FOREIGN INTERCOURSE, LITERATURE, ART, RELIGION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS
IN THE MUROMACHI EPOCH
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE
AFTER the Mongol invasion of Kyushu, Japan held no intercourse with
the outer world for several decades, nor does her friendship seem to
have been sought by any oversea nation. In the closing year of the
thirteenth century, merchantmen flying the Yuan flag are reported to
have arrived, but the record is nebulous, and the same may be said of
a passing reference that, in 1341, Japanese vessels were sent to
China to procure articles manufactured there. We reach more solid
ground a year later (1342), when the Ashikaga chief, Takauji, being
engaged in building the temple Tenryu-ji, opened trade with China for
the purpose of obtaining apparatus, vestments, and works of art. The
number of vessels was limited to two annually, and the trade must not
exceed five hundred kwan-mon (£750, or $3700). Some of the objects
then carried to Japan survive to this day in the form of celadon
vases known in Japan as Tenryuji-seiji.* Meanwhile, not a few
Buddhist priests crossed the sea from China to preach their faith,
and it is certain that during the War of the Dynasties in Japan, when
the south of the country was in a state of anarchy, privateering in
Korean waters was freely resorted to by Japanese adventurers. A
Korean envoy arrived at Fukuhara, in Settsu, in 1367, bearer of a
strong protest against this marauding, and declaring that for a
decade past assassination and plunder had been freely practised by
Japanese subjects on the inhabitants of the Korean littoral. China
and Korea were then in a troubled condition.
*The merchantmen received the name of Tenryuji-bune (bune signifies
"ship")
In the year (1368) after the arrival of this envoy, the Yuan dynasty
went down in China before the Ming, and in Korea the kingdom of Koma
was overthrown, the Yi dynasty rising on its ruins and calling the
peninsula Chosen. The Ming sovereign immediately attempted to
establish tradal intercourse with Japan, but the negotiations failed,
and not until 1392 is there any record of oversea relations. Then, at
length, Korea's protest elicited a reply from Japan. The shogun,
Yoshimitsu, sent to Chosen a despatch, signifying that piracy had
been interdicted, that all captives would be returned, and that he
desired to establish friendly relations. It appears that at that time
China also suffered from the depredations of Japanese corsairs, for
the annals say that she repeatedly remonstrated, and that, in 1401,
Yoshimitsu despatched to China an envoy carrying presents and
escorting some Chinese subjects who had been cast away on the
Japanese coast or carried captive thither. Another record suggests
that the Chinese Emperor was perplexed between the two warring Courts
in Japan. At the time of his accession, a body of Mongol fugitives
established themselves in Shantung, where they received assistance
from some Japanese adventurers. The Ming sovereign opened
communications on the subject with Prince Kanenaga, who held Kyushu
in the interests of the Southern Court, but the tone of the Chinese
monarch was so arrogant that Prince Kanenaga made no reply. Then
Taitsu employed a Buddhist priest, but the character of this bonze
having been detected, he was thrown into prison.
These things happened in 1380. In the following year Taitsu
despatched a duly credited envoy who used menacing language and was
sent back with a defiance from Prince Kanenaga. The priest, however,
was set free in 1382, and having learned while in Japan that two
Courts were disputing the title to the Crown, he informed the Chinese
sovereign in that sense, and the latter subsequently addressed
himself to Kyoto, with the result noted above, namely, that
Yoshimitsu opened friendly relations (1401). It was to the Ouchi
family of Suwo that the management of intercourse with Chosen was
entrusted, the latter sending its envoys to Yamaguchi. Subsequently,
after Ouchi Yoshihiro's disaffection and disaster, a Buddhist priest
and well-known artist, Soami, acted as Muromachi's envoy to the Ming
Court, being accompanied by a merchant, Koetomi, who is described as
thoroughly conversant with Chinese conditions. By these two the first
commercial treaty was negotiated. It provided that an envoy should be
sent by each of the contracting parties in every period of ten years,
the suite of this envoy to be limited to two hundred, and any ship
carrying arms to be regarded as a pirate.
The first envoy from the Ming Court under this treaty was met by
Yoshimitsu himself at Hyogo, and being escorted to Kyoto, was
hospitably lodged in a hotel there. Instructions were also issued
from Muromachi to the officials in Kyushu, peremptorily interdicting
piracy and ordering the arrest of any that contravened the veto.
Further, the high constables in several provinces were enjoined to
encourage trade with China by sending the best products of their
localities. In fact, Yoshimitsu showed himself thoroughly earnest in
promoting oversea commerce, and a considerable measure of success
attended his efforts. Unfortunately, an interruption was caused in
1419, when some seventeen thousand Koreans, Mongolians, and "southern
barbarians"--a name given promiscuously to aliens--in 227 ships, bore
down on Tsushima one midsummer day and were not driven off until the
great families of Kyushu--the Otomo, the Shoni, the Kikuchi, and the
Shiba--had joined forces to attack the invaders. The origin of this
incident is wrapped in mystery, but probably the prohibition of
Japanese pirates was not enforced for the protection of Chosen, and
the assault on Tsushima was a desperate attempt at retaliation.
Yoshimochi, however, who was then shogun, seems to have associated
China with the invasion, for a Ming envoy, arriving just at the time
of the contest, was indignantly refused audience. Thereafter, the
tandai appointed from Muroinachi to administer the affairs of Kyushu
was driven out by the Shoni family, and the shogun's policy of
checking piracy ceased to be enforced, so that the coasts of China
and Chosen were much harried, all legitimate commerce being
suspended. When Yoshinori became shogun, however, this was one of the
directions in which he turned his reforming hand. A Buddhist priest,
Doen, proceeded to the Ming Court as Muromachi's delegate, and the
Chinese sovereign agreed to restore the old relations, transmitting
for that purpose a hundred tallies to be carried by the merchantmen.
These tallies were distributed to several high constables, to five
great temples, and to merchants in Hyogo and Sakai, the corresponding
tallies* being entrusted to the Ouchi family, which, having now
recovered its power, was charged with the duty of superintending the
trade with China. Meanwhile, So Sadamori of Tsushima had established
commercial relations with Chosen, and received from thence a yearly
consignment of two hundred koku of soy beans, the vessel that carried
the staple being guarded by boats known as Tsushima-bune.
*The tallies were cards on which a line of ideographs were inscribed.
The card was then cut along the line, and a moiety was given to the
trader, the corresponding moiety being kept by the superintendent.
