Warlords, Artists and Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century

392 Pages·1981·98.717 MB·English

by  George Elison, Bardwell L. Smith

Warlords, Artists, and Commoners

Warlords, Artists,
& Commoners
Japan in the Sixteenth Century
Edited by
George Elison and Bardwell L. Smith
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS
Honolulu
Copyright © 1981
by Hie University Press of Hawaii
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition 1981
Paperback edition 1987
96 97 6 5 4J
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Warlords, artists, and commoners.
"The outcome of a seminar on Japan in the
sixteenth century held at Carleton College during
the winter and spring terms of 1974.''
Includes index.
1. Japan—Civilization—1568-1600—Congresses.
2. Japan—History—Period of civil wars, 1480-1603
—Congresses. I. Elison, George. II. Smith,
Bardwell L.
DS822.2.W35 952'.02 80-24128
ISBN 0-8248-0692-1
ISBN 0-8248-1109-7 (pbk)
Frontispiece: Detail of HIDEYOSHI VISITING THE
BLOSSOMING CHERRIES AT YOSHINO, c. 1594,
folding screen. Kimiko and John Powers collection.
Photograph by Geoffrey Clements.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Chronology ix
Map of Japan in the Sixteenth Century xvii
Introduction: Japan in the Sixteenth Century 1
George Elison
Japan's Sixteenth-Century Revolution 7
John Whitney Hall
The City of Sakai and Urban Autonomy 23
V. Dixon Morris
The Cross and the Sword: Patterns of Momoyama History 5 5
George Elison
A Visualization ofEitoku's Lost Paintings at Azuchi Castle 87
Carolyn Wheelwright
Joha, a Sixteenth-Century Poet of Linked Verse 113
Donald Keene
City and Country: Song and the Performing Arts in
Sixteenth-Century Japan 133
Frank Hoff
Music Cultures of Momoyama Japan 163
William P. Malm
The Culture of Tea: Prom Its Origins to Sen no RikyU 187
H. Paul Varley and George Elison
Hideyoshi, the Bountiful Minister 223
George Elison
Japanese Society and Culture in the Momoyama Era:
A Bibliographic Essay 245
BardwellL. Smith
Contributors 281
Notes 285
Glossary 339
Index 345

