Japan: From the Japanese Government History

by Unknown

THE MUROMACHI PERIOD. 1393-1573

The reason that the Ashikaga shōguns established themselves at Muromachi in Kyōto, the civil capital, was that the seat of the Southern dynasty being near and the tide of battle sweeping again and again as far as Kyōto, the exigencies of the struggle made it necessary that the imperial city should also be the headquarters of the feudal government. Takauji had to intrust the administration of the eastern provinces to his son Motouji, as the regent (kwanryō) at Kamakura, and also to another general the control of the southern island of Kiushū. At first the supporters of the Southern sovereign kept busy the regent of Kamakura and the warden of Kiushū, who remained loyal to the Muromachi shōgun so long as this trouble lasted. It might have been foreseen, however, that in time of peace the vantage ground occupied by these magnates would be turned against the interests of the overlord. Nor did the central government at Muromachi promise a greater security to the will of the Ashikaga, for its functions were performed by men who, unlike several of Yoritomo's counselors, were at the same time the greatest landlords of the country. They might readily defy an effete shōgun and lapse into a bitter quarrel among themselves. Special circumstances were not wanting to hasten the coming of the logical consequences of the careless organization of the Ashikaga feudalism.

It so happened that the third shōgun, Yoshimitsu, under whom the rule of the Ashikaga seemed to have risen to its height, was also arbitrary and vainglorious. He ceded the shōgunate, in 1393, to his son Yoshimochi, and received for himself the appointment of chief minister of state (daijō daijin), an unprecedented procedure for a feudal overlord since Yoritomo. After a brief interval, however, he resigned that post also, and having adopted the tonsure, nominally retired from official life. Always prone to luxury, he now more freely than ever gave the reins to his fancy for pomp and splendor. Whenever he moved abroad, he was accompanied by an escort large enough for an ex-emperor, and such was the magnificence of his mansion at Muromachi and so great the profusion of blossoming trees among which it stood, that men gave to it the name of the Palace of Flowers. After his retirement from official life he established his residence at Kitayama, where he erected a three-storied house with timbers and stones of the finest quality, contributed by the territorial magnates of the land. Its columns, doors, alcoves, ceilings, and floors were decorated with gold dust. Nothing could exceed the elegance and splendor of this edifice. The people called it "Kinkaku-ji," or the golden temple, and it stands to this day one of the most interesting relics of ancient Kyōto. On the completion of this gorgeous mansion, Yoshimitsu—or Tenzan Dogi as he was then called—took up his residence there, and thither all the magnates of state had to repair in order to obtain his sanction for administrative measures. Banquets were often given there on a sumptuous scale, the illustrious host amusing himself and his guests with displays of music and dancing—Budō, Sarugaku, and Shirabyōshi. The example thus set by the ex-shōgun was readily imitated by the military men of the time, and to support all this luxury, it became necessary to increase the burden of taxation. Yoshimitsu had strong faith in Buddhist doctrines, and devoted large sums to the building of temples. The doctrines of the Zen sect found special favor with him, and its priests were the recipients of much munificence at his hands. He levied contributions on all the provinces for the purpose of erecting for the sect in Kyōto a temple of unparalleled magnificence called Shōkoku-ji.

