The Muromachi period marked a huge change
in Japan as the Ashikaga clan took control of the shogunate and moved the headquarters
back to Kyoto, to the Muromachi district of the city. With the return of the government
to the capital, the popularizing trends of the Kamakura period came to an end, and cultural
expression took on a more aristocratic, elitist character. In this video, we’ll be covering major events
and arts of Japan’s Muromachi period. The introduction of Zen Buddhism had a major
impact on Japanese intellectual thought, and aesthetic. Temple complexes developed for
public ceremonies and to accommodate religious persons, and Zen gardens shift away from the
typical Heian era shinden-style gardens, to smaller, modest gardens to promote meditation.
Zen's roots in China also restarted interest in contemporary Chinese thoughts and arts,
expanding the range of subjects and styles seen in Japanese painting. The style gradually
evolves from its Chinese roots to a more Japanese style. We start to see more individual painters
with distinct styles. Finally, we will talk about the Ashikaga Patronage.
The Ashikaga were great patrons of the arts, and used it to establish their influence as
a national ruler, and to strip the imperial court of their traditional role as cultural
influencers. In particular, they favored the Kano School
of Painters. First, Let’s talk about how the Ashikaga
clan came into power. By the end of the 13th century, the Kamakura
bakufu has lost control of its alliances with other samurai clans, and by 1319, they allowed
an able emperor to take the throne. Emperor Go Daigo, made a series of attempts
to overthrow the bakufu: The first two attempts were unsuccessful, and he was deposed and
exiled to the island of Oki. Third time’s the charm, right? In 1333,
he managed to escape, and allied with a Kamakura general named Ashikaga Takauji. Together,
they crushed the already weakened Kamakura regime. Go Daigo returned to Kyoto, having
crushed the bakufu forever, and started his new golden age of imperial rule. Yea! Right? Um, no. Unfortunately for him, this period,
called the Kenmu Restoration, was short lived. Not long after, in 1335, Ashikaga Takauji,
the general who helped Go Daigo crush the Kamakura bakufu, was feeling like he was poorly
recompensated by the emperor. He led a revolt, chased out Go Daigo from the capital, and
placed the 14 year old Kōmyō on the throne. In 1338, Ashikaga assumed the title of shogun. Go Daigo fled to the southern mountains of
Yoshino, taking with him the imperial regalia. With the support of other clans opposed to
Ashikaga, he set up a southern court in the opposition to the northern court of the Ashikaga
puppet in Kyoto. This period is called the Nambokuchō period,
during which civil war between the two courts lasted for nearly sixty years. Ultimately, In 1392, the Ashikaga shogun Yoshimitsu
persuaded the emperor Go Kameyama of the southern court to relinquish his claim and to turn
over the imperial regalia to Go Komatsu, the emperor in Kyoto. Yoshimitsu promised that the position would
alternate between the southern and northern lines, but, of course, he didn’t keep his
promise. You saw that coming, right? Yoshimitsu, moved the seat of government to the Muromachi
district of Kyoto, so this period following the reunification of the imperial lines is
therefore known as the Muromachi period. A new subject in genre painting called rakuchuu
rakugai, meaning “scenes in and around the capital,” gives us a glimpse into life during
this period of time. The subject matter is attributed to Tosa Mitsunobu, a foremost painter
of the imperial court. The Tosa school, founded at the end of the 12th century, became the
leading school of yamato-e painting at the imperial court until the Meiji Restoration
of 1868. One of the earliest surviving screens is known
as the Rekihaku set. The images typically depict a large panorama of the imperial capital,
seen from a bird’s eye-view and framed by gold-dust clouds. They are usually a set of
two folding screens made up of six-panels each, called byōbu. The clouds break up particular points to reveal
the streets and buildings of the city. On these screens, three areas in particular are
given prominence: the Gion festival procession as it passes through the merchant district;
the mansions of court aristocrats; and the headquarters of the bakufu and the mansions
of the powerful daimyo in the Muromachi district. This reflects the three classes present in
Kyoto at the time: the townsmen, the court aristocracy, and the samurai. These scenes offered an idealized view of
the city though it's different seasons. The viewing begins from the right on the right
screen, with summer progressing over six panels toward the fall at the imperial palace. The
left screen then takes the viewer through winter and into spring. Accordingly, they
depict the various festivals that take place over the course of the year.
