Page 53 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

had to be promoted as appropriate to the samurai. leyasu and the Toku-
gawa had no desire to encourage their vassals in frivolity—daimyo and
samurai were officially discouraged, not always successfully, from fre-
quenting popular entertainments and from consorting with actors, enter-
tainers, and courtiers—but they did wish them to devote time to serious
scholarly pursuits. leyasu himself became late in life an assiduous
scholar, or patron of scholarship, who collected books, gathered scholars
to lecture to the shogunal court, studied the biography of Yoritomo, and
had the Azuma kagami reprinted. Just as Yoritomo had gathered scholars
from the Kyoto court, leyasu employed the Zen monk Ishin Suden and
the Tendai monk Tenkai and the Confucian scholar Hayashi Razan
(1583-1657) as his advisors.
As the clamor of battle receded it was natural that samurai should
devote themselves not only to the military arts, but also to learning and
the fine arts. The shogun and daimyo assimilated and embodied several
cultural traditions. From the point of view of heightening the authority
of the shogunate it was essential to adopt elements of the aristocratic
culture of the Kyoto court, Chinese scholarship, and the teachings of
Confucianism as well as traditional Japanese samurai culture. leyasu
recognized that a new system of values, order, and morality was neces-
sary for the consolidation of the nation under the shogunate. For this, he
and his successors encouraged the promotion of scholarship and educa-
tion for samurai and the cultivation of men of talent. They turned espe-
cially to Neo-Confucian teachings, which posited a moral order above
the shogun that at the same time legitimated the shogun's position as the
just ruler carrying out the will of heaven; it sanctified the Tokugawa
hierarchy of classes as being "according to nature," and it offered a code
of conduct appropriate to each class. Most daimyo followed suit and
patronized Neo-Confucianism, while maintaining a personal interest in
Buddhism in the family temple, or in Shinto and National Learning, an
intellectual movement developing in the eighteenth century that revived
interest in the Japanese classics as the purest expression of Japanese
identity. In keeping with leyasu's admonition to excel in literary as well
as martial arts, the shoguns and daimyo studied painting and calligraphy,
as well as the Confucian classics and ancient Japanese literature and
history. leyasu studied the calligraphic style of the Heian court noble
Fujiwara Teika (1162-1241)and painting styles under Kano masters. A few
daimyo showed some talent as painters and calligraphers, though most
were content to remain patrons and collectors, rather than practitioners
of the arts. One of the important contributions of Edo-period daimyo
was the cultivation and categorization of a cultural legacy that had been
developing in Japan since the medieval period. Enthusiastic daimyo
sponsorship of chanoyu, No, Confucian studies, poetry, and calligraphy,
led to the refining of traditions or art and scholarship, and the stabiliza-
tion of a shared cultural vocabulary.
Peace and relative prosperity in some domains, combined with
this encouragement of bun by the bakufu and daimyo, and stimulated by
the coming and going of sankin kotai and the influence of merchant
prosperity and urban culture, encouraged many different manifestations
of daimyo culture in the Edo period. Nor did daimyo confine their
cultural interests simply to Confucian scholarship. Aside from Confu-
cian studies, other fields of study included Chinese and classical Japa-
nese literature including the Kokinshù, and the Tale of Genji. Daimyo
were still expected to be able to compose poetry and to quote with
authority from the Chinese and Japanese literary classics.
The daimyo's pattern of life in the Edo period contributed to the
patronage of and participation in a variety of traditional arts and cultural
activities. Within the castle precincts, the residence of the daimyo was

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