form of cuted a painting of Mount Fuji in ink, now foreground trees, rocks, bamboo bushes,
Mount Fuji creates visual contrast with in the collection of Nezu Institute of Fine and pavilion, and the temple buildings
the surrounding ink-washed sky. The rev- Arts in Tokyo. In 1478, during a lull after across the lake are clearly legible. This
erence felt for Mount Fuji is evident in the Onin civil war (1467-1477), Shôkei work shows the influence of Ming-period
the frequent depictions of it in Japanese went to Kyoto to study painting under Chinese landscape painting, which had
art, from thirteenth-century narrative Geiami (1431-1485), then a leading painter been actively studied by Japanese artists
paintings to the dramatic woodblock in the capital, who was also an artistic con- such as Sesshu Tôyô (cat. 88, 96) and
prints by Hokusai and Hiroshige in the sultant (ddbdshu) to the Ashikaga shogun Kenkô Shôkei (cat. 90) since the third
nineteenth century. and the curator of the shogunal collection. quarter of the fifteenth century.
The long inscription, dated to 1490, is In 1480 Shôkei returned to Kamakura, but An inscription in three sections occu-
by the Zen monk Shijun Tokuyü (dates un- in 1493 he was again back in Kyoto. By pies the upper two-thirds of the scroll. It
known). The first half of the text describes 1499, he had returned to Kamakura where consists of the title of the painting, a pref-
how, for centuries, Fuji has been regarded he was active through 1506 or 1518. His ace, and poems typical of the shosaizu
as the sacred mountain of the nation; the death date is unknown. (painting celebrating a scholar's study). At
second half explains that the painting was In the dotted forms of the vegetation, the very top are three large characters
executed for a certain "sagacious Lord the schematic tree shapes, and the parallel Setsu-rei-sai (Snow Peak Study), which is
Minamoto, the heir to the shogunal dep- brushstrokes that describe the ranges of both the name of the pavilion depicted in
uty in Kamakura." Shijun was the i59th hills, the style of the painting recalls that the painting and the title of the painting.
abbot of the Kenchôji monastery in Kama- of Kenkô Shókei's landscapes, though These large characters were written by
kura before he wrote the inscription, many of these are stylistically datable to Ashikaga Haruuji (d. 1560), a deputy sho-
signed Shijun, the monk Tokuyü, a former his late years, almost two decades after gun in the Kanto region (Kantô kubd),
[abbot] ofKenchd. Recent Japanese schol- this Mount Fuji painting was executed. whose kaô appears at the lower left. The
arship has astutely established that this The most convincing evidence for the at- middle section of the inscription com-
work was painted for the warrior Ashikaga tribution of this painting to Kenkô Shôkei, prises a long prose preface and a short
Masauji (1466-1531), who "loved the lofti- however, is the form of the mountain it- •poem, dated to the autumn of 1538, by the
ness of Mount Fuji, ordered an artist to self. In its stylization, it recalls a Mount Zen monk Rinchu Soshô, at one time the
paint it and had it mounted as a hanging Fuji painted a few decades earlier by abbot of the Kenchôji Zen monastery in
scroll." Masauji personally sent the scroll Chüan Shinkó, the artist's earlier mentor Kamakura. The preface, which was writ-
to Shijun requesting that he write an at Kenchôji. YS ten in the Chdshdken (Listening to the
inscription. Pines Study) of the abbot's living quarters
Masauji was a member of a branch 91 Snow Peak Study of Kenchôji, gives a brief history of the in-
family of the Ashikaga in the east and the Senka (fl. i6th century) scribing of the scroll and elaborates on the
grandfather of Haruuji (see cat. 91). He lofty symbolism of snow and the snowy
title calligraphy by Ashikaga Haruuji
was based at Koga in Shimôsa Province landscape depicted in the scroll. In the
(d. 1560) bottom row are two more poems by Zen
(now Ibaragi Prefecture) during the last hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
decade of the fifteenth century, when the monks who were contemporaries of
97.5 x 17.0 (383/8 x 6?/s) Rinchü Soshô:
entire eastern region was embroiled in mil- Muromachi period, no later than 1538
itary conflicts among several contending Setsureisai
powers attempting to unify the area. In Goto Museum, Tokyo
poem and preface
1490, Masauji was twenty-four years old Important Art Object
and on his way to attaining the post of No sound was heard in the humble
Two deciduous trees rise atop a rocky dwelling and no voice came from the blue
deputy shogun (hubo) of the Kanto region,
slope at the lower left, their branches mountains—a moment of repose—when
which he achieved seven years later, in hanging over a craggy lakeside embank-
1497. His ambition to unify the region, my disciple Gyoku, Head of the Kitchen,
ment. A narrow path leads toward the wa- brought out a scroll, a small one, which he
however, was never realized, and the
ter's edge, where a scholar's study stands handed to this rustic. As the scroll was un-
armed conflicts went on for another sev-
with shdji open. A gentleman seated inside rolled there were three large characters, setsu
eral decades. In the inscription Shijun ex-
gazes across a lake at a temple gate and a rei sai [Snow Peak Study] accompanying a
pressed his sincere hope that Masauji pagoda, which rise above the wafting mist voiceless poem, [that is, a painting]. These
would become the unifier.
at the right. A sailboat heads toward the

152
93 94

characters are by the brush of the Grand who divided water into myriad icy flowers. indeed is his steadfast heart. Here is my
Minister and our Great Patron [Ashikaga Those who would represent snow were poets humble poem or, rather, an afterthought:
Haruuji; d. 1560], to which no idle words and painters of the Tang and Song dynas-
Under the clear sky the chilling white sheet;
should be casually added. That notwith- ties. Scholar Su [Dongpo] built a hall with a
Incorruptible is the purity of heart that
standing, the request [to have my inscrip- thatched roof amidst deep snow; he covered
knows elegant things;
tion] was pressing enough to break my its walls with a painting of snow and called
May he always put to use [the thought of
reticence. I, being old and lazy, am a man of the building Snow Hall. Our Buddha
snow] to cleanse his heart;
few flattering words. Thus, without elabo- Sakyamuni had reached the Right State of
The picture of the mountains yields white
rating on snow, here I offer a lead poem and Consciousness atop the snow-covered
lotus blossoms.
ask the Venerable Master of the Hdsen [the mountain peak, where he sat and meditated
Hôsen'an subtemple] and his companion to in order to attain Enlightenment. Our Pa- The Seventh year ofTenmon [1538]; the
join me with their poems, so that, like bur- triarch Seppd [Xuefeng or Snow Peak; 822- Year dwells Under the 2^th Constellation
nishing chipped white jade, theirs would im- 908] had attained the Way atop Ao-shan [in Hydra; Autumn, the 8th month. Rustic Zen
prove mine. Hunan]. All of these occurred within close Monk Soshd; written at Chdshdken [Listen-
proximity of snow. All that Buddha ing to the Pines Study], [followed by a
Snow, in the diagram of the Book of Dharma [embraces] z's likened to being tripod-shape seal]
Changes, is explained as a multitude of amidst snow. Who is the master of this
Ying elements, easily changeable; it is also At the lower right is a poem by the
study? Isn't he surely a person of impeccable monk Teihô Shochu (dates unknown), also
said that snow was made by the Creator purity and simplicity of heart? Admirable

153
at one time the abbot of Kenchôji and re- to the age of about eighty-six, produced al- and Senka. His journeys to Kamakura and
ferred to in the preface as the "Venerable most all of his most important paintings Odawara in the 15505 may have taken him
Master of the Hosen." Hosen or Hôsen'an not in Kyoto, the capital, but in the east- as well to the Ashikaga Gakkô, or Ashikaga
is the name of a subtemple of the Ken- ern and northeastern provinces under the School, the great learning center for sino-
chôji monastery, to which the monk patronage of various local daimyo. The logy in Shimotsuke Province (in present-
Shochü is likely to have retired when he peripatetic Sesson was a truly creative day Tochigi Prefecture) in the sixteenth
wrote this poem. Very little is known about painter whose art diverged from the estab- century. By the 15405, Sesson, still under
this monk. The poem, which directly re- lished aesthetic norms of fifteenth century Satake patronage, had probably estab-
sponds to the snow landscape and the artists such as Shübun and Sesshü, who lished his reputation as an artist. In 1542 he
study, is in the form of seven-character used Chinese paintings as their models. wrote a painting treatise, Setsu monteishi
quatrain: Sesson not only reinterpreted the works of (Advice to students), in which he articu-
these artists, but injected his own sense of lated his theories on style, especially the
One cannot see enough of the solitary peak thematic eccentricity and graphic expres- methods of brush work and the techniques
once the scroll is unrolled; siveness. Whether he painted figures, ani- of discriminating ink tones, as well as on
Craggy and lofty, the mountain soars in the
mals, or landscapes, Sesson invented the importance of observing nature and
ceaseless snow; highly personalized forms imbued with a learning by copying earlier paintings. He
The study's master must surely know the energy, humor, and passion. emphasized the importance of an individ-
marrow of Du Fu's poetry; The facts of Sesson's early biography ual style that demonstrated the ability to
A view of eternal snow from where the are unknown, but it is believed that his transcend the model.
poetry is born. birthplace was near Ota in Hitachi Prov- The style of these two paintings indi-
[by] Tdkei Tógyo Shóchü ince (part of today's Ibaraki Prefecture), a cates a date earlier than the more per-
[followed by a square relief seal Shdchu] territory then ruled by the Satake family sonalized, later landscapes. His bulky
The poem on the left, also a seven- residing at Ota Castle. Sesson became a mountain forms reflect Sesson's response
character quatrain, is by the monk Kyüsei Zen monk, most likely taking the tonsure to Chinese Ming landscapes, which were
Sókiku (d. 1567), who also served as abbot under the auspices of the Satake family. In known to Sesshü in the 14605. Yet, the
at Kenchôji, probably Shochu's "compan- the 15505 he is believed to have gone to Ka- crisp, clearly delineated motifs of the sum-
ion" in the preface: makura, the city of important Zen monas- mer and winter landscapes are more
teries such as Kenchôji (where Kenkô closely linked to the style of Kenkô Shôkei,
Snow cleared at dusk hurrying a calendar's Shôkei had been) and Engakuji. He also active in Kamakura in the last decade of
turn; went to Odawara, a castle town and head- the fifteenth century and early part of the
The precious jade disk, short are winter's quarters of the regional hegemons, the sixteenth. In the summer painting, the
hours reserved for study; powerful Hôjô family. Odawara under the overall composition and the craggy preci-
The book remains half-read when the sun Hôjô in the sixteenth century was the veri- pices share an affinity with cat. 93, a land-
sets over the western quarters. table cultural center of the east. The Hôjô scape by the warrior-painter Nagao
A bunch of plum blossoms—more books on had amassed a sizable collection of art, in- Kagenaga (1469-1528). The chilling white
the peak. cluding a number of Chinese paintings of mountain peaks looming against the noc-
[by] Shdkyoku Ran'unshi Sdkiku legendary renown. Among these were turnal sky in the winter painting recall cat.
[square relief seal Ydshi] Southern Song works such as those by 91, the Snow Peak Study by Senka (fl. mid-
YS Muqi and Yujian that had been in the sixteenth century and after), also shown
92 Summer landscape; Winter landscape Ashikaga shogunal collection in the fif- here. This pair of landscapes probably
Sesson Shükei (c. 1504-^ 1589) teenth century. In the 15605, Sesson is be- dates from the 15505, when the artist was
pair of hanging scrolls; ink and slight lieved to have been in Aizu in Iwashiro in his late forties or early fifties and in Ka-
color on paper Province (part of today's Fukushima Pre- makura and Odawara. YS
fecture), where he enjoyed the patronage
each 102.0 x 40.5 (40^4 x 16)
of Ashina Moriuji (1521-1580), a powerful 93 Landscape
Muromachi period, mid-loth century
daimyo to whom he had offered a painting Nagao Kagenaga (1469-1528)
Kyoto National Museum earlier. hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
By the mid-^yos, however, the entire 99.0 x 47.5 (39 x 183/4)
Massive rocks crowned with trees, a water- Kanto had become embroiled in fighting Muromachi period, early i6th century
fall in the distance, and a cascading stream among the contending powers of the re-
in the summer scroll at right contrast with gion. This eventually resulted in the rise of Private Collection,
snow-covered mountain paths amidst leaf- Date Masamune (1567-1636), who in 1589 Important Art Object
less trees, icy peaks, and a pale moon in put an end to the Ashina family power and This painting of a craggy mountain land-
the winter scroll at left. The artist's square took over their territory. It is speculated scape towering above a lake bears the art-
intaglio seal, Sesson, is stamped at the that at this point the artist decided to re- ist's square relief seal, Kagenaga, at the
outer edge of each painting, above the tire to Miharu in Iwaki Province (an area lower left corner. The artist, Nagao Kage-
mountain peaks. The oddly shaped fore- that today includes the southeastern part naga, was a warrior and head of the Nagao
ground rocks and boulders in the summer of Fukui Prefecture and southern tip of family who, as shugodai (assistant consta-
scroll, the contrasting dark and light sur- Miyagi Prefecture), seeking the protection ble), ruled the region of Ashikaga in the
faces of the rocks and cliffs conveying an of the local power, the Tamura clan, who southwestern sector of Shimotsuke Prov-
eerie, nocturnal atmosphere in the winter were related by marriage both to the ince (part of today's Tochigi Prefecture to
scene, and the diminutive hunched fig- Ashina and the powerful Date. the north of Tokyo). This was the area in
ures are all characteristic of the work of Sesson, like Sesshü and Kenkô Shôkei which the Ashikaga warrior family had
Sesson Shükei. before him, enjoyed certain freedoms and originated.
Sesson Shükei was the last of the ma- privileges because he was a Zen monk. He Through its mannered, intense brush-
jor painters to develop the two-hundred- had studied classical Chinese, and during work, this painting is related to the picto-
year-old Japanese ink landscape tradition. his travels he was permitted to view prized rial style associated with Kenkô Shôkei (fl.
Even more remarkable, Sesson, who lived Chinese paintings and more recent paint-
ings by the Japanese painters in Kama-
kura, including works by Kenkô Shôkei

154
mid-fifteenth-early sixteenth century), a
painter-monk of Kenchôji. Shôkei had
studied with Geiami (1431-1485) in Kyoto
between 1478 and 1480 and transmitted his
style to Kamakura. From Kamakura the
style spread in the eastern provinces
through the works of the artists around
Shókei, including Senka, whose Sno\v
Peak Study, also shown here (cat. 91) is
roughly contemporary with Kagenaga's
work. The light blue, clearly outlined
forms of the distant precipices, the short,
angular brushwork defining the jagged
cliff, and the densely textured rock sur-
faces of the tall peaks are some of the com-
mon stylistic features also seen in the
works of Shókei's followers such as Keison
and Kóboku. This style was instrumental
in shaping one of the modes of landscape
painting by Sesson Shükei (c. 1504-^ 1589),
who worked in the northern and eastern
regions of Japan during the second half of
the sixteenth century.
The Nagao in Ashikaga were a branch
of the main family based at Shirai in
neighboring Kôzuke Province, and served
the powerful Uesugi, the deputy shogun
in the East (Kantd kanrei), who was based
at Kamakura. In addition to political and
military interests, similar cultural interests
bound the Nagao in Ashikaga and the
Uesugi. Throughout the fifteenth century,
the Uesugi, especially Norizane (1410-
1466) and Noritada (1433-1454), supported
the Ashikaga Gakkô or Ashikaga School,
one of the earliest formal Confucian
schools in Japan, by donating sinological
books. Some of these evidently had been
pilfered from the Kanesawa Bunko, or
Kanesawa Library established by Hôjô
Sanetoki (1224-1276) in Yokohama. By the
mid-sixteenth century the school was de-
scribed by the Jesuit missionary Francis
Xavier in his letters to the headquarters in
Goa and Rome as "the university in east-
ern Japan/'
The Nagao in Ashikaga also had an ar-
tistic connection with the Kano family,
also of Shimotsuke. The father of Kano
Masanobu (1434-1530), the founder of the
Kano school of painting in Kyoto, had
married a woman from the Ashikaga Na-
gao family. Both the father and the son
therefore had been retainers of the Nagao
clan. In addition, a seventeenth-century
account of Nagao Kagenaga written by a
Kano school painter, Shóun (1637-1702) re-
ports that Masanobu's son Motonobu
(1476-1559) had once studied painting un-
der Kagenaga. The Kano connection with
the Nagao family can also be illustrated by
the fact that Kagenaga's son Norinaga
(1503-1550), a painter in his own right, do-
nated a landscape painting by Masanobu
to the Chôrinji temple in Ashikaga. Ma-
sanobu's painting, executed in a style not
unlike Geiami's, is still extant. Chôrinji, a
Zen temple of the Sotó school, was the
Nagao family's mortuary temple in Ashi-
95

155
96

kaga. The temple also owns self-portraits When Linji was planting pine trees [his busho), and therefore was an official of the
of three successive generations of the Na- teacher] Huangbo asked him, You plant so lower junior rank. As to his artistic activi-
gao warrior-artists, Kagenaga, Norinaga, many pine trees deep in the mountains, but ties, the seventeenth-century source Hon-
and Norinaga's son Masanaga (1527-1569). what are they for? [Lin-];z replied, First, for chô gashi says that he followed Shübun
Later in his life, Masanaga adopted his the scenery of the temple gate; second, as a and Sesshü, and that he studied Song
grandfather's name Kagenaga, thus often road sign for those who will come here in painting and used its ideas. About the
causing confusion between the two. This the future. When finished speaking [Linji] style of Dôan the same source says that his
landscape painting by Kagenaga, before it dug at the ground three times with the hoe brushwork is rough and abbreviated. From
came into the possession of the present he was carrying on his shoulder, and drew a various scattered references, we know that
owner, was also at Chórinji. YS deep sigh. he actively patronized Buddhism. He con-
tributed funds to the restoration of the
The iconographie attributes of this
94 Patriarch Rinzai (c: Linji) planting a Great Buddha of Tôdaiji at Nara shortly
figure ordinarily would identify him as the
pine tree after 1567, and he donated a lantern to the
Fifth Zen Patriarch Hongren (601-675)
Yamada Dôan (d. c. 1573) Kasuga Shrine, also in Nara.
who is said to have been a pine planter at
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper A number of fine paintings stamped
Potou before being chosen Patriarch. It is
81.2 x 34.0(32 x 133/8) with a rectangular seal identical to the one
difficult to say whether Genyô misinter-
Muromachi period, mid-loth century on this painting are now accepted as works
preted the painting or whether Dôan in-
by Dôan. They are Hotel (C: Budai) in the
Tokyo University of Arts tended it to be Linji. The problem of
Cleveland Museum, Shdki (C: Zongkui) in
identifying the figure exemplifies how the
An old man clad in ragged cassocks, his Kenchôji, Kamakura, and Eggplants and
identifying characteristics of one iconic
left shoulder exposed, carries over his right melons, a pair of hanging scrolls in the
figure were often applied to another.
shoulder a hoe with a young pine sapling collection of the Museum of Fine Arts,
Although many questions remain Boston. YS
tied to its handle. The pale outer garment, about the identity of Yamada Dôan, it is
which identifies the figure as a Buddhist, certain that he was a warrior-painter of the
is punctured by two gaping holes, indica- 95 White hawk
sixteenth century. Three different paint-
ting his indifference to external appear- Toki Tomikage (Fukei; fl. mid-i6th
ers with the name Dôan are known in the
ance. He is white-haired and bearded, with century)
Yamada family. Extant works purported to
a facial expression that conveys something be by Dôan carry different kinds of seals, hanging scroll; ink on paper
of his otherworldliness, not unlike that of including the rectangular relief stamped 100.7 x 49.5 (397/8 x 19^2)
an aged and ascetic Lohan, a follower of on this painting. Although no definitive bi- Muromachi period, mid i6th century
the Buddha Sakyamuni. The artist's rec- ography of the artist has been established, Fujii Akira Collection, Tokyo
tangular relief seal, Yamadashi Ddan our Dôan is widely identified as Dôan I, or Important Art Object
(Dôan of the Yamada family), is stamped at Yamada Junchi [or Toshitomo], whose
the lower left. A five-line inscription by a probable death date was c. 1573. He was A noble white hawk, its sharp claws firmly
certain as yet unidentified Genyô, whose ruler of Iwakake Castle in Yamada city, grasping a plum branch, is silhouetted
circular seal is stamped at the end of the Yamato Province (in present-day Nara Pre- against a wintry sky. Its deadly bill closed,
last line, incompletely quotes a passage fecture). He held a second-level position the bird of prey casts an alert gaze to the
from the famous collected sayings of the (taiho) in the department of finance (min- left. White plum blossoms bud and bloom
Zen patriarch Linji Yixuan (d. 867): on the branch. The stately shape of the

156
hawk is rendered in reserve, by saturating Hawks were favored by warrior-class Painting) as a painter who emulated the
the background of the paper with gray ink. painters for their fierceness and fearless- brush method of Shübun and who showed
Except for the wing and the tail sections, ness. A hawk overtaking its prey was an consummate skill in painting hawks. The
the bird's plumage is described in a pale apt symbol for the martially trained mem- hawk was a popular subject among the
tone of ink, with careful attention given to bers of a warrior family. This painting, Toki painters ever since the family's fifth-
the feather patterns. At the right, on the however, is unique, as it combines the im- generation head, Yoritada (d. 1397) first
white part of the branch, is the signature age of the heroic white hawk and the painted one. The Toki family was particu-
Mino no kami, Tomikage hitsu (Brushed by white plum blossoms. The plum blossoms, larly well known for its family tradition of
Tomikage, Constable of Mino Province), particularly those rendered in mono- falconry. The prominent Zen monk of
followed by the square relief seal Toraz- chrome ink, were, in the Confucian tradi- Shókokuji, Keijo Shürin (1444-1518), who
kage. tions in China and Japan, symbols of the inscribed a long eulogy for the commemo-
Hawk images and scenes of falconry high-minded purity and integrity of the rative painting of a tethered horse (see
were painted in Japan as early as the four- ideal scholar; they represented the spirit of cat. 82), composed a eulogy for a now-lost
teenth century. During the Muromachi cultivated men. Thus this painting unifies hawk painting in which he specifically
period, Chinese paintings of hawks were the traditions of bun (cultivation of arts) praises the Toki family's pursuit of the art
avidly collected by the Japanese; for exam- and bu (martial prowess). of falconry:
ple, contemporary documents record a no- Tomikage, or Fukei, was a member of
table group in the Ashikaga shogunal Constable Lord Toki loved hawks all
the recalcitrant Toki family of warriors, his life. His family preserved a [special]
collection in Kyoto. Although the Chinese who vied with the central power of the method of hawk-keeping which always
paintings probably were made by Ming dy- Ashikaga government through their pre- worked. [According to it] falconers of Japan
nasty painters, in Japan they were associ- eminent control over Mino Province (to-
ated with earlier Chinese painters should put a hawk in a cage only after it is
day's Gifu Prefecture in central Japan). fed a female pheasant captured in its east-
renowned for their hawk paintings, such Various members of the Toki family held ward flight on the eighth day of the fourth
as the artistic Emperor Hui Zong (1082- the position of constable (shugo) from the month. Earlier, Lord [Toki] acquired a fabu-
1135) of the Northern Song dynasty, whose middle of the fourteenth century through lous hawk which he loved very much. One
paintings of birds were noted for their de- the middle of the sixteenth century, when
tailed realism. In Japan, hawks were day he was about to go hunting with the
the eleventh-generation head, Yoriyoshi bird perched on his arm when a female
painted on large screens and sliding door (or Raigei; d. 1583), was driven out of the
panels as well as on smaller hanging pheasant was seen over the garden. It flew
territory by one of his vassals, terminating in circles and descended to the ground. Lord
scrolls. Each format required a different the family hegemony over the territory.
type of depiction, and each was executed [Toki] ordered a certain Sadayasu of the Ta-
The Toki family members were astute war- jimi family to fetch a dog and go after the
in a variety of mediums—ink, color, or ink riors as well as cultivated advocates of po- pheasant. Sadayasu caught it with no less
and color together: a hawk in the wilder- etry and arts. Tobun (active 15205), Yoritaka bravery than that of [the hero] Zz Lu [of
ness going after a pheasant; a hawk teth- (dates unknown), and Yoriyoshi are some China's antiquity]. Then the pheasant was
ered to a perch (a vestige of falconry of the other known artistic personalities of fed to the hawk. Sure enough, that was the
practiced among the warriors); or a hawk the Toki clan. The Toki family genealogy, eighth day of the fourth month. So pleased
perched freely on a tree branch. Tomi- however, does not record Tomikage, was Lord [Toki] that he asked a painter to
kage's hawk belongs to this third type. though he is cited in the seventeenth-
century Honchdgashi (History of Japanese

157
97

pdíní f/ie picture of the hawk and had me 96 Flowers and Birds across the foreground toward a lake. Both
write an inscription.... attributed to Sesshü Tóyó (1420-1506) screens emphasize the tactile forms in
pair of six-fold screens; ink and color their lower registers, which sharply con-
Who this Lord Toki was is a matter of
on paper trast with the uncluttered space of the
conjecture. If he was of exactly the same
each 179.0 x 365.5 (70^2 x 1437/10) middle and far distance.
generation as the monk Shürin, Toki Ma-
Muromachi period, c. 1483 Sesshü Tóyó, to whom these screens
safusa (1467-1519), the ninth head of the
are attributed, was a pivotal figure in the
family, might have been the falconer. Kosaka Zentarô Collection, Tokyo development of Japanese ink painting, es-
Other Toki family members known as Important Cultural Property pecially of landscapes. Although these
painters of hawks include Toki Yoritaka
On the right screen is a summer scene screens are unsigned, they are the best in
(dates unknown) and the eleventh figure-
with a pair of cranes near a waterfall; on artistic quality and the earliest in date
head of the Toki family and Constable of among some two dozen sets of screens of
Mino, Yoriyoshi (d. 1583), who during the the left screen, a winter scene of egrets
and mandarin ducks in a snowy landscape. this subject attributed to Sesshü. This pair
family's downfall in the 15405 escaped to
Rocks, a gnarled pine tree, a crane, and a was once owned by the Masuda family in
Kai Province (now Yamanashi Prefecture)
waterfall are all crowded into the lower Shimane Prefecture, descendants of Ma-
to seek protection under the warrior
right of the summer screen; another crane suda Kanetaka (d. 1485), a local military
Takeda Shingen (1521-1573). In a portrait
at the center is framed by overhanging steward (jito) who ruled the territory of
also included here, Shingen is depicted
pine branches. In the winter screen, dis- Masuda in Iwami Province (part of today's
with a hawk (cat. 17). YS
tant snowy hills stand against a darkened Shimane Prefecture); the Masuda territory
sky; the lower left-hand corner is filled lay immediately to the north of Suó, the
with snow-covered rocks and an old plum territory under the Ouchi's control during
tree that extends its twisting branches the fifteenth century. Sesshü painted a

158
portrait of Kanetaka before 1479, presum- contemporary China. Sesshu, however, 97 Flowers and Birds of the Four
ably when the artist visited the warrior's dramatized spatial expression in terms of Seasons
domain during his peripatetic years after its lateral expansion in the monumental Kano Motonobu (1476-1559)
he returned from Ming China in 1469. Ac- screens. For example, the corner mass set of four hanging scrolls; ink and
cording to Masuda family tradition, contrasts with the void at the center, an slight color on paper
Sesshü presented these screens to the example of a compositional formula he in- each h. 177.5 x w. 118.0 (697/8 x 46 Vz)
family when Kanetaka's grandson Mune- herited from his mentor Shübun (fl. c. Muromachi period, 1543
kane (fl. 1512-1544) was installed as the ter- 1420-^ 1461), and which would be carried
ritorial steward in 1483. on by Kano Masanobu (1434—1530) and his Reiun'in, Kyoto
These screens, which show Sesshü's sonMotonobu(i47Ó-i559). YS Important Cultural Property
characteristic handling of solid forms and These four hanging scrolls, which com-
space in a monumental format, are consis- pose a set, were originally mounted on
tent with the style of his Landscape of the sliding doors. They were part of a series,
four seasons (Tokyo National Museum), depicting flowers and birds of the four sea-
painted while he was in China between sons, which decorated the central cham-
1467 and 1469. The descriptive, dynamic ber (shitchu) of the abbot's residential
forms of the pine tree and its branches as quarters (hdjd) of Reiun'in in Kyoto. The
well as the plum branches find parallels in residential section of a Muromachi-period
cat. 88, made in 1501. The style also shares Zen temple was usually designed on a rec-
features with works by Ming Academic tangular grid, facing a garden to the south,
painters such as Lü Ji (fl. c. 1497 and later), and divided into six rooms: the shitchu,
indicating that Sesshü closely observed the largest and most formal room, in the
the style of bird-and-flower paintings in

159
98

center front; a chapel, at center rear; and kazu, a high-ranking warrior, was put to the modes of the Song Chinese painters
adjoining rooms, the jdkan and gekan, on death following an unsuccessful rebellion Xia Gui, Yujian, Muqi, and Ma Yuan as
either side. At Reiun'in the shitchü had against his master, Hosokawa Masamoto well as in the style of the Japanese painter
twelve sliding doors in all. Eight wide pan- (1466-1507). The nun Seihan studied Zen Sôami, a senior contemporary of Mo-
els, four on the east side and four on the with Daikyü Sókyü (1468-1549), three tonobu. The set shown here, executed in
west side, depicted summer and spring, times abbot of Myóshinji, and asked him soft brushwork and muted ink tones, re-
and four narrow panels on the north side to oversee the subtemple as its resident flects the Muqi mode. The tradition of
depicted fall and winter scenes (shown priest. In 1543 Daikyü purchased a monks' basing pictorial designs on Chinese proto-
here). All of the forty-nine paintings deco- dormitory at Toganoo, west of Kyoto, and types had already been firmly established
rating the walls and doors of the /zo/5, were moved it to Reiun'in as its residential by the time of Motonobu. In 1485, for in-
remounted as hanging scrolls in 1683. ^n quarters. At Reiun'in, the painter Kano stance, Motonobu's father Masanobu
1693,tne entrre building was restored, and Motonobu (1476-1559), who then was re- (1434-1530) had decorated the sliding door
still exists. ceiving Zen training under Daikyü, panels for the private chapel of the retired
Reiun'in, established in 1526 as a sub- painted sliding door panels and walls of Ashikaga shogun Yoshimasa (1436-1490;
temple within Myóshinji, was founded by four rooms of the building, including the cat. 6) and used several Chinese paintings
the nun Seihan (d. 1534), who was widowed shitchù. The paintings depicted land- as models.
in 1504 when her husband, Yakushiji Moto- scapes with figures, moonlight, snow, and The Reiun'in paintings show more
flowers and birds. These were executed in

160
than one hand, and it is believed that the monumental screen paintings and sliding 98 Miho no Matsubara
decoration campaign involved Motonobu door panels for warriors, Buddhist tem- set of six hanging scrolls
and his entire workshop of assistants and ples, and the court. Motonobu's screens ink and color on paper
apprentices. Most of the artists in the were also sent to China as official gifts each of two outer scrolls 154.2 x 54.7
workshop, which was the most prolific from the Japanese government to the (603/4x217/8)
group working in Kyoto at that time, were Ming court. each of four inner scrolls 154.2 x 59.0
family members. This assured continuity Motonobu's art drew not only on ink (00 3/4 X 23 V4)
and growth, along the family line. The painting, but also on colorful Yamato-e Muromachi period, mid-loth century
Kano school was founded by Masanobu (cat. 120). The principal motifs are placed
during the closing decades of the fifteenth toward the front of the composition, thus Egawa Art Museum, Hyógo Prefecture
century, and lasted some four hundred minimizing spatial depth and creating an Important Cultural Property
years. By the late eighteenth century nine illusion of slow but steady lateral move-
branch family studios were operating in This set of six hanging scrolls, which origi-
ment in space. Motonobu's style of paint-
Kyoto and Edo (present-day Tokyo). Under nally decorated a six-fold screen, presents
ing flowers and birds became a standard
Motonobu's astute leadership and man- a panoramic bird's-eye view of Miho no
formula employed by several succeeding
agement it became the most sought-after Matsubara (Pine Grove at Miho), a fa-
generations of Kano painters. YS
professional painters' group, producing mous, scenic spot on Suruga Bay, in Shi-
zuoka Prefecture. The view includes a
long stretch of sandbar with a pine grove

161
that extends through the middle sections'
of the first four scrolls from the right, and
a Buddhist temple said to be Seikenji, in
the bottom section of the last scroll on the
left. Behind the pine grove stretches the
mist-filled Suruga Bay, which merges with
the sky above the horizon.
Since the Heian period, meisho, or fa-
mous sites, have been used as both literary
and pictorial themes. The earliest extant
view of Miho no Matsubara dates from the
late thirteenth century. Because most
views of this site would include Mount
Fuji either alongside the pine grove or be-
hind it, it is generally thought that this
work originally must have been accompa-
nied by another screen, now lost, repre-
senting the sacred mountain.
The painting is unsigned and without
seals, but has traditionally been attributed
to Nôami (1397-1471), a distinguished renga
(linked verse) poet, connoisseur of art, ad-
visor to the Ashikaga shogunate in cultural
affairs, and painter. Only one painting, a
White-Robed Kannon (private collection,
Japan), is firmly accepted as by Nóami. De-
spite its evocative ink washes and gener-
ally soft brushwork, reflecting the style
associated with the Ami school of painters
around Nôami, his son Geiami (1431-1485),
and grandson Sóami (d. 1525), this work
cannot be attributed to Nôami on either
stylistic or documentary grounds. How-
ever, Sóami's remarkable ink painting
Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang, 1513, on
sliding door panels at Daisen'in in Kyoto,
is the stylistic source of this view of Miho
no Matsubara. Seikenji, a walled Buddhist
temple complex, is visible in the lower left
corner, buried in thick mist and sur-
rounded by-trees; it has been borrowed
from Sôami's Evening Bells from a Temple
in Mist, one of the Eight Views mentioned
above. The scalloped forms of the floating
distant clouds, painted in gold, also have
a precedent in the Daisen'in panels.
The painting thus must postdate Sóami;
a mid-sixteenth-century date is a likely
possibility. YS

99 Budai
Zhiweng Ruojing (fl. mid-i3th century)
hanging scroll; ink on paper
91.8 X 29.0 (301/8 X 113/8)
Southern Song, c. 1256-1263
Umezawa Kinenkan, Tokyo
Important Cultural Property
Budai (J: Hotei) is a semi-legendary figure
from the pantheon of Zen Buddhist saints
and sages. The artist of this work is Zhi-
weng Ruojing, whose two seals appear at
the lower left. Although unrecorded in
Chinese painting history, Zhiweng is
known in Japan through a handful of
paintings of Zen Buddhist subjects dated
in the mid-thirteenth century. In this
painting Budai is depicted without a back- 99

162
JOO

ground, in abbreviated lines of ink with Shaking your brain and turning your head, Ashikaga shogunate. This painting was
varying thickness and tonality. In the tradi- You are getting old and senile in front of the later examined and approved by the Edo
tion of mdryoga (wang-liang-hua in Chi- Jeweled Pavilion. connoisseur and painter Kano Tan'yü
nese), or "apparition painting," some of After Sudhana is gone, (1602-1674), wno l e ft ms seal on the box in
the pale ink lines seem to vanish, creating Do you know if the grass is still green or which the painting is stored. MR
a figure that appears to float on the paper. not?
The inscription, by Yanqi Guangwen
(1189-1263), a Chinese Chan (J: Zen) Yanqi became abbot of Jingshan in 1256
monk and abbot of the monastery of Jing- and remained there until his death. Thus
shan in Hangzhou, was requested by a the painting can be dated between 1256
Zen monk, a certain Chan-liao, who can- and 1263. Zhiweng's works were brought
not be identified: to Japan from China during the Muro-
machi period, a time when many Chinese
Having walked far and wide, paintings were brought over by Japanese
Having been running back and forth, Zen pilgrims and avidly collected by the

163
101 102

loo Birds in a plum tree paintings, though not condoned today, famous artist of the Southern Song Paint-
attributed to Ma Lin (fl. c. 1250-1260) was practiced by the Ashikaga shoguns. A ing Academy, Ma Lin is described in Chi-
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk well-known instance is the handscroll The nese accounts as a painter less gifted than
27.6 x 28.0(107/8 x 11) Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang in the col- his father. Extant works by Ma Lin are
Southern Song, mid-i3th century lection of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa; few. A landscape painting entitled Land-
each of the eight views was cut and scape at sunset in the Nezu Institute of
Goto Museum, Tokyo
mounted as a separate hanging scroll. Fine Arts, Tokyo, signed Chen Ma Lin (His
Important Cultural Property majesty's servant Ma Lin), is perhaps the
This painting is stamped at the upper
left with a square intaglio seal, Zakkashitsu- finest work by him. YS
This intimate view of two small birds in, which has been identified as the collec-
perched in a plum tree forms a pair with tion seal of the sixth Ashikaga shogun,
another painting of two sparrows in a tree, Yoshinori (1394-1441). Thirteen other Chi-
now in a private collection. The two are nese paintings now dispersed in various
assumed to have been cut from a larger Japanese collections have this seal.
painting and made into smaller, unobtru- Ma Lin, to whom this painting is at-
sive images suitable for viewing at tea tributed, was active in the reigns of the
gatherings or for a space in a private study. emperors Ning Zong (r. 1195-1224) and Li
Cutting up or cropping imported Chinese Zong (r. 1224-1264). A son of Ma Yuan, the

164
 102 Snow landscape
Sun Junze (fl. mid-i4th century)
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
126.O X 56.1 (495/8 X 22*/8)
Yuan, mid-i4th century
Tokyo National Museum
Important Art Object

This winter landscape depicts a snowy

lake shore with a scholar's pavilion. It
bears the signature at the lower left of Sun
Junze, a Chinese painter active during the
Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). The monumen-
tal painting typifies the fourteenth-
century Chinese development of the
academic style associated with Southern
Song-period (1127-1279) painters Ma Yuan
and Xia Gui. The landscape is devoid of
the evocative, mist-filled space typical of
Southern Song landscapes; instead it is de-
scribed in a prosaic three-part perspec-
tive—near, middle, and far distances—en-
couraging the viewer to traverse the space
logically. The motifs from near to far are
given local clarity. The peak at the upper
left is rendered as a flat silhouette, a two-
dimensional effect that would become a
marked stylistic feature of landscape paint-
ing in the subsequent Ming Dynasty. The
positioning of key motifs such as the pavil-
ion, the lake, the precipice, and the distant
range of hills resembles elements found in
later Japanese landscape paintings (for ex-
ample, cat. 91), but on a reduced scale.
The later Japanese painters in fact were in-
fluenced by the style of Chinese landscape
artists of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
The facts of Sun Junze's early biogra-
phy are not known. The fourteenth-
century Chinese source Tu huí bao jian
informs that he was a native of Hangzhou,
that he was skilled in painting landscapes
and figures, and that he emulated Ma
Yuan and Xia Gui. The limited Chinese
collection catalogues from the Ming Dy-
nasty mention his works, but little is
103 known in China about him or his works. In
Japan, however, Sun Junze's landscape
paintings were very well known in the fif-
teenth century. The Onrydken nichiroku, a
loi Budai that of a poet specializing in linked verse. daily record kept by priests of the Shôko-
Stylistically, the painting is unmistakably kuji monastery in Kyoto, provides the
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Chinese. Unlike the Budai by the mid- most direct documentation of Sun Junze's
yy.l X 30.9 (303/8 X 12!/8)
thirteenth-century Zhiweng, the artist of landscapes, which were seen by such con-
Southern Song, or early Yuan, 4th
this painting uses dynamic and kinesthetic temporary figures as the Ashikaga shogun
quarter of i3th century Yoshinori (1394-1441) and the painter
broad brushwork for the drapery contrast-
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo ing with the carefully rendered face, torso, Oguri Sôkei (fl. 14905). In this daybook a
and left hand. The coexistence of the two set of four landscapes (presumably Land-
This remarkable Chinese ink painting of modes in figure rendition is a stylistic fea- scapes of the Four Seasons) by Sun Junze
the slumbering Budai (J: Hotei) has been ture of dated examples from the fourth is mentioned several times between 1436
in Japan since at least the fifteenth cen- quarter of the thirteenth century. and 1491. Although none of the four can
tury. It is known through the gourd- The painting has been attributed vari- be identified with extant Sun Junze works,
shaped relief seal Zen1a stamped at the ously to a few of the Chinese painters they were very highly regarded by their
lower right, which is believed by some to known to the Japanese. The Edo connois- owners, including the warrior-aesthete and
be a collection seal of a certain Zen Ami, a seur and painter Kano Tan'yu (1602-1674) deputy shogun (kanrei) Hosokawa Shige-
garden specialist serving the Muromachi made a close copy of the painting and yuki (1434-1511). The paintings were in the
shogunate; and by others to be a seal of a added an inscription attributing it to Muqi shogunal collection in 1465, and in 1491 the
Chinese copyist; and by still others to be of the late Southern Song. YS painter Oguri Sôkei, then working on a set

165
J04

of sliding door paintings at Shosenken, a 104 The Battle of Sekigahara gahara. Fragmentary views of the village,
subtemple of Shókokuji, used them as attributed to Tosa Mitsuyoshi desolate rice fields and a few farm houses,
models for his work. YS (1539-1613) now occupied by troops, can be seen in
pair of eight-fold screens; ink, color, panels two, three, and four from the right.
103 Scholars viewing paintings and gold-leaf on paper In the upper area of the screen leyasu's
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk each 194.0 x 594.0 (763/8 x 2334/5) troops march along Nakasendo Highway
118.5x58.4(465/8x23) Edo period, no later than 1611 or 1612 (panels two through six) to join his camp at
late Song-early Yuan Akasaka, where the coalition of the east-
Private Collection
late i3th-early i4th century ern army welcomes his arrival (panels five
Egawa Art Museum, When Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598, through eight). Among the troops in the
the nation's political leadership was left to upper portion of panel four is the gray-
Hyógo Prefecture
a Council of Five Elders (Gotaird) and a bearded leyasu, well-protected by his men.
Playing the koto (a stringed instrument), Five-Man Council of Commissioners (Go- He rides a white horse, and wears black ar-
playing chess and practicing and enjoying bugyd). From these two councils emerged mor and a white_headband. Panels one
calligraphy and painting were essential two rival leaders, Ishida Mitsunari (1560- and two depict Ogaki Castle, the garrison
pursuits for the cultivated person in the 1600), a commissioner who had been a headquarters of the western army, two
Song Dynasty, and these four activities, confidant and a favored vassal of Hide- miles west of Akamatsu. Skirmishes are
called qin qi shu hua in Chinese, were of- yoshi, and who championed the cause of taking place in front of the entrance to the
ten a theme of Southern Song painting. the hegemony of the Toyotomi; and Toku- castle, where some of the over-zealous
Many Japanese artists also employed this gawa leyasu (1543-1616), warlord and some- troops of the eastern army had been lured
theme from the Muromachi period on. time ally of Hideyoshi, who had been away from Akamatsu and were thoroughly
Originally one of a set of four qin qi consolidating his military power and his beaten by the western army on the eve of
shu hua hanging scrolls, this work, on the landholdings in the east, and maneuvering the battle.
theme of painting, is the only one remain- through grants of fiefs and marriage alli- The left screen depicts Sekigahara
ing. It was handed down in the Asano fam- ances to create a daimyo coalition loyal to from the south. With leyasu's men close at
ily of daimyo of Aki Province (part of himself. their heels (panels one through three), the
present-day Hiroshima Prefecture). This The commissioner Mitsunari, who defeated troops of Mitsunari's army flee
painting, in the style of Ma Yuan (fl. c. also had formed an alliance with daimyo from their burning camps (panels two
HQO-C. 1225), the famous Southern Song loyal to the Toyotomi, attempted to through three) toward Ibukiyama (Mount
academic painter, dates to the late South- strengthen his own position by making Ibuki; panels five through eight), which
ern Song or early Yuan Dynasty. In the Toyotomi Hideyori, the young son of Hi- lies to the northeast of Ogaki Castle. Some
Muromachi period there was a particular deyoshi, his cause celebre. The struggle be- are engaged in sword-to-sword combat,
interest in the Southern Song style, and tween Mitsunari and leyasu culminated in others in spear and sword combat. In the
this work was already well known in Japan. the most famous battle in Japanese his- lower sections of panels four through six,
In the screen painting by the Muromachi tory, the Battle of Sekigahara in Gifu, on riflemen aim at the fleeing soldiers. These
painter Sesshü Tóyó (1420-1506) of the fifteenth day of the ninth month of riflemen belong to the twenty-thousand-
Flowers and Birds (cat. 96; see also cats. 1600. Mitsunari's troops, totalling approxi- man force led by the turncoat Kobaya-
88, 89), there are plum branches very simi- mately 82,000 men, comprised the western kawa, who began the battle supporting
lar to those in this painting. Furthermore, army; the eastern army, or leyasu's alli- Mitsunari and ended it, probably by prear-
the man at the left in the work exhibited ance, consisted of about 75,000 men. le- rangement, on the side of leyasu. In other
here recalls a figure in Three Teachings yasu emerged victorious from the battle to scenes in this screen, ranking warriors of
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) by the decide the rule of the realm. Mitsunari the western army are about to commit sep-
lesser-known Sessô Tôyô (fl. c. 1460-^ fled, but later was captured and executed puku, or self-inflicted disembowelment.
1488), who was possibly a disciple of in Kyoto. This pair of screens is the largest and
Sesshü or perhaps even the same per- The right-hand screen depicts events most detailed pictorial treatment of the
son. WA of the day before the final battle from a Battle of Sekigahara, containing more
vantage point north of the village of Seki-

166
than two thousand figures. Although the of leyasu's victory at Sekigahara, the battle in the Tokyo National Museum, shows a
right and left screens are not continuous, also was a contest between old and new horse stable and may be seen as a precur-
they represent the temporal sequence of weapons. A study by the late George San- sor of horse stable screens like this work.
events at Sekigahara. Many of the pasted- som provides the following statistics on This set of screens is stylistically attributed
down rectangular cartouches (nineteen on the army of 3,000 men dispatched by Date to the Kano studio, although to no specific
the right screen and eight on the left) erro- Masamune (1567-1636), daimyo of Sendai, artist. The stylized silhouettes of the
neously identify places, and the specific to aid leyasu: 420 were cavalry men, 1,200 horses recall a painting of a single horse,
identities of troops, the garrison camps of carried firearms (matchlock guns), 850 car- datable to no later than 1521 (cat. 82). Judg-
individual daimyo, and the individual per- ried spears, and 200 carried bows. Clearly, ing from the number of surviving works,
sons engaged in combat cannot be estab- by 1600 the most effective weapons were this type of screen painting of horses in a
lished with certainty. The painting and firearms, followed by spears, bows, and stable was popular throughout the six-
written accounts also disagree on particu- last, swords, the least effective. YS teenth century among upper-class war-
lars such as leyasu's outfit. According to riors. These screens inform us how horses,
one historical record, leyasu rode into the 105 Horse stable important properties of the warrior class,
final battle wearing a European-style cui- pair of six-fold screens; ink, color, and were kept in a residential setting. YS
rass (nanbando), mounted on a white stal- gold leaf on paper
lion. Yet he appears here among the each 149.5 x 355-5 (587/8 x 140) 106 Training horses and horse stable
victorious eastern troops (center of panel Muromachi period, c. 1560 pair of six-fold screens; ink, color, and
one, left screen) wearing indigenous black gold leaf on paper
armor and a helmet with a large hornlike Tokyo National Museum
Important Cultural Property each 154.0 x 355.0 (6o5/s x 1393/4)
kuwagata. (leyasu also appears in panel Edo period, early iyth century
four of the right screen.)
These screens depict six well-bred and Taga Taisha, Shiga Prefecture
These screens are attributed to Tosa
well-groomed horses tethered in six stable Important Cultural Property
Mitsuyoshi (1539-1613) on the basis of
compartments, each corresponding to one
style, and are known as the Tsugaru bydbu
of the three inner panels of the screens. In the right screen three horses are being
(screens) because they were transmitted in
The stable, seen from the back, is set in a tried out by the trainers; another horse,
the Tsugaru family, the castellans of Hiro-
well-kept garden with exotic pitted rocks held by three grooms, nervously awaits its
saki Castle in Aomori Prefecture. The
and blue ponds with cranes and white her- turn. Two others, tethered to posts, anx-
screens were part of a trousseau taken to
ons; a pine and a cherry tree flank the iously rub the ground with their fore-
the family by Tokugawa leyasu's adopted
gable ends of the building. A group of hooves. From a room in a sizable mansion,
daughter, Matehime, when she became
courtiers, warriors, and monks relax play- the scene is observed by a man, perhaps a
the bride of Tsugaru Nobuhira (1586-1631),
ing the games of go, shdgi, and sugoroku daimyo or a high-ranking warrior, who
in 1611 or 1612. According to a Tsugaru
(double six) in a totami-matted seating leans against an armrest, relaxed, and at-
clan document, leyasu owned four screens
area. Saddles and stirrups rest on racks, tended by boy servants. On the veranda of
depicting Sekigahara, of which Matehime
and a monkey—believed to keep evil spir- the adjoining room are other spectators. In
took the two shown here. The composi-
its away from the horses—toddles toward the back of the room, his back turned to-
tion of the original set of four screens may
a young attendant who is carrying a tea- ward the garden, is a tea master preparing
have been continuous, showing the scenes
bowl on a stand. Grooms, one of them tea. A young attendant bringing a bowl of
from the beginning of the battle to the
stealing a nap, are in a corridor that sepa- tea to the spectators is distracted by the
aftermath, but because Matehime proba-
rates the front from the rear of the stable. excitement in the garden.
bly picked the first and third screens to
The tradition of painting horses in a In the left screen a stable is shown
form a new pair, there are gaps in the nar-
stable was first seen in handscroll form as with six horses in compartments, each cor-
rative. The place names contained in
early as the Kamakura period, in a depic- responding to one panel. Unlike the Tokyo
pasted-down cartouches mentioned above
tion of veterinary surgeons and medicinal National Museum screens of the same
may in fact correspond to places in the
herbs before a stable. A late fifteenth- subject (cat. 105), this view does not in-
missing screens.
century narrative scroll, Seikdji engi emaki, clude any animating genre scenes. This
Apart from the political significance
work represents a second type of stable