Amid the exercise of all this pomp and while the power of the shōgunate was thus supreme from end to end of the country, the seeds of future misfortune were sown. Not long after the death of Yoshimitsu the country began to fall into disorder. The generals and military partisans of the Southern dynasty supposed that a return to the system of alternate succession between the two lines of Jimyō-in and Daikaku-ji had formed part of the arrangement under which peace was restored, in 1393, and Gokomatsu raised to the throne. Hence, after the demise of that sovereign, they looked to see a prince of the Southern line assume the scepter. But the shōgun's government crowned Shōkō, of the Northern line. Discontented with this act, Kitabatake Mitsumasa of Ise declared war against the shōgun, and a number of military men in or about Kyōto and in Mutsu raised the standard of revolt. Serious disturbance was averted on that occasion by the shōgun's promising that a prince of the Southern line should be the next sovereign. The partisans of the latter dynasty imagined, therefore, that at the death of Shōkō, Prince Ogura, a son of Gokameyama, would come to the throne, whereas the Ashikaga family, disregarding the engagement entered into by its chief, again secured the succession to a prince of the Northern dynasty.[1] This breach of faith led to a renewed demonstration by Kitabatake, who, in collusion with the military men at Kamakura, unsheathed the sword in behalf of the son of Prince Ogura. There rose also another revolt in Yamato. The supporters of the Southern line, however, never effected any material success. But before their energy withered away, combats and tumults of the most inveterate character devastated the land. The Ashikaga shōguns found themselves perpetually confronted by disturbance and disaffection. One, probably the principal, cause of the frequent insurrections, was that the Ashikaga made immense grants of land to their supporters without, at the same time, elaborating some efficient system for the control of the territorial magnates thus created. Many nobles developed such puissance under these circumstances, and acquired command of such vast local resources, that they gave themselves no concern whatsoever about any government, whether that of Kyōto or that of Muromachi, and sided with whatever party they found most convenient. Personal ambition and individual aggrandizement were too often the ruling motives of the time. No bonds proved strong enough to secure men's union amid these scenes of tumult. Even brothers, as in the time of Takauji and Yoshinori, did not hesitate to belong to opposite camps, nor were other family ties considered more sacred. In the days of Yoshimitsu, a great territorial magnate, Yamana Ujikiyo, whose estates extended over ten provinces so that men spoke of him as Rokubuichi-shi (lord of a sixth of Japan), took up arms against the Ashikaga. So, too, Ōuchi Yoshihiro rebelled because his success in subjugating Kiushū had given him confidence in his own powers. The regent at Kamakura, also, to whom was entrusted the government of the eastern provinces, became so puissant that his influence almost equaled that of the shōgun, who regarded the growth of his relative's power with no little uneasiness. So independent was the attitude of this Kamakura official and so openly did he affect autonomic state, that we find him adopting the precedent of the Muromachi ruler and nominating two of the Uyesugi family—Yamanouchi and Inugake—to the office of kwanryō or regents. Immense estates were also held by the branch house of Ogigayatsu Mitsukane, grandson of the first Kamakura kwanryō. Motouji (son of Ashikaga Takauji), carried away apparently by his wealth and strength, supported the insurrection of Ōuchi Yoshihiro, mentioned above, but had no difficulty in making peace with the Muromachi shōgun on the defeat and downfall of Yoshihiro. Thus feud succeeded feud, and campaign, campaign, arising out of the universal creed that a prize scarcely inferior to the scepter itself lay within reach of any noble whose territorial influence and military puissance enabled him to grasp it.

On the death of the fourth Ashikaga shōgun, Yoshimochi, in 1428, there was no heir in the direct line to succeed him, his son Yoshikazu having died in childhood. His younger brother, Prince Giyen, but later named Yoshinori, was supported to the shōgunate by the kwanryō. This chagrined the Kamakura administrator, Ashikaga Mochiuji, who had aspired to the office, and who now entered into an open warfare with the Kwanryō Uyesugi Norizane and the new shōgun. Mochiuji was defeated, and the Uyesugi family intrusted with the sole administrative control in the eastern provinces.

Yoshinori, although a man of rare administrative ability and military achievement, was vain and profligate, and treated his generals and samurai with contempt. An object of his constant dislike was Akamatsu Mitsusuke, whom he ridiculed because of his short stature and upon whom he put many slights. This Mitsusuke was the grandson of Akamatsu Norimura, who, in consideration of conspicuous services rendered to the Ashikaga in the days of Takauji, had received, and bequeathed to his children, broad estates. The shōgun's dislike for Mitsusuke was exceeded only by his affection for a relative of the latter, Sadamura. He would fain have deprived Mitsusuke of his domains in order to bestow them on Sadamura. Mitsusuke was indignant at the notion of such confiscation in the absence of any misdeed to justify it. In June, 1441, he invited the shōgun to his mansion, where a splendid banquet was spread and a new kind of dancing was displayed. While the entertainment was in progress, Mitsusuke killed and decapitated Yoshinori, set fire to the house, and carrying with him the head of the shōgun, fled to Harima. Thereafter Yoshikazu, eldest son of Yoshinori, was proclaimed shōgun by the kwanryō. Hosokawa Mochiyuki and Yamana Mochitoyo, having received the emperor's mandate, marched against Mitsusuke, destroyed his castle of Shirahata and killed him. Yoshikazu commissioned Mochitoyo to govern the three provinces over which Mitsusuke had ruled, and the Akamatsu family was exterminated.