Acknowledgments
This volume of essays is the outcome of a seminar on Japan in the sixteenth
century held at Carleton College during the winter and spring terms of 1974
as the second of a series of special seminars on Asia. Selected papers from the
first, which dealt with the T'ang period in China, were published in 1976
under the title Essays on T'ang Society: The Interplay of Social, Political and
Economic Forces. We should like first of all to thank Mr. and Mrs. John M.
Musser for their gift to Carleton, which enables the college to hold seminars
of this kind.
In addition to Professors Hall, Keene, Malm, and Varley, who contribut-
ed chapters to this volume, the scholars who participated in the seminar over
its fifteen-week period included Professors Abe Masao, John Rosenfield, and
Andrew Tsubaki. To all of them we wish to express our appreciation. The
student members, whose free and thoughtful criticism enriched the semi-
nar, have also earned our sincere appreciation. They were David Aki, John
Collidge, Elizabeth Gault, Marshall Gittler, Nancy Haven, Katherine Lock,
Marianne Mcllvain, Gayle Menich, Terry Moss, Kristina Nelson, Cynthia
Pietrak, Jay Swanson, Kenneth Titley, James Treece, and David Russell.
Colleagues who shared their time and their wisdom with us in the prepa-
ration of this collection include John Curtis Perry, Paul Martin Sacks, and
George Macklin Wilson. Their support and suggestions have contributed
much to this book's makeup. Julia Meech-Pekarik of The Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art in New York and Sato Jindo of the Shogakukan Publishing
Company in Tokyo gave valuable advice and assistance in regard to the
book's illustrations, and to them, too, we are most grateful.
We wish to thank those who provided administrative aid at the time of
the seminar and since, especially Terry Basquin, then secretary of the History
Department at Carleton, and May Okada, administrative assistant to the
Dean of the College. Thanks are also due to Barbara Arnn of the Depart-
ment of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Indiana University, for her help
with the index, and to Robin Barnes and William Elison for drawing the
map of Japan.
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Finally, we should like to acknowledge with gratitude the following insti-
tutions for granting us permission to reproduce the works of art which illus-
trate this volume: Academy for Educational Development, New York; Im-
perial Household Agency, Tokyo; Jukoin, Daitokuji, Kyoto; Nanzenji,
Kyoto; Reiun'in, Myoshinji, Kyoto; and the Tokyo National Museum.
Bloomington, Indiana GE
Northfield, Minnesota BLS
Chronology
1467- - Onin War: collapse of ccntral authority; beginning of Sengoku
1477 period
1471 - death of the dobo Noami
1474 - Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa abandons his office (7 January;
Bunmei 5/12/19)
1476? - Soami completes the compilation of the handbook on Higashi-
yama aesthetics, Kundaikan sochoki, begun by Noami
1479 - Yamashina Honganji founded by Rennyo, the pontiff of the
True Pure Land sect
1482 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa begins building the Higashiyama Villa (site
of the Silver Pavilion)
1484 - by this year, a local autonomous council called the Egoshu is
functioning in Sakai
1485 - local leaders of the province of Yamashiro form a league (ikki)
and take over the administration of the southern part of the prov-
ince (until 1493)
1488 - adherents of the True Pure Land sect, organized as the Ikko ikki,
take over the province of Kaga (until 1580)
1490 - death of Ashikaga Yoshimasa
1496 - Rennyo founds the Ishiyama Dojo in Osaka: forerunner of the
Ishiyama Honganji
1500 - the Gion Festival, lapsed since the Onin War, is revived in Kyoto
1502 - death of the tea master Murata Shuko
1505 - the great popularity of Bon odori in Kyoto causes the shogunate
to prohibit the dance
1506 - death ofthe painter Sesshu Toyd (b. 1420)
1507 - Tosa Mitsunobu paints a screen depicting Kyoto for the Asakura
daimyo ofEchizen: a prototype Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu byobu
X CHRONOLOGY
1513 - Kano Motonobu and Soami decorate the Abbot's Quarters of the
Daisen 'in
1515 - Toyohara Sumiaki writes Taigensho, a study of court music
1517 - the rcnga master Saiokuken Socho records songs heard during a
journey in his travel diary, Utsu no yamaki
1518 - compilation of the song anthology Kanginshu
1521 - Miyoshi Motonaga establishes the headquarters of his family, the
Mandokoro, in Sakai
1522 - Sen no Rikyu born
1524 - SatomuraJoha born
1525 - death of Soami, the last of the ' 'Three Ami"
1527 - Miyoshi Motonaga, championing the cause of Ashikaga Yoshi-
tsuna, establishes the so-called Sakai Bakufu
1530- - Saiokuken Socho's diary, Socho shuki, records songs heard on his
1531 travels
1532 - Ikko ikki attacks the Nichiren sect temple Kenponji in Sakai and
forces Miyoshi Motonaga to suicide: end of the "Sakai Bakufu"
(My)
- adherents of the Nichiren sect in Kyoto form the "Lotus Con-
federation" (Hokke ikki), arm themselves, and take over the affairs
of the city (August)
- Yamashina Honganji is destroyed by the forces of the Lotus Con-
federation (September); Ishiyama Honganji of Osaka becomes the
headquarters of the True Pure Land sect
1534 - Oda Nobunaga born
1536 - end of the Lotus Confederation: the main temples of the
Nichiren sect are destroyed, and large parts of Kyoto burnt, by ar-
mies mobilized by the monks of the Tendai sect on Mount Hiei
- from this date onward, the Ishiyama Honganji becomes a major
center of No, sponsoring performances by the Four Troupes
1537 - Toyotomi Hideyoshi born probably this year (17 March; Tenbun
6/2/6 [?]); some sources indicate 1536
1539 - Miyoshi Nagayoshi (Chokei) for the first time occupies Kyoto
- Kano Motonobu begins a large interior decoration project at the
Ishiyama Honganji
1542 - discovery of the rich Ikuno silver mine in Tajima province
1543 - TokugawaIeyasu born (31 January; Tenbun 11/12/26)
- Kano Eitoku born
- Kano Motonobu decorates the Abbot's Quarters of the Reiun 'in
- Miyoshi Nagayoshi assumes control over Sakai
- the first Portuguese traders arrive in Japan; introduction of West-
ern firearms
1544 - the shogunateprohibits furyu in Kyoto