They project a peaceful, joyful, and even prosperous image of the city - in striking
contrast of reality - a city war torn and half destroyed. Zen Buddhism, imported from China’s Ch’an
sect, was established in Japan at the end of the 12th century, but didn’t but it didn’t
flourish as an independent sect within the worldly Heian period. However in the more
somber times of war, this sect’s emphasis on the stern, self discipline and need to
perceive the true nature of things made it more receptive to the period’s scholars
and elites. Zen would continue to have a strong influence on Japanese intellectual thought
and behaviour. The main goal of Zen Buddhism was to attain
Enlightenment through intense meditation. The sect is less interested in worldly affairs,
and lived with humble means in comparative poverty.
The seriousness of the sect attracted the intelligentsia, and found an audience among
the cultural and military elite. There are two main practices to attain deep
awareness of truth. The first is Zazen, which is meditation while
sitting straight-backed with legs crossed. One must be completely present in the here
and now, objectless thoughts The second is Kōan, which are questions or
exchanges with a master that cannot be understood or answered with rational thought. One must
break through rational patterns of thought to the clarity of intuitive Enlightenment. Wabi is an aesthetic associated with Zen.
It values pleasures taken in austerity and solitude, beauty perceived in simplicity,
and an appreciation of objects weathered by time. The concept of wabi initially referred to
the quality of the life led by an ascetic, but over time it developed into an aesthetic
ideal to be sought after in one’s daily life. The element of sabi, often paired with wabi,
adds the notions of detachment and tranquility, such as one achieves at the end of life. These
two aesthetic concepts became fundamental to the performance of the tea ceremony, which
developed in the 15th c., out of the Zen practice of drinking strong tea in order to stay awake
while meditating. And together they make Wabi Sabi. Which is
really fun to say. And I don’t think this has anything to do with wasabi, Not that I
know of anyways… The composition of the Buddhist temple changed
under Zen. A central complex was developed for public ceremonies and alongside it a series
of private subtemples, or tatchū, built to accommodate religious leaders, often retired
abbots, and their monastic and lay adherents. Tōfukuji, one of the first Zen temples to
be built in Kyoto, preserves the appearance of an early Zen monastic complex. Founded
in 1236, and completed in 1255, It was severely damaged by fires in 1319 and 1334, but quickly
rebuilt with the support of bakufu leaders. Tōukuji has the earliest extant example of
a new type of gate, called the sanmon, or mountain gate. Built over a period of 40 years,
the gate is a two-storied structure with three entrance doors and a functional second story,
which is accessed by a covered stairway. While the exterior preserves the more restrained
and sober aesthetic of the Chinese Southern Song period building, the interior of the
second floor turns to the bright ornamentation typical of Chinese decoration in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries with designs painted in green, red, brown, black and gold. Enshrined
in the single room are sculptures typical of a sanmon- images of Shaka and the 16 rakan
- great practitioners who had achieved Enlightenment were particularly revered in Zen. Of course, we have to talk about the Zen gardens.
These landscape gardens were created as an aid to meditation. By the middle heian period,
gardens were incorporated into temple compounds that were laid out in imitation of the residences
of the nobility. However, the gardens associated with Zen subtemples are very different. They
were constructed in a limited amount of space, and this very limitation is used as an asset
in their design, which is kept extremely simple. Furthermore, as aids to Zen practice, the
objects they contain seem to invite metaphysical interpretation. Most of them are constructed
largely from small pebbles and rocks, with live plantings limited to moss and simple
shrubbery, and are called karesansui, or dry landscapes. Although some Zen gardens also
incorporate water features such as ponds. Ryōanji has the most famous karesansui, and
it has become the epitome of Zen tranquility and reflection. The temple was founded on
the western outskirts of Kyoto in 1450. Like much of the rest of Kyoto, it didn’t survive
the war intact, but by 1488 it had been rebuilt. The temple was burned down again in the late
18th c, and the present garden dates to around that time. Made entirely of rocks set amidst
raked pebbles, one interpretation of its imagery is that it is a seascape. Another interpretation
has been of a tigress leading her cubs across a river. Whatever the image invoked, the spare,
simple beauty of the design has seldom been equaled. Zen Buddhism’s focus on universal truth
expressed in the present moment vastly widened the range of themes painted by monks and for
temples. This includes paintings of famous Zen eccentrics and evocative landscapes. Artists
connected to particular temples developed considerable skill at working in very different
styles and using different kinds of materials. Monk-painter Kichizan Minchō was a versatile
artist who was appointed to Tōfukuji. This large painting depicts the death of the Shaka
Buddha to be displayed each February on the anniversary of his death. Executed in 1408,
the picture is conservative in style and treatment, but also displays a somewhat free style of
brushwork. The outlines are of varying width and some shading is used to model the old
and emaciated faces of the Buddha’s disciples. While it’s not totally monochromatic, it
primarily uses red as an accent against the different flesh tones and black. There are two types of Zen paintings, exemplified
here by two of Minchō’s paintings: The Dōshakuga, illustrated by this 1421 painting
of Kannon in a white robe. And the shigajiku, illustrated by this 1413 landscape.