Yoshikazu died in childhood and was succeeded in the shōgunate in 1449 by his younger brother Yoshimasa, who thus became the eighth Ashikaga shōgun, the Kwanryō Hatakeyama Mochikuni being intrusted with the administration of affairs and showing great zeal in the service of the shōgunate. As Yoshimasa grew older he gave himself up to sensual excesses, and paid no attention to business of state, leaving everything in the hands of favorite officers. Thus by degrees disaffection began to appear among the generals and samurai. Moreover, the two kwanryō Hatakeyama and Shiba, ceased to work harmoniously and engaged in competition for the possession of power. Taking advantage of this state of affairs, the partisans of the Southern dynasty once more raised their heads and Kyōto again witnessed scenes of disorder, while Mochiuji's party renewed their opposition in the Kwantō and the rebellion of the Shōni family still continued in the west. Yoshimasa, nevertheless, continued his life of extravagance, devoting great sums to the gratification of his pleasures and to the building of a magnificent mansion. Careless of the dilapidated condition of the capital, Kyōto, he caused the celebrated pavilion Ginkaku-ji to be constructed at Higashiyama, covering the doors, walls, and ceilings with dust of silver in order to rival the golden pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) built by Yoshimitsu at Kitayama. In this new building he brought together rare paintings and costly objects of virtu, Chinese and Japanese, and there also, in chambers specially planned for the purpose, he inaugurated the tea ceremonial (cha-no-yu), afterward so fashionable in Japan, devoting his days to the practice of effeminate dilettanteism.

Official duties received no attention, and by degrees his financial circumstances became so straitened that, finding it impossible to procure money for the indulgence of his whims, he began to lay heavy imposts on the people of the provinces and on the merchants of Kyōto especially, who were taxed five or six times in the course of the year. Under these circumstances, great discontent prevailed and riots occurred, the poor breaking into the houses of the wealthy, and destroying all certificates of debt that were found there, by which means the shōgun himself was simultaneously relieved of his monetary obligations. To this device, endorsed in effect, as it was, by the authorities, the people mockingly gave the name of tokusei, or the government of virtue, and Yoshimasa found it altogether to his taste, since it extricated him from many of his financial embarrassments. The shōgun did not even shrink from sending envoys to China with instructions to prefer requests for money to the Chinese government, and the latter were not unwilling thus to purchase immunity from the raids to which their ports were exposed at the hands of Kiushū pirates. Under Yoshimasa's administration the power and prestige of the shōgunate declined sensibly; the affairs of state fell into confusion; the most cruel mandates were frequently issued; customs opposed to the dictates of humanity and the principles of morality prevailed; the kwanryō, following the shōgun's example, subserved the duties of their office to selfish ends, and finally this hopeless misgovernment culminated in the celebrated war of the Onin era, marking the darkest age of Japan's history.

