A history of the Japanese people

by F. Brinkley; Dairoku Kikuchi

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."*