Thus, it fell out that the right of supervising the trade with China
and Korea came into the exclusive possession of the Ouchi and the So,
respectively, and being liberally encouraged, brought great wealth to
them as well as to other territorial magnates of the central and
southern provinces. The records show that large profits were
realized. Four or five hundred per cent, is spoken of, and, further,
the Ming sovereign, in Yoshimasa's time, responded generously, as has
been already shown, to the shogun's appeal for supplies of copper
cash. One Japanese fan could be exchanged for a copy of a valuable
book, and a sword costing one kwan-mon in Japan fetched five kwan-mon
in China. Such prices were paid, however, for rare goods only,
notably for Japanese raw silk, fifty catties (sixty-seven lbs.) of
which sold for ten kwan-mon (£15, or $75, approximately). Gold, too,
was much more valuable in China than in Japan. Ten ryo of the yellow
metal could be obtained in Japan for from twenty to thirty kwan-mon
and sold in China for 130. Sealskins, swords, spears, pepper,
sulphur, fans, lacquer, raw silk, etc. were the chief staples of
exports; and velvet, musk, silk fabrics, porcelains, etc.,
constituted the bulk of the imports. The metropolis being Kyoto, with
its population of some 900,000, Hyogo was the most important harbour
for the trade, and after it came Hakata,* in Chikuzen; Bonotsu, in
Satsuma; Obi, in Hyuga, and Anotsu, in Ise. The customs duties at
Hyogo alone are said to have amounted to the equivalent of £15,000,
or $75,000, annually.
*Hakata's place was subsequently taken by Hirado.
In China, Ningpo was the chief port. It had a mercantile-marine
office and an inn for foreign guests. The tribute levied on the trade
was sent thence to Nanking. In size the vessels employed were from 50
to 130 tons, greater dimensions being eschewed through fear of loss.
An invoice shows that the goods carried by a ship in 1458 were:
sulphur (410,750 lbs.); copper (206,000 lbs.); spears (11); fans
(1250); swords (9500); lacquered wares (634 packages), and sapan-wood
(141,333 lbs.). During the days of Yoshimasa's shogunate such profits
were realized that overtrading took place, and there resulted a
temporary cessation. Fifty years later, when Yoshiharu ruled at
Muromachi (1529), a Buddhist priest, Zuisa, sent by the shogun to
China, and an envoy, Sosetsu, despatched by the Ouchi family, came
into collision at Ningpo. It was a mere question of precedence, but
in the sequel Zuisa was seized, Ningpo was sacked, and its governor
was murdered. The arm of the shogun at that time could not reach the
Ouchi family, and a demand for the surrender of Sosetsu was in vain
preferred at Muromachi through the medium of the King of Ryukyu.
Yoshiharu could only keep silence.
The Ming sovereign subsequently (1531) attempted to exact redress by
sending a squadron to Tsushima, but the deputy high constable of the
Ouchi compelled these ships to fly, defeated, and thereafter all
friendly intercourse between Japan and China was interrupted,
piratical raids by the Japanese taking its place. This estrangement
continued for seventeen years, until (1548) Ouchi Yoshitaka
re-established friendly relations with Chosen and, at the same time,
made overtures to China, which, being seconded by the despatch of an
envoy--a Buddhist priest--Shuryo from Muromachi, evoked a favourable
response. Once more tallies were issued, but the number of vessels
being limited to three and their crews to three hundred, the
resulting commerce was comparatively small. Just at this epoch, too,
Occidental merchantmen arrived in China, and the complexion of the
latter's oversea trade underwent alteration. Thereafter, the Ashikaga
fell, and their successor, Oda Nobunaga, made no attempt to re-open
commerce with China, while his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, planned
the invasion of the Middle Kingdom, so that the sword was more in
evidence than the soroban.
JAPANESE PIRACY
It is difficult to trace the beginnings of Japanese piracy in Far
Eastern waters, but certainly it dated from a remote past and reached
its extreme in the middle of the sixteenth century. The records show
that Murakami Yoshihiro, of Iyo province, obtained control of all the
corsairs in neighbouring seas and developed great puissance. Nor did
any measure of opprobrium attach to his acts, for on his death he was
succeeded by Morokiyo, a scion of the illustrious Kitabatake family.
Numbers flocked to his standard during the disordered era of the War
of the Dynasties, and from Korea in the north to Formosa and Amoy in
the south the whole littoral was raided by them.
For purposes of protection the Ming rulers divided the coast into
five sections, Pehchihli, Shantung, Chekiang, Fuhkien, and
Liangkwang, appointing a governor to each, building fortresses and
enrolling soldiers. All this proving inefficacious, the Emperor
Taitsu, as already stated, addressed to Ashikaga Yoshimitsu a
remonstrance which moved the shogun to issue a strict injunction
against the marauders. It was a mere formality. Chinese annals show
that under its provisions some twenty pirates were handed over by the
Japanese and were executed by boiling in kettles. No such
international refinement as extra-territorial jurisdiction existed in
those days, and the Japanese shogun felt no shame in delivering his
countrymen to be punished by an alien State. It is not wonderful that
when Yoshimitsu died, the Chinese Emperor bestowed on him the
posthumous title Kung-hsien-wang, or "the faithful and obedient
king." But boiling a score of the Wokou* in copper kettles did not at
all intimidate the corsairs. On nearly all the main islands of the
Inland Sea and in the Kyushu waters they had their quarters. In fact,
the governors of islands and a majority of the military magnates
having littoral estates, took part in the profitable pursuit. No less
than fourteen illustrious families were so engaged, and four of them
openly bore the title of kaizoku tai-shogun (commander-in-chief of
pirates). Moreover, they all obeyed the orders of the Ouchi family.
It is on record that Ouchi Masahiro led them in an incursion into
Chollado, the southern province of Korea, and exacted from the
sovereign of Chosen a promise of yearly tribute to the Ouchi. This
was only one of several profitable raids. The goods appropriated in
Korea were sometimes carried to China for sale, the pirates assuming,
now the character of peaceful traders, now that of ruthless
plunderers. The apparition of these Pahan** ships seems to have
inspired the Chinese with consternation. They do not appear to have
made any effective resistance. The decade between 1553 and 1563 was
evidently their time of greatest suffering; and their annals of that
era repay perusal, not only for their direct interest but also for
their collateral bearing on the story of the invasion of Korea at the
close of the century.
