Page 65 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

able to the Ashikaga collections and therefore extremely valuable. Such
works came to be called meibutsu or "renowned pieces." The daimyo and
collector Matsudaira Fumai (Harusato) (1751-1818) of Izumo Province
built his own art collection. The works that survived from it are called
Unshü meibutsu, or the masterpieces of Izumo Province. This tradition
of recording the pedigree of an object also led collectors to treasure
boxes, inner and outer, for paintings; inscriptions on the boxes, either
exterior or interior, by a known connoisseur; certificates written by con-
noisseurs; letters of appreciation by a famous connoisseur, and so on.
For the warrior, the balancing of bun and bu was easier said than
done. In the Muromachi period the arts of bun were related to religious
devotion or the practice of tea, No, or painting, and were more or less
confined to private life; thus no conflict existed between bun and bu. In
times of unrest, the public image of Muromachi daimyo like Ouchi
Morimi and Hosokawa Shigeyuki (1434-1511) was based almost exclusively
upon their activities as warriors and men of bu. The Edo period was a
time of specialization. Maeda Tsunanori (1643-1724), daimyo of Kaga
Province, gathered samples of handicrafts from throughout Japan, which
resulted in an encyclopedic collection known as Hyakkô hishô, now in
the Maeda Foundation, Tokyo. In times of peace, however, the reconcili-
ation of bu, to maintain the warrior's public responsibility, and bun, to
sustain and embellish the warrior's private world of the spirit, often
resulted in tension. Peace itself undermined the very existence of war-
riorhood and the concept of bu. Eventually, the eighteenth century saw
the emergence of a group of daimyo whose activities were totally in the
realm of bun: Satake Shozan of Akita (1748-1785; cats. 136, 137), Hoso-
kawa Shigekata of Higo (1720-1795; cat. 139), and Masuyama Sessai of Ise
(1734-1819; cat. 138). All three were natural scientist-artists whose path to
their exclusive devotion to bun had been paved in the late seventeenth
century, when peace was at last assured. In that period of transition,
ironic anecdotes surfaced about Hosokawa Sansai (1563-1646), a daimyo
and a man of cultivation, who was both a great collector and an armor
designer. One story describes Sansai's meeting with Hotta Masamori
(1608-1651), who had asked to see the daimyo's collection of tea utensils.
Sansai showed Masamori only arms and armor, however. Later, Sansai
explained that since one warrior had been visited by another, none other
than warrior's utensils could possibly have been shown (Kansai hikki,
196). According to a second story, a daimyo from another province sent a
messenger to ask Sansai to design a crested helmet for him. Sansai speci-
fied that it should be made from paulownia wood in the shape of water
buffalo horns. The messenger was puzzled by the choice of such fragile
materials. Sansai explained that a helmet crest should break easily rather
than distract the wearer, yet the messenger persisted in questioning
Sansai, asking how such a fragile helmet could ever be mended. Sansai
replied that a warrior in battle should not expect to live another day, and
that this was the ultimate law of the military man:
If a warrior is preoccupied with the breaking of his helmet ornament, how can he
handle his own life, which he lives only once? Besides, a crest broken in combat will
be truly magnificent to look at. But once life is lost, it can never be replaced/ Having
heard this, the messenger asked no more questions, and left (Okinagusa, 588-589).

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