The proximate causes of the Onin conflict are to be sought in personal ambition. Yoshimasa, weary of official duties, determined to intrust to his younger brother, Gijin, the task of administering affairs. Gijin had entered the priesthood. He was not averse, however, to falling in with Yoshimasa's plan on condition that in the event of a child being born to the latter, it should be devoted to a life of religion. This compact having been made, Gijin abandoned the priesthood, and taking the name of Yoshimi, assumed the direction of the affairs of the shōgunate, Hosokawa Kazumoto acting as controller of his household. By and by, however, Yoshimasa's wife bore a son, Yoshihisa, and being ambitious that her child should succeed to the shōgunate, instead of retiring to the cloister, she took into her confidence Yamana Sōzen, a nobleman possessing domains as ample and power as extensive as Hosokawa Kazumoto himself, the idea of the confederates being to contrive the abdication of Yoshimi. A parallel conjuncture occurred in the family of Hatakeyama Mochikuni, the kwanryō. Having no son, he nominated his nephew Masanaga to succeed him, but on the subsequent birth of his son Yoshinari, he resolved to deprive Masanaga of the distinction. Further, the vassals of the other kwanryō, Shiba, became split up into two parties, one espousing the cause of Yoshikado, the other that of Yoshitoki. Yoshikado and Yoshinari allied themselves with Yamana Sōzen, and Masanaga and Yoshitoshi were supported by Hosokawa Kazumoto.

The enmity between these rival factions gradually deepened, until in the first year of the Onin era, 1467, Sōzen attempted to remove Hatakeyama Masanaga from the office of kwanryō, and to replace him by Yoshinari, at the same time expelling the partisans of Kazumoto from the Hatakeyama house. A collision ensued in Kyōto between the parties of Masanaga and Yoshinari, and the shōgun gave orders that they should settle their dispute by a combat, the guards attached to them alone taking part in the duel. Sōzen, however, contrived secretly to render aid to Yoshinari, so that Masanaga suffered defeat. This result caused much chagrin to Hosokawa Kazumoto, who considered that his honor was tarnished by his failure to assist Masanaga. He, therefore, privately assembled all his troops and partisans, to the number of about a hundred thousand, and posting them to the east of Muromachi, guarded the residence of Yoshimasa. Sōzen, on his side, mustered a force of some ninety thousand, and encamped on the west of Muromachi. Then commenced a long series of fights in which victory nearly always rested with Kazumoto's side. Kazumoto had the countenance of the retired shōgun, Yoshimasa, and also procured the recognition of the emperor and ex-emperor, while Sōzen, taking advantage of the strained relations between Yoshimasa and his successor Yoshimi, invited the latter to join him, and also obtained the support of the former partisans of the Southern dynasty by declaring in favor of the grandson of Prince Ogura.

Combats occurred almost daily, and were accompanied by numerous conflagrations. The citizens of Kyōto fled from the city, and the streets were left desolate. In 1470 Sōzen and Kazumoto both died, but their parties continued to fight as fiercely as ever. Not until 1477, when Yoshimi had escaped to Mino, did the generals abandon the campaign and retire to their castles.

Kyōto had then been a battlefield for over eleven years, and during the course of the fierce fighting, the imperial palace, the mansions of the nobles, the residences and warehouses of the people, and many of the largest temples, had been burned to the ground, books and documents transmitted from ancient times and invaluable heirlooms and works of art being destroyed at the same time. In truth, the once splendid city was reduced, after this war, to a state of desolation and ruin. The military and civilian classes alike were plunged in poverty. The laws were discarded; the administration of justice was in disorder. The territorial magnates in the provinces discontinued the payment of taxes, closed their districts against communication from without, and governed according to their own will. The mandates of the sovereign commanded no respect. After the palace was leveled with the ground its inner buildings were later reconstructed, but, inasmuch as the territorial magnates ceased to pay taxes to the central government, the court nobles found themselves without revenues and the administrative officials were without salaries, so that some of them had no resource but to wander about the country and depend on the farmers for means of sustenance. Under such circumstances the usual court ceremonials were, of course, dispensed with. Such was the impecuniosity in Kyōto that the Emperor Gotsuchimikado was unable to hold the wonted ceremony on the occasion of his accession, and at the time of his death, his funeral rites could not be performed owing to lack of funds for the funeral. It was not until the utmost exertions had been employed that the sum of a thousand hiki (2500 yen) was collected and the burial rites were performed. On the succession of Gokashiwabara, also, the coronation ceremony had to be abandoned for similar reasons, nor could it be performed until twenty-two years had elapsed, when the lord abbot of Hongwan-ji contributed a sum of ten thousand pieces of gold for the purpose. While Gonara was on the throne, even the daily necessaries of life could not be procured in the imperial court without difficulty, neither could the palace buildings be repaired, though they had fallen into a state of much dilapidation. The court, at that era, experienced the extremity of poverty. It is on record that Sanjōnishi Sanetaka, one of the courtiers, persuaded Ōuchi Yoshitaka to provide funds for carrying out the coronation ceremony, which must otherwise have been left in abeyance; and that the Emperor Ōgimachi, under similar circumstances, had recourse to the pecuniary assistance of Mōri Motonari.[2]