"On the 23d of the fifth month of 1553, twenty-seven Japanese vessels
arrived at Lungwangtang. They looked like so many hills and their
white sails were as clouds in the sky. On the fifth day of the fourth
month of 1554, there appeared on the horizon a large ship which
presently reached Lungwang-tang. Her crew numbered 562. They blew
conches after the manner of trumpets, marshalled themselves in battle
array, and surrounding the castle with flying banners, attacked it.
On the fourth day of the ninth month of 1555, a two-masted ship
carrying a crew of some hundreds came to Kinshan-hai, and on the next
day she was followed by eight five-masted vessels with crews
totalling some thousands. They all went on shore and looted in
succession. On the 23d of the second month of 1556, pirate ships
arrived at the entrance to Kinshan-hai. Their masts were like a dense
forest of bamboo."
*Yamato enemies.
**Chinese pronunciation of the ideographs read by the Japanese
"Hachiman" (god of War). The pirates inscribed on their sails the
legend Hachiman Dai-bosatsu.
Further records show that in 1556 the pirates entered Yang-chou,
looted and burned the city; that in 1559 they attacked Chekiang; that
in 1560, they made their way to Taitsang, and thence pushed on
towards Shanghai, Sungteh, etc., looting towns almost daily. There
was no effective resistance. We find also the following appreciation
of Japanese ships:
"The largest of the Japanese vessels can carry about three hundred
men; the medium-sized, from one to two hundred, and the smallest from
fifty to eighty. They are constructed low and narrow. Thus, when they
meet a big ship they have to look up to attack her. The sails are not
rigged like those of our ships which can be navigated in any wind.
But wicked people on the coast of Fuhkien sold their ships to the
foreigners; and the buyers, having fitted them with double bottoms
and keels shaped so as to cleave the waves, came to our shores in
them."
Evidently the Chinese were better skilled in the art of shipbuilding
than the Japanese. As for the defensive measures of the Chinese the
following is recorded:
"The Government troops on sea and on land made every effort to keep
off the pirates. They flew banners at morn and eve and fired guns
seaward, so that the enemy, understanding by the flash and the
detonation that we were prepared to resist, abstained from landing.
But when the pirates handled their swords skilfully, their attack was
fearful. Our countrymen when they saw these swordsmen, trembled and
fled. Their fear of the Japanese was fear of the swords. The pirates'
firearms were only guns such as men use in pursuit of game. They did
not range over one hundred paces. But their skill in using their guns
was such that they never missed. We could not defeat them. They rise
early in the morning and take their breakfast kneeling down.
Afterwards their chief ascends an eminence and they gather below to
hear his orders. He tells them off in detachments not exceeding
thirty men, and attaching them to officers, sends them to loot
places. The detachments operate at distances of from five hundred to
a thousand yards, but unite at the sound of a conch.
"To re-enforce a detachment in case of emergency, small sections of
three or four swordsmen move about. At the sight of them our men
flee. Towards dark the detachments return to headquarters and hand in
their loot, never making any concealment. It is then distributed.
They always abduct women, and at night they indulge in drinking and
debauchery. They always advance in single rank at a slow pace, and
thus their extension is miles long. For tens of days they can run
without showing fatigue. In camping, they divide into many companies,
and thus they can make a siege effective. Against our positions they
begin by sending a few men who by swift and deceptive movements cause
our troops to exhaust all their projectiles fruitlessly, and then the
assault is delivered. They are clever in using ambushes, and often
when they seem to be worsted, their hidden forces spring up in our
rear and throw our army into a panic."
There is no reason to doubt the truth of these records, naive as are
some of the descriptions. Unquestionably the Wokou were a terrible
scourge to the Chinese on the eastern littoral.
INTERCOURSE WITH RYUKYU
Japanese annals say that the royal family of Ryukyu was descended
from the hero Minamoto Tametomo who was banished to the island in
1156, and certainly the inhabitants of the archipelago are a race
closely allied to the Japanese. But in 1373, the then ruler, Chuzan,
sent an envoy to the Ming Court and became a tributary of the latter.
In 1416, however, an ambassador from the islands presented himself at
the Muromachi shogunate, and twenty-five years later (1441), the
shogun Yoshinori, just before his death, bestowed Ryukyu on Shimazu
Tadakuni, lord of Satsuma, in recognition of meritorious services.
Subsequently (1471) the shogun Yoshimasa, in compliance with a
request from the Shimazu family, forbade the sailing of any vessel to
Ryukyu without a Shimazu permit, and when, a few years later, Miyake
Kunihide attempted to invade Ryukyu, the Shimazu received Muromachi's
(Yoshitane's) commission to punish him. Historically, therefore,
Ryukyu formed part of Japan, but its rulers maintained a tributary
attitude towards China until recent times, as will presently be seen.
LITERATURE DURING THE MUROMACHI PERIOD
Throughout the Muromachi period of two and a half centuries a group
of military men held the administration and reaped all rewards and
emoluments of office so that literary pursuits ranked in
comparatively small esteem. Some education was necessary, indeed, for
men of position, but eminent scholars were exceptional. Noteworthy
among the latter were Nijo Yoshimoto, Ichijo Fuyuyoshi, Doin Kinsada,
Sanjonishi Sanetaka, and Kiyowara Naritada. Most renowned was Ichijo
Kaneyoshi. Equally versed in the classics of China and Japan, as well
as in Buddhism and Confucianism, he composed several works of high
merit. A feature of the period was the erudition of the priests.
Gen-e, a bonze of the temple Hiei-zan, adopted the commentaries of
the Sung savants, Chengtzu and Chutsu, rejecting those of the earlier
Han and Tang writers. In other words, he adopted the eclectic system
of Buddhism and Confucianism as compounded by the scholars of the
Sung and the Yuan epochs, in preference to the system of earlier
pundits. The Emperor Go-Daigo invited Gen-e to Court and directed him
to expound the Sutras. Thereafter, the Sung philosophy obtained wide
allegiance, being preached by the priests of the Five Great Temples
in Kyoto, and by all their provincial branches. On the other hand,
the hereditary schools of Oye and Sugawara, adhering to their old
dogmas, fell behind the times and declined in influence.
The feature of the age in point of learning was that scholarship
became a priestly specialty. From the Five Temples (Go-zari) students
constantly flocked to China, where they received instructions in the
exoterics and esoterics of Buddhism, as modified by the creed of
Confucius, laying the foundations of systems upon which philosophers
of later ages, as Kazan and Seiga, built fair edifices. These priests
of the Five Temples were more than religious propagandists: they were
ministers of State, as Tenkai and Soden were in after times under the
Tokugawa, and they practically commanded the shoguns. One reason
operating to produce this result was that, in an age when lineage or
military prowess was the sole secular step to fortune, men of civil
talent but humble birth had to choose between remaining in hopeless
insignificance or entering the priesthood where knowledge and virtue
were sure passports to distinction. It was thus that in nearly every
monastery there were found men of superior intellect and erudition.
