Thursday, March 26

Assignment:  Reading #20

For the next week and a half, we'll be focusing on the culture of feudal Japan, and particularly the samurai class: its origins, its character, its transformations, and ultimately, its demise. 

On Thursday, we'll survey of the history of the samurai class -- that is, a history of feudal Japan, the era of the samurai.  There are three historical periods that comprise "feudal Japan," and for our purposes, they boil down to two major eras with a brief transition:

In your reading (from Edwin Reischauer's The Japanese Today, chapter 5) concerns the upper box; chapter 6, which you'll be reading for next tuesday's class, concerns the Tokugawa Period.  During the period of decentralized feudalism, the warrior class of the samurai was born and reached its greatest peaks.  The Kamakura and Ashikaga periods were eras of frequent warfare.  The most powerful leader in Japan was a man whose title reflected his status as the most revered among warlord figures:  the shogun, a title which means, "the general."   The "shogunate" (office of shogun) was held by hereditary right, and each feudal era represents the dominance of one clan, whose leader succeeded to the shogunate.  The most important leaders under the shogun were local warlords, who came to be called daimyo during the Ashikaga era, a term that means "[men of] great names."  Daimyo controlled territories known as han, and served the shogun by mobilizing warriors loyal to them -- and indirectly to the shogun -- their samurai.   Above the shogun, the emperors continued to reign without practical power, revered as a symbol by all, but permitted no independence of action or true authority.

The daimyo frequently competed for power by battling among themselves, and under relatively weak shoguns, the fighting could truly split the state.  Towards the end of the period of decentralized feudalism, Japan underwent a period of severe political disintegration, during which a series of three great military leaders successively mobilized the samurai class as a body, reducing for a time the significance of the daimyo.  This period is often referred to as the Warring States Era (1573-1600).  The outcome was the establishment of a new and more powerful shogun clan, the Tokugawa, who established innovative changes that made feudal government more centralized and more stable, reintroducing many Confucian-style institutional features that had decayed in earlier eras.  The Tokugawa state, formed just at the time that Europeans were first appearing in East Asia, developed structures of government that were important bridges to the modernized state that Japan quickly became after 1868.  These features dramatically changed the role of the samurai class, as we will see.

The dynamic of changes that we'll discuss this Thursday is illustrated in a CHART, which will be an important basis of our lectures on samrai history.  Next Tuesday, we will focus on the ideology of the samurai class -- on bushido (the Dao of the warrior), and on its clearest literary expression, the Hagakure.  We will also see how, during the Tokugawa period, the growth of another class -- the merchant class -- created tremendous tensions between the samurai and those engaged in commercial activity, a dynamic we'll explore further a week from this Thursday.  

A Gallery of Images From Kamakura and Ashikaga Japan

The birth of the samurai era naturally focuses artwork on military themes.  This depiction of a battle that occurred during the Heian-Kamakura transition period, dates to the 13th century.  It shows the burning of a royal palace.

Left:  A statue of the Buddhist Law-protector Kongorikishi.  Much Buddhist statuary during the Kamakura era was militant in nature.  Buddhist temples, in fact, often nurtured warrior-monks who were a major military threat throughout the Kamakura and Ashikaga periods.

Right:  A depiction of Minamoto Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura bakufu, and its first Shogun.

Zen Influences During the Ashikaga Era

The ink artist Sesshu exemplifies a medieval approach to painting that draws from two Chinese streams: pure landscape ink painting and Zen painting.  Both styles were seen by this school of artist as representing the same reduced focus on life, reflecting the austere discipline of Zen meditation and its extension into everyday life habits and values.  These ideas appealed to samurai, whose dedication to the value of loyalty and to preparation for war and death required Zen-like training from an early age.

The tea house at the left reflects the simple aesthetic of the tea ceremony -- a ritual much prized by samurai, reflecting the focus of meditation.  The simplicity of the objects in the ceremony, such as the tea cup and serving implements pictured, carried through the theme of the ceremony as an occasion for mental focus and a keen appreciation of the objects at hand.

        In different ways,
the minimalist Zen rock garden at the Ryoanji Temple (left), and the Silver Pavilion (right), constructed for the retirement of an Ashikaga shogun, reflect the prized values of simplicity and balance of the medieval aesthetic.

Lavishness in the Ashikaga - Tokugawa Transition

At the transition from Ashikaga to Tokugawa, increased centralization of resources in the hands first of daimyo, then of the great unifying figures of the "Warring States Era," and finally of the Tokugawa founders, created a certain culture of aristocratic and military excess.  One example was the palatial fortress-castles constructed by powerful military leaders.  (At left is Nagoya Castle, build by the Tokugawa founder in 1610.)  The infusion of European armaments and fortress engineering was a major spur to this sort of construction.  The interiors of these palaces were often paneled with spectacular art, including many folding screens, often covered in shining gold leaf.

The screen painting of a cypress at left, attributed to Kano Eitoku (16th century) has eight panels of gold leaf.  It's glow in the darkened rooms of a castle would have created light, much like a mirror -- but with far greater beauty.

The effects of gilt screening on the interior of a daimyo palace, constructed along the simple, rectangular pattern of traditional architecture, are visible in this photograph of the messenger room of Nijo Palace.

One of a pair of screens picturing a pine wood, this work by Hasegawa Tohaku (also 16th century) contrasts with many screens of the period by carrying the understated aesthetic of Zen into a medium that was more generally decorative.

From the first century of the Tokugawa era, this very famous screen painting of irises by Ogata Korin illustrates a midway point between the traditional valuation of artistic simplicity and the decorative lavishness prized by the  Warring States and Tokugawa daimyo elite.

The next examples illustrate how artists could move between the different poles of artistic values during this era.  The opulent gold screen at the right, depicting a traditional Thunder God of popular religion, was executed by Sotastu, a master painter of the warring States Era and first decades of the Tokugawa.  (It's one of a pair, with the Wind God depicted on its partner screen.)

Contrast Sotatsu's style here with the two examples below, both large hand scrolls painted in partnership with a contemporary master calligrapher, Koetsu, who was likely a family relation of Sotatsu.  The "Crane Scroll" and (most famously) the "Deer Scroll" are among the most graceful and subtle works in the history of Japanese visual art -- which is itself one of the most supple traditions in world cultural history.