167
 105

106

170
171
107

screen current in the seventeenth century, 107 Dog-chasing event archery form, the way they handled their
focused solely on the horses. The front of attributed to Kano Sanraku (1559-1635) horses, and their success in hitting a dog.
the stable is marked by a row of curtainlike pair of six-fold screens; ink, color, and Other men were responsible for releasing
pieces of cloth, dyed dark blue in the lower gold on paper the dog within the ring, handling the dogs
half. These are noren that hang above the each 152.0 x 348.5 (597/8 x 137*/$) to be used later in the event, and record-
entrance to each stable. The horses, all Momoyama period, ing the scores from their post within the
well groomed, are tied by two reins, the late i6th-early iyth century nikkijo, a roofed enclosure at one end of
ends of which are fastened to metal rings the playing field. Important spectators also
imbedded in posts. A thick, braided rope Tokiwayama Bunko, sat in the nikkijo, while others would
with a fluted pattern hangs from above Kanagawa Prefecture watch from outside the fenced precinct.
and goes around each horse's belly (save Important Cultural Property The earliest textual reference to
the horse in panel seven). This is a hará- inuoumono known is found in the Azuma
The rise and maturation of the Japanese
hake, used to prevent the horse from lying kagami, a historical compliation of the late
warrior class were accompanied by the de-
on its belly and from violent movements. thirteenth century comprising both pri-
velopment of activities reflecting the con-
The rope's ends (here invisible) are tied to vate and shogunal records. It describes an
cern with military skill and social conduct
two horn-shaped projections on the lateral event that took place in the south garden
befitting a warrior. Among the sports con-
beam. Gold clouds cover the right half of of the shogun's residence, with the young
tests that incorporated mounted archery
the roof, the left half of the veranda, and a lord in attendance. A number of documen-
were yabusame, kasakage, and inuoumono,
part of the totomi-matted space. Behind tary references to inuoumono are known
illustrated here. In yabusame and kasakage
the stable grow disproportionately large from the ensuing Muromachi period and,
archers on galloping horses shot at immo-
bamboo trees, a decorative device. despite an imperial edict in 1350 that tem-
bile and inanimate targets. In inuoumono,
The right screen shows stylistic ele- porarily banned it, texts were written on
the targets were live dogs.
ments that are close to the work of Kano this popular sport. Different schools es-
Inuoumono consisted of two distinct
Mitsunobu (1565-1608) around 1600, espe- poused different methods for conducting
phases of activity, nawa no inu, the "dog
cially in the tree motifs and their spatial inuoumono. One event in 1489 included
inside the rope," and soio no inu, the "dog
handling. These screens, therefore, may the participation of thirty-six archers in
outside the rope." In nawa no inu, a group
date from the first decade of the seven- three teams of twelve, which seems to
of mounted archers waited just outside a
teenth century. Mitsunobu was already an have been standard, and more than one
large circle marked by a thick rope. At the
important artist of the Kano school as hundred and fifty dogs. A decrease in doc-
center of the circle was a smaller circle of
early as 1581 when he and his father, umentary evidence of inuoumono from
sand. A dog was released inside the sand
Eitoku, were employed by Oda Nobunaga the end of the Muromachi period through
ring, and as it crossed over the rope
to decorate the interiors of his Azuchi Cas- the early Edo period probably reflects a
boundary, the archers would try to hit it
tle. It was in this same year that Nobunaga decline in its popularity, though in the
with blunt large-headed arrows. When the
held a grand dressage of his several hun- middle Edo period a revival in interest
dog passed into the area outside the circle,
dred horses, which was viewed by the em- seems to have occurred. For example, a
the contest would shift to the soio no inu
peror Ogimachi. These screens, especially grand event was organized by the Shi-
phase, in which the mounted archers
the one on the right, no doubt reflect mazu family on the seventh day of the
chased the dog and attempted to strike it
memories of that great event on a modest fourth month of 1646.
with the blunt arrows. These proceedings
scale. YS The earliest depictions of inuoumono,
were closely observed by the kenmi, a
judge who rated the contestants on their

172
aside from illustrations in texts from the are divided equally into three teams of sev- 108 Cherry blossom viewing and falconry
Muromachi periods, date from the end of enteen; one group dismounted at the top, attributed to Unkoku Togan
the Muromachi period. The event usually one at the bottom, and one on horseback (1547-1618)
was painted in a lively and straightforward around the rope circle. Great attention is pair of six-fold screens; ink and color
manner, as one component of a larger pic- given to the robes of the attending figures; on paper
ture. Eventually, the theme was treated on those of the mounted participants are de- each 157.0 x 345.5 (6i4/5 x 136)
a grander scale, expanded to fill the broad picted with sleeves billowing from ex- Momoyama period, late loth century
expanse afforded by a pair of six-fold tended arms to achieve maximum
Sekai Kyüseikyó (MOA Art Museum),
screens as well as fusuma (sliding door) decorative effect against the gold back-
ground. Shizuoka Prefecture
panels. More than a dozen Momoyama-
and Edo-period inuoumono screens, in The composition is contrived to Important Cultural Property
pairs and singly, are known today. achieve a contrast of action and inaction. Seasonal images from spring and winter
The screens shown here are generally The two aspects of the event, nawa no inu decorate this pair of screens. The spring
regarded as the oldest extant inuoumono and soto no inu, are clearly divided, one to scene of cherry blossom viewing is painted
screens, and are considered by many to be each six-panel screen. The artist has em- in a polychromatic style, while the winter
the finest. It has been argued on stylistic phasized a highly charged stillness in the scene of falconry is depicted in subdued
grounds that this set was painted by Kano nawa no inu scene. The dog is yet to be re- tones. In the spring screen, women and
Sanraku, an artist active during the Mo- leased and the participants wait expec- children enter into a festive dance as their
moyama and early Edo periods, when the tantly atop their horses who paw the palanquin and luggage bearers relax. The
practice of inuoumono had waned. A pas- ground with energetic anticipation. In colorfully dressed women and children are
sage in the late seventeenth-century art the soto no inu scene, the potential for ac- gathered in what appears to be a temple
historical text, the Honchd gashi, relates tivity is given full play, as the mounted compound on a hill, in an area separated
that Sanraku first painted inuoumono af- archers and attendants converge on the from the temple buildings by green cur-
ter hearing how it had been practiced fleeing dog in a galloping wedge of tains hung between cedar trees. Under the
from an old man named Sasaki Genyu. movement. AMW shade of a giant pine tree, the luggage
This confirms that Sanraku's inuoumono bearers squat by the palanquins and talk
paintings were produced after the actual among themselves; one prepares tobacco
practice of inuoumono had waned in leaves for his long pipe. The scene is illu-
popularity. minated by sunlight filtering through the
In this painting many of the conven- golden spring mist. In the winter screen,
tions of inuoumono are portrayed. The samurai and their attendants are engaged
nawd no inu area is carefully depicted with in hunting. The hunters intently pursue
a large circle of rope bordered with a ring pheasants that are being chased and at-
of sand in which the mounted archers tacked by hawks and dogs in a desolate
wait, and an inner circle of sand. On the winter field. A steep, overhanging cliff and
left-hand screen, in the nikkijo is the man rustic, thatched-roofed houses behind a
responsible for recording the events brushwood fence fill the last two panels at
poised with ink and brush at hand. On the the left.
right-hand screen, fifty-one participants Although the artist is not identified
by a signature or seal, these screens have

173
JOS

J09

174
175
110

been attributed to Unkoku Tôgan (1547- Art historical sources compiled in the 109 Scenes from the Tale of the Heike
1618), a third-generation follower of Sesshü seventeenth century and later also note attributed to Yano Saburôhyôbei
Tôyô (1420-1506). Stylistic features associ- that before Tôgan inherited Sesshü's artis- Yoshishige
ated with Tôgan are the manner of depict-
ing the jagged rock outcroppings, the
tic tradition, he had studied painting un-
der Kano Shôei (1519-1592), or his more
(fi. 1632-1653)
pair of six-fold screens; ink, color, and
linear textures of the rocky terrains occu- famous son Eitoku (1543-1590). This con- gold leaf on paper
pying the landscape setting in the left nection is supported by stylistic evidence each 174.7 x 375-° (683/4 x 1473/5)
screen, and the faces of the people de- found in some of Togan's works. Shôei Edo period, first half ryth century
picted in both screens (cat. 119). and Eitoku, and the painters who worked
What is known of Togan's life comes in their studios, were the pioneers of the Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
from fragmentary contemporary writings colorful Momoyama style of painting. Important Art Object
by the artist himself and from later but Elsewhere Tôgan is recorded as a practi-
The conflicts between the two warrior
more complete accounts compiled by his tioner of tea and a participant in renga
families of the late twelfth century, the
descendants. One reliable biography says (linked verse) gatherings. In 1611, Tôgan
Minamoto (Genji) and Taira (Heike), were
that Unkoku Tôgan, whose earlier name was given the rank of hokkyd (Bridge of
shaped into a major epic battle narrative,
was Hará Chibei, was born in 1547 as the the Law), the lowest of the three honorific
the Tale of the Heike, during the early thir-
second son of a warrior, one Hará Naoie, a ranks (the others are hdgen or Eye of the teenth century. The Tale's themes of rise
retainer of a minor daimyo of Nokomi Law, and hôin or Seal of the Law) given
and fall of the mighty, of duty and compas-
Castle in the northern Kyushu province of by the Imperial court to clerics and gifted
sion, of the sublime and the earthly, are
Hizen. After his father's death in 1584 in artists.
cast in an essentially Buddhist view that
the Battle of Arima, the artist became a re- This pair of screens can be said to
the affairs of this world are transient and
tainer of the powerful daimyo Mori Teru- show both of Togan's styles: the spring
volatile. Thus the Tale has inspired poetry,
moto (1553-1625), with an annual stipend of screen displays the buoyant, colorful mode
No librettos, and paintings throughout the
200 koku. In 1593, the artist copied the typical of the Momoyama-period genre
medieval period and well into the Edo
Landscape of the Four Seasons, a long style related to the Kano tradition, and the period.
handscroll by Sesshü and a treasure of the winter screen shows Togan's conservative
Two episodes from the Tale are shown
Mori family. The same source says that and archaistic mode reflecting Togan's
here. The right screen depicts the Battle
Terumoto was so impressed by the copy debt to the Sesshü tradition. YS
of Uji, south of Kyoto (site of the famous
that the artist was allowed to use as his ar- Buddhist temple of Byôdôin), on the twen-
tistic name Unkoku, after the name of Ses- tieth day of the first lunary month of 1184.
shü's studio, and to adopt the character to At the Battle of Uji the Genji troops,
of Tôyô as his own, and also that on this 60,000 strong and led by Minamoto Yori-
occasion Tôgan took the tonsure. A colo- tomo, surprised the army of his own
phon brushed by Tôgan at the time the cousin Yoshinaka. Yoshinaka's victorious
copy was made, and which accompanies campaigns against the Heike had aroused
the original by Sesshü, says that Terumoto
Yoritomo's suspicion, and hence the at-
gave the scroll to the artist in token of To- tack. Yoshinaka's garrisons removed
gan's succeeding to Sesshü's artistic tradi-
bridges and positioned themselves on the
tion and that the artist was also given
northern shore of the Uji River, which the
Sesshü's studio, Unkokuken.
Genji army hesitated to cross. Then, from
a corner of Byôdôin, two high-ranking war-

176
riors of the Genji clan, Sasaki Shiro Taka- chored a little offshore. The warrior wore ar- no chance of escaping from the Genji.
tsuna and Kajiwara Genta Kagesue, mor laced with light green silk cords over a Since you must die now, let it be my hand
emerged and raced each other on horse- twilled silk battle robe decorated with an rather than by the hand of another, for I will
back across the churning water. Each embroidered design of cranes. On his head see that prayers for your better fortune in
hoped to be the first to reach the other was a gold-horned helmet. He carried a the next world are performed.
shore in order to launch the attack on sword in a gold-studded sheath and a bow (Translated in Kitagawa and Tsuchida 1975, vol.
Yoshinaka's garrisons. Both warriors were bound with red lacquered rattan. His quiver 2, 561-562.)
mounted on horses that had been personal held a set of black and white feathered ar- When the youth was beheaded,
gifts from Yoritomo, in recognition of their rows, the center of each feather bearing a Naozane found a flute in a brocade pouch
valor. Sasaki rode a dark chestnut horse black mark. He rode a dappled gray horse tucked around the youth's body. The
named Ikezuki and Kajiwara a black horse outfitted with a gold-studded saddle. He was youth was soon identified as Atsumori, an
named Surusumi, both Yoritomo's most swimming at a distance of five or six tan outstanding flute player, only seventeen
coveted horses. The two warriors plunged [that is, more than 100 feet] when Nobu- years of age, and a son of Tsunemori, the
into the river, Kajiwara with a slight head zane roared at him: You out there! I believe chief of the department of construction at
start, but Sasaki, by clever trickery, outdis- you are a great general. It is cowardly to turn the Imperial Palace. The flute was the fa-
tanced Kajiwara. your back on your enemy. Come back! mous flute named Saeda (Small Branch),
In the screen the two horses trot to- Naozane beckoned to him with his fan. originally owned by Emperor Toba (r.
ward the water's edge. Between the gold Thus challenged, the warrior turned his 1107-1123). Kumagae, deeply disturbed by
clouds a section of the ruined Uji Bridge is horse around. When he reached the beach, the event, later took the tonsure and spent
visible. Kajiwara's black horse braved the Naozane rode alongside, grappled with him, the remainder of his life as a Buddhist
churning water first, eighteen feet ahead and wrestled him to the ground. As evangelist.
of Sasaki who from behind shouted that Naozane pressed down his opponent and re- The screens are traditionally at-
Kajiwara's horse's girths needed tighten- moved his helmet to cut off his head, he tributed to a minor painter, Yano Saburô-
ing. While the gullible Kajiwara, in mid- saw before him the fair-complexioned face hyôbei Yoshishige, who served Hosokawa
stream, attended to this problem, Sasaki of a boy no more than sixteen or seventeen. Sansai (1563-1646) at Kokura, Kyushu, and
overtook him and reached the opposite Looking at this face, he recalled his son, his son Tadatoshi (1586-1641), daimyo of
shore first. Naoie. The youth was so handsome and in- Higo Province (now Kumamoto Prefec-
The left screen depicts an episode nocent that Naozane, unnerved, was unable ture). The painting shows technical mas-
soon after the battle at Ichinotani, Harima to find a place to strike with the blade of his tery reminiscent of the professional Kano
Province (part of Hyôgo Prefecture, near sword.... He thought to himself: The studio tradition, which far exceed our ex-
Kobe), which occurred one month after slaughter of one courtier cannot conclu- pectations of a provincial painter. YS
the Uji River episode. The Genji defeated sively effect this war. Even when I saw that
the Heike at Ichinotani, and the Heike sur- my son, Naoie, was slightly wounded, I no Maps of the world and of Japan
vivors fled the shore toward the fleets. could not help feeling misery. How much pair of six-fold screens; ink, color, and
One of the ablest ranking warriors of the more painful it would be if'this young war- gold leaf on paper
Genji troops, Kumagae Nobuzane, pur- n'or's father heard that his son had been each 163.8 x 379.6 (64^2 x 149^2)
sued them. The painting depicts the sub- killed. I must spare him ! Looking over his
Edo period, after 1632
sequent events, described in the Tale. shoulder, he saw a group of his comrades
As he was riding to the beach, he galloping toward them. He suppressed his Jótokuji, Fukui Prefecture
caught sight of a fine-looking warrior urging tears and said: Though I wish to spare your Important Cultural Property
his horse into the sea toward a boat an- life, a band of my fellow warriors is ap-
proaching, and there are so many others This striking pair of screens, one a map of
throughout the countryside that you have the world and the other a map of Japan, re-

177
Ill

112

178
179
113

veals how the Japanese perceived the panel five. Eastern Europe and Asia Guinea, which is rendered like an iceberg
shape and space of the world outside their stretch toward the right. Japan, a tiny clus- bobbing in the south Pacific, on panel
own during the early decades of the seven- ter of strangely shaped pink islands—a two. These names represent Japanese or-
teenth century. The elliptically shaped miniature of the fully blown version in the thography approximating the Latinized
map of the world, like a view of the earth other screen—is at the upper right of the place names in Portuguese or Spanish,
from outer space, is isolated by the gold map, rendered larger than its relative size, agreeing with the fact that the map shows
surface into which the map is set. A but nonetheless dwarfed by the vastness the Portuguese and Spanish trade routes
tripod-in-circle seal of the painter Kano of the rest of the world. in red lines issuing from two ports of the
Eitoku (1543-1590) is stamped on the lower The inordinately large land masses Iberian peninsula, Lisbon in Portugal and
section of the gold ground of panel six. near the polar regions in the map of the Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain.
The attribution to Eitoku is not accepted. world indicate that this map is based gen- North America, including Canada,
Of some two dozen examples of maps erally on a cartographic projection devised has three inscriptions on the fourth panel.
surviving from the seventeenth century, by the Flemish mathematician and geogra- Below the left tip of the shortest of three
this work is one of the earliest produced by pher Gerhardus Mercator (1512-1594), green mountain ranges is Furorita for Flor-
Japanese artists. Although the map of the whose navigational map was published in ida, which actually lies considerably far-
world was undoubtedly inspired by Euro- 1569 and refined in 1590 by an English ge- ther south. Amerika is inscribed to the left
pean prototypes, no corresponding model ographer, Edward Wright, but was not in of the middle mountain range, identifying
has been found in Japan. Since Portu- general currency until about 1630. In this the entire continent. And most signifi-
guese traders and the Jesuits were already Japanese version, to maintain visual har- cantly, Nowafuransa is inscribed at the up-
in Japan by the 1540$, we may speculate mony, the regions of the South Pole, per right of the land mass, for "New
that European maps were familiar to the which would have filled the lower areas of France," an earlier name for Canada in
Japanese. The Jesuits report that No- the map, are mostly painted over by the currency after around 1632 when, after
bunaga owned a globe in 1580 and hung a blue of the ocean. sporadic control by the British during the
map of the world in his room in 1581. Both maps are inscribed with place Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the region's
In the map of the world, oceans are names. Indeed, an inscription on the map predominantly French settlement was re-
painted in dark blue and the strangely of the world has been cited as evidence for stored to France by the treaty of Saint-
shaped land masses in ocher, browns, pink, the earliest possible date of 1592. The in- Germain-en-Laye. The name New France
and white, creating impressive coloristic scription, written on the right edge of continued to be used until 1763, when the
effects. In the map of Japan, the island na- panel two in hiragana (Japanese syllabic territory was ceded to Great Britain. If the
tion is surrounded by blue seas with care- letters), reads Orankd, which is the Japa- inscriptions were written at the time the
fully drawn schematic wave patterns and nese reading of the Chinese name of a no- map was produced, then the map post-
by wafting gold clouds that, like the islands madic tribe, reported for the first time by a dates 1632.
themselves, float on the seas. Japanese warrior and close vassal of Hide- The names of provinces (kuni) are in-
These maps are both informative and yoshi, Katô Kiyomasa (1562-1611), when he scribed on the screen depicting the islands
decorative. The map of the world is berib- led a northern expedition during the Ko- of Japan. The snow-capped sacred moun-
boned by the equator, a decorative straight rean campaign in 1592. The tribe was tain, Mount Fuji, marks the center of
band of alternating black and orange. The known to the Jesuits by 1594. The name is Honshu, while a range of green mountains
tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are lines used in this map for an area northeast of runs along the center of the northeastern
of gold, as are the latitudinal parallels Korea. section of the island.
drawn across the two polar regions. Four Except for the names of provinces in It has been asserted that this type of
continental land masses—Europe, Africa, China and Southeast Asian countries, map of Japan could have been produced as
and North and South America—and the which are written in Chinese characters, early as 1592. The date is based on the con-
Atlantic Ocean are on the third and fourth the rest are in hiragana: Inkiresu for En- voy route drawn in red between the north-
panels, the center of the screen, while gland, Furansa for France; Hatagonun for western tip of Kyushu and the Korean
what must be Mexico and Alaska are on Patagonia, the southernmost of South peninsula, on panels five and six. This
America; and Nowakineya for New

180
route was used by Hideyoshi's army before figures, twenty-eight cities are depicted, 112 Four equestrians in combat
and during his Korean expedition of 1592. from top to bottom, right to left: Goa, four-fold screen; color and gold leaf on
This date, too, is problematic. The shapes Paris, Prague, Calcutta, Mexico City, paper
of the islands, as conceptual as the land Aden, Frankfurt, Sofala, Venice, Amster- 166.0 x 338.0 (653/8 x 133)
masses of Europe, are also based on a Eu- dam, Cologne, Cuzco, Rome, Ormuz, Momoyama period, early i7th century
ropean model, possibly the Dutch cartog- Bantam, Mozambique, Istanbul, London,
Kobe City Museum of Nanban Art,
rapher William Blaeu's map of Asia of Genoa, Hamburg, Seville, Antwerp, Stock-
1635. The strangely shortened Honshu is- Hyôgo Prefecture
holm, Moscow, Lisbon, Dantzig, Bergen,
land and the abstract shapes of the islands Important Cultural Property
and Alexandria. A map of Portugal, in
of Shikoku and Kyushu are in fact closer place of cities, occupies part of the first European trade with Japan in the six-
to a map of Japan published by the Jesuits and second panels from the right. The de- teenth century brought with it more than
in the 16405 than to any European prece- pictions of these cities and figures are de- Chinese silks and other foreign goods
dents that the Japanese might have seen rived primarily from a map of the world by bought with Japanese silver. With the mer-
in the sixteenth century. The earliest pos- Willem Blaeu (1571-1638), published in chants came Catholic missionaries, and
sible date for this type of map, therefore, 1606-1607. The rulers °f England and the propagation of the new faith required
would be the 1630$ or 16405, later than the China represented in Blaeu's map are sacred images for instruction and devo-
proposed Momoyama-period date by al- missing in the Imperial screen, however; tion. Japanese interest in Western painting
most half a century. YS the view of Rome comes from Vita Beati did not, however, focus only on devotional
patris Ignatii Loyolae, a biography of Saint images. Instructed by Jesuit artists, Japa-
111 Twenty-eight cities and myriad Ignatius published in Antwerp in 1610. nese painters began to explore techniques
countries The map of Portugal can be traced to and materials by copying the European art
pair of eight-fold screens, ink and color Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Or- made available to them. Although the sub-
on paper telius (1527-1598), first published in 1570 ject is foreign, the martial theme and lav-
each 194.8 x 516.3 and reprinted four more times by 1612. ish coloring of this work are in keeping
Momoyama or Edo period, iyth On the two outer panels of the other with the tastes of a Momoyama-period dai-
century screen are pairs of men and women from myo.
forty-two countries, in native dress, and on The screen consists of two facing
Imperial Household Collection the six panels in between, a map of the pairs of equestrian rulers of Christian and
world; these depictions are close to the Muslim nations. The figures have been
In the Momoyama period, folding screens
1606-1607 Blaeu map. In the Blaeu map, tentatively identified as (from right to left)
showing maps of the entire world or de-
however, scenes from only thirty countries a Tartar ruler, a Russian czar, a Turkish sul-
tailed representations of particular distant
are included, though couples from forty- tan, and the Holy Roman emperor Ru-
places were made to satisfy a fascination
two countries can be seen in another map dolph II. With only minor deviations, four
with an outside world that until then had
by Blaeu, in which the world is divided be- figures correspond to the third (from
been unknown.
tween two circles, published either in 1619 right), fourth, seventh, and eighth rulers
This set is the largest among such ex-
or around 1645. In the lower part of the depicted in the upper portion of one of
tant screens. Along the top of each panel
fourth panel of this screen is a framed in- the pair of screens in the Imperial House-
of one screen are eight mounted figures in
set containing an allegorical representa- hold (cat. 111). Models for these figures
four opposing pairs. They have been iden-
tion of the Four Continents: Europe (a were drawn from different, unrelated
tified as, from the right, the rulers of Per-
seated woman) is flanked on the left by the sources, such as the small prints of Twelve
sia, Abyssinia, Tartary, Moscow, France
New World (two figures wearing feathered Roman Emperors, c. 1590, by Adriaen Col-
(Henry IV), Spain (Philip II), Turkey, and
headdresses) and on the right by Asia (two laert (c. 1560-1618), and the figures of
the Holy Roman Empire (Rudolf II). The
figures with a camel) and Africa (a figure rulers on a map of the world by Willem
third and fourth, seventh and eighth fig-
with a crocodile). In another framed inset, Blaeu (1571-1638), which was brought from
ures appear also, only minutely altered, in
at the bottom of the sixth panel, are canni- Holland and known in Japan during the
catalogue 112. In vertical rows beneath the
bals from Brazil. AY first decade of the seventeenth century.

181
114

115

182
183
116

This painting, now mounted as a tween the figurai groupings. A hint of del containing a three-nail design, a
four-fold screen, was originally part of a set professional training in the Kano-school symbol of Christ's Passion; a confessional
of eight sliding-door panels. The remain- style is evident in the red peonies in the with a circular map of the world on its
ing four have been mounted as an eight- foreground and the mountains in the outer wall; and a smaller building, proba-
fold screen, now in a private collection. background, both frequently depicted by bly an oratory, its roof surmounted by a
These works were reportedly in the Aizu- artists of the Kano school. gold cross-shaped finial. From the gate is-
Wakamatsu Castle, the home of Leon The themes depicted derive from the sues a party of missionaries to greet the
Gamo Ujisato (1556-1595), a Christian dai- Catholic missions in Japan. The musicians traders, who, led by the elegantly dressed
myo, and his son Gamo Hideyuki (1583- in extravagant dress and the attendants at captain under a red parasol, proceed from
1612), and remained there until 1644, when the small Temple of Love in the right-hand the left. The two parties meet at the cen-
they changed hands and were kept by the screen are clearly related to the theme of ter of the screen.
Matsudaira family until the Meiji Restora- profane love. Christian symbolism is evi- In the left screen a galleon with a high
tion in the nineteenth century. MR dent in the wine press in panel six of the prow and stern sails into the harbor, dwarf-
same screen, signifying the Sacrifice. Jesu- ing a small boat on its starboard side,
113 European musicians its not only taught Japanese artists how to which is unloading cargo to the shore. The
pair of six-fold screens; color and gold paint using Western techniques, but also blue water contrasts with the white spray
on paper tried to impart something of their Chris- of waves, as do the fanciful colors of the
each 102.5 x 308.0 (403/8 x 121 l /^) tian message through what seemed to be crews' costumes with the gold clouds.
Momoyama period, early iyth century secular themes. The daimyo who commis- An early genre painting, this work is
sioned works such as these were largely attributed to Kano Mitsunobu, who, in
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo Christian converts or at least supporters of 1593, was called from Kyoto to Nagoya in
Important Cultural Property commerce and communication with Euro- northern Kyushu to decorate the castle
peans. MR headquarters Hideyoshi had built during
This work is one of many extant paintings
of Western genre scenes. Interest in Euro- his Korean expedition of 1592-1593. Mi-
pean dress, lifestyle, and landscape, as il- 114 Arrival of the southern barbarians tsunobu reportedly observed the Portu-
lustrated in imported copies of European attributed to Kano Mitsunobu guese in Kyushu; thus the details such as
engravings, explains the great appeal of (1565-1608) the costumes in this work are believed to
these screens in Momoyama and Edo Ja- pair of six-fold screens; ink, color, and have been based on life. YS
pan. The brilliant colors and gold would gold leaf on paper
each 164.0 x 365.0 (64 V* x 1433/4) 115 Sights in and around Kyoto
have catered to the extravagant tastes of
the Momoyama-period daimyo. Momoyama period, c. 1593 pair of six-fold screens; ink, color, and
In the right screen two women are gold leaf on paper
Nanban Bunkakan, Osaka
playing the viol and the harp to ardent lis- each 160.5 x 323-5 (63 Vs x 1273/3)
teners. Other figures in the foreground are Portuguese traders were the earliest Euro- Edo period, after 1620
immersed in conversation! The sea, dotted peans to come to Japan, followed by the Osaka Municipal Museum, Osaka
with ships, stretches behind the main fig- Jesuits in the 15405. The foreigners were
ures. The left screen is less centered, with called nanbanjin, or "southern barbari- Sights in and around Kyoto (Rakuchu raku-
pairs of men conversing in the foreground ans/' and the art that deals with them is gai) as a subject originated in urban land-
and an expanse of water to the left. In called nanban art. This pair of screens, the scape paintings of Kyoto done in the
both screens distant figures and buildings earliest-known example of this type, de- 14705. The earliest extant screens, how-
in the mountainous landscape create picts the arrival of Portuguese traders in ever, postdate the first quarter of the six-
small, isolated scenes. Details such as the Nagasaki. teenth century and were painted by
European dress and musical instruments In the right screen, behind a row of Kano-school painters: by Motonobu in the
are well executed; however, the artist was shops and partially hidden by gold clouds, 1530$; by Motonobu's grandson, Eitoku, in
not adept in the Western technique of per- is a view of the Catholic mission situated the 15605; and by Eitoku's son, Mitsunobu,
spective, contributing to a lack of unity be- high on a hill. Included are a tatami- in the 15805. A forerunner of genre paint-
matted chapel, its altar marked by a roun- ing, their focus shifts from a view of the

186
city with the changing seasons and ace to wed the emperor Go-Mizunoo, in relief with gofun and then painted over
monthly events to one that highlights spe- which took place on the eighteenth day of with gold. The richly textured result is in
cific sites, architecture, both public and the sixth month of 1620. YS keeping with the extravagant tastes typical
private, and the individual activities of citi- of the Momoyama period. MR
zens of this fast-growing city. This trend 116 Amusements at Higashiyama
toward thematic changes became even pair of six-fold screens, ink, color and 117 Matsushima
more marked during the first quarter of gold leaf on paper pair of eight-fold screens; ink, color,
the seventeenth century, the period to each 84.0 x 276.0 gold, and gold leaf on paper
which this set of screens belongs. Edo period, iyth century each 185.0 x 488.6 (727/8 x 1923/3)
This pair of screens depicts Kyoto Edo period, late ryth century
shortly after 1620. In the right screen, di- Kozu Kobunka Kaikan, Kyoto
vided by the Kamo River, is the area along FukuokaArt Museum,
Higashiyama, or Eastern Hills, seen from Higashiyama, the eastern section of Fukuoka Prefecture
the west. The view includes Toyokuni Kyoto, remains today a popular spot for
visitors on pleasure trips and pilgrims to Transmitted in the Kuroda family of Fu-
Jinja, which enshrines Toyotomi Hide-
the shrines and temples. This small-scale kuoka, the daimyo of a domain in north-
yoshi, in the upper portion of panel one;
ern Kyushu, these screens depict the
the colossal Buddha Hall of Hôkôji, the fo- continuous composition gives the viewer a
miniaturized look into various scenes in scenic cove of Matsushima, a part of Sen-
cus of this screen, on panel two; Yasaka
the Higashiyama area, focusing on spring dai Bay on the Pacific coast of today's
Jinja, or Gion Shrine, on panels three and
cherry-blossom viewing. Unlike many Miyagi Prefecture in northern Honshu.
four; Yoshidayama, a hillock in the north-
other Higashiyama compositions, in this The bay at Matsushima, with its widest
eastern part of the city, on panels five and
version the Yasaka Jinja appears on the span of a little over ten kilometers (eight
six; and the Shinto sanctuary of Kamo
miles), is a meisho ("famous place" or
Jinja on panel six. Two large bridges, Sanjó left-hand screen, with the temple of Kiyo-
mizu on the right-hand screen at the very "place with a name") of long standing in
and Gojô Ohashi, span the river. Town
top. Between these two stretches a long Japanese history. It attained national
blocks stretch northward along the river's
avenue filled with travelers and merrymak- prominence in the Edo period as one of
west bank, with floats and processions of
ers. Vendors of food and various wares the three most beautiful sites of Japan (Ni-
the Gion Festival depicted along a main
throng the road. Interesting scenes in- hon sankei); the two others are Amano-
street. On panel six is the precinct of the
clude the banquet being held under the hashidate on the Japan Sea coast, and
Imperial Palace, only partially visible.
cherry trees at the far right, where dancers Itsukushima, renowned for a Shinto shrine
The left screen presents the western
perform. In the left screen groups of of the same name, on the Inland Sea. Vis-
part of the city bordered by two rivers: the
women stroll in colorful kimono, while iting Matsushima in the fifth month of
Horikawa, which runs north and south, is
nearby samurai admire them. 1689 on his famous journey to the north,
depicted at the bottom; the Oigawa,
Because among the figures in these poet Matsuo Bashó (1644-1694) remarked
which meanders southward to become the
screens warriors predominate, it is be- that Matsushima was the most beautiful
Katsura River, is on panels four and five.
spot in Japan, comparable to Dongting
The port town of Yodo, where the Katsura lieved to have been commissioned by a
daimyo. In the left screen, members of the Lake and West Lake of China, and that its
River ends and the Yodo River begins its
warrior class rest in tearooms outside the churning waves at high tide were as dra-
flow southwest toward Osaka, is depicted
shrine's gate. Some warriors engaged in matic as the Hangzhou bore on the Qian-
on panel six. The focus of this screen is
archery practice are shown in the middle tang River.
Nijô Castle, completed shortly after 1603,
of the right screen. The lively style of the The sheer geographic wonder of the
the Kyoto headquarters for the garrisons
figures and the lavish use of color suggest site alone invites awe. Over 260 fantasti-
of the shogun Tokugawa leyasu. From its
that it is a work of the Kano school. Bril- cally shaped rocky islets, large and small
gate issues a procession, observed by war-
liant green, red, blue, and yellow pigments and crowned with pine trees, are scattered
riors along its path, which has been inter-
around the cove. (Matsushima means
preted to be the procession of Kazuko, the enhance a beautifully decorative surface
dominated by gold. The clouds that weave "pine islands.") The scenes represented in
daughter of the second shogun, Tokugawa
in and out of the trees are first patterned these screens are viewed from the ocean
Hidetada, on her way to the Imperial Pal-
side. The focus of the right screen is the

187
117

precinct of the Rinzai Zen monastery of tails, with elastic distortion of the rock Architectural elements reflect the To-
Zuiganji, located behind the town of Ma- forms and expressive brush lines that con- kugawa hegemony. The focal point of the
tsushima that lies in the center of the arc tour the islets. This ink-painting style is screens is Edo Castle, on the two right-
of the shore. One of the Main Provincial likely to have been inspired by Sesson hand panels of the left-hand screen, con-
Monasteries (shosan), Zuiganji was re- Shükei (c. 1504-1589) who was active in sisting of a multi-storied donjon and
stored in 1604 under the patronage of an northern Japan one hundred years earlier. numerous subsidiary buildings encircled
enlightened local daimyo, Date Masa- What is new in this late-seventeenth- by two moats. The castle is flanked by two
mune (1567-1636), lord of the domain of century work is the merging of genre great temple complexes, both prominent
Sendai. In the left screen the focus is the scenes with views of actual topography— Buddhist institutions closely associated
precinct of the local Shinto sanctuary of an approach totally different from the with the bakufu, Zôjôji on the left-hand
Shiogama Jinja, which enshrines a salt de- more abstract and conceptual views of screen, and Kan'eiji on the right-hand
ity, and the nearby fishing town of Matsushima painted by Sotatsu (fl. 1602- screen. Directly above Edo Castle are the
Shiogama at the south end of the shore. 1639) and his later follower Ogata Kôrin residences of the gosanke, the three Toku-
Shiogama literally means saltpan; in the (1658-1716). YS gawa branch families from the provinces
yard of one of the houses, four saltpans are of Owari, Mito, and Kii. Across the moat
prominently displayed. The two screens from the castle are daimyo residences built
118 Scenes of Edo
together thus take in the whole view of under the sankin kdtai system. lemitsu for-
the shore of Matsushima, from northeast ink, color, and gold leaf on paper
malized the system in 1634, requiring dai-
to southwest. two six-panel screens, each 162.5 x
myo to maintain a domicile in Edo and
The water of the bay is painted in 344.0 (64 x 1352/5) alternate a period of residence in their do-
deep blue, and the schematic mists that Edo period, after 1641 mains with a period in Edo; their families
float over it are rendered in gold and sprin- National Museum of Japanese History, lived continuously in Edo as hostages. Car-
kled with flakes of gold leaf. The view con- Chiba Prefecture touches identify the various residences, in-
tains as many boats, as islets: cargo ships cluding those of the Matsudaira, li, and
and fishing boats with full sails are return- This pair of six-fold screens illustrates se- Nabeshima families.
ing to the shore; others, like the large plea- lected aspects of the city of Edo (present- lemitsu is known to have loved hunt-
sure boats, are moving out to sea. There is day Tokyo) in the mid-seventeenth cen- ing and military events, many of which are
a veritable regatta of ships, barges, boats, tury. Visual weight is overwhelmingly depicted in the screens. A boar hunt can
dinghies, and skiffs, the details of which given to the architectural symbols and be seen on the right-hand screen, and to
are startlingly exact. Places on shore and leisure-time activities of lemitsu (1604- its right, a scene of muchi uchi, in which
islets in the bay, as well as sites of local 1651), the third Tokugawa shogun. The six warriors do battle with bamboo weapons,
shrines and temple buildings, are identi- panels of the left-hand screen present a lemitsu seems to be present as a spectator
fied and named individually by some relatively contiguous panorama of the city, in many of these scenes, though his face is
eighty small rectangular paper cartouches from a high vantage point to the east, fac- not shown. Below Mt. Fuji on the left-
pasted directly on the panels. ing west; occasionally, more distant views, hand screen is another scene of muchi
The depiction of the towns of Mat- such as that of Mount Fuji in the upper uchi. A red chair, facing away from the
sushima and Shiogama is not unlike those left corner, are included. The three left- viewer and surrounded by retainers carry-
in cats. 115 and 118, representing micro- hand panels of the right screen, seen from ing lances, is most certainly that of the
cosms of urban human activities in all a high western vantage point turned to- shogun. A passage at the top of the adjoin-
their specificity. Technically and stylisti- ward the east, continue this broad sweep ing panel illustrates a scene of pheasant
cally, the painting represents the com- of the city. The three panels at the right, hunting, and seated at the most advanta-
bined traditions of yamato-e of the Tosa though, clearly break with the continuous geous viewing point is a figure, probably
school, in its coloring and miniature de- view and incorporate scenes of the north- lemitsu, surrounded by retainers; his feet
ern outskirts of Edo.

188
are spread imperiously apart and he is hill topped by sparse trees. In the fifth AD on the tiled walls of a tomb interior. In
shielded by a red umbrella. The burgeon- panel of the right-hand screen the moon Japan the story apparently was known by
ing merchant class, though not completely (or sun?) rises in a darkened sky. In the the eighth century, since it is referred to in
ignored, is of relatively minor importance foreground of the second panel of two a poem in the Man'ydshu anthology. The
in this painting. men under gnarled pine trees discuss a subject was familiar to erudite courtiers of
Almost five thousand figures appear handscroll held by the man on the right. the Heian period, and became a theme for
in this set of screens and, not surprisingly, In the sixth panel, another man with a painters during the Muromachi period. An
the artist has employed a formulaic ap- cane followed by two young attendants early example of a painting of the Seven
proach in drawing their individual fea- walks past a bamboo grove. Sages is the now-lost hanging scroll by Ga-
tures. Nonetheless, their movements are In the left screen two men converse kuó Zókyü (fl. c. 1482-1515). During the
skillfully rendered. Meandering, stylized in front of a stone bridge over a mountain second half of the sixteenth century, art-
gold clouds form a low relief frame around brook. On the other side a twisting tree ex- ists such as Kaihó Yüshó (1533-1615) and
the individual scenes, helping to define tends like a canopy from a huge precipice. Hasegawa Tóhaku (1539-1610) in Kyoto,
each one while simultaneously unifying Beneath the cliff is a rustic retreat with a Keison (dates unknown) in Kamakura, and
them and linking them to Edo Castle, the thatched roof, its finial visible through a Sesson Shúkei (c. 1504-^ 1589) in north-
center from which they radiate. Embed- large, pitted hole in the rock. Inside the eastern Japan began to paint monumental
ded within the gold clouds are roundels hut, two men sitting at a Chinese chess ta- sliding door panels and screens with this
filled with butterflies in low relief, in pairs ble are distracted by a waterfall in the subject.
and singly. As this was a crest used by background. An attendant sits outside the Unkoku Tôgan (cat. 108) painted the
many daimyo during this period, it may hut, his back turned toward the two Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove on slid-
have been an indication of the status of scholars. The artist's square intaglio seal, ing door panels at the Obaiin subtemple of
the patron of these screens. Tdgan, is stamped on the upper outer edge Daitokuji monastery. The dates of these
The date of the screens probably is no of each screen. panels are now thought to be c. 1595-1596.
earlier than 1641, when the Shiba Toshógü The screens represent the Seven At Obaiin the figures are considerably
(the red-roofed building in the upper-right Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a semilegend- more monumental and the landscape set-
corner of the Zôjôji temple complex) was ary group of Chinese scholars (Shan Tao, }i ting eliminated. On the reverse of the
built. The precise dating is still a matter of (or Xi) Kang, Yuan Ji, Wang Kong, Liu Obaiin panels, however, Togan painted a
debate. AMW Ling, Yuan Xian, and Xiang Xiu) who peri- panoramic landscape that is stylistically
odically retreated from the mundane more developed than the landscape in the
world to the seclusion of a bamboo grove Eisei Bunko screens. Here the figures are
119 Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove during the political and military tumult of situated in a carefully depicted landscape
Unkoku Togan (1547-1618) the mid-third century. There the sages setting, and the rocks and tree forms are
pair of six-fold screens; ink and slight freely pursued a life of réclusion, drinking crisply contoured and given texture dabs
color on paper wine, listening to qin (Chinese zither), and in an orderly manner. The artist is self-
each 156.3 x 359.6 (oí1/* x iqi1/*) holding qing tan ("pure talk," that is, philo- consciously formulizing the brushwork
Momoyama period, late i6th century sophical discussions). They also danced, modes that originated in the works of Ses-
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo sang, and disported themelves as the spirit shü Tóyó (1420-1506). It may be assumed
moved them. The idea of the gentleman- that Tôgan executed these screens earlier
A mountain landscape setting links this scholar retreating to the wild to enjoy a than the Obaiin sliding door panels. YS
pair of screens of seven Chinese scholars respite from Confucian decorum and the
engaged in a variety of activities. In the constraints of duty, and then returning to
right screen an empty valley separates the duty, refreshed in spirit, formed an almost
foreground terrain from a distant rocky archetypal theme in Chinese art. It had
appeared as early as the mid-fifth century

189
118

119

192
193
120

121

196
197
 122

123

198
199
124

izo Flowers and Birds of the Four placed in the outer lower corners of the 122 Autumn flowers and grasses
Seasons screens. The combined style of yamato-e attributed to Kano Eitoku (1543-1590)
Studio of Kano Motonobu (1476-1559) and kanga is a specialty of Kano Mo- pair of two-fold screens; ink, color, and
pair of six-fold screens; ink, color, and tonobu and his studio. A recent study has gold leaf on paper
gold leaf on paper firmly attributed this work to Motonobu's each 175.0 x 198.4 (70 x 793/8)
each 158.2 x 355.6 (62 v^ x 140) studio and dated it to the first half of the Momoyama period, i6th century
Muromachi period, first half of i6th sixteenth century. It is a precursor of the
Imperial Household Collection
century Imperial Household screens from the late
sixteenth century (cat. 122). YS This set of screens originally formed part
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo
of a series of sliding-door panels on the
This extraordinary pair of screens in gold 121 Pine and cherry trees theme of autumn flowers and grasses or
and colors represents flowers, birds, and sliding door panels, ink, color and flowers of the four seasons. The screens,
insects of the four seasons. Set in a lan- gold leaf on paper probably owned by the Hachijo no Miya
guorously spreading space, their world each 184.0 x 138.0 (72^2 x 543/8) family, are not contiguous, indicating that
takes the form of an idealized garden—a Momoyama period, c. 1615 they were not adjoining in the original se-
paradise—sprawling from right to left. Al- quence of panels.
though the two screens are not continu- Myôrenji, Kyoto In the center of the right screen rise
ous, seasonal progression is indicated. Important Cultural Property tall blades of pampas grass, chrysanthe-
Spring and summer flowers dominate the Cherry trees blossoming deep in the mums, fujibakama (purple trousers), and
right screen, while autumn and winter mountains, unknown to anyone, and pine bellflowers. The weathered rocks typical
flowers are depicted on the left screen. trees are heavily painted on a gold back- of Kano painting are at the bottom, and at
The cascade feeding into the pond is asso- ground. The style employed to describe the top, a glimpse of distant mountains
ciated with spring and summer, while the the rocks and trees indicates that this is through the clouds. On the left screen are
snow-capped mounds announce winter. the work of an artist of the school founded more rocks, a range of distant hills, and
An encylopedic array of some twenty-four by Hasegawa Tohaku (1539-1610). chrysanthemums and ivy turning red in
different flowers and grasses and thirty- The bold composition, with branches the autumn chill. Beyond the hills are dis-
one birds native to Japan populates this extending beyond the frames of the four tant snow-covered peaks.
garden, which is more like a man-made sliding door panels, would suggest that this Although this painting has tradition-
palace garden or the interior of an aviary work dates from the mid-Momoyama pe- ally been attributed to Kano Eitoku, writ-
than a natural landscape. riod. The history of Myôrenji indicates ten evidence documenting the making of
The screens are known as kinbydbu, that the painting may be properly placed new sliding door paintings for the recon-
or "gold screens," a term that was in cur- toward the end of the period, though. The struction of the Hachijo no Miya resi-
rency from around 1440. Decorative in temple was moved to its present location dence in 1599 suggests that the artist
function, these screens were in great de- in 1587, and rebuilt during the Keichó era might have been Eitoku's younger
mand in Japan, and they were exported to (1596-1615), with construction completed brother, Sóshü (1551-1601). The gold clouds
Ming China in the sixteenth century. in the fifth month of 1615. These paintings and gold ground and the elegance of the
They were also used by the shogunal fam- probably date from the time of the Keichó composition are typical of Sóshü's man-
ily at funeral services because of the para- reconstruction, probably around 1615, ner. In terms of technique and style, how-
disal associations evoked by them. when the generation of younger artists ever, an argument can be made for
This work is executed in yamato-e, the who succeeded Tôhaku were active. MS attributing the paintings to Eitoku's son
indigenous mode of painting character- Mitsunobu (c. 1565-1608). AY
ized by details rendered in opaque colors
and conceptualized forms. But there are
features of the Chinese kanga mode of
painting, as in the descriptive forms of
flowers and tactile shapes of the rocks

200
123 Dragons and clouds father was a retainer for Asai Nagamasa sonal allusions include the plum blossoms
pair of six-fold screens, ink on paper (1545-1573), the last great daimyo of the of early spring and distant snowy moun-
Kaihó Yüshó (1533-1615) Asai family. As a child Yüshó was sent to tains. Such close juxtaposition of different
each 149.5 x 337.5 (587/8 x 1324/5) live at Tófukuji, an important Zen temple seasons was commonly found in landscape
Momoyama period, in Kyoto. He later became a lay priest and paintings. Yüshó created patterns by con-
late loth-early iyth century served the abbot of the temple. Yüshó's trasting areas of dark and light with gener-
talent as a painter was recognized by the ous ink washes. The high level of skill and
Kitano Tenmangü, Kyoto
priests at Tófukuji, who encouraged him sense of unity in this work suggest that it is
Important Cultural Property to study the painting of Kano Motonobu a later work by Yüshó. MR
In East Asian art, dragons often appear as (1476-1559). Later Yüshó turned to the
protectors of Buddhism or as rain deities. works of Chinese monochrome ink paint- 125 Pine and hawk
In this painting, however, the dragon is a ers of the Song and Yuan dynasties, partic-
Kano Tan'yü (1602-1674)
symbol of heroic kingship, embodying the ularly that of Liang Kai (fl. c. 1195-^ 1224).
set of four sliding doors; ink, color, and
spirit of the Momoyama period. In con- After mastering the techniques of mono-
gold leaf on paper
trast to Chinese dragon paintings, these chrome ink painting he began also to paint
in the highly colored, lavish Momoyama each 207.0 x 159.5 (8^/2 x 623/4)
dragons are a trifle antic as well as awe- Edo period, 1626
some. decorative style, and eventually achieved
Typically in East Asia, the dragon was an interesting synthesis of various styles. Kyoto City
paired with the tiger as cosmological sym- Among his patrons were Toyotomi Hide- Important Cultural Property
bols of East and West, water and metal, re- yoshi (1537-1598) and Emperor Go-Yozei
(1571-1617). His most famous paintings are This set of four sliding doors is from the
spectively. On a pair of paintings in
the large-scale works at Kenninji and the Fourth Chamber of the building that con-
Daitokuji by the Song painterMuqi is
screens at Myóshinji. tains the Ohiroma (Audience Room) of the
the inscription, When the dragon rises,
Yüshó's residency at Tófukuji was for- Ninomaru Palace precinct at Kyoto's Nijó
clouds appear and When the tiger roars,
tuitous, not just for the opportunity to Castle. The interior measures about
wind blasts. In the Daitokuji paintings the
study painting, but because he was not re- twenty-one feet wide, forty feet long, and
dragon coaxing the rain from the clouds
quired to participate in the fighting be- thirteen and a half feet high. The chamber
and the tiger calling forth the wind form a
tween the Asai clan and Oda Nobunaga, was used as the guards' quarters, next to
metaphor for the enlightened emperor
which led to Nagamasa's suicide at Odani the audience room proper, the most for-
seeking an equally enlightened minister.
Castle in 1573, following his defeat. mal room of Nijó Castle, and is thus also
Kaihó Yüshó also executed a pair of
This work follows the compositional known as Yari no ma (Chamber of the
paintings with the dragon and tiger,
conventions of Muromachi-period screen Lances). It is enclosed by sliding doors,
though he more often depicted a pair of
paintings, characterized by the concentra- intercolumnar wall panels, and friezes
dragons, as seen here. MS
tion of the foreground mass at the far sides above, all gold-leafed and decorated with
of the screens. The center is an open ex- paintings of massive pine trees and hawks.
124 Landscape of the Four Seasons panse of water and mist. The painting is The four panels shown here, with a design
Kaihó Yüshó (1533-1615) Yüshó's interpretation of scenes from the of a monumental pine tree and a hawk in
pair of eight-fold screens, ink and famous Chinese poetic theme, Eight front of a waterfall, were installed at the
color on paper Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers. This south end of the chamber, facing north.
each iii.o x 368.0 (44^2 x 147 v^) combination of poetic themes with sea- Nijó Castle was begun in 1601 and
Momoyama period, early ryth century sonal allusions was a popular device in Jap- completed in 1603. It was originally built as
Sekai Kyúseikyó (MOA Art Museum), anese screen painting. Two scenes from the garrison quarters for Tokugawa leyasu
the Eight Views are the Mountain Market (1543-1616), the first Tokugawa shogun,
Shizuoka Prefecture
scene on the left screen, and the Wild who used it during his residency in Kyoto.
Important Cultural Property
Geese Descending onto a Sandbar, faintly After leyasu's death in 1616 the buildings
Kaihó Yüshó was born in Omi Province visible to the left of the right screen. Sea- went through several rebuilding and refur-
(present-day Shiga Prefecture), where his bishing phases, the most notable being a