The fact was recognized. When Ashikaga Takauji desired to take
counsel of Muso Kokushi, he repaired to that renowned priest's temple
and treated him as a respected parent; and Yoshimitsu, the third of
the Ashikaga shoguns, showed equal respect towards Gido, Zekkai and
Jorin, whose advice he constantly sought.
It was strange, indeed, that in an age when the sword was the
paramount tribunal, the highest dignitaries in the land revered the
exponents of ethics and literature. Takauji and his younger brother,
Tadayoshi, sat at the feet of Gen-e as their preceptor. Yoshimitsu
appointed Sugawara Hidenaga to be Court lecturer. Ujimitsu, the
Kamakura kwanryo, took Sugawara Toyonaga for preacher. Yoshimasa's
love of poetry impelled him to publish the Kinshudan.* Above all,
Yoshihisa was an earnest scholar. He had a thorough knowledge of
Chinese and Japanese classics; he was himself a poetaster of no mean
ability; he read canonical books even as he sat in his palanquin;
under his patronage Ichijo Kaneyoshi wrote the Shodan-chiyo and** the
Bummei Ittoki; Fujiwara Noritane compiled the Teio-keizu; Otsuki
Masabumi lectured on the analects and Urabe Kanetomo expounded the
standard literature of the East.
*The Embroidered Brocade Discourse.
**Rustic Ideals of Government.
Yet, side by side with these patrons of learning stood a general
public too ignorant to write its own name. Military men, who formed
the bulk of the nation, were engrossed with the art of war and the
science of intrigue to the exclusion of all erudition. The priests
were always available to supply any need, and the priests utilized
the occasion. Nevertheless, it stands to the credit of these bonzes
that they made no attempt to monopolize erudition. Their aim was to
popularize it. They opened temple-seminaries (tera-koya) and exercise
halls (dojo) where youths of all classes could obtain instruction and
where an excellent series of text-books was used, the Iroha-uta* the
Doji-kyo, the Teikin-orai** and the Goseibai-shikimoku.*** The
Doji-kyo has been translated by Professor Chamberlain (in Vol. VIII
of the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan"). A few
extracts will serve to show the nature of the ethical teaching given
to Japanese children in medieval days:
*A syllabary of moral precepts like the ethical copy-books of
Occidentals.
**A model letter-writer.
***The criminal laws of Hojo Yasutoki. All these text-books remained
in use until the Meiji era.
Let nothing lead thee into breaking faith with thy friend, and depart
not from thy word. It is the tongue that is the root of misfortunes;
if the mouth were made like unto the nose, a man would have no
trouble till his life's end. In the house where virtue is accumulated
there will surely be superabundant joy. No man is worthy of honour
from his birth; 'tis the garnering-up of virtue that bringeth him
wisdom and virtue; the rich man may not be worthy of honour. In thin
raiment on a winter's night, brave the cold and be reading the whole
night through; with scanty fare on a summer's day, repel hunger and
be learning the whole day long. . . . A father's loving kindness is
higher than the mountains; a mother's bounty is deeper than the sea.
. . . He that receiveth benefits and is not grateful is like unto the
birds that despoil the branches of the trees they perch on. . . .
Above all things, men must practise charity; it is by almsgiving that
wisdom is fed; less than all things, men must grudge money; it is by
riches that wisdom is hindered. . . . The merit of an alms given with
a compassionate heart to one poor man is like unto the ocean; the
recompense of alms given to a multitude for their own sake is like
unto a grain of poppy-seed.
This text-book, the Doji-kyo, was compiled by a priest, Annen, who
lived in the second half of the ninth century. Its origin belongs,
therefore, to a much more remote era than that of the Muromachi
shoguns, but, in common with the other text-books enumerated above,
its extensive use is first mentioned in the Ashikaga epoch. The Five
Temples of Kyoto--to be spoken of presently--were seats of learning;
and many names of the littérateurs that flourished there have been
handed down. Not the least celebrated were Gido and Zekkai, who paid
several visits to China, the fountain-head of ideographic lore. But
these conditions were not permanent. The Onin War created a serious
interruption. Kyoto was laid in ruins, and rare books lay on the
roadside, no one caring to pick them up.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES
Throughout the Ashikaga period the Kyoto university existed in name
only, and students of Japanese literature in the provinces
disappeared. A few courtiers, as Nakahara, Dye, Sugawara, Miyoshi,
etc., still kept up the form of lecturing but they did not receive
students at large. Nevertheless, a few military magnates, retaining
some appreciation of the value of erudition, established schools and
libraries. Among these, the Kanazawa-bunko and the Ashikaga-gakko
were the most famous. The former had its origin in the closing years
of the Kamakura Bakufu. It was founded during the reign of Kameyama
(1260-1274) by Sanetoki, grandson of Hojo Yoshitoki. A large
collection of Chinese and Japanese works filled its shelves, and all
desirous of studying had free access. Akitoki, son of Sanetoki,
adopted Kanazawa as his family name and added largely to the library.
He caused the ideographs Kanazawa-bunko to be stamped in black on all
Confucian works, and in red on Buddhist.
It is recorded in the Hojo Kudaiki that men of all classes, laymen
and priests alike, were shut up daily in this library where they
studied gratis, and that Akitoki's son, Sadaaki, was as ardent a
student as his father, so that men spoke of him as well fitted to be
regent (shikken), thus showing that literary skill was counted a
qualification for high office. Fire, the destroyer of so many fine
relics of Japanese civilization, visited this library more than once,
but during the reign of Go-Hanazono (1429-1464) it was restored and
extended by the Uesugi family, who also rebuilt and endowed schools
for the study of Japanese literature in the province of Kotsuke.
Among these schools was the Ashikaga-gakko, under the presidency of a
priest, Kaigen, in the day of whose ninth successor, Kyuka, the
pupils attending the schools totalled three thousand. A few great
families patronized literature without recourse to priests. This was
notably the case with the Ouchi, whose tradal connexions gave them
special access to Chinese books. Ouchi Yoshitaka, in particular,
distinguished himself as an author. He established a library which
remained for many generations; he sent officials to China to procure
rare volumes, and it is incidentally mentioned that he had several
manuscripts printed in the Middle Kingdom, although the art of
block-printing had been practised in Japan since the close of the
eighth century. A composition which had its origin at this epoch was
the yokyoku, a special kind of libretto for mimetic dances. Books on
art also were inspired by the Higashiyama craze for choice specimens
of painting, porcelain, and lacquer. Commentaries, too, made their
appearance, as did some histories, romances, and anthologies.
