Japan: From the Japanese Government History

by Unknown

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.