Not less did the shōgun himself suffer in this period of great decentralization and lawlessness. He was a tool in the hands of the kwanryō, and the house of the latter was divided against itself. The stories of usurpations and murders, which continually disfigured the annals of this period, are too tedious to be related. Finally, in 1565, the Shōgun Yoshiteru was assassinated by a rear vassal, and his brother, Yoshiaki, fled for life. It was in this connection that the great warrior-statesman, Oda Nobunaga, came to the front, for through his aid Yoshiaki regained his ground and rose to the shōgunate. Unfortunately the young shōgun was unable to brook the overshadowing power of Nobunaga, and took means to compass his ruin. The contest which followed proved too unequal. In 1573, Yoshiaki forsook his office and fled to Kawachi, thus ending the two hundred and fifty-eight years of the Ashikaga rule,[3] as well as a century and a half of lawlessness.

Having briefly sketched the political history of the Muromachi period, we shall now turn our attention to the remarkable history of the foreign relations of this era. After the repulse of Kublai Khan's invasion in the thirteenth century, the sovereign and people of China conceived sufficient respect for the prowess of the Japanese to refrain from any renewed onset. But the priests of the two empires continued to communicate with one another. When the long and bitter struggle between the rival dynasties greatly impoverished the country, some of the larger provincial nobles sought to replenish their exchequers by engaging in trade with China and Korea. The custom of officially recognized trading with China also came into vogue from that time, restrictions being imposed on the number of ships engaged and the amount of capital involved. Perhaps more noteworthy than the trade are the exploits of the Japanese pirates, for about this time the Japanese living on the southwestern coasts began to make raids upon the seaside towns of China and Korea, taking advantage of the internal dissensions then prevailing in those countries. These raiders were aided by Chinese insurgents, and entered the districts of Shantung, Fuhkien, and Sikkong, burning towns and putting the inhabitants to the sword. They were in China called wakō, whose very name struck terror among the inhabitants of the coast. From 1369 the dynasty of Ming, which had just overthrown Yuan, sent envoys to Japan urging that steps be taken to prevent the raids of Japanese pirates into Chinese territory, but no satisfactory steps were taken. A more serious complication was barely averted when, in 1384, an envoy sent to China by the Southern dynasty of Japan entered into a plot in collusion with one of the Chinese ministers, Hu Weiyung, to assassinate the father of the Chinese emperor. The plot was discovered, and the incensed sovereign would have sent an expedition against Japan had he not recalled the ill success attending the Chinese arms in previous conflicts with the Japanese. He contented himself with the issue of an edict forbidding all further intercourse with the Japanese. Stringent measures were at the same time taken for the defense of the coast.

Korea also had suffered severely from the attacks of Japanese pirates, who engaged in open conflict with the Korean troops, killing their generals, destroying their barracks, and plundering houses, ships, and grain-stores. In these encounters the army of Korea showed lack of courage, frequently retreating before the Japanese raiders without striking a blow. The earnest requests of the Korean king, in 1367 and 1375, that measures should be taken to repress the pirates, were only met by the increased audacity of the Japanese raiders. In 1392 Li Sei-kei, a Korean general who had been commissioned to beat back the Japanese, raised the standard of revolt and usurped the sovereignty, changing the name of the country from Kōrai to Chōsen. He dispatched an envoy to Japan, seeking to establish amicable relations, and the Shōgun Yoshimitsu ordered Ōuchi, governor of Kiushū, to treat the delegate with all courtesy. Thereafter Japan often asked for books of various kinds and Buddhist manuscripts, and the Koreans showed the utmost goodwill in acceding to these requisitions. Nevertheless the littoral population of Japan did not desist from raiding the Korean coasts.