PICTORIAL ART
As Japan during the Ashikaga period sat at the feet of the Sung
masters in philosophy and literature, so it was in the realm of art.
There is, indeed, a much closer relation between literature and
pictorial art in China than in any Occidental country, for the two
pursuits have a common starting-point--calligraphy. The ideograph is
a picture, and to trace it in such a manner as to satisfy the highest
canons is a veritably artistic achievement. It has been shown above
that in the Muromachi era the priests of Buddha were the channels
through which the literature and the philosophy of Sung reached
Japan, and it will presently be seen that the particular priests who
imported and interpreted this culture were those of the Zen sect.
There is natural sequence, therefore, in the facts that these same
priests excelled in calligraphy and introduced Japan to the pictorial
art of the immortal Sung painters.
There were in China, at the time of the Ashikaga, two schools of
painters: a Northern and a Southern. The term is misleading, for the
distinction was really not one of geography but one of method. What
distinguished the Southern school was delicacy of conception,
directness of execution, and lightness of tone. To produce a maximum
of effect with a minimum of effort; to suggest as much as to depict,
and to avoid all recourse to heavy colours--these were the cardinal
tenets of the Southern school. They were revealed to Japan by a
priest named Kao, who, during the reign of Go-Daigo (1318-1339),
passed ten years in China, and returning to Kyoto, opened a studio in
the temple Kennin-ji, where he taught the methods of Li Lungmin of
the Sung dynasty and Yen Hui of the Yuan. He revolutionized Japanese
art. After him Mincho is eminent. Under the name of Cho Densu--the
Abbot Cho--he acquired perpetual fame by his paintings of Buddhist
saints.
But Mincho's religious pictures did not help to introduce the Sung
academy to Japan. That task was reserved for Josetsu--a priest of
Chinese or Japanese origin--who, during the second half of the
fourteenth century, became the teacher of many students at the temple
Shokoku-ji, in Kyoto. Among his pupils was Shubun, and the latter's
followers included such illustrious names as Sotan, Sesshu, Shinno;
Masanbbu, and Motonobu. It is to this day a question whether Japan
ever produced greater artists than Sesshu and Motonobu. To the same
galaxy belongs Tosa no Mitsunobu, the founder of the Tosa school as
Motonobu was of the Kano. That official patronage was extended to
these great men is proved by the fact that Mitsunobu was named
president of the E-dokoro, or Court Academy of Painting; and Motonobu
received the priestly rank of hogen.
APPLIED ART
Industries in general suffered from the continual wars of the
Ashikaga epoch, but the art of forging swords flourished beyond all
precedent. Already Awadaguchi, Bizen, Osafune, and others had
attained celebrity, but for Okazaki Masamune, of Kamakura, who worked
during the reign of Go-Daigo (1318-1339) was reserved the renown of
peerlessness. His long travels to investigate the methods of other
masters so as to assimilate their best features, are historically
recorded, and at the head of the great trinity of Japanese
swordsmiths his name is placed by universal acclaim, his companions
being Go no Yoshihiro and Fujiwara Yoshimitsu.* In Muromachi days so
much depended on the sword that military men thought it worthy of all
honour. A present of a fine blade was counted more munificent than a
gift of a choice steed, and on the decoration of the scabbard, the
guard, and the hilt extraordinary skill was expended. Towards the
close of the fifteenth century, a wonderful expert in metals, Goto
Yujo, devoted himself to the production of these ornaments, and his
descendants perpetuated his fame down to the middle of the nineteenth
century. The Gotos, however, constitute but a small section of the
host of masters who will always be remembered in this branch of art.
In the Muromachi period alone we have such names as Aoki Kaneiye,
Myochin Nobuiye, Umetada Akihisa and others.** Armour making also was
carried to a point of high achievement during the epoch, especially
by Nobuiye.***
*Chamberlain in Things Japanese says: "Japanese swords excel even the
vaunted products of Damascus and Toledo. To cut through a pile of
copper coins without nicking the blade is, or was, a common feat.
History, tradition, and romance alike re-echo with the exploits of
this wonderful weapon."
**For an exhaustive analysis see Brinkley's China and Japan.
***See Conder's History of Japanese Costume; Vol. IX. of the
"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan."
LACQUER
It is generally conceded that the Japanese surpass all nations in the
art of making lacquer. They not only developed the processes to a
degree unknown to their original teacher, China, but they also
introduced artistic features of great beauty. Unfortunately, history
transmits the names of Jew masters in this line. We can only say that
in the days of Yoshimasa's shogunate, that is, during the second half
of the fifteenth century, several choice varieties began to be
manufactured, as the nashiji, the togidashi, the negoro-nuri, the
konrinji-nuri, the shunkei-nuri, the tsuishu, and the tsuikoku.
Choice specimens received from later generations the general epithet
Higashiyama-mono, in reference to the fact that they owed so much to
the patronage of Yoshimasa in his mansion at Higashi-yama.
PORCELAIN AND FAIENCE
To the Muromachi epoch belongs also the first manufacture of faience,
as distinguished from unglazed pottery, and of porcelain, as
distinguished from earthenware. The former innovation is ascribed--as
already noted--to Kato Shirozaemon, a native of Owari, who visited
China in 1223 and studied under the Sung ceramists; the latter, to
Shonzui, who also repaired to China in 1510, and, on his return, set
up a kiln at Arita, in Hizen, where he produced a small quantity of
porcelain, using materials obtained from China, as the existence of
Japanese supplies was not yet known. The faience industry found many
followers, but its products all bore the somewhat sombre impress of
the cha-no-yu (tea ceremonial) canons.
ARCHITECTURE
The architectural feature of the time was the erection of
tea-parlours according to the severe type of the cha-no-yu cult. Such
edifices were remarkable for simplicity and narrow dimensions. They
partook of the nature of toys rather than of practical residences,
being, in fact, nothing more than little chambers, entirely
undecorated, where a few devotees of the tea ceremonial could meet
and forget the world. As for grand structures like the "Silver
Pavilion" of Yoshimasa and the "Golden Pavilion" of Yoshimitsu, they
showed distinct traces of Ming influence, but with the exception of
elaborate interior decoration they do not call for special comment.