201
 125

1624 rebuilding campaign in preparation fifteen, Tan'yü was appointed painter-in- 126 Exemplary emperors
for the 1626 visit of Emperor Go-Mizunoo service to the Tokugawa shogunate (goyd Kano Tan'yü (1602-1674)
(1596-1680; cat. 19). The Ninomaru Palace eshi) in Edo. In 1619, assisting his cousin set of four sliding door panels; ink,
dates from this period. Thereafter much Kano Sadanobu, Tan'yü played a leading color, and gold-leaf on paper
of Nijó Castle was extensively renovated; role in the decoration of the newly refur- each 192.0 x 140.5 (755/8 x 55^4)
and in the course of this work some build- bished Empress' Quarters at the Imperial Edo period, 1634
ings were removed from the site. Palace in Kyoto. Two years later Tan'yü
Nagóya City, Aichi Prefecture
The interiors of the Ninomaru Palace was given a sizeable tract of land in the
Important Cultural Property
precinct, consisting of three architectural Kajibashi district in Edo (present-day To-
blocks, were decorated in 1626 by a team kyo), which became his home and studio. This set of four sliding door panels origi-
of painters of the Kano school, headed by In 1623, at age twenty-one, he began the nally was installed in the Jórakuden or
the twenty-four-year-old Kano Tan'yü decoration of the sliding doors at Osaka "Guest house" built in 1634 as an annex to
(1602-1674). Over the years, the paintings Castle. The Ninomaru decoration cam- the main complex of Nagoya Castle, the
have been damaged and extensively re- paign followed soon after, from 1624 headquarters of the Matsudaira, the dai-
painted, especially in their details, but the to 1626, and marked the beginning of myo of Owari Province (now Aichi Prefec-
overall composition has retained the style Tan'yü's rise to preeminence among mid- ture) and a branch family of the Tokugawa.
of the young Tan'yü, who was inspired by seventeenth-century Japanese painters. The construction of the Jórakuden (liter-
the heroically monumental style associ- The commanding form of the pine ally "building for a journey to the capital")
ated with his grandfather Kano Eitoku tree and the hawk, symbol of endurance, started in the fifth month of 1633 and con-
(1543-1590). fortitude, and martial prowess (cats. 95, tinued through the first six months of
At the age of ten, accompanied by his 129), may be a pictorial expression of the 1634. The intention was to provide lodging
father, Kano Takanobu (1571-1618; cat. 18), political power at the top of the social hier- for the third Tokugawa shogun, lemitsu
the talented Tan'yü was granted an audi- archy, proclaiming the new era of Japan (1604-1651), and his entourage on their trip
ence with shogun Tokugawa leyasu at that had just been inaugurated under the to Kyoto in the seventh month of that
Sunpu (currently Shizuoka City) in 1612. effective rule of the shogunate and the year. Along with numerous other buildings
This event signalled the advent of the daimyo. YS that constituted the Nagoya Castle com-
Kano school's monopoly over official plex, the Jórakuden survived well into the
painting commissions from the shogunate twentieth century. On 14 May 1945, the
as well as the imperial court, and including entire castle structure, including more
the daimyo. Five years later, in 1617, at age

202
than 144 painted doors and wall paintings, bad deeds of Chinese emperors. Through right, and the evocative landscape at the
was destroyed by aerial bombardment. the efforts of Toyotomi Hideyori (1593- left are executed in Tan'yü's typical ink
More than 662 moveable sliding door 1615), a son of Hideyoshi (1537-1598), a Jap- painting style. Tan'yü was thirty-two years
paintings, painted wooden doors, and ceil- anese edition appeared in 1606. Painters old when he executed this work, some
ing panels had previously been evacuated, began to take up the theme, basing their seven years after his work at Nijo Castle
and thus escaped destruction. The doors compositions on the printed versions. (cat. 125). YS
shown here originally were installed in a Kano Sanraku's (1559-1635) ink paintings
southwestern room, the First Chamber pasted onto a pair of six-fold screens (pri-
(Ichi no ma), of the Jôrakuden, as part of a 127 Bamboo grove, leopards, and a tiger
vate collection, Japan) are the earliest ex-
sequence painted by Kano Tan'yü (1602- tant Japanese example of painted set of four sliding door panels, ink,
1674; illustrating a Chinese theme, Exem- translations of the Exemplary Emperors color, and gold leaf on paper
plary Emperors (Teikan, or literally theme. each 185.0 x 140.0
"Mirrors of Emperors"). These panels The sliding doors shown here illus- Edo period, c. 1614
were on the east side of the chamber, trate the Han-Dynasty Emperor Xuan Di Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture
facing west. (r. 73-49 BC) generously rewarding provin- Important Cultural Property
The theme of the Exemplary Emper- cial civil magistrates, so that they would be
ors, with its characteristic Confucian, di- encouraged to stay on in their posts and The four sliding door panels shown here
dactic overtone, was introduced from effectively and benevolently administer once separated two chambers of the for-
China sometime during the third quarter the affairs of the populace. The emperor, mal omote shoin nucleus of the main
of the sixteenth century through a seated on the throne, entertains two kneel- building (honmaru) of Nagoya Castle, one
woodblock-printed book, Illustrated tales of ing magistrates by offering food on large on the west side, the other on the east side
Exemplary Emperors (Di jian tu shuo), plates carried by chamberlains. Apart from facing the entrance (genkan). The hon-
compiled in 1572 and presented to the Wan the red throne and the green robes of maru was built for a branch family of the
Li emperor (r. 1573-1620) in the following three figures—the emperor, one of the Tokugawa, the Matsudaira of Owari Prov-
year by Zhang Juzheng (1525-1582), a chamberlains, and one of the ince (now Aichi Prefecture). It was com-
scholar and senior Grand Secretary of the magistrates—the overall monochromatic pleted in 1614. Its interior decoration
Ming court. It contained a total of 117 illus- composition contrasts with the extensive included more than one thousand paint-
trated didactic tales, of which 81 depicted application of gold flakes and paint used to ings mounted on the walls and on sliding
the good deeds and the remaining 36 the produce an atmospheric effect. The surg- doors. In 1945 the Nagoya Castle complex
ing pine tree, the bulky rock at the lower was destroyed by aerial bombing. Fortu-

203
 126

nately, the movable paintings such as the The theme of the tiger, often paired 128 Reeds and geese
sliding doors had been evacuated, and 662 with the dragon, appeared in ink paintings Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645)
works survived the bombing. All are regis- throughout the Muromachi period. Al- pair of six-fold screens; ink on paper
tered as Important Cultural Properties. though the theme was Chinese and Daoist each 155.5 x 361.5 (6il/4 x 1423/8)
The First Room (ichinoma) and the Sec- in origin—the forces that cause clouds and Edo period, after 1640
ond Room (ninoma) were decorated with winds to rise—the Japanese fascination
twenty paintings of tigers, leopards, and with the subject was largely inspired by Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
bamboo on gold-leaf grounds mounted on the famous Tiger paired with the Dragon Important Cultural Property
the sliding doors and intercolumnar walls. by the Chinese painter Muqi of the late Unsigned and without the artist's seals,
This set of paintings is from the smaller Southern Song, once in the shogunal col- this pair of screens can be attributed to
ichinoma and is among the eighteen ex- lection. In the sixteenth century a Kano Miyamoto Musashi, or Niten, his artistic
tant works from those rooms. school painter, perhaps Shóei (1519-1592), sobriquet. Musashi, perhaps the greatest
Two different hands are identifiable made a monumental ink painting of a tiger swordsman of his time, was known for his
in the two rooms. The artist of the and a leopard to decorate the walls of invincible martial art using two swords.
ichinoma is the more experienced of the chambers adjacent to the chapel at Jukôin, Born in Harima (part of today's Hyógo
two, possibly Kano Kôi (d. 1636). He was a subtemple of Daitokuji. To portray the Prefecture) in 1584 (or 1582), he was a
the mentor of the much younger but more animals against a gold-leaf ground in a youth during the turbulent years that saw
famous Kano Tan'yü (1602-1674), to whom large public space, was new in the seven- warfare ravaging the countryside and the
is ascribed a set of twenty sliding door pan- teenth century. Here the tigers, and no appearance of the military hegemons, in-
els of tigers, leopards, and bamboo in the less the leopards, are no longer an embodi- cluding Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Toku-
smaller residential quarters at Nanzenji, ment of the mysterious force of the uni- gawa leyasu. In 1600 Musashi fought on
executed around 1637 or 1638. The style of verse that causes the wind to rise, but the losing side of the Western Army at the
the Nanzenji sliding doors compares down-to-earth, tactile symbols of the war- Battle of Sekigahara (cat. 104) and became
closely to that of this set, and thus its attri- rior class. YS a masterless samurai, or rdnin. He spent
bution to Kói may be accepted. The artist the next thirty-seven years as a wanderer.
of the ninoma remains unidentified. He is said to have won over sixty duels
during these peripatetic years, including

204
one in 1610 with Sasaki Kojirô, another fa- Reitóin and Zengoan, subtemples of Ken- by Takuan Sôhô (1573-1645), himself a
mous swordsman, at Kokura, in northern ninji in Kyoto, datable to the late sixteenth painter and calligrapher of note as well as
Kyushu, the domain of the Hosokawa. In century. The stylistic affinity between a Zen monk, written on folding screens
1637 Musashi joined the Tokugawa garri- Yüshó and Musashi is more than acciden- listed in the nineteenth-century art histori-
sons to chastise the Christian daimyo of tal: Yushô was a warrior turned painter. cal reference book Koga bikd. There also
Shimabara, also in Kyushu. His art of the The brushstrokes of Yüshó, and especially exists a family lineage and history in the
swords recognized, he was offered the po- of Musashi, as in these screens, are artist's own hand, now at Hóryúji.
sition of sword instructor to serve Hoso- charged with decisiveness, speed, and Soga Chokuan specialized in paint-
kawa Tadatoshi (1586-1641), son of Sansai spontaneity not unlike the traces of a ings of chickens and even more of hawks,
and the daimyo of Kumamoto. This pair sword swung in space. YS which were especially favored by military
of screens, which has long been in the Ho- leaders in the Muromachi period. Cho-
sokawa family, was reportedly commis- kuan's conservative style, characterized by
sioned by Tadatoshi, which may explain 129 Plum trees and pair of hawks
formalized brushwork and hardened
the absence of Musashi's signature or seals Soga Nichokuan (fl. mid-iyth century) forms, satisfied this demand. Although Ni-
as a sign of humility. pair of six-fold screens, ink and color chokuan carried on his father's subject
Where Musashi studied painting is on paper matter and style, he eventually developed
unknown. It is likely that he was self- 156.2 x 363.0 (6il/2 x 143) his own eccentric forms while absorbing
taught, as were other warrior painters, Edo period, mid-iyth century the current style of Edo-period ink paint-
such as Ashikaga Yoshimochi of the Muro- Takamori Shigeru Collection, ing. The work shown here reflects this
machi period. Over twenty-five ink paint- Kumamoto Prefecture transformation. WA
ings of various subjects by Musashi exist,
many of them stamped with his seals, in- Soga Nichokuan was the son of Soga Cho-
cluding Bodhidharma and other Zen- kuan, an artist active during the Momo-
inspired themes. This pair, by far the best yama period in the port city of Sakai
work by Musashi, shows that he was di- (south of present-day Osaka). Although Ni-
rectly inspired by the style of Kaiho chokuan's dates are unknown, there is evi-
Yusho's (1533-1615) sliding-door panels at dence that he was active in 1656. The
evidence is in the form of an inscription

205
 127

J28

206
207
129

130

208
209
130 Bush clover and deer
attributed to Sakuma Sakyô
(1581-1657)
pair of four-fold screens; ink, color,
and gold leaf on paper
159 X 346.8 (02l/2 X 136 1/2)
Edo period, 1628
Sendai City Museum,
Miyagi Prefecture
Important Art Object
This pair of four-fold screens is from a set
of twelve sliding door panels probably in-
stalled in a chamber of Wakabayashi Cas-
tle, completed in 1628, in southeastern
Sendai. The castle was built as a private
residence for Date Masamune (1567-1636),
daimyo of Sendai, so that he could spend
his later years in privacy, away from Sen-
dai Castle where he administered affairs of
government. The panels, now remounted
as three folding screens, depict autumn
themes of chrysanthemums, bush clover,
and deer. (The chrysanthemum screen is
not included in the exhibition.)
Opaque green, blue, and brown mo-
tifs are painted against a brilliant surface
of gold-leafed clouds, a longstanding stylis-
tic feature of yamato-e. According to the
Date clan record, this work is attributed to
Sakuma Sakyó (1581-1657), formerly of
Kyoto, a leading artist of the clan's paint-
ing bureau (edokoro). While still in his
teens, Sakyô reportedly assisted the Kyoto
painter Kano Mitsunobu (1565-1608),
known for the wall and sliding door paint-
ings that he executed in the richly colored
yamato-e style, and who worked at
Fushimi Castle from 1594 on. At that time
Date Masamune, then a vassal of Toyo-
tomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and in 1596, a
supervisor of the castle construction, rec-
ognized Sakyô's talent.
Very little is known about Sakyô and
other artists who worked under the pa-
tronage of seventeenth-century provincial
daimyo. The date when Sakyô entered
Masamune's employ is a matter of conjec-
ture, but it could have been 1601 or 1602,
when Masamune was visiting Fushimi.
The Date clan document records that Sa-
kyô was a member of a team of lacquer art-
ists and builders employed for large-scale
refurbishing and reconstruction cam-
paigns for the domain's public buildings.
Sakyô worked at Osaki Hachiman Jinja,
the Date clan shrine, in 1607; the Rinzai
Zen temple of Zuiganji at Matsushima
(cat. 117) in 1609; the Audience Hall at Sen-
dai Castle in 1610; and Wakabayashi Castle
in 1628.
Sakyô, also called Kano Sakyô, appar-
ently headed a workshop, though it had
far fewer members than the major schools
in Edo and Kyoto. The names of Sakyô's
son Gentoku, a disciple by the name of
Kurôta, and a certain Kano Sadakichi, are
recorded. Stylistically, while this painting
131

210
 reflects the fashionable mode of Kano
Mitsunobu's painting in Kyoto around
1600, the clarity of the composition and
the open handling of space make Sakyô's
work unique among seventeenth-century
screens of the Edo period.
Date Masamune himself brushed the
inscriptions in cursive writing on the pan-
els. They are poems chosen from various
poetic anthologies, including the Ko-
kinshü and Shin kokinshü; two are Zen-
related sayings, one by the Chinese
scholar and poet Su Dongpo (1036-1101) on
panel four of the right screen, the other at
the top of panel three of the left screen,
referring to an answer in verse form made
by the great Chinese Chan (Zen) patriarch
Maozu Daoyi (709-788) to a question put
to him by Layman Pang (c. 740-808). Se-
lected translations follow:
[right screen, third panel]
0 cord of life!
Threading through the jewel of my soul,
If you will break, break now:
1 shall weaken if this life continues,
Unable to bear such fearful strain
(translated in Brower and Miner 1975, 301).

[right screen, fourth panel]

Nof a thing is;
it stores everything without limit;
there is a flower;
there is the moon;
there is a pavilion.
[left screen, second panel, top]
It is in winter
that a mountain hermitage
grows lonelier still,
for humans cease to visit
and grasses wither and die
(translated in McCullough 19853,77).

[left screen, third panel]

While you contemplate
swallowing the water of the West
in one gulp,
The river continues to flow East,
day and night,
without ceasing or waiting. YS

131 Mythological scene

Kano Tan'yu (1602-1674)
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
109.0 x 31.9 (427/8 x 12^/2)
Edo period, after 1638
Tokyo National Museum
The title of this painting, Ugayafukiaezu
no Mikoto kdtanzu, translates literally as
'The picture of the birth scene of the
Prince-cormorant-rush-thatch-
unthatched." This long, dangling name,
which first appears in a mythological nar-
rative in Kojiki (Records of Ancient Mat-
ters, c. 712 AD) refers to the father of the
now legendary first emperor of Japan,
132 Jinmu Tenno. The narrative is about Hiko-

211
 hohodemi no Mikoto, who, having lost a ince (part of today's Osaka Prefecture), were subsequently removed and mounted
fishhook he had borrowed from his served Oda Nobunaga, against whom he as individual hanging scrolls, now dis-
brother, goes to the palace of the sea in or- later rebelled. The consequence of the re- persed in various collections. One of Mata-
der to look for it. There he marries Toyo- bellion was annihilation of the family by bei's seals in square intaglio, Hekishdguzu,
tama no Mikoto, who is the princess of execution. Matabei, still an infant, was is stamped at the lower left. The box t^hat
the sea god. When his return home is im- smuggled out by a wet nurse to escape the holds this painting is accompanied by a
minent, the princess asks Mikoto to build tragedy and was raised until he was about transcript of an oral history of the Kanaya
a hut on the beach, where she will be de- fifteen years old in Kyoto, reportedly un- bydbu, which says that the screens were
livered on the day when the wind is rough der the protection of the Buddhist sanctu- given to the wealthy Kanaya family of Fu-
and waves churn high. Mikoto had hardly ary of Honganji. He is said to have studied kui as a gift after about 1624 by Matsudaira
completed thatching of the roof of the hut painting with Kano Naizen (1580-1616), an Naomasa, a younger brother of Tadanao
with cormorant feathers when the prin- artist of considerable repute in genre and the castellan of Ono Castle in Echi-
cess went into labor. The princess, turning painting, which was emerging as a major zen Province, as a token of gratitude for
into a serpent, is seen by Mikoto and then art form in Kyoto. Little is known about his childhood custody by the family. The
vanishes with the newborn wrapped in Matabei's life until he was forty years old, painting accordingly can be dated to no
rushes. In the painting the infant is on the when, around 1617, he went to Echizen later than 1624.
beach, and the stunned Mikoto, his back Province (Fukui Prefecture), where he was Executed in a disciplined mode of
to the viewer, stands in front of the hut, to remain for twenty years. He established painting known as hakubyd, or plain draw-
whose roof is incompletely thatched. a reputation as a versatile painter that ing, which became fashionable as an ar-
A more elaborate narrative painting reached as far as Kyoto. In 1637, he was chaistic mode within the conservative
of this theme dating from the late twelfth summoned to Edo to produce trousseau Tosa school from the late sixteenth cen-
century was in the collection of Tan'yü's articles for a daughter of the third Toku- tury to the early decades of the seven-
patron, the third shogun, Tokugawa gawa shogun, lemitsu. He died in Edo teenth, the painting depicts a scene of
lemitsu (1604-1651). A set of two thirteen years later. elegant court ladies viewing chrysanthe-
handscrolls, originally owned by a Shinto This painting was done during Mata- mums from the rear of their carriage. The
shrine in Wakasa province (in present-day bei's mature years in Fukui, between exact narrative origin of the subject is yet
Fukui Prefecture), was presented to about 1624 and 1633. The inscription by unidentified. This work employs the tradi-
lemitsu as a gift from Sakai Tadakatsu the Zen monk Zenshitsu Sóshü (1572- tion ofyamato-e in its preoccupation with
(1587-1662), the daimyo of Wakasa, but not 1640), at one time an abbot of Daitokuji, precision and refinement in rendition,
before being copied by Kano Daigaku (fl. reads: markedly contrasting with Matabei's ink
1659), who, like Tan'yü, worked for the sho- painting of Hotei (cat. 132). The oblong-
Carrying a bag and a cane you appear shaped faces of the court ladies, with full
gunate. Tan'yü must surely have seen the
even more enlightened', cheeks, are a signature feature of Mata-
twelfth-century version or its copy by
Why do you beg with a grin on your mouth? bei's style, readily noticed in many of his
Daigaku, from which this synoptic version
Instead of wandering, lost in the works. YS
came into being. On the lower right is the
realm of the humans.
artist's signature, Tan'yù hdgen hitsu
The better it mil be the sooner 134 Poet Saigyô viewing the moon
(Brushed by Tan'yü, the Eye of the Law),
you go back to the Tushita Heaven.
followed by two of his seals: a large circu- Iwasa Katsumochi (1578-1650)
YS
lar relief seal, Hdgen Tan'yù; and a small hanging scroll; ink on paper
square relief seal, Tan'yù. The painting 101.3 x 33-° (397/8 x 13)
postdates 1638, when Tan'yü received the 133 Court ladies viewing Edo period, c. 1637
. title "Eye of the Law." YS chrysanthemums
Gunma Prefectural Museum of
Iwasa Katsumochi (1578-1650)
Modern Art, Gunma Prefecture
hanging scroll; ink and slight color on
132 Hotei paper Saigyó (1118-1190) was a member of the
132.0 X 55.0(52 X 215/8) aristocratic Fujiwara family with a promis-
Iwasa Katsumochi (1578-1650)
hanging scroll; ink on paper Edo period, c. 1623-1624 ing career at court. In 1140, for reasons
101.3 x 33.6 (397/s) x 13 V4) Yamatane Art Museum, Tokyo that are not clear, he gave up his success-
Edo period, c. 1624-1633 Important Art Object ful life and took the tonsure, retiring to a
humble hut in the outskirts of Kyoto and
Tokyo National Museum A warrior's son, the artist Iwasa Katsu- taking up the life of a recluse, wanderer,
mochi, popularly known as Matabei (cats. and poet. He traveled extensively around
A plump, grinning dwarf of a man carrying 132,134), spent twenty years between
a cane and a bag is Hotei, an eccentric fig- the country, going as far north as the prov-
about 1617 and 1637 in Echizen (Fukui Pre- ince of Mutsu (part of today's Iwate Pre-
ure familiar in Zen Buddhism as a reincar- fecture), at the invitation of its ruler, Mat-
nation of the Buddha Maitreya (cat. 80). In fecture); Mount Yoshino and Mount
sudaira Tadanao, a grandson of Tokugawa Kumano are two of the many places that
China and Japan, Hotei represents spiri- leyasu. Matabei, when he went to Fukui,
tual freedom from the conventions and he celebrated in poems composed on site.
must have already established a reputation Some ninety-four poems by Saigyô are in-
rules of the world. Executed in pale ink as a major artist in Kyoto, where he had
and rendered in spontaneous brushwork, cluded in the Shin kokinshù, the imperial
spent his earlier years. During his sojourn anthology of waka compiled by Saigyô's
the figure stands against a neutral ground. in Fukui, Matabei produced an enormous younger contemporary, Fujiwara Teika.
On the lower right are stamped two seals: number of paintings, both of Japanese and
one a small square relief seal, Ddun; the In this painting by Iwasa Katsumochi,
Chinese subjects and in versatile styles. or Matabei (cats. 132,133), the itinerant
other, a large circular relief seal, Katsu- This painting was originally pasted on Saigyô, clad in monk's garb and holding a
mochi. The artist, Iwasa Katsumochi, is a pair of six-fold screens, known as the Ka- cane and a straw hat, is viewing the moon,
better known as Matabei. naya bydbuf along with eleven others of
Matabei was born into a warrior's half hidden by a cloud. The style of this
various themes and styles, and kept in the painting differs from the Hotei (cat. 132) in
family. His father, Araki Murashige, the Kanaya family of Fukui. All the paintings
castellan of Itami Castle in Settsu Prov- its descriptive features. The contours and
folds of the cassock worn by Saigyô are de-

212
133 134

213
scribed with deliberation, as is the book month represents a kusudama, suspended 137 Studies of lizards, tortoises, and
box he carries on his back. Executed in with a vermilion and gold rope, trailing insects
ink, the painting shows Matabei's stylistic threads of five different colors and fes- Satake Shozan (1748-1785)
versatility. At the lower left is a large circu- tooned with blue irises, pink azaleas, white album; ink and color on paper
lar relief seal of the artist, Katsumochi. camellias, and morning glories. The paint- 34.0 x 28.3 (133/8 x ul/s)
This work can be dated stylistically to ing for the ninth month shows a red Edo period, 2nd half of i8th century
about 1637, when Matabei was still in woven basket containing Japanese pears,
Echizen (Fukui Prefecture), just before he pomegranates, roses, and orchids. Each Private collection
set out on his journey to Edo. The inscrip- painting is inscribed with Kien's own Chi- Important Art Object
tion, assumed to be by Matabei, tran- nese poem, signed and sealed by the artist, Two other similar albums are included in
scribes Saigyó's famous poem about conveying appropriate thoughts on the this collection, and all three were trea-
viewing the moon: corresponding lunar month. AY
sured by their creator, Satake Shozan (cat.
"When we see the moon . . . " were our 136). One album includes Shozan's 1778
parting words 136 Iris and knife treatises Gaho kdryd (Summary of the laws
on those future thoughts of each Satake Shozan (1748-1785) of painting) and Gato rikai (Understanding
other; hanging scroll; ink and color on silk painting). Shozan wrote admiringly about
I wonder if the sleeves of those Î left at western painting, explaining the laws of
112.5x 4°-° (44 x/4 x 153//4) perspective, shading, and various pig-
home Edo period, 2nd half of i8th century
are wet with tears tonight. ments. He also included illustrations of
YS Private collection painting techniques, foreign copper-plate
Important Art Object prints, and floral studies. Another album
135 Flowers and plants of the first, fifth, During the second half of the eighteenth contains studies of birds. The album ex-
and ninth months century there was a renewed interest in hibited here consists primarily of studies
Yanagisawa Kien (1704-1758) the Western mode of image-making among of insects.
three hanging scrolls; ink and color on the Japanese, not simply as an artistic In the album shown here, in addition
silk practice, but also as a practical science. In- to reptiles and amphibians, almost 300
each 99.0 x 41.0 spiration came from books of anatomy, types of insects are depicted, including
Edo period, i8th century botany, medicine, and zoology, brought by caterpillars, butterflies, moths, and dragon-
the Dutch, from which Rangaku (Dutch flies. The drawings were not necessarily all
Imperial Household Collection executed by Shozan himself; on stylistic
studies) soon emerged as a new branch of
Yanagisawa Kien, who served the clan that learning. Sugita Genpaku (1733-1817) and grounds, many of the works can be at-
ruled the Kôriyama domain in Yamato Hiraga Gennai (1728-1779) were two of the tributed to Shozan's retainer Odano
Province (present-day Nara Prefecture), champions of this new tradition: the Naotake (1749-1780), an artist trained in
was known as a man of cultured pursuits former was a medical doctor serving the western-style painting.
and many talents. In particular, he ex- Obama clan (in today's Fukui Prefecture), In eighteenth-century Japan, interest
celled since his youth at painting flower- who translated Tafel Anatomía (1734) and in natural history was on the rise, and
and-bird subjects. Unsatisfied with the published the first Japanese book of anat- many albums of studies were produced.
works of the Kano school, he copied Yuan omy; and the latter was a natural scientist The studies in this album, however, were
and Ming paintings and studied with and expert on herbal medicine. Genpaku's not drawn from live models. Almost half of
Yoshida Shüsetsu of the Nagasaki school. anatomy book, published in 1774, was illus- the insects depicted are copied from col-
His works generally combine descriptive trated by a student of Gennai, a samurai lections of studies compiled by Hosokawa
drawing and rich colors, though he also ex- from the domain of Akita in northern Ja- Shigekata, such as the one shown here,
ecuted finger paintings and monochrome pan. Gennai himself was called to Akita in Studies of Insects (cat. 139); it is possible
ink paintings of bamboo. Along with Gion 1773 for a geological survey of the domain that other drawings in the album are also
Nankai (1677-1751) and Sakaki Hyakusen that produced copper, where he laid the copied from other works.
(1697-1752), he is one of the pioneers of foundation for Akita ranga, the school of Whether or not these studies are from
Japanese literati painting, or bunjinga. Western-style painting based in Akita. The life does not affect their value as art ob-
The theme of this set of three scrolls, school flourished under the patronage of jects. Each is carefully drawn and conveys
one of his finest works, is related to the a fascination with the forms and substance
the daimyo of Akita, Satake Shozan, the
first, fifth, and ninth months of the lunar artist of this painting. Shozan's theories on of nature. At times, the artist seems to
calendar, considered to be months of mis- Western-style painting are contained in have attempted to make associations be-
fortune. Traditionally, on the seventh day two treatises he wrote in 1778, Gaho kdryd tween disparate things; for example, the
of the first month one ate a rice gruel with (Summary of the laws of painting) and beehive illustrated here resembles some
seven herbs for good health during the Gato rikai (Understanding paintings). deep-sea fish. These studies differ from
coming year. On the fifth day of the fifth This painting is signed Minamoto Shigekata's counterparts; for Shozan, the
month one hung a kusudama (medicine Yoshiatsu, Shozan's personal name follow- exterior forms are objects of fascination.
pouch) in one's home. On the ninth day of ing the ancestral origin of his family, The studies in Shozan's albums served as
the ninth month one drank a special sake Minamoto. A circular relief seal below source material for his full-fledged
to avoid illness. the signature is in the roman alphabet, western-style paintings and those of other
The painting for the first month de- Zwarr Wit. YS artists in the Akita domain. SY
picts a footed hexagonal celadon vase or-
namented with a floral scroll. A miniature
plum tree and two other plants, known in
Japanese as fukujusd (literally, "Long Life
Plant," a kind of ranunculus often used as
a New Year's decoration) and shirabachi,
grow in the vase. The painting for the fifth

214
135

215
 137

136

216
137

217
138

218
138
138 Studies of insects, amphibians, and Masuyama Sessai in his private life
fish was a student of Chinese herbal medicine
Masuyama Sessai (1754-1819) and a painter of considerable talent in-
four albums; ink and color on paper spired by Chinese Ming and Qing paint-
each 21.8 x 29.9 (Ss/s x ii3/4) ings. He was interested in natural history,
Edo period, 1808 a field first explored by Hiraga Gennai
(1728-1779), also a student of herbal medi-
Tokyo National Museum
cine, and by Satake Shozan (cats. 136,137),
Contained in these four albums are pages the daimyo of the domain of Akita in the
of finished studies of insects, amphibians, north and one the harbingers of Western-
fish, and other small creatures that inhabit style painting. Sessai was especially impor-
the natural world, pages of which ten are tant as a patron of such artists as Kimura
illustrated here. These discerning studies Kenkado (1736-1802) and Kuwayama
were made by Masuyama Sessai, the artis- Gyokushu (1746-1799), who painted in the
tic daimyo of the domain of Nagashima in style of Chinese scholar-amateurs. YS
Ise Province (part of Mie Prefecture).
Each study is inscribed meticulously, re-
cording the name of each species and
where, when, and by whom it was col-
lected. Some insects are viewed from
three angles. The finished works are
grouped and mounted according to the
months in which they were collected, and
the four albums are divided according to
the four seasons, butterflies of the spring
in album one; dragonflies of the summer
in album two, and so forth.

219
 139

220
 139

139 Studies of animals and insects vated an herbal garden. In private life, he captured and sketched. These sketches
attributed to Hosokawa Shigekata was a poet, calligrapher, and, in particular, were made between 1756 and 1785. Three
(1720-1785) an artist known for his carefully drawn leaves are illustrated here. Pages of the
two albums; ink and color on paper studies of the natural world. Like his con- smaller album are filled with studies of in-
animal album 22.0 x 30.0 (8s/s x ii3/4); temporaries Masuyama Sessai, daimyo of sects, thirty-seven species in all, each
insect album 27.3 x 20.4 (103/4 x 8) a domain in Ise (cat. 138), and Satake Sho- showing different stages of growth. YS
Edo period, 1756-1785 zan, daimyo of the Akita domain in north-
ern Honshu (cats. 136,137), Shigekata left
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo albums of studies of animals, insects, and
plants. Ten such albums are kept in the
Hosokawa Shigekata, an eighteenth- Eisei Bunko, two of which are shown in
century daimyo of Higo Province (today's this exhibition.
Kumamoto Prefecture), is credited with The larger album contains studies of
enlightened and humanitarian policies animal species. The illustrations have
during his thirty-nine-year rule. In 1754 he been cut from either a booklet or a
established two schools within the Kuma- handscroll and pasted on the album's
moto Castle precinct, one for martial arts leaves, which are dyed reddish brown with
and one for Confucian studies. He abol- persimmon juice. Each work is accompa-
ished harsh corporal punishment for crim- nied by an inscription, either written di-
inals and instituted a humane penal code. rectly on the work or on an attached piece
He founded a medical school and culti- of paper, identifying the species and giving
the date and place where it was seen or

221
140

222
J4J

140 Album of assorted paintings ist is likely to have selected the paintings 141 Birds in fruit trees
Sakai Hôitsu (1761-1828) to be assembled into the present album. Bian Wenjin (fl. 1403-1435)
album; ink and color on silk or paper Hôitsu was born in Edo into the fam- pair of hanging scrolls; ink and color
each 25.1 x 20.0 (97/8 x 77/3) ily of Sakai Tadamochi, the daimyo of Hi- on silk
Edo period, before 1797 meji Castle in Harima Province (today's each 31.0 x 31.5 (12 ^ x 123/3)
Seikadó Bunko, Tokyo Hyôgo Prefecture), whose ancestor Tada- Ming, ist quarter of 15th century
taka was the patron of Ogata Kôrin (1658-
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
This accordion-type album contains 1716) in Edo. The various styles in this
seventy-two individual paintings of various album reflect Hôitsu's artistic background. In the Edo period small, intimate Chinese
subjects, in different mediums on either He was taught by Kano Takanobu (cat. 18); paintings executed in color, rather than
silk or paper, mounted on both the front Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814), the ukiyo-e large, imperious ones, were often used to
and back of the paper, thirty-six to each artist; and So Shiseki (1712-1786), the real- decorate the tokonoma. This pair of small
side. The covers are elaborately made, ist of the Nagasaki school in Edo. The his- paintings of birds perched in fruit trees ex-
with the corners capped by a silver open- torical significance of these works is emplify the taste.
work design of pine, bamboo, and plum. evident in the nine paintings ( four illus- Two seals are stamped on both paint-
In the center of the front cover is pasted a trated here) that emulate the style of Itô ings: one an unidentifiable square intaglio,
paper label that reads Tekagami (Mirrors of Jakuchu (1716-1800), a decorative naturalis- and the other a square relief, Bian Wenjin
calligraphy), which usually designates tic artist of Kyoto. shi. The signature Daizhao Longxi Bian
model examples of calligraphy. The al- The album is contained in two boxes. Jingzhao xie (Painter in attendance Bian
bum, however, is a collection of paintings, On the back of the lid of the outer box is a Jingzho of Longxi painted this) accompa-
and has been rightly called zatsugachd, or dedicatory inscription, dated the third nies the two seals of the painting on the
"album of assorted paintings," by the month, spring of the year corresponding right. Jingzhao is a personal name of Bian
present owner. The paintings serve as a re- to 1893, by Sakai Dôitsu (1845-1913), the Wenjin, a painter and a member of the
sponse by the artist Sakai Hôitsu to the fourth-generation head of Hôitsu's studio, Painting Academy of the Ming court, who,
various painting styles current in his time. Ukaan, and the son of Suzuki Kiitsu as a painter in attendance, served three
Seven different seals are used throughout (1796-1858), the immediate pupil of emperors in succession. The style of callig-
the album, and occasionally the artist's sig- Hôitsu. The back of the lid of the inner raphy of the inscription is close to another,
nature accompanies a seal. The seal Tôka- box is inscribed and signed by Hôitsu identically phrased inscription on a paint-
kuin in (seal of Tôkakuin) on the painting himself. YS ing in a Japanese collection, which is
Beetle and corn illustrated here may give widely accepted as a major work of Bian.
the earliest possible date to this group of The second seal, however, is different
paintings. Tôkakuin is an ecclesiastical ti- from the accepted version.
tle earned by Hôitsu when he took the An outstanding naturalist painter in
tonsure in 1797, a date after which the art- the Song academic style, Bian earned a

223
142

224
143

reputation for paintings of flowers, fruits, Ming academic tradition established by ing both the Muromachi and Edo periods.
and birds that are as beautiful and charm- the court painter Lü Ji (fl. c. 1497 and af- During the latter period Turnip was known
ing as they are carefully detailed and life- ter), whose influence in Japan can be seen by another title, Kyakurai ichimi (Guest ar-
like. Bian is considered the last of the in the screens of Sesshu Tôyô (1420-1506) rives, shares one taste), which comes from
painters who followed the tradition of the of the late fifteenth century and Kano Mo- an inscription on a famous ink painting
Song academic style before the emergence tonobu (1476-1559) of the sixteenth cen- coveted by the Edo tea adepts entitled
of another academy painter, Lü Ji of the tury. Strictly, however, Li Yihe's paintings Vegetable, by the great Chinese artist
late fifteenth century-early sixteenth, hardly reflect the kinesthetic contour lines Muqi(fl. mid-i3th century).
whose monumental style is reflected in or the tactile forms of the Lü Ji tradition. Tan'yü's companion pieces are signed
the triptych by Li Yihe in this exhibition The forms are evenly flat, and the overall Tan'yu sai, the artistic sobriquet given him
(cat. 142). YS compositions more decorative. Monumen- in 1635 by the Zen monk aesthete Kôgetsu
tal hanging scrolls of flowers and birds like Sógan (1574-1643) of Daitokuji, followed by
142 Flowers and birds this triptych would have graced the walls an oblong relief seal, To or Fuji, referring
Li Yihe (?) of a large alcove of a daimyo's residence in to the Fujiwara clan from which Tan'yü
hanging scrolls, triptych; ink and color the eighteenth and nineteenth centu- claimed his family descent. This triptych
on silk ries. YS can thus be dated to after 1635. The trip-
each 128.1 x 62.5 (503/8 x 245/3) tych, an embellishment for tea, may have
143 Turnip been formed during the 16408 when
Ming, late iyth century (?)
attributed to Hu Tinghui (fl. ist Tan'yü was deeply involved with tea
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo quarter of i4th century) adepts of Daitokuji such as Kôgetsu him-
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk self and the warrior aesthete Sakuma
This triptych, consisting of three large
21.9x20.7 (8 5/8x8 ^8) Sanekatsu (also known as Shôgen; 1570-
paintings of flowers and birds, has been 1642), whose portrait, inscribed by Kô-
transmitted since the eighteenth century Yuan, i4th century
getsu, was painted by Tan'yü around 1641
in the Hosokawa daimyo family of Higo Ueyama Ikuichi collection, Nara or 1642 (cat. 37). YS
(today's Kumamoto Prefecture). It was Prefecture
painted by an elusive artist, Li Yihe of
Shanhan (in Fujian Province), as signed on Lotus root with eggplants/Melon
the upper left of the center scroll. Al- Kano Tan'yü (1602-1674)
though Li Yihe is unrecorded in Chinese pair of hanging scrolls; ink and color
sources, he has been identified as either a on silk
Ming Dynasty Chinese painter or, as in each 21.9 x 20.7 (85/s x 8x/8)
the nineteenth-century Japanese art- Edo period, after 1635
historical source Koga bikd, as a Korean Ueyama Ikuichi collection, Nara
painter of the Yi Dynasty. Paintings bear-
Prefecture
ing the signature of the artist have been
known in Japan since the seventeenth cen- These three works form a triptych assem-
tury. The painter and connoisseur Kano bled by Kano Tan'yü, the artist of the two
Tan'yü (1602-1674) reportedly made a flanking paintings. The center painting,
sketch of a painting by this artist. Turnip, is said to be by the Chinese artist
In subject matter and general style, Hu Tinghui, an early Yuan Dynasty
these paintings are related to the Chinese painter. The square relief seal at the upper
right cannot be identified; it may be a col-
lector's seal. Hu Tinghui's works were
among Chinese paintings in the Ashikaga
shogunal collections, and were valued dur-

225
 144

144 Western dogs Mitani Tôshuku (1577-1654), a student of

Sakai Hôitsu (1761-1828) Unkoku Tôgan (1547-1618). The Tôshuku
votive plaque, ink, color and gold leaf scrolls are now lost, but an 1816 copy by a
on wood Kano school painter now in the Tokyo Na-
118.5 x l$-7 (465/8 x sSVz) tional Museum confirms the connection.
Edo period, 1814 In addition, Hoitsu's close friend Tani
Bunchô (1763-1840) reproduced one of the
Sójiji (Nishiarai Daishi), Tokyo two Tôshuku scrolls in his book Honchd
This ema (votive plaque) of two Western gasan (published around 1810), also noting
dogs is signed at the lower right, Painted that Tóshuku's paintings were at the
by Hôitsu Kishin, followed by a round re- Shóshóin of the Tsurugaoka Hachimangü
lief seal, Bunsen. Along the left edge is in Kamakura. It is likely that Hôitsu
written, An auspicious day in the third copied the works at the Shóshóin and used
month of the eleventh year ofBunka; donor them for this votive plaque.
Yaoya Zenshird, recording that this plaque In the early seventeenth century, Eu-
was offered to the temple in 1814 by Zen- ropeans probably brought the custom of
shirô, master of Yaozen, the renowned res- walking a dog with a collar and leash to
taurant then in the Asakusa area of Edo Japan. This sparked the curiosity of the
(present-day Tokyo). Hôitsu often went to Japanese, and the Western dog became a
Yaozen and was a good friend of Zenshiró, frequent motif in genre works such as nan-
who was born in the year of the dog. Ac- ban (southern barbarian) screens (cat. 114).
cording to the zodiacal cycle, 1814 was the Tôshuku's paintings of Western dogs, and
year of the dog, and to commemorate it, others like them, were made against this
Zenshiró probably commissioned Hôitsu historical background. In the Sójiji plaque
to paint this plaque. Another work by the dogs have been placed in an abstracted
Hôitsu, Pair of dogs, was transmitted in the space. The chain on the larger dog has
restaurant. been elongated to the edge of the plaque,
The dogs in this work were derived suggesting that the dogs' owner stands
from those in a pair of hanging scrolls by outside the painting space. SY

226
145

145 Tethered horse or Department of Repair and Construc-

Kano Sanraku (1559-1635) tion of the Imperial Palace, an honorific
ink, color, and gold leaf on wooden title; i.e., Sanraku], First day of the sixth
panel month of the nineteenth year ofKeichd
88.7 x 125.0 (347/8 x 49 vy [corresponding to 1614]. Along the left
Edo period, 1614 edge is another inscription: To hang as vo-
tive offering; the donor [Kibei Ujichika] of
Myôhôin, Kyoto An'ydji. The painting was originally of-
As late as the Kamakura period live horses fered to Hokoku Jinja, a mortuary shrine
were offered to Shinto shrines as gifts to of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), whom
deities by those who believed in their pro- Eitoku and Sanraku had served as
tective power. In the Muromachi period painters. YS
life-size wooden horses were sometimes
substituted for the live ones, soon followed
by less expensive paintings of horses.
Named ema (votive paintings of horses),
usually of modest size, they form a cate-
gory of their own in Japanese art; some
ema were painted by major artists.
This work, impressive for its size and
no less so for its expressive quality, was
painted by Kano Sanraku, a former war-
rior turned painter who headed the studio
of the famous artist Kano Eitoku when the
latter prematurely died in 1590 at the age
of forty-seven. Along the right edge of the
painting is an inscription: By the brush of
Kano Shùri [member of the Shüridokoro,

227
ARMS AND
ARMOR

229
 146 Oyoroi armor black-lacquered iron. A large, flaring, five-
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gilt metal tier lamellar shikoro, or neck guard, is sus-
cuirass h. 33.3 (13 Vs) pended from the bottom of the bowl, its
Kamakura period, upper four tiers folded back sharply at the
late i3th-early i4th century front to form the fukikaeshi. The peak at
the front of the helmet provides a base
Kushibiki Hachimangü,
for the great hornlike projection, the
Aomori Prefecture kuwagata.
National Treasure This set of armor is unusual in its lav-
Ôyoroi (literally "great armor") was the ish use of high-relief gilt metal decoration.
loose-fitting defensive armor of mounted The motif of the chrysanthemum appears
archers that was developed late in the throughout on many of the constituent
Heian period. This set from the Kamakura parts of the armor. Reflecting a tendency
period, remarkable for its abundant and toward realism in the Kamakura period,
highly accomplished decoration, repre- the perfectly formed flowers are modeled
sents the finest efforts of the metal- with close attention to fine detail, viewed
working and armor-making traditions of from the front, side, and back, in carefully
that time. orchestrated clusters. The overall extrava-
Typical of Oyoroi, it is constructed gance of this set is apparent in the kyùbi
chiefly of leather and iron lames bound to- no ita and the munaita, generally only
gether to form horizontal tiers. The lamel- wrapped with a piece of ornamental
lar tiers are covered with lacquer to lend leather, which are here covered with the
strength and rigidity and then laced to- chrysanthemum metalwork. The dsode
gether vertically, with distinctive, thick, provide a surface for a more expansive
red silk lacing in this example, to create treatment of the motif, as the chrysanthe-
large sections. These sections are then mums branch up and outward from a
joined with smaller, solid iron or leather bamboo fence toward stylized clouds at
parts. the top. The hole at the top of the helmet,
The conventions followed in compos- the tehen no ana, is encircled with the gilt-
ing this set are standard for dyoroi armor. metal interweave. Four plates radiating
The upper part of the cuirass consists of a from the tehen no ana along the four cardi-
small solid iron munaita, or chest plate, nal axes to the base of the helmet bowl are
and the tateage, two lamellar tiers in the encrusted with the gilt chrysanthemum
front and three tiers in the back. The metalwork, as are other parts of the hel-
lower part of the cuirass, a four-tiered ka- met such as the fukikaeshi and the base of
bukidd, protects the front, back, and left the kuwagata. AMW
side of the lower part of the torso. The
right side of the body is protected by a 147 Oyoroi armor
completely separate section called the iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gilt metal
waidate. The kusazuri, a protective skirt cuirass h. 33.3 (13 Vs)
suspended from the cuirass, is divided ver- Nanbokuchó period, i4th century
tically into four large sections of five tiers Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
each; the right section, a part of the Important Cultural Property
waidate, is separate from the other three
sections. The dsode, or large upper-arm According to Hosokawa family tradition,
guards, are seven tiers each. Two smaller this set of dyoroi, the oldest armor in the
independent protective plates hang down Hosokawa collection, was worn in a 1358
from the shoulders, one over each side of battle in Kyoto by Hosokawa Yoriari (1332-
the chest: on the right, the sendan no ita 1391), the founder of the family. Much of
made of three lamellar tiers, and on the the original assemblage that protects the
left, the kyùbi no ita of one solid iron plate. body has survived: the cuirass and its pen-
A tsurubashiri of soft leather covers dant kusazuri (protective skirt), including
the lamellar tiers of the front of the cuirass the entire waidate (right side guard), and
to provide a smooth surface for drawing the kyübi no ita, which is suspended from
the bow. It is stencil-dyed with a design of the left shoulder over the chest. The
shishi, mythical lionlike creatures, on a lacquer-coated tiers are made from iron
background of peonies. The peony is tradi- and leather lames. The front of the cuirass
tionally associated with refinement and was originally covered by a tsurubashiri,
the shishi with valor, both qualities to now lost, of soft deerskin with stenciled
which the members of the warrior class as- designs. The two expansive ôsode (large
pired. The two motifs often appeared to- upper-arm guards) are replacements dating
gether on armor, particularly in the from the sixteenth century and the sendan
Kamakura and Muromachi periods. no ita, which would have been suspended
The helmet, typical of those worn as from the right shoulder over the chest, is
part of a set of Oyoroi during this period, is missing.
of the hoshi kabuto type, literally "star hel- The hoshi kabuto (star helmet) is
met," a reference to the hundreds of rivets made of narrow trapezoidal iron plates
that punctuate its surface. The helmet
bowl is made from trapezoidal plates of