After the union of the Northern and Southern dynasties, the ex-Shōgun Yoshimitsu frequently sent envoys to China, and on several occasions caused the pirates to be arrested and handed over to the Chinese. Much pleased at this action, the Chinese emperor sent to Japan, in 1404, a hundred tickets (kango) of the nature of passports, and from that time, once in every ten years, gifts were forwarded from China to a fixed number of ships with a fixed personnel, the articles sent consisting of head-gear, garments, brocade, gold, antiquities, and old pictures. Even an imperial commission of investiture was also sent, for China habitually regarded other nations as tributary to herself. Yoshimitsu seems to have condoned the nominal humiliation so long as he was certain of the gifts of the sovereign of the Middle State, but when at his death the Ming sovereign dispatched an envoy to confer on the deceased shōgun the posthumous title of Kyōken-ō (the King Kyōken) and to offer various gifts, the new Shōgun Yoshimochi politely, but emphatically, declined to receive these marks of favor. This incident terminated the official intercourse between Japan and China. Trade relations, however, still continued.

A striking incident occurred in 1419, when a flotilla of thirteen hundred ships of war from Mongolia, Korea, and Namban (the countries south of China) appeared off Tsushima. The Kiushū barons, headed by the Sō and the Shibukawa families, who held the office of governors of Kiushū, beat off the invaders and slaughtered an immense number of them. Thenceforth Korea held Japan in awe and made no attempts against her. In 1440 the Korean government established amicable relations with the Sō family, sent presents of valuable books and opened commercial intercourse. The same year another Chinese envoy arrived with dispatches demanding in a peremptory tone the establishment of amity between the two empires, but the Shōgun Yoshimochi declined to entertain the proposal. In the time of the Shōgun Yoshinori, however, official intercourse with China was reopened, the emperor sending to Japan two hundred tickets in the nature of passports which were placed by the shōgunate in the charge of the Ōuchi family. The Sō family was then appointed to control the trade with Korea, that with China being intrusted to Ōuchi. Under the Shōgun Yoshimasa intercourse with China received considerable development, and parcels of books as well as quantities of copper coin were frequently forwarded to Japan at her request. The Ming sovereigns always complied with Japan's wishes in these matters, but considerable irregularities occurred in the trade between the two nations, owing to selfish disregard of the regulations issued for its control. Moreover, Japanese from Kiushū and other places crossed over to China, carrying with them not only legitimate articles of trade, but also implements of war. They pretended that the latter were gifts from the Japanese government to China, but they did not hesitate to use them for purposes of intimidation when they found an opportunity to plunder the Chinese.

Still later, in the closing years of the Ashikaga shōgunate, outlaws from Kiushū entered China and Korea in constantly increasing numbers for purposes of plunder, the provinces on the Chinese littoral sustaining great injury at the hands of these marauders. On the flags of the Japanese piratical ships were inscribed the ideograms Hachiman-gu (Hachiman, the God of War). The Chinese consequently termed these vessels Papan-sen, "Papan" being the Chinese pronunciation of "Hachiman," and regarded them with the greatest apprehension. With them, too, Chinese pirates were associated, and the people of China suffered so much from their raids that the emperor deputed two of his principal generals to attack and destroy the raiders, but the task could not be successfully accomplished. From Korea, too, came a request to the Sō family that they would restrain the Japanese from further incursions into the peninsula, but the head of the family paid no heed, and the result was that the Koreans treated with great cruelty a number of the inhabitants of Tsushima who happened to be sojourning in the peninsula. This procedure so enraged the people of Tsushima that, in 1510, they attacked Fusan in force, and having destroyed its fortifications, returned unmolested to Tsushima. After this, the pillage of the Korean coast towns by Japanese pirates continued without intermission. It will be seen in the next chapter that this long history of piracy in Korea culminated in an organized invasion into the peninsula of large Japanese forces under the leadership of their best generals.

