Page 62 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

members, one of them Shigemori (1138-1179); and Yoritomo. Yoritomo
appears aristocratic, despite evidence that he was in fact anything but
that. His occasional complacency toward the arts is demonstrated by his
refusal, during the ceremony to dedicate the reconstructed Great Bud-
dha at Nara, to view paintings from Go-Shirakawa's extraordinary per-
sonal collection. Without seeing even a single work, Yoritomo returned
the paintings to Go-Shirakawa.
Yoritomo's response to art contrasts strongly with Kiyomori's atti-
tude toward it. In 1170 Kiyomori and Go-Shirakawa together visited the
Shôsôin collection in Nara to view the art treasures amassed since the
time of the emperor Shômu. The history of the warrior-rulers' relation to
art collecting from the time Yoritomo became shogun to about 1615,
when the Tokugawa shogunate was formed in Edo, in fact reveals a
pattern of emulation by each ruler of earlier precedents. Each daimyo
referred to examples set by his antecedents and superiors, always con-
scious that mastery of both bun and bu were expected of a warrior.
Through the thirteenth century, the shogun did not make official visits
to the Shôsôin, but in the late fourteenth century and throughout the
fifteenth century, when the Ashikaga shoguns established their govern-
ment in Kyoto, the official visit once again became an important event.
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408) and the courtier Regent Nijô Yoshimoto
(1320-1388) viewed the Shôsôin treasures that were especially selected for
a display at a Nara temple in 1385, and it was Yoshimitsu, followed by his
successors, who amassed the Ashikaga shogunal collection of Chinese
paintings and other art objects. Both Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394-1441) and
Yoshimasa, whose portraits are included in this exhibition (cats. 5, 6),
payed homage to the Shôsôin and viewed its treasures in 1429 and 1465
respectively. Later, in 1574, Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), the daimyo of
Owari, made a special visit to the famous collection. Art collecting played
an important role in that it reminded rulers to attend to the arts as well as
to political and military business. From Ashikaga Yoshinori's collection of
Chinese art, some twenty works survive, each stamped with his collec-
tion seal, Zakkashitsuin (cat. 100). Ashikaga Yoshimasa's collection of
Chinese painting at Higashiyama was so prestigious that even after its
dispersal, items from his collection continued to be called gyomotsu or
"honorable objects/' as late as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The upper-class warriors had close connections with the Zen
establishment, and maintained relationships at various levels. For exam-
ple, the Ouchi family of Suô patronized Nanzenji in Kyoto as well as Zen
temples in their home province. Warrior families would also send their
sons to Zen monasteries for sinological education. Some daimyo families
would actively patronize a particular sub-temple, or even found one; the
sub-temple would usually become the family mortuary temple. The Ju-
kôin at Daitokuji for the daimyo family of Miyoshi and the Shinjôin sub-
temple at Tenryüji for the Hosokawa are two such examples.
Their patronage of the Zen establishment naturally led some
daimyo to become accomplished poets and men of letters, worthy of
being commemorated in paintings inscribed by a host of erudite Zen
monks. Inscriptions on an early fifteenth-century painting of a mountain
villa (cat. 85) praised Ouchi Morimi (1377-1431), constable of Suô, for his
wisdom as a ruler and for his talent as an accomplished poet. Another
daimyo, Yamana Tokihiro (1367-1435), was a regular member of a poetry
salon organized by Zen monks of Nanzenji in Kyoto under the patronage
of the Ashikaga shogun Yoshimochi (1386-1428; cat. 83). Yoshimochi him-
self was an inspired amateur painter, and some of his surviving works
show a high artistic level (cat. 80). Among the artistic daimyo of the
fifteenth century some showed an understanding of art surpassing that
of their ecclesiastical counterparts. Hosokawa Shigeyuki (1434-1511), dai-
myo of Sanuki Province, was a collector of Chinese paintings. Upon his
retirement from military and administrative duties he became a Zen

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