A large part of the work of the Japanese architect consisted in
selecting rare woods and uniquely grown timber, in exquisite joinery,
and in fine plastering. Display and ornament in dwelling-houses were
not exterior but interior; and beginning with the twelfth century,
interior decoration became an art which occupied the attention of the
great schools of Japanese painters. The peculiar nature of Japanese
interior division of the house with screens or light partitions
instead of walls lent itself to a style of decoration which was quite
as different in its exigencies and character from Occidental mural
decorations as was Japanese architecture from Gothic or Renaissance.
The first native school of decorative artists was the Yamato-ryu,
founded in the eleventh century by Fujiwara Motomitsu and reaching
the height of its powers in the twelfth century. In the thirteenth
century Fujiwara Tsunetaka, a great painter of this school, took the
title of Tosa. Under him the Tosa-ryu became the successor of the
Yamato-ryu and carried on its work with more richness and charm. The
Tosa school was to a degree replaced after the fifteenth century in
interior painting by the schools of Sesshu and Kano.
RELIGION
As one of Yoritomo's first acts when he organized the Kamakura Bakufu
had been to establish at Tsurugaoka a shrine to Hachiman (the god of
War), patron deity of the Minamotos' great ancestor, Yoshiiye, so
when Takauji, himself a Minamoto, organized the Muromachi Bakufu, he
worshipped at the Iwashimizu shrine of Hachiman, and all his
successors in the shogunate followed his example. Of this shrine
Tanaka Harukiyo was named superintendent (betto), and with the
Ashikaga leader's assistance, he rebuilt the shrine on a sumptuous
scale, departing conspicuously from the austere fashion of pure
Shinto.* It may, indeed, be affirmed that Shinto had never been
regarded as a religion in Japan until, in the days of the Nara Court,
it was amalgamated with Buddhism to form what was called
Ryobu-shinto. It derived a further character of religion from the
theory of Kitabatake Chikafusa, who contended that Shinto, Buddhism,
and Confucianism were all capable of being welded into one whole.
Moreover, in the Muromachi period, the eminent scholar, Ichijo
Kaneyoshi (1402-81), wrote a thesis which gave some support to the
views of Chikafusa.
*The shrine covered a space of 400 square yards and had a golden
gutter, 80 feet long, 13 feet wide, and over 1 inch thick.
But, during the reign of Go-Tsuchimikado (1465-1500), Urabe Kanetomo,
professing to interpret his ancestor, Kanenobu, enunciated the
doctrine of Yuiitsu-shinto (unique Shinto), namely, that as between
three creeds, Shinto was the root; Confucianism, the branches, and
Buddhism, the fruit. This was the first explicit differentiation of
Shinto. It found favour, and its propounder's son, Yoshida, asserted
the principles still more strenuously. The fact is notable in the
history of religion in Japan. Yoshida was the forerunner of Motoori,
Hirata, and other comparatively modern philosophers who contended for
the revival of "Pure Shinto." Many Japanese annalists allege that
Shinto owes its religious character solely to the suggestions of
Buddhism, and point to the fact that the Shinto cult has never been
able to inspire a great exponent.
ENGRAVING: BELL TOWER OF TODAI-JI
BUDDHISM
The attitude of the Ashikaga towards Buddhism was even more
reverential. They honoured the Zen sect almost exclusively. Takauji
built the temple Tenryu-ji, in Kyoto, and planned to establish a
group of provincial temples under the name of Ankoku-ji. There
can be little doubt that his animating purpose in thus acting
was to create a counterpoise to the overwhelming strength of the
monasteries of Nara and Hiei-zan. The latter comprised three thousand
buildings--temples and seminaries--and housed a host of soldier-monks
who held Kyoto at their mercy and who had often terrorized the city
and the palace. In the eighth century, when the great temple,
Todai-ji, was established at Nara, affiliated temples were built
throughout the provinces, under the name of Kokubun-ji.
It was in emulation of this system that Takauji erected the Tenryu-ji
and planned a provincial net-work of Ankoku-ji. His zeal in the
matter assumed striking dimensions. On the one hand, he levied heavy
imposts to procure funds; on the other, he sent to China ships--hence
called Tenryuji-bune--to obtain furniture and fittings. Thus, in the
space of five years, the great edifice was completed (1345), and
there remained a substantial sum in the Muromachi treasury. The monks
of Enryaku-ji (Hiei-zan) fathomed Takauji's purpose. They flocked
down to the capital, halberd in hand and sacred car on shoulder, and
truculently demanded of the Emperor that Soseki, high priest of the
new monastery, should be exiled and the edifice destroyed. But the
Ashikaga leader stood firm. He announced that if the soldier-monks
persisted, their lord-abbot should be banished and their property
confiscated; before which evidently earnest menaces the mob of friars
turned their faces homeward. Thereafter, Takauji, and his brother
Tadayoshi celebrated with great pomp the ceremony of opening the new
temple, and the Ashikaga leader addressed to the priest, Soseki, a
document pledging his own reverence and the reverence of all his
successors at Muromachi. But that part of his programme which related
to the provincial branch temples was left incomplete. At no time,
indeed, were the provinces sufficiently peaceful and sufficiently
subservient for the carrying out of such a plan by the Ashikaga.
GREAT PRIESTS
The priest Soseki--otherwise called "Muso Kokushi," or "Muso, the
national teacher"--was one of the great bonzes in an age when many
monasteries were repositories of literature and statesmanship. His
pupils, Myoo and Chushin, enjoyed almost equal renown in the days of
the third Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimitsu, whose piety rivalled that of
Takauji. He assigned to them a residence in the Rokuon-ji, his own
family temple, and there he visited them to hear discourses on
Buddhist doctrine and to consult about administrative affairs. A
still more illustrious bonze was Ryoken, of Nanzen-ji. It is related
of him that he repaired, on one occasion, to the Kita-yama palace of
the shogun Yosh mitsu, wearing a ragged garment. Yoshimitsu at once
changed his own brocade surcoat for the abbot's torn vestment, and
subsequently, when conducting his visitor on a boating excursion, the
shogun carried the priest's footgear. It is not possible for a
Japanese to perform a lowlier act of obeisance towards another than
to be the bearer of the latter's sandals. Yoshimitsu was in a
position to dictate to the Emperor, yet he voluntarily performed a
menial office for a friar.