The Dōshakuya tradition of imagery depicts Buddhist themes. It’s intended to convey
the subjective experience of receiving spiritual insights or revelations.
Subjects include Bodhisattvas, great Zen masters, and eccentrics.
Overall, they move away from mysticism and toward pragmatism and realism, values that
Zen Buddhism fit easily with. The Kannon sits in an informal pose in a grotto,
her traditional abode, and gazes out over the ocean. The bodhisattva is treated as a
beautiful, languid and feminine figure, clad in a simple white robe and bedecked with gold
jewelry. Her divinity is suggested only by the crown and halo, created from a perfect
circle of mist through which part of the rock behind can be seen. In addition, this image
is a marker of the feminization of Kannon, which had begun earlier on the continent,
and which, with paintings such as this, is almost complete. The Bodhisattva of Compassion
will from this point onward usually be depicted as a beautiful but matronly figure. Shigajiku is a type of landscape painting
which combines a monochrome image of an imaginary landscape with poetry in a hanging scroll.
This practice can be traced back to Chinese precedents:
China’s educated elite had long expressed themselves through poetry and calligraphy,
but during the Tang dynasty they had also begun to turn to the calligraphic brush to
painting landscapes as another way of expressing their feelings on a subject, or to commemorate
a particular event. The Song dynasty was a great golden age of
landscape painting by these scholar-officials, to which The Chan school in China was culturally
very close. (Remember that Zen is derived from the Chan school) The Chinese monk-painters
also began to paint personal calligraphically-brushed monochrome landscapes as expressions of Zen
thought and practice. Along with the import of religious learnings,
these trading missions also brought in many Chinese paintings and objects of art which
profoundly influenced Japanese artists working for Zen temples and the shogunate. Not only
was subject matter influences, but also the use of color. While Yamato-e used strong,
bright colors, The Zen paintings followed the Chinese style, where paintings were generally
monochrome with black and white or different tones of a single color. Mokuan was ordained as a priest in Kamakura
and journeyed to China to perfect his knowledge of Zen.
His hanging scroll, Four Sleepers, depicts Kanzan and and his friend, Jittoku fast asleep
with the monk Bukan and his tiger. Zen eccentrics Kanzan and Jittoku, worked
in the kitchen of a Chan temple in 7th century These two embody the Zen concept of the untrammeled
soul. The monk Bukan raised Jittoku and was reputed to ride in the mountains on a tiger.
Medium grey, fairly broad strokes are used for the bodies, while fine strokes are used
for the facial features, and dark ink is used for the details on shoes, belt, and hair.
Only the briefest details are supplied about the setting. A light wash suggests rocks beside
the figures and and the shoreline before them, while darker strokes are used for the vines,
tree branches and river rocks. While sparse, each stroke is intentionally chosen with particular
darkness and size for particular elements. Let’s talk about three important painter-priests
who who were associated with the Zen temple, Shōkoku-ji. Josetsu, Tenshō Shūbun, and
Sesshū Tōyō. Shūbun was Josetsu’s student, and Tōyō was Shūbun’s student.
Josetsu
painting ‘Catching a Catfish with a Gourd' marks a turning point in Muromachi painting.
Another example of a doshakuga, there are 31 inscriptions written at the top, each by
a different poet, one of which refers to the painting as being in the "new style."
In the foreground, a man is on the bank of a stream holding a small gourd and looking
at a large slithery catfish. Mist fills the middle ground, and the background mountains
appear to be far in the distance. It is generally assumed that the "new style" of the painting,
refers to a more Chinese sense of deep space within the picture plane.
This painting is also a kōan, or thought problem, used to aid in attaining Enlightenment.