The closing days of the Ashikaga shōgunate are also noted for the opening of Japan's relations with the Europeans. Merchantmen of Portugal arrived for the first time, in 1542, at the Island of Tanegashima, off the coast of Ōsumi. They subsequently visited Kagoshima, and thence proceeded to Bungo, where their captains concluded with the nobleman Ōtomo Sōrin a convention opening commercial intercourse. Thenceforth Portuguese vessels frequently visited Kiushū for purposes of trade, the people competing with each other to purchase the rare and valuable articles offered by the strangers. It was then that firearms were for the first time introduced into Japan, and the military class, fully appreciating the advantages of such a weapon, set themselves eagerly to learn the method of handling and manufacturing it. With trade and weapons came also religious teaching. In 1548 Francis Xavier, a Jesuit missionary, with two disciples, arrived at Nagasaki, and by permission of the Shimazu family, began to preach Christianity throughout the provinces of Kiushū. This was the first time since the introduction of Buddhism that the tenets of a foreign religion were laid before the Japanese people. The alien creed soon began to spread in the island, as also in the neighborhood of Kyōto, and afterward in Kwantō, Mutsu, and Dewa. The largest number of converts were found in Kiushū, where the people built chapels for the purpose of Christian worship. The great noble Ōtomo Sōrin was an earnest believer, while Ōuchi Yoshitaka, as well as the Shōgun Yoshiteru, were also converted. So successful was Christian propagandism in those early days, that in 1581 the Ōmura and Arima families of Hizen sent envoys to Rome with letters and articles of Japanese production for presentation to the Pope. Thus in religion, as in piracy and trade, this period was characterized by a certain unconscious freedom, which stands in great contrast with the policy of restriction and exclusion which was adopted by the Japanese rulers of later ages.

In the domain of learning and literature, the Muromachi period has left little to posterity. The continual and widespread warfare and devastation naturally turned men's attention away from intellectual refinement. Sporadic efforts were made by some lords to encourage learning, but the latter had almost completely passed into the monopoly of the Buddhist priests, some of whom continued in active communication with the source of enlightenment, China. In short, literature must be said to have suffered great neglect as compared with the attention bestowed on it in earlier ages. But the contrary is true of the fine arts. During the period of the Southern and Northern dynasties many Japanese priests traveled to China for the purpose of studying the books and paintings of the Sung and Yuan dynasties. Moreover, from the time of Yoshimitsu, and especially in the days of Yoshimasa, a general tendency prevailed to refined pleasure and artistic display of all kinds, so that objects of virtu and paintings by the old masters were enthusiastically admired and sought after. Under such circumstances art industry naturally made great progress in Kyōto. Imperial patronage was extended to painters, an office being established at court, under the name of edokoro, where affairs relating to pictorial art were controlled. During the reign of Gotsuchimikado the great painter Tosa Mitsunobu, founder of the Tosa school, flourished. His style was elaborate, his use of colors skillful and striking, and his brushwork showed great delicacy and boldness combined. Previous to his time, Chinese paintings of the Sung masters, distinguished for refined simplicity of conception and execution, had stood very high in Japanese estimation, their vogue being increased by the widespread popularity of the Zen sect of Buddhism, which had been brought from China to Japan during the era of the Sung sovereigns. People's taste had been educated to prefer simple water-color sketches to the more showy and labored productions of the Yamato school. During the Oyei era (1394-1427 A. D.), three celebrated painters, Mincho, Josetsu, and Shubun, flourished. Mincho's second art name was Chodensu. His skill in painting figure subjects, Buddhas, Rishi, Arhats, and so forth, was most remarkable. His pictures were generally of large size and the few that remain are immensely prized. Josetsu took for his models the masters of the Sung and Yuan dynasties, and developed great skill in depicting figure subjects, landscapes, birds, and flowers. Shubun was a pupil of Josetsu. His favorite subjects were those of his master, and he excelled in lightly tinted water-colors. Among his pupils were the renowned artists Oguri Sotan, Soga Dasoku, Sesshū, the priest Shokei, and others. Sotan painted landscapes of the most charming and faithful character, and was also great in figure subjects, birds, and flowers. Dasoku was conspicuous for the boldness and strength of his touch. Shokei, who is often called Keishoki, was famous for his pictures of sacred figures and landscapes, and Sesshū excelled even his master in the directness of his methods, the sentiment of his pictures, and the delicacy of his execution. During the Kansei era (1460-1465), he crossed to China in order to study the landscapes and foliage of that country. The journey added to his fame, for in the neighboring empire he found no peer, and the emperor of China as well as the people paid him great honor. Sesshū has had few equals in the art of depicting landscapes, figures, floral subjects, dragons, and tigers. Students of his style were Sesson, Soyen, and Tokan (called also Shugetsu), all artists of note. A contemporary of Sesshū, Kano Oyenosuke, was taken under the special patronage of the Shōgun Yoshinori, and his son, Kano Masanobu, who had studied under Oguri Sotan, was employed in the decoration of the Golden Pavilion, where, by order of the ex-Shōgun Yoshimasa, he painted the eight Siao-siong views. His eldest son, Kohōgen Motonobu, was the initiator of a new style based on the Yamato school of Nobuzane and the methods of the Sung and Yuan dynasties. His colors were applied with the greatest feeling and delicacy, and the facility and force of his brush were evidenced by noble paintings of landscapes, figure subjects, and foliage. He was the ancestor of the Kano family, and his son, Shoyei, and grandson, Eitoku, worked on his lines with conspicuous success.