230
146

231
 147

232
148

233
fixed with rows of neatly assembled rivets. four-tier section fits around the body. Sus- three curved plates of iron. Although the
The rim band is pierced to receive studs pended from the shoulders is a pair of construction of the armor as a whole is
that fasten the peak in front and the shi- gyôyô, made of iron plate wrapped in basically standard for the Muromachi pe-
koro (neck guard), made of five lacquered stencil-dyed leather, which protects the riod, the fukikaeshi of the helmet stands
lamellar tiers joined with white and red cords that fasten the shoulder straps to the up more than is typical and the monochro-
silk lacings, along the sides and back. The front of the cuirass. A kusazuri, the pro- matic use of light aqua lacing is unusual.
peak is ornamented with a high-relief de- tective skirt, hangs from the cuirass in A number of decorative techniques
sign of gilt chrysanthemums, on which the eight small sections of five lamellar tiers. often used by armorers are employed, in-
now-lost kuwagata was mounted. At the Dividing the kusazuri into a larger number cluding openwork, high relief, iro-e (the
top of the helmet, the tehen no ana open- of smaller sections made ddmaru more application of gold or silver onto a back-
ing is circumscribed by the hachimanza, a flexible than oyoroi. The pair of dsode have ground of another metal for color con-
multi-layer gilt metal ring. The front of the seven lamellar tiers each. The lack of a trast), and nanako (in which the metal is
helmet has three spatulate ornaments tsurubashiri, the sheet of leather that cov- given a raised-dot surface). The shakudd
known as shinodare. The four upper tiers ers the lamellar-tiered front of the cuirass leaves and branches that hold clusters of
of the neck-guard extend forward and fold in oyoroi armor, reflects the shift away chrysanthemums on several parts of the
back to form fukikaeshi, the helmet's pair from the use of the bow and arrow. armor are executed in openwork. Nanako
of flaps. Each of these flaps, covered with Several colors of silk lacing are used to can be found on the toggles that fasten the
dyed leather with stenciled designs of join the lamellar tiers together. The lacing shoulder straps to the front of the cuirass.
shishi and peonies (cat. 146) is decorated pattern of the central portion of the ar- The iro-e technique is used in combina-
with a single, large, gilt chrysanthemum, mor, the cuirass and the kusazuri, is re- tion with high relief to emphasize the writ-
also found on the kyùbi no ita. The right- flected in the lacing of the dsode. The ing on the plaque of the helmet, which
hand flap of the shikoro has lost several of uppermost tiers of the central portion are reads Hachiman Daibosatsu (the Great
its lacquered lames, the vivid reminder of joined by red, white, and red lacings. Be- Bodhisattva Hachiman), the patron god of
a sword blow during a fierce battle. YS low are rows of green lacing, and then tiers the warrior. Iro-e, sometimes with high re-
joined with red and white; at the very bot- lief and sometimes alone, is also used in a
148 Ddmaru armor tom is a cross-stitched section of red. To number of places throughout the armor to
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gilt metal accommodate this sequence in the seven- describe a mon, or family crest, that in-
cuirass h. 29.5 (ii5/s) tiered dsode, only one lacing of green in cludes a chrysanthemum and a horizontal
Muromachi period, the middle is needed. stroke signifying the Japanese numeral
first half loth century The lacquered helmet is of the suji ka- one. This mon was used by the Nasu, a
buto, or "ridged helmet," type; here the warrior family of Shimotsuke Province
Kagoshima Jingü, ridges are covered with gilt metal. Its (present-day Tochigi Prefecture). Indeed,
Kagoshima Prefecture shape, called akoda after a kind of oblong in the Shuko jisshu, an illustrated
Important Cultural Property gourd, was especially popular in the Muro- nineteenth-century compendium of fa-
machi period. Attached to the helmet mous antiquarian objects, this same set of
Ddmaru is a type of armor characterized
bowl is a shikoro, or neck guard, of three armor is listed as a possession of the Nasu
by a continuous sheathlike cuirass that is
lamellar tiers, the upper two turned back clan. AMW
wrapped around the body of the wearer
at the front to form the fukikaeshi. The
and fastened at the right side. It is thought
front of the helmet holds an elaborate gilt 150 Haramaki armor
to have been developed as the armor of
openwork section of chrysanthemums, the iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gilt metal
the common foot soldier roughly during
base for the gilt-metal hornlike projection, cuirass h. 30.3 (nv/s)
the same period as dyoroi, from about the
the kuwagata, which flanks a central Muromachi period,
middle of the Heian period. During the
sword-shaped projection. first half loth century
fourteenth century, however, as combat
A shrine legend records that this ar-
tactics shifted the emphasis from National Museum of Japanese
mor was used by Shimazu Takahisa (1514-
mounted archers to formations of foot sol- History, Chiba Prefecture
1571), ruler of a large domain in southern
diers wielding the halberd and the long Important Cultural Property
Kyushu, whose son Yoshihiro (1535-1619)
sword, higher-ranking warriors began to
was responsible for starting the first Sa- This set of armor is of the haramaki type,
prefer the more manageable ddmaru to the
tsuma ware kilns (cat. 252). The Kagoshima in which the cuirass is wrapped around
bulky dyoroi, adding a helmet and pair of
Jingü owns another set of ddmaru similar the front and fastened at the back. The
dsode (large upper-arm guards). This set of
to this one except in the colors of the lac- close-fitting haramaki originally was the ar-
unusually well-preserved dômaru has sur-
ings used to join the tiers together. AMW mor of the common foot soldier. In re-
vived the centuries with its helmet and
dsode intact. sponse to changes in military technique
The construction of this set is abso- 149 Ddmaru armor that required more mobility than the cum-
lutely standard for the Muromachi period. iron, leather, lacquer, silk, shakudd, bersome dyoroi armor allowed, high-
Small protective parts of solid iron gold ranking warriors began to wear the more
wrapped in stencil-dyed leather edge the cuirass h. 29.0(113/8) flexible haramaki with a helmet and pair of
top of the cuirass. Each of the tiers be- Muromachi period, loth century dsode (large upper-arm guards). It is
neath is composed primarily of small Kozu Kobunka Kaikan, thought that these warriors adopted hara-
leather lames that are tied together and Kyoto Prefecture maki somewhat later than ddmaru, during
coated with lacquer. These horizontal tiers Important Cultural Property the fifteenth century, and their patronage
are then laced together vertically. To pro- encouraged the production of high-quality
tect important parts of the body, iron Like cat. 148, this set of ddmaru is well pre- haramaki; this set is a well-preserved exam-
lames are interspersed with the leather served: the original akoda-shaped suji ka- ple from the sixteenth century.
ones in some portions of the lamellar tiers. buto helmet, the pair of dsode (large The cuirass, the kusazuri (protective
The upper lamellar part of the front of the upper-arm guards), and the cuirass, includ- skirt), and the dsode are constructed of
cuirass is a two-tier section, while that the ing the kusazuri (protective skirt), are in- thickly lacquered tiers of small lames. The
back is a three-tier section; below this, a tact. In addition, it has retained a set of
suneate (shin guards), each made from

234
149

235 .
 J50

cuirass and top two rows of the kusazuri of white and then cross-stitchings of red. 151 Haramaki armor
and the top three rows of the ôsode are As was common in the earlier oyoroi, mul- iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gilt metal
made of alternating leather and iron lames ticolored lacing borders many of the parts. cuirass h. 26.1 (lo1/^
to protect vital areas; the remaining tiers The metalwork of gilt chrysanthemums Muromachi period,
are made completely of leather lames. and the leather stencil-dyed with shishi on first half loth century
Typical of haramaki, the five-tiered kusa- a background of peonies are similar to
National Museum of Japanese History,
zuri is divided into seven sections, as com- those in cat. 146, though on a much-
pared with the four sections in óyoroí, and reduced scale. Chiba Prefecture
the eight sections common in dômaru. Although partially repaired in the Edo Important Cultural Property
The tiers have been joined together period, this set of armor is complete in its In its general construction, size, and in
with lacings of different colors, as in cat. constituent parts and represents a classic most of the details, this set of haramaki is
148. The lacing pattern of the central por- example of Muromachi-period haramaki. similar to cat. 150. Differences between
tion of the set, consisting of the cuirass It is said to have been used by Hosokawa the two include the color of the lacing of
and the pendant kusazuri, is echoed by Yorimoto (1343-1397), and was passed some of the tiers and the slightly more nar-
that of the ôsode. On both, the upper tiers down through generations of the Na- row form of the cuirass. This set is also ex-
are bound by, in descending order, white, beshima family, daimyo of a domain in Hi- tremely well preserved, though some of
red, and then white lacings. Below are zen Province in Kyushu. The Nabeshima the lacing is damaged and a few of the
tiers joined together with indigo-dyed were closely involved with the develop- small pieces of gilt metalwork are mis-
leather thongs. At the bottom are lacings ment of the ceramic industry in their fief, sing. AMW
including Karatsu ware (cats. 248, 249) and
Nabeshima ware (cats. 258, 259). AMW

236
 15J

152 Haramaki armor kuyd mon, the crest of the Hosokawa fam- 153 Tdsei gusoku armor
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gilt metal ily, a design of one large circle surrounded iron, leather, lacquer, silk, wool,
cuirass h. 32.0 (12 l/z) by eight smaller circles. The kote (armored shakudd, silver leaf, bear fur,
Momoyama period, late loth century, sleeves), whose gloves are also decorated gold leaf, wood
with later additions with the kuyd mon, as well as the haidate cuirass h. 32.5 (123/4)
(protective apron) and suneate (shin Momoyama period, late i6th century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo guards), were added when the set was
handed down to Hosokawa Tsunatoshi Sendai City Museum,
An example of haramaki, literally "belly
(1643-1714). YS Miyagi Prefecture
wrapper" this set of armor was worn by
Hosokawa Yüsai (Fujitaka, 1534-1610). The Important Cultural Property
upper-arm guards are flared in shape, a Tdsei gusoku, literally "modern equip-
type known as hirosode, and are contem- ment," was innovative in materials and
porary with the cuirass. The helmet, also construction. It was first produced during
probably of contemporary date but possi- the latter half of the sixteenth century. Re-
bly a later addition, is of the suji kabuto sponding to the needs of battle techniques
type, constructed from iron plates with that employed large groups of foot sol-
standing ridges. The sword-shaped decora- diers, tdsei gusoku was made to maximize
tive element at the front was originally the potential of the warrior to move easily
flanked right and left by the horn-shaped in battle as well as to give the wearer a dis-
elements of a kuwagata, now missing. The tinctive appearance. Originally owned
base of the kuwagata is marked with the

237
 "152*

238
153

239
 by the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi runs both horizontally and vertically to
(1537-1598), this set is a representative form a gridlike pattern. The shins are en-
Momoyama-period example. The exten- cased in suneate of five silver-leafed verti-
sive use of silver leaf, white satin, red cal iron splints. Both the haidate and
woolen cloth, and white silk lacing gives it suneate are grounded on the same white
an overall striking visual effect, and details figured satin used in the kote. AMW
are rendered in maki-e lacquer. Hideyoshi
is recorded to have given the set in 1590 to
154 Tdsei gusoku armor
Date Masamune (1567-1636), daimyo of
iron, leather, lacquer, silk
Sendai, and it was passed down through
subsequent generations of the Date cuirass h. 36.5(143/8)
family. Momoyama period, late i6th century
The tôsei gusoku cuirass took one of a Kunózan Tóshógü,
number of new forms: it was often divided Shizuoka Prefecture
into two (nimaidô) or five (gomaidd) hinged Important Cultural Property
sections; it could be made of large sheets
of iron, or tiers of lames or long horizontal This set of tôsei gusoku, said to have been
panels. The tiers in this set are made of worn by Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616) dur-
large, notched silver-leafed leather lames. ing his great triumph at the Battle of Seki-
Typical of tdsei gusoku, the total number gahara in 1600 (cat. 104), was treasured as a
of tiers is greater by two than that of ear- symbol of Tokugawa dynastic power. Ac-
lier armor, and the system of lacing the cording to shrine records, leyasu had the
tiers together is greatly simplified. Reflect- armor made after a dream in which he saw
ing a debt to the earlier ddmctru type of ar- Daikokuten, a god associated with wealth
mor, though, the bottom portion of this and war. In Japanese the helmet shape is
cuirass is a continuous tiered section that described as being in the style of a head-
is tied on the right. The kusazuri, made dress traditionally worn by Daikokuten in
from five silver-leafed lamellar tiers, is di- sculptural and pictorial representations.
vided into seven sections. The armor became known as the "dream-
Helmets of the tdsei gusoku were of- inspired form" and served as the model for
ten fashioned in a wide range of idiosyn- many copies made by succeeding genera-
cratic forms. Here, the helmet is made tions of Tokugawa rulers, of which cat. 155
from sheets of iron, covered on the out- is one example. Following leyasu's death,
side with bear fur. A pair of gold-leafed the armor was transferred to Kunozan
wood fan-shaped appendages are attached Tôshôgû, a mortuary shrine dedicated to
to the front and back. The small shikoro, leyasu, in Shizuoka Prefecture. In 1647, it
the neck guard suspended along the sides was moved to a storage site within the Edo
and back of the rim of the helmet, consists Castle precinct and, in 1882, was returned
of two silver-leafed tiers, one a long hori- to Kunózan Tóshógü where it remains
zontal iron plate and the other a horizon- today.
tal plate divided into three sections. The The set is constructed from lamellar
top tier is bent up at the front to form tiers. It is distinguished as an early and
small fukikaeshi. A mask, the hohoate, is well-documented example of tôsei gusoku
beaten from a sheet of iron into the shape and by the overall high quality of its work-
of the lower jaw, lacquered red and at- manship. A sheet of cloth-backed chain
tached to the helmet, and from it is sus- mail, in three sections, is suspended from
pended a three-tier throat guard made of the underside of the shikoro, providing ex-
red-lacquered, narrow iron panels. Two tra protection for the neck and illustrating
tiers of silver-leafed leather lames, sus- the practical nature of this set. This qual-
pended below the iron throat guard from a ity is also reflected in the layer of chain
silver-leafed iron collar, provide further mail beneath the kusazuri (protective skirt)
protection for the throat. and in the construction of the substantial
Tdsei gusoku included a number of suneate (shin guards), each made of three
specialized protective parts such as the hinged sections of iron plate. The haidate
kote (armored sleeves), haidate (protective (protective apron) is made of card-shaped,
apron), and suneate (shin guards). Here, hard leather lames. A decorative element
the kote protect the arms with parallel iron for the front of the helmet, consisting of a
splints and the hands with gloves ham- gold-leafed leather fern wreath, a circle,
mered from sheets of iron. These silver- and a wood shigami (cat. 160), has survived
leafed parts are all connected with a with the armor, though the fittings neces-
latticework of iron chain mail, and the sary to secure it to the helmet are lacking.
whole is attached to a ground of white fig- The entire set was covered with black lac-
ured satin. In addition to the kusazuri, the quer, which has altered over time to its
legs are protected by two other compo- present brown hue. AMW
nent parts related to the rest of the set in
their materials and composition. The
haidate is made of silver-leafed, vertical
iron splints divided into three sections and
combined with iron chain mail, which

240
154

241
 J55

155 Tôsei gusoku armor Overall, this is a faithful reproduction of

iron, leather, lacquer, silk, wood, the earlier set, though the fittings neces-
gold leaf sary to attach the decorative element to
cuirass h. 39(153/8) the front of the helmet have been added.
Edo period, mid-iyth century AMW
Kunôzan Toshogu,
Shizuoka Prefecture
This set of tdsei gusoku is a copy of cat.
154, the greatly treasured armor owned by
Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616). It is said to
have been made for the fourth-generation
Tokugawa shogun letsuna (1641-1680) in
1656, when the original was still being
stored within the Edo Castle precinct.

242
 156

156 Tdsei gusoku armor guards) are black-lacquered iron, and the
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, hemp, kote (armored sleeves) are made of iron
bear fur, gilt metal chainmail and blue hemp cloth. The iron
cuirass h. 37 (i41A) helmet is of the hoshi kabuto (star helmet)
Edo period, icth century type, unusual for the armor of the Toku-
gawa shogunate. HY
Kunôzan Toshogu,
Shizuoka Prefecture
This set of tdsei gusoku was owned by the
twelfth Tokugawa shogun, leyoshi (1793-
1853). The lacquered iron cuirass consists
of two hinged parts. The upper part is
laced. The bottom tier of the seven-
sectioned kusazuri (protective skirt) is
edged with bear fur. The sode (upper-arm

243
157 Tóseí gusoku armor gourds and chrysanthemums, all con- with chrysanthemum-shaped medallions
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gilt metal nected by a weave of chain mail to iron attached to a light brown cloth ground
cuirass h. 37 (^l/^} gloves and attached to a ground of blue brocaded with a design of clouds. The
Edo period, iSth-icth century silk cloth richly brocaded with a design of black-lacquered suneate are made from
Kunózan Tóshógü, peonies. three hinged curved sections of iron lined
The lower half of the body is pro- with linen. The kote (armored sleeves), are
Shizuoka Prefecture
tected by the standard set of several well- a grid of iron chain mail with gourd and
When a son in the Tokugawa shogunate integrated parts. The kusazuri is made of floral medallions, backed with the same
household celebrated his coming of age, it five tiers of small black-lacquered leather brocaded cloth as the haidate.
was customary for the Iwai house, over- lames divided into nine sections. The tiers The helmet is a suji kabuto, or "ridged
seers of the shogunal armor, to present are bound together with blue silk lacing. helmet," somewhat similar in construction
him with a set of armor. This set is one Below the kusazuri is the haidate (protec- and shape to that of the Kagoshima Jingu
such example. Although six similar sets are tive apron), made of five tiers of card- ddmaru (cat. 148). In this tdsei gusoku hel-
extant and their provenance is unclear, shaped small, black-lacquered leather met, however, the shikoro, or neck guard,
this one is traditionally said to have be- lames, also bound with the blue silk lacing. is formed of five iron panels tiered to
longed either to the ninth shogun, leshige The haidate is backed with the same richly curve sharply downward. A sword-shaped
(1711-1761), or the eleventh shogun, lenari brocaded blue cloth that was used for the projection stands alone at the front of the
(1773-1841). It is made of two hinged kote. The shins are protected by a pair of helmet, a popular Momoyama-period
halves, with lamellar tiers laced in red, and suneate, made of six iron splints and iron style. In the Muromachi period, similar
the helmet is of the suji kabuto (ridged) chain mail. projections were usually combined with a
type. HY The helmet is formed from two horn-shaped kuwagata, whose twin prongs
sheets of hammered iron and lined with would flank it on either side, as in the Ka-
heavily stitched linen cloth. Twelve deco- goshima Jingü helmet. The interior of the
158 Tdsei gusoku armor rative rivets encircle the base of the hel- helmet is inscribed, Made by Yoshimichi.
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, yak hair met, and cart wheel designs are depicted The hammered iron mask is lacquered on
cuirass h. 45.0(173/4) in maki-e lacquer at the sides. A shikoro of the interior and is equipped with a set of
Momoyama period, five tiers of long horizontal iron panels is silver-plated teeth; a four-tiered throat
late loth-early i7th century suspended from the base of the helmet, as guard is attached to the mask.
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo is a hammered iron mask with a detach- An early seventeenth-century portrait
Important Cultural Property able nose. A plume of white yak hair trails of Sakakibara Yasumasa depicts the war-
from the rear of the helmet, reflecting the rior wearing this armor (cat. 33). In the
The powerful influence exerted by Euro- tendency for the projecting element of the painting, Yasumasa sits cross-legged on a
pean armor on the development of "mod- tdsei gusoku helmet to be made of unusual bear skin cushion, and the dragon and
ern equipment" is reflected in this set of materials and to be positioned more freely wave design on the armor is recognizable.
tdsei gusoku. Along with firearms, which than in earlier periods. AMW It is interesting to note, though, that in the
altered the nature of Japanese warfare, painting, the armor is equipped with a set
sets of Western armor began to arrive in Ja- of sode, upper arm-guards, also decorated
pan from the end of the Muromachi pe- 159 Tdsei gusoku armor
with the wave designs. The mask has been
riod. Japanese warriors adapted them by iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gilt metal,
removed, allowing a clear view of the sit-
adding typical Japanese parts: kusazuri silver
ter's face. AMW
(protective skirts) were suspended from cuirass h. 39.0 (153/8)
the cuirass and shikoro (neck guards) from Momoyama period,
the helmet. Japanese armorers then late loth-early i7th century 160 Tosei gusoku armor
started to produce entire sets of Western- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo iron, leather, lacquer, silk, paper,
style armor, known in Japanese as nan- Important Cultural Property wood, gold leaf
bandd gusoku, of which this set is cuirass h. 39.0 (153/4)
representative. This set of tdsei gusoku was owned by Momoyama period,
According to the Tokugawa jikki Sakakibara Yasumasa (1548-1606), the late i6th-early i7th century
(Records of the Tokugawa shoguns), this daimyo of a domain in Kozuke Province
set was presented by Tokugawa leyasu (present-day Gunma Prefecture). Lavish Honda Takayuki Collection, Tokyo
(1543-1616) to his important ally Sakakibara use is made of maki-e lacquer to depict the Important Cultural Property
Yasumasa (1548-1606), daimyo of a domain gold and silver dragon that winds around
This massive set of tdsei gusoku was origi-
in Kôzuke Province (present-day Gunma the lower tiers of the cuirass, and the gold nally owned and worn by Honda Tada-
Prefecture). The cuirass is made from two waves that churn along the bottom two katsu (1548-1610), one of Tokugawa le-
single sheets of hammered iron, one for tiers of the kusazuri (protective skirt). Sil- yasu's most trusted generals and a power-
the front and one for the back, hinged on ver is used to trim both the cuirass and the
ful daimyo of Ise Province (a large part of
the left side and fastened together with kusazuri. Gold maki-e lacquer and gilt present Mie Prefecture). Attached to the
cord at the right. The rims of the cuirass metal cart wheel designs are dispersed sides of the distinctive helmet is a striking
are finished with lacquer, and the interior over many parts of the set, including the
pair of antlers, large but lightweight, made
is lined with black-lacquered leather. Iron small fukikaeshi of the helmet, the top of
of wood and layers of paper hardened with
shoulder straps serve as the base for a pair the cuirass, and the iron gloves. coats of black lacquer. The grimacing
of hinged gydyd, which protect fastening The set, composed of tiers made from horned head (shigami) at the front of the
cords and a pair of horn toggles. Also at- black-lacquered horizontal iron panels, is helmet, carved from wood, covered with
tached to the shoulder straps are a set of of the nimaidd type, with the front and black lacquer and gold-leafed, was a type
kobire, tiny shoulder guards often used in back forming two discrete hinged sections. of ornament popular from the Momoyama
tôsei gusoku, here three tiers of narrow The five-tiered kusazuri is divided into through the Edo periods. This set includes
iron panels bound with blue lacing. The seven sections. Below this is the haidate a string of gold-leafed wood prayer beads
kote (armored sleeves) are made from (protective apron), made of iron chain mail (not pictured here) reflecting the Buddhist
metalwork patches, some in the shape of faith of the warrior.

244
157

158

245
 159

246
J60

247
 J6J

248
162

249
 The set is complete, with all of the hammered iron mask extends down from shown wearing the armor with a jacket
component protective parts, and the cui- the top of the cheek and nose to a three- over it, as well as an Ichinotani helmet.
rass is of the nimaidd type, with two tiered iron throat protector, while the full AMW
hinged sections. The tiers are made of peak of the front of the helmet shields the
long, horizontal panels—iron for the cui- upper part of the face. A sleek, gold-leafed 163 Tôsei gusoku armor
rass, leather for the kusazuri (protective leather crescent moon, elegantly poised iron, leather, gold leaf, lacquer, silk,
skirt)—shaped and lacquered to give the off-center, balances on the front of the hel- wood, bear fur, wool
appearance of tiers of individual lames. met. Not atypically, the helmet bowl was cuirass h. 39.0(153/8)
Accompanying the set is a portrait of Tada- recycled from an older helmet; it is en-
Edo period, igth century
katsu wearing the armor, including the graved with the name of its maker and the
prayer beads, and sitting confidently date: Mydchin Nobuie, one day in the elev- Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
spread-legged on a stool (cat. 31). AMW enth month of the fourth year ofTenbun
This set of tdsei gusoku is said to have
[1535]. AMW
been owned by the thirteenth-generation
161 Tôsei gusoku armor Hosokawa daimyo Yoshikuni (1835-1876). It
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gold leaf 162 Tdsei gusoku armor reflects the influence of a tradition of ar-
cuirass h. 38.0 (15) iron, leather, lacquer, silk, wood, mor design followed within the Hosokawa
Momoyama period, silver leaf family known as the "Sansai ryü," or the
late loth-early lyth century cuirass h. 35.8(i41/s) Sansai mode, in which innovations con-
Momoyama period, ceived by Hosokawa Sansai (1563-1646)
Sendai City Museum,
late i6th-early iyth century were standardized. Sansai believed that
Miyagi Prefecture
Fukuoka Art Museum, the colors of silk lacing on the cuirass
The impressive tdsei gusoku armor of the should be limited to black, brown, dark
Fukuoka Prefecture
Date clan of Sendai was marked by an in- blues, and purple; in this set, the cuirass is
Important Cultural Property
sistence on both functional pragmatism laced with dark blue, which subtly con-
and severe elegance. This example, one of This set was originally owned by Kuroda trasts with the chestnut hue of the cuirass.
three similar sets ordered by Masamune Nagamasa (1568-1623), daimyo of a domain Another distinctive characteristic of the
(1567-1636), the first of the Date daimyo in Chikuzen Province (part of present-day Sansai mode, not always used but featured
and a patron of the arts, was given to a re- Fukuoka Prefecture). It is an example of in this set, is the construction of the left
tainer; a second set remained in the Date the gomaidd type of tdsei gusoku, in which portion of the kusazuri (protective skirt),
family while the third has been excavated the cuirass is divided into five hinged sec- the side that would be turned toward the
from the foundation of Masamune's mau- tions, one section each for the front, back, enemy, from gold-leafed panels and crim-
soleum. Copies of the armor were pro- and left sides, and two sections for the son lacing. The bottom of the kusazuri is
duced by subsequent generations of the right side, where the armor is fastened. edged with bear fur, as is sometimes the
Date daimyo. The cuirass is formed from tiers made of case in Hosokawa armor. A jinbaori (battle
Like the Kuroda armor in the Fu- single, long, horizontal panels of iron jacket) of white wool with gold brocade
kuoka Art Museum (cat. 162), the cuirass is wrapped with rough-grained, black- facing is worn over the cuirass; the left
of the gomaidd type, constructed from five lacquered leather. Small iron parts, sleeve is made of red wool, matching in
hinged sections, though here each section trimmed with gold embedded in lacquer, color the lacing of the left portion of the
consists of a single black-lacquered iron border the top of the cuirass. A four-tiered kusazuri.
plate. Characteristic of Masamune's ar- kusazuri (protective skirt) constructed Sansai is reported to have said that he
mor, the kusazuri (protective skirt) is di- from large lames made of lacquered, preferred a fragile helmet ornament, for
vided into nine sections, each with six tiers smooth leather is divided into seven sec- when it broke in combat it would do so
of single, black-lacquered iron plates. The tions, bound with dark brown silk lacing easily, without distracting him; he thought
tiers are bound together with blue silk lac- and suspended from the cuirass. that the sight of a helmet ornament break-
ing. The other parts maintain this insis- The helmet is in the Ichinotani style. ing on a battleground was something truly
tence on black and functional severity: the Ichinotani is a place name, the site at heroic and beautiful. Although this set was
haidate (protective apron) is made of six which the twelfth-century tragic hero not made for use in battle, the enor-
rows of card-shaped, black-lacquered iron Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159-1189) achieved mously long and gracefully curved, black-
on a ground of black figured silk; each of his greatest military triumph. The broad, lacquered wood ornaments of Yoshikuni's
the tubular suneate (shin guards) are two silver-leafed appendage is formed from a helmet seem to reflect this attitude. YS
full sections of black-lacquered iron; the thin sheet of wood attached to the back of
black-lacquered kote (armored sleeves) are the iron helmet bowl. The four-tiered shi-
made of iron chain mail backed with black koro, unlike the rest of the armor, is lac-
figured silk, with six iron splints at the quered in reddish-brown. Kuroda family
forearm and gloves of iron plate. records indicate that when Kuroda
The black-lacquered, ridged suji ka- Nagmasa participated in Hideyoshi's Ko-
buto helmet continues the austere ele- rean expeditions, he received the helmet
gance typical of the whole set. It lacks any from Fukushima Masanori (1561-1624), a
decorative embellishment around the hole warrior who became daimyo of the Hiro-
at the top of the crown. The shikoro is shima domain, as an offering to help mend
made of four tiers of thin horizontal iron their strained relations. Nagamasa trea-
strips and the top tier is turned back to sured the helmet and is recorded to have
form small fukikaeshi tabs, each with a worn it in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600
simple openwork decoration of a five- (cat. 104) and at the Siege of Osaka in
petaled plum blossom. The grimacing 1614-1615, which may account for the
many repairs. In an early seventeenth-
century portrait (cat. 32) Nagamasa is

250
163

251
 164

252
 165 166

164 Tósei gusoku armor 165 Tosei gusoku armor 166 Tosei gusoku armor
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, wood, gold iron, leather, lacquer, silk, wood, iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gilt metal,
leaf, yak hair gold leaf wood, gold leaf
cuirass h. 42.8 (i6?/8) cuirass h. 40.2 (157/3) cuirass h. 39.9(155/8)
Momoyama period, late loth century Edo period, iyth century Edo period, mid-i8th century
li Naoyoshi Collection, li Naoyoshi Collection, li Naoyoshi Collection,
Shiga Prefecture Shiga Prefecture Shiga Prefecture

253
i6y Tôsei gusoku armor
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, wood,
gold leaf
cuirass h. 40.2 (157/8)
Edo period, mid-icth century
li Naoyoshi Collection,
Shiga Prefecture

168 Haramaki
iron, leather, lacquer, silk, gilt metal,
wood, gold leaf
cuirass h. 29.6(115/8)
Edo period, mid-icth century
li Naoyoshi Collection,
Shiga Prefecture

169 Tôsei gusoku

iron, leather, lacquer, silk, silver leaf
cuirass h. 29.7 (n3/4)
Edo period, iyth century
li Naoyoshi Collection,
Shiga Prefecture
These six sets of tosei gusoku, covered
with brilliant red lacquer, are among the
more than fifty that have been passed
down through successive generations of
the li family, the Edo-period daimyo of Hi-
kone, a city in present-day Shiga Prefec-
ture. Historical tradition traces the li clan
back almost one millennium, to the birth
in 1009 of its founder Tomoyasu who be-
came kami (governor) of Tótómi Province
(part of present-day Shizuoka Prefecture).
Tomoyasu took the family name li from
linoya, the li Valley, where he lived. The
similarities among the sets of li armor
from the end of the sixteenth century
onward—in color, construction, and in the
pair of tall, hornlike elements (wakidate)
projecting upward from the sides of the
helmets—reflect the tendency during the
peaceful Edo period for families to copy
the sets of armor that had served their an-
cestors in battle.
The prototype for the armor identi-
fied with the li family is said to have been
worn by li Naomasa (1561-1602), twenty-
fourth head of the li family in the ances-
tral line descending from Tomoyasu and
the first li daimyo of Hikone; cat. 164 was
owned by Naomasa. Early in his career,
Naomasa is said to have adopted from
Yamagata Masakage, a general celebrated 167
for his military prowess, the practice of
lacquering his armor red. The cuirass,
which fastens at the right side, is made
from tiers of iron sheets, each scalloped
along the top edge. Suspended from the
cuirass is a five-tiered leather kusazuri (pro-
tective skirt), divided vertically into seven
sections, beneath which is a haidate (pro-
tective apron) of chain mail, and then, to
cover the shins, suneate of chain mail and
iron splints. Typical of many sets of li ar-

254
ïfifi J69

mor, the arms are protected by a five- seven, but the debt to the earlier armor is tall wakidate on the helmet, are duly
tiered pair of small sode (upper-arm guards) obvious. Even at this early stage in the his- employed.
and kote (armored sleeves) of chain mail tory of the daimyo rulership of the li The girth of cat. 167, largest among
with iron gloves. Displayed prominently in family in Hikone, the distinguishing char- the li sets, reflects the physical size of its
relief on the gloves is the Japanese charac- acteristics of their family style of armor owner, li Naosuke (1815-1860), the thir-
ter z, first of the two characters that form were established. This style would con- teenth daimyo of Hikone and an imposing
the name li. The distinctive red-lacquered tinue to be used throughout the Edo pe- political figure during the turbulent era
iron helmet became a model followed es- riod. leading up to the Meiji Restoration of
pecially closely in the later li armor; it is By the time of the brief sixty-day 1868. Recognizing the futility of efforts to
fitted with a shallow, five-tiered iron shi- reign of the ninth-generation daimyo, li maintain Japan's self-imposed isolation,
koro (neck protector) and the wakidate, the Naoyoshi (1727-1754), when peace had Naosuke played a pivotal role in bringing
pair of long gold-leafed wood decorative blessed Japan for more than a century, the about change from 1858 to 1860, when he
elements attached to the sides. White yak tendency toward the decorative elabora- served as tairô, literally "great elder," for
hair cascades from the top of the helmet. tion of armor unrelated to practical need the weakened Tokugawa shogunate. Seek-
Although slight modifications are ap- became increasingly noticeable. For exam- ing to direct his country into the interna-
parent, the armor of the second-gener- ple, the cuirass of cat. 166 comprises a tional arena, he>-engineered the signing of
ation daimyo of Hikone, li Naotaka (1590- busy combination of variously textured a trade agreement with the United States,
1659), as represented by cat. 165, follows tiers, bound with white, light green, and antagonizing conservative Japanese and
closely that of his father, Naomasa. red silk lacings. Nevertheless, the distinc- thereby provoking his assassination in 1860
Among other minor changes, the cuirass is tive, well-established features of li armor, at the Sakurada Gate in front of Edo Cas-
bound with leather cords in a more com- such as the coat of red lacquer and the tle.
plex and decorative manner and the num- The two remaining sets of red-
ber of tiers in the small sode is increased to lacquered li armor were made for children

255
170

of the li daimyo: cat. 168 for a daughter of qualities of Yukihira's style, has an elegant
li Naosuke, and cat. 169 for li Naoshige, a arched shape. The surface texture of the
son of the second-generation li daimyo, blade is of a type described by sword con-
Naotaka. Cat. 168 takes the form of hara- noisseurs as itame, or wood grain. The
maki (cats. 150,151,152), and reflects the temper line along the edge of the blade is
Edo-period practice of making copies of almost completely straight. Engraved on
earlier armor, though the copies often sac- the front side of the blade is a shuji repre-
rificed authenticity to decorative elabora- senting the fierce-looking but benevolent
tion. On cat. 169 can be seen the tachibana Buddhist guardian deity Fudô Myôô as
mon, the li family crest, depicting the fruit well as a depiction of the Kurikara dragon,
and leaves of the mandarin orange on a a symbol of Fudó, coiled around a sword
stem enclosed in a circle; this or a more and about to swallow it from the tip. On
simplified version was often used by the li the reverse side of the blade is the shuji for
clan on their personal belongings, such as Bishamonten, another Buddhist guardian
saddles, clothing, and sword mountings deity, especially adopted by warriors, as
(cat. 191). Small-scale sets of armor typi- well as a Buddhist image that can be taken
cally were made for younger members of for either Bishamonten or Fudô Myôô. On
warrior families. They served as visual re- the tang is inscribed, Made by Yukihira of
minders of the social status of the child Bungo province.
and were worn at important occasions, Long a celebrated work, this tachi
such as the coming of age ceremony. blade was given by the daimyo and literary
, In all, fourteen successive generations figure Hosokawa Yûsai (also known as Fu-
of the li family held the position of daimyo jitaka, 1534-1610) to Karasumaru Mitsuhiro
of Hikone until it was abolished shortly af- (1579-1630), to whom he also transmitted a
ter the Meiji Restoration in 1868. AMW highly valued secret teaching passed orally
from teacher to select disciple, on the
tenth-century poetic anthology Kokinshù.
170 Tachi blade
The accompanying leather mounting
Yukihira (fl. early i3th century) dates from that time. HY
steel
blade length 79.9 (31 */z)
171 Katana blade
Kamakura period, i3th century
Mitsutada (fl. 13th century)
Eisei Bunko, Toyko steel
National Treasure blade length 68.5 (27)
The swordsmith Yukihira of Bungo Prov- Kamakura period, 13th century
ince (most of present-day Oita Prefecture) Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
is said to have been a disciple of Teishû, a National Treasure
late Heian-period monk and sword maker
Originally a long tachi measuring over 90
at Hikosan, a mountain center of Bud-
dhism. Yukihira's known works include a centimeters (c. 35 l/z inches), this blade was
made into a katana in the Momoyama pe-
tachi dated to 1205, so ^ *s understood that
riod. Unlike the tachi, which was slung
he was active in the Kamakura period.
from the waist with the edge down, the ka~
The tachi is a type of sword slung from the
tana was worn edge up, thrust through the
waist with the edge facing down. This
belt. The tang of this blade holds two gold-
slender example, representing the finest

256
 171

inlaid inscriptions. On one side is, Mitsu- 172 Katana blade

tada, followed by the kad of Kótoku. Yosôzaemon no Jo Sukesada
"Mitsutada" is the name of the Kamakura- (fl. loth century)
period master swordsmith of Osafune in steel
Bizen Province (part of present-day Oka- blade length 64.3 (25^4)
yama Prefecture) who originally forged the Muromachi period, 1534
tachi. The name Kotoku and the kad be-
Sword Museum, Tokyo
long to Hon'ami Kotoku (active late
sixteenth-early seventeenth century), the In the Muromachi period the Bizen smith-
great sword connoisseur in the service of ery was the largest sword-making commu-
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), who nity in Japan; it became especially active
treated the blade. The other side of the after 1500, and the name Sukesada figured
tang is inscribed, Owned by Ikoma, Sanuki prominently. More than ten Bizen sword
no kami, referring to Ikoma Kazumasa, makers called themselves by that name,
daimyo of a domain in Sanuki Province but the key figure was the man who forged
(present-day Tokushima Prefecture). The this sword, Yosôzaemon no J5 Sukesada.
blade has thus come to be known as Ikoma In this period tachi were not made; instead
Mitsutada. many katana of about 63 centimeters (c.
A characteristic Osafune blade, it ex- 243/4 inches), worn thrust through the
emplifies the bold, broad-bodied form pop- sash with the edge up, were produced. A
ular in the mid-Kamakura period. The sur- specialty of Sukesada swordsmiths' work
face texture of the metal is a fine itame was a temper line with irregular pointed
(woodgrain), faintly clouded. As described curves (gunome midare) mixed with Fuji-
in the rich Japanese vocabulary of sword- like mountain shapes. Such a pattern can
related language, the temper line is a be seen in this fine, somewhat longer-
combination of irregular "clove" shapes than-average example with an itame
(chdji midare) and small pointed curves (woodgrain) surface texture. On one side
(gunome). HY of the blade the shuji for Fudô Myôô is en-
graved, and on the other side is the shuji
for Marishiten, a guardian goddess of the
warrior. The tang is inscribed, Osafune
Yosôzaemon no Jd Sukesada of Bizen prov-
ince. An auspicious day in the second
month of the third year ofTenmon [1534]. HY
171 172

257
173 Wakizashi blade 174 Tanto blade shapes (chdji midare), as on this blade.
Yasutsugu (d. 1646) Sagami no kami Masatsune Carvings are often by Umetada Myoju, as
steel (1534-1619) here, or by one of his disciples. The in-
blade length 34.9 (133/4) steel scriptions on the tang reads: Musashi
Edo period, iyth century blade lenth 28.5 (ii1/^ Daijô Fujiwara Tadahiro. Tadahiro is a disci-
Momoyama period, loth century ple of Umetada Myôju. The twenty-fourth
Tokyo National Museum day of the ninth month of the sixth year of
Sword Museum, Tokyo Kariei [1629], carving by Myôju at age
The first of many swordsmiths to use the
name Yasutsugu was born in the village of Important Art Object seventy-two—indicating that this work was
Shimosaka in Omi Province (present-day Sagami no kami Masatsune was a sword- a joint effort of master and student. HY
Shiga Prefecture) as Shimosaka Ichi- smith employed by the Tokugawa of
zaemon, and studied with Omiya Kane- Owari province, one of the three Toku- 176 Katana blade
tomi (fl. late sixteenth century), signing his gawa branch houses (gosanke). He was Echizen no kami Sukehiro (1637-1682)
works Shimosaka. He later moved to Echi- born in 1534 in Mino Province (part of steel
zen Province (part of present-day Fukui present-day Gifu Prefecture), where he
Prefecture), where he served the Matsu- blade length 69.6 (273/8)
studied under Kanetsune of Seki and was Edo period, 1677
daira family. Around 1606 he was granted given the name Kanetsune, which was
the honor of using in his name the Japa- later changed to Masatsune; in 1592 he re- Tokyo National Museum
nese character yasu, from the given name ceived the honorary title Sagami no kami. Important Art Object
of Tokugawa leyasu. Thereupon he In 1600 he accompanied the fourth son of
changed his name to Yasutsugu and began Echizen no kami Sukehiro was appren-
Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616), Matsudaira ticed to the Osaka swordsmith Tsuda Su-
to serve the Tokugawa shogunal house as Tadayoshi (1580-1607), when he moved to
swordsmith. Successive generations of kehiro; he was adopted by his teacher and
Kiyosu in Owari Province (present-day inherited his name. In 1657 he received
swordsmiths who went by the name Yasut- Aichi Prefecture). After Tadayoshi's death, the honorary title Echizen no kami from
sugu were active until the late Edo period; Masatsune lived near Nagoya Castle and
the first two generations served both the the court, and ten years after that he en-
served the Owari Tokugawa. tered the service of Aoyama Inaba no
shogunate in Edo and the Matsudaira fam- Masatsune's work belongs to the Seki
ily of Echizen, but during the third gener- kami, a Tokugawa retainer who served as
tradition of Mino province. The surface warden of Osaka Castle.
ation the family divided into the Edo and texture is usually a mixture of itame (wood
Echizen branches. Reflecting the influ- At first Sukehiro made temper lines
grain) and másame (straight grain), as can with irregular "clove" shapes (chôji mi-
ence of Masamune (fl. late thirteenth- be seen on this fine blade. Typically his
early fourteenth century), the famous dare), like those of his teacher, but eventu-
blades have a straight temper line (suguha), ally he pioneered a beautiful and
swordsmith of the Kamakura period, and as in this example, or an undulating tem-
his son Sadamune, the Yasutsugus style is distinctive style of temper line reminiscent
per line (notareba). On this tanto, a short of the shape of ocean waves known as
characterized by an irregular temper line blade less than 30 centimeters (c. 12
(midareba). Carvings in the blade of such tôran midare, as can be seen in this exam-
inches) in length, has been carved a vivid ple. The shape of the blade, with a rather
themes as dragons, Buddhist figures, and openwork depiction of the Kurikara
trees are also typical of his work, mostly slight curve, was common in the Edo pe-
dragon, coiled around and about to swal- riod, and it has a fine itame (woodgrain)
executed by Kinai Tomosuke (fl. early sev- low a ritual sword. The tang is inscribed
enteenth century) and his disciples. surface texture. The inscription on the
with the name of the smith, Sagami no front of the tang identifies the sword-
This fine wakizashi blade, about 30 to kami Fujiwara Masatsune. HY smith, Tsuda Echizen no kami Sukehiro,
60 centimeters (c. 12 to 24 inches) long,
was made by the second-generation Yasu- and the date is recorded on the reverse, A
tsugu, who died in 1646. The itame (wood- 175 Katana blade day in the eight month of the fifth year of
grain) surface texture recalls the work of Musashi Daijô Tadahiro (1572-1632) Enpô [1677]. HY
Masamune and Sadamune, and the tem- steel
per line is described with large undulations blade length 58.9 (23 */s) 177 Katana blade
(notare). On the front side of the blade are Edo period, 1629 Osumi no Jo Masahiro (fl. early i7th
carvings by Kinai Tomosuke depicting the Tokyo National Museum century)
Buddhist deities Jizô Bosatsu, Fudô Myôô, Important Art Object steel
and Bishamonten; on the reverse is a carv- blade length 70.5 (273/4)
ing of the Kurikara dragon about to swal- This blade, somewhat shorter than the Momoyama period, 1606
low a ritual sword. Engraved on the front typical katana, was forged by Musashi
of the tang is a depiction of the hollyhock Daijô Tadahiro, born Hashimoto Shin- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo
mon, which the Tokugawa allowed the zaemon Tadayoshi. Employed as a clan Important Cultural Property
Yasutsugu smiths to use; below it is an in- craftsman in the Nabeshima domain of Osumi no Jo Masahiro was an apprentice
scription that reads, With foreign iron, at Saga in Hizen Province, northern Kyushu, of the famous Kyoto swordsmith Hori-
Edo, Bushü, and on the reverse is inscribed he was sent to Kyoto in 1596 on clan order kawa Kunihiro (active late sixteenth-early
Echizen Yasutsugu, meaning that Yasu- to study with Umetada Myóju (1558-1631), seventeenth century). Masahiro's style is
tsugu of Echizen Province made the blade a famous carver of swords and maker of based on the style of the fourteenth-
at Edo in Bushü (Musashi Province) using, swords and metal fittings. Following his re- century smith Sadamune of Kamakura.
along with native iron, rare imported iron turn to Saga in 1598, his school prospered This fine example of Masahiro's work, typ-
from the West. HY and Hizen to, or swords of Hizen Province, ical of the Momoyama-period blade, is
became well known. He received the title wide with a slight curve and large point. It
Musashi Daijô in 1615 and changed his has an itame (woodgrain) surface texture,
name to Tadahiro. Hizen swords are char- and the temper line consists of small un-
acterized by a fine itame (woodgrain) sur- dulations (konotare). Inscribed on the front
face and temper lines that are either
straight (suguha} or have irregular "clove"

258
173 174

259
of the tang is, Osumi no Jo Fujiwara Masa-
hiro, and on the reverse, An auspicious day
in the third month of the eleventh year of
Keichd [1606]. HY

178 Hydgo gusari no tachi mounting

wood, rayskin, silver, iron, gilt metal
length 103.8 (40 7/s)
Kamakura period, i3th century
Tokyo National Museum
Important Cultural Property
The name for this type of mounting refers
to the chains of woven wire, hydgo gusari,
used for the pair of hanging straps. Mag-
nificent yet austere, this mounting was
popular among high-ranking warriors from
the late Heian period into the Kamakura
period. After the middle of the Kamakura
period, however, hydgo gusari no tachi be-
gan to assume a more ceremonial function
and came to be produced exclusively for
dedication to temples and shrines.
This example is known as Hdjd Tachi
since it was dedicated to the Mishima
Taisha in Shizuoka Prefecture by a mem-
ber of the Hôjô family, regents of the Ka-
makura shogunate. The hilt is covered
with rayskin, and its edges are rimmed
with silver. On each side of the hilt, along
the lower edge, are four pairs of the mitsu
uroko mon, the design of contrasting trian-
gles that forms the Hôjô family crest. The
menuki (metal ornaments on the side of
the hilt) consist of the mon on an open-
work ground. The wooden sheath is cov-
ered with silver, which is incised and gilt
with a design of three sets of the mon and
held in place with other silver fittings; the
chains are also made of silver. The iron
tsuba (sword guard) is wrapped with thin
silver plate. Although not included in the
exhibition, the mounting usually holds a
steel Bizen blade dating from the mid-
Kamakura period. HY

179 Hydgo gusari no tachi mounting

wood, rayskin, gilt copper, silver
length 97 (38 l/s)
Kamakura period, ijth century
Niutsuhime Jinja,
Wakayama Prefecture
Important Cultural Property
Niutsuhime Jinja in Wakayama Prefecture
has long been venerated as the Shinto pro-
tective shrine of Mount Koya, south of
Kyoto, a center of Shingon Buddhism since
the early ninth century. Among the many
sword-related items dedicated to the
shrine since the Heian period is this hydgo
gusari no tachi, an excellent example
thought to date from the late Kamakura
period. Its hilt, made of wood covered
with rayskin, is edged with gilt copper dec-
orated with a high-relief peony design on a
nanako (raised-dot) ground. The kabuto-

175 176 177

260
 J78

179

180

gane (metal fitting covering the pommel) hilt entirely, a fashion that continued into brocade, to which were fastened menuki
takes the shape of a shishi, a mythical lion- the Muromachi period and which is typi- (metal ornaments) with the family mon,
like animal, and the fuchi kanagu (metal fied by this ornate example. The wooden and the whole was then intricately
collar at the blade end of the hilt) is cov- hilt is covered with silver, over which is wrapped with brown or purple silk cord.
ered with a peony design; along the length laid an extensive gilt copper openwork The same cord was continued on the up-
of the hilt are hammered decorative peony weave with high-relief chrysanthemums. per part of the sheath, and leather and silk
studs. All the metal hilt fittings are gilt The wood sheath is covered with gilt cop- hanging straps were attached.
copper. The silver-covered wooden sheath per given the appearance of rayskin and In this mounting, handed down in the
is overlaid with a gilt openwork floral-scroll metal fittings with high-relief and en- Uesugi family, daimyo of Yonezawa (in
and peony design, and the long edges are graved chrysanthemums. A gilt copper present-day Yamagata Prefecture), and
gilt rimmed. The chains are attached to dragon-and-wave design is depicted on the probably given to them by Toyotomi Hi-
"legs" decorated with the peony design in kozuka in high relief and engraving, while deyoshi (1537-1598), the hilt is covered with
high relief on a nanako ground. The blade the kdgai is decorated with a ruler and gold brocade and wound with brown silk
contained within this mounting, not bracken sprout design. HY cord; the cord is continued onto the
shown in this exhibition, is far removed sheath. The sheath is covered with amber
from practical use. HY lacquer sprinkled thickly with gold parti-
181 Itomaki no tachi mounting
cles; this kind of lacquer ground is called
wood, silk, lacquer, shakudd, gold,
180 Koshigatana mounting nashiji (pear-skin ground), for the ruddy
leather
wood, silver, gilt copper speckled pear that it resembles. Against
length no (43^4) this ground, on each side of the sheath,
length 42 (161/2) Momoyama period, early iyth century are seven paulownia mon in maki-e lac-
Muromachi period, 15th century
Sword Museum, Tokyo quer. The metal fittings are also decorated
Tokyo National Museum Important Cultural Property with paulownia crests, crafted in high re-
lief and thinly covered with gold using the
The koshigatana, a short sword worn at Ornate itomaki no tachi were produced iro-e technique on a nanako (raised-dot)
the waist usually without a sword guard, from the end of the Muromachi period.
was carried in combination with the slung shakudd ground. Not included in the exhi-
Daimyo used swords of this type for cer- bition, the Kamakura-period steel blade
sword, or tachi. The length of the blade emonial purposes, as rewards or gifts, and normally in this mounting was made by a
varies from 25 to 35 centimeters (10 to 13 3/4 as dedicatory gifts to temples and shrines. swordsmith of the Ichimonji school of
inches). The typical mounting features ex- The itomaki no tachi characteristically had Bizen Province. HY
tensive metal fittings distributed over its metal fittings of shakudd (or sometimes
length. Sometimes short swords were fit- gold) decorated with family mon (crests)
ted with a kozuka (small knife) and a kdgai on a nanako (raised-dot) ground. The
(a skewerlike implement carried in special length of the sheath was decorated with
pockets on the side of the sheath). From the same mon and with auspicious motifs
the late Kamakura period, the reinforcing such as paulownia and phoenix in maki-e
metal fittings on the hilt came to cover the lacquer. The hilt was covered with rich

261
 J8J

182

183

182 Itomaki no tachi mounting 183 Kazaritachi mounting with white rayskin and has a row of orna-
wood, silk, lacquer, shakudd, gold, wood, rayskin, copper, gold, enamel, mental studs shaped like ta\vara (straw rice
silver, leather lacquer, leather bags) and menuki (hilt ornaments) with a
length 105.5 (411/2) length 102 (40 !/8) paulownia mon. The sheath is decorated
Edo period, iyth century Edo period, early iyth century with a floral-scroll design of paulownia and
Watanabe Kunio Collection, Tokyo hollyhock mon in gold maki-e lacquer on a
Tokyo National Museum
nashiji lacquer ground. Along the sheath
The hilt of this classic early Edo-period ito- The kazaritachi, developed in the Heian are four gilt copper fittings with paulownia
maki no tac/zz"(cat. 181), covered with a gold period as a more ornate version of the crests and red and green enamel flower
brocade cloth, is wrapped with brown silk karatachi (Chinese sword) of the earlier motifs against an intricate nanako (raised-
cord. This same wrapping is also used on Nara period, was the most important dot) and openwork background. The tsuba
part of the sheath. Along the length of the sword used on ceremonial occasions at the is inlaid with green enamel.
sheath are many hollyhock mon, the crest imperial court. Kazaritachi mountings are Representative of the refined style
of the Tokugawa clan, in gold and silver characterized by the extensive use of and outstanding craftsmanship of the
maki-e and thin sheets of metal. The vari- openwork metal fittings in colorfully inlaid early modern era, this kazaritachi is said to
ous metal fittings distributed over the floral scroll designs, and by the prominent have been given by Emperor Go-Yozei to
sword are also decorated with the holly- "feet" with appendages to which the Tokugawa Hidetada (1579-1632), the sec-
hock mon in high relief thinly covered hanging straps are attached. The hilt is ond shogun, on the occasion of his being
with gold (iro-e) on a nanako (raised-dot) typically covered with white rayskin and awarded the court title seii tai shogun on
shakudd ground. Although its provenance punctuated with a row of ornamental the sixteenth day of the fourth month of
HY
is unknown, the use of the hollyhock mon studs. As on the earlier karatachi, the tsuba the tenth year of Keichô (1605).
suggests that this itomaki no tachi was (sword guard) is made in the stylized shape
owned by a family with connections to the of a fundó (balance weight). From the Mo- 184 Kazaritachi mounting
Tokugawa shogunate. HY moyama period, members of the imperial wood, rayskin, lacquer, copper, gold,
court aristocracy used kazaritachi with a enamel, leather
slim, straight sheath that encased only a length 101 (39 3/4)
perfunctory blade; warriors with a court
Edo period, late iyth century
rank, however, used one in which the
sheath was broad and arched to accommo- Takahashi Toshio Collection, Tokyo
date a practical blade. This kazaritachi mounting (cat. 183) has
The sheath of this example is some- the characteristic features of its type, such
what broad and curved. The hilt is covered