It prompts the worshiper with a puzzle: How to catch a slippery catfish in a gourd. Tenshō Shūbun painting, Reading in the Bamboo
Study, depicts a scholar’s study, almost hidden in the bamboo grove. At the top is
a long introduction and five brief inscriptions, each by a different person. The building has
a thatched roof and a large window, through which the scholar can be seen holding something,
perhaps a book. Close to the house, a sharp bluff is capped by two pine trees, one straight
and the other bent. The gradation of the paint with short, repetitive strokes describes the
natural elements with a somewhat decorative effect, but leads a convincing impression
of space. The work utilizes several common motifs from
the Song dynasty, which in turn were common in shigajiku paintings. This includes the
scholar and his attendant crossing the bridge, the scholar visible through the window of
his study, fishing boats close to land, and the temple buildings in the distance. Also,
the dominant motif of crossed pine trees and the placement of most of the elements to one
side are devices often used by the Southern Song painter Xia Gui, whose works were highly
prized by Japanese collectors, including the Ashikaga shoguns. These landscapes were an
imagined ideal Chinese landscape, rather than what would be seen around Kyoto. Perhaps the most well known artist of this
period was Sesshū Tōyō. He later moved from Kyoto to Yamaguchi, where he met the
Ōuchi family. With the financial support of the Ōuchi family, he was able to travel
to China at the newly established capital of the Ming dynasty, Beijing. There, he studied
contemporary Ming landscape paintings, as well as earlier Southern Song and Yuan dynasty
works. When he returned to Japan, he was a much-sought-after artist throughout his later
life. One of his most characteristic landscapes
is a winter scene, probably part of a set of landscape hanging scrolls of the four seasons.
In this painting are motifs from the Chinese Southern Song landscape painting to create
an original and what is considered a typically Japanese statement. In the lower right with the motif of two trees
growing at the edge of the water, the viewer's eye is lead back into the space by the diagonal
lines of a stepped pathway, along which a man with a wide brimmed hat is climbing, presumably
toward the temple complex visible above him. The hills through which he travels and the
mountains in the background surround the temple buildings, making them seem like a warm oasis
in a cold, icy wasteland. The foreground passages of rocks and trees are described with firm,
dark brushstrokes while the distant mountains are only outlined against the gray sky. Above,
an undercut bluff fades behind the mist. This landscape painting by sesshū is in haboku,
or broken ink style, the strokes are made freely and rapidly, executed in a style in
which ink seems to have been effortlessly applied. However easy it may look, it takes
skill. With incredible economy of means, Sesshū has suggested land at the edge of water, large
trees, and tall background mountains, and has even peopled his composition with two
figures in a boat close to shore and a village of houses with the distinctive flag-bearing
pole of a sake house. During the 14th century, the development of
the great Zen monasteries in Kamakura and Kyoto had a major impact on the visual arts.
Suibokuga, an austere monochrome style of ink painting introduced from Song and Yuan
dynasty China largely replaced the polychrome scroll paintings of the previous period. By the end of the 14th century, monochrome
landscape paintings had found patronage by the ruling Ashikaga family and was the preferred
genre among Zen painters, gradually evolving from its Chinese roots to a more Japanese
style. In the late Muromachi period, ink painting
had migrated out of the Zen monasteries into the art world in general, as artists from
the Kano school and the Ami school adopted the style and themes, but introducing a more
plastic and decorative effect that would continue into modern times. Ashikaga were great patrons of the arts, especially
those espoused by Zen masters. During the Muromachi period two distinct cultural environments
grew up around the retreats of two of the retired Ashikaga shoguns: The villa of Yoshimitsu,
which became known as the Kinkakuji, or the temple of the golden pavilion; and the bills
of his grandson Yoshimasa, or the Ginkakuji, or Temple of the Silver Pavilion. Both were constructed as elegant settings
for retirement, where Yoshimitsu and Yoshimasa could devote themselves to leisure pursuits.
Not until after their deaths were the buildings converted into temples. The Kinkakuji is a three-storied structure
covered in gold foil. I saw it in person, and can confirm, it’s very shiney. Set at
the edge of a large artificial lake, the gardens also have two pagodas and a large three-storied
pavilion overlooking a lake. The original Kinkakuji was destroyed in 1950 but was rebuilt
and restored soon after. Modeled on a Chinese prototype often seen
in kara-e painting, the pavilion is designed to house several different types of activities.
The first floor serves as an informal relaxation and contemplation of the lake and garden,
is provided with Heian shinden-style hinged lattice panels that can be raised so that
the interior is opened up for viewing. The second floor - in the style favored by the
warrior elite - is an enclosed L shaped space with a deep veranda along the lake to serve
as a kind of moon-viewing platform. The top floor was designed as a temple room to be
provided with statues of Amida Buddha and twenty five bodhisattvas as well as a buddha
relic acquired from Engakuji in Kamakura. Yoshimasa’s Ginkajuki is quite the opposite
of Kinkakuji. Unlike what the name and association with the previous temple would suggest, it
was never covered in silver leaf. Ginkajuki is a two storied, two roofed building.