These four priests, Soseki, Myoo, Chushin, and Ryoken, all belonged
to the Zen sect. The doctrines of that sect were absolutely paramount
in Muromachi days, as they had been in the times of the Kamakura
Bakufu. A galaxy of distinguished names confronts us on the pages of
history--Myocho of Daitoku-ji; Gen-e of Myoshin-ji; Ikkyu Zenji of
Daitoku-ji, a descendant of the Emperor Go-Komatsu; Tokuso of
Nanzen-ji; Shiren of Tofuku-ji; Shushin of Nanzen-ji; Juo of
Myoshin-ji; Tetsuo of Daitoku-ji, and Gazan of Soji-ji. All these
were propagandists of Zen-shu doctrine. It has been well said that
the torch of religion burns brightest among dark surroundings. In
circumstances of tumultuous disorder and sanguinary ambition, these
great divines preached a creed which taught that all worldly things
are vain and valueless. Moreover, the priests themselves did not
practise the virtues they inculcated. They openly disregarded their
vow of chastity; bequeathed their temples and manors to their
children; employed hosts of stoled soldiers; engaged freely in the
fights of the era, and waxed rich on the spoils of their arms.
It is recorded of Kenju (called also Rennyo Shoniri), eighth
successor of Shinran, that his eloquence brought him not only a crowd
of disciples but also wealth comparable with that of a great
territorial magnate; that he employed a large force of armed men, and
that by dispensing with prohibitions he made his doctrine popular.
This was at the close of the fifteenth century when Yoshimasa
practised dilettanteism at Higashi-yama. It became in that age a
common habit that a man should shave his head and wear priest's
vestments while still taking part in worldly affairs. The distinction
between bonze and layman disappeared. Some administrative officials
became monks; some daimyo fought wearing sacerdotal vestments over
their armour, and some priests led troops into battle. If a bonze
earned a reputation for eloquence or piety, he often became the
target of jealous violence at the hands of rival sectarians and had
to fly for his life from the ruins of a burning temple. Not until the
advent of Christianity, in the middle of the sixteenth century, did
these outrages cease.
THE FIVE TEMPLES OF KYOTO
The Zen sect had been almost equally popular during the epoch of the
Hojo. They built for it five great temples in Kamakura, and that
example was followed by the Ashikaga in Kyoto. The five fanes in the
capital were called collectively, Go-zan. They were Kennin-ji,
Tofuku-ji, Nanzen-ji, Tenryu-ji, and Shokoku-ji. After the conclusion
of peace between the Northern and Southern Courts the temple
Shokoku-ji was destroyed by fire and it remained in ashes until the
time of Yoshimasa, when the priest, Chushin, persuaded the shogun to
undertake the work of reconstruction. A heavy imposition of land-tax
in the form of tansen, and extensive requisitions for timber and
stones brought funds and materials sufficient not only to restore the
edifice and to erect a pagoda 360 feet high, but also to replenish
the empty treasury of the shogun. Thus, temple-building enterprises
on the part of Japanese rulers were not prompted wholly by religious
motives.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
The frugal austerity of life under the rule of the Hojo was changed
to lavish extravagance under the Ashikaga. Yet things should have
been otherwise, for in Takauji's time there was enacted and
promulgated the code of regulations already referred to as the Kemmu
Shikimoku, wherein were strictly forbidden basara, debauchery,
gambling, reunions for tea drinking and couplet composing, lotteries,
and other excesses. Basara is a Sanskrit term for costly luxuries of
every description, and the compilers of the code were doubtless
sincere in their desire to popularize frugality. But the Ashikaga
rulers themselves did not confirm their precepts by example. They
seemed, indeed, to live principally for sensuous indulgence.
A Japanese writer of the fifteenth century, in a rhapsodical account
of the Kyoto of his day, dwells on the wonderful majesty of the
"sky-piercing roofs" and "cloud-topping balconies" of the Imperial
palace. And he points with evident pride to the fact that this
splendor--a splendor only a little less--was to be found besides in
many other elegant residences which displayed their owners' taste and
wealth. The chronicler notes that even those who were not noble,
including some who had made their money by fortune-telling or by the
practice of medicine, were sometimes able to make such display, to
live in pretentious houses and have many servants. So could the
provincial nobles, who it seems did not in other periods make much of
a showing at the capital.
The dwellers in these mansions lived up to their environment. The
degree of their refinement may be inferred from the fact that cooking
became a science; they had two principal academies and numerous rules
to determine the sizes and shapes of every implement and utensil, as
well as the exact manner of manipulating them. The nomenclature was
not less elaborate. In short, to become a master of polite
accomplishments and the cuisine in the military era of Japan demanded
patient and industrious study.
MODE OF TRAVELLING
The fashions of the Heian epoch in the manner of travelling underwent
little change during the military age. The principal conveyance
continued to be an ox-carriage or a palanquin. The only notable
addition made was the kago, a kind of palanquin slung on a single
pole instead of on two shafts. The kago accommodated one person and
was carried by two. Great pomp and elaborate organization attended
the outgoing of a nobleman, and to interrupt a procession was counted
a deadly crime, while all persons of lowly degree were required to
kneel with their hands on the ground and their heads resting on them
as a nobleman and his retinue passed.
LANDSCAPE GARDENING
Great progress was made in the art of landscape gardening during the
Muromachi epoch, but this is a subject requiring a volume to itself.
Here it will suffice to note that, although still trammelled by its
Chinese origin, the art received signal extension, and was converted
into something like an exact science, the pervading aim being to
produce landscapes and water-scapes within the limits of a
comparatively small park without conveying any sense of undue
restriction. Buddhist monks developed signal skill in this branch of
esthetics, and nothing could exceed the delightful harmony which they
achieved between nature and art. It may be mentioned that the first
treatise on the art of landscape gardening appeared from the pen of
Gokyogoku Yoshitsune in the beginning of the thirteenth century. It
has been well said that the chief difference between the parks of
Japan and the parks of Europe is that, whereas the latter are planned
solely with reference to a geometrical scale of comeliness or in pure
and faithful obedience to nature's indications, the former are
intended to appeal to some particular mood or to evoke special
emotion, while, at the same time, preserving a likeness to the
landscapes and water-scapes of the world about us.