262
 184

J85

186

as prominent "feet" a /iundo-shaped tsuba, consuming to manufacture, simplified 187 Set of daishô mountings
and extensive metal fittings with colorful styles gradually came to be used. One such wood, rayskin, silk, lacquer, shakudô,
enamel inlay distributed over the length of substitute was the hosodachi, or slim tachi. gold, silver, horn
the sheath. The curve and breadth of the Another was the even more simplified length top, 92 (36 V4); bottom, 56 (22)
sheath indicate that it was owned by a maki-e no tachi type, of which this pair, Edo period, i8th century
warrior. It was transmitted in the Maeda transmitted in the Hosokawa family and
Watanabe Kunio Collection, Tokyo
family of the Daishóji domain, a branch of thought to date from the late Edo period,
the powerful Maeda clan of the Kaga do- is a representative example. They are iden- From the Muromachi period, warriors are
main (cats. 260, 261). The oak-leaf mon, tically made except that one has metal known to have worn long katana and short
dispersed over the sheath in maki-e lac- fittings of gold, to be used on festive occa- wakizashi swords together as a pair, but in
quer on a nashiji ground and also on the sions, and the other has metal fittings of the Edo period combinations of long and
metal fittings, was the crest used by the silver, to be used on solemn occasions. short swords with identical mountings
Yamanouchi daimyo of Tosa, on the island The hilts are covered with white ray- were standardized and were known as
of Shikoku. This mounting was presented skin. Along the lower part of the hilts are daishd goshirae, or large and small mount-
to one of the Maeda lords to mark some rows of five cherry blossom-shaped orna- ings. For formal occasions sets were worn
occasion. HY mental studs, and at the center are menuki in which the sheath of each sword was
consisting of three kuyd mon, the Hoso- covered with black lacquer, with the
kawa family crest of eight small circles metalwork made of shakudd, either unor-
185 Silver maki-e no tachi mounting
around a single large circle. The sheaths namented or with the family mon on a
wood, rayskin, lacquer, silver, leather are decorated with the kuyô mon in maki-e
length 98 (38 5/s) nanako (raised-dot) ground. Lacquered
lacquer on a nashiji lacquer ground. The horn was typically used for some of the
Edo period, late i8th century metal fittings encircling the mounting at small parts, such as the kashira (pommel),
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo various points are also decorated with the the rings for the tying cords on the sheath,
kuyô mon on a nanako (raised-dot) ground. and the tip of the sheath of the long
The "feet" are those of an ordinary tachi, sword.
186 Gold maki-e no tachi mounting
without the prominent appendages seen This pair of daishd goshirae, dating
wood, rayskin, lacquer, gold, leather in the kazaritachi. The tsuba, shaped like a
length 96 (37 3/4) from the eighteenth century and unusual
fundó (balance weight), and the hanging for its felicitous decorative motifs, was
Edo period, late i8th century cords bound with seven metal rings, how- handed down in the Maeda family, daimyo
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo ever, represent traces of the kazaritachi of a wealthy domain in Kaga Province
style retained in these otherwise simplified (part of present-day Ishikawa Prefecture).
As the ceremonial kazaritachi mounting ceremonial swords. HY
(cat. 183) was expensive and time- The hilts are covered with white rayskin

263
 187

188

189

and wrapped with black silk cord. The 188 Set of daisho mountings 189 Katana mounting
kashira are made of horn and coated with wood, rayskin, lacquer, silk, shakudo, wood, lacquer, rayskin, sharkskin,
black lacquer, while the fuchi (metal col- gold, horn leather, gold, iron, copper, silk, horn
lars at the blade end of the hilts) are deco- length top, 89 (35); bottom, 63 (243/4) length 88 (34 5/g)
rated with auspicious designs in gold and Edo period, i8th century Momoyama period, loth century
silver on a shakudd ground. The menuki
Sword Museum, Tokyo Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
(hilt ornaments) are modeled with a phoe-
nix design. The sheaths are coated with This set of black-lacquered daisho goshirae This mounting, made for a sword that was
black lacquer and, typically, the tip of the (cat. 187), made according to the estab- forged by Seki no Kanesada (fl. late six-
long one is cut straight across while the lished conventions, was owned by the Na- teenth century) and owned by Hosokawa
short one is rounded. A kozuka (small beshima family, rulers of the Saga domain Sansai (Tadaoki, 1563-1646), came to be
knife) and a kdgai (skewerlike implement) in northern Kyushu. The hilts of both treasured as the Kasen Goshirae, or "Im-
are attached to the longer sword, while the swords are covered with white rayskin and mortal Poets Mounting." The reason for
shorter one has only the kozuka. These ac- wound with black silk cord. The kashira the name, some say, is that Sansai struck
cessories are decorated with the stylized (pommels) are made of horn covered with down some traitorous thirty-six retainers,
plum blossom crest of the Maeda family, black lacquer, and the fuchi (metal collars the same number as the Thirty-six Immor-
in high-relief gold on a nanako (raised-dot) at the blade end of the hilts) are inset with tal Poets, so designated in the eleventh
shakudd ground; the reverse is inscribed high-relief gold mon of contraposed mydga century. The name of the mounting may
with the name and kad of the maker of sprouts on a nanako (raised-dot) shakudd simply reflect Sansai's love of poetry. The
these fittings, Goto Kôrei (fl. late eigh- ground. Typical of daisho sets, the tip of hilt is covered with black-lacquered ray-
teenth century), a metalworker who served the longer sword is cut straight across, skin and wound with brown leather over
the Maeda family. The round tsuba, or while that of the shorter sword is rounded. gold bean-shaped hilt ornaments (menuki);
sword guards, are decorated with conven- The longer sword is fit with a kozuka the kashira (pommel) is made of blackened
tional symbols of good fortune, such as a (knife) and a kdgai (skewer) with the same copper. The sheath is decorated by a tech-
mallet, symbol of the god of wealth, a mydga crest, gold on a nanako shakudo nique in which sharkskin is covered with
money pouch, jewels, and scrolls in gold ground. The round tsuba, or sword guards, black lacquer and polished so that the
on a shakudd ground. HY are made of undecorated shakudd. HY

264
 190

J9J

192

white stubble of the skin is exposed; rings spiraling stripes of red lacquer and silver 164-169), as in this pair of daisho goshirae
are engraved on the section near the tsubd, plate. The sheath opening, the ring and (cat. 187). High-relief menuki in the form
or sword guard. The tip of the sheath, hook to which the tying cord is fastened, of mandarin oranges (tachibana), the fam-
made of iron, tapers like "the bottom of a and the tip are made of black-lacquered ily crest of the li, are placed on the red-
boat." The round tsuba, also made of iron, horn. lacquered rayskin-covered hilts, which are
is decorated right and left with elegant On the brass tsuba is a large openwork then wrapped with black silk cord. The
openwork of silhouetted butterflies. This moon; in the bottom half, in gold and cop- kashira (pommels) are made of undeco-
dignified and subtly detailed mounting per, stands Zhang Guolao, the Chinese rated silver; the fuchi (collars at the blade
conveys well the taste of the cultivated Daoist immortal of the Tang Dynasty who end of the hilts) are made of brass and in-
Sansai. HY was said to have traveled immense dis- set with the mandarin orange crest in sha-
tances on a white mule, which he kept in a kudd. The rounded tips of both sheaths
190 Katana mounting gourd, at his waist, when not needed. are also made of silver, fashioned with a
The metal fittings are by Tsuchiya scroll motif. Red lacquer is applied to the
wood, lacquer, rayskin, sharkskin,
Yasuchika (cats. 210, 211). HY sheaths so as to look like cord wrapped
rattan, gold, copper, brass, shakudd
diagonally. The tsuba are made of
shell, horn
191 Set of daishd mountings shakudd. HY
length 96 (37 3/4)
Edo period, mid-i8th century wood, rayskin, silk, lacquer,
shakudd, gold, silver, brass, horn 192 Set of daishd mountings
Sword Museum, Tokyo length top, 101 (393/4); bottom, 63.8 wood, rayskin, silk, lacquer, iron, gold,
(251/8) horn
The hilt, covered with white rayskin, is
wrapped in brown-lacquered rattan. The Momoyama period, iyth century length top 105.8 (415/3); bottom 79.5
menuki, copper with gold details, take the li Naoyoshi Collection, (31'A)
Edo period, i8th century
form of a horse. The kashira (pommel) and Shiga Prefecture
the fuchi (metal collar at the blade end of li Naoyoshi Collection,
the hilt) are made of brass with a paulow- li Naomasa (1561-1602), a close ally of To- Shiga Prefecture
nia design in gold, shakudd, and shell. The kugawa leyasu, was famous for the red-
sheath is covered with what appears to be lacquered armor and swords that he wore On both swords, large and small, the hilts
black-lacquered sharkskin, upon which are to battle; this style was carried on by sub- are covered with white rayskin etched
sequent generations of the li clan (cats.

265
 193

194

195

266
with an allover hexagonal tortoise-shell Although subdued Muromachi-period- Tokugawa, is distributed over the entire
pattern, on top of which are gold menuki style koshigatana (cat. 180) continued to be length of the mounting, suggesting that it
with a dragon design, the whole then made, the sword mountings of the Mo- originally belonged to a daishd set; the
wrapped with brown silk cord. The kashira moyama period, reflecting the spirit of the short sword was probably lost during or af-
(pommels) and fuchi (metal collars) at ei- times, were often ornate, with the hilts ter the Meiji period. The hilt is covered
ther end of the hilts are made of gold- and sheaths covered with such materials with white rayskin and wound with light
covered iron. The smaller sword is fit with as rayskin or thin sheets of gold. Transmit- green silk cord, beneath which are placed
a kozuka (small knife) that is decorated ted in the Hosokawa family, daimyo of the hilt ornaments (menuki) with the holly-
with a high-relief depiction of a dragon. Kumamoto domain (in present-day Kuma- hock mon. The kashira (pommel) and fuchi
In the mid-Edo period many different moto Prefecture), this is one such exam- (collar) at either end of the hilt are deco-
methods were used to decorate sword ple, traditionally said to have been used by rated with gold high-relief hollyhock mon
sheaths. Here diamond-shaped pieces of Hosokawa Yüsai (1534-1610) and Sansai on a nanako (raised-dot) ground of sha-
rayskin are placed on the sheath, covered (1563-1646). kudd. Scattered on the sheath are holly-
with black lacquer, and then polished, re- The hilt is covered with a thin sheet hock mon in gold maki-e and shell. The
sulting in a pattern that suggests butter- of gold, patterned like rayskin; the sheath ring for the tying cord is horn. Both sides
flies. is covered with sheet gold in a hexagonal of the round sword guard hold the holly-
It was also common at this time to (tortoise-shell) pattern, each section filled hock mon in gold on a nanako (raised-dot)
take themes for the decoration of the with either a floral design or the kuyd mon, ground of shakudd, as do the kozuka (small
sword fittings from traditional Chinese the crest of the Hosokawa family. The knife) and kdgai (skewer) attached to the
narratives. The iron tsuba of the large kashira (pommel) and fuchi (metal collar sheath. HY
sword refers to the Tanxi tale from the Ro- on the blade end of the hilt) metal fittings
mance of the Three Kingdoms, in which on the hilt are decorated with high-relief 195 Katana mounting
Liu Bei of the Shu kingdom, riding the paulownia and kuyd mon, both in thin wood, lacquer, rayskin, leather,
horse called Dilu, was chased by his en- sheets of gold (iro-e) on a raised-dot copper, iron, horn
emy Cai Mao to the waters of the Tanxi; ground. Gold shishi, lionlike mythical length 93.0 (36 5/s)
miraculously, Dilu jumped the stream and beasts, form the hilt ornaments (menuki), Momoyama period, i6th century
Liu Bei was saved. This tsuba is engraved the work of a Goto school craftsman
Otsuryùken Miboku, the artist name used (cat. 215). A kozuka (small knife) attached Tokyo National Museum
by Hamano Shôzui, active from the mid to to the reverse of the sheath is decorated Important Cultural Property
the late Edo period, in his late years. The with a high-relief gold depiction of shishi
tsuba of the small sword is decorated with with peonies. HY This Momoyama-period mounting was
a depiction of Mencius and holds an in- owned by Yüki Hideyasu (1574-1607), son
scription that reads Eishun, the artist 194 Katana mounting of Tokugawa leyasu and daimyo of a do-
name used by the mid-eighteenth-century wood, lacquer, rayskin, shell, silk, gold, main in Echizen Province (part of present-
metalworker Nara Jôi during his earlier shakudd, horn day Fukui Prefecture). The hilt is covered
years. HY length 97.3(381/4) with black-lacquered rayskin and wrapped
with brown leather. The kashira (pommel)
Edo period, i8th century
and the fuchi (collar on the blade end of
193 Koshigatana mounting Tokyo National Museum the hilt) are made of blackened copper and
wood, silk, shakudd, gold engraved with a zigzag "mountain road"
length 47 (18 Vz) The Tokugawa had this mounting made in design. The sheath is completely covered
Momoyama period, loth century the late Edo period for a famous tachi with red lacquer. On the iron tsuba, or
Watanabe Yoshio Collection, Tokyo blade that was forged by Ichimonji Suke- sword guard, are two oxen facing counter-
Important Cultural Property zane (active late thirteenth century) and clockwise, boldly sculpted in the round. HY
owned by the Tokugawa family of Kii
Province. The hollyhock mon, crest of the

267
196 197

196 Sword guard

iron
diam. 9.3 (35/8)
Muromachi period, early loth century
Fukushi Shigeo Collection, Tokyo

This mid-Muromachi-period iron sword

guard, carved in the round with an open-
work design of a rinbo, can be said to re-
flect the Buddhist faith of the warriors.
The rinbo design typically consists of eight 198
swords, radiating out like the spokes of a
wheel, through a lotus-shaped ring, which
also symbolizes Buddhism. This sword
guard has, on either side of the tang hole, 198 Sword guard 199 Sword guard
openings through which the kozuka (small iron iron
knife) and kdgai (a skewerlike implement)
diam. 8.9 (3 v*) diam. 9.2 (35/8)
would be passed. HY
Muromachi period, loth century Muromachi period, loth century
197 Sword guard Tokyo National Museum Tokyo National Museum
iron Owari tsuba were a type of iron sword This iron tsuba is decorated with a broad
diam. 10.5 (4l/s) guard made from the end of the Muro- openwork design of a vertical bow and two
Muromachi period, mid-i5th century machi period through the Edo period in horizontal arrows; two geese are in flight
Kishida Eisaku Collection, Gunma the province of Owari (presently part of at the top and a roll of bow string can be
Prefecture Aichi Prefecture). As reflected by this well- seen at the bottom. Until the mid-
known example, the iron typically had fine fourteenth century, the bow and arrow
Probably crafted by an armor maker in the color and the distinctive designs were exe- were the warrior's primary weapons, and
mid-Muromachi period, this iron tsuba is cuted in openwork. Here a single crab fac- from the Kamakura period, when the
thin with a hollow rim. On one side of the ing to the right is depicted, the right claw Minamoto clan took control of the coun-
tang hole is a three-story pagoda and on large and the left one small. When the try and implemented warrior rule, they
the other crossed sickles, both in skillfully tsuba is worn, the crab faces away from were offered to Hachiman shrines, such as
executed openwork. The sickle probably the wearer's body. HY the one at Iwashimizu south of Kyoto, in
represents a sharp sword and the pagoda a veneration of Hachiman Daibosatsu, the
memorial to warriors who died in battle. HY patron god of the warrior. The bow and ar-

268
199 200

201

row were often depicted in combination continued to be made in Kyoto through- 201 Sword guard
with Hachiman Daibosatsu, decorating ar- out the Edo period. They are character- Kaneie (fl. late loth-early iyth
mor, sword blades, and metal fittings; al- ized by delicate openwork designs of century)
though Hachiman Daibosatsu is not natural motifs, such as floral subjects and iron with inlaid copper, silver, and
depicted on this tsuba, the design implies birds. This example is shaped like a four- gold
that motif. The color and hardness of the petalled flower; its fine openwork interior diam. 8.3(3 V4)
iron and the design suggest that this was consists of two large mydga sprouts to the Momoyama period, early iyth century
the work of a late-Muromachi-period tsuba. right and left of the tang hole, a plum blos-
maker of Owari. HY som above and below the tang hole, other Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
motifs such as clover, a bamboo hat, and Important Cultural Property
200 Sword guard plovers. The mydga plant, an unlikely
Kaneie, a tsuba maker who lived near
iron seeming decoration for armor and weap-
Kyoto in Fushimi, Yamashiro Province, is
diam. 8.o(31/s) ons, nevertheless appears often, since its
credited as the first to make sword guards
Muromachi period, loth century name is a homonymn for words meaning
with pictorial decoration. He was active
"divine protection." HY
Yamada Hitoshi Collection, Tokyo from the late Muromachi period into the
Momoyama period. Strongly influenced
From the Muromachi period, Kyôsukashi, by Muromachi-period ink paintings, he de-
or Kyoto openwork, iron tsuba were made, picted such subjects as landscapes and fig-
it is said, on the order of the sixth Ashi- ures. The designs on his relatively thin
kaga shogun, Yoshinori (1394-1441); they iron tsuba were carved in relief, shaving

269
 202

203 204

off the background portions, and subtly in- 202 Sword guard ing for the tang, is an inscription that
laid with contrasting colored metals such Kaneie (fl. late loth-early iyth reads, Resident ofFushimi, Jdshu
as gold, silver, and shakudd. century) [Yamashiro province]; Kaneie. Despite the
Depicted on the front of this elegant iron with inlaid gold and silver irregular shape and rough finish of the sur-
iron tsuba is an autumn view of Kasuga diam. 7.9(3 Vs) face, this masterpiece by Kaneie is techni-
Shrine near Nara, with its identifying deer, Momoyama period, early iyth century cally accomplished; it reflects the
a maple branch at the left edge, and at the sophisticated simplicity of medieval ink
upper right a pagoda and torii gate behind Eisei Bunko, Tokyo painting and the Buddhist faith of the war-
rolling hills. Inlays pick out the details, Important Cultural Property rior. HY
such as the copper torii and touches of sil- Also by Kaneie (cat. 201), this fist-shaped
ver on the deer and gold on the maple iron tsuba is crafted so that a kozuka (small 203 Sword guard
leaves. On the reverse a maple tree is knife) can be inserted through the single Umetada Myoju (1558-1631)
carved. Flanking the central opening hole to the left of the tang opening. On brass with inlaid shakudd
through which the tang of the blade is the front are the Buddhist deity Bisha- diam. 8.0 (3 l/s)
passed are two holes for the kozuka (small monten and two old cedar trees, the de- Momoyama period, early iyth century
knife) and kdgai (skewerlike implement), tails picked out with subtle inlays of gold
here filled with shakudd. On the front, Kawabata Terutaka Collection,
and silver. The reverse side shows two old
flanking the tang hole, is an inscription Kanagawa Prefecture
cedar trees and a pair of wild geese. On
that reads Resident ofFushimi, Joshu the front, flanking both sides of the open- Umetada Myôju, one of the most famous
[Yamashiro province]; Kaneie. HY
swordsmiths of the Momoyama and early

270
 205

206

Edo periods, was equally well known for holes for the kozuka (small knife) and kdgai especially openwork iron tsuba, and most
metal fittings. He made a great many (skewer) are later additions. HY were decorated with inlay work. Through-
tsuba, using materials such as brass, sha- out the Edo period such important schools
kudd, and copper. Designs included depic- as the Hayashi, Hirata, Nishigaki, and
tions of such motifs from nature as oak 204 Sword guard Shimizu flourished; at the end of the Edo
trees and grapes. His skill at delineation, Hayashi Matashichi (fl. mid-iyth period the famous Kamiyoshi Rakuju
composition, and use of color evokes the century) appeared.
Rinpa style of painting. iron with inlaid gold Following the move of the Hosokawa
This round tsuba, made of brass with diam. 8.4 (3^4) clan to Kumamoto in 1632, Hayashi Ma-
a slightly raised edge, is a representative tashichi, the founder of the Hayashi
Edo period, iyth century
work by Myoju. On both sides, rendered school, was engaged as an official clan
in inlaid shakudd, is an oak tree with leaves Eisei Bunko, Tokyo craftsman. This fine flower-shaped iron
and acorns surrealistically large for its Important Art Object tsuba by Matashichi is decorated with
trunk—an example of the common use of crisply executed openwork depictions of
dislocation and disjunction as decorative The metalworking industry of Higo Prov- cherry blossoms and the kuyd mon, the
devices in Japanese art. Flanking the tang ince (present-day Kumamoto Prefecture) Hosokawa family crest, all detailed with in-
hole on the front the artist's name is en- developed under the protection and pa- laid gold. The artist's name, Matashichi, is
graved: Umetada on the right, and Mydju tronage of the Hosokawa daimyo of Kuma- inlaid in gold between the tang hole and
on the left. The shakudd fillings in the moto, producing objects for the sword the kozuka (knife) hole at the left. HY
mountings for which Higo was famous.
Various types of metal fittings were made,

271
 207

205 Sword guard nizes well with the color of the iron. To the cately inlaid with gold. Among the extant
Hayashi Matashichi left of the tang hole the artist's name, Ma- tsuba of Hayashi Matashichi, this is a par-
(fl. mid-iyth century) tashichi, is inlaid in gold. HY ticularly fine work. HY
iron with inlaid gold
diam. 8.o(31/s) 206 Sword guard 207 Set of sword guards
Edo period, iyth century Hayashi Matashichi Kamiyoshi Rakuju (1817-1884)
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo (fl. mid-iyth century) iron with inlaid gold
Important Art Object iron with inlaid gold diam. left, 7.5 (3); right, 8.4 (3^4)
diam. 8.o(31/s) Edo period, icth century
On this flower-shaped iron tsuba are five Edo period, iyth century Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
openwork cherry blossoms. An inlaid gold Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
rope pattern encircles the inner portion, A verdant growth of dew-laden pampas
and beyond this in a concentric circle, fine The tsurumaru, literally "round crane," is a grass, with the moon shining through it,
threadlike openwork lines represent mist. type of dancing crane motif in which the has long symbolized Musashino, the broad
Evenly spaced around the scalloped pe- tips of the widely spread wings meet above grassy plain where the warriors of eastern
rimeter are four heart-shaped perforations. the head, forming a circular cartouche. Japan created the shogunal capital, Edo.
The blossoms of this powerful work are This red-tinted black iron tsuba is deco- As early as the Heian period Musashino
carved in slight relief, and the gold harmo- rated with the tsurumaru motif in skillfully served as a theme for literature and paint-
executed openwork. The eyes are deli-

272
 208
210

209

ing, and in the Momoyama period the 208 Sword guard cuted with openwork as well as extensive
bending, swaying, moonlit grasses became Attributed to Hirata Dójin (1591-1646) inlaid cloisonné enamel and gold-wire dec-
commonplace in the decorative arts as iron with inlaid cloisonné enamels oration of stylized clouds and floral motifs;
well. and gold even the thick edge is embellished with
This pair of iron tsuba, large and small diam. 8.2 (3 V4) enamels. HY
for a daishd set of swords, is finely deco- Momoyama period, iyth century
rated with the requisite pampas grass, 209 Sword guard
dew, and crescent moon in openwork, and Watanabe Kunio Collection, Tokyo
Goto Ichijô (1791-1876)
further ornamented with a hammered- shakudd with inlaid gold
Hirata Dójin, born Hikoshiró, is said to
gold inlaid floral scroll. The artist's name, diam. 8.0(3J/8)
have learned the cloisonné enamel tech-
Rakuju, is inlaid in gold to the left of the Edo period, i9th century
nique in Korea when he accompanied the
tang holes. Kamiyoshi Rakuju was a fa-
Japanese armies at the end of the six- Tokyo National Museum
mous late-Edo-period craftsman who stud-
teenth century. His son, Narikazu, served
ied the traditional techniques of the
the Tokugawa shogunate as a craftsman Goto Ichijo was born in Kyoto, the son of
Hayashi school from Hayashi Tôhachi
specializing in cloisonné, a position that Goto Jujô, a member of a collateral branch
(fl. first half of the nineteenth century).
subsequent generations of Hirata held of the main Goto family that served the
HY
throughout the Edo period. This ornate shogunate; later, Ichijô also served the ba-
and technically accomplished iron tsuba,
traditionally attributed to Dojin, is exe-

273
 211

212

kufu in Edo. For his artistic achievements mountains, behind which peaks the sun. 210 Sword guard
he received in 1834 the honorary rank The rocks are depicted in high relief and Tsuchiya Yasuchika (1670-1744)
hokkyd and in 1863, hdgen. For his finely gold, the sun with inlaid gold, while the iron with inlaid gold
executed works Ichijô employed a wide other motifs are rendered in low relief. Fu- diam. 7.7 (3)
range of subject matter, including natural- tamigaura has long been a popular place to Edo period, i8th century
istic floral motifs, landscapes, and figures, visit on the first day of the year; appropri-
in addition to motifs typical of earlier ately, the reverse of this tsuba is decorated Tokyo National Museum
Goto work, such as shishi (mythical lion- with cranes and the sacred sakaki tree, Tsuchiya Yasuchika was born in Shônai in
like animals) and dragons. both of which have auspicious associations Dewa Province (presently most of the pre-
This tsuba, made from shakudd, is with New Year's. Flanking the tang hole is fectures of Yamagata and Akita.) He stud-
decorated with a depiction of Futami- the inscription, Goiô hokkyo Ichijd [kao\. ied with Sato Chinkyu (fl. late seventeenth
gaura, a meisho (famous scenic spot) in HY century) and then moved to Edo, where
Mie Prefecture where the so-called hus- he apprenticed with Nara Tokimasa (active
band and wife rocks stand in the ocean late seventeenth century). Yasuchika used
close to the shore, linked with ropes; on a great variety of metals in his work, in-
top of the larger rock is a torn. Here the cluding brass, shakudd, and copper for
large pair of rocks is situated at the lower backgrounds, though here iron is em-
right, surrounded by lapping waves; in the ployed. A figure stands in a mountainous
upper part are several sailboats and distant

274
background by a stream, holding a sickle 211 Sword guard right of the tang hole, Tou, one of Yasuchi-
and a rope of inlaid gold, with rushes at Tsuchiya Yasuchika (1670-1744) ka's artist names, is engraved in seal form
the left and the openwork moon half cov- copper with inlaid gold characters. HY
ered by clouds above. The reverse is deco- diam. 8.5(33/8)
rated with similar motifs, without the Edo period, i8th century 212 Sword guard
figure. The tang hole is flanked by open- Nara Toshinaga (1667-1736)
Miyazaki Kazue Collection,
ings for the kozuka (small knife) and kdgai iron with inlaid gold
(skewerlike implement); to its left on the Kanagawa Prefecture
Important Cultural Property diam. 7.4(27/8)
front is inscribed the name Tou, one of the Edo period, i8th century
artist names Yasuchika used in his later This oblate copper tsuba, an excellent ex-
years, when he lived in the Kanda area of Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
ample of Tsuchiya Yasuchika's (cat. 210) Important Cultural Property
Edo. HY late work, has a skillfully carved openwork
design of a flock of plovers flying Nara Toshinaga is considered one of the
diagonally across the right with a drying three great metalworkers of the Nara
fishnet at the left. The design is given vari- school, the other two being Tsuchiya Yasu-
ety with the touches of inlaid gold, and the chika (1670-1744; cats. 210, 211) and Sug-
kozuka (small knife) and kdgai (skewer) iura Joi (1700-1761). He was active in the
holes are filled with plugs of gold. To the city of Edo during the mid-Edo period,

275
 213

creating powerful works characterized by 213 Daishô sword fittings

the thickness of the background metal and Ishiguro Masayoshi (b. 1774)
the designs carved in high relief. The de- shakudd, gold
sign on this iron tsuba concerns a story diam. left tsuba, 7.6 (3); right tsuba, 7.4
from the war between the Taira and Mina- (27/8)
moto clans in which Minamoto Yoshitsune Edo period, i8th century
(1159-1189), the brother of Yoritomo,
chased the Taira troops and advanced to Private Collection
Mure Takamatsu on the opposite shore
Ishiguro Masayoshi, an accomplished
from Yashima. On the front is an armored
metalworker who apprenticed with Ishi-
and mounted high-ranking warrior, Yoshi-
guro Masatsune of Edo, produced ornate
tsune perhaps, depicted in high relief with
sword fittings, often depicting flower and
gold details. The branch of a pine tree is
bird subjects on a nanako (raised-dot) sha-
engraved at the top, and a pool of water is
kudd ground in high relief, inlay, and gold
carved out in openwork at the bottom. On
applied with the iro-e technique. This set
the reverse is a retainer holding a flag be-
of fittings is comprised of a pair of tsuba,
neath a high-relief pine tree, its needles in-
the kashira (pommels), and the fuchi
cised. On the front, between the opening
(metal collars at the blade end of the hilt)
for the kozuka (small knife) on the left and
for a pair of daishd mountings. All are
the tang hole, is engraved the artist's
given a nanako shakudd ground and deco-
name, Toshinaga, and his had. HY
rated with a pine tree and gold long-tailed
bird motif. The tsuba are engraved, Juga-
kusai Ishiguro Masayoshi [kao], and the
fuchi, Ishiguro Masayoshi [kao]. HY

276
214

214 Mitokoromono sword hilt, aided the grip and provided name, Masaoku, fl. c. 1460), who served
Goto Tsújo decoration. In the Muromachi period only the eighth Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimasa
(fl. c. 1690) the Goto family produced matching mito- (1436-1490), in the Muromachi period.
shakudd and gold koromono sets, but by the middle of the Assimilating and building upon standard
length kôgai, 21.2 (83/s); kozuka (not Edo period other craftsmen began to pro- metalworking techniques, Yüjó estab-
including blade), 9.7 (37/3); menuki, duce them as well. This set was made by lished a distinct Goto style, primarily ex-
3.o(i1/s)each the eleventh-generation Goto metalworker pressed in mitokoromono, the set of sword
Edo period, late iyth century Tsüjo (Mitsutoshi), and is characteristic of fittings consisting of the kozuka, kdgai, and
the work of the Goto school (cat. 215.) menuki (small knife, skewer, and hilt orna-
Hiroi Akihisa Collection, Tokyo Both the kdgai and kozuka are decorated ments; cat. 214). The Goto subsequently
The mitokoromono, literally "things for with gold orchids in high relief on a flourished, with successive generations
three places/' is a set of metal sword fit- nanako (raised-dot) shakudd ground; the serving the Ashikaga shogunate, Toyotomi
tings with matching decorative schemes; gold menuki take the form of orchids. HY Hideyoshi, and the Tokugawa shogunate.
the set is composed of a small knife (ko- In the Edo period the Goto products be-
zuka), a skewer (kdgai), and a pair of hilt or- 215 Sword fittings by nine consecutive came known as iebori, literally "house
naments (menuki). The small knife and carvings," referring to the official status of
generations of the Goto family
skewer slide into their separate openings the Goto as craftsmen to the shogunate, as
shakudd, gold, silver distinguished from other "town carving"
on either side of the sheath. The long ta- length c. 9.6 (33/4) each
pered end of the kdgai was used to fix a metalwork, or machibori. In all there were
Muromachi period-Edo period, seventeen generations of Goto, listed be-
warrior's hair, while its spoon-shaped end i5th-i8th century
was shaped to be used as an ear cleaner. low by artist name, followed by the given
Menuki, positioned on either side of the Fukushi Shigeo Collection, Tokyo name in parentheses and approximate pe-
riod of activity:
The founder of the Goto family of sword
ornament makers was Goto Yüjó (given

277
 1. Yüjó (Masaoku),
fl. c. 1460
2. Sójo (Mitsutake),
fl. c. 1500
3. Jóshin (Yoshihisa),
fl. c.1530
4. Kójó (Mitsuie),
a.
fl. c. 1570
5. Tokujó (Mitsumoto),
fl. c. 1600
6. Eijó (Masamitsu),
fl. c. 1610
7. Kenjó (Mitsutsugu),
fl. c. 1620
8. Sokujó (Mitsushige),
fl. c. 1630
9. Teijó (Mitsumasa),
fl. c. 1650
10. Renjó (Mitsutomo),
fl. c. 1680 b.
11. Tsüjo (Mitsutoshi),
fl. c. 1690
12. Jujó (Mitsumasa),
fl. c. 1720
13. Enjó (Mitsutaka),
fl. c. 1730
14. Keijô (Mitsumori),
fl. c. 1740
15. Shinjó (Mitsuyoshi),
fl. c.1750
16. Hôjô (Mitsuaki), c.
fl. c. 1820
17. Tenjó (Mitsunori),
fl. c.1850

This set consists of nine kozuka (small

knives) with ornaments made by the first
nine Goto generation heads; the character
of the Goto style is maintained through-
out, and typically only gold, silver, and sha-
kudô are employed.
The first example (a) is a slender high-
relief gold dragon executed by Yüjó, the d.
first-generation head of the Goto. Jujô
(Mitsumasa), the twelfth Goto master,
made the sao (base) of shakudd with a
nanako (raised-dot) ground and set the
dragon on it. Recording this history, the re-
verse, covered with a thin sheet of gold, is
engraved, mon [referring to the ornament]
Yu/o; Mitsumasa [kad of Mitsumasa]. The
Goto lineage was skilled at the depiction
of dragons; in particular, those by Yüjó are
known for their sense of movement.
The high-relief shakudd Kurikara e.
dragon of the second example (b) was
made by Sójó, the second-generation Goto
head. The sao was again made by Jujó
(Mitsumasa), the twelfth-generation head,
as his inscription on the back describes,
mon Sôjô; Mitsumasa [kad of Mitsumasa].
The Kurikara dragon, wound around a
sword and about to swallow it, was often
used as a motif in sword-related decoration
(cat. 170.)
The stout high-relief gold dragon of
the third example (c) is a characteristic
215
f.
work of Jóshin, the third Goto head. The

278
 §• 1.

h.

sao was made by Renjô (Mitsutomo), the symbol of long life, endurance, and loyalty, shakudd and detailed with gold and silver.
tenth-generation Goto head. The inscrip- and often used as a motif in the arts, Takasago is a place in the province of
tion on the reverse reads, mon Jdshin; Mit- spreads widely right and left across the Harima (present-day Hyôgo Prefecture). In
sutomo [kad of Mitsutomo]. horizontal plane. The pine needles are de- legend, and in the No play also called Taka-
The fourth example (d) holds a closely picted as wheels of needles, typical of the sago, an ancient and mutually devoted
described gold high-relief depiction of traditional Goto style. Shinjô (Mitsuyoshi), couple named Jo and Uba are revealed as
Fudô Myôô executed by the fourth- the fifteenth-generation head, made the the spirits of the pine trees, one at Taka-
generation Goto head, Kojo. The sao was sao, as inscribed on the reverse, Made by sago, one at Sumiyoshi. The sao, with a sil-
again made by Jujó (Mitsumasa), the Eijd; Mitsuyoshi [kad of Mitsuyoshi]. ver wave pattern at the upper left on the
twelfth-generation Goto head, whose in- The seventh example (g) was made front, was executed by the twelfth-
scription on the reverse reads, mon Kôjd; entirely by Kenjó, the seventh-generation generation head, Jujô (Mitsumasa), who in-
Mitsumasa [kaô of Mitsumasa]. Goto head. The plump high-relief gold fig- scribed the edge, Made by Sokujd;
The fifth example (e) consists of five ure of Ebisu, revered as one of the seven Mitsumasa [kad of Mitsumasa].
gold high-relief oxen in a variety of pos- gods of good luck, sits on a rock holding a The ninth example (i) is decorated
tures by the fifth-generation Goto head, fishing pole. The reverse is inscribed, Goio with a scene of fishing, a motif often em-
Tokujô. The ox is one of the twelve ani- Kenjd [kad]. ployed in the arts from the Muromachi pe-
mals of the zodiacal cycle, a theme often The eighth example (/z), a motif riod, here consisting of high-relief
used by the Goto school. The ninth Goto known as Takasago, was decorated by the mountains on the left and a fisherman
head, Teijo made the sao and inscribed the eighth-generation Goto head, Sokujó. The rowing a small boat at the right, bobbing
reverse, mon Tokujô; Teijd [kad of Teijo]. motif, often depicted by the Goto school, among the carved waves; details are added
The sixth-generation Goto head, Eijô, consists of an old pine tree, here in gold, in gold and silver. This work was made by
made the high-relief gold pine tree of the and an old man holding a rake and an old the ninth Goto head, Teijo, who inscribed
sixth example (/); the pine, treasured as a woman holding a broom. Here the pine the reverse, Teijo [kad]. HY
tree is in gold and both figures are made of

279
216

2i6 Saddle Many of the shell pieces have fallen off, 217 Saddle
lacquer on wood with shell leaving only the grooves that held them. lacquer on wood with shell
3o(ll13/i6) The edges of the pommel and cantle, as 29.8 (ii3/4)
Heian period well as the underside of the seat, are
Kamakura period
painted gold, which is a later addition.
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo This type of saddle, unlike the Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
National Treasure karakura-style saddles used only for cer- National Treasure
The arched pommel and cantle of this sad- emonial occasions, actually was used in
This saddle, made of red oak and paulow-
dle are red oak, and the bars, which form battle. One tradition has it that this saddle
nia wood, would have provided the rider
the saddle's seat, are soft paulownia. The belonged to the illustrious general Mina-
with a secure, stable seat. Saddles of this
ends of the bars that join the pommel and moto Yoritomo (1147-1199). Thirteenth-
type are called suikangura (informal sad-
cantle are exposed in front and back, re- century epic narratives that describe
dle), or sometimes gunjingura (military
vealing the saddle's basic structure. This battles of the late twelfth century mention
camp saddle), which in the thirteenth cen-
type of saddle is called wagura or yamato- saddles with similar designs of oak and
tury meant easy to mount but unfit for
gura (Japanese-style saddle) to distinguish owls, suggesting that this design was
ceremonial use. This distinction reflected
it from the earlier karakura (Chinese-style widely used in the twelfth century. An ex-
new developments in Japanese saddlery
saddle), in which the bar ends are con- cellent pictorial record survives today in a
that brought subtle changes in shape as
cealed. The pommel has a scalloped masterly late twelfth-century ink drawing,
well as decor. Compared with cat. 216, the
groove on either side for a rider to grasp the Animal caricature scrolls at Kôzanji,
rims of the pommel and cantle are thinner
when needed. Small slits on the bars allow Kyoto.
This saddle has been in the Hosokawa (0.7 cm and i.o cm, respectively) and the
a cinch to be passed through and tied decoration more elaborate. The rims may
around the belly of the horse. family since the mid-sixteenth century,
have been covered by metal (perhaps sil-
The saddle is finished with black lac- when the thirteenth shogun, Ashikaga
ver) ridges, now lost.
quer and ornamented with a design of oak Yoshiteru (r. 1546-1565) presented it to Ho-
The saddle is finished with black lac-
branches and leaves; on the outer faces of sokawa Fujitaka (Yüsai, 1534-1610), who
gave it to his fourth son, Takayuki. After quer, and its pommel and cantle are exten-
the pommel and cantle are pairs of horned sively decorated with inlaid iridescent
owls. All these designs are executed in the Takayuki's death in 1647 it was owned by
seashell in the raden technique. Originally,
technique called raden (inlaid iridescent one Arisaka Sadaifu, presumably one of
the seat also was richly decorated with in-
seashell), usually that of the yakdgai (turbo the Hosokawa's vassals. YS
laid shell. Except for a few sprinkles for
marmoratus) or awabi (abalone). The lac- the pine leaves, most of the shell in this
quer surface, worn and chipped in some area has been lost through abrasion caused
places, has lost much of its original bril- by repeated contact with a rider's armor.
liance and has been partly retouched. The pommel and cantle are decorated

280
217

218

281
219

with a design of rain-soaked, wind-blown acters written on the saddle. The charac- erable damage and some parts show traces
leaves and vines of the kuzu (arrowroot) ters are superimposed over the plant of later repair. On the peak of the pommel
plant juxtaposed with pine needles. forms, and serve as keys to the identifica- the damage and subsequent repairs have
Among the maze of plant forms are sev- tion of the poem. This convention, known been most extensive.
eral Japanese characters, also in the raden in the Japanese calligraphic tradition as Since the early seventeenth century it
technique, written in cursive script. The ashide (literally "reed-script"), in which has been believed that this saddle was
characters are from a famous waka (thirty- characters are written as if part of the reed owned by Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159-
one-syllable poem) on the theme of love, plant on an embankment, was one of the 1189), the younger brother of Yoritomo
by Jien (1155-1225). This poem was in- most frequently used artistic forms in the (1147-1199). This provenance is spurious,
cluded in the imperial anthology, Shin ko- twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The however, because the date when the poem
kin wakashù (New collection of ancient characters are: was first included in the Imperial anthol-
and modern poems). ogy, Shin kokinshù, 1205, post-dates
shigure (drizzle of autumn), in the lower Yoshitsune's death date. YS
Waga koi \va center of the pommel's outer faces;
matsu o shigure no some (to dye or change hue), on the lower
somekanete right edge of the pommel; 218 Saddle
Makuzugahara ni ni (particle indicating "at" or "in") on the lacquer on wood with shell
kaze sawagunari lower left edge of the pommel; 30.o(ll13/io)

This love I feel- shigure, in the upper center of the cantle; Kamakura period
powerless to change her mind, waga (my), in the lower center of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo
like the drizzle the pine's hue; cantle; Important Cultural Property
My heart like the wind koi (love), on the lower right edge of the
that stirs the leaves on Kuzu Plain. cantle; and Like cats. 216 and 217, this gunjingura, or
hará (field), on the lower left edge of the military camp saddle, is among the most
The poem's rich, elusive symbolism cantle. famous examples in Japan. Such wagura
derives from long-established poetic con- (Japanese-style) saddles with a rounded
ventions. Puns based on Japanese homo- The inlaying technique used for this shape and hand grooves in the pommel
nyms give certain words hidden meanings. saddle is very elaborate. The two sides of were used by military commanders from
For example, the wind exposing the whit- the kuzu leaves are depicted in two differ- the late Heian through the Kamakura pe-
ish undersides of the kuzu leaves (urami, ent ways: the white undersides are repre- riods. Lacquered saddles were considered
or "to see the back") in the poetic lan- sented by inlaid cut pieces of shell very precious articles, and some were ex-
guage creates a pun on a homonym that simulating the general shape of the leaves, ported to China; one was even presented
means "to hate." The word "pine" or and by dark spaces left between the leaves to an emperor of the Song Dynasty.
matsu is a pun on another word pro- to indicate the veins; the faces of the Gnarled mountain cherry trees (yama-
nounced matsu, which means "to wait." leaves are defined by lines made of ex- zakura) extend up and across the outside
The pictorial equivalents of the plant tremely fine pieces of shell. The pine nee- faces of the pommel and cantle. The roots
imagery in the poem mesh with the char- dles are rendered in herringbone patterns.
The lacquer surfaces have suffered consid-

282
220

of the cherry trees begin at the bottom of large reed stalks in gold takamaki-e (relief
both legs of the saddle, while their maki-e) lacquer and sheet gold on a black
branches then arch toward the center, par- lacquer ground; silver drops of dew cling
alleling the saddle's curved shape and cre- to the reeds. The two wheels are rimmed
ate a symmetrical design. The branches on with gold. The stirrups, of black lacquered
both legs are adorned with cherry blos- wood mounted on iron, are similarly deco-
soms, leaves, and tiny ferns growing along rated with reeds.
the tree's trunk. Even the seat of the sad- This saddle is said to have belonged to
dle, which would have been covered by a Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598). An ink
saddlecloth, is decorated with a delicate drawing of the saddle is inscribed, Middle
design of scattered leaves and sprays of of the first month, fifth year ofTenshd
blossoms. Roots and tree trunks are filled [1577], Hideyoshi [kaó]. However, on the re-
in with full pieces of shell, while most of verse of the saddle seat is an inscription
the flower petals are delicately outlined that reads, A day in the ninth month, sec-
with a thin line of shell. The stylized treat- ond year ofBurian [1446], indicating that
ment of natural motifs such as these this was an old saddle newly decorated in
cherry blossoms is characteristic Kama- 1577. SN
kura-period arts and crafts. The intricacy
and complexity of the cherry blossom de- 220 Saddle and stirrups
sign is comparable to that of the shigure maki-e lacquer and gold on wood
saddle (cat. 217), suggesting that both sad- 27.8(101/4)
dles were created during the same period. Edo period, i7th-i8th century
This saddle formerly belonged to the
Asano family, overlords of Aki Province Tokyo National Museum
(present-day Hiroshima Prefecture). MR
The front and back wheels are decorated
with a plum tree and hawk design in
219 Saddle and stirrups takamaki-e (relief maki-e) lacquer and cut
maki-e and black lacquer, gold and gold leaf on a pear-skin ground (nashiji);
silver on wood the hawks' eyes are glass. An inscription
saddle 27.5 (io7/s) on the reverse of the saddle seat reads,
Momoyama period, loth century Tenth day of the second month, seventh
year ofMeid [1498]. As seen in cat. 219, and
Tokyo National Museum as was often the case in the Edo period, an
Important Cultural Property old saddle was newly decorated. SN
The bold decoration on the front and
back wheels of this saddle is typical of
Momoyama-period design. It consists of

283
LACQUER

285
 221

221 Set of shelves with designs based on which powdered metal, usually gold or sil-
TheTaleofGenji ver, and lacquer are used to create designs.
maki-e and black lacquer, gold, silver, The motifs in this set of shelves are de-
tin, and mother-of-pearl on wood picted in takamaki-e (relief maki-e) lacquer,
65.5 x 72.5 x 33.0 (253/4 x 281A x 13) in which the maki-e motifs are executed
Momoyama period, iyth century on a surface raised with such materials as
raw lacquer and pulverized stone. In addi-
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo
tion, inlaid mother-of-pearl (raden), and
Important Cultural Property gold, silver, and tin are employed. The
Formerly owned by the Hachisuka family, bold composition and techniques are char-
daimyo of Awa Province (present-day To- acteristic of the group of lacquerwares
kushima Prefecture), this three-tiered set known as Kdetsu maki-e, associated with
of zushidana type shelves includes a cabi- Hon'ami Kôetsu (1558-1637, cats. 254,
net on the middle level in which the doors 255). SN
swing out and another on the lower level
with a sliding door. The decorative motifs
are based on the Heian-period romantic
classic, The Tale ofGenji. The motif of
two young pines on the top shelf is associ-
ated with the twenty-third chapter,
Nenohi, by which name this set is known.
The designs on the other levels—
moonflowers on a fan, a carriage, and a fan
with a picture of a bridge—are all related
to other chapters in Genji. A fence runs
diagonally across the doors, and maple
leaves and pine needles are scattered on
the interiors of the cabinets and on the
sides and back of the set.
Maki-e is the term used to describe a
group of Japanese lacquer techniques in

286
 222

222 Set of shelves with design based on and silver takamaki-e (relief maki-e ) lacquer
Kokei sanshd with cut gold and silver leaf, tin plate, and
maki-e and black lacquer, gold, silver, inlaid mother-of-pearl (raden).
tin, and mother-of-pearl on wood The daimyo and tea master Furuta
65.5 X 72.8 X 32.7 (253/4 X 285/8 X 127/8) Oribe (1544-1615) ordered a set of shelves
Momoyama period, i7th century with the Kokei sanshd motif from Kóami
Chôgen, younger brother of Koami
Tokyo National Museum
Chóan, the seventh head of the Kôami
Important Art Object
school of maki-e craftsmen who served the
This set of shelves, similar in form to cat. Tokugawa shogunate. Seven such sets are
221, is decorated on the top with a design extant today, although it is not clear which
of a plum tree, and on the lower two tiers is the original. SN
with packages of incense and an incense
burner. On the upper shelf is a depiction
of three men on a bridge, based on the
apocryphal Chinese allegorical tale known
in Japanese as Kokei sanshd (Three laugh-
ers of Tiger Stream). Long ago, according
to the tale, the monk Huiyuan retired to
the Donglin Temple at Mount Lu in
Jiangxi Province and pledged never to
cross the tiger stream into the secular
realm. Once, his friends the poet Tao
Yuanming and the Daoist Lu Xiujing vis-
ited him; the three became so engrossed in
conversation that in seeing his two friends
off, Huiyuan inadvertently crossed the
bridge, and they burst into laughter. The
front doors are decorated with a brush-
wood fence and the sides and back with di-
anthus. The decoration is executed in gold

287
 223

223 Writing table 224 Writing table and writing utensil box
11.2 X 58.2 X 34.2 (43/8 X 227/8 X 13 Vk) bundai 9.2 x 59.2 x 35.0 (35/8 x 23^4 x
maki-e and black lacquer, gold and 137/8)
silver on wood suzuribako 6.1 x 23.1 x 24.6 (23/8 x 9 Vio
Momoyama period, loth century X 9«/i6)
Myóhóin, Kyoto maki-e lacquer, gold, silver, and gilt
Important Cultural Property silver on wood
Momoyama period, loth century
This type of bundai, or writing table, is as-
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo
sociated particularly with renga (linked
verse) gatherings. The bundai was not ac- Important Cultural Property
tually used as a support for writing but Both the bundai (writing table) and the su-
rather to hold the paper on which poems zuribako (writing utensil box) are deco-
would be brushed. This example is said to rated with a combination of bamboo,
have been owned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi paulownia, and the phoenix. In China, the
(1537-1598); its top is decorated with au- phoenix was believed to signal the immi-
tumn flowers and grasses in takamaki-e (re- nent appearance of a virtuous emperor.
lief maki-e) lacquer and cut gold and silver The bird eats bamboo seeds, rests on a
leaf on a black lacquer ground. The sides type of paulownia tree, and drinks from
are covered with hiramaki-e (level maki-e) the fountain of nectar, said to spring only
chrysanthemums and paulownia mon. in an age of perfect peace. This is repre-
The style of the decoration is reminiscent sentative of the lavish Momoyama-period
of the so-called Kôdaiji maki-e, popular in style, in which the takamaki-e (relief
the Momoyama period, which was associ- maki-e} technique, cut gold and silver leaf,
ated with Kôdaiji, a Zen temple in Kyoto and thick gilt silver plate were lavishly
established in 1605 by the widow of To- used. The background is executed in a
yotomi Hideyoshi. The techniques actu- technique known as nashiji (pear-skin
ally employed are mostly traditional ground), a maki-e ground treatment, simi-
Muromachi-period ones, however, so this lar in appearance to the skin of the nashi,
work may be considered a transitional or Japanese pear, in which metal flakes,
piece. SN usually gold, are suspended in lacquer. SN