The first floor was used for meditation and had walls composed of sliding doors which
could be opened up to a view of the lake and extensive gardens. The second floor was designed as a chapel
dedicated to Kannon, and it may have been intended to have the interior covered in silver. Unlike the gardens designed for the aristocratic
mansions of the Nara and Heian period, or the viewing gardens of Zen subtemples, the
gardens of Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji were more like parks intended for leisurely walks, during
which it was most important to be able to view the pavilions from different viewpoints. Yoshimitsu and Yoshimasa were both avid supporters
of the arts. It was a way to give themselves legitimacy as a national ruler and to eclipse
the imperial court, whose role as the nation’s cultural center was the last shred of function
it maintained. A school of painters called the Kanō school
rose to prominence with Kanō Masanobu. The Kanō, whose heyday was more in the second
half-of the sixteenth century and in the 17th century, continued to be an influence in kanga,
or Chinese style painting Kanga is essentially a more modern term for kara-e. The Kanō were descended from a low-ranking
samurai family from the area around Shizuoka prefecture and had an affiliation not with
Zen but with the Nichiren or Hokke sect of Buddhism. Nichiren Buddhism began with yet
another strong and charismatic 13th century religious leader, Nichiren. Based exclusively
on the Lotus Sutra, it emphasizes the recitation of the Lotus Sutra’s title “Namu myōho
renge kyō” - in much the same way as the nembutsu mantra is chanted in Pure Land Buddhism.
Nichiren’s son, Motonobu was an artist who helped establish the Kanō style, and position
the school as the chief painters to the shogunate. Motonobu was a remarkably versatile painter,
capable of working in the brightly colored yamato-e style of narrative painting, in a
meticulous Chinese genre of bird and flower paintings, and in a freer style of kanga,
combining figural and landscape motifs. This latter style was fully developed by the
early sixteenth century and is well represented in six panels by Motonobu depicting Zen patriarchs,
originally designed as wall and door paintings, but now refashioned into handing scrolls.
These paintings were executed around 1513 for the abbot’s room in the kyakuden, or
guest hall, of daisenin. Although these are only a portion of the paintings that originally
decorated this room, they represent a continuous sequence moving from right to left. With the
exception of the second painting, each panel depicts one or two Zen patriarchs engaged
in various activities such as sweeping, gazing at peach blossoms, and bidding a friend farewell,
set in a strongly delineated Chinese-style landscapes. This one shows Kyogen achieving Enlightenment
while sweeping with a bamboo broom. Kyogen was asked by his master about his life before
birth in his present incarnation. Unable to reply, Kyogen set himself singlemindedly to
find the answer. When buddhist texts failed to help, he burned his library and sought
answer though meditation. Finally, while he was tending his garden, a tile fell off the
roof of his house and at the sound Kyogen achieved Enlightenment. The painting shows
him sweeping the area of his yard; at his feet is the tile shattered into three pieces.
Startled by the noise, he has taken a step backward and raised his right hand in amazement
at the event and at his sudden Enlightenment. In general, Motonobu established the center
of the composition with a single motif, such as Kyogen’s house. Then, interest or tension
is created with secondary elements, placed on a diagonal. Such as this large boulder
on the right and the bamboo grove. This also suggests recession into the picture while
challenging the primacy of the central image. The image demonstrates the adoption of Chinese
influences, as it sets Japanese style architecture against Chinese model landscapes. With the close of the Muromachi period, Japan’s
medieval epoch also comes to an end. Although the system of military dictatorship, or bakufu,
would continue for the better part of three centuries, Japan’s society and culture enter
into a new age which elsewhere in the world has been characterized as Early Modern. Japan becomes increasingly secular, and while
Buddhism and Shinto will remain important social and political influences, culturally
they will take a back seat as the breakdown of boundaries between the sacred and profane
begun by the Zen monk-painters continues. It is the merchants and artisans - the lowest
of the four classes - who begin to take their place, not only as creators of Japanese art,
but also as its leading patrons. We’ll be covering that in the next video
on Japanese Art History. Thanks so much for watching this video! I’m
doing a whole series on Japanese art - everything from prehistoric to Heian period; modern Japan
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