MINIATURE LANDSCAPE GARDENING
By observing the principles and practical rules of landscape
gardening while reducing the scale of construction so that a
landscape or a water-scape, complete in all details and perfectly
balanced as to its parts, is produced within an area of two or three
square feet, the Japanese obtained a charming development of the
gardener's art. Admirable, however, as are these miniature
reproductions of natural scenery and consummate as is the skill
displayed in bringing all their parts into exact proportion with the
scale of the design, they are usually marred by a suggestion of
triviality. In this respect, greater beauty is achieved on an even
smaller scale by dwarfing trees and shrubs so that, in every respect
except in dimensions, they shall be an accurate facsimile of what
they would have been had they grown for cycles unrestrained in the
forest. The Japanese gardener "dwarfs trees so that they remain
measurable only by inches after their age has reached scores, even
hundreds, of years, and the proportions of leaf, branch and stem are
preserved with fidelity. The pots in which these wonders of patient
skill are grown have to be themselves fine specimens of the
keramist's craft, and as much as £200 is sometimes paid for a notably
well-trained tree."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, article "Japan," Brinkley.
TEA CEREMONIAL
The tea ceremonial (cha-no-yu) is essentially Japanese in its
developments though its origin came from China. It has been well
described as "a mirror in which the extraordinary elaborations of
Japanese social etiquette may be seen vividly reflected." In fact,
the use of tea as a beverage had very little to do with the refined
amusement to which it was ultimately elevated. The term "tasting"
would apply more accurately to the pastime than "drinking." But even
the two combined convey no idea of the labyrinth of observances which
constituted the ceremonial. The development of the cha-no-yu is
mainly due to Shuko, a priest of the Zen sect of Buddhism, who seems
to have conceived that tea drinking might be utilized to promote the
moral conditions which he associated with its practice. Prof. H. B.
Chamberlain notes that "It is still considered proper for tea
enthusiasts to join the Zen sect of Buddhism, and it is from
the abbot of Daitokuji at Kyoto that diplomas of proficiency
are obtained." The bases of Shuko's system were the four
virtues--urbanity, purity, courtesy, and imperturbability--and little
as such a cult seemed adapted to the practices of military men, it
nevertheless received its full elaboration under the feudal system.
But although this general description is easy enough to formulate,
the etiquette and the canons of the cha-no-yu would require a whole
volume for an exhaustive description.
INCENSE COMPARING
The Muromachi epoch contributed to aristocratic pastimes the growth
of another amusement known as ko-awase, "comparing of incense," a
contest which tested both the player's ability to recognize from
their odour different varieties of incense and his knowledge of
ancient literature. As early as the seventh century the use of
incense had attained a wide vogue in Japan. But it was not until the
beginning of the sixteenth century that Shino Soshin converted the
pastime into something like a philosophy. From his days no less than
sixty-six distinct kinds of incense were recognized and distinguished
by names derived from literary allusions. This pastime is not so
elaborate as the cha-no-yu, nor does it furnish, like the latter, a
series of criteria of art-objects. But it shows abundant evidence of
the elaborate care bestowed upon it by generation after generation of
Japanese dilettanti.
IKE-BANA
The English language furnishes no accurate equivalent for what the
Japanese call ike-bana. The literal meaning of the term is "living
flower," and this name well explains the fundamental principle of the
art, namely, the arrangement of flowers so as to suggest natural
life. In fact, the blossoms must look as though they were actually
growing and not as though they were cut from the stems. It is here
that the fundamental difference between the Occidental and the
Japanese method of flower arrangement becomes apparent; the former
appeals solely to the sense of colour, whereas the latter holds that
the beauty of a plant is not derived from the colour of its blossoms
more than from the manner of their growth. In fact, harmony of colour
rather than symmetry of outline was the thing desired in a Japanese
floral composition. It might be said that Western art, in general,
and more particularly the decorative art of India, Persia and
Greece--the last coming to Japan through India and with certain Hindu
modifications--all aim at symmetry of poise; but that Japanese floral
arrangement and decorative art in general have for their fundamental
aim a symmetry by suggestion,--a balance, but a balance of
inequalities. The ike-bana as conceived and practised in Japan is a
science to which ladies, and gentlemen also, devote absorbing
attention.
OTHER PASTIMES
It will be understood that to the pastimes mentioned above as
originating in military times must be added others bequeathed from
previous eras. Principal among these was "flower viewing" at all
seasons; couplet composing; chess; draughts; football; mushroom
picking, and maple-gathering parties, as well as other minor
pursuits. Gambling, also, prevailed widely during the Muromachi epoch
and was carried sometimes to great excesses, so that samurai actually
staked their arms and armour on a cast of the dice. It is said that
this vice had the effect of encouraging robbery, for a gambler staked
things not in his possession, pledging himself to steal the articles
if the dice went against him.
SINGING AND DANCING
One of the chief contributions of the military era to the art of
singing was a musical recitative performed by blind men using the
four-stringed Chinese lute, the libretto being based on some episode
of military history. The performers were known as biwa-bozu, the name
"bozu" (Buddhist priest) being derived from the fact that they shaved
their heads after the manner of bonzes. These musicians developed
remarkable skill of elocution, and simulated passion so that in
succeeding ages they never lost their popularity. Sharing the vogue
of the biwa-bozu, but differing from it in the nature of the story
recited as well as in that of the instrument employed, was the
joruri, which derived its name from the fact that it was originally
founded on the tragedy of Yoshitsune's favourite mistress, Joruri. In
this the performer was generally a woman, and the instrument on which
she accompanied herself was the samisen. These two dances may be
called pre-eminently the martial music of Japan, both by reason of
the subject and the nature of the musical movement.
The most aristocratic performance of all, however, was the yokyoku,
which ultimately grew into the no. This was largely of dramatic
character and it owed its gravity and softness of tone to priestly
influence, for the monopoly of learning possessed in those ages by
the Buddhist friars necessarily made them pre-eminent in all literary
accomplishments. The no, which is held in just as high esteem to-day
as it was in medieval times, was performed on a stage in the open air
and its theme was largely historical. At the back of the stage was
seated a row of musicians who served as chorus, accompanying the
performance with various instruments, chiefly the flute and the drum,
and from time to time intoning the words of the drama. An adjunct of
the no was the kyogen. The no was solemn and stately; the kyogen
comic and sprightly. In fact, the latter was designed to relieve the
heaviness of the former, just as on modern stages the drama is often
relieved by the farce. It is a fact of sober history that the shogun
Yoshimasa officially invested the no dance with the character of a
ceremonious accomplishment of military men and that Hideyoshi himself
often joined the dancers on the stage.
ENGRAVING: FLOWER POTS AND DWARF TREE
ENGRAVING: SWORDS PRESERVED AT SHOSO-IN TEMPLE, AT NARA