288
224

289
 225

225 Writing utensil box 226 Writing utensil box

4.6 X 22.5 X 24.5 (ll3/i6 X 8?/8 X 95/8) 4.0 X 21.3 X 23.8 (l9/i6 X 83/8 X 95/16)
maki-e lacquer, metal, and maki-e, red and black lacquer, gold,
mother-of-pearl on wood tin, and mother-of-pearl on wood;
Edo period, lyth century copper
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art Edo period, iyth century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
In the Edo period, the arts prospered un-
der the Maeda family, daimyo of a rich do- With the advent of a period of peace at the
main in Kaga Province (part of present-day beginning of the early modern era, the
Ishikawa Prefecture). During the reign of working life of the commoner became a
the third-generation Maeda daimyo, popular theme in both painting and crafts,
Toshitsune (1593-1658), the Kyoto maki-e supplementing the traditional subjects re-
artist Igarashi Doho was invited to Kana- lated to the court and warrior classes, and
zawa, the castle town of the Maeda, and landscapes. This trend is reflected in the
the Kaga maki-e style of lacquer was devel- decoration of this suzuribako (writing uten-
oped. This suzuribako (writing utensil box), sil box), with seven women transplanting
remarkable for its elaborate maki-e tech- rice shoots in slightly raised takamaki-e (re-
nique, is attributed to Doho. It is deco- lief maki-e) lacquer, inlaid mother-of-pearl
rated with a field full of such grasses and (raderi), and sheet-gold and tin. Black lac-
flowers as chrysanthemums, pampas grass, quer is used for the women's eyes and hair
Chinese bellflowers, and fujibakama, or and red lacquer for their lips. A regular, di-
"purple trousers." The designs are exe- agonal wavelike pattern in gold maki-e
cuted in takamaki-e (relief maki-e) lacquer, forms the ground on the top and sides of
sheet metal, and inlaid mother-of-pearl (ra- the overlapping lid and the sides of the
den). The ground is in the maki-e tech- box. The interior is decorated with a dian-
nique known as ikakeji, in which fine gold thus design and holds a round copper
or silver filings are densely spread over wet water-dropper, an inkstone, and a remov-
lacquer. The reverse of the lid and the re- able tray. Not shown in the photograph is
movable tray inside are decorated with fly- an inkstick, decorated with a design of
ing cranes, some holding pine branches in scattered chrysanthemums. SN
their beaks. SN

290
226

291
227

227 Bridal trousseau On the first shelf is a set of utensils for the
maki-e, red and black lacquer on incense game (cats. 233, 234) and on the
wood; gilt copper, silver and nickel bottom shelf is a suzuribako (writing uten-
zushidana 75.8 x 101.9 x 39.7 (293/4 x sil box; cats. 224, 225, 226). A clothes rack
40 Vs x 155/3) and wash basin are displayed in front. Set
kurodana 71.2 x 77.5 x 38.4 (28 x 30^2 x out before the kurodana are a kushidai
15^/8) (comb stand), and to the left, a set of oha-
shodana 103.9 x loo-° x 44-° (407/8 x guro equipment for blackening the teeth
393/8 x 173/8) (cats. 229, 230); the distinctive red-
cornered box on the kurodana contains
Edo period, i9th century
cosmetic paraphernalia. The shodana
Hôfu Môri Hôkôkai, holds articles related to reading and writ-
Yamaguchi Prefecture ing; in front is a cast nickel mirror on its
folding holder, with the storage box to the
The Edo-period daimyo bride brought to right.
her new home an elaborate set of house-
This set was used by the daughter of
hold furnishings reflecting the power and
Narihiro (1783-1836), the tenth-genera-
prestige of the daimyo family. The con-
tion Mori daimyo of the Hagi domain in
tents of the trousseau were established by present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture, when
the early Edo period. A typical trousseau
she married into the Mori branch family of
centered around three sets of shelves, the
Tokuyama. The many constituent parts
zushidana (right), the kurodana (black
are decorated with a plum blossom floral
shelves) (center), and the shodana (book scroll and latticework design, and the wa-
shelves) (left). Included are most of the
ter plantain mon, a family crest used by
things required for personal use, such as,
the Mori. These motifs are executed in
on top of the zushidana, a large box con-
gold and silver hiramaki-e (level maki-e) lac-
taining smaller boxes of cosmetic items. quer. The arabesque plum blossom design
is executed in alternating hiramaki-e and
enashiji, in which designs are depicted
with nashiji (pear-skin ground). The fit-
tings are gilt copper, engraved with the wa-
ter plantain mon and a floral scroll. SN

292
228

228 Bridal trousseau

maki-e, red and black lacquer on
wood; silver
zushidana 79.7 x 99.1 x 39.7 (313/8 x 39
x 155/8)
kurodana 68.2 x 77.7 x 39.1 (267/8 x
305/8 x 153/8)
Edo period, i8th century
Kôzu Kobunka Kaikan, Kyoto
This set of bridal furnishings belonged to a
daughter of the Nanbu family, daimyo of a
domain in present-day Iwate Prefecture.
Centered around a zushidana (right) and
kurodana ("black shelves/'), it contains
washing basins, cosmetic utensils (cats.
229, 230) including teeth-blackening (oha-
guro) equipment, a set of utensils for the
incense game (cats. 233, 234) and writing-
related objects. The design consists of a
peony floral scroll and the tsurumaru (cir-
cular crane) mon of the Nanbu clan in gold
maki-e lacquer on a pear-skin ground
(nashiji). The fittings are made of silver. SN

293
229

229 Cosmetic set 230 Cosmetic set

maki-e and black lacquer on wood; maki-e lacquer on wood
nickel, gilt silver kyodai h. 62.7 (245/3)
mirror holder h. 63.3 (247/3) kushidai 26.1 x 29.4 x 21.8 (io5/i6 x
kushidai 37.5 x 36.4 x 25.3 (143/4 x 143/8 119/10 X 89/i6)
x 10) Edo period, i9th century
Edo period, icth century Tokyo National Museum
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
This cosmetic set is part of the bridal fur-
The wife of the tenth-generation Hoso- nishings owned by the daughter of Toku-
kawa daimyo, Narimori (1804-1860) is be- gawa Harutomi (1771-1852), the
lieved to have owned this set of cosmetic tenth-generation daimyo of the Wakayama
utensils. It includes a folding mirror holder domain in Kii Province. In 1816 she was
and two mirrors cast from nickel engraved married to Nariyori, the sixth son of Toku-
with the name Fujiwara lesato, a famous gawa lenari (1773-1841), the eleventh sho-
mirror-maker of the late Edo period (right). gun. Included here are a kyôdai
At the center of the set is the kushidai, lit- (mirror-holder on a chest of drawers) and
erally "comb stand/' which holds not only its mirror, many containers and the uten-
combs but also various brushes and boxes sils they hold, a kushidai (comb stand) with
of powder and oils. On the left is a set of its various combs, brushes, and boxes of
equipment for ohaguro, or blackening the powders and oils, and a set of equipment
teeth, a custom popular among both men for tooth blackening (ohaguro). The deco-
and women in the court class from the ration consists of the hollyhock mon, asso-
Heian period, and practiced by women af- ciated with the Tokugawa family, and a
ter they had come of age or married in the bamboo trellis fence in gold and silver
Edo period; the metal objects in this set maki-e lacquer on a pear-skin ground
are made of gilt silver. The design consists (nashiji). SN
of gold maki-e lacquer chrysanthemums
on a black lacquer ground. SN

294
230

295
231

232

296
233

231 Shôgiset was popular in both court and temple cir- 233 Set of utensils for the incense game
mdki-e lacquer on wood cles, and eventually was embraced by the maki-e lacquer on wood; silver, ebony
h. 23.0 (QV'IO) warrior class. Shogi is believed to have box 13.2 x 24.0 x 18.0 (53/16 x 97/16 x
Edo period, icth century originated in India, though it spread 7>/8)
widely and developed in a number of dif- Edo period, i8th century
Tokyo National Museum
ferent forms. Japanese shogi is related to
the Chinese form. Although it is not clear Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
when it arrived in Japan, by the Kamakura In the Heian period, the fragrance of aro-
232 Go set period it was enjoyed by members of the matic wood was enjoyed by members of
maki-e lacquer on wood court class. In cat. 105, warriors can be court society. The appreciation of incense
h. 28.2 (ni/s) seen playing both games. A total of six became formalized in the Muromachi pe-
Edo period, icth century types of shogi are known; the type known riod, much like tea drinking and flower ar-
Tokyo National Museum as shdshdgi (small shogi), which eclipsed ranging, and many varieties of monkd,
most of the others from the Sengoku pe- literally "listening to the incense," were es-
These two sets of board games, one for riod, is the type illustrated in the screens. tablished. Throughout the Edo period, en-
shogi, sometimes called Japanese chess The boards of both games are usually thusiasts of this widely popular game
(cat. 231), and the other for go (cat. 232), made from the wood of either the oak or included members of the warrior class.
were made as part of the bridal furnishings kaya (Japanese nutmeg) tree; the latter is This set of incense utensils, handed down
for the daughter of Harutomi (1771-1852), preferred today. The black pieces used in in the Hosokawa family, is decorated with
the tenth-generation Tokugawa ruler of go are made of black stone, with that from the kuyô mon, the Hosokawa family crest,
the Wakayama domain in Kii Province Ñachi in Wakayama Prefecture especially and a floral scroll in maki-e lacquer on a
(cat. 230). Although it is not typical for prized. WA pear-skin ground (nashiji); the metal imple-
these games to be decorated with maki-e ments are made of silver. The wife of Shi-
lacquer, these are decorated like the other gekata (1720-1785), a mid-Edo-period
components of the set, with the maki-e Hosokawa daimyo of Kumamoto, is said to
hollyhock mon. The game pieces for the have used this set. SN
shogi set, usually made of wood, are made
of ivory, reflecting the high position of the
Kii Tokugawa house.
Go (also called igo) is thought to have
originated in ancient China, arriving in Ja-
pan during the Asuka period (552-645). It

297
234

234 Set of utensils for the incense game with the kuyô mon, family crest of the Ho- 1651), the third Tokugawa shogun. The en-
maki-e and black lacquer, gold on sokawa clan, in gold maki-e lacquer. In the tire set is decorated with a pear-skin
wood; silver containers are stored 360 shells, each one ground (nashiji), a gold and silver maki-e
box 20.5 x 24.3 x 18.8 (SVio x 99/16 x half of a pair with matching designs drawn clove floral scroll, and the three-leaved hol-
73/8) from The Tale of Genji, or with floral and lyhock mon. The edges of the trays are
Edo period, i8th century bird decoration. To play the game, the rimmed with silver, and the interiors of the
shells are mixed up and participants must bowls are finished with red lacquer. SN
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
find the two shell halves with the same
Like cat. 233, this set of incense utensils picture. Because the two perfectly
has been handed down in the Hosokawa matched halves symbolize fidelity, the
family and the wife of Shigekata (1720- shell matching set was regarded as one of
1785), a mid-Edo Hosokawa daimyo of Ku- the most important items in a daimyo
mamoto, is said to have used it. The bridal trousseau. SN
decoration consists of such plants and
flowers as bush clover, chrysanthemum, 236 Set of trays and tablewares
peony, camelia, iris, and bamboo arranged maki-e and red lacquer and silver on
in circular motifs in slightly raised gold wood
takamaki-e (relief maki-e) lacquer. The (left) 22.6 x 39.4 x 41.2 (87/8 x 15^2 x
metal implements are made of silver. SN
(center) 21.0 x 37.3 x 38.4 (S1/* x 145/8 x
235 Shell matching game 151/8)
shell containers 49.5 x 40.0 (19l/z x (right) 19.5 x 35.3 x 36.4 (7x/i6 x 137/8 x
153/4) 143/8)
maki-e and black lacquer on wood; Edo period, ryth century
color on shell Rinnôji, Tochigi Prefecture
Edo period, i8th-i9th century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo This ensemble, comprising large, medium,
and small kakeban (tablelike trays for spe-
The octagonal, black-lacquered containers cial occasions), lidded bowls, a hot water
for this shell matching game are decorated ewer, and a rice container, is said to have
been used by Tokugawa lemitsu (1604-

298
235

236

299
237

237 Set of tray and tablewares 238 Picnic set sake container, a square tray, a footed tray
maki-e, black and red lacquer on wood maki-e lacquer and gold on wood with cut corners, and sake cups, all deco-
tray a 16.0 x 36.3 x 36.3 (05/i6 x 14^4 x 37.0 x 37.8 x 23.0 (145/8 x 147/8 x 91Ao) rated with motifs of the four seasons in
H'A) Edo period, i8th-i9th century maki-e lacquer. The top of the frame is
tray b 13.5 x 33.4 x 33.0 (55/16 x i31/8 x decorated with a pair of carp and churning
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
13)
tray c 11.9 x 30.7 x 30.4 (4n/i6 x izVió x
waves in slightly raised gold and silver
This picnic set includes a multi-tiered box takamaki-e (relief maki-e) lacquer on a
nVio) for food, dishes, a pair of sake flasks, and pear-skin ground (nashiji). The lid of the
Edo period, lyth century cups. The various items are covered with a octagonal tiered box is covered with a
chrysanthemum design primarily in nashiji background and a framed picture
Hokkeji, Gifu Prefecture from The Tale of Genji and the sides of
slightly raised gold and silver takamaki-e
(relief maki-e) lacquer and sheet gold on a each tier hold framed flower and bird de-
This set of trays and bowls is said to have
been used by Mitsumasa (1619-1633), pear-skin ground (nashiji). This type of set, signs in maki-e lacquer. The drum-shaped
popular from the Momoyama period on- sake container is decorated with a phoenix
grandson of Katô Kiyomasa (1562-1611).
ward, is known in Japanese by several design on an exposed wood-grain ground.
Kiyomasa was a retainer of Toyotomi Hi-
names, such as kdchu (travel kitchen), sa- Because the drum was indispensable for
deyoshi (1537-1598) and daimyo of a do-
gejù (portable tiered box), and hanami singing and dancing at parties, sake con-
main in Higo Province (present-day
Kumamoto Prefecture). On a black lac- bentd (flower-viewing lunch box). SN tainers came to be made in the shapes of
drums; though the earliest extant exam-
quer ground, three different mon (family
ples date from the Muromachi period,
crests) are depicted in gold hiramaki-e 239 Picnic set
they are known from Kamakura-period
(level maki-e) lacquer. The paulownia mon maki-e lacquer on wood
paintings. Mandarin ducks on rocks are de-
was given to the Katô by Toyotomi Hide- 32.6 x 34.8 x 17.8 (12^Ao x 133/4 x 7)
picted on the top of the rectangular sake
yoshi. The Chinese bellflower and orizumi Edo period, i8th-i9th century container, and landscapes are framed on
(broken inkstick) mon were originally the Eisei Bunko, Tokyo the sides. The interior of the square tray
crests of the Bitó family, daimyo of a do-
has a persimmon and chestnut design on a
main in Sanuki Province (currently Ka- Fitted inside the outer frame of this picnic nashiji background; a running water and
gawa Prefecture), but due to poor set are a lidded four-tiered octagonal box, a maple design decorates the sides. On the
administration, their domain was confis- drum-shaped sake container, a box-shaped footed tray is a plum tree and pheasant de-
cated and their armor and other personal
sign on a nashiji background. The cups
belongings given to Katô IÇiyomasa; subse-
have a design of cherry blossoms and run-
quently, the Bitô mon were also used by
ning water on a wood-grain ground. SN
the Katô family. SN

300
238

239

301
CERAMICS

303
 240 Jar nearby Uji were packed for presentation to
Shigaraki ware the shogunate. With the resulting base of
h. 27.5(103/4) economic support, the kilns prospered
Muromachi period, throughout the Edo period, during which
i5th-i6th century time they produced an expanded reper-
toire of mostly glazed utilitarian objects.
Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka The unpretentious qualities of Shi-
Prefecture garaki wares that came to be appreciated
The rustic stoneware vessels of the Shi- by tea men are evident in this Muromachi-
garaki kilns (in present-day Shiga Prefec- period tsubo. Its shape is simple, broaden-
ture), like those of Bizen and other similar ing from a flat base to a bulging shoulder,
kilns in the medieval era, were then tapering to a narrow neck and evert-
utilitarian—tsubo (jars), kame (wide- ing again at the mouth. The incised pat-
mouthed jars), and suribachi (grating tern of cross-hatching between two
bowls). In the late fifteenth century, the parallel lines at the shoulder is a distinctive
early tea master Murata Shuko (1423-1502) Shigaraki motif, especially on smaller jars.
judged Shigaraki jars to be, in combination Three parallel horizontal lines, the Japa-
with fine imported objects, appropriate for nese character for the numeral three,
use in the tea ceremony. Shigaraki wares etched just above the decoration on two
were the first native Japanese ceramics, sides of the jar, are thought to be some
along with those of Bizen, to be so em- kind of kiln mark.
braced. They came to be used in the wabi The firing effects characteristic of
form of tea, which was based on the inno- Shigaraki wares are evident. The body is
vations of Shukó and refined during the stippled with white grains of feldspar
sixteenth century by Takeno Jóó (1502- present in the Shigaraki clay and drawn to
1555) and then Sen no Rikyü (1522-1591). As the surface by the heat of the kiln. Small
traced through contemporary tea journals, holes are left by other feldspar particles
the most typical Shigaraki component of that have melted away, an effect known in
the range of tea utensils was the mizusashi Japanese as ishihaze, or "stone-burst." The
(fresh water container), though kensui kiln fires also induced the scorched color-
(waste water jars) and hanaire (flower con- ing and the thin coat of natural wood ash
tainers) were also used. Most of these ves- glaze, which partially covers the vessel,
sels were originally utilitarian, though by running down past the shoulder to the
the late sixteenth century pieces were be- middle of the body. From the late six-
ing made specifically for the tea context. teenth century, smaller versions of this
Among the users of Shigaraki wares type of jar were produced specifically
were leading military figures, including for use as flower containers in the tea
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) who used setting. AMW
a Shigaraki jar in 1583 at the festivities at-
tending the construction of Osaka Castle. 241 Sake flask
Katagiri Sekishü (1605-1673), the influen- Bizen ware
tial proponent of a formalized daimyo tea, h. 30.2(117/8)
used Shigaraki as did many daimyo, in- Momoyama period, early i7th century
cluding the Date clan of Sendai who were
steeped in the teachings of Sekishú and Okayama Prefectural Museum,
Furuta Oribe (1544-1615). Tsunamura Okayama Prefecture
(1659-1719), the fourth-generation Date The high-fired and unglazed wares of Bi-
daimyo, recorded in his tea diary the use zen and Shigaraki, esteemed for their aus-
of several Shigaraki pieces, both old and tere rusticity, were the first Japanese
new, some treasured and used repeatedly. ceramics to be deemed suitable for use in
The continued use of Shigaraki wares the tea context. From the mid-sixteenth
in tea was assured with the formalization century the potters of Bizen (in present-
of the Rikyú aesthetic of rustic simplicity day Okayama Prefecture) supplemented
by the master's grandson Sotan (1578- their production of utilitarian wares with
1658). Of even greater importance was the tea and tea-related objects, particularly
designation in 1632 of the Shigaraki kilns mizusashi (fresh water containers), hanaire
as producers of the "official" glazed tea (flower containers), and fine tablewares.
jars in which the famed leaves from While utilitarian wares changed little even
over long periods of time, tea wares
evolved according to current fashions.
Tokkuri, or sake flasks, were produced
in great quantity by the Bizen kilns in the
Momoyama period. In this example, clean
lines define the plump, barrel-shaped
body, thin neck, and crisply finished

304
240

305
 241

306
242

mouth. The neat, concise form, made seeds) could result from the ash in the kiln 242 Fresh water container
from a relatively fine-grained clay, pro- atmosphere. It was possible to control Mino ware, Shino type
vides a sympathetic surface for the red di- which parts of a piece would be affected h. 19.2(7^/2)
agonal streaks, hidasuki, which resulted by the flames and ash by masking with Momoyama period,
from shielding a vessel wrapped in rice other objects. late loth century
straw from direct contact with the flames Archaeological excavations through-
out Japan have revealed that in the medi- Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo
during firing. The straw burns away, leav-
ing the hiddsuki on a background of un- eval period, the Bizen complex was only
scorched white clay. one of more than thirty in Japan where
Hidasuki are but one of several char- utilitarian stoneware objects, primarily
acteristic Bizen firing effects that were tsubo (jars), kdme (wide-mouthed jars), and
highly regarded by tea patrons. Depending suribdchi (grating bowls) were fired. Dur-
on the placement of an object within the ing the Muromachi period, production
kiln and its position in relation to the path was concentrated at fewer but larger kilns,
of the shooting flames and the shower of suggesting the start of cooperative efforts.
ash from the burning wood, different fir- Ready access to ports on the Inland Sea al-
ing effects would result. Pieces placed di- lowed the establishment of a distribution
rectly in the flames would be dramatically system to markets around central Japan.
scorched. Light flecks of natural glaze (tea Further consolidation seems to have oc-
men likened their appearance to sesame curred by the late Muromachi or early
Momoyama period, concentrated around
three large kilns to the north, south, and
west of the village of Inbe in Bizen, where
production continued through the Edo
period. AMW

307
 243 Bowl
Mino ware, Shino type
diam. 2y.5(io13/i6)
Momoyama period,
late loth-early iyth century
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo

244 Bowl
Mino ware, Nezumi Shino type
diam. 28.5 (iiVy
Momoyama period,
late loth-early iyth century
Tokyo National Museum
Important Cultural Property

245 Bowl
Mino ware, Nezumi Shino type
diam. 24.9(93/4)
Momoyama period,
early iyth century
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo

246 Teabowl
Mino ware, Black Oribe type
h. 8.5 (3 3/8) 243
Momoyama period,
early iyth century
Umezawa Kinenkan, Tokyo

244

308
 245

246

309
247

247 Covered dish tea-related wares were embraced by an against Mino and by the mid-^oos had
Mino ware, Green Oribe type enthusiastic group of patrons whose subjugated it, an important early triumph
h. 6.3(21/2) x 1.27.9 (11) membership included prominent military for the instigator of the movement toward
Momoyama period, figures, as evidenced by the recovery of a unified Japan. Nobunaga was interested
early 17th century Mino ceramics from excavated daimyo in regulating the ceramic industry in his
residences from many sites throughout domain and was a practitioner of tea. He
Tokyo National Museum Japan. was served by the tea masters Sen no
In Mino Province, now the southern part During this same period, Mino's im- Rikyü (1522-1591), Imai Sôkyu (1520-1593),
of Gifu Prefecture, the production of portance as a center for ceramic activity and Tsuda Sógyü (d. 1591). In 1600, Mino
highly innovative glazed ceramics pros- was matched by its significance as the was the setting for the pivotal Battle of
pered at a large number of kilns from the stage for major political personalities and Sekigahara (cat. 104), in which Tokugawa
middle of the sixteenth century through events. In the sixteenth century, Saitô Do- leyasu (1543-1616) won the position of
the early seventeenth century. The Mino san (d. 1556) overthrew the Toki clan to be- preeminence that was maintained by his
potters, while mindful of the need to sat- come a daimyo of Mino. To improve descendants for 250 years.
isfy the requirements of function, experi- relations with Oda Nobuhide (1510-1551), In the fifteenth century, the technol-
mented with glazes and decorative daimyo in the neighboring province of ogy for producing glazed ceramics was in-
schemes as well as with shapes and the Owari, Dosan married his daughter in 1548 troduced to the Mino area from the
techniques for forming them. Their to Nobuhide's son, Oda Nobunaga (1534- well-established kilns of neighboring Seto.
1582). Nobunaga subsequently moved

310
By the beginning of the sixteenth century, opposite are horizontal and without a sin- conjunction with irregular shapes and
a more efficient and advanced type of kiln gle focal point, while the clover and its op- sometimes graphic designs. Here, one side
began to be used in Mino and Seto, lead- posite are each set on a central axis from of the outer wall and the bottom of the in-
ing eventually to the creation of new which the design bifurcates. terior of the bowl are covered with decid-
wares at the Mino kilns, including Shino The irregularly shaped bowl from the edly abstract images traditionally
and Nezumi Shino. At the beginning of Tokyo National Museum (cat. 244) is an ex- interpreted as cranes and reeds, carved
the seventeenth century, the multi- ample of Nezumi Shino, a type of Mino through the outer coat of black glaze and
chambered noborigama (climbing kiln) was ware covered with iron-rich slip that fires filled in with white slip.
introduced from Karatsu to the Mino area, gray, the color of a mouse (nezumi). Iron The covered dish in the shape of a fan
first to Motoyashiki, enabling the artistic slip was applied with a ladle to parts of the from the Tokyo National Museum (cat.
breakthroughs that culminated with vessel, creating soft-edged borders with 247) is a product of the Mino noborigama
copper-glazed Green Oribe wares. At the sections left uncovered. The artist kilns, which produced Oribe ceramics
these noborigama, copies of the wares of etched hard-edged designs through the characterized by an iridescent green cop-
other Japanese kilns such as Iga, Shigaraki, gray slip with a sharp tool, and then ap- per glaze and underglaze iron drawing.
and Karatsu were also made. Utilitarian plied feldspathic glaze to the whole vessel. The design of this vessel is a blend of natu-
objects were produced even at those kilns The areas not covered with the iron slip, ral and geometric motifs. Triangular inden-
that fired the finest tablewares and tea such as the mass at the center of this dish tations inside the vessel at the base of the
utensils, and they assumed greater impor- and two parallel oblong shapes on the rim, fan and incised lines in the lid collect
tance as the demand for Mino tea-related fired white. The wagtail etched atop the glaze, creating color variations within the
wares decreased. central white form transforms it by associ- large mass of green.
A coat of feldspathic white glaze, typi- ation into a rock, while the iron slip fingers The Oribe potters often employed
cal of Shino ceramics, envelops most of at the base of the rock become waves, with molds to make complicated shapes. They
the mizusashi (fresh water container) from the addition of scraped lines beneath the experimented with a wide range of vessel
the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts (cat. 242). rock. Five-leafed kumazasa, a type of bam- forms, including sets of small shallow or
This glaze was perfected in the 15805, the boo, are incised through the slip on either tall dishes, known as mukdzuke, and large
result of earlier experiments involving ash side of the rock and painted on the rock dishes with stepped sides and bowlike han-
glazes with a high feldspathic content. A with iron slip. In contrast to the decora- dles. This dish was designed to contain
simple drawing in iron oxide is visible be- tion on the face of the dish, the exterior food, although the cover does not fit
neath the glaze; it depicts a pair of arching has been treated in an energetic, non- snugly enough to retain heat effectively.
reeds on one face of the vessel and a range representational manner. Apart from its utilitarian function, and
of three low mountains and pine trees on Similar decorative techniques have perhaps more important, the cover was re-
the other. The stolid shape of the mizu- been employed in the shallow Nezumi garded as another surface for decoration
sashi conveys a great sense of weight. The Shino bowl from the Suntory Museum of and as a dramatic device, concealing not
form is enlivened by pronounced bulges at Art (cat. 245). Most of the wide interior of only the edible contents of the dish but its
the top and bottom and irregular contu- the bowl has been masked with iron slip, interior decoration as well. AMW
sions, willful marks of the potter's artistic leaving uncovered only part of the rim and
personality that foreshadow later and even interior. The plate is dominated by a great 248 Large dish
more dramatic effects. The treatment of willow, its trunk extended across the white Karatsu ware
the rim was likened by connoisseurs to the boulderlike mass with a drawn arched line diam.43.Q(i7 1 / 4 )
notch of an arrow (yahazu) giving rise to of iron slip; its branches fill the dish inte- Momoyama period,
the name by which this type of mizusashi rior. Three birds are each formed of the late loth-early ryth century
was known. Similar yahazu-sty\e mizusashi same three etched marks. Non-represen-
were also made at other Japanese kilns, in- tational decoration is also prominent. Umezawa Kinenkan, Tokyo
cluding Karatsu, Bizen. and Shigaraki, re- Oribe-style Mino ware was fired at a Important Cultural Property
flecting a confluence of tea-ware taste. small number of the Mino kilns. The
The Shino bowl from the Suntory name of the ware refers to the great Mo-
Museum of Art (cat. 243) was made for moyama period tea master, Furuta Oribe 249 Jar
kaiseki ryôri, the meal associated with the (1544-1615), born in Mino and awarded a Karatsu ware
tea ceremony. Inimitable and irregular in domain near Kyoto by Toyotomi Hide- h. 15.8 (6 V4)
shape, this heavily potted dish rests on yoshi (1537-1598). Oribe's exact relation- Momoyama period,
three legs. It is decorated with underglaze ship to the Mino kilns is unclear, though late loth-early i7th century
iron drawing and covered with a thick coat the style that bears his name is thought to
of white feldspathic glaze. In the central reflect his advanced ideas regarding aes- Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo
section, interwoven grasses, a common thetics. Perhaps no shape is more repre- Karatsu ware is the glazed high-fired pot-
Shino motif, sprout from one of the four sentative of the tea wares Oribe is said to tery of Hizen Province, a large area in
trimmed corners. Each of the four sec- have favored than that of the kutsugata, or northern Kyushu that falls within present-
tions on the rim holds a discrete design. shoe-shaped, teabowl, here represented by day Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. As at
Two of the adjoining sections are filled one from the Umezawa Kinenkan in the other locations in western Japan, a great
with recognizable motifs depicted in an Black Oribe mode (cat. 246). Its exagger- flourish of ceramic activity occurred in Hi-
abbreviated but naturalistic manner: one ated warp was added after the basic form zen following the Korean expeditions of
with airborne plovers and a net hung to had been thrown on the wheel. The lac- 1592 and 1597, *ne unsuccessful attempts
dry, the other a simple drawing of bush querlike black glaze was a technical inno- of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) to sub-
clover. The other two sections are filled vation made earlier at the Mino kilns at jugate the Asian mainland. Many of the
with abstract geometric designs, the ori- Amagane, the result of removing an iron- military leaders in these invasions were
gins of which may possibly lie in imported glazed vessel from the kiln while it was still daimyo and prominent warriors of Kyushu
European art forms. The design in each hot and rapidly cooling it. At the earlier domains, including Matsuura Shigenobu
section is formally related to the one oppo- kilns, the glaze was applied to simple cylin- (1549-1614), Nabeshima Naoshige (1538-
site. Both the net and bird motif and its drical teabowls, while in the Oribe style it
was just one decorative element, used in

311
 248

i6i8), and Goto lenobu of Hizen. In the bowls (cat. 246), popular in the early seven- outer edge of the rim, forming the ground
early 15905, Hideyoshi issued orders in- teenth century and associated with the for two triangular sections of parallel grass-
structing his officers to bring craftsmen prominent tea master Furuta Oribe (1544- like strokes at the base of the trunk.
with them upon their return to Japan from 1615). Oribe, who helped to popularize The tsubo (jar) from the Idemitsu Mu-
the Korean peninsula. Accordingly, Ko- Karatsu wares by using them himself at seum of Arts (cat. 249) is of a type com-
rean potters made their way to Hizen and tea gatherings, resided at Nagoya Castle in monly made for utilitarian storage, though
with the protection of the local rulers es- Hizen for eighteen months from 1592 to this example was probably employed as a
tablished kilns in many of its variously 1593. The castle was the expedition opera- mizusashi (fresh water jar). The body sits
held territories, including the Saga, tions base, located near the port of atop a ring foot, tapering from its pro-
Hirado, and Karatsu domains. Even prior Karatsu (not to be confused with Nagoya nounced, bulging mid-section to the
to the Korean invasions, such Korean- Castle on Honshu). Terasawa Hirotaka mouth whose narrow rim is delicately
influenced glazed ceramics seem to have (1563-1633), a retainer of Hideyoshi and a turned out. On the upper part of the jar, a
been made on a limited scale in Hizen at tea enthusiast, also served the war effort simple design of reeds, a common Karatsu
kilns near the Kishidake Castle of the Hata from Nagoya Castle and after the first motif, is rendered in fluid brushstrokes of
clan. Until they were ousted by Hideyoshi campaign was appointed daimyo of the underglaze iron.
in 1594 the Hata were rulers in the area. Karatsu domain, where he supported ce- The great prosperity enjoyed by the
They had long engaged in trade and piracy ramic production. Hizen Karatsu kilns during the early part
with Korea and China. The great expan- The two examples of Karatsu ware in of the seventeenth century suffered due
sion of ceramic production following the the exhibition are decorated with designs to the growth in popularity of native por-
Korean expeditions, however, is well re- painted in underglaze iron oxide. The celains, first fired in Hizen. The number
flected by the excavated sites of over one large dish from the Umezawa Kinenkan of kilns making Karatsu pottery decreased
hundred Hizen kilns where a variety of (cat. 248) is potted from sandy clay, its shal- and most of those remaining made utilitar-
types of Karatsu ware was made. low curving bowl stepped up to a wide un- ian wares. In the Karatsu domain, some
Utilitarian vessels were the mainstay dulating rim pinched at irregular intervals. kilns fired ceramics commissioned by the
of the Karatsu kilns. Tea men were drawn Typical of many large Karatsu dishes, the daimyo for presentation to the shogunate
to their unpretentious beauty and adopted ring foot is small for the size of the vessel or other daimyo, a practice that is said to
them for use in the tea ceremony. Over it supports. Except for the foot and the have begun as early as the tenure of Tera-
time, vessels for the tea context were com- area immediately surrounding it, the dish sawa Hirotaka and continued despite peri-
missioned, including those in styles that is completely covered with a mixed feld- odic interruptions until the Meiji
can also be found at other Japanese kilns, spathic and ash glaze. A sinuous pine tree Restoration, even as the post of daimyo of
such as kutsugata, or "shoe-shaped," tea- meanders over the dish interior, throwing the Karatsu domain passed from one clan
some of its branches up along the rim of to another. AMW
the dish. An uneven line encircles the

312
 250 Fresh water container
Takatori ware
h. 15.5 (6>/8)
Edo period, first half iyth century
Umezawa Kinenkan, Tokyo
The modest complex of Takatori kilns, es-
tablished under the auspices of the
Kuroda family, was one of several begun in
the early seventeenth century with the
backing of Kyushu daimyo. The Kuroda
clan received control over their domain in
the northern Kyushu province of Chiku-
zen, part of present-day Fukuoka Prefec-
ture, for supporting the victorious
Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616) at the Battle
of Sekigahara in 1600 (cat. 104). Typically,
immigrant Korean potters were responsi-
ble for beginning production of the Taka-
tori stonewares.
As recorded in retrospective accounts
such as the Takatori rekidai kiroku (Record
of the successive Takatori generations), an
1820 compilation of Takatori-related oral
tradition and written evidence, the earliest
official clan kiln was established by the
249 daimyo Kuroda Nagamasa (1568-1623) at
the base of Takatori mountain after his
move to Chikuzen in 1600. The operation
of this kiln, Eimanji Takuma, is attributed
to the Korean potter P'alsan (also known
by his Japanese name Takatori Hachizô)
who came to Japan following Hideyoshi's
Korean expeditions. A second clan kiln
was opened in 1614, at Uchigaso. After Na-
gamasa died in 1623, P'alsan and his son
fell into disfavor with the next-generation
Kuroda daimyo, Tadayuki (1602-1654), for
asking permission to return to Korea, a re-
quest that was not granted; they were ban-
ished to Yamada where they are said to
have begun another kiln.
Extensive investigations at the sites of
the first two kilns have clarified the char-
acter of their products and broadened a
once-narrow perception based on the
wares of later kilns that reflect an aesthetic
associated with Kobori Enshü (1579-1647),
the important seventeenth-century arbiter
of tea taste. The Eimanji Takuma kiln, ex-
cavated in 1982, was found to be a modest
i6.6-meter multi-chambered noborigama
(climbing kiln). Although some tea objects
were fired, most of the wares were utilitar-
ian. The subsequent Uchigaso kiln, exam-
ined from 1979 through 1981, was a much
larger 46.5-meter noborigama. The exca-
vated sherds suggest that a great variety of
utilitarian and tea objects were produced
in a number of different styles; ranging
from simple but robust jars to teabowls in
the flamboyant style associated with
Furuta Oribe (1544-1615), which exerted a
250 great impact on many kilns throughout Ja-
pan during the early seventeenth century.
Sherds of pieces closely related to the
products of the later Shirahatayama kiln
were also found. These excavations also
indicate that certain types of objects

313
thought over the years to be Karatsu ware
were also fired at the early Takatori kilns.
The Shirahatayama kiln opened
around 1630, during the tenure of Kuroda
Tadayuki. The Enshü-influenced wares
typical of this and later kilns are character-
ized by understatement and subtle con-
trast, effectively employed in this Takatori
mizusashi (fresh water container). The cy-
lindrical mizusashi, potted from finely tex-
tured clay, is glazed with earthtones that
have fired into a sleek coat. Overlaps of
the smooth exterior glaze laid on in four
well-considered applications create four
delicate lines arcing from top to bottom.
Another sweep of glaze, also a somber
tone, washes the lip of the vessel, while
the interior is covered with a fine, irregu-
lar, mazelike pattern. The bottom is un-
glazed.
The stylistic traits associated with Ko-
bori Enshü were perpetuated at kilns es-
tablished in 1665 a* Koishiwarazumi.
There the major output consisted of tea
wares, especially great quantities of chaire
(powdered-tea containers). The close asso-
ciation between the Takatori lineage of
potters and successive generations of
Kuroda daimyo continued with new kilns
being sponsored until the end of the Edo
period. AMW

251 Flower container

Agano ware
h. 17.8 (7)
Edo period, first half iyth century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo

Agano is another of the western Japanese

ceramic wares established by immigrant
Korean potters under local daimyo patron-
age in the early seventeenth century. It
was produced in the northern Kyushu
province of Buzen (parts of the current
prefectures of Fukuoka and Oita) at the
official kilns of the Hosokawa clan. The
transfer of Hosokawa Sansai (Tadaoki,
1563-1646) from Tango Province (the
northern portion of Kyoto Prefecture) to
Buzen more than doubled the worth of his 251
holdings. This was his reward for his sup-
port of Tokugawa leyasu at the Battle of
Sekigahara in 1600 (cat. 104).
As recorded in later documents, San-
sai, a daimyo reknowned as a poet, painter, ramics, though it is possible that not all spondences between the two kilns, and
and important tea disciple of Sen no were fired at this small kiln. with the Karatsu kilns, can be drawn in
Rikyü (1522-1591), began production of ce- Agano ware was made on an ex- terms of techniques and glaze types. Some
ramics at a small kiln in the garden of his panded scale at the Kamanokuchi kiln, sherds at Kamanokuchi show a stylistic af-
castle in Kokura, where he moved in 1602. probably opened during the first decade of finity with Hagi wares (cat. 253), more than
The kiln is said to have been operated by the seventeenth century and operated by is evident at other Kyushu kilns. Nearby at
Chonhae (also known by his Japanese Chonhae. Sherds recovered from this site, Iwaya Kôrai, another kiln was also active
name, Agano Kizô), a Korean potter who excavated in 1955, show that both utilitar- at this time.
came to Japan after Hideyoshi's Korean ian and tea wares were made there. The Sansai relinquished the post of dai-
expeditions, living first in the Karatsu do- kiln was a large 4i-meter noborigama myo to his son Tadatoshi (1586-1641) in
main and then moving to Buzen at San- (climbing kiln), thus similar in scale to the 1621. Around 1625 another kiln, the Agano
sai's invitation. The possible site of this nearby and roughly contemporary Takatori Sarayama Hongama, was opened. Produc-
kiln, uncovered in 1982, yielded a great va- ware Uchigaso kiln (cat. 250). Indeed, tion continued there under Hosokawa pa-
riety of types of glazed and unglazed ce- though there is a marked paucity of irregu- tronage until the clan was moved
larly shaped wares at Kamanokuchi, corre-

314
 252

253

southwest to Kumamoto in Higo Province once owned by Sansai, but it is unclear 252 Teabowl
in 1632. Sansai retired to Yatsushiro in whether this piece was produced at one of Satsuma ware
Higo, accompanied by Chonhae and other the pre-1032 Agano kilns in Buzen or h. 10.8 (41/4)
potters, establishing kilns that fired tea shortly after Sansai moved to Yatsushiro. Edo period, early iyth century
wares. After the Hosokawa move to Kuma- Traditionally, it is said to have been made Fukushi Shigeo Collection, Tokyo
moto, Sarayama Hongama was continued by Chonhae; whether this attribution is
by descendants of Chonhae as the official correct is impossible to verify, though later Satsuma ware is another of the many
kiln of the Ogasawara clan, the Hosokawa Yatsushiro wares often have less delicate types of ceramics established by a daimyo
replacements in Buzen. forms and sometimes decoratively pat- following his participation in Hideyoshi's
This hanaire (flower container), with terned designs. A fitting on the back of Korean expeditions. According to histori-
its simplicity of shape and earth color, is this type of container allowed it to be cal records maintained by the Naeshiro-
representative of the refined tea wares hung on the post of a tea room, though it gawa Satsuma ware kiln, Shimazu
produced under Sansai's patronage. The could be placed on the ground. AMW Yoshihiro (1535-1619), a Sen no Rikyü
box in which the flower container is stored (1522-1591) disciple and ruler of the large
bears an inscription stating that it was

315
Satsuma domain in southern Kyushu, re- myo continued to encourage the activities documents record that in the same year Yi
turned from Korea in 1598 accompanied at Tateno through their patronage and by Chak-kwang's son was given the name Sa-
by more than seventy Koreans. Among sending potters to other Japanese kilns to kunojô and assigned by Hidenari to head
them, it is thought, were a number of pot- learn new techniques, as Shimazu the Matsumoto kiln; he was given the
ters who were responsible for operating Narinobu (1769-1841) is reported to have same stipend that his father had received,
the earliest Satsuma kilns. Tradition is that done at the end of the eighteenth century. while Kôraizaemon got a stipend that was
the first kiln, producing utilitarian vessels Official and non-official kilns were active slightly less. The expansion of the Matsu-
and not clan-protected, was begun while within Satsuma throughout the Edo pe- moto kiln operation is reflected by the
Yoshihiro fought at the Battle of Sekiga- riod, producing a wide range of ceramics growing number of stipended potters in
hara in 1600 (cat. 104). The Uto kiln in including the colorful overglaze enamel clan records from the late 16205 to 1645.
Chosa, the earliest clan-sponsored kiln, works that are, for many, the type most of- In the second half of the seventeenth
was not opened until around 1601, after ten associated with Satsuma. AMW century, the number of official kilns in the
Yoshihiro had returned to his domain. The domain increased. In 1657, a ^m was
second, Osato kiln, was begun after Yoshi- 253 Teabowl, named Daimyd opened in Fukawa Sonóse, east of Matsu-
hiro retired in favor of his son lehisa (1576- moto, with the help of laborers assigned by
Hagi ware
1636) in 1607 and moved to Kajiki, slightly the clan and skilled potters who relocated
h. 8.5 (3 3/8)
east of Chôsa. Both were located near from Matsumoto. This operation, how-
Edo period, i7th century
Yoshihiro's residences and are said to have ever, had a somewhat different status than
been operated by the Korean Kim Hae Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo Matsumoto in that it was allowed to pro-
(also known by the name he acquired in Ja- duce other wares in addition to those it
pan, Hoshiyama Chüji). At both kilns, the The Hagi kilns were both daimyo- produced for the clan. In 1663, during the
chief products were tea wares. sponsored and begun by Korean potters
tenure of the Mori daimyo Tsunahiro
This teabowl, probably from one of who came to Japan following the Korean (1639-1689), clan kilns producing only offi-
these first two clan kilns, is one of the few campaigns. They were located on the cial wares were established as offshoots of
examples of its type known. Its shape is re- main Japanese island of Honshu, on the the Matsumoto kiln, the Miwa and Sahaku
lated to contemporary Korean porcelain or northern shore of its western tip (part of
kilns. In 1700, the first-generation Miwa
Mishima-style vessels, reflecting the roots present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture). This head potter was sent to Kyoto on clan or-
of the early Satsuma potters. Simple and area was controlled by the Môri, a clan der to learn the Raku techniques, as was
stolid, the bowl is firmly supported by a whose territories were drastically reduced the fourth-generation head in 1744. By
tall, ring foot, tapering from a low, pro- from eight provinces to two after Mori
sending the potters to Kyoto, the daimyo
truding waist toward a wide mouth. The Terumoto (1553-1625) opposed Tokugawa
hoped to keep the potters of the heavily
glaze, a forerunner of the deep black glaze leyasu (1543-1616) at Sekigahara in 1600 Korean-influenced Hagi wares aware of
that was to become a characteristic Sat- (cat. 104). In 1604, the seat of the Mori ad-
other Japanese ceramics.
suma type, has fired to an irregularly ministration was transferred to Hagi and,
according to mid-eighteenth century With clan approval, the Hagi tradition
mottled surface that softens the form. was transmitted within the extended Mori
Brushed in Edo-period writing on a paper records compiled by the clan, a kiln was
then established at Matsumoto near the family. A Hagi potter went to the clan kiln
cartouche on the lid of the box that holds of Chôfu, a Mori branch family domain, at
the bowl is Satsuma owan, or "Satsuma Hagi castle by the immigrant Korean pot-
ter Yi Chak-kwang who was assisted by his the request of the Mori daimyo Tsuna-
bowl." moto (1650-1705). As recorded in an 1815
younger brother Yi Kyóng. The Hagi ware
Examinations of the Uto site indicate kiln document, a Hagi potter established
enterprise evolved into a closely managed
that the kiln was small and not fired many an official kiln in 1745 for the rulers of the
organ of the clan where glazed ceramics
times, a peculiarity that might be ex- small Tokuyama domain, also a branch
based on Korean prototypes, chiefly tea
plained by the Hoshiyama family account family of the Mori.
wares, were produced.
that soon after opening the Uto kiln, Kim Throughout the Edo period, the clan
Reflecting the ceramic ideal sought
Hae was sent by Yoshihiro to the well- continued its involvement with the Hagi
by the Mori patrons, this Hagi teabowl re-
established Seto kilns for five years of kilns, both old and new, official and non-
training. Shortly after Kim Hae's return to calls Korean wares, specifically Ido type
bowls. Ido bowls are thought to have been official, some of which flourished while
the Satsuma domain and with Yoshihiro's others failed. In 1815, the clan issued an or-
employed originally for utilitarian pur-
move to Kajiki in 1607, the Osato kiln re- der prohibiting non-official kilns from
poses in Korea and imported to Japan in
placed Uto. The Osato kiln, also small, ap- making copies of official teabowls or using
the sixteenth century for tea men who ap-
pears to have been fired many times, a certain type of clay; apparently, the order
preciated their understated beauty. The
probably until Yoshihiro's death in 1619. was not observed, as it was repeated in
slightly irregular cone-shaped bowl, thick
Yoshihiro's son lehisa ruled from Ka- 1832. In the early nineteenth century, kilns
at the bottom and thinner near the rim,
goshima, south of the earlier locations. Af- were established with Mori assistance to
flares from a precariously small, high, ring
ter Yoshihiro passed away in 1619, Kim fire porcelain wares for daily use, to com-
foot, accented at the joint of the foot and
Hae moved there at lehisa's behest and plement the pottery made by the other
body with a tooled line. Glaze covers the
operated a small-scale clan kiln in Tateno. kilns. AMW
bowl in an uneven coat that has fired to a
At this kiln, continued by Kim Hae's de-
subtle range of colors, from white areas
scendants after his death, tea wares were
where the glaze is thick to pink blushes.
produced that reflect the refinement of
The extent to which the Mori were
the then-current Kobori Enshü aesthetic.
involved in the affairs of the Matsumoto
This kiln was replaced by a much larger
kiln, and the others that followed, can be
one where the scale of production was ex-
traced through historical records. A docu-
panded and new wares were developed.
ment dated 1625 with the kad of the first
Subsequent generations of Shimazu dai-
generation Mori daimyo of Hagi, Hidenari
(1595-1651), relates his granting of the
name Kôraizaemon to a certain Saka Su-
kehachi, the former Yi Kyóng. Mid-Edo

316
254 Teabowl, named Jud
Hon'ami Kôetsu (1558-1637)
h. 9.9 (3 7/s)
Edo period, early iyth century
Goto Museum, Tokyo

255 Teabowl, named Azuma

Hon'ami Kôetsu (1558-1637)
h. 8.8 (3^/2)
Edo period, early iyth century
Kitamura Bunka Zaidan, Kyoto

The popularity of the practice of tea stim-

ulated the diversification of native Japa-
nese wares. Some tea men actively joined
in this process as amateur potters, without
the technical skills or inhibitions of the
professionals, supplying a new source of
energy to the artistic flux. Typically, these
amateurs employed the uncomplicated
methods for forming vessels established in
the mid-sixteenth century by the Raku lin-
eage of potters (cats. 285, 286). One of the
earliest and most artistically successful and
influential members of this group was
Hon'ami Kôetsu, the prominent early
Edo-period calligrapher, designer, and stu-
dent of the tea master Furuta Oribe (1544-
1615).
Koetsu's serious involvement with ce-
ramics did not begin until he was in his
late fifties. Earlier, he had been trained in 254
sword connoisseurship, his family's tradi-
tional profession, and had attained his ar-
tistic reputation primarily through
achievements in the field of calligraphy. In
1615, he moved to Takagamine, land
granted to him by Tokugawa leyasu (1543-
1616), northwest of Kyoto, where he
formed an artistic community and is re-
ported to have found "good earth." A let-
ter dating to around 1620 from Kôetsu to
Katô Akinari (1592-1661), the son of Katô
Yoshiaki (1563-1631), daimyo of Matsuyama
in lyo Province (present-day Ehime Pre-
fecture), concerns the order of a teabowl
by the older Katô, reflecting the high re-
gard accorded his ceramic work even dur-
ing his lifetime.
Very few ceramic objects are cur-
rently accepted as authentic works by
Kôetsu. All of these are tea-related wares,
and most are teabowls. The two examples
in this exhibition represent the two basic
Raku glazes, red and black, and Kôetsu
worked in both. Jud (Ten Kings) is an ex-
ample of the red Raku type (cat. 254). Its
globular form sits on a short foot, and the
rim of the mouth curves gently inward, a
tendency echoed on the carved lower part
of the body. Although Kôetsu used the 255
simple methods pioneered by the Raku
potters, handbuilding his bowls from slabs
of clay, he was not bound by their concep-
tual framework. Chôjirô (1516-1592), the
founder of the Raku tradition, was en-