Sculpture and the ceramic industry made progress not less remarkable than that of painting during the Muromachi epoch. Muneyasu of the Myochin family stood at the head of workers in metal. He made for the Shōgun Yoshimitsu a helmet of extraordinary beauty. Another helmet equally remarkable for the grace and fineness of its workmanship was forged for Takeda Shingen by Nobuiye, also a Myochin. The era was also rich in swordsmiths of note. Of these Gotō Sukenori was the most famous. A short sword made by him for Yoshimasa was considered a marvel of skilled forging. Glyptic work in various metals found masters of the highest craft in the representatives of the Gotō family. They took their decorative designs from pictures painted by the artists of the Kano school, and reproduced these charming conceptions on sword fittings with extraordinary fidelity, using the chisel as though it were a painter's brush. Aoki Kanaiye and Myochin Nobuiye were specially celebrated as makers of sword-guards, a part of the warrior's equipment on which much manufacturing care was lavished.

The vogue attained by the cha-no-yu (tea ceremonial) cult under the Ashikaga shōguns and owing to the efforts of Sen-no-Rikiu, a celebrated dilettante of Hideyoshi's time, had a marked influence in encouraging the development of ceramics, and several experts of the craft made their appearance. During the reign of Gokashiwabara, a potter named Shozui traveled to China to study the processes of his art, and on his return established a kiln in Hizen, where the first Japanese translucent porcelain was produced. Shozui adapted his methods to the canons of the cha-no-yu cult, making simplicity and purity of style his chief objects.

The lacquerer's art also made great progress in this era. Its experts found munificent patronage owing to the luxurious and costly tastes which prevailed at the time in obedience to the example set by the Ashikaga rulers. Objects of extraordinary richness and delicacy were produced, especially in the line of gold lacquer, where the Japanese workers developed unique skill. Their chefs-d'œuvre were not more valued in Japan than in China, where they were known as "Yatpun T'sat-ki." Two other famous varieties of lacquer work had their origin in this era, namely, tsuishu, or red lacquer, chiseled in high relief, and tsuikoku, or lacquer laid on in alternate layers of red and black and carved deeply, the edges of the design being sloped so as to show the gradation of layers. Despite the continued warfare and unceasing disturbance of the Muromachi epoch, the shōguns and the great nobles and generals affected a most luxurious and refined manner of life, and it consequently resulted that the blackest era of Japanese history, so far as concerned the preservation of public peace and order and the security of life and property, was nevertheless a time of marked artistic development.