317
 256

318
 257

trusted by the tea master Sen no Rikyü son, Azuma, one of the most reticent of of kilns established along the eastern and
(1522-1591) with realizing in plastic form Koetsu's works, seems softened and de- northern fringes of Kyoto. Around 1647,
the reserved and austere wabi aesthetic he mure. The rim of the mouth is blunt and Ninsei established the Omuro kiln in the
espoused, and the responsibility of pre- describes a slow undulating movement. western part of the city at Ninnaji and be-
serving this tradition no doubt had a con- The dominant feature is the white-tinged gan to fire his ceramics, primarily tea-
strictive effect on Chojiro's successors. crackled area of glaze. AMW related vessels. Ninsei's studio was
Koetsu, on the other hand, adhered to the characterized by great versatility, produc-
aesthetic theories of his own time, espe- ing objects in both large and small scales
256 Large storage jar for tea leaves
cially those of his tea teacher Oribe; these and sometimes in styles other than the
encouraged outgoing, idiosyncratic expres- Nonomura Ninsei
multi-colored enameled type exhibited
sions in clay, as seen, for example, in the (fl. mid-iyth century) here, including refined versions of the
products of the Mino kilns (cats. 242-247). h. 26.3 (io3/s) wares of other kilns such as Seto, Karatsu,
The shape oí Azuma (East, cat. 255) Edo period, and Shigaraki.
and its thick coat of black Raku glaze are mid-iyth century The angled shoulder and tall, narrow
reminiscent of the works of the third- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo form of the chatsubo, or large storage jar
generation master of the Raku lineage, Important Cultural Property for tea leaves, in the collection of the
Dônyu (also known as Nonkô, 1599-1656). Agency for Cultural Affairs (cat. 256) re-
Letters from Koetsu to the Raku family, in calls that of much smaller containers used
one of which he orders clay from them, for powdered tea in the popular katatsuki
257 Fresh water container
and contemporary biographical accounts style. Despite the tremendous increase in
Nonomura Ninsei
indicate that Kóetsu pursued his ceramic size, the form has lost none of its delicacy.
(fl. mid-i7th century)
activities with the guidance of Jókei, the By appending the four loops at the shoul-
h. 14.0 (5^2)
second-generation Raku master, and ders that are typical of chatsubo, Ninsei in-
Dônyu. The nature of this relationship Edo period, vented a composite form that he is known
probably was one less of dependence than mid-i7th century to have employed in at least two other
cross-fertilization; the revitalization of the Tokyo National Museum pieces.
Raku tradition that Donyu is credited with Most immediately striking in this
is attributable at least in part to his in- Nonomura Ninsei is regarded as the piv- work is the bold decoration. Although the
volvement with the amateur potter otal figure in the early development of multi-color enamel process was probably
Koetsu. Some of Kôetsu's most striking Kyôyaki, the ceramic wares of Kyoto, of- introduced to Japan from China, Ninsei
black bowls are characterized by their ten decorated with multi-color enamels. developed new techniques, experimenting
sharply defined profile, frequently with an His work reflected the refinement and lux- with elegant harmonies of color and deco-
outward-slanting rim and portions of the ury of Kyoto and satisfied the aesthetic re- rative motifs. These often speak less of
bowl not covered with glaze. In compari- quirements of Japan's political and China than of Japan, drawing influence
cultural elite. By the mid-seventeenth cen- from native sources such as the yamato-e
tury, Kyoyaki was being made at a number

319
 258

painting traditions and lacquer. Small pine Kaga (part of present-day Ishikawa Prefec- unglazed bottom of the vessel is stamped
trees in gold and light green, and red ca- ture) also owned many pieces by Ninsei, with the large Ninsei seal.
mellia and plum blossoms outlined and de- some of which are recorded to have en- The colored decoration is a mixture
tailed in gold with light green leaves, tered their collection through the well- of natural motifs and geometric abstrac-
stretch into the characteristic rich Ninsei- connected Kyoto tea master and some- tions. A weave of silver diamond-shaped
guro (Ninsei black) background. Low, roll- time Maeda guest, Kanamori Sôwa (1584- lozenges, graded in size from the narrower
ing mountains, like those in Japan, loom 1656). Sowa's social influence and bottom to wider top, are filled with gold
behind in gold. The lower portion of the aesthetic guidance were of great impor- floral abstractions on a red ground. Four
vessel remains undercorated, revealing the tance to Ninsei, especially during the early windows are framed by the weave, each
clay body, and the bottom is marked with a part of the artist's career. opening onto a white ground and contain-
large seal that reads Ninsei. Like cat. 256, the mizusashi in the col- ing green-leafed peony buds and blooms in
Ninsei reaped the benefits of a tea lection of the Tokyo National Museum combinations of gold and red, and red and
world support system that linked him with (cat. 257) adapts the shape of a powdered silver. The technique employed for the
tea masters and members of the different tea container, in this case, a natsume, a flowers is that of yamato-e, especially that
social classes, including court, wealthy type usually made of black lacquer. Two seen in the floral forms painted by the art-
merchant, and daimyo clients. Cat. 256 other slightly larger mizusashi in this ists of Sotatsu's studio. Gold is used for
was owned by the Kyógoku family, daimyo shape are known, though this example is the earth and clouds, and to delineate the
of the Marugame domain on Shikoku the most minutely and painstakingly exe- juncture of the vertical wall with the top.
from 1658 throughout the Edo period, one cuted. The walls are thin, elegantly curv- The top is decorated with a billowing wave
of many works by Ninsei in their posses- ing up toward the flattened top that is pattern in silver on a red ground. Subse-
sion. The wealthy Maeda daimyo of stepped down at the mouth to form a quent oxidation has blackened the silver.
ledge upon which the lid would rest. The

320
 258 Set of five dishes
Nabeshima ware
diam. 20.0(77/8)
Edo period,
late i7th—early i8th century
Tokyo National Museum

259 Dish
Nabeshima ware
diam. 29.6(115/8)
Edo period,
late i7th—early i8th century
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo

From around 1675, the official Nabeshima

clan kiln of Okawachi in the Arita area of
Hizen Province (in present-day Saga Pre-
fecture) produced Japanese porcelains of
the highest technical quality, with refined,
elegant designs. Although angular and un-
usually shaped objects are not unknown,
the Nabeshima potters concentrated on a
small repertoire of uniformly shaped table-
wares, primarily round high-footed dishes,
which they decorated with a palette lim-
ited to red, green, and yellow overglaze
enamels, underglaze blue, and occasion-
ally iron-brown glaze and celadon green.
Examinations of the Okawachi site have
revealed an enormous noborigama (climb-
ing kiln), measuring 137 meters in length
and consisting of at least twenty-seven
chambers; it is thought that only three
central chambers, affording optimal firing
conditions, were used for the official por-
celains, and the remaining chambers for
utilitarian wares.
For most of its long history the kiln
was administered with the close control of
the Nabeshima daimyo. The examples of
Nabeshima ware included in this exhibi-
tion are thought to date from the peak
production period of the Okawachi kiln,
from the end of the seventeenth century
Ninsei's biography must be pieced to- the year Sowa died, the potter had as- through the middle of the eighteenth cen-
gether from inscriptions on his works, con- sumed the name Harima, as inscribed on tury, when the Nabeshima clan's participa-
temporary temple records, diaries, and an excavated sherd, and by the following tion in administration of the kiln was at its
accounts by the potter Ogata Kenzan year, the name Ninsei. The origin of the height. A directive issued in 1693 by the
(1663-1743). At the beginning of Tdkd Japanese characters that make up Ninsei's Nabeshima daimyo Mitsushige (1632-1700)
hitsuyd, Kenzan's treatise on ceramic name is explained by Kenzan: the first shows concern with the quality of the
techniques, Ninsei's name is given as character nin was borrowed from Ninnaji, wares and makes detailed comments re-
Nonomura Seiemon. The family name and the second character sei from his com- garding the affairs of the kiln. He casti-
Nonomura refers to an area in the Prov- mon name. Documentary evidence sug- gates the kiln administrator about a recent
ince of Tamba, presently in Kyoto Prefec- gests that Ninsei's son, though not blessed slippage in the quality of the official wares,
ture, where large tea storage jars were with his father's artistic acumen, probably complains about the repetition of designs,
made in the early Edo period. A 1649 succeeded as master of the Omuro kiln and demands that new, fashionable ones
source calls him the "potter Seiemon," during the early part of the Enpó era be found. To prevent the marketing of
and a record in the Ninnaji archives from (1673-1681). AMW copies of official wares by other kilns, he
the following year informs us that Ninsei prohibits outside potters from having ac-
had been a Tamba potter. He apprenticed cess to Okawachi, and orders imperfect or
at the Awataguchi kiln in Kyoto, following otherwise unusable Okawachi porcelains
which, according to Kenzan, he spent sev- to be disposed of properly.
eral years in Seto for further training. Re- The finest Nabeshima wares were
turning to Kyoto, Ninsei opened the used exclusively by the clan or presented
Omuro kiln around 1647 through the me- to others of high social rank in the court,
diatory efforts of Kanamori Sówa. By 1656, military, and political spheres. This prac-

321
 259

tice is documented in the personal chroni- dishes were made in one of a limited range ular set. Many Nabeshima designs were
cle of Nabeshima Shigemochi (1733-1770). of sizes. The dishes in this set are medium- lifted from contemporary design pattern
The entry for the seventeenth day of the sized, referred to in terms of the old Japa- books or adapted from textiles and maki-e
sixth month of the second year of Meiwa nese measurement system as seven sun, an lacquer wares.
[1765] records a ten-day visit by Shige- especially practical and popular size manu- Although porcelains painted with
mochi to his daimyo counterpart in Oda- factured in quantity and decorated in overglaze enamels are the most renowned
wara (currently part of Kanagawa matching sets. Reminiscent of the con- of the Nabeshima kiln products, extremely
Prefecture), during which time Shige- temporary lacquer tablewares with which fine pieces decorated only with underglaze
mochi presented a gift of ceramics. they were used, the dishes have a shallow blue were also produced, such as the dish
Details regarding the early history of bowl fitted with a relatively tall ring foot. decorated with a pine tree motif (cat. 259).
official Nabeshima clan porcelain kilns are The design, concentrated away from Its size, one shaku, is the largest of the
unclear. A mid-Meiji-period document the center, depicts a cherry tree in full most common Nabeshima dish sizes. The
based on older kiln-related clan materials bloom, employing all of the typical Na- stylized pine adapts well to the same type
relates that two porcelain-producing kilns beshima colors except celadon green and of centrifugal composition seen in cat. 258.
predating the Okawachi kiln fired wares brown. Fingerlike roots anchor a great Its jagged yet gracefully twisting trunk and
for the Nabeshima daimyo. The first, at trunk that throws off several twisting branches are outlined in blue and then
Iwayagawachi, was superseded by a sec- branches, the outline and details described filled in with a uniformly smooth coat of
ond at Nangawara. At these two early with a dark underglaze blue and filled in light blue. Attached to the branches are
kilns, it is thought that special wares for with a lighter blue tone. The petals of the overlapping circles of precisely drawn,
the daimyo were produced on order, blossoms are described with a fine red line stiff, radiating pine needles in dark blue.
though the strict clan control over all that is also used for the interior detail of In place of a ring foot, three evenly spaced
phases of kiln activities that was so promi- the flowers, while the petals themselves projecting feet, crafted in the shape of
nent at the Okawachi kiln had not yet are white, the porcelain left in reserve. scalloped leaves and covered with under-
been established. The leaves are colored with overglaze ap- glaze blue, support the dish. Other three-
Many of the typical characteristics of plications of green and yellow. This design legged dishes of this type, all characterized
Nabeshima porcelains are evident in the was one of many recorded in a design book by especially fine workmanship, suggest
set of five dishes in the Tokyo National maintained by the Nabeshima clan, where that these vessels were made on order for
Museum (cat. 258). Most Nabeshima it is dated to 1718, though, due to the fre- particularly important occasions. AMW
quent repetition of designs, it cannot be
assumed that this is the date of this partic-

322
260
2Óo Large dish gathered from these two sites, including lution to the Ko Kutani debate, if there is
Ko Kutani ware white porcelains that were possibly in- one forthcoming, awaits further archaeo-
diam. 40.5 (16) tended to receive overglaze enamel deco- logical and art historical research.
Edo period, late iyth century ration later, some underglaze blue The large dish from the Umezawa
porcelains, and celadons, have not conclu- Kinenkan (cat. 260) has twelve hexagonals
Umezawa Kinenkan, Tokyo
sively solved the mystery, though some of along the rim, surrounding a central roun-
Important Cultural Property
the characteristic types of so-called Ko Ku- del that contains a floral motif dominated
tani were not represented. In the nine- by two large peonies. The realistically de-
teenth century, a revival of porcelain picted flowers face away from each other,
2Ói Sake ewer production took place in the Kutani area, one fully open and the other just begin-
Ko Kutani ware though these later products should not be ning to bloom, outlined and detailed in a
h. 16.8 (6 5/s) confused with Ko Kutani wares. fluid black line and densely colored with
Edo period, late iyth century The earliest written record concern- purple enamel. Green stems and leaves,
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo ing the start of kilns in Kutani, dating to one tinged with yellow, complement the
Important Cultural Property 1736, is retrospective in nature. It notes flowers along with two red line drawings of
that during the Meireki era (1655-1658), butterflies, one large and the other small.
Despite the unsettling persistence of unre- Maeda Toshiharu (1618-1660), the first dai- On the rim, the major elements of the
solved historical issues, the artistic merit myo of the Daishôji domain and a son of central design are abstracted into a motif
of the enameled porcelain wares known as the enormously wealthy Kaga daimyo and composed of two contraposed butterflies
Ko Kutani, or Old Kutani, remains un- art patron Maeda Toshitsune (1593-1658), viewed from above against a background
questionable. The painted designs of Ko ordered a person by the name of Goto to of purple peony petals. This motif is
Kutani porcelains are as exuberant and make pottery at Kutani, adding that an- placed in six of the hexagons, which alter-
boldly drawn as the designs of Nabeshima other type of ware, similar to Chinese nate with six others filled with a maze of
wares are distilled and precise. The typical Nankin porcelain, had once been made green geometric decoration. The over-
Ko Kutani vessel is thickly potted from a there but was no longer. Two later docu- glaze enamels are applied with great free-
relatively coarse grade of porcelain clay ments present more elaborate stories. Ac- dom, allowing accidental overflows of
and sometimes decorated with a limited cording to one from 1784, the second color beyond the boundary lines. Three
amount of underglaze blue. Designs, usu- Daishôji daimyo Maeda Toshiaki (1637- sections of blue enamel floral scrollwork,
ally outlined and detailed first in black, are 1693) sent Goto Saijirô to the large com- each with a purple peony blossom, wind
colored with richly-toned overglaze plex of advanced porcelain kilns at Arita in around the back of the bowl.
enamels, including green, purple, dark Hizen to acquire ceramic skills, after Of the few known Ko Kutani sake ew-
blue, yellow, and red. Most of these wares which he returned to Kutani and opened a ers with a similar low, round form derived
are decorated with naturalistically de- kiln. The substance of the story, that the from metal prototypes, the example in the
picted floral motifs, landscapes with Chi- Kutani kilns were started on a technologi- Eisei Bunko (cat. 261) is generally regarded
nese figures, and bird-and-flower themes, cal foundation introduced from Arita, is as the most finely executed in both shape
alone or more often in combination with supported by physical evidence. In the and decoration. The meticulously formed
abstractions and geometric patterns. early seventeenth century, the ceramic in- vessel, supported by three small legs, has a
The Kutani problem focuses on the dustry at Arita was the first in Japan to spherical bottom, a bulging register encir-
questions of where objects that have tradi- produce porcelain, and the type of kiln cling the top, and a broad, knobbed lid.
tionally been called Ko Kutani were actu- and the kiln furniture excavated at the Ku- From a single point at the back, an arching
ally made, and what the relationship is tani kilns are similar to those used at Arita. round handle spans the top of the vessel to
between these wares and Kutani, an iso- The complicated Ko Kutani question the front where it divides and attaches to
lated village located in the Daishôji do- has spawned a substantial body of litera- the body just above the appended half-
main. Daishôji, a part of the large Kaga ture and opinion. Some ceramic historians cylinder spout.
territory (presently part of Ishikawa Pre- have reassigned what were originally Colorful, animated decoration enliv-
fecture) under the control of the powerful thought to be products of the Kutani kilns ens the vessel. A scroll of red peonies on
Maeda clan, was ruled by a Maeda branch to Arita, and blue-and-white sherds exca- brown stems with green and blue leaves
family. The sites of two porcelain- vated at several Arita kiln sites are clearly forms a ground for five blue and green
producing kilns in Kutani were examined of a type that has traditionally been shishi, mythical lionlike creatures that
during a series of archaeological excava- thought of as Ko Kutani. Another theory frolic over the vessel, one on the lid and
tions begun in 1970. The earlier kiln was a is that Arita-made porcelain bodies were four distributed around the sides of the
large multi-chambered noborigama (climb- shipped to Kaga where they were deco- body. An underglaze blue floral scroll with
ing kiln), about thirty-four meters in rated. Recently, fresh discussion has been three chrysanthemum flowers decorates
length, which scientific tests indicate was sparked by the recovery of Ko Kutani the handle, while the spout has a decora-
probably used until the latter part of the sherds during examinations conducted tive pattern in green and yellow. To mask
seventeenth century. The start of this kiln from 1984 through 1986 at the site of the an apparent kiln defect, the very bottom
is accorded a date no later than that in- Daishôji daimyo residence in the capital of the vessel is painted with a leaf in blue
scribed on an excavated sherd that reads city of Edo (presently Tokyo). Until this enamel. AMW
Meireki 2 [1656], Kutani. The second kiln, discovery, no Ko Kutani sherds had been
also a noborigama, was much smaller, less found in any of the excavated Edo-period
than fourteen meters long. A combination residential sites around Japan. The new
of documentary and archaeological evi- findings, in a house occupied by the dai-
dence suggests that it was fired until prob- myo of the territory in which the village of
ably the late seventeenth or early Kutani and its Edo-period kilns are lo-
eighteenth century. The various sherds cated, argue for a close connection be-
tween the Maeda clan and Ko Kutani
wares; the nature of this connection,
though, cannot yet be determined. A reso-

324
261

325
TEXTILES

327
 262

202 Ddbuku era, it was also used for civilian clothing.

appliqué and stencil dyeing on leather The leather was stretched taut over a slow
1.89.0(35) fire of such materials as straw or pine nee-
W. 141.0 (55 l/z) dles; typically, straw produces a brown
Muromachi period, loth century color, as in this ddbuku, and pine needles
Ueda Municipal Museum, gray. The longer the smoking period, the
Nagano Prefecture darker the shade that resulted, and the
background pattern of this ddbuku was
Important Cultural Property
created by smoking the darker areas longer
The dobuku was a short jacket worn by than the lighter. This technique employed
high-ranking samurai from the late Muro- a stenciled resist. The whole piece of
machi to early Edo periods. This leather leather would be smoked till the lighter of
example, with seven white leather paulow- the desired shades had been achieved.
nia crests appliquéd to the front and back, Then a stencil of the intended pattern,
is said to have been given in 1568 by Oda with cutouts wherever the lighter color
Nobunaga (1534-1582) to Matsudaira Nobu- was required, would be laid over the
kazu (1539-1624), founder of the Matsu- leather and a resist material such as wax or
daira family of the castle town Ueda in gum applied through the cutouts. This re-
Shinano Province (present-day Nagano sist material prevented further darkening
Prefecture). of the leather beneath it. The smoking
Leather with color or designs added process would then be continued until the
by dye or smoke was often used on arms darker shade had been reached on the un-
and armor from the Heian through the resisted parts of the leather. Finally the
Muromachi periods; in the early modern leather would be removed from the smoke
and the resist material picked off, reveal-

328
ing the lighter shade wherever it had been yoshi's crest (mon), in a stiff, heraldic line To make the design on this ddbuku,
applied. This ddbuku is a fine and early ex- across the purple-dyed shoulders and more the paulownia and arrow motifs were re-
ample of the komon (small pattern) stencil freely disposed on the white midsection, served in white while their respective
technique, developed from the stencil and feathered arrow shafts, forming an- backgrounds were dyed purple and green;
methods used earlier on leather for armor, other rigid line, on the green lower border. in the midsection the process was reversed
and often employed in the Edo period for The contrast of the regular, static arrange- and the background reserved in white
the clothing of the warrior class. KS ment above and below with the looser while the paulownia were dyed purple,
composition in the middle makes for a blue, and two shades of greerr. The divi-
263 Dôbuku bold, dynamic design. sion of the background into contrasting
shibori dyeing on silk The fabric is nerinuki, a plain-weave color areas, the use of motifs from nature,
silk of raw (unglossed) warps and de- and the overall effect of lightness, soft-
1.115.0 (44 7/s)
gummed (glossed) wefts. Its characteristic ness, and delicacy in the design are charac-
w. 115.8 (45 Vs) teristics of the decorative style now called
crispness, soft luster, and flat surface are
Momoyama period, loth century tsujigdhana, which flourished from the lat-
particularly suited to shibori dyeing, a re-
Kyoto National Museum serve, or resist, technique in which parts ter half of the Muromachi through the
Important Cultural Property of the fabric are protected against the dye Momoyama period.
when the piece is dipped in the dye bath. Among the upper classes of earlier pe-
This dobuku is said to have been given by Either the background or the design may riods, clothing with dyed designs had been
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) to Nanbu be so protected. The area to be reserved is a poor second to that with woven designs.
Nobunao (1546-1599), a warrior who sent "squeezed" (shiboru) away from the rest of The popularity of tsujigahana among the
horses and falcons to Hideyoshi during the the fabric by pinching or shirring, then daimyo of the Age of the Country at War
Odawara campaign in 1590. The design is tightly wound with waterproof thread, fi- (Sengoku era) must have been simultane-
entirely appropriate for a gift between feu- ber, or (for larger areas) bamboo sheathing; ously a result of and a spur to advances in
dal warriors: paulownia blossoms, Hide- when the fabric has been dyed and dried, shibori techniques. KS
these protective elements are removed.

329
 263

330
264

331
 264 Dobuku 266 Jinbaori
stencil dyeing on silk kirihame and appliqué on wool
1.87.0(341/4) 1. 77.0 (30)
W. 141.O (55 l
/2) w. 104.0 (40 Vz)
Edo period, iyth century Momoyama period, i6th century
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo Tokyo National Museum

This ddbuku, shaped like a jinbaori, is said Made of wool dyed bright red with cochi-
to have been used by Inagaki Nagashige neal, this boldly decorated jinbaori is said
(1539-1603) or his son Shigetsuna. Eight to have been owned by the daimyo Koba-
later consecutive generations of the In- yakawa Hideaki (1577-1602), a nephew of
agaki ruled as daimyo of the domain of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and commander in
Toba (in present-day Mie Prefecture), start- the 1597 invasion of Korea and supporter
ing in 1725 when Inagaki Akikata (1698- of Tokugawa leyasu at the Battle of Seki-
1752) transferred to Toba and lasting until gahara. On the back are represented a pair
the Meiji Restoration, during the reign of of large crossed sickles. The blade of each
Inagaki Nagahiro (1854-1920). Until re- is made in the kirihame technique, fitting
cently, the ddbuku remained in the posses- black and white wool pieces into holes cut
sion of the Inagaki family. Although out of the garment and sewing them se-
generally similar in form to ddbuku deco- curely into place; the handles are appli-
rated with small-pattern komon designs quéd on top of the red wool. Woolen
dating from the beginning of the early fabrics were brought to Japan in the Mo-
modern era, this example is reversible. moyama period by the Portugese, as re-
The composition of the intricate design is flected by the Japanese word for such
unusual in early komon textiles, suggesting material, rasha, derived from the Portu-
an early Edo-period date. The back of the gese raxa, meaning woolen cloth. The
dobuku is decorated with the large mon, or curved hem of this jinbaori, uncharacteris-
family crest, of the Inagaki, depicting fac- tic of traditional Japanese clothing, shows
ing sprouts of the mydga plant. KS instead the impact of the sartorial style of
the Portugese and Spanish who came to
Japan in the Momoyama period. KS
265 Jinbaori
kirihame and embroidery on wool 267 Kosode
1. 90.0 (35) embroidery and kanoko shibori
w. 126.0 (49 l/s) dyeing on figured satin
Momoyama period, ryth century 1.142.5(551/2)
Sendai City Museum, W. 124.0 (48 3/8)
Miyagi Prefecture Edo period, i7th century
Nomura Collection,
This striking jinbaori is said to have been National Museum of Japanese
owned by Date Masamune (1567-1636), History,
daimyo of Sendai. Originally the jinbaori's Chiba Prefecture
purpose was functional; it was worn over
armor for protection against cold and rain. The kosode was the principal Japanese
Gradually the element of design assumed outer robe from the sixteenth century on,
greater importance, and styles were cre- having previously served as outer garment
ated that reflected the personal tastes of for the lower classes and as undergarment
the military elite. Horizontally centered on for the upper classes. From the kosode
the back of this jacket of thin wool is the evolved the modern kimono. Kosode liter-
bamboo and sparrow crest (mon) of the ally means "small sleeves," a reference not
Date family embroidered in gold. Using to the length or width of the sleeves them-
the kirihame technique, the prominent selves but to the size of the wrist openings.
and variously sized circles of white, yellow, This kosode is a representative example of
red, green, and blue wool are fitted into the Kanbun style of kosode decoration that
holes cut out of the garment and trimmed was particularly popular during the Kan-
with different colors. KS bun era (1661-1673) of the Edo period. In

332
265

333
 266

the Kanbun style the front and back of the On the back of this kosode, large over- A close look at the embroidered ma-
garment are each a single field for a mark- lapping maple leaves form the arc across ple leaves reveals that they are solidly
edly asymmetrical design depicted quite the shoulders to the right hem, with the paved with cherry blossoms—a kind of sur-
large, even in closeup. The primary design red figured satin (rinzu) background ex- real juxtaposition much favored in kosode
field was the back, on which the design posed on the left. The maple leaves, out- designs of the early Edo period. The com-
formed a dramatic arc across the shoulders lined with gold, are of two types. Some are bination of cherry blossoms and maple
and down the right side, leaving the left depicted in kanoko shibori, literally, "fawn- leaves evokes for the Japanese their two fa-
side undecorated. Kosode decorated in this spot" shibori, referring to the allover dap- vorite seasons, spring and fall.
striking style were favored by the then- pled pattern of small white spots, each Other similar Kanbun-style decora-
economically powerful merchant sector of centered on a dot of the background color. tive schemes can be seen in the Shinsen
society, but were also widely popular with These diagonal rows of tiny white circles onhiinagdta, a kosode design book pub-
other classes. were produced by pinching off successive lished in 1666, the sixth year of the Kan-
An order book of the Kariganeya ko- bits of fabric along the bias and binding bun era. KS
sode design house illustrates Kanbun styles each bit tightly with waterproof thread or
ordered by Tôfukumon'in (1607-1678), fiber, except at the tip, before immersion
daughter of the second Tokugawa shogun, in the dye bath. Gold embroidery picks
Hidetada, and consort of Emperor Go- out the veins and forms tiny globes of dew
Mizunoo. on the shibori leaves. The remaining
leaves are rendered in gold and white em-
broidery against brush-applied black dye
(hikizome).

334
267

335
 208 Uchikake cocks and large blooming peonies. Pea-
embroidery and kanoko shibori cocks and peonies formed a favorite
on figured satin auspicious motif, symbolic of beauty and
l.17i.8(67) plenty. Running water flows through the
W. 12O.O (46 3/4) design, from top to bottom. Against the
Edo period, i8th century green dyed background, the design is com-
posed chiefly of a sharply defined, white
Tokyo National Museum
reserve pattern executed by the skilled ap-
The uchikake, a woman's outer garment plication of dye-resistant paste. This tech-
worn unbelted over the kosode, first ap- nique, known as shiro age, was a typical
peared in the Muromachi period; in the feature of yùzen dyeing of the latter part
Edo period women of the samurai class be- of the Edo period. The design is high-
gan to wear formal uchikake on an or- lighted throughout with embroidery in
nately embroidered background of white, red, gold, and other colors. KS
red, or black. This example is made of red
figured satin (rinzu). The design consists of 270 Kosode
cherry blossoms and bamboo screens amid yùzen (resist-paste) dyeing and
conventionalized cloud-scrolls. On the embroidery on silk
back of the robe one of the screens is deco-
1. 174.0 (67 7/8)
rated with a kind of pomander ball known
W. 126.O (49 */&)
as a kusudama. Embroidery is the chief
Edo period, i9th century
technique employed to execute the de-
signs, with gold-leaf-covered thread used Nomura Collection,
on the clouds and screens, although some National Museum of Japanese
of the cherry blossoms are depicted with History,
clusters of dots in the kanoko shibori resist- Chiba Prefecture
dyeing process (cat. 267).
The design suggests one of the most Save for the shoulder area, a design of
beloved of Japanese pastimes—a cherry- rafts with flowers tossed on the waves cov-
blossom viewing party, with the partici- ers all of this light blue silk crepe (chiri-
pants protected from vulgar gazes by the men) kosode. The theme of rafts with
lightweight bamboo screens. Clouds drift- flowers was favored by women of the
ing among the cherry blossoms refer to a court and samurai aristocracy for their
perennial Japanese literary conceit, ex- clothing; in this example the rendering of
pressed in scores of poems: an "elegant the design is already quite stylized.
confusion" as to whether it is cherry blos- The waves and spray are depicted by
soms or clouds one is looking at. KS the shiro age technique, reserved from the
blue dye with dye-resistant paste; the
crests of the waves are embroidered with
269 Furisode gold-leaf-covered thread. Borne on the
yùzen (resist paste) dyeing and rafts are cherry blossoms, irises, narcissus,
embroidery on silk peonies, wisteria, and chrysanthemums,
1.166.3 (64 7/8) depicted by a variety of methods: reserved
W. 124.2 (48 3/8) in white, dyed in indigo and purple in
Edo period, iQth century stenciled kanoko dots, with embroidery in
Tokyo National Museum red, purple, light green, and gold. The ru-
inous cost of kanoko shibori, besides plac-
The furisode (swinging sleeves) is a type of ing it beyond the means even of many
kosode distinguished by sleeves that hang samurai, actually brought about its prohi-
free of the main body of the garment, be- bition by the shogunate in sumptuary laws
low the arm. Although in the early part of that were sometimes harshly enforced.
the Edo period the sleeves of the furisode Stenciled kanoko, being far easier to exe-
were not especially long, they gradually in- cute, was neither exorbitant nor illegal: in-
creased in length so that by the latter half stead of binding each spot individually
of the period, sleeves as long as ninety cen- with dye-proof fiber, the dyer would resist
timeters (c. thirty-five inches) were made. an entire motif with paste applied through
The furisode was worn on special occa- a stencil; after the dye had dried and the
sions by children and young women. This paste had been removed, the dyer might
refined example could have been worn by simulate true kanoko by painting in the
a woman of the samurai class. The fabric tiny central dot of background color by
is a type of silk crepe called chirimen. Its hand. The placement of the design on the
textured matte surface lent itself well to garment, the use of the shiro age yùzen
the delicate detailed designs created by technique, and the densely stitched em-
yùzen dyeing. broidery are characteristic of the later part
The uppermost portion is dyed a solid of the Edo period. The purple embroidery
green. Beneath, a refreshing design runs floss was probably dyed with a chemical
diagonally across the garment: pine and pigment. KS
maple trees occupy the upper half while in
the bottom half are male and female pea-

336
268

337
 269

338
270

339
 271 Kosode Characteristically, touches of embroidery
embroidery and dyeing on silk in bright gold and colors liven this cool
1.155.0 (60 Vz) color scheme. Katabira in other color
w. 120.o (46 3/4) schemes might be worn by men as well as
Edo period, icth century women, but blue-and-white chaya-dyed ka-
Nomura Collection, tabira were worn only by women, particu-
National Museum of Japanese larly if not exclusively by women of the
History, upper levels of samurai society.
Typically, chayazome designs were
Chiba Prefecture
landscapes or waterscapes; here we have
A characteristic samurai-class kosode from an idealized rustic landscape with a stream
the latter part of the Edo period, the deco- purling through it, fishing nets drawn up
ration on this example is concentrated be- to dry (in tepeelike shapes) along the
tween the waist and the bottom hem and stream banks, compounds of thatch-
executed in shiro age, reserved white, with roofed cottages behind brushwood fences,
added embroidery. On the light green a tiny arched bridge, and everywhere flow-
chirimen (silk crepe) cloth is a shore scene ering fields and pine groves in a boldly
of plovers and pine trees, with the waves two-dimensional arrangement whose re-
and pine trees in reserved white and em- semblance to a meandering stream is prob-
broidered in gold-leaf-covered thread. The ably not accidental. In this magical
plovers, sewn in gold, fly in a dipping line landscape, verdure of all the seasons ap-
from one sleeve to the other. A hut origi- pear together: plum blossoms of late win-
nally embroidered at the shore in black ter; cherry blossoms of early spring; irises,
thread is now all but gone. peonies, and narcissus of summer; chry-
Many kosode designs of the Edo pe- santhemums, bellflowers, bush clover, and
riod were based on literary themes taken maple leaves of fall. Bamboo grass carpets
from well-known Japanese and Chinese the open spaces, water lilies lift their broad
poems, a trend especially noticeable in ko- leaves in the stream, and dense stands of
sode worn by the court and samurai pine offer cool shade.
classes. By long poetic tradition, plovers As well as being aesthetically pleasing,
over water bespeak winter. The combina- this katabira is technically a tour de force.
tion of plovers, a hut, and pine trees at the The outlines of the paste-resisted areas
seashore in this example recalls the fa- were flawless. The ivory background areas
mous poem by Minamoto no Kanemasa in were probably brush-dyed, as were the
the early-twelfth-century poetry anthology touches of yellow in the pine trees, and
Kiriydshu (Anthology of golden leaves): the very fine slightly greenish blue lines in
the fishing nets and the brushwood fences
Plovers have probably been drawn with indigo
fly to and from Awaji Island pigment. KS

calling;
how many nights have their cries 273 Katabira
awakened the barrier guard of Suma ? KS chaya-zome and embroidery on hemp
1.161.0 (62 3/4)
272 Katabira w. 123.0 (48)
chayazome, embroidery, and pigment Edo period, icth century
on hemp Nomura Collection,
1. 165.0 (64 3/8) National Museum of Japanese
W. 129.0 (50 !/4) History,
Edo period, i8th century Chiba Prefecture
Nomura Collection,
National Museum of Japanese This hemp katabira, or summer robe, is
History, the canvas for a unified shore scene. Only
the left sleeve is blank, and so persuasive is
Chiba Prefecture
the design that the viewer imagines it con-
Katabira were unlined kosode worn made tinuing there, hidden only by distance and
for the most part of hemp or ramie. The by mist. Unlike cat. 272, which is assert-
crisp coolness of these fabrics made them ively two-dimensional and exceedingly
particularly suitable for summer wear. stylized in its depiction of motifs from na-
Chayazome, or "Chaya dyeing," refers to ture, this landscape recedes into the dis-
the exceedingly laborious, exacting, and tance from hem to shoulder and treats
expensive technique whereby the areas to each individual motif with considerable
be reserved were paste-resisted on both modeling and three-dimensionality. All the
sides of the fabric before the garment was
dip-dyed in indigo. Several shades of blue
could be achieved by paste-resisting each
area of the design when its desired shade
had been reached, then continuing to dip
the garment for darker shades elsewhere.

340
271

341
 272

342
273

343
 blue in the design was executed in indigo 276 Koshimaki
in chaya-zome resist dyeing; when the dye embroidery on silk
had dried and the resist past had been re- 1.163.3 (63 5/8)
moved, the other colors were added with w. 126.0 (49 Vfc)
embroidery. Edo period, igth century
A thatch-roofed house is seen under
Tokyo National Museum
pine and blossoming cherry trees on the
right sleeve; below is a salt-evaporating A part of the formal summer attire of
pan in a pine grove; near the bottom are women of the warrior class, the koshimaki,
thatch-roofed houses among pine and literally "waist wrap," was worn over the
cherry trees and fishnets hung to dry. Gen- katabira] it was worn off the shoulders and
tle waves connect these motifs. This shore arms, secured at the waist and loosely
landscape, set against the slightly off-white wrapped around the lower half of the
hemp background, is appropriate for a body. In earlier times the uchikake had
summer robe. It is thought to have been been worn in this fashion in the summer,
worn by a relatively low-ranking woman of and this was called koshimaki sugata (waist
a daimyo household. Fashion dictated the wrap form), but in the Edo period the style
red silk facings at the collar and wrist became formalized and the koshimaki as
openings. KS such was developed. Over a short-sleeved
katabira such as cat. 273, a similarly short-
274 Katabira sleeved koshimaki (cat. 275) would be
chaya-zome and embroidery on hemp worn; if the katabira was of the furisode
1.175.8 (68 1/2) (swinging sleeves, cat. 272) type, a long-
W. 12O.O (46 3/4) sleeved koshimaki (cat. 276) would accom-
Edo period, i8th century pany it. In the late Edo period, certain
colors and designs were defined for the
Tokyo National Museum koshimaki\ typically, motifs with auspi-
Like cat. 272, this chayazome katabira is en- cious associations were finely embroidered
tirely covered by an idyllic landscape, in on black or brown plain-weave silk
which rustic villas await the arrival of a (nerinuki).
daimyo household escaping the oppressive On cat. 275 the pine twigs, flowering
urban heat. This too is a fantasy land- plum, and bamboo—the "Three Friends
scape, in which vegetative states of all the of Winter"—connote courage, purity, and
seasons are seen together: cherry blossoms resiliency; the cranes and the tortoises
of spring; iris and cockscomb of summer; (symbolized by the hexagonal "tortoise-
chysanthemums, bellflowers, and maple shell lozenges") connote longevity and pu-
leaves of fall; and the evergreen pines, rity; and the four-sided "coin" motif
symbols of winter. Unlike cat. 272, this enclosing a stylized blossom stands for
landscape is mostly water, and water reeds, prosperity.
water plantain (with arrow-shaped leaves), Cat. 276 offers the instantly recogniz-
and pickerel-weed grow abundantly. The able "myriad treasures" (takara zukushi),
viewpoint is generally closer, and the mo- singly and together the emblems of mate-
tifs slightly larger and more three- rial advantage and good fortune. The
dimensional than in cat. 272. "myriad treasures" assemblage can vary
Chaya dyeing is a lost art—the com- somewhat in its composition; here it
position of the resist paste is no longer seems to include the hat and cape of invis-
known—so it is not possible to replicate ibility, the keys to the storehouse of good
the making of such a katabira. It has been fortune, the flaming wish-granting jewel,
plausibly said, however, that the making of the mallet of good fortune, the drawstring
a chayazome katabira of this quality took money pouch, crossed cloves (alternatively
over two years from the creation of the de- identified as rhinoceros horns, a highly es-
sign, making such garments among the teemed restorative throughout East Asia),
most luxurious dyed textiles of the Edo and the "seven jewels"—this last a cate-
period. KS gory that comprises gold, silver, and a vary-
ing list of gemstones.
The plethora of connotative motifs
275 Koshimaki on the koshimaki seems intended to com-
embroidery on silk pensate for the notable absence of such
1.174.4(68) motifs on the chayazome katabira with
w. 121.4 (47 3/8) which they were worn. KS
Edo period, i8th century
Tokyo National Museum

344
274

345
 275

346
276

347
TEA CEREMONY
UTENSILS

349
 277 Tea container, named Rikyu for his alliance and, remembering Sansai's
shiribukura earlier desire for the chaire, presented it to
h. 6.7 (25/8) him as a reward. This dramatic prove-
Southern Song nance adds immensely to the value of a
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo utensil that also is held in great artistic re-
gard. In this way the chaire has been im-
Important Art Object
bued with a lasting legacy.
This small container for thick tea, or Being relatively small in size, the
chaire, was probably first used as a medi- Rikyu shiribukura chaire lends itself well to
cine container in China, and later came to the tea man's gentle handling. The dark
be greatly treasured by the Japanese. For brown color of the outer glaze resembles a
warriors such as Oda Nobunaga (1534- thin coating of molasses. The shiny glaze
1582), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), and covers the chaire from the upper rim to
Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616), who sought the lower area, where it is only partially
to unify Japan at the end of the sixteenth glazed. A spiralling pattern on the foot of
century, the possession of a prize chaire of- the chaire indicates that it was cut from
ten symbolized political and cultural the wheel with a string.
power. Chaire were often bestowed upon Appreciation of a chaire depends to a
daimyo as rewards for loyalty and support large extent upon what the Japanese call
on the battlefield. Hosokawa Sansai (1563- its "scenery," or the appearance of the
1646), for instance, is said to have so de- glaze on the outer surface. This tea con-
sired the chaire shown here that he tainer has obviously experienced a less
declared he would trade one entire prov- than peaceful life, attested by the evi-
ince for it. Owners would display famous dence of repair around the upper edge.
pieces boldly, in order to humble and sub- The attitude toward preservation in the
due those who possessed nothing as great. tea ceremony (chanoyu) illustrates the seri-
Chaire were also appreciated for their ous reverence tea people held for their
artistic value and actual use in the tea utensils. A chip or crack would be lovingly
gathering. Many warriors treasured and repaired and the utensil would be valued
protected their utensils because of strong even more after having suffered such a
sentimental attachment. In a time of con- blemish. The natural weathering of the
stant warfare, when retainers could easily utensils provided yet another dimension
change sides, utensils proved unable to be- that would affect its legendary worth. Ap-
tray their owners. preciation depends also on the shape of
Chaire were brought to Japan around the chaire, which is one of several desig-
the middle of the thirteenth century, dur- nated standard chaire shapes. As with most
ing the Kamakura period. Many of the val- utensils in the tea gathering, one also
ued chaire were fired in China during the views the bottom of the chaire. This is
Southern Song and Yuan dynasties. The done by gently tilting the chaire to one
locations of many of these Chinese kilns side to obtain a view of the foot with the
are unknown, as is the name of the potter mark left behind when the potter cut it
who made this small container. Chaire of- from the wheel.
ten are discussed under the rubric kara- The mouth of this chaire is covered
mono, or Chinese objects, superior to with an ivory lid. It is said that the paper-
Japanese objects and therefore held in thin gold foil applied to the reverse side of
high esteem by the Japanese. the lid served as a device to signal any ob-
This container is called the Rikyu vious tampering with the tea. The foil
shiribukura. As recorded in the Kitano would change color if poison were present.
ochanoyu no ki, the great tea master Sen In the world of the warrior, taking part in a
no Rikyu owned and used it at the great tea gathering could at times be dangerous.
Kitano tea gathering held by Toyotomi Hi- Three cloth bags made of different
deyoshi in the tenth month of 1587. This fabrics accompany this chaire. During the
grand tea gathering is believed to have actual preparation of tea only one bag cov-
been an attempt by Hideyoshi to invite tea ers the chaire, but the Rikyu shiribukura
connoisseurs from all over the country to can be used with any of the three inter-
come and display their most famous uten- changeable cloth bags, all of a type known
sils. The latter part of the chaire's name, as kantd, which is a striped cloth. The fab-
shiribukura, derives from its stout shape, ric of the two outer bags is labeled jodai
which slightly bulges out toward the base. and chùko, pointing to the period of im-
Despite Hosokawa Sansai's known desire portation; jôdai objects were imported dur-
to possess this chaire, he was denied this ing the first half of the Muromachi period
privilege during Rikyü's lifetime. It was (fifteenth century and before) and chùko
only after Rikyü's untimely death that the arrived in the latter half (sixteenth cen-
chaire found its way into the Tokugawa tury). The fabric of the center bag is
family. Following the important Battle of known as Taishi kantd, which is an ikat-
Sekigahara (cat. 104) in 1600, Sansai was in- weave cloth found in Indonesia. The
vited by leyasu for a banquet. Hidetada,
leyasu's son, is said to have praised Sansai

350
 277

splashed-pattern technique of kasuri, of scrolls or to be sewn into bags for chaire. remained strong among the daimyo and
which still continues to be produced, is The slender rope attached to the top is was never completely replaced by a new
characterized by a background of dark red, tied in a precise way to indicate whether and overwhelming purely Japanese aes-
with thin, woven horizontal stripes of yel- the chaire contains tea. The complicated thetic. The artistic appreciation and cate-
low and dark blue. A pattern of white, method of tying was also supposedly an gorization of Chinese chaire, which had
brown, and yellow thread weaves its way additional measure intended to preclude been standardized during the Higashi-
between the stripes, lending the fabric a tampering with the contents. yama period, remain close to the divisions
"splashed" look. From its name, Taishi Throughout the development of the and ranking seen among chaire today. JIK
kantd is often mistakenly believed to be as- tea gathering the Japanese have expressed
sociated with another famous fabric that it a special fondness for covers and contain- 278 Teabowl
closely resembles. This different and ers, and utilitarian purposes became sup- h. 6.7 (2 5/8)
much earlier cloth was used with Buddhist plemented with ceremonial and aesthetic Southern Song
artifacts and is thought to trace its origins intentions. Likewise, the boxes for tea
to the Hóryúji, a temple in Nara, which is utensils are a coveted component of uten- Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
associated with the famous statesman Shó- sil ownership. The tea scoop and its ac- Tenmoku teabowls were originally brought
toku Taishi (574-622). The Taishi kantd companying tube container and the many into Japan by monks returning from China
shown here was imported during the Mo- layers of wrappings and boxes, both inner during the Kamakura period. The Chinese
moyama period. The term probably de- and outer, only accentuate the worth of term tenmoku refers to a type of bowl dis-
rived from a family named Taishiya, in the the tea container. The boxes also serve as tinguished by a conical shape, a small, nar-
city of Sakai, who greatly treasured this vital evidence in certifying the validity of row foot, and relatively thin walls. Many of
material. its contents. these bowls are said to have come from
These cloth bags were originally used From the Momoyama period to the Mount Tianmu in Chekiang Province,
to protect the ceramic utensil from harm. beginning of the Edo period, the produc- where many Japanese monks were known
Gradually the bags themselves, and the tion of native Japanese chaire flourished to have been trained and introduced to tea
way they were tied, became an aesthetic along with the development of wabi (rus- drinking within the framework of monas-
component of the tea gathering. The fab- tic) tea, which sought to incorporate ku- tic regulations. The name tenmoku is actu-
ric was often taken from extremely valu- niyaki, or native wares, into the tea ally a Chinese place name.
able and rare bolts imported from China. gathering. However, as seen in Sansai's de- This tenmoku bowl was thrown on a
Unwilling to waste even the scrap ma- sire for the Rikyù shiribukura, the old es- potter's wheel, unlike the later hand-
terial, the Ashikaga shoguns used rem- tablished taste for the Chinese chaire molded native Japanese Raku bowls (cats.
nants of Chinese fabrics in the mounting 285, 286). It represents an artistic expres-

351
278

279

sion bound to the ideal of precision, per- bowl is very wide, like a morning glory in integral part of the use of these wares and
fection, and refinement. It was almost in full bloom. On the sloping inside wall of valued as an artistic piece in itself. After a
reaction to this type of highly refined Chi- the bowl,.almost halfway down from the guest received a tenmoku bowl of tea, he
nese ware that later tea men began to cre- rim, are five oil drops, suggesting five would remove the bowl from the stand
ate native Japanese wares with more crests spaced at even intervals. This inten- and cradle it in his hands to drink. After
natural shapes. The almost pristine shape tional design indicates that the study of carefully observing the features of that
of this yuteki, or oil-spot, tenmoku bowl glazes during the Song Dynasty had pro- particular bowl, he would return the bowl
was highly valued by early connoisseurs gressed greatly. The thickness of the rim to its stand before relinquishing it to his
and probably was appreciated more for its indicates that this bowl would probably host.
decorative value than utilitarian purpose. have been a decorative piece for display When tea drinking was first intro-
The glaze is appropriately named, as it re- on a special shelf, as it would be difficult duced to Japan, very simply decorated
sembles a film of oil sparkling on the sur- to drink from this particular bowl. tenmoku bowls were used in Zen monas-
face of the water. Silver and blue spots Tenmoku bowls, when actually used at teries. In present-day Kyoto there is a spe-
glisten on the black background. tea gatherings or displayed as decorative cial tea gathering at Kenninji every April,
Tenmoku bowls are often compared to pieces, were presented on special tenmoku to commemorate Myóan Eisai (1141-1215),
the half-sphere formed by the base of a lo- stands (cats. 280, 281). Due to the very nar- the founder of the temple. During the
tus flower. Usually the sides of the bowl row and seemingly precarious base charac- time since the introduction of tea in the
extend gradually upward in a straight line teristic of tenmoku bowls, the stand was an twelfth century, a new Song style of pre-
from the foot. However, the mouth of this paring tea had been developed, which di-

352
 280

281

353
 282

rectly influenced tea preparation in the 279 Teabowl and Chinese utensils that would comple-
Japanese tea ceremony. The Kenninji h. 4.5 (13/4) ment each other.
gathering tries to recreate tea drinking as Southern Song Hosokawa Yüsai (1534-1610), father of
it was practiced in Zen temples after Sansai (1563-1646), was not only a re-
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
Eisai's time during the fourteenth century. nowned warrior like his son, but is espe-
Tenmoku bowls on stands are distributed The distinguishing feature of this Chinese cially remembered for his great literary
to each of the guests sitting in the main tenmoku bowl is the leaf design in the bot- accomplishments. He extensively studied
temple hall. A monk carries a bronze tom and along the side of the bowl, in- the composition of thirty-one-syllable po-
pitcher with a long, slender nozzle, which tended to be discovered after the tea had ems (wakd) and wrote a poem pertaining to
provides a tip on which a small bamboo been finished. "Konoha" literally means the warrior and his training in all fields:
tea whisk rests. After removing the tea tree leaf, and describes a special technique "Of those who dislike poetry, linked verse,
whisk, the monk then pours hot water into reserved for tenmoku bowls made with this dance and tea, the limitation of their up-
the already tea-filled tenmoku bowl and characteristic. This bowl, made in Kiangsi bringing is plainly obvious." However, like
proceeds to whisk the brew. He serves Province and imported into Japan, has a the delicate balance sought between Chi-
each guest in turn, in this same manner. disturbing yet romantic charm. It is almost nese and Japanese wares, a daimyo had to
During the fourteenth and fifteenth as if a solitary leaf, swept up by autumn juggle his role as warrior and tea connois-
centuries, the Ashikaga shogun prized ten- breezes, came to gently rest in the bowl seur. Known as a skilled tea person, Sansai
moku bowls for their foreign import ap- just moments before firing. The outline of never permitted his artistic calling to over-
peal, and included them in many of the the veins in the leaf is clearly set off by the shadow his profession as a warrior. When
lists of famous tea utensils and art objects. dark tortoise-shell brown of the glaze. Hotta Masamori (1608-1651), governor of
In later centuries, tenmoku lost much of Leaves with high silica content, such as Kaga Province, requested that Sansai dis-
its appeal as the growth of native Japanese the horse chestnut, are considered the play his famous collection of utensils, San-
wares was actively encouraged, and as a best kind to use for this firing effect. sai evidently disappointed him by dis-
mixture of native and Chinese wares came Chinese utensils such as these ten- playing, instead, warrior paraphernalia.
to be used in a harmonious, subdued fash- moku bowls and their stands were an inte- JIK
ion. Finally, during the Edo period the in- gral part of any daimyo's collection. The
terest in the tenmoku bowl was revived by possession of Chinese utensils went hand 280 Teabowl stand
daimyo tea practitioners. The tenmoku in hand with the increased production of lacquer on wood with shell
continued to be used as a ceremonial ware domestic and Korean-made tea utensils. diam. 16.4 (61A)
for offerings made to the gods and Bud- Murata Shukô (1423-1502), known as one Ming
dhas. In addition, it came to symbolize the of the early proponents of native Japanese
type of bowl for serving a nobleman or Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
tea, never advised completely forsaking
someone of high rank at a tea gathering. Chinese wares for domestic ones. He sug- Tenmoku teabowl stands were imported
In this instance, the elaborate tenmoku gested that tea practitioners should assem- along with tenmoku bowls from China to
stand, in some tea schools, was occasion- ble a harmonious grouping of Japanese be used as supports for the narrow-footed
ally replaced by a plain wood stand, which bowls (cats. 278, 279). The stand itself was
was used only once and then discarded. JIK

354
 283

284

often valued as an independent artistic 281 Teabowl stand the ruler began to visit his subordinates.
piece. This tenmoku stand has a floral pat- lacquer on wood Socializing became a means of strengthen-
tern encompassed by hexagonal, or diam. 15.5 (oVs) ing the fragile bond between ruler and vas-
tortoise-back-shaped, crest designs, both Ming sal. The Ashikaga shoguns regularly visited
inlaid with mother-of-pearl. This tech- the Hosokawa and other daimyo resi-
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
nique of applying iridescent seashell, dences. It was a heavy responsibility to
known as raden, was also used earlier, on, This tenmoku stand, used as a support for provide first-rate cultural entertainment.
for example, saddles of the Heian period. a tenmoku bowl was imported from China. Special gathering places and suitably
The use of very thin fragments of seashell Guri refers to the spiral pattern carved in important utensils, such as this tenmoku
is a specifically Chinese technique and is deep relief across the surface. The beauty stand, were required to accommodate
believed not to have been practiced in Ja- of this stand is due to the technique such illustrious guests. The combination
pan. Most Japanese raden technique uses a known as tsuikoku, where layers of dark of utensils selected for a tea gathering also
thicker fragment of shell. Upon closer in- brown, almost black, lacquer are alter- revealed whether careful consideration
spection of this particular tenmoku stand, nately applied with vermilion layers. The had been given to the affair. Not just any
the pieces of seashell resemble the peeled- carved spiral pattern accentuates the strat- tenmoku bowl could be paired with this
away cross-section of a tree's growth rings. ified layers of lacquer. stand. Warriors wished to be recognized
The effect is one of transparent fragments The provenance and use of this par- for their acumen, not only in the arts of
interlaced with delicate strands resembling ticular tenmoku stand are undocumented. war, but also in the more creative arena of
spidery veins of mica. JIK In daimyo tea culture the quality and wide art and culture. They were competing not
variety of utensils collected by daimyo re- only with other warriors, but with the old
vealed his artistic knowledge and refine- aristocrats who had lost political power to
ment. High quality utensils were essential the warrior class, yet were thought to still
for entertaining superiors. Before the me- outrank the warriors in pedigree and social
dieval period, a subordinate was expected refinement. JIK
to pay a visit to his superior's residence,
while later the custom was reversed and

355
 285

286

z8z Square tray of good fortune, decorates the lid of this ing of the fire needed to boil the water.
lacquer on wood incense container. The tsuishu technique, The incense must be carefully aimed so
diam. 18.1 (yVs) seen also on the peony and leaf incense that it falls close to the fire, but not too
Ming container (cat. 284) is effectively used close, thus prolonging the release of the
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo here. Budai is recognizable by his enor- scent that permeates the tearoom.
mous belly and the bag that he carries to This incense container probably was
This lacquered tray was made in China collect alms. JIK crafted in China. Using a technique
during the early Ming period. Katatsuki known as tsuishu a design is carved
chaire, or square-shouldered thick tea con- 284 Incense container through several layers of lacquer revealing
tainers, were customarily displayed placed lacquer on wood the different colors lying below the sur-
in the middle of a square tray of this type. face. This container has layers of red,
diam. 5.5 (zVs)
Since the purpose of the tray is to en- green, and yellow, which result in a variety
Ming
hance the beauty of the thick tea con- of colors in the flowers, leaves and stems.
tainer, an unadorned, yet tastefully Eisei Bunko, Tokyo The tsuishu technique was commonly
lacquered tray is much preferred by tea used to highlight a pattern known as "red
people. Most thick tea containers, or Kdgd literally means "incense" and "to fit
flowers and green leaves." Here the flower
chaire, are a shade of dark brown, which together"—a reference to the lidded con-
is a peony, which gives a distinct feeling of
contrasts nicely with the red color of the tainer. The incense container in the tea
Chinese elegance and taste.
tray. Visible cracks on the tray's surface gathering holds the incense until it is
Materials used in making incense con-
are evidence of natural aging. The bottom added directly to the fire beneath the ket- tainers can include lacquer, wood, metal,
is covered with black lacquer and marked tle. This utensil should not be confused bamboo, shell, or ceramic. Lacquer in-
by an unidentifiable red seal. JIK with an incense burner or censer, which cense containers were often part of the
were displayed in the tokonoma (alcove) shoin style of decoration. The early prefer-
until late in the Momoyama period. The ence for Chinese wares was later replaced,
283 Incense container incense container is used in conjunction
lacquer on wood as native and Korean wares were gradually
with the charcoal ceremony, which, along integrated into the tea gathering and ob-
diam. 6.2 (21/4) with the serving of the meal and making of
Ming jects from everyday use were adapted. Ri-
the tea, is an integral component of a com-
kyü enjoyed choosing tea utensils from
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo plete tea gathering. Skillful placing of the among the most ordinary objects, which
charcoal encourages the successful burn-
The plump figure of the beggar monk Bu- were often overlooked by others.
dai (J: Hotei, cat. 80), one of the seven gods The modern-day tea gathering is of-

356
 287

ten seen as a synthesis of the five senses. tea, which broke away from the more pre- typical of Chôjiro's bowls. A dab of black
Often, small pieces of incense are buried cise, severe Chinese style that had held lacquer has been applied to repair a blem-
under the barely lit charcoal and release the fascination of Japanese tea men. In ish on the top rim of the bowl. A slight
their scent just as the guests arrive. Thus 1585 Rikyü commissioned Chôjirô, a tile tinge of green inside Otogoze offers proof
the guests are greeted by the lingering maker for the Jurakudai palace, to create a of its use.
scent of the incense, before they see the new type of teabowl according to his strict Otogoze comes equipped with an im-
host. The guest makes his way along the specifications. pressive array of protective boxes. First,
tea garden path, washes his hands in the In contrast to the wheelthrown Chi- the bowl is wrapped in a cloth bag made
water basin placed outside the tearoom, nese tenmoku bowls (cats. 278, 279), Raku from silk crepe. The inner box is made
and symbolically cleanses his thoughts. teabowls are hand-modeled, with consider- from paulownia wood and bears the name
Warriors were asked to leave their swords ably thicker, straighter walls. Raku bowls of the bowl in the handwriting of the
outside the tearoom door. The use of in- are usually covered with either a somber seventh-generation Hosokawa. Paulownia
cense can be traced to Buddhist ceremo- black or red glaze. Unlike tenmoku bowls, wood is almost religiously used to store
nies. Although the ritualistic, religious use Raku bowls were meant to be placed di- precious tea utensils. It is valued for its ap-
of incense has since been combined with rectly on the mat, rather than on a stand. parent resistance to fire and humidity. In
the purely pleasurable, incense still con- For this reason a Raku bowl has a wider, some areas of Japan it has been the cus-
jures up a feeling of otherworldliness and more stable foot. tom to plant a paulownia tree after the
tranquility. JIK Chôjirô, the founder of the first gen- birth of a daughter. When the daughter is
eration of Raku potters, was commis- ready to marry, the tree has grown large
285 Teabowl, named Otogoze sioned by Hosokawa Sansai (1563-1646) to enough to provide the wood for the trous-
Raku Chôjirô (1516-1592) make this teabowl. Rikyu's grandson Sotan seau containers.
gave this bowl the name Otogoze, also the To hold a teabowl cradled safely be-
h. 8.2 (31/4)
name of one other bowl by Chôjirô. Oío- tween both hands, feeling the lulling
Momoyama period
goze refers to a female, but not to the frail, warmth through the thick clay body, is
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo delicate classical type of beauty. On the truly a sensual experience. All the senses
Important Art Object contrary, this term implies the coarse, are ignited as one lifts the bowl upward to
homely features of a woman with a high the lips. This is followed by a savoring of
It is said that Raku teabowls perfectly cap-
forehead, plump and bulging cheeks, and the scent and taste of the tea. Unlike the
ture the wabi spirit of Rikyü's (1522-1591)
flat nose. When viewed from above and handle of a western teacup, which dis-
style of tea. Rikyü was responsible for in-
from the side, the slight warp of the une- tances one from the immediacy of the
troducing a native Japanese aesthetic to
ven rim is evident. The dull, matte glaze is

357
brew and the cup, the teabowl is designed tests, water was boiled in a large kettle and legs of early kettles and was adopted later
for direct, personal contact. The diameter then transferred to a covered serving con- as a popular design for kettle lugs.
of a teabowl is considerably larger than a tainer, which was then used to pour hot The contrast of materials, shapes, and
teacup and one's face literally enters into water over the powdered tea. In other in- textures of utensils used in a tea gathering
the teabowl as it is engulfed by the wide stances, hot water was used directly from presents a curious phenomenon. Compare
rim. One does not just hold a Raku tea- kettles that were usually placed in a sepa- the immense weight of the kettle with the
bowl, one is embraced by it. JIK rate room or corridor away from the delicate, almost airy quality of the bamboo
guests. tea scoop. It is part of a tea student's train-
As part of the prototypical method for ing to handle all utensils with equal re-
286 Teabowl
serving tea, water was boiled in a large, tra- spect and care. In his didactic poems,
Raku Sónyú (1664-1716)
ditional kitchen kettle and then trans- Rikyü suggested that heavy utensils
diam. 12.1 (43/4) ferred to a covered container that was should be skillfully lifted so as to appear to
Edo period used to pour hot water over the powdered be almost weightless, and, similarly, that
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo tea already in the bowl. Kettles for boiling light utensils should not be carelessly
water were usually placed in a separate waved around, but thoughtfully handled,
The fifth-generation Raku potter, Sonyu, room or corridor away from the guests. as if they possessed a secret weight.
was adopted by the Raku family at the age Gradually the kettle moved to the tearoom During a tea gathering, after the char-
of two from a wealthy Kyoto family. He where tea was prepared directly in front of coal has been added and the fire begins to
was a cousin to the famous brothers, Kôrin the guests. It was at this point that the light below the kettle, a murmur can be
(1658-1716) and Kenzan (1663-1743). mere kitchen utensil began to achieve a heard building in the quiet, enclosed space
Kórin was a famous Edo-period painter level of creative artistry. of the tearoom. Tea people compare this
and designer in the Rinpa style. Kenzan, The Hosokawa family collection in- heated whispering of the kettle to the
the younger, is remembered best for his cludes eight old tea kettles. All seem to be sound of the wind through the pines. JIK
ceramic wares. There is still no clear expla- a different shape and variety and come
nation why the fourth-generation potter, from different localities throughout Japan.
Ichinyu, adopted a son despite the fact (Experts believe that this random sam- 288 Tea scoop
that he had already had a son born to him. pling was deliberate.) The kettle shown Sen no Rikyü (1522-1591)
A family conflict ensued, and the natural- bamboo
born son, Ichigen, left the Raku family
with his mother and established his own
here, with a pattern of pine, bamboo, and
plum, was made in Ashiya, situated in 1.17.7(7)
present-day Fukuoka Prefecture. At the Momoyama period
kiln. time this kettle was cast the two major Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
This red Raku teabowl is shown with kettle-producing areas were Ashiya and
a paulownia box, which bears a pressed Tenmyó. Ashiya is located at the mouth of For westerners, the tea scoop, or chashaku,
seal and signature. Sonyu seems to have the Onga River, then known as the Ashiya is perhaps the most puzzling of all tea
modeled the shapes of his bowls upon River, and it is believed that casting was utensils. This fragile sliver of bamboo with
those preferred by Rikyü. Upon examining done there in order to utilize productively its willowy curve and slender handle seems
the bottom of the bowl after drinking the the soil and iron sand. to lack the grandeur of a teabowl, nor is it
tea, as is the general rule in tea, one would Ashiya kettles are characteristically fa- the product of a lengthy and rigorous
find the graceful swirl of a whirlpool. The mous for their designs, which are etched process such as that needed to make a tea
clay walls are thick and the foot is low. in relief on the surface of the kettle's front kettle. Yet this unassuming object is per-
The rim intentionally expresses an imper- and back. Some of the typical designs in- haps the most treasured and appreciated
fect roundness that is characteristic of clude flowers and birds, horses, or moun- utensil shown here. Unlike other utensils
hand-built Raku bowls. JIK tains and water. The pattern here is a that were crafted by trained artisans, the
popular combination that weaves together tea scoop is customarily carved by the tea
287 Teakettle the motifs of pine, bamboo, and plum. All man himself. Thus these mere shavings of
iron three plants are especially resilient to the bamboo have been shaped to produce a
h. 17.5 (67/s) cold and have come auspiciously to sym- personal expression of an individual's tea.
Muromachi period bolize strength. Etched on one side of the Styles of tea scoops are meticulously ex-
kettle is a plum tree that is easily recog- amined and studied by later generations,
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
nized by its gnarled branches, which ex- as it is believed that the "flavor" of a per-
In twentieth-century Japan, a sign would tend outward to the left and right. Plum son's tea is reflected in the very bend and
be hung outside the waiting area for a blossoms lay flat against the surface, and shape of the bamboo scoop. The beauty of
large, informal tea gathering to indicate bamboo leaves and a pine tree complete a tea scoop is as simple and pristine as that
that the kettle had been put on to boil. Al- the triad. On the opposite side are pic- of the bamboo itself. Moreover, tea scoops
though a teabowl, whisk, tea container, tured bamboo leaves, bamboo sprouts, can be called by either a carefully selected
and a number of other utensils are pine needles, and cones. This relief tech- poetic name or by the maker's name. In
needed, a kettle to boil the water is consid- nique is similar to that found on the back addition to the tea scoop's "scenery" the
ered the most essential element. The tea of old Japanese metal mirrors. most important features are actually pe-
master Sen no Rikyü (1522-1591) cautioned The lower half of the kettle may have ripheral to the object itself: the name of
against over-zealous collecting of utensils. been recast. It was common practice for the maker and the accompanying tube
One of Rikyü's didactic poems from a old kettles to be repaired at the bottom. container, which is often inscribed with
hundred-poem collection reads, "With but The areas of appreciation of a kettle are the poetic name of the scoop, often taken
a single kettle one can make tea, it is fool- usually the shape, surface, lid, and lugs or from a classical poem.
ish to possess a multitude of utensils." ears. The lugs found on either side of this Yoshimura Teiji, in writing about
Prior to the ritualization of tea drink- kettle have been skillfully embellished "The Soul of Chashaku," prefers to think
ing in the fifteenth century, early kettles with the figure of a lion's head, whose of the fashioning of a tea scoop as sculp-
for boiling water were a common item in flowing mane trails down each side. The ture in bamboo. As in sculpture, the crea-
any household kitchen. In fourteenth- lion design was commonly found on the tion of an external shape is inadequate
century tocha, or tea identification con- unless the soul of its creator has been

358
worked into the material. Quoting from
the Sekishü ryü chashaku no hiji, Yoshi-
mura emphasizes that to look at Rikyü's
tea scoop is to look at a person's face.
It is no surprise that tea masters in-
tentionally sought out the most unusual
samples of bamboo to be found. Several
versions of a popular legend surround the
tea master Furuta Oribe (1544-1615) and
his love of a good piece of bamboo. Ac-
cording to one story, Oribe came upon a
remarkable piece of bamboo in the midst
of a battle. He immediately began to carve
a tea scoop and forgot all about the battle
raging about him. So absorbed was he by
his task that he was unaware of the flying
shrapnel and was consequently wounded.
The tea scoop was appropriately given the
name Tamaarare or "hailing bullets."
Prior to Sen no Rikyü, tea masters
had not yet assigned much value to the
chashaku. Tea scoops at that time were not
made by tea people, but commissioned
from common artisans and often dis-
carded after use. The tube container was
not considered an integral part of the tea
scoop until Sen no Rikyü's time. The pro-
tective tube is made from a cut piece of
bamboo from which a tightly fitting cap
has been fashioned. Inside, the tea scoop
may be wrapped with a silk cloth to pre-
vent it from rolling around inside the tube.
Like other tea utensil containers, the tube
container often is a document verifying
the contents within. In the case of an as- 288
signed poetic name, the classical poem 289
from which the allusion originated may be
beautifully inscribed on the front of the
tube container in the distinctive calligra-
phy of the carver. At modern tea gather-
ings, the tube container of the tea scoop
may be displayed separately in a side al- self-explanatory and most need to be 289 Tea scoop
cove to allow tea participants to read the coaxed out. Daimyo participants in tea Kobori Enshü (1579-1647)
inscription. gatherings relied heavily upon not only a bamboo
The practice of assigning poetic knowledge of the connoisseurship of uten- length 17.3 (63A)
names to tea scoops was popular during sils, but also on a firm grounding in literary Edo period
the Edo period. In general, early-Momo- and religious traditions.
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
yama utensils rarely had poetic names, Early tea scoops brought from China
though a name may have been assigned at were made from ivory, metal, and wood. The elegant style of tea practiced by Ko-
a much later date. Kobori Enshü was espe- These prototypical tea scoops were bori Enshü departed dramatically from the
cially famous for selecting poetic names thought to be simple measuring spoons for rustic simplicity of Sen no Rikyü. The re-
from classical waka. This revealed his deep tea. Although other woods such as plum or vival of tea as an aesthetic pastime is pri-
understanding and appreciation of classi- cherry are used, bamboo, a material valued marily due to Enshü. This revival greatly
cal literature. The poetic name of the tea for its flexibility and endurance, is most of- pleased his patrons, the daimyo ruling
scoop or any other utensil is carefully se- ten used. There is a protective and com- class. Enshü's tea aesthetic brought back
lected to ignite a series of linked associa- forting quality about using a bamboo the grandeur of an earlier time, and
tions for its audience. A poetic name can scoop with even the most valuable of tea- whereas Sen no Rikyü had worked at elim-
easily evoke a particular season, scenic bowls or tea containers. The bamboo adds inating useless space in the tearoom,
area, or allusion to a classical text, and may an air of ease as the utensils relate to one Enshü sought to enlarge the tea space and
derive from a variety of sources. Names of another during the tea gathering. There define separate sitting places for daimyo
temples or references to Zen sayings could are three classifications of tea scoops. and their accompanying retainers. Enshü
also be used as possible names. The name Shin, or the most formal tea scoops, are also was an architect and designer of tea
of a tea utensil relies strongly on the pre- made from ivory. Gyô, or semi-formal, gardens. JIK
sumed knowledge and literary accomplish- have the bamboo joint at the very end of
ments of its audience. Very few names are the tip. So, or grass-style tea scoops, have
the bamboo joint located at the halfway
point. JIK

359
290 Flower container that flowers for tea should appear as if containers and tea scoops may be per-
Sen no Rikyü (1522-1591) they were growing in the field. This re- ceived as presenting excellent opportuni-
bamboo flects the general philosophy that the nat- ties for the expression of the host's
h. 31.5 (l23/8) ural beauty of flowers must be respected, personal tea spirit. The secret in making a
Momoyama period and tampering kept to a minimum. As good bamboo flower container is an un-
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo anyone who has tried to place flowers for yielding commitment to finding the best
tea realizes, it is no easy task. possible piece of bamboo. Often, before
Sen no Rikyü has been credited with in- The inexperienced hand tries to "ar- this is attained, several pieces of bamboo
venting bamboo vases for tea. Earlier, range" and rearrange the blossoms. An im- may have to be sacrificed.
bronze or celadon flower vases, which portant feature of tea flowers is that the This two-layer, cut bamboo flower
arose from a traditional preference for most quick-fading and evanescent blos- container has two sections, which can be
Chinese wares, had been considered ap- soms or buds are greatly desired. Rikyü used separately or simultaneously to hold
propriate. Four bamboo vases alleged to supposedly disliked cockscomb because it flowers. Viewed from the side, this piece
have been made by Sen no Rikyü have be- was too hearty a flower. Tea flowers must of bamboo has a natural backward sway. It
come part of the Hosokawa family collec- be used sparingly to avoid the display of a is said to resemble those made by Rikyü in
tion. This one, of the single-layer cut type, luxurious and overly abundant bouquet. size and bulk. This is no coincidence, as
has a bulky, heavy shape typical of Rikyü's Flowers in tea are not outward decora- Sansai represented a conservative branch
style. It is commonly believed that this tions. On the contrary, they are placed to of tea that remained loyal to Rikyü's teach-
shape vividly expresses the iron determi- reveal the inward spirit of the host. Choos- ings even after the master's death by sui-
nation Rikyü needed to introduce so many ing an inanimate container to capture the cide. Another famous student of Rikyü
innovative ideas. When Rikyü first pre- living spirit of the flowers requires a keen was Furuta Oribe (1544-1615), who later de-
sented Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) sensitivity coupled with years of tea expe- viated from Rikyü's tea.
with a bamboo flower container, the dis- rience. In the tea ceremony, the container A complete modern-day tea gathering
pleased ruler is said to have hurled it into becomes the chief mediator between host . covers a period of several hours and in-
the garden. The large crack that resulted and guest. cludes not only the preparation of tea, but
when this bamboo container hit a rock in The legend of Rikyü's morning glory the serving of a light meal and placing of
the garden has only caused it to become tea for Toyotomi Hideyoshi is told and re- the charcoal before the guests. Whereas a
more valued. told to beginning tea students. Hideyoshi, scroll, often with a Zen saying or classical
A bamboo flower container is made hearing of Rikyü's gorgeous array of morn- reference, dominates the first half of the
from a cylindrical piece of bamboo. Two ing glories, asked to be invited to tea spe- gathering and is said to set the general
straight cuts across the body open a large cifically to view the blossoms. When he theme, in the latter half of the gathering
enough space to hold flowers, while a sub- entered the garden he noticed that all the the scroll is removed from the alcove and
stantial back portion is left to form a sup- blossoms had been cut away. The solitary replaced with flowers in a container. It is
port. The naturally hollow interior of the remaining blossom had been left in a vase in the second half of the gathering that
bamboo, which is separated at intervals by in the tearoom. This action reflected Ri- the host is able to communicate more inti-
nodes, forms the bowl to hold the water. kyü's belief that simplicity, bordering on mately his own personal expression of the
The bamboo nodes are one of the areas of the understated, is the best practice in tea. theme. Conversation in the tearoom
appreciation. Before cutting, these nodes A flower container, when placed in should be limited to a discussion of the
are positioned carefully so as to enhance the tearoom, provides a tranquil resting utensils. If using his own bamboo flower
the beauty of the piece. As with the bam- place for blossoms, grasses, or buds chosen container, it might be appropriate for the
boo tea scoops, the natural variation in the to highlight the mood of that particular host to provide an interesting narrative of
bamboo helps create the overall contour season, whether it is a spray of pampas how he found the bamboo and shaped it.
of the container. Often the inside of the grass or a tightly closed pink camellia bud. The flowers chosen for the second
container is lacquered to prevent possible A sixteenth-century account of the way half of the gathering usually last only until
leakage. A hole has been chiseled in the Rikyü used a flower container survives the end of the day, lending a poignant feel-
back of this container so that it may also from the twelfth month of 1567. In the al- ing to the ceremony. This feeling of eva-
be hung from a peg in the alcove. The cove, on a board, he placed a vase that nescence did not develop solely out of the
cracks in this flower container have been held nothing but water. In turn, Rikyü medieval culture associated with tea. The
noticeably repaired with lacquer and metal asked each guest to contemplate the set- tale of Genji, written during the Heian pe-
staples. Large pieces of bamboo, unlike ting and imagine for himself the flowers riod, includes an especially moving chap-
other more durable materials, are vulnera- he might have used. Rikyü probably could ter in which the accomplished courtier
ble to dry heat and changes in the not have predicted that twentieth-century protagonist, Genji, chances upon an un-
weather. Despite the numerous lacquer museum visitors would be required to known maiden living in obscure surround-
strips, which are now all th.at keep this make a similar leap of imagination. JIK ings. He notices the moonflowers growing
flower container from cracking into frag- alongside the plaited fence outside her
ments, this piece still maintains its dignity, 291 Flower container dwelling and asks to receive a single blos-
much like an aging warrior whose outside som. A young serving girl from inside the
bamboo house is sent out with a fan upon which to
battle scars cannot mar the still powerful Hosokawa Sansai (1563-1646)
spirit lingering underneath. place the frail flower. Later, an affair blos-
h-35-8(H) soms between the maiden of the house
The art of chabana, or flowers for tea,
differs considerably from what is popularly Eisei Bunko, Tokyo and Genji, only to wither suddenly with
known in the West as ikebana, or flower ar- her unexpected death soon after their
Bamboo flower containers and tea scoops meeting. Genji is left filled with great re-
rangement. In tea, one does not con- are the two types of tea utensils most
sciously arrange the flowers in a certain morse over the very evanescence of life. JIK
likely to have been personally made by tea
way. Instead, the desired practice is merely people. A tea student tries to learn how to
to place the flowers with a lightness of make many of the lesser tea paraphernalia,
touch. Rikyü's famous precept stipulated such as the cloth utensil bags or bamboo
chopsticks for the meal. Bamboo flower

360
 291
290

361
NO-RELATED WORKS

363
 292 Karaori joyed great popularity for the embellish-
silk brocade ment of daily wear in the Momoyama
1.152.0 (59 i/4) period, as in cat. 264. In No, costumes dec-
W. 146.0 (56 7/8) orated in this technique are known them-
Edo period, i8th century selves as nuihaku. They might be worn as
inner robes for boys' roles, or around the
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
waist as koshimaki for women's roles.
Nuihaku were not bound by the technical
293 Karaori restrictions imposed by weaving, as in the
silk brocade thicker karaori, allowing great freedom in
1. 150.0 (58 !/2)
the execution of decoration.
w. 150.0 (58 Vz) Cat. 294 is decorated with the seigaiha
Edo period, i8th century motif, a stylized wave pattern, in gold leaf
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo against the red silk background. Gold spits
of land emerge from the waves and are
The karaori, an outer robe for female roles embroidered with pine trees, behind
in the No performance, is the most bril- which can be seen sails embroidered with
liantly ornate of No costumes. Originally a variety of designs. Scores of Japanese po-
the name of the fabric, karaori (literally ems, tales, and travel diaries paint just
"Chinese weaving") came to be used as such a scene of a ship standing out to sea
the name of the garment itself. In contrast and disappearing behind a pine-forested
to kosode, where designs were created island.
mostly by dyeing, embroidery, and metal- The ground of cat. 295 is completely
lic leaf, karaori designs are all created in covered with pasted-on gold leaf; such
the weave; they are brocades, in which gold-leafed fabrics are called dohaku. Em-
long design threads of glossed or metallic- broidered over the gold leaf are open fans,
leaf-wrapped silk are "floated" across a each decorated with flowers including
ground of raw silk. The No karaori are of plum or cherry blossoms, irises, peonies,
two types, iroiri (with red), and ironashi hollyhock, wisteria, morning-glories, bush
(without red). The former is worn for clover, and chrysanthemums. The ornate
young female roles, and the latter for decorative scheme of this nuihaku well
middle-aged or elderly female roles. It is suits a female role for the No stage. KS
typically worn full length and with arms in
the sleeves, though for certain roles the
296 Chdken
right sleeve is slipped off and draped back,
or the robe is pulled up to the knees to re- silk brocade
veal the undercostume. 1.103.3 (40^4)
These two robes date from the mid- w. 206.0(803/8)
Edo period when the karaori was at its Edo period, i8th century
most brilliant stage of development. The Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
abundant use of red and of gold-leafed
thread makes these robes appropriate for The chdken, literally "long silk," is an un-
young female roles. Cat. 292 is densely lined jacket unique to No worn in dance
woven with gold thread and covered with scenes. It is made of a thin silk gauze into
butterflies dispersed over a field of wild which designs are woven with gold-leafed
carnations in threads of many colors. Cat. and colored threads. Below the arms, the
293 bears a design of clematis scrolls and side seams are not sewn together. It is
paulownia branches on an allover back- worn for a variety of roles, including that
ground of linked gold "coins." As many as of noblemen, or, worn with a type of red
twelve colors of thread were used to create pants, a court lady. Any one of a number
the designs of this luxurious karaori. KS of colors can be used for the ground, in-
cluding white, purple, red, light green, and
light blue. Designs may be concentrated
294 Nuihaku on one part of the garment, or spread
embroidery and gold leaf on silk across the entire surface. In this striking
1. 142.0 (55 3/8) example, the background fabric was
w. 144.0 (56 Vs) densely woven with gold threads. A design
Edo period, 19th century of flower-filled containers is woven on the
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo chest, back, and sleeves, with dandelions
and maple leaves scattered throughout. KS
295 Nuihaku
embroidery and gold leaf on silk
1.143.0 (55 3/4)
w. 136.0 (53)
Edo period, 19th century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
Nuihaku, combining embroidery with
glued-on gold or silver leaf (surihaku) en-

364
292

365
 293

366
294

367
 295

368
296

297

369
 298

297 Maiginu others maple leaves. Cherry blossoms and of the court class in the Heian period. In
silk brocade maple leaves are the prime Japanese sym- the medieval era it was adapted by elite sa-
1.164.0 (64) bols of spring and fall. KS murai as their most formal garment. It is
w. 224.0(873/8) thought that the kariginu first used in No
Edo period, iQth century 298 Kariginu performances were those actually worn by
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo silk brocade samurai aristocrats. In the Edo period the
1.150.0 (581/2) kariginu was established as a No costume,
The maiginu, literally "dancing robe," is W. 2O2.O (783/4) and these kariginu for the stage were made
an outer robe for women's dancing roles, Edo period, i9th century larger than the kariginu for daily wear
and resembles the chdken. Designs in gold from which they had originated. In No,
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo the kariginu is regarded as the most impor-
or colored thread are-woven into thin silk
gauze fabric; the maiginu differs from the tant outer garment for male roles.
chdken in that it is longer and the side 299 Kariginu Both kariginu exhibited here are
seams are sewn together but the underarm silk brocade made of gold brocade and both are lined.
sleeve seams are not. The maiginu is worn 1.174.0(677/3) On cat. 298 roundels of water plantain are
in the tsuboori style, pulled up knee-high. w. 203.o (79 Vs) scattered against an allover design of six-
This beautiful example is made of light Edo period, igth century pointed hemp leaves. The decoration of
green silk gauze with woven gold designs Tokyo National Museum cat. 299 consists of gold brocade phoenixes
of rafts, some bearing cherry blossoms and and paulownia twigs on a purple back-
The kariginu, literally "hunting robe," was ground. The auspicious combination of
originally an informal jacket worn by men

370
 299

the phoenix and paulownia originated in 301 Kataginu and mallet on brown-dyed hemp. Above
China, the former signifying the benevo- stenciled paste-resist dyeing on hemp the radish on the back is the dandelion en-
lent ruler and the well-ordered realm, the
latter serving as the bird's nesting place
i. 97.8(38^) closed in a flattened lozenge, a crest often
found on Kyôgen costumes. Cat. 301 has a
W. 124.2 (48 l/z)
and food. The motif was favored in Japan Edo period, icth century design of black cart wheels entwined with
from the Heian period and sometimes morning-glories against a reserved back-
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo ground of white hemp.
used for No kariginu. KS
The kataginu, literally "shoulder robe/' is a This kataginu is entered in an 1840
sleeveless jacket used in Kyôgen, the record passed down through the Hoso-
300 Kataginu kawa family, the Onnd ishd narabini kodd-
paste-resist dyeing on hemp comic interlude performed between No
plays. In contrast to the subtle and austere guchd (Book of No Costume and Stage
1. 82.0 (32) Properties), which establishes a date be-
w. 136.4 (531/4) No, which deals with high and mostly
tragic subjects, Kyogen portrays manners fore which it must have been made. KS
Edo period, icth century
and concerns of the commoners with
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo broad humor. While Kyôgen costumes are
not richly ornate like those of No, they are
embellished with bold and freely drawn
designs, often of unusual motifs.
On cat. 300, reserved in white by
means of resist paste, are a large radish

371
 300

372
30J

373
302 Koshiobi
embroidery and gold leaf on silk
1. 264.5 (103 Vs)
w. 7.3 (2 3/4)
Edo period, icth century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo

303 Koshiobi
embroidery on silk
1.215.5(84)
w. 7.2 (2 3/4)
Edo period, iQth century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
The koshiobi, or "waist sash," was used to
secure such No costumes as the kariginu
and various outer robes worn koshimaki
style, that is, off the shoulders and arms.
Designs appear on the sections that are
visible when the sash is worn, including
those at the waist and those that hang
down from the knot tied in front. On cat.
302, a design of cherry blossoms has been
embroidered over gold leaf glued onto red
silk. This type of sash was called ddhaku
koshiobi in reference to the extensive
pasted-on gold leaf (cat. 295). Cat. 303 is
embroidered with arrows and the seigaiha
stylized wave motif (cat. 294) on a blue silk
background. This koshiobi, which has no
red on it (cats. 292, 293), was probably
worn by an actor playing the role of a
middle-aged or elderly woman. KS

304 Katsuraobi
embroidery on silk
1. 254.0 (99)
W. 3.5 (13/8)
Edo period, 19th century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo

305 Katsuraobi
gold leaf on silk
1.237.5(925/8)
W. 3.5 (13/8)
Edo period, i9th century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo 302 303

306 Katsuraobi
embroidery and gold leaf on silk
1.239.1(931/4) Decoration, usually embroidered, is con- 308 Chukei fan
w. 3.8(1'A) centrated on the section that covers the ink, color, and gold leaf on paper;
Edo period, i9th century forehead and the long portions that hang bamboo, lacquer
down from the knot in back. The katsu- 1.35.0(133/4)
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
raobi with cherry blossoms (cat. 306) and Edo period, i8th century
the one with the water plantain and pick-
307 Katsuraobi Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
erel weed design (cat. 304) are of the iroiri
embroidery on silk type (cats. 292, 293), meaning that red is
1.242.3(941/2) used, and they are worn for young female 309 Chùkei fan
w. 3.7(1^/2) roles. The katsuraobi with the willow and ink, color, and gold leaf on paper;
Edo period, 1910 century snow disk design (cat. 307) is ironashi, or bamboo, lacquer
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo without red, and is used in middle-aged or 1.33.0(13)
elderly female roles. The katsuraobi with Edo period, i9th century
Used exclusively for female roles in No, the "fish scale" design of triangles (cat.
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
the katsuraobi is a sash tied over the wig. 305) is worn by female characters driven
mad by jealousy. KS

374
 designs of flowers or hanaikusa ("flower
battles"); in each case, the design on the
front differs from that on the reverse. All
four would have been used for young fe-
male roles; the fans with the hanaikusa de-
sign are representative of the type used
by the character who would wear the
Koomote mask (cats. 318, 319). KS

312 Taiko drum

maki-e lacquer on wood
diam. 35.5 (14)
Edo period, 1745
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo

313 Taiko drum

maki-e lacquer on wood
diam. 34.5 (13 5/s)
Edo period, iSth-igth century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo

The musical instruments used in No per-

formance include the nokan, or No flute,
and three types of drums: the kotsuzumi,
the dtsuzumi, and the taiko. The taiko is
placed in a stand on the floor and is beaten
with a pair of sticks. The body, hollowed
out of hardwood and typically decorated
with maki-e lacquer, has leather drum-
heads on both ends.
Cat. 312, said to have been copied
from a taiko called Yügao, is decorated
with large peonies in gold and silver
maki-e. An attached document states that
Konparu Sóemon had it made in 1745. The
other taiko, cat. 313, is decorated with scat-
tered fans in gold and silver maki-e on
black lacquer. The designs on the fans in-
clude such plants as moonflowers and
chrysanthemums as well as Mount Fuji. KS

314 Kotsuzumi drum

maki-e lacquer on wood
diam. 11.8 (45/8); 1. 29 (ii3/s)
Edo period, iSth-igth century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
304 305 306 307
315 Kotsuzumi drum
maki-e lacquer on wood
diam. lo.o (37/3); 1. 25.0 (97/8)
310 Chùkei fan The chukei, a type of folding fan, was an
important accessory in both No and Edo period, i8th century
ink, color, and gold leaf on paper;
bamboo, lacquer Kyógen performances. Several types are Storage box
1.32.8(127/8) differentiated, determined by the color of maki-e lacquer, silver and silk on wood
Edo period, igth century the frame, the color of the paper, and the 24.0 x 29.0 x 23.4 (9 Vz x 113/8 x 9 vy
designs depicted, and each is particular to Edo period, iSth-igth century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
a certain type of role. Typically, though, Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
the chùkei has fifteen ribs, the overall
311 Chükeifan length is about 33 centimeters (13 inches),
The kotsuzumi is a percussion instrument
ink, color, and gold leaf on paper; and the two end ribs are carved in three
shaped much like an hourglass, with a thin
bamboo, lacquer places with openwork designs.
middle and two flaring ends. Drumheads
1.32.8(127/8) The four chùkei here are of the type
of leather mounted on iron rings are fitted
Edo period, igth century known as katsuradgi, or "wig fans/' mean-
on either end with the two drumheads
ing that they, like the wigs, were used for
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo connected by hemp cords. It is held with
female roles. All have black ribs and are
painted on gold-leafed paper with elegant

375
 308

309

376
310

311

377
 312

314

313

the left hand, placed on the right shoulder, 316 Nokan flute (accompanied by case) lacquered storage case, often decorated
and struck with the fingers of the right bamboo, bark, lacquer with maki-e and raden (inlaid shell). The
hand. length of ndkan 39.5 (15 Vz) case for cat. 316 is decorated with a design
Cat. 314 is decorated with a dragon Edo period, i8th century of gold maki-e grapes on black lacquer.
and cloud design on a background of am- Grapes, a symbol of fertility used as a mo-
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
ber lacquer densely sprinkled with gold tif from as early as the Nara period, were
(nashiji). The dragon, depicted in raised also popular for decorative designs in the
maki-e, winds around the drum among early modern era. The case for the other
gold and silver maki-e clouds. Cat. 315 is 317 Ndkan flute, named Yaegiku ndkan, cat. 317, bears a maki-e design of
decorated with a spring design of rafts (accompanied by case) plovers flying over waves, a motif seen
with cherry blossoms in gold maki-e on a bamboo, bark, lacquer from the medieval era on that recalls many
black lacquered ground. This kotsuzumi is length of ndkan 39.5 (15 ^2) poems of the Heian period, such as this
accompanied by a storage box decorated Edo period, i8th century one:
with a design in maki-e on black lacquer of Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
running water and maple leaves. The de- At Shio Mountain
sign alludes to many poems from the on Sashide shore
The ndkan is a transverse bamboo flute dwells a plover;
Heian period regarding the Tatsuta River
with a mouth hole and seven finger holes, May your reign last
(Nara Prefecture), famous for the autumn
wound with thinly split bark. A metal eight thousand ages, it sings. KS
foliage along its banks. One such poem
piece is fitted on the end near the mouth
reads:
hole, and many flutes are named after the
In the Tatsuta River design on the metal. The nokan is the only
red leaves flow wind instrument among the instruments
in disorder; used in No, but it plays few melodies;
if I cross, the brocade rather, it functions as a rhythm instru-
mil be cut through the middle. KS ment. The ndkan is equipped with a black-

378
315

317

316

379
 318 Koomote
polychromed wood
21.5 x 13.6 (8 Vz x 5 3/s)
Edo period, i8th century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo

319 Koomote
polychromed wood
21.0 X 13.5 (8 V4 X 5 3/8)
Edo period, i8th century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
One of the earliest No masks to be devel-
oped, Koomote represents the counte-
nance of a calm young woman, her neatly
arranged hair parted in the middle, with
three loose, but not overlapping, strands
on either side. Ko (literally, "small"), the
first Japanese character of the two that
form the word koomote, suggests the
youth, freshness and charm embodied in
this mask. Reflecting the standard of
beauty from the Heian period on, the oval
face is full, with eyebrows shaved and re-
painted high on the wide forehead. The
teeth are blackened (ohaguro), with a paste
made of powdered iron filings and gall
nuts steeped in vinegar or tea; this was a
cosmetic fashion adopted by young
women on coming of age.
Although Koomote represents a gen-
eral character type, subtle differences
among masks are apparent. Some empha-
size youthful freshness, some refinement,
some a delicately erotic charm. Cat. 319,
for example, suggests the last, with full
cheeks and relatively widely parted lips.
On the back of this mask is an inscrip-
tion of Déme Yükan. Yükan Mitsuyasu
(d. 1652) was a disciple and successor of Ze-
kan Yoshimitsu, founder of the Ono
branch of the prominent Déme family of
No mask makers. MK

380
3J8

381
 319

382
 320 321

320 Okina with no dramatic plot, its structure is to-

polychromed wood tally different from other No plays. Its ori-
18.1 x 15.2 (7 '/s x 6) gins predate the Muromachi period when
Edo period, i8th century No was perfected. The hinged jaws of the
Okina mask are a feature found also on
Tokyo National Museum
pre-No dance masks; the bushy eyebrows
and treatment of the eyes also distinguish
this from other No masks.
321 Okina Okina masks are relatively small and
polychromed wood triangular in shape, and their expressions
18.9 X 15.0 (7 l/2 X 5 7/8) suggest the dignity and benevolence of the
Edo period, ryth century main role in Okina. Cat. 321, deeply carved
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo in the old style, is one of the outstanding
Important Art Object old masks in the possession of the Hoso-
kawa family. On the back is an inscription,
Expressing the joyful face of an old man, Made by Nikkd; Mitsuyoshi [kad]. MK
the Okina (literally, "old man") mask is
worn by the main character of the liturgi-
cal No piece of the same name. Okina, a
prayer for peace throughout the land, a
rich harvest, and prosperity, occupies a
special place in the N5 repertoire. Consist-
ing mostly of ritual dancing and chanting,

383
 322
323

322 Hannya 323 Namanari

polychromed wood polychromed wood
21.0 x 17.3 (8 V4 x 6 3/4) 21.4 X 14.0 (8 3/8 X 5 l/z)
Muromachi period, loth century Edo period, i8th century
Eisei Bunko, Tokyo Eisei Bunko, Tokyo
Important Art Object
Although the horns are not as long or
The Hannya mask expresses the violent sharp and the expression not as fierce as
anger and distress of a woman whose love the Hannya mask (cat. 322), Namanari, ex-
and trust have been betrayed, turning her presses with great intensity a woman
into a raging, revengeful female demon. crazed with jealousy. As in the Hannya
The two horns protruding from disorderly mask, her complexion is dark, her eyes and
hair evince diabolic malevolence, and the teeth metallic. (Most frightening is a third
upper lip, tense and pointed in the center type of female demon mask known as Ja.)
like a snake's, and the glinting of the metal Namanari is used in the second half of
eyes and teeth effectively add to her men- Kanawa, a play about a woman who prays
ace. This mask is attributed to the monk to become a demon in order to carry out
Hannya, who is said to have lived in Nara her revenge against a husband who de-
during the Muromachi period and to have serted her for another. On the back of this
originated this type of mask. MK mask is the carver's name, Déme Moto-
masa, about whom nothing is known. MK

384
324

385
 325

386
 326 327

324 Shikami known in which generation this particular 327 Usobuki

polychromed wood mask was carved. polychromed wood
21.3 X 10.2 (8 3/8 X 6 3/8) Though the facial muscles of cat. 325 19.7 X 14.2 (7 3/4 X 5 5/8)
Edo period, i8th century are tense and the nostrils flared, the ex- Edo period, i9th century
Tokyo National Museum pression of rage is less threatening than in
Tokyo National Museum
cat. 324, an effect achieved by shallower
and more formalized carving of the fur- Kyôgen, the comic drama in which such
rows at the temples and eyes. On the back subjects as old tales and the problems of
325 Shikami of the mask is an inscription that reads, real people are treated with humorous
polychromed wood Carved by Omi. The Omi were a branch of actions and witty dialogue, uses some
21.0 x 16.5 (8 V4 x 6 Vz) the Echizen Déme family. The fourth gen- masks, though the number of mask types
Edo period, icth century eration Omi mask maker, Mitsumasa (d. is much more limited than for No. In con-
Tokyo National Museum 1704) founded the Kodama line of carvers. trast to the serious quality of No masks,
The carver of this mask, whose identity is those for Kyôgen are characterized by
Shikami is one of the demon masks. His unclear, carries on Mitsumasa's tradi- their humorous nature, with amused ex-
threatening expression, with scowling eyes tion. MK pressions, or by deliberate exaggeration
and bared fanglike teeth, well conveys his and distortion. Usobuki represents the lat-
ferocity. Furrows are intensified with red 326 Usobuki ter type. The name implies several possi-
and, as was often done in No demon polychromed wood ble meanings, including to feign
masks to manifest rage, the eyes are high- 19.3 X 14.0 (7 5/8 X 5 JA) innocence, to whistle, or to shape the
lighted in gold. Edo period, igth century mouth as though blowing a fire. The mask
The back of cat. 324 is inscribed, is worn by both human characters and the
Carved by Genkyù. Genkyü is a name used Tokyo National Museum spirits of fragile creatures such as the
by Mitsunaga, fourth-generation mask moth, mosquito, or cicada.
maker of the Déme family of Echizen, and The expression of cat. 327, with eyes
then by subsequent generations; it is not wide-open and crossed as though he is in-
flating something, and whiskers flared up,
conveys a particularly wonderful sense of
the absurd. MK

387
 328 329

328 Shakumi Fukai, differs only in depicting a some-

polychromed wood what older woman. Both are used in plays
21.2 X 13.9 (8 3/8 X 5 Vz) such as Sumidagawa, in which a mother
Edo period, igth century searches for her lost child only to find the
Tokyo National Museum child dead, or for the middle-aged women
roles in the plays Bashd or Teika.
On the back of cat. 328 is an inscrip-
tion, Omi, and a burnt-in seal, Tenka Ichi
329 Shakumi Omi (Omi, First under Heaven).
polychromed wood In comparison with cat. 328, the fore-
21.0 x 13.9 (8 V4 x 5 V2) head of cat. 329 protrudes more, the line
Edo period, igth century over each eyelid is carved more deeply,
Tokyo National Museum and the outer corners of the eyes and
mouth turn down more sharply, express-
In contrast to the youthful quality of ing a more advanced age. The fuller
Koomote (cats. 318, 319), the face of the cheeks indicate, perhaps, a somewhat
middle-aged woman's mask, Shakumi, has plump woman. MK
lost its firmness, and the strands of hair
falling on the cheeks are in relative disor-
der. It is the countenance of a woman old
enough to have known the pains of life.
The pupils are half-circles, unlike the
square ones of Koomote. A similar mask,

388
 330
33i

330 Uba and sweep beneath the pines. They tell

polychromed wood the priest of two aged pines, one here in
21.2 X 14.1 (8 3/8 X 5 l/z) Takasago and the other at Sumiyoshi in
Edo period Settsu Province and of their auspicious as-
Tokyo National Muséum sociations. Tomonari goes to Sumiyoshi in
the second half of the play, and a deity ap-
pears and performs a god dance. The Uba
mask came to be also used for the roles of
331 Uba ordinary old women in other No plays.
polychromed wood Typically, the eyes are carved as they are
20.3 X 13.6 ( 8 x 5 3/8) for the mask of a blind person.
Edo period, içth century On the back of cat. 330 is the burnt-in
Tokyo National Muséum seal of Déme Mitsutada, eighth generation
of the important Déme family of No mask
Uba, the mask of an old woman, is used makers of Echizen Province (part of
primarily in Takasago (cat. 215/1), a play in present-day Fukui Prefecture). Although
which an old woman and her husband rep- the form of the Uba mask is generally
resent the spirits of two pine trees. On his rather conventionalized, cat. 331 is even
way to the capital, Tomonari, a Shinto more so than usual. MK
priest from the shrine of Aso in Kyushu,
rests beneath the pines along the shore at
Takasago in Harima Province (now part of
Hyogo Prefecture). The old couple appear

389
 332 333

332 Chújó of the Inner Palace Guards. The Chujo

polychromed wood mask is used for the role of Prince Genji in
20.3 x 13.6 ( 8 x 5 3/s) The Tale of Genji, and for other courtiers.
Edo period, içth century The back of cat. 332 has a seal that
reads, Tenka Ichi Kawachi (Kawachi, First
Tokyo National Museum
under Heaven).
While Chujô is typically carved with a
melancholic expression and knitted brows,
333 Chüjó these qualities are especially formalized
polychromed wood and given emphasis in cat. 333. This mask
20.4 x 14.1 ( 8 x 5 ^2) was owned by the Konparu family, one of
Edo period, içth century the four main groups of No actors. MK
Tokyo National Muséum
The Chujô mask represents a young aris-
tocrat of early times, with light complex-
ion, high painted eyebrows, and teeth
blackened (ohaguro). Traditionally, this
mask type is said to have been modeled af-
ter Ariwara no Narihira, the famous poet
of the Heian period whose court rank was
c/zü/ó, middle captain, in the headquarters

390
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392
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ni tsuite no utagai" (Some remarks on doji as an artistic material). In Akdmdtsu tic study of the sliding door paintings at
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 This book was produced by the editors
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Editor-in-Chief, Frances P. Smyth
Senior editor, Mary Yakush
Editors, Naomi Noble Richard and Virginia Wageman
Translations by Kyoko Selden
Designed by Dana Levy, Perpetua Press